Monthly Archives: April 2017

April 28, 2017 Credit: VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland

An international project led by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland has developed a new augmented reality (AR) tool for the ESA. In the future, it is envisaged that astronauts will be able to use this tool to perform maintenance tasks and real-time equipment monitoring in the demanding conditions of space. The first practical tests carried out at ESA's European Astronaut Centre produced excellent results.

The two-year EdcAR project (Engineering data in cross platform AR) led by VTT developed a solution to the challenges involved in maintenance and the provision of work instructions, which have been an issue for more than a decade. Since maintenance and other work tasks in space are critical, they must be carried out without errors and at the right time. Preparing for these requires in-depth practice, which involves coordinating the activities of various experts. Since astronauts' time is extremely valuable, their tasks and maintenance instructions must be unambiguous.

The EdcAR project developed a new AR system intended to improve the performance of manual tasks in space. The system is expected to reduce mistakes, speed up the tasks and improve the clarity of instructions via AR technology. The major benefit is the real-time location of the point requiring maintenance. This information is transmitted to the astronaut's AR glasses at the right time by using text, graphics, video, sound etc. The system displays detailed visual instructions on the astronauts' AR glasses, guiding them step by step to perform the necessary procedures in the right order, such as "now press this button," "then turn the lever (B)."

The new system also makes the invisible visible by enabling the visualization of telemetry data from equipment and other systems on board the space station, such as fault diagnostics, the latest maintenance data, life cycle, radiation, pressure or temperatureboth in space and on the ground. All of this information can be displayed on the AR glasses.

"The AR system that we developed runs on the Microsoft HoloLens platform. It supports the astronauts' work in a completely new way by displaying key telemetry data through an IoT (Internet-of-Things) interface," explains Project Manager Kaj Helin of VTT.

"This is very impressive. We are exploring possibilities for an EdcAR follow on," says David Martinez Oliveira, Technical Officer, ESA. The first practical tests of the new AR systems have been performed in the ISS-Columbus training mock-up located in the ESA's on-ground European Astronaut Centre (EAC) in Cologne, Germany. The test team included an experienced astronaut.

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Augmented reality increases maintenance reliability at a space station - Phys.Org

An artist's concept of China's space station, with the initial module set to launch in 2018. Credit: CMSA

Chinese officials said Friday theyre ready to move ahead with development of a space station after testing refueling technologies in space.

The Tianzhou-1 spacecraft successfully transferred propellant to the Tiangong-2 module this week after docking with the lab module on Saturday.

That test, officials said, clears the way for development of a permanent space station, with various components to be launched between 2019 and 2022. [Reuters]

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NASA now acknowledges that the first launch of the Space Launch System will slip to 2019. In a response to a GAO report issued Thursday, NASA said that holding the current November 2018 date for the EM-1 mission is not in the best interest in the program and that NASA was in the process of determining a new launch date, sometime in 2019. The GAO report concluded, prior to NASAs response, that EM-1 was likely to be delayed because of various issues with the rocket, Orion spacecraft and ground systems that had depleted cost and schedule reserves on those programs. [SpaceNews]

Weather looks good for Sundays scheduled launch of a Falcon 9 from Florida. Forecasts issued Thursday predict an 80 percent chance of acceptable weather during a two-hour launch window that opens at 7 a.m. Eastern at Kennedy Space Centers Launch Complex 39A. The Falcon 9 is carrying a classified payload for the National Reconnaissance Office on a mission designated NROL-76. The NRO released the missions patch Thursday, which the agency says represents Lewis & Clark heading into the great unknown. [Florida Today / Twitter @NatReconOfc ]

Congress is set to pass a one-week stopgap spending bill Friday to at least delay the threat of a government shutdown. The House is scheduled to vote on the continuing resolution (CR) Friday after delaying a vote on a healthcare bill that threatened to jeopardize the deal, with the Senate to follow. The current CR funding government agencies expires tonight. The new CR funds the government through May 5, giving appropriators more time to finalize a spending bill for the rest of the 2017 fiscal year. [Washington Post]

Russias deputy prime minister said recent dismissals of several veteran cosmonauts are part of a planned renewal of the Russian cosmonaut corps. Dmitry Rogozin said Thursday that the average age of cosmonauts is 53, and that Roscosmos needed new, younger cosmonauts as it plans for activities beyond the end of the International Space Station in 2024. Roscosmos dismissed three veteran cosmonauts earlier this week, after another, Gennady Padalka, announced plans to resign. [TASS]

The Canadian government will provide funding for two new space projects, ministers announced Thursday. The Canadian Space Agency will receive $80.9 million (US$59.3 million) over five years to develop a radar mapping instrument for a future NASA Mars orbiter mission and a test of quantum communications technologies in space. The agency also announced plans to award grants to Canadian universities to fund the development of cubesats. [Canadian Press / CSA]

NASA released Thursday the first images taken by the Cassini spacecraft as it made its dive between Saturn and its rings. The images show a giant cyclonic storm and a large number of small, filamentary clouds, which scientists taking their first look at the images found particularly interesting. The images came from a close approach earlier this week, the first of 22 in the Grand Finale phase of the mission that ends with Cassinis plunge into Saturns atmosphere in mid-September. [Science News]

The U.S. Postal Service will release a first-of-its-kind stamp to commemorate an upcoming solar eclipse. The stamp, set to debut June 20, shows an image of a solar eclipse. Touching the black disk in the center activates thermochromic ink to reveal an image of the full moon. The stamp marks the Aug. 21 total solar eclipse that will be visible on a path cutting across the country, from Oregon to South Carolina. [GeekWire]

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China ready to move ahead with development of a space station after refueling tests - SpaceNews

NASA spent nearly $200 million on three new spacesuit designs for deep space exploration, although only one of the suits will be ready for testing on the International Space Station (ISS) before it retires in 2024, according to an audit by the agency.

Despite this investment, the Agency [NASA] remains years away from having a flight-ready spacesuit capable of replacing the [current spacesuit] or suitable forfuture exploration missions, stated the report, which was released on April 26.

Among the three design projects, auditors were critical of NASA spending $148 million on the Constellation Space Suit System (CSSS) program, which began with a contract issued to Oceaneering International to develop a suit for the Constellation exploration program in 2009.

A year later, the Obama administration canceled the project but NASA kept the contract active until January 2016, spending an additional $80.6 million on developing portions of the spacesuit technology, according to the audit.

NASA said it continued the contract because it wanted to keep the industry engaged in spacesuit design. Auditors dismissed this argument, however, noting the agencys in-house projects shared several contractors and primary subcontractors with Oceaneering.

The report found that by extending the program it duplicated work on another spacesuit design, the Advance Space Suit Project (ASSP). Designs for the ASSP were more advanced than the CSSS, but the auditors found NASA spent three times as much on the latters design.

Auditors found the ASSP had weaknesses including the lack of defined destinations for exploration missions, which affected the suit design, as well as competing funding priorities leading to the project only being financed for half a year in 2016.

The ASSP was redirected to a spacesuit design known as Exploration EMU, or xEMU, which will be tested on the ISS, but not until 2023.

This schedule leaves only one year for testing before the Stations planned 2024 retirement, the report stated, but added that extending the ISS operations beyond 2024 would alleviate this schedule pressure.

A third program, the Orion Crew Survival Suit, a pressure suit designed for use on the Orion spacecraft, is also facing delays, with the suit on track to be available only five months before the current launch date for the first crewed Orion mission in August 2021.

The audit was issued the same week President Donald Trump placed an inter-orbital call to NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson to congratulate her on setting a record for time spent in space and expressed his own goals for Mars.

Tell me, he asked. For Mars, what do you see as a timing for actually sending people to Mars? Is there a schedule, and when do you see that happening? In reply, Whitson told the president that NASA could go to Mars by the 2030s.

Unfortunately spaceflight takes a lot of time and money, she said. Getting there will require some international cooperation, a planet-wide approach in order to make it successful just because it is a very expensive endeavor.

Well, we want to try and do it during my first term or, at worst, during my second term, Trump responded. So well have to speed that up a little bit, okay?

Trump has already proposed cutting NASAs budget by about 1 percent in fiscal year 2018.

Auditors recommended the agency create a plan for developing a next-generation spacesuit and conduct a trade study comparing maintaining the current EMU spacesuits versus developing a new one, and apply lessons learned from existing spacesuit efforts to new designs.

NASA accepted the recommendations and said it would have a spacesuit development plan completed by the end of September, although its chief of human spaceflight, William Gerstenmaier, argued the report was overly critical and disagreed with the auditors findings over the work with Oceaneering.

NASA astronauts currently use spacesuits called ExtraVehicular Mobility Units, originally designed 40 years ago. The EMUs have been redesigned and completely refurbished multiple times since then. The space agency concluded its design life could last until 2028, but it would not meet the agencys needs for deep space exploration.

The space agency only has 11 of the original 18 EMU units left for future operations. They are also ill-suited to exploring planetary surfaces because they lack the hip flexibility needed to walk.

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NASA next gen spacesuits not ready before Intl Space Station retires audit - RT