BETHESDA, MD – As space agencies prepare for human missions to the Moon and Mars, scientists need to understand how the absence of gravity affects living cells. Now, a team of researchers has built a rugged, affordable microscope that can image cells in real time during the chaotic conditions of zero-gravity flight—and they're making the design available to the broader scientific community.
The research, previously published in npj Microgravity , will be presented at the 70th Biophysical Society Annual Meeting in San Francisco from February 21–25, 2026.
"We know that astronauts' cellular signaling processes—like insulin signaling—are affected by being in zero gravity," said Adam Wollman, an Assistant Professor at Newcastle University in the United Kingdom. "But no one had tried to look at this in a simple, stripped-down system. We wanted to watch a cell sensing and responding to a signal in zero gravity to see exactly what happens."
Existing microscopes designed for space research, like those aboard the International Space Station, tend to be expensive, specialized systems with limited access for researchers. Wollman's team set out to create something more accessible.
"We wanted to make something more democratic, where other researchers could do microgravity experiments that require microscopy," Wollman said. "We based our design on an open-source microscope from Stanford and made it lower cost and more accessible."
The resulting instrument, called FlightScope, was selected to fly on a European Space Agency parabolic flight—sometimes called the "vomit comet." These specially converted aircraft create brief periods of weightlessness by flying in dramatic arcs, nose-diving for about 20 seconds at a time. It's an accessible way to conduct microgravity research, but the conditions are punishing for delicate scientific equipment.
The team reinforced their microscope with rigid mountings and vibration dampeners and added a custom fluid-handling system that could rapidly switch between experiments during the repeated dive cycles. Using yeast as a model organism, they successfully captured images of cells taking up fluorescently labeled glucose molecules in microgravity—observing that the uptake appeared slower than under normal gravity conditions.
But FlightScope's potential extends beyond parabolic flights. Wollman has already taken the microscope into an old British salt mine called Boulby, which serves as an analog environment for conditions on the Moon or Mars. There, he worked with colleagues studying salt-tolerant microorganisms called archaea—research that could inform the search for life on other planets.
"We're now developing another version to go on a sounding rocket," Wollman said. "These are small rockets that fly up about 80 kilometers, then fall back to Earth, giving us about two minutes of microgravity. The bigger goal is to use this technology in zero gravity for extended periods."
Understanding how cells behave in space is crucial not only for astronaut health but also for the microorganisms that could one day power life support systems on long-duration missions, producing food, medicine, and other essential compounds. By making microgravity research more accessible, FlightScope could help accelerate discoveries that prepare humanity for life beyond Earth.
