Monthly Archives: January 2020

Cape Town-based Xinabox R&D, a developer of modular electronics and IoT kits for rapid prototyping and STEM education, is partnering with U.S-based Quest for Space to launch experiments to the International Space Station (ISS).

The XinaBox experiment alongside 17 other experiments affiliated with the Quest for Space Program will be launched to the ISS on 7 February 2020, onboard a Northrop Grumman NG-13 Launch Vehicle on a resupply mission from NASAs Wallops Flight Facility in Wallops Island, Virginia. Fourteen of these experiment modules are being developed by Partner Schools as part of the Quest for Space Program, one by Texas A & M University, and two Quest Improved Design Qualification Units.

San Jose-based Valley Christian High School, started the Space Lab Program in 2009 to enable students to research, design and build unique science experiments that operate aboard the ISS for a minimum of 30 days. Quest for Space is a non-profit focused on making these and other programs available to schools globally.

In an email chat with Space in Africa, Dan Saldana, Director of ISS and Satellite Programs at Valley Christian Schools, notes that the Space Lab Program was developed to help students identify and enhance their passion by applying their technical and managerial skills in the development of their unique science experiment. The goal is for the students to develop, launch and perform a post-flight analysis on their experiment within the school year.

Since the first launch to the ISS in January 2010 onboard a Japanese HIV-3 ISS Service Vehicle carrying a student plant growth experiment, Quest for Space has expanded its program beyond the shores of the United States, to include partner schools from Finland, Singapore, Indonesia, and Australia. As of today, Quest for Space and its Partner Schools have launched a total of 138 student experiments to the ISS.

The launch in February will include the XinaBox experiment as a pilot to demonstrate cutting-edge technology of the XK92 xChips Xinaboxs latest kit developed for the ISS mission. Schools across the globe will be engaged to concurrently collect data, with their XK92 kit, for data analysis and interpretation on Earth. Student teams will compare their data with that recovered from the ISS XK92, upon its return to Earth on the SpaceX 20 mission.

While onboard the ISS, the XinaBox payload will collect various datasets ranging from temperature to humidity, pressure, volatile organic compounds, g-force and acceleration. The datasets will be stored on a SD card to be assessed once the experiments return to Earth after some weeks.

The XinaBox payload, just as other Quest for Space experiments, will independently carry out its research after it is unpacked, without requiring assistance from the astronauts on the ISS.

During the mission, schools and engineering clubs within the XinaBox ecosystem will develop and run mirror experiments using the XK92 xChips to collect and analyze data to be compared with the dataset on the SD card from the ISS.

Schools can record more data at the same time, which means that they are not only able to record their data and compare it with the data from the International Space Station, but they can also look at the data from other institutions that have conducted the experiment anywhere in the world, Bjarke Gotfredsen, the inventor and co-founder of XinaBox told Space in Africa.

The idea is to have students in a classroom mirror science experiments conducted on the International Space Station and experience the dream of collecting space data for scientific research, Judi Sandrock, co-founder of XinaBox, said, pointing out that they intend making available the ISS mission payload as a learning kit for schools to build upon.

We would like the students to come up with different ideas of what they could learn from the large selection of valuable data sets collected on the SD card while onboard the ISS. We are looking at the mission from a scientific inquiry perspective. This will spur students curiosity and enable schools to expand the outcomes of the research.

Commenting on how the mission aligns with the goals of the Quest for Space Program, Saldana said the program takes the student from the concept of their idea to the shipping of their final product through analyzing the experimental results upon its return. Students have hands-on experience specifying, designing, and building their one of a kind experiment by meeting defined milestones and presenting their design to NASA Safety for review.

Three things make the XinaBox xChips viable for many more schools around the world. One is that they dont need a lab to put it together. Two, the kit itself is not expensive compared to what people normally send to the International Space Station. Three, because it takes up so little space, it can be easily packaged together with the Quest for Space program. These three factors help to expand or open up space for many more schools, Gotfredsen said.

While the launch in February 2020 is a proof of concept for what Judi Sandrock believes is the first of many in the companys partnership with Quest for Space, it is important to point out that this is not XinaBoxs first orbit experience.

On 17 April 2019, the ThinSat Programme launched a constellation of 55 student picosatellites into space, using XinaBox as the payload to study weather conditions and carry out scientific experiments in Extreme Low Earth Orbits. XinaBox supplied the kits and content for building the picosatellites and supported sixteen schools in the Western Cape of South Africa that collectively developed one of the picosatellites.

Xinabox co-founders believe the new partnership between Quest for Space and XinaBox will broaden opportunities for schools in emerging regions, particularly in Africa, to send experiments to the ISS through the Quest for Space Program.

Judi said the Quest for Space Program is comparatively attractive to schools across the world, adding that the introduction of Xinabox will further lower the cost considerably because the XinaBox xChips take less space and energy.

We look forward to having Partner Schools from Africa and other parts of the world join our Quest for Space Programs, Saldana said.

All of the Quest for Space Lab Partner Schools are invited to attend and compete in the annual American Society for Gravitational and Space Research (ASGSR) Conference student poster competition. The students prepare and present a poster on their experiment to the NASA Research Scientists, and the winners get cash prizes and an opportunity to present to and network with NASAs top research scientists.

The Quest for Space Lab educational research flight opportunity was made available to Valley Christian High School of San Jose, California, via a partnership with the Quest Institute for Quality Education, and by Space Tango who provides both the payload architecture and in-flight operations on the International Space Station.

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XinaBox, Quest for Space To Send Experiments To The International Space Station - Space in Africa

ESA and Airbus have signed a contract for the Bartolomeo platform on the International Space Station.

The Bartolomeo platform from Airbus opens new opportunities for research on the International Space Station (ISS). The European Space Agency ESA has now booked a payload slot for a Norwegian instrument to monitor plasma density in the Earths atmosphere.

The Bartolomeo platform named after Christopher Columbus younger brother is currently in the final stage of launch preparation at Airbus in Bremen, Germany, and is scheduled for launch to the ISS in March 2020. Bartolomeo is developed on a commercial basis by Airbus using its own investment funds and will be operated in cooperation with ESA.

The platform can accommodate up to 12 different experiment modules, supplying them with power and providing data transmission to Earth. Bartolomeo is suitable for many different experiments. Due to the unique position of the platform with a direct view of Earth from 400 kilometres, Earth observation including trace gas measurements or CO2 monitoring of the atmosphere are possible, with data useful for climate protection or for use by private data service providers.

The Multi-Needle Langmuir Probe (m-NLP) is an instrument from the University of Oslo and the Norwegian company Eidsvoll Electronics to measure ionospheric plasma densities. With its relatively low orbit, the ISS passes near the peak plasma density of the ionosphere. The m-NLP is currently the only instrument in the world capable of resolving ionospheric plasma density variations at spatial scales below one metre. It will gather valuable data from the equatorial and mid-latitude ionosphere, enabling study of the dynamic processes in this region in unprecedented detail. The Langmuir Probe will map plasma characteristics around the globe.

The mission is financed through the ESA PRODEX programme and supported by ESAs Directorate Human & Robotic Exploration. The payload is scheduled to launch on ISS resupply flight NG-14 in October 2020 and will be the first payload to be installed on the Bartolomeo Platform outside the European Columbus Module.

Together with UNOOSA (United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs), Airbus is currently inviting tenders for further research opportunities on the platform, in particular to enable research institutions from developing countries to participate in scientific space research.

Originally posted here:
ESA, Airbus join forces on the Space Station - Spatial Source

SpaceX launched one of its Falcon 9 rockets on Sunday, only to watch it erupt in a ball of fire.

But the explosion was intentional and went exactly as planned. It was the final step in a long process of testing the company's Crew Dragon capsule a spaceship designed to carry astronauts to and from the International Space Station.

Boeing has designed a similar spacecraft, and the two companies are racing to fly NASA astronauts on US-made spacecraft for the first time in nearly a decade.

Since NASA ended its space-shuttle program in 2011, the agency has relied exclusively on Russia to ferry its astronauts to and from orbit in Soyuz spacecraft. But those seats have gotten increasingly expensive: A single round-trip seat now costs NASA about $85 million. So the space agency launched its Commercial Crew program to spur the development of new American-made spacecraft.

The program put private companies in competition for billions of dollars' worth of government contracts. SpaceX and Boeing came out on top.

SpaceX's latest test has teed Elon Musk's rocket company up to launch its first-ever human passengers this spring.

"This critical test puts us on the cusp of once again launching American astronauts on American rockets from American soil," Jim Bridenstine, NASA's administrator, tweeted shortly after the mission.

Here's how SpaceX and Boeing became NASA's best shot at resurrecting American spaceflight.

See the article here:
How SpaceX and Boeing became NASA's best shot to revive US spaceflight - Business Insider

Express News Service

BENGALURU: The French national space agency National Centre for Space Studies (CNES), which is collaborating with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in the Gaganyaan project, will also partner with the latter in the development of Indias planned space station.

A CNES official, speaking on behalf of the president of CNES, Jean-Yves Le Gall, told The New Indian Express that the French agency and its industry partners have gained vast experience from the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) and its spin-offs such as rendezvous operations with the International Space Station (ISS). French and European partners can bring the skills they have acquired in developing and operating systems and dedicated infrastructure for long-term six-month flights of European astronauts on the ISS, he said.

While reiterating support for the Gaganyaan missions, he termed it as "the first step towards future collaboration on the development of Indias planned space station". "We want cooperation between France and India in human spaceflight to evolve into a long-term partnership along the same lines as our 15-year collaboration on climate-monitoring satellites and 50 years of working together on launchers," Le Gall said.

We have confidence in ISROs ability to partner in human space exploration and we are ready to provide all the support we can to develop the space station. This also means India should be closely involved in the future international space station programmes that will succeed ISS, commensurate with its place in the world, he said at an event organised by ISRO in the city recently.

French experts may train Indian astronauts

Meanwhile, teams of CNES and ISRO have finalised drafting the agreement between the two space agencies in which French experts are likely to provide training to Indian astronauts. They are likely to be trained by Novespace, a CNES subsidiary, on parabolic flights aboard the Air Zero Gravity, which is a modified version of an Airbus A310, a CNES official said. This will provide the astronauts a zero-gravity environment on Earth.

Expert services will be provided at CADMOS (the control centre in charge of operating the science and physiological experiments on the ISS) at MEDES space medicine research facility and hospital, in collaboration with ESAs European Astronaut Centre (EAC). The CADMOS conceives and prepares the instruments and equipment that Europes astronauts use on the ISS, the official said.

The four Indian astronauts are set to go to Russias Star City for training, ISRO Chairman K Sivan had told TNIE. The training is said to last for a year (2021) before they return to India for another round of training.The CNES will also provide India equipment for life support that astronauts will wear during Gaganyaan, scheduled for 2022. They will be using several French devices for health monitoring eyewear device featuring a bluetooth connected garment which is equipped with biomedical sensors, aquapad cotton for quick and easy testing of water, specific equipment for waste management, or even food packaging.

They may even use other devices such as the ECHO, an ultrasound system tele-operated by doctors on the ground, or the Cardiomed to measure cardiovascular activity. CNES expert Dr Brigitte Godard has already spent time during July and August in Bengaluru to train physicians and personnel, said the official.

The Indian physicians and engineers involved in Gaganyaan will also be trained in France in the coming months. Training sessions will be for two weeks each, with teams coming and going. The training will be given at MEDES space medicine and physiology institute in Toulouse and by the teams at ESAs astronaut training centre in Cologne.

Excerpt from:
French agency CNES to aid ISROs space station project - The New Indian Express

SpaceX is poised to launch its first astronauts into space this spring: Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley.

Their flight on the company's Crew Dragon spaceship will mark the first time an American spacecraft has carried NASA astronauts since the Space Shuttle program ended in 2011.

Behnken and Hurley's liftoff is expected to launch a new era of US spaceflight, since it will allow NASA to stop relying on Russian launch systems to get astronauts into space. It will probably also make the two astronauts the first to ever fly a commercial spacecraft.

"Bob and I were lucky enough to be selected together," Hurley told The Atlantic in September. "As we get closer to launch, things in the last year have actually been pretty hectic. We've been spending increasing amounts of time in California, because that's where most of the work is being done for Dragon."

In preparation, they've run through emergency procedures, undergone extensive training the Crew Dragon's mechanisms, worn their new spacesuits, and met with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.

"People to a degree think it's pretty glamorous to be able to go into space, but it's actually like a messy camping trip," Hurley told Reuters in June.

Here's how the astronauts were selected and how they're preparing to fly Crew Dragon to the space station.

Originally posted here:
NASA astronauts to fly SpaceX Crew Dragon in spring how they prepare - INSIDER

Those who buy LEGO Ideas 21321 International Space Station in its first nine days on sale will get an exclusive patch for free.

First revealed early in January, LEGO Ideas 21321 International Space Station will be released on February 1. In addition to the 864-piece set itself, those who buy the exclusive release at LEGO.com before February 9 will get an exclusive patch for free.

The patch was revealed on the LEGO Store February calendar, which was spotted by the Brick Fan. In the centre of the patch is an image of the new LEGO model, with the flags of all of the countries that participate in the program around the edge.

Brick Fanatics reviews LEGO Ideas 21321 International Space Station.

LEGO fan Christoph Ruge came up with the original product idea and seemed to have missed his chance until the LEGO Ideas selected a handful of past projects for users to vote on for the 10th anniversary, with this model coming out on top.

The LEGO Store Nuremburg, Germany, will host a designer signing event with Christoph on January 31 from 7.00pm until 8.00pm.

We decided that one of these great ideas should have a second chance, so we thought we would turn the LEGO Ideas process upside down, said Hasan Jensen, LEGO Ideas Engagement Manager, when the set was officially announced. This time we started the internal review and came up with four exciting projects that we thought showed the greatest potential and then it was up to the LEGO Ideas community to decide which of the four would be made into LEGO Ideas set number 29. It was great fun to follow the fan vote and we were excited to be able to finally welcome the International Space Station into the LEGO Ideas family.

LEGO Ideas 21321 International Space Station will be available from February 1 at LEGO.com.

More:
LEGO Ideas 21321 International Space Station exclusive patch on the way - Brick Fanatics

EL PASO, Texas -- Biomedical research scientists from Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso and The University of Texas at El Paso are partnering up to send "artificial mini-hearts" to the International Space Station to better understand how microgravity affects the function of the human heart.

The three-year project, funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the space station's U.S. National Laboratory, brings together TTUHSC El Paso faculty scientist Munmun Chattopadhyay, Ph.D., and UTEP biomedical engineer Binata Joddar, Ph.D. The researchers will collaborate in their Earth-bound labs to create tiny (less than 1 millimeter thick) heart-tissue structures, known as cardiac organoids, using human stem cells and 3D bioprinting technology.

By exposing the organoids to the near-weightless environment of the orbiting space station, the researchers hope to gain a better understanding of a health condition known as cardiac atrophy, which is a reduction and weakening of heart tissue. Cardiac atrophy often affects astronauts who spend long periods of time in microgravity. A weakened heart muscle has difficulty pumping blood to the body, and can lead to problems such as fainting, irregular heartbeat, heart valve problems and even heart failure. Cardiac atrophy is also associated with chronic disease.

The first year of the project, which began in September, will focus on research design. During this phase, Dr. Joddar will use 3D printing to fabricate the cardiac organoids by coupling cardiac cells in physiological ratios to mimic heart tissue. The second year will be centered on preparing the organoid payload for a rocket launch and mission in space. The third and final year of the research will involve analyzing data from the experiment after the organoids are returned to Earth.

The project will also provide an educational opportunity for the El Paso community, with a workshop for K-12 students to learn about tissue engineering projects on the space station. It will also include a seminar for medical students, interns and residents about the benefits and challenges of transitioning research from Earth-based laboratories into space.

More here:
El Paso scientists team up for heart research project at the International Space Station - KVIA El Paso

Fallout 76s upcoming Wastelanders expansion will add two new faction settlements: settlers and raiders. One of these looks like a Lincoln Log fort while the other is made out of a crashed space station. Can you guess which one players are already gravitating towards?

Yesterday, Bethesda shared some screenshots of the two new locations and more information about the people living there. The settlers, led by Paige (the former head of the D.C. Construction Workers Union), are a hard-working, salt of the earth lot who have taken up refuge in Spruce Knob toward the southeastern part of the map. The raiders, meanwhile, have come back to Appalachia to take back territory theyve claimed for themselves before it falls into the hands of the settlers.

Their leader, Meg, looks like shes seen some shit out in the wasteland and probably isnt one for negotiating mutually beneficial deals. The crashed space station she and her gang call home is up in the northern edge of the map, and frankly it looks way more fun. Most raider camps tend to look like if your friend of a friends screamo band played their basement show inside of a scrapyard barbeque pit, but Megs looks like a sci-fi arcade.

In Wastelanders Im going to check out the settlers, wrote one person on Reddit. If they are blowing glass, making electronic components, making their own ceramics...Ill stay. But if its an entire camp of Sturges hammering at the same section of wall for months I think I have to go raider.

Sturges was a synth repairman from Fallout 4 who never did jack shit. Understandably, some players are worried that the big NPC update many are expecting to finally make Fallout 76 good will only repeat some of the last games more uninspired moments. Nothing beats protecting the innocent, but I do envy the raiders and their space station town, wrote another player.

The new characters, dialogue trees, quests, and romance options coming in the Wastelanders update will all be based in one of the two new settlements, with Bethesda heavily implying that a players reputation with one will hurt their reputation with the other, forcing them to choose one over the other.

Based on their sense of style and interior design, Im gonna have to go raiders on this one, despite my deep-rooted commitment to labor solidarity.

See the rest here:
Which Fallout 76 Faction Is Cooler, The Crashed Space Station Or The Log Cabin? - Kotaku

Gaganyaan, the first Indian human space flight set for 2022, and a subsequent space station would pave the way for continuous Indian presence in space, K. Sivan, Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman and Secretary, Department of Space, said here on Wednesday.

The crewed space mission would also help to build a framework for long-term global partnerships that benefit society in many ways, he said at the inaugural of a three-day international symposium on human space flight.

Gaganyaan was not just an ISRO project. It was a national endeavour that involved numerous agencies, laboratories, disciplines, industries and departments. It was expected that new science will emerge from Gaganyaan and enhance our science and technology capabilities, Dr..Sivan told an international gathering of space experts, decision-makers, associated industries, astronauts and students.

One ISS [International Space Station] put up by multiple countries may not be enough. Regional ecosystems will be needed and Gaganyaan will focus on regional needs: food, water and energy security, he said.

From employment to security [food, energy and so on], most countries have similar goals, and these partnerships can help meet those goals. Benefits from possible spin-offs are aplenty, he observed.

The target of realising Gaganyaan by August 2022, he admitted, was challenging. However, ISRO already has the GSLV-MarkIII as a working launch vehicle. It had proven systems for re-entry and recovery of the crew capsule, space-qualified parachutes for safe descent of crew and was working on a comprehensive emergency escape system for astronauts. The missing systems, namely human life science and support system, are being developed now, he stated.

ISRO is getting four candidate astronauts from the Air Force to train in Russia and taking French assistance for training in their health upkeep during space travel.

K. Vijay Raghavan, Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, referred to the challenges of climate change that warranted coordinated global efforts. Space collaborations, he said, had shown the world how to tackle such international issues.

As for the critical area of life sciences that is important in a human flight, he said that many more studies were needed for a full understanding in spite of numerous astronaut missions.

Key officials from eight space agencies and five astronauts from five countries are in Bengaluru for the event that focusses on the challenges and future trends of human flights.

The symposium is organised by ISRO, the International Astronautical Association (IAA) and the Aeronautical Society of India.

Among the key participants are Joel Montalbano from NASA's ISS Program Office, director of Russian ROSCOSMOS's department of manned spaceflight Alexander Bykov, IAA Secretary General Jean-Michel Contant, French agency CNES's head of the launch vehicle directorate Jean-Marc Astorg, European Space Agency's inter-agency Coordinator Thomas Reiter, Japan Exploration and Space Agency's Director-General of Space flight Technology Shizuo Yamamoto and Romanian Space Agency CEO Marius-Ioan Piso.

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Gaganyaan, space station will pave way for continuous Indian presence in space: ISRO chief - The Hindu