Category Archives: Space Station

Israeli chickpea seeds will be among the supplies and equipment sent to the International Space Station (ISS) later this month for a series of experiments aimed at controlling the growth of crops via technology.

Contained for optimal growth in a small device called a miniature greenhouse, they will be delivered on Feb. 19 as part of Northrop Grummans 17th commercial resupply services mission to the ISS, aboard its Cygnus spacecraft.

The special greenhouses are well-suited for travel to the moon, which will be the next step of the mission.

The seeds are part of a project called Space Hummus, which will test hydroponic techniques for plant growth in zero gravity. A superfood with high nutrition, chickpeas grow quickly and easily, making them ideal for space cultivation.

NASA says its looking at ways to provide astronauts with nutrients in a long-lasting, easily absorbed form, such as through freshly grown fruits and vegetables; the challenge is how to do that in a closed environment without sunlight or Earths gravity.

Scientists will conduct experiments on the ISS using special LEDs to see how well plant growth can be controlled, remotely observing and controlling root growth through video and still images. The goal is to maximize productivity and allow efficient management of resources on future space colonies on the moon and Mars.

The team believes that perfecting techniques for controlpart of a field called synthetic biologycould be essential to growing crops in a space station or on the moon and other planets.

We cant let the plans grow wild in future colonies because they will quickly run out of resources, says SpaceIL co-founder Yonatan Winetraub, a Ph.D. candidate in biophysics at Stanford University and visionary behind the experiment. Our hope is to use our technology to control the rate of chickpea growth in space with zero gravity and limited resources.

The experimentsled by Winetraub; scientists and engineers from Israel and Stanford University; VC fund Moon2Mars Ventures; and the Desert Mars Analog Ramon Station (D-Mars)will receive assistance from Yeruham Science Center high-school students and be performed in part by Israeli astronaut Eytan Stibbe (RAKIA mission, 2022).

The Space Hummus experiment is supported by Strauss Group Ltd., an Israeli F&B company; and Haifa Group, which specializes in advanced technological solutions for precision agriculture and has developed a nutrient formula for growing chickpeas in space to ensure high-quality crops per unit area.

We dont know if chickpeas can grow in space. This is something that has actually never been done before, said Winetraub. The challenge is not just how to grow as many chickpeas as possible, but how to control the way they are grown so that we maximize our limited resources. The more we learn to grow food with fewer resources, the more prepared we will be for the challenges that await us on Earth as well.

The postIsraeli chickpea seeds headed to International Space Station for use in greenhouseappeared first onJNS.org.

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Israeli chickpea seeds headed to International Space Station for use in greenhouse - Cleveland Jewish News

In line with the White HousesSpace Priorities Framework, published in December 2021, federal agencies are looking to the private sector for assistance in maintaining a robust, responsible U.S. space enterprise while global competition, innovation and technology development in the domain continues to accelerate.

The framework outlines how the U.S. plans to retain its competitive edge in space through pursuing initiatives such as the development and deployment of space-based Earth observation capabilities, as the countrys space agencies lean more heavily on public-private partnerships.

NASAs International Space Station, which has facilitated more than 3,000 research studies worldwide over the past 20 years, notably plans to transition its operations to commercial space stations by 2030, following the Biden administrations recentextension of the ISS operations until then.

In December, NASA selected Northrop Grumman, Blue Origin and Nanoracks through the agencys Commercial Low Earth Orbit Destinations program to designcommercial space-based facilities that could succeed the ISS upon its decommissioning in 2030. The companies received contracts for a combined total of $415.6 million to develop designs through 2025.

The ISS transition to an industry-built facility reflects the overarching shift within the United States space agencies to space defense strategies which leverage technologies, facilities and satellites that have dual uses across both commercial and military applications.

The Air Force Research Laboratory recently issued asolicitation, through its Defense Experimentation Using Commercial Space Internet program, calling for industry demonstrations of space internet services that utilize commercial constellations across multiple orbits for military uses.

The demonstrations are expected to support the U.S. militarys goal of accessing internet services from satellites in low, medium, and geosynchronous orbits through a common user terminal, Space News reported Tuesday.

As outlined in the Space Priorities Framework, these dual-use technologies can also help to address other critical issues like climate change and national security.

Progress along these efforts include Maxar Technologies recent integration of NASAsTropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution, or TEMPO, payload onto its host spacecraft for monitoring and tracking air pollution across North America.

To learn more about the United States progress in advanced technology development for space uses, joinExecutiveBiz Events for the platformsDual-Use Technology in Space Defense Forum on Feb. 15.

Director of the U.S. Armys Assured Positioning, Navigation and Timing/Space Cross-Functional Team,William Nelson, is slated to keynote the event, which will also feature speakers from Maxar, the U.S. Space Force, Air Force and other agencies.

Register now for the Feb. 15 event!

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NASA's Commercial Space Station Initiative Furthers Tech Collaboration Between Government, Industry - ExecutiveBiz

The ISS has been passing over Oman since the evening of Friday, 4 February, and will continue to be visible for a few minutes every day through telescopes until about 7pm on Tuesday, 8 February.

Muscat: People in Oman who are fascinated by engineering, astronomy and space have a great opportunity to spot the International Space Station (ISS) over the next few days, as it passes over Muscat.

The ISS has been passing over Oman since the evening of Friday, 4 February, and will continue to be visible for a few minutes every day through telescopes until about 7pm on Tuesday, 8 February.

On Tuesday evening, the ISS will appear over Muscat for a full five minutes, from 7:07pm. According to NASA, the station will appear 10 degrees above west-north-west and disappear 10 degrees above the southeast.

The station will return to the skies above Muscat at 6:07am on Monday, 14 February, for another five minutes. It will be positioned to the south, ten degrees above the horizon, before exiting the skies over the Omani capital, travelling in an east-northeast direction.

It will return again for a very brief period just a minute on Tuesday, at 5:21am, arriving 10 degrees above southeast, and depart ten degrees above east-northeast.

The ISS can be viewed for a longer period on Wednesday, 16 February, when it stays above Oman for a full seven minutes, starting at 6:06am.

It will enter the skies above Muscat 10 degrees above southwest, before departing the skies 10 degrees above northeast. The International Space Station can also be viewed from Thursday, 17 February to Saturday the 19th for varying periods.

On Thursday, space enthusiasts have full six minutes to spot the ISS above Oman, as it enters Muscats airspace at 5:19am, 15 degrees above south-southwest, before exiting 10 degrees above northeast. On Friday, its only going to be present for two minutes, starting at 4:34am.

It will, however, be back in the skies at 6:07am for another five minutes, entering 10 degrees above the west and departing 10 degrees above the northern direction of the horizon.

The ISS will also be over Oman for three minutes on Saturday at 5:22am. It will enter Muscats airspace 36 degrees above north-northwest, before leaving 10 degrees above north-northeast.

All sightings will occur within a few hours before or after sunrise or sunset, explained NASA. This is the optimum viewing period as the sun reflects off the space station and contrasts against the darker sky.

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Look up to spot International Space Station over Muscat - Times of Oman

NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei studies cotton genetics for the Plant Habitat-5 space agriculture experiment.

NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei has lived in space continuously for 300 days since launching and docking to the orbiting lab on April 9, 2021. He is on his way to surpassing Christina Kochs 328-day mission on March 3 and Scott Kellys 340 days on March 15. Vande Hei will return to Earth on March 30 with a NASA astronaut record-breaking 355 consecutive days in Earth orbit.

CAPCOM Woody Hobaugh from Mission Control in Houston congratulated both Vande Hei and Flight Engineer Pyotr Dubrov on reaching their 300-day milestone today. Listen to the audio downlink.

Vande Hei arrived at the station aboard the Soyuz MS-18 crew ship with Dubrov and Soyuz Commander Oleg Novitskiy. Novitskiy returned to Earth on Oct. 17, 2021, with spaceflight participants Yulia Peresild and Klim Shipenko. Dubrov will remain onboard the station with Vande Hei and parachute to a landing with station Commander Anton Shkaplerov in Kazakhstan aboard the Soyuz MS-19 crew ship at the end of March.

Meanwhile, aboard the International Space Station today the Expedition 66 crew continued its space biology and human research activities. Scientists will use the data to learn how to improve health in space and Earth.

Flight Engineers Raja Chari of NASA and Matthias Maurer of ESA (European Space Agency) joined each other Wednesday afternoon for a visual function study inside the Kibo laboratory module. The investigation explores how microgravity affects the vascular function and tissue remodeling in the eye. NASA Flight Engineer Kayla Barron participated in another vision study exploring how an astronaut visually interprets motion, orientation, and distance in space.

Chari then examined the eyes of NASA Flight Engineer Thomas Marshburn using medical imaging gear, or optical coherence tomography. Maurer assisted the pair in the afternoon, but started his day setting up virtual reality gear for a training session in the Columbus laboratory module.

Shkaplerov spent Thursday servicing video gear, transferring cargo from inside the Prichal docking module, and setting up Earth observation hardware. Dubrov and Vande Hei partnered together and installed internal wireless gear in the stations Russian segment during the afternoon.

Learn more about station activities by following thespace station blog,@space_stationand@ISS_Researchon Twitter, as well as theISS FacebookandISS Instagramaccounts.

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Astronaut Hits 300 Days in Space, On Way to Break NASA Record - NASA

Good morning, it's Monday, February 7. Here's what you need to get going today.

It'sAustralia's *first ever* gold medal in the women's moguls. Here's the lowdown:

I really just tried to stay focused on what I needed to do.That was all I could control in the moment

We don't want people in that area to drink any of the water from tanks, to eat any produce from gardens in that area and also not to touch any dust on any play equipment or outside equipment

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It's the most expensive object ever built (its final cost will be over $US100 billion) but the ISS will meet its end in the ocean in 2031, NASA has announced.

That day will mark the end of 32 years of space station construction, experiments, photography and since November 2000 continuous human habitation,all whilehurtling around the planet once every 90 minutes or so.

And why does it have to go? It's gunking up and wearing out there's bacteria, fungi and other microbesthat surviveand thrivethere too.

It's also flying around in about 96 per cent oxygen atoms which is actually corroding the outside.

So what will NASA do next?

With its sights set further afield to deep space, the US space agency is funding commercial partners and outsourcing its low-Earth orbit activities to companies such as Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin and Lockheed Martin.

It's already given Axiom Space permission to attach modules to the space station, which will eventually detach to become their own low-Earth orbit facility.

We'll be back later on with more of the good stuff.

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The Loop: Jakara Anthony wins gold, Prince Charles responds to Queen honour, and the ISS is going down - ABC News

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