Monthly Archives: January 2022

A large robotic arm on China's space station has successfully grasped and maneuvered a cargo spacecraft in a crucial test ahead of upcoming module launches.

The 33-foot-long (10 meters) robotic arm on the Tianhe module of China's new Tiangong space station took hold of the Tianzhou 2 supply ship and moved it around 20 degrees, before returning it to the forward port on Tianhe's docking hub.

The 47-minute operation began at 5:12 p.m. EST on Wednesday, Jan. 5 (2212 UTC, 6:12 am Beijing time Jan. 6) to test the procedures and equipment needed for the addition and movement of larger space station modules. The successful trial was vital to the China National Space Administration's plan to complete construction of its space station later this year.

Related: China livestreams New Year's view from new space station

China's next space station modules, named Mengtian and Wentian, are scheduled to launch on separate Long March 5B rockets in the coming months and dock with the orbiting Tianhe. The robotic arm will then need to grasp the modules, each with a mass of more than 44,100 pounds (20,000 kilograms), and maneuver them from the forward port to radial ports.

"This is a technology in which we must achieve a breakthrough in the course of building the entire space station," Shi Jixin, deputy chief designer of the space station at the Fifth Academy under the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST), told CCTV.

Teams on the ground simulated the robotic arm test well in advance of the Wednesday operation. The robotic arm crawled to a berth port near the Tianhe docking hub two days prior to the test. From this position, it grabbed Tianzhou 2 by attaching to an adapter port on the cargo spacecraft.

The robotic arm has played a part in spacewalks outside Tianhe, helping to move suited astronauts around to carry out their tasks. But this was the first time the arm has been used on a large spacecraft.

The addition of two new modules will complete China's T-shaped, three-module Tiangong space station. Mengtian and Wentian are dedicated to hosting a range of science experiments but also include an airlock for extravehicular activities, or spacewalks, and a smaller robotic arm.

Tianzhou 2 launched in May 2021 and was the first visitor to the newly-launched Tianhe module. It carried propellant for Tianhe and delivered supplies, equipment and experiments ahead of the Shenzhou 12 crewed mission, which ran from June to September 2021.

It has remained docked to Tianhe to be used in tests for moving future space station modules. The cargo spacecraft will be deorbited and burn up on reentry once after the tests are complete, carrying with it waste material from Tianhe.

Currently, Tianhe has three spacecraft docked at its ports. In addition to Tianzhou 2, the Shenzhou 13 crew capsule is docked at the nadir port, meaning it is pointing down towards Earth, while Tianzhou 3, which delivered supplies for the three Shenzhou 13 astronauts for their six-month-long mission, is docked at the rear port.

Shenzhou 13 is expected to run until March when astronauts Zhai Zhigang, Wang Yaping and Ye Guangfu will return to Earth.

Tianzhou 4 will then launch ahead of the Shenzhou 14 mission. That six-month-long crewed mission is expected to be aboard for the arrival of Mengtian and Wentian later in the year.

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On China's new space station, a robotic arm test paves way for future construction - Space.com

By NASAJanuary 11, 2022

Pictured from left, are the Soyuz MS-19 crew ship and the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module with the Prichal docking module attached. Credit: NASA

TheExpedition 66crew kicked off Monday promoting space agriculture and observing how the human cell adapts to weightlessness. Two cosmonauts are also gearing up for the first spacewalk of 2022 set to begin next week at theInternational Space Station.

Growing plants in space is critical to keeping crews healthy as NASA and its international partners plan human missions to the Moon, Mars and beyond. Just like humans living in space, microgravity affects plants and scientists want to learn how to successfully grow crops in space to sustain crews with less support from Earth.

Today, NASA Flight EngineerMark Vande Heiharvested the shoots and roots of Arabidopsis plants grown on petri plates inside theVeggiefacility. Fellow NASA Flight EngineerRaja Charicollected the harvested samples and stowed them in a science freezer for later analysis. TheAPEX-07, or Advanced Plant Experiment-07, study is looking at how microgravity affects genetic expression in plants.

ESA (European Space Agency) astronautMatthias Maurerworked throughout Monday on theCytoskeletonspace biology study. That study takes place in theKibo laboratory moduleand uses theLife Science Gloveboxto explore how the internal machinery of the human cell is impacted by long-term space missions.

NASA Flight EngineerKayla Barronalso worked in Kibo and set up the newMochiielectron-scanning microscope to identify trace particles aboard the station. NASA astronautThomas Marshburnfed mice and cleaned their habitats throughout Monday before inspecting and cleaning hatch seals in the stations U.S. segment.

CommanderAnton Shkaplerovand Flight EngineerPyotr Dubrovpartnered together during the morning on a pair of Russian studies looking at how space affects heart activity and arm muscles. The duo later spent the rest of the day setting up Russian Orlan spacesuits for a spacewalk set to begin on Jan. 19. The two cosmonauts will spend about seven hours in the vacuum of space outfitting the stations newest modules,NaukaandPrichal.

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Space Station Crew Starts Week With Space Agriculture, Human Cells and Spacesuits - SciTechDaily

01/10/2022

NASA has recognized Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) as a science education and research program. Two images of ARISS activity are among those singled out by the space agency as some of the Best Space Station Science Pictures of 2021. ARRL Representative to ARISS-International Rosalie White, K1STO, said recognition is significant because it shows that NASA considers what ARISS does to be within the realm of science education and research.

Actually, its an honor for amateur radio, too, that this program is categorized as science education and research, White added. This is a really big deal for ARISS, and we are really proud of the team.

White feels the most important aspect of the recognition is that it shows that NASA believes in ARISSs efforts in the realm of science education and research. They call our radio contacts ISS experiments, just as we call each radio contact an ARISS experiment, she said.

The introduction to the new video, which NASA shared on Twitter, is, It has been a busy year of research aboard the International Space Station. NASAs SpaceX Crew-1, Crew-2, and Crew-3 missions supported hundreds of science experiments aboard the orbiting laboratory.

ARISS team member Armand Budzianowski, SP3QFE, wrote, It is phenomenal that we were honored as creating science. It is a proud moment that ARISS and amateur radio were honored for the field of science and research by NASA!

NASA also shared the photos on its website.

Originally posted here:
ARISS Highlighted among NASA's Best Space Station Science Pictures of 2021 - ARRL

The bizarre story of how a gorilla suit was sent to the International Space Station has reemerged this week.

Its gone viral on Twitter after a screenwriter and filmmaker called Todd Spence shared a hilarious video of the incident this week which has been viewed over 3.8 million times.

Astronaut Mark Kelly once smuggled a full gorilla suit on board the International Space Station. He didnt tell anyone about it. One day, without anyone knowing, he put it on, he wrote.

However, that description isnt actually right at all. Heres what actually happened

The story starts with American astronaut Scott Kelly, who commanded the International Space Station Expeditions 26, 45, and 46.

It was on ISS mission 46, which started on December 11th 2015, that the gorilla suit incident took place.

Near the end of the year-long expedition, Scotts twin brother Mark Kelly sent a care package up to the International Space Station in 2016which contained the gorilla suit.

As a retired astronaut himself, he clearly knew how lonely it could be in space so decided to do something a little humorous.

Video clips from NASA show the astronaut wearing the costume and having a bit of fun with his crew mate Tim Peake.

At the start of the famous video, you see Tim Peake unzipping a white bag.

Tim then disappears and all of a sudden, Scott jumps out of the bag dressed as an incredibly realistic-looking gorilla.

As there is no gravity, he flies around the space station in the gorilla suit and comedically chases Tim Peake around the cabin.

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In February 2016, whilst aboard the ISS, Scott Kelly tweeted the hilarious video.

Needed a little humor to lighten up a #YearInSpace. Go big, or go home. I think Ill do both. #SpaceApe, he wrote.

To this day, it remains one of the funniest and most famous videos of all time, but it continues to confuse those who dont know the story.

In other news, Why was there a gorilla suit on the International Space Station?

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Why was there a gorilla suit on the International Space Station? - HITC - Football, Gaming, Movies, TV, Music

Two of the Raspberry Pi units recently launched for a mission on the International Space Station are now in action, in phase two of the education-focused European Astro Pi Challenge.

We last wrote about the new space-hardened Raspberry Pi units, dubbed Astro Pi, in Septemberand they launched from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in December as part of Expedition 66 on a Dragon Cargo spacecraft atop a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

The AstroPi units are part of a project run by the European Space Agency (ESA) for the Earth-focused Mission Zero and Mission Space Lab. The former allows young Python programmers to take humidity readings on board ISS while the latter lets students run various scientific experiments on the space station using its sensors.

SEE: Programming languages: Why this former favourite is sliding down the rankings

The AstroPi boards consist of a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B with 8GB of memory, and include a Raspberry Pi High Quality Camera, one of Google's Coral Machine Learning Accelerators, a color and luminosity sensor, and a passive infrared sensor.

ESA's Expedition 66 member Matthias Maurer, a German materials scientist and engineer, set up the Astro Pi units this month, according to NASA. These new units replace the "Ed and Izzy" Astro Pi pair, which have been on the ISS since 2015 when the first Astro Pi Challenge was launched by British ESA astronaut Tim Peake.

The units have been powered via a Griffin power adapter connected to an ISS AC power inverter, or via USB port on an ISS crew laptop, and operate without a keyboard, monitor or mouse. They're configured to begin processing without crew interaction and are connected to the Joint Station LAN network via ethernet cable, according to NASA.

The new Astro Pi units have yet to be named and that task is being left to youngsters participating in Mission Zero, according to Raspberry Pi. Students are voting which European scientist the units should be named after.

"We're looking forward to seeing the amazing experiments this year's Astro Pi Mission Space Lab teams will perform on the new hardware, and what they'll discover about life on Earth and in space," Raspberry Pi's Olympia Brown said.

The Astro Pi units needed to pass the ESA and NASA "Safety Gate" process, which includes: a vibration test to ensure they can sustain launch conditions; a thermal test to ensure the device's operating temperature doesn't exceed 45 degrees Celsius and a test for sharp edges for crew safety; electromagnetic emissions and susceptibility tests; and power consumption tests.

ESA has selected 502 teams from 800 teams who applied for the second phase of the Mission Space Lab. Selected teams received an ESA Astro Pi hardware kit to help them write programs for their experiments. Teams using machine learning receive a Google Coral machine-learning accelerator, while teams with experiments using infrared photography receive a red optical filter.

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Raspberry Pi: These two new devices just went live on the International Space Station - ZDNet

ASTRONAUTS aboard the ISS have been showing off breathtaking views from space - and set everyone back on Earth a challenge.

Nasa's Mark Vande Hei posted a stunning shot over the Himalayas on Twitter, leaving aerial photographers green with envy.

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Hidden among it is Mount Everest, which the astronaut has asked people to try to spot.

Of course, Everest is the world's highest mountain at 8,849 metres tall.

On the ground, it's probably easy to spot out along the horizon.

But from above it's a lot more difficult to make out.

If you can't make it out yourself, scroll down to see where it is.

"My New Years resolution is to get outside as much as possible," Mark tweeted.

"Well, after I land that is. Can you find Mt. Everest in this photo?"

Mark arrived on the ISS in April 2021.

He is scheduled to return to Earth at the end of March.

When the crew aren't busy working, there are plenty of good opportunities to snap a decent shot - weather permitting of course.

This is because the space station orbits Earth 16 times.

But that also means spotting interesting bits can come and go rather quickly.

So much so, former crewmate Thomas Pesquet noted down times before he was blasted off, so he could plan for the best moment to take his pictures.

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In other news, Apple has become the first company to hit a stock market valuation of$3trillion (2.22trillion).

Popular Twitch creator Sliker has beenbanned from the platformafter sharing nude imagery of fellow streamer Amouranth.

And internet users have been urged tocheck their online accountsagainst one of 2021's worst cyber threats.

We pay for your stories! Do you have a story for The Sun Online Tech & Science team? Email us at tech@the-sun.co.uk

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Can you spot Mt Everest in stunning photo taken from SPACE by ISS astronauts?... - The Sun

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Space germs: University of Idaho students research on bacteria being tested by International Space Station - Idaho Press-Tribune

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. NASA's newest space observatory, the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE), is set to begin spying on some of the universe's most dramatic objects black holes and neutron stars potentially changing our understanding of the cosmos in the process.

The 730-pound (330 kilograms) IXPE satellite launched to orbit on Dec. 8 atop a previously flown SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, bound for an equatorial perch where it will peer out into the universe, helping to unlock the mysteries of some of its most enigmatic residents.

Following its successful liftoff, the $214 million satellite has spent the past month checking out its various systems. According to the mission's lead, astrophysicist Martin Weisskopf of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, its three identical detectors (built by Ball Aerospace) are set to begin a two-year campaign to observe the polarization of light emanating from these cosmic entities.

"I'm pleased to tell you that the commissioning phase has been successfully completed," Weisskopf said Monday (Jan. 10) during a news briefing held during the 239th meeting of the American Astronomical Society (AAS). "Tomorrow we'll start taking our first science data."

Related: Our X-Ray universe: Amazing photos by NASA's Chandra X-Ray Observatory

X-rays are one tool that astronomers can use to observe and understand the universe. X-rays are a high-energy type of light that typically emanates from extremely energetic objects like superheated jets spewing from black holes or the explosions of stars and enables astronomers to study these events in a way they can't by using other wavelengths.

But X-rays are tricky because they can be studied in detail only from space, as they're mostly blocked out by Earth's atmosphere. To that end, NASA has launched a fleet of space-based observatories to peer inside cosmic sources like the gaseous nebulae where stars are born, and to probe the mysteries of black holes.

One such observatory, called Chandra, launched in 1999 and is NASA's flagship X-ray space telescope. It's tasked with detecting X-ray emissions from the extremely hot regions around exploded stars, galaxy clusters and black holes.

Chandra works in tandem with two other NASA space observatories the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) telescope, which flies on the International Space Station, and the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuStar) as well as the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton to study the X-ray universe.

These observatories have detected stellar nurseries and provided solid evidence of the existence of dark energy, and even a way to estimate its density.

But IXPE is about to look at the X-ray universe in a way that's rarely been done before: through the polarization of light.

The use of imaging X-ray polarimetry is what sets IXPE apart from its predecessors. Polarization refers to the orientation of light wave oscillations. It can provide scientists clues about how X-rays were made and what type of matter they traveled through.

This will, in turn, provide scientists with helpful information like the orientation of incoming electric and magnetic fields. Armed with this data, astronomers can glean more information from the X-rays emitted by astrophysical phenomena.

The IXPE satellite will provide astronomers with a new tool to probe the mysteries of the universe. The refrigerator-sized satellite is equipped with three identical telescopes that will be able to study the polarization of light from cosmic sources such as black holes and superdense stellar corpses known as neutron stars. With IXPE's observations, astronomers will be able to study the structure and mechanisms that power these types of enigmatic cosmic objects.

"The launch of IXPE marks a bold and unique step forward for X-ray astronomy," Weisskopf told Space.com before the launch. "IXPE will tell us more about the precise nature of cosmic X-ray sources than we can learn by studying their brightness and color spectrum alone."

IXPE's first target is a supernova remnant called Cassiopeia A (Cas a for short). Located approximately 11,000-light-years from Earth, it's the remains of an exploded star. Using its three identical telescopes, IXPE will observe the stellar corpse for a period of three weeks.

Follow Amy Thompson on Twitter @astrogingersnap. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom or Facebook.

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NASA's newly launched X-ray space telescope is ready to start observing the cosmos - Space.com

In my role as copy chief at SFGATE, I have also become our official pandemic timekeeper, marking the days, since the first cases were reported (Dec. 31, 2019), since the pandemic was declared (March 11, 2020), since the first shelter-in-place orders were announced in the Bay Area (March 16, 2020). Every few months, I have to remind a writer that its not the past year or the past 18 months since the pandemic started, that time continues to move forward, that its been two years since COVID-19 first entered our lives.

So as I watched the first episode of HBO Maxs Station Eleven unfold, which featured title cards marking time (10 days before, 80 days after), I felt my chest tighten with recognition. I knew this feeling, this endless marking out of days, the way they seem to trudge by and also vanish, lurching you into an unforeseen future.

Station Eleven is a post-apocalyptic drama based on the novel of the same name by Emily St. John Mandel (written in 2014, filming began in January 2020) about a flu that sweeps through the world almost overnight, killing millions and leaving the few survivors to reckon with what it means to go on when civilization falls.

The story involves a famous actor trying to launch a late-career renaissance, a religious zealot and a Shakespearean acting troupe known as the Traveling Symphony, but at the heart is a comic book called Station Eleven. Station Eleven, the comic, follows a mysterious character named Doctor Eleven who floats through space before finding himself on a stalled space station inhabited by warring factions.

Two children, Kirsten and Tyler, both find themselves with copies of the rare comic book around the time of the plague, reading it obsessively. When we see them as adults, 20 years after civilization has collapsed, they are both defined by the story. Tyler becomes a sort of Pied Piper, luring children away from settlements of pre-pan survivors with the prophecy, a retelling of Doctor Elevens story in which there is no before. Kirsten, the star actress of the Traveling Symphony, tattoos herself with a symbol from Station Eleven for each person shes killed to ensure her own survival.

Plenty of post-apocalyptic fiction is about what happens when society unravels, often starring a Strong Survival Gun Guy in a world without laws or tax brackets. What sets Station Eleven apart is its focus on how traumatic events can sever our connections to others, and the ways in which we continue to reach for each other even when a deadly plague is spreading and we have no way of knowing whos sick and whos safe. Thats shown in the character who shelters a child actor when her family goes missing, even though it will mean more risk for him, or in the Traveling Symphony, which brings music and theater to the small settlements that have sprung up in the wake of disaster.

The series adaptation departs enough from the story of the novel to make it entirely fresh, meaning theres no telling when someone will get stabbed or mauled or when a bomb will go off (as of the second-to-last episode, my count is three bombs, plus a couple instances of arson). And it has clearly been influenced by real life. Small moments provide the texture of a global illness. In one scene, a swanky hotel hands out complimentary room-sealing kits with masks and duct tape to cover the vents. Im reminded of the strip of tape running down the center of my tiny dining room table, where my partner and I would unpack and wipe down our groceries, moving them from dirty to clean as if that would protect us.

In its own way, Station Eleven became a comfort to me as I read it near the start of the pandemic. Here was a world hit by a devastating and mysterious respiratory illness, and yet ultimately, the tone of the book is one of hope. Its a world where even without electricity or modern medicine, people still create art and find meaning in the works of Shakespeare. Its a work that says we can get through this, if we find each other.

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HBO Max's 'Station Eleven' is post-apocalyptic sci-fi without the Strong Survival Gun Guy - SFGate