Washington: Astronauts onboard space shuttle Columbia on January 26 completed the studies related to bone formation and development of cancer cells in micro-gravity which, NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) said, would help develop newer methods for treatment of bone-related disorders, including osteoporosis.

Mission specialist Laurel Clark observed the changes that take place in human bones in zero gravity, specially the loss of bone, which gets accelerated in space.

Astronauts studied the metabolic activities by analysing their own blood, urine and saliva samples taken at regular intervals.

Mission specialists Clark and Dave Brown, both physicians by profession, have been trained to draw blood while on a space flight.

On the Bioreactor Demonstration System, the module continued to grow prostrate cancer tissues to study how cancer spreads into the bones. Observations on how bacteria and yeast develop in space and the effects of micro-gravity on their response to antibiotics progressed at a steady pace.

Meanwhile, Commander Rick Husband calibrated two Israeli cameras on the spacecraft to take photographs of dust particles, sprites and other electrical phenomena in the upper atmosphere.

Earlier, the cameras had captured first ever images of sprites from space. Sprites are electrical discharges that shoot up from the top of thunderstorms into the earth's ionosphere.

PTI