Monthly Archives: May 2017

Space station astronaut Thomas Pesquet received a saxophone surprise for his birthday. It arrived on the SpaceX Dragon on Feb. 23 and was hidden by Pesquet's crewmates until his birthday on Feb. 27.

There aren't many sounds to hear in space, but there has certainly been no shortage of music at the International Space Station (ISS) ever since French astronaut Thomas Pesquet arrived.

A first-time space traveler, Pesquet is getting ready to wrap up his six-month stay aboard the space station. Whenever he wasn't working on science experiments or spacewalks, Pesquet spent much of his spare time listening to music, playing his saxophone, and even recording a music video.

Pesquet also created a soundtrack for his life in orbit by regularly tweeting songs with the hashtag #songs4space. Whether he's getting ready for a spacewalk, looking at the moon or eating home-grown lettuce, Pesquet has a song for everything. [Gallery: French Astronaut Thomas Pesquet's Amazing Photos from Space]

"The terminator is not only a movie: its the line between night and day. We cross it up to 16 times in 24 hours. So it keeps coming back," astronaut Thomas Pesquet wrote on social media when he shared this photo from the International Space Station.

One of the first songs Pesquet shared in space was inspired by a photo he took of Earth through the window of the ISS. Behind one of the station's solar panels is the line between day and night, which is known as the terminator.

As we enter into the night (every 45 minutes) I often think of this song by @iamKAVINSKY Nightcall #songs4space https://t.co/RouGMmLY0G

The terminator passes over people on Earth twice a day during the sunrise and sunset. But the ISS crosses the terminator 16 times a day, orbiting at a speed of about 17,500 mph (28,000 kph). In a tweet, Pesquet said that the constant nightfall often reminds him of a song called "Nightcall" by Kavinsky, a French electronic house music artist.

As the youngest on board I am probably the most playful and competitive! @Santigold - Disparate Youth #songs4space https://t.co/71QhJxw2Is

Pesquet, who turned 39 years old on Feb. 27, is the youngest person of the Expedition 50/51 crew as well as the European Space Agency's astronaut corps. In his second month of life at the ISS, Pesquet claimed that this made him more playful and competitive than his crewmates. Accordingly, he attached the song "Disparate Youth" by Santigold.

There's nothing like home-grown veggies, especially at the International Space Station. "TGIF! Like every Friday evening, we all gather in the Russian segment and share our best food items," astronaut Thomas Pesquet wrote on his Flickr page. "This time, we were very fortunate to eat fresh onboard-grown lettuce, with lobster in wasabi mayonnaise (courtesy of our three-star chef NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson)."

When you're orbiting the Earth about 248 miles (400 kilometers)above the ground, growing your own food isn't easy. So when it's time harvest lettuce from the space station's veggie farm, the astronauts get a bit more excited about mealtime or at least Pesquet does.

When in space, fresh lettuce feels like a Banquet! #Songs4space by @BlocParty https://t.co/IFUL7v4efa

After harvesting some red romaine lettuce in December, Pesquet and his crewmates had a space food feast, topping their fresh leaves with lobster and wasabi mayonnaise. Then he tweeted, "When in space, fresh lettuce feels like a Banquet" with the song "Banquet" by Bloc Party, the English indie-rock band.

A waxing, gibbous moon peeks out from behind Canadarm2, one of the robotic arms outside the International Space Station, in this photo taken by astronaut Thomas Pesquet. "The moon was playing hide and seek with us today but I spotted it!" Pesquet tweeted when he shared the photo.

Shows up, gets photographed, disappears. The moon is such a poser 😉 Funkadelic - Hit It and Quit It #songs4space https://t.co/hkjKlgZifq

While watching a spacewalk in-person for the first time, Pesquet was so impressed with the work of NASA astronauts Peggy Whitson and Shane Kimbrough that he basically called them ninjas. As the two spacewalkers performed a power upgrade outside the ISS, Pesquet tweeted the song "Enter the Ninja" by Die Antwoord.

Great to witness today's spacewalk! Clearly experienced at moving in space @DieAntwoord-Enter The Ninja #songs4space https://t.co/A44MaOuzX4

Before Pesquet did his own spacewalk on March 24, he scheduled a #songs4space tweet reminding himself to not get distracted by all the scenery in space; attaching the song "Pay No Mind" by Madeon and Passion Pit. (Of course, spacewalking astronauts don't have access to Twitter while they're outside in their EVA suits. But it's the thought that counts, right?)

Scheduled #songs4space: A good #spacewalk tune @MadeonPay No Mind (to the scenery as we work)https://t.co/h5A1IvfgJe

Pesquet's first space adventure is coming to an end, but hopefully he won't stop tweeting his #songs4space anytime soon.

Already being asked whats next.. the Moon, Mars? I like to think bigger than that 😉 @TouristJupiter #songs4space https://t.co/55Z5EIda11

You can check out the rest of Pesquet's #songs4space on Twitter.

Email Hanneke Weitering at hweitering@space.com or follow her @hannekescience. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

Excerpt from:
Space Station Soundtrack: Astronaut Thomas Pesquet Shares His #Songs4Space - Space.com

Michael Suffredini has big business plans for low Earth orbit. After a decade as NASAs program manager for the International Space Station (ISS) he retired from the agency in September 2015 to pursue opportunities in the private sector, convinced that a golden age of commercial spaceflight was dawning. Partnering with Kam Ghaffarian, CEO of SGT, the company that operates the ISS for NASA and also trains Americas astronauts, Suffredini co-founded Axiom Space in early 2016.

As Axioms president, Suffredinis goal is simple: to build and fly the worlds first private space station, using the ISS as a springboard. The company is in talks with NASA to install a new commercial module on the ISSs sole available unused docking port as early as 2020 or 2021, and is presently planning the modules construction and flight with aerospace manufacturers and launch providers. Axioms module would be the foundation for a full-blown private space station that would debut after the ISSs retirement, which is tentatively slated for 2024. Detached before the ISS is deorbited to burn up in Earths atmosphere, Axioms module would remain in orbit to serve as the private stations first section.

Axiom, however, is not alone in its bid for private piggybacking on the ISS. Another company, Bigelow Aerospace, is already occupying an ISS port with its bedroom-size Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, or BEAM, a test facility for its own line of proprietary inflatable commercial space stations. Bigelows next major projecta much larger inflatable module in partnership with United Launch Alliancecould fly as soon as 2020. It may directly compete with Axiom for the ISSs last free docking port, and mastery of what could be a multibillion-dollar emerging market in low Earth orbit hundreds of kilometers overhead.

Suffredini spoke with Scientific American about Axioms plans, the ISSs legacy and the race to loft a commercial space station.

[An edited transcript of the interview follows.]

People have talked about making private space stations for decades, even before on-orbit construction began on the ISS. Why is now the right time to finally make this a reality? It is clear to me there is a growing need for a private space station. Our vision is to make living and working in Earth orbit commonplace as a means to sustain deep-space exploration. But in order to build a sustainable exploration capability we have to have a low Earth orbit platform. Its not reasonable to expect that we can do a sustained exploratory program without the capability of testing systems and studying human adaptation to space in low Earth orbit. So thats a given, in my mind.

In order to do that though, in order for governments to explore, they cant really all afford their own infrastructure in low Earth orbit. To me the only reasonable solution is to have a viable commercial platform that governments can use when they need tonot have to own and operateand to be able to use at the level they need when they need [it]. Not as an anchor tenant where you come in and youre always paying this bill. But rather where, okay, you have some work or testing that needs done, you go get it done, and you move on to the next thing. We want to make sure everybody who wants to work in space today has a place they can go to, to do whatever it is theyre doing without having to needlessly start over. That saves costs.

Bill Gerstenmaier [NASAs chief of human spaceflight] has said NASA is going to cede low Earth orbit to commercial industry at some point. The writing is on the wall. So I do think the time is right. We think there are six sectors that make up a plausible revenue stream, and if you look at the business case across all of them you realize, yeah, theres a market there that can support something like Axiom today, and that market will grow over time. You go off and do your math and see how much itll cost to build and operate your stationand if your projections say youll make a buck and be a healthy company, thats what you do. And thats what our analysis told us.

What are the six sectors? Lets start with the ones you probably will recognize first: Scientific research. Manufacturing on orbit. And something I refer to as exploration system testing. Thats all the testing they do on ISS today to get ready for deep-space missions. Today its technology demonstration, tomorrow itll be testing smaller scale versions of systems for deep-space exploration. Then theyll build final systems designs and test those for long periods. And then theres also all the research about human responses to spaceflightI consider that exploration system testing, too. But really its to support whatever the exploration crowd needs to make sure their systems will do what they want far from home. Then theres tourism, which is very easy to understand. Theres also advertising and branding, something not done much on ISS today but that could be done more on a commercial station. Its not a huge market, but its noticeable.

Im counting only five I saved the best for last. The last sector is something I believe Axiom is uniquely able to provide, which is helping more governments get into the business of human spaceflight. There are lots of countries that want to have a meaningful astronaut program, flying their citizens as astronauts rather than as tourists. The associated technology development can help stimulate economy and industry, drive STEM education, boost national pride and a countrys global image. So many countries are interested in getting into that.

Axioms mix of very talented folks and our pool of capabilities put us in a unique position to help countries identify what is needed to become spacefaring, and to train their astronauts for two years or even a bit more, then fly them to orbit for extended periods of timemaybe 60 days just starting out when our module is attached to ISS all the way up to 180 days when we separate and form our own station. Well give them high-performance jet training, just like NASAs astronauts. Well give them extravehicular activity experiencespacewalks. Theyll go through all these normal processes to be certified as astronauts. And over time well help the countries develop in situ capabilities for all of that so they can do their own training and operations, and maybe even bring their own modules to our space station at some point. Because most of these countries want to participate in the partnership that I believe will happen to explore beyond low Earth orbit. When we go beyond low Earth orbit, we should do it as a planet, not as a single country. So thats the sixth: this opportunity to train up and fly new astronauts and help more countries build human spaceflight programs.

It sounds like you could get enough business to justify a private space station right now. So why bring modules to the ISS first? Were bringing our first modules to the ISS in order to transition the legacy that exists, and to continue it. On ISS, whatever year its going to end, about two years before that people will stop making hardware to fly because it just wouldnt be on orbit long enough to justify investment. Youd end up with a dip [in activity], and nobody wants that. That means the most important part of this idea is to make sure we build and launch our modules and get this transition done before the ISS retires, which could happen as soon as 2024, according to NASAs plan. So were staying pretty busy.

What odds would you place on the 2024 retirement? What do you think is the most likely future of the ISS right now? Well, I hate to gamble in public on 2024.

The sooner ISS gets out of orbit, the sooner NASA saves three and a half or even four billion dollars per year, depending on when exactly they deorbit. Thats NASAs yearly operating cost. And then you look at all the other government partners, and between all of them theyre in it probably close to a billion dollars more in terms of yearly costs. Thats money that could instead be spent on exploration work, which makes 2024 seem desirable.

We dont actually have to decide whether to retire the ISS for another several years. NASA probably doesnt have to decide until 2020, although the partners would rather decide in 2019 because thats when their next ministerial council meeting isthose meetings are on a three-year schedule, and 2022 would be pretty late. But there is one unused, available docking port right now on the ISS. So now Im saying we need a commitment from NASA for that port for somebody, some entity that wants to try to [build private space stations]. The ISS can really only support one more significantly large module, mostly due to power constraints. The sooner NASA makes that decision on giving the port to somebody, then the more informed theyll be when they have to decide whether to extend the ISS or not. Because then theyll be able to see how close whomever they select is, in terms of manufacturing and testing and delivering to the launchpad.

So rather than assume an end date, I think the better thing is for us to make those early decisions to make sure a commercial entity can prove itself and help the agencies make an informed decision as soon as possible on actually extending ISS.

Theres got to be competition for that port, then. Are you worried about competitors like Bigelow Aerospace, which is already using the ISS to test technology for their planned private space station? Were really focused on us right nowour product, and making it the best it can be to customers and to NASA when we put our proposal in. Youre right, Bigelow has been very overt about their desire to fly, but I dont know enough about what theyre doing to say how viable they are. What I do know is they are planning on using inflatable technology. Inflatable modules are pretty cool but they have their challenges. How the material itself works is being tested on orbit today, but theres a very big trick in figuring out how youre going to outfit inflatableswhere all the plumbing and other systems will go, and how youre going to ensure stale pockets of air dont form inside, since thats something that could asphyxiate a crew. There are all kinds of things that need to be doneand Im sure they will bebut in the near term I think thats much further away than the time frame we need to fly. At Axiom our concern is about getting to orbit as soon as possible. We really want to fly in early 2020 or 2021.

You mentioned that keeping the ISS up and running costs NASA alone about $3.5 billion each year. Thats a lot of moneyprobably too much for a commercial enterprise to presently sustainand it doesnt account for the developmental costs or the costs shouldered by international partners. So why would a private space station be cheaper? Well, thats a good question. I have almost a dissertation on how well operate to reduce costs. Inherently we will procure differently than governments do, and we will also use new technologies and apply lessons weve learned from the ISS.

The space industry started about 50 years ago, and at the time they didnt have all the advanced manufacturing techniques we have now, and they didnt have as many competing companies or clients. Well compete the contract for building our module to get a good price, and the modules internals will be systems you can largely use on the ground. It will be built using manufacturing techniques common to commercial industry today. ASE standards, which originated in automotive repair, will be a benchmarkSpaceX already uses ASE standards for a lot of things. Using space grade parts under those criteria is not necessary when other, cheaper parts can do the same job. Everything will be checked and checked again to make sure we can safely use those relieved standardsbut that will largely be possible. So were taking maximum advantage of the way the industry has evolved so as to reduce the amount of very specialized requirements and verifications for much of what well have installed in these modules. And if something we have installed there gives you a hard time, you just take it out, plug in a new one, and go on; well be working in a plug and play landscape. And all that means were driving the cost of each module way down.

Speaking of lessons learned from the ISS, that space station, of course, has been controversial. Some advocates of space exploration see it as a detour or a dead weight that has kept us from returning to the moon or going on to Mars. Many scientists believe its relatively meager research returns have not justified its immense multibillion-dollar cost. Couldnt similar criticisms be raised against commercial space stations like Axioms, too? You know, this is always a hard conversation to have. When we went to the moon, it wasnt really because we were interested in the rocks that were there. We were trying to prove to the world that we were technologically very capable. It really was about our concerns in the nuclear age and whether we were technically superior to those we considered to be our potential adversaries. And it drove a huge investment in space, which we benefited from. The ISS is no different, although it was built with a vision by some that we would have this station as the first step toward collaborative deep-space exploration. After the collapse of the Soviet Union we wanted to cooperate with the Russians in a big way, and that was a huge forcing function on the entire project. There were all kinds of impacts from that. We had to fly it in a different [orbital] inclination around the Earth to make it easier to reach using Russian rockets, which complicated things, but it was ultimately approved because of the political influence it gained from that international collaboration.

The ISS was a fantastic vehicle for what we wanted it to dowe were trying to get a bunch of nations with a capability on orbit that we shared, but that at the same time could call our own. The biggest influence it has had is what its done for us as countries working and playing together in space. Despite all the political turmoil of the past few years, in particular with the relationship between Russia and some Western countries, the ISS has always remained completely unscathed. It is a place where we work togethernot as citizens of nations but as human beingsadvancing our cause together.

So you end up with this vehicle with all these modules from all these different countries and they have to all integrate and work together, and that made it much bigger and more expensive than what wed need for a specific research purpose that was out there. If you look at the ISS from the standpoint of the world stage and the advancement of Americas ability to lead in spaceflight, I think it has been huge. If you believe exploration is important to this planet and to our species, it has played an even bigger role. But if you look at it from any single pure and very specific viewpointlike the desire for a robust research bonanzawell, its a different conversation. The ISS has supported a lot of really good research, but if you measured it by the number of Nobel Prize winners that won because of something done onboard, you would be very disappointed. But when you consider it more broadly than just research capability, I think it has been an amazing platform. And extending thatbuilding another platform we expect to be used by the international communityis very important to what we are doing at Axiom.

Read more:
Who Will Build the World's First Commercial Space Station ... - Scientific American

(CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.) Spacewalking astronauts made urgent repairs at the International Space Station on Tuesday, three days after a critical relay box abruptly failed.

The 250-mile-high (400-kilometer-high) replacement job fell to commander Peggy Whitson, the world's most experienced female astronaut. She now ties the record for most spacewalks by an American 10.

Even though a second relay box managed the data load just fine after Saturday's breakdown, NASA scrambled to put together a spacewalk in order to restore backup capability. The system is vital for operating the station's solar panels, radiators and robotic equipment.

The failed data-relay unit recently refurbished with upgraded software was just installed in March. Hauling out a spare, Whitson photographed the faulty device to help engineers figure out what went wrong. Then she quickly removed it and bolted down the spare, an identical 50-pound (22-kilogram) box measuring 14 by 8 by 13 inches (35-20-33 centimeters) officially known as an MDM or multiplexer-demultiplexer. But when Whitson discovered some metal flecks on some of the bolt holes, she had to pull the spare box back out.

Whitson and Fischer were just out spacewalking on May 12. That excursion was cut short by leaking station equipment, leaving two antenna installations undone. So Fischer completed the chore Tuesday.

Altogether, Tuesday's spacewalk was expected to last no more than a few hours exceedingly short by NASA standards.

"Here we go again," French astronaut Thomas Pesquet said via Twitter as his U.S. colleagues suited up for the spacewalk. As they ventured outside, Pesquet cautioned, "You guys be safe."

It was only the second spacewalk for Fischer, a rookie astronaut who arrived at the orbiting lab last month.

"What's more awesome than being on @Space_Station? Getting a call from mission control 4 another spacewalk! Dancing w/ the cosmos," he said in a tweet.

After he had installed the antennas, Fischer radioed, "Oh my gosh, it's so beautiful," as the station sailed out over the tip of South America and over the South Atlantic.

Whitson is more than halfway through a 9 -month mission. Currently on her third spaceflight, she's spent more time off the planet than any other American and, at age 57, is the oldest woman to ever fly in space. Tuesday's excursion put her in third place on the all-time spacewalking list, behind a Russian and fellow American with more hours out in the vacuum.

The space station also is home to two Russians.

Link:
Astronauts Made Urgent Repairs at the International Space Station - TIME

Ex-Alta 1, Albertas first orbiting satellite, is alive and well and phoning home.

The 30-centimetre-long probe, built by students at the University of Alberta, was sprung from the International Space Station at 4:55 EST on Friday morning.

Video footage showed the deployment was successful. The rectangular satellite, roughly the size of a milk carton, can be seen shooting out of a dispenser on the side of the space station and then receding into the deep blue backdrop of Earth scrolling by in the distance.

Also: Student-built satellite puts Alberta into orbit

But Ex-Alta 1s mission team had to wait until the satellite turned on its radio transmitter to be sure everything worked as planned. Confirmation came about 8:40 a.m. EST as the miniature spacecraft passed over East Asia and its radio beacon was picked up by ground stations in Japan and South Korea.

Until now, we couldnt allow ourselves to imagine very far beyond this point, said an elated Charles Nokes, the missions project manager, who joined the U of A effort to develop and launch a homegrown satellite nearly four years ago.

When we last turned it on, it did what it was supposed to do, he added. But theres always a bit of trepidation. Could something go wrong?

Now that the satellite appears to be working, the teams worst-case fears that it would fail to activate after being dormant for 10 months while waiting for launch and then deployment from the space station have finally been banished.

Mr. Nokes said that over the weekend, the team will work on establishing direct contact with Ex-Alta 1 and stabilizing its orientation as it orbits so that it can begin to gather scientific data.

The first measurement should come from a sensitive and lightweight magnetometer that was designed at the University of Alberta and will now get its debut in orbit.

Ex-Alta 1 is the only Canadian representative in a larger international project called QB50 that has helped to shepherd dozens of student satellite teams to the launch pad.

As part of the project, 28 small cubesats from 16 countries are to be released from the space station this month, with eight more scheduled to piggyback off the launch of an Indian satellite in June.

For students hoping to gain project management skills or boost their chances of breaking into the aerospace industry, the experience that comes with getting something into orbit, no matter how small, is hard to top.

Being part of @AlbertaSat with Ex-Alta 1 cubesat was invaluable to me! wrote Kirsten Cote, a graduate student in earth and space science at York University in Toronto and a former team member who was posting updates about the deployment on Twitter early Friday morning.

Its really building the next generation of highly qualified people that could enter the space market or even the high-tech market in the future, said Jean-Claude Piedboeuf, director-general of space science and technology at the Canadian Space Agency.

Dr. Piedboeuf said the agency is now consulting with interested universities as it develops a new initiative to fund 13 student cubesats, one built in each province and territory in Canada. The satellites would be launched in two batches in 2020 and 2021 and would operate for up to 12 months.

Theres a real opportunity here to attract young people into the space sector that would normally see this as something that is too difficult to reach, he said.

Cubesat building has become a popular activity among aerospace programs worldwide. It is a project that university students can realistically accomplish with a price typically in the range of $200,000 per satellite, not including launch.

But while the goal creating a cubesat is increasingly accessible, the technical challenges of spaceflight remain daunting and the potential for failure high.

Mr. Nokes said there were some hard lessons and a lot of backtracking along the way to getting Ex-Alta 1 off the ground. But he added that for students interested in launching their own cubesats, the takeaway message from his teams experience is a positive one.

Its totally doable, he said.

Follow Ivan Semeniuk on Twitter: @ivansemeniuk

See original here:
Ex-Alta 1 satellite is calling home to Alberta - The Globe and Mail