Monthly Archives: May 2013

by Nancy Atkinson on May 1, 2013

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The Moon ushering in the dawn over the Southeastern United States. Credit: NASA/CSA via Chris Hadfield.

During his evening ritual of sharing images taken from the International Space Station, Commander Chris Hadfield posted this gem: a gorgeous night-time view of the southeastern United States, with the Moon hovering over Earths limb and the terminator separating night from day. Dawn is just beginning to break to the east, as the ISS flies overhead.

This image reflects the wistful feelings Hadfield is having as his time in space in coming to a close. He and his two crewmates Tom Marshburn and Roman Romanenko will head back to Earth on May 13. During a recent linkup with students, Hadfield said he is becoming wistful as he does tasks aboard the ISS, realizing he is doing some for the last time. He is trying to spending as much of his free time gazing out the window at Earth because of the magnificent rarity of it and my desire to absorb as much of it as I possibly can.

Hadfield said his emotions go between feelings of great responsibility and great honor to have been asked to command the space station, and he wants to do it right, making the most of his experience and communicating to as many people as possible on Earth.

You do feel the responsibility of it to try and do it right, to try and have one perfect day on the station where I dont make even one little mistake in any of the procedures, and I havent done it yet, Hadfield admitted. Ive been here 130 days and I have yet to have day where I havent made at least one little small mistake.

Some aspects of returning home are enticing: seeing family and friends, and eating things that arent dehydrated and come in a vacuum packed bag.

Im looking forward to fresh food and the crunch and the snap of food of all different varieties and the smell of rich coffee and the smell of fresh bread baking that type of thing, a more full assault of the senses when I get home, Hadfield said.

Tagged as: Chris Hadfield, Earth Observation, International Space Station (ISS)

See the article here:
Stunning New Photo from the Space Station: The Moon Ushers in Dawn

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station have dodged a cosmic bullet ... literally.

A small piece of space junk or naturally occurring celestial debris created the tiny hole in one of the space station's wing-like solar arrays at some point in the outpost's 14-year history in orbit. Canadian Space Agency astronaut Chris Hadfield spotted the puncture and posted a photo of it on Twitter on Monday (April 29).

"Bullet hole a small stone from the universe went through our solar array," Hadfield wrote, suspecting the hole was caused by a tiny space rock called a micrometeoroid. "Glad it missed the hull." [Chris Hadfield's Video Guide to Life in Space]

NASA experts estimate that millions of micrometeorites and bits of man-made debris orbit the Earth in the range of operational satellites and the space station. These shards of satellites, rockets and rocky debris are traveling at an average speed of 22,000 mph (35,406 km/h). The space station, for comparison, orbits the Earth at a speed of about 17,500 mph (28,164 km/h).

"The 'bullet' that created the hole in the solar array was probably due to a 1 mm to 2 mm diameter MMOD [micrometeoroids and orbital debris] impact, assuming the hole was on the order of 0.25 inches in diameter," William Jeffs, a NASA spokesperson told SPACE.com in an email. "A 2 mm size MMOD particle is expected to hit somewhere on [the International Space Station] every 6 months or so."

If the piece of space debris were to collide with the hull, the space station's shielding would probably protect the crew from being adversely impacted, Jeffs added.

NASA scientists regularly track pieces of space debris larger than 4 inches (10 centimeters) across in order to avoid potentially destructive collisions. Radar systems track these larger pieces of space junk to alert space station operators and satellite controllers to any threats.

"Collision with these particles can cause serious damage or catastrophic failure to spacecraft or satellites and is a life-threatening risk to astronauts conducting extra-vehicular activities in space," NASA officials from the agency's Johnson Space Center wrote on the White Sands Test Facility website.

The International Space Station can maneuver out of the way of larger meteoroids and bits of debris if their orbits are tracked well ahead of time.

Particles smaller than 4 inches (10 cm) and larger than 0.4 inches (1 cm) pose a unique problem for tracking efforts, however.

More here:
Astronaut Spies 'Bullet Hole' in Space Station Solar Wing (Photo)