Dragon SpX-12 (CRS-12), CREAM - Falcon 9 - Kennedy LC-39A - 14.10.2017 16:31 UTC

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‏ @CwG_NSF 4 мин. назад

And there's confirmation that all was well with this morning's Static Fire. Launch on Monday at 12:32 EDT. #SpaceX #CRS12 #Falcon9.

08/10/2017 17:03
SpaceX confirms the static fire test was completed as planned this morning, and liftoff remains targeted for Monday at 12:31 p.m. EDT (1631 GMT).

[LRV_75]

Static fire test of Falcon 9 complete

Как показала практика, предстартовая циклограмма включений на Static fire не равно предстартовая циклограмма включений при пуске.
Не удивлюсь, если у них при Static fire test complete опять будет отбой за несколько шагов до пуска.

[tnt22]

Chris B - NSF‏ @NASASpaceflight 9 мин. назад
And there's the confirmation of a good static fire test! ARTICLE: https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2017/08/spacex-falcon-9-static-fire-falcon-heavy-waits/ ...

SpaceX Falcon 9 conducts static fire as Falcon Heavy waits in the wings

[tnt22]

Прогноз на 2017-08-10 - 2017-08-16
 

М-да, 13-е выглядит предпочтительнее...

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The FAA‏Подлинная учетная запись @FAANews 17 мин. назад

The @SpaceX rocket launch on Aug. 14 at @NASAKennedy is licensed by @FAANews. Learn more: http://bit.ly/2rkSMw1  #FAASpace.

[tnt22]

https://spaceflightnow.com/2017/08/10/spacex-performs-static-fire-sets-up-for-monday-launch-from-florida/

SpaceX performs static fire, sets up for Monday launch fr om Florida
August 10, 2017 Stephen Clark

Set to resume a brisk pace of launch activity after a nearly six-week respite, SpaceX test-fired its next Falcon 9 rocket Thursday at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida ahead a planned liftoff Monday with several tons of experiments and supplies for the International Space Station.

Спойлер

A plume of exhaust and steam erupts from pad 39A as SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket fires its nine Merlin main engines during Thursday's static fire test. Credit: Spaceflight Now

The Falcon 9 launcher rolled out to pad 39A at the Florida space base Wednesday evening and was raised vertical overnight. SpaceX's launch team, stationed in a control center about 13 miles (21 kilometers) to the south, initiated a computer-controlled countdown sequence Thursday morning that loaded super-chilled kerosene and liquid oxygen into the two-stage rocket.

After sailing through final preflight health checks, the Falcon 9's nine Merlin 1D main engines ignited at 9:10 a.m. EDT (1310 GMT) for several seconds, throttling up to around 1.7 million pounds of thrust as hold-down restraints kept the rocket firmly grounded.

Ground crews will lower the Falcon 9 rocket and return it to SpaceX's hangar at the southern edge of pad 39A, wh ere technicians will mate a cargo-carrying Dragon capsule to the launcher. The robotic supply ship will deliver more than 6,200 pounds (about 2,800 kilograms) of experiments, food and spare parts to the space station's six-person crew.

The fully-assembled rocket will return to pad 39A some time Sunday, when workers will pack final time-sensitive equipment into the cargo capsule, including a habitat with mice to study the affects of long-term spaceflight on vision, a plant growth experiment, and several more biological research investigations.

Liftoff of SpaceX's 12th resupply flight to the space station is scheduled for 12:31 p.m. EDT (1631 GMT) Monday. If the launch takes off on time, the Dragon cargo freighter should complete its automated rendezvous with the orbiting outpost Wednesday.

Astronauts Jack Fischer and Paolo Nespoli will monitor Dragon's final approach and grapple the commercial supply ship with the station's Canadian-built robotic arm around 7 a.m. EDT (1100 GMT) Wednesday.

The spaceship will spend about a month attached to the station's Harmony module, allowing astronauts to unpack its pressurized cabin, conduct experiments, and return specimens and other hardware to the capsule for return to Earth in September.

A NASA cosmic ray detector will be robotically transferred from the Dragon spacecraft's external cargo bay to a mounting plate outside the station's Japanese Kibo laboratory module. The instrument is designed to look into the origins of cosmic rays, tiny particles propelled across the universe at high speed by violent phenomena like supernova explosions.

The Dragon spacecraft set for launch next week will the final first-generation version of the cargo ship built by SpaceX. The company plans to deliver supplies to the station with reused capsules on future missions, until a new-generation vehicle is ready.

Monday's launch will be the 11th flight of a Falcon 9 rocket this year, but the first since July 5, the longest gap between SpaceX missions since the start of 2017.

The rapid-fire pace of Falcon 9 flights has allowed SpaceX to catch up on its launch manifest after groundings in 2015 and 2016 in the wake of two rocket failures, which combined to delay the company's schedule nearly one year.

Upgrades at the U.S. Air Force's Eastern Range led to the lull in launch activity in the last few weeks at Cape Canaveral, and no missions were ready for liftoff once the military range re-opened in mid-July. SpaceX took advantage of the downtime to accelerate demolition of disused shuttle-era structures at pad 39A, which the company leased from NASA in 2014 in a 20-year agreement.

The launch rate should ramp up again in the coming weeks if schedules hold.

Спойлер

A separate SpaceX crew at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California is preparing for a Falcon 9 launch Aug. 24 with Formosat 5, a Taiwanese Earth-imaging satellite.

Up to three Falcon 9 flights are on tap in September, beginning Sept. 7 with the launch from Florida of the Air Force's reusable X-37B spaceplane, an unpiloted winged spacecraft that has previously flown into low Earth orbit on United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rockets and returned for landings on a runway.

Another Falcon 9 mission from Florida's Space Coast is scheduled for no earlier than Sept. 27 with the SES 11 communications satellite, also known as EchoStar 105. It will fly on a previously-launched Falcon 9 booster, marking the third time SpaceX will reuse one of its first stages.

And the next batch of 10 next-generation Iridium voice and data relay satellites will fire into orbit from Vandenberg no sooner than Sept. 30.

Meanwhile, ULA's next Atlas 5 launch is on track for Aug. 18 from pad 41 at Cape Canaveral with NASA's TDRS-M communications craft to provide links with the space station and other orbiting scientific satellites when they are out of range of ground stations.

An Orbital ATK Minotaur 4 rocket is being stacked at Cape Canaveral's pad 46 for an Aug. 25 blastoff with a military space surveillance mission.

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[tnt22]

Station-bound instrument to open new chapter in the story of cosmic rays

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 https://www.nasa.gov/content/commercial-resupply-media-resources
 https://www.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/atoms/files/spacex_crs-12_missionoverview.pdf

[tnt22]

CRS 12 hot fire test on August 10, 2017 - no audio track

AmericaSpace

Опубликовано: 10 авг. 2017 г.

(2:25)

[tnt22]

https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/2017/08/10/eye-check-day-on-station-dragon-gets-ready-for-launch/

Eye Check Day on Station, Dragon Gets Ready For Launch
Posted on August 10, 2017 at 3:24 pm by Mark Garcia.

... The station residents are also making space and packing up gear for next week's cargo delivery aboard the SpaceX Dragon.

Спойлер

...

SpaceX completed a static fire test of its Falcon 9 rocket today at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. The Dragon cargo craft will be perched atop the Falcon 9 for a targeted launch Monday at 12:31 p.m. EDT.

Once in space, Dragon will conduct a series of orbital maneuvers navigating its way to the station Wednesday morning. Finally, Dragon will reach its capture point ten meters away from the complex. From there, astronauts Jack Fischer and Paolo Nespoli will command the Canadarm2 to reach out and grapple Dragon. Next, ground controllers remotely guide Dragon still attached to the Canadarm2 and install it to the Harmony module.

The crew is clearing space on the International Space Station today and packing gear to stow on Dragon after it arrives next week. NASA TV begins its pre-launch coverage Sunday covering Dragon's science payloads. Monday's launch coverage begins at noon. NASA TV will also broadcast Dragon's arrival Wednesday beginning at 5:30 a.m.

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This entry was posted in Uncategorized on August 10, 2017 by Mark Garcia.

[tnt22]

Обновлена LHA (ver. 2017-08-10)

Launch Hazard Area
 

[tnt22]

Опубликована ACA

Airspace Closure Area
 

[Зловредный]

LRV_75 пишет:
Как показала практика, предстартовая циклограмма включений на Static fire не равно предстартовая циклограмма включений при пуске.
Не удивлюсь, если у них при Static fire test complete опять будет отбой за несколько шагов до пуска.

Мне интересно, как скоро они откажутся от своего выстраданного правила "с полезной нагрузкой не прожигать!"

[tnt22]

Эмблема (не шитьё)

https://img.novosti-kosmonavtiki.ru/152347.jpg

[tnt22]

http://spaceflight101.com/dragon-spx12/falcon-9-checks-off-static-fire-test-for-next-dragon-launch-to-deliver-cargo-to-iss/

Falcon 9 Checks Off Static Fire Test for Next Dragon Launch to Deliver Cargo to ISS
August 11, 2017

SpaceX checked off a Static Fire Test on the Falcon 9 rocket slated for launch on Monday with the Dragon SpX-12 cargo vehicle to the International Space Station to deliver science cargo and provisions for the Station's six-person crew plus a state-of-the-art particle detector to measure ultra-high energy particles from the distant universe.

Спойлер

File Image of a Falcon 9 Static Fire Test – Photo: SpaceX

The third Dragon mission of the year is targeting a liftoff time at 16:31 UTC, marking the start of a ten-minute ascent into Low Earth Orbit and an eight-minute round trip for the rocket's first stage that is aiming for a propulsive return to Landing Zone 1 a few Kilometers south from the Launch Complex 39A launch pad.

Monday's launch will be the first SpaceX mission in over a month following a busy opening of 2017 with a fairly steady launch cadence of one flight every two weeks, in part supported by superb performance by the former Saturn V and Space Shuttle launch complex. The month-long pause was primarily due to maintenance tasks on the Eastern Range in progress through much of July after SpaceX completed a four-mission streak in a period of just over a month.


NASA Mission Patch – Credit: NASA

The semi-annual interruption of Eastern Range operations was used for a variety of maintenance and enhancement tasks that would have been difficult to conduct between missions in an active range. These operations included maintenance on the various range communication assets, replacement of power system components and moving the online services of the 45th Weather Squadron to new servers.

While Cape Canaveral was not in a posture to support rocket launches, SpaceX kept busy by continuing dismantling the former Space Shuttle Rotating Service Structure at LC-39A and working on the pad's ground computer system that was implicated in the back-to-back countdown aborts on the Intelsat 35e mission in July.

The first mission off the ground after the range maintenance period was expected to be the Atlas V rocket carrying NASA's TDRS-M communications satellite which had been targeting an August 3 liftoff until a mishap during final close outs caused damage to the satellite's omni S-Band forward antenna – requiring several days for replacement and re-testing of the component. NASA initially decided to keep priority on TDRS-M and worked with SpaceX to delay the SpX-12 launch from August 10 to the 14th. However, when it became clear that TDRS-M would not be ready for launch until August 18, NASA reshuffled missions and SpX-12 was advanced a day to an August 13 launch target.


Photo: SpaceX (File)

The initial Static Fire date of August 8 was moved to the 9th and a minor issue on the launch vehicle side pushed the test another day to Thursday, also causing a launch slip back to the previous target of August 14. The Falcon 9 rocket – still missing the Dragon payload – emerged from its Horizontal Integration Facility Wednesday afternoon, rolling up the ramp to the LC-39A pad and taking its vertical launch position to be in a position to enter countdown operations early on Thursday.

The Static Fire Test – in use by SpaceX since the Falcon 1 days – represents a final end-to-end test of all launch vehicle systems as well as an exercise of ground support equipment to rule out any surprises on launch day. After initial checks, the Falcon 9 rocket headed into its accelerated hour-long propellant loading sequence to receive over 500 metric tons of sub-cooled Liquid Oxygen at -207°C and chilled Rocket Propellant 1 at -7°C. The second stage – although a passive bystander in the hot-fire test of the first stage – also completed a full fueling & pressurization cycle to validate the integrity of its systems.

Ignition of the nine Merlin 1D engines on the first stage was marked at 13:10 UTC on Thursday, 9:10 a.m. local time and the firing appeared to achieve its planned 3.5-second duration. Quick data reviews by engineers verified the firing met its planned duration and all performance parameters were captured before clearing Falcon 9 for de-tanking for eventual return to the HIF to meet the Dragon spacecraft. The test also exercised the revamped ground computer system that had caused repeated trouble on Falcon's most recent launch from Florida.

F9/CRS12: Here's a shot of the hot fire test from the roof of the CBS News bureau at KSC pic.twitter.com/pbBBrD4xuy
— William Harwood (@cbs_spacenews) August 10, 2017

Photo: NASA (File)

The fueled-Dragon made its trip to LC-39A in the overnight hours to Friday in preparation for integration on the Falcon 9 Friday and Saturday to be ready for rollout on Sunday to facilitate the late cargo loading procedure completed inside 24 hours to launch via a mobile white room rolled up to the Dragon while Falcon 9 is in a horizontal position.

The rocket is expected to be moved to vertical in the early hours on Monday to set up for a lengthy period of launch vehicle testing and range preparations ahead of the propellant loading operation to set up for an instantaneous launch opportunity.

Thundering off with a thrust of nearly 700 metric ton-force, Falcon 9 will depart Cape Canaveral to the north-east, firing its first stage for under two and a half minutes to send the MVac-powered second stage on its way to dispatch Dragon into orbit via a burn of close to seven minutes while keeping sufficient propellant reserves for the booster's return to shore. The 47-meter tall first stage will return via the proven scheme comprising a boost back maneuver immediately after separation to accelerate back toward Cape Canaveral, a propulsive maneuver at re-entry to begin hitting the brakes and a final half-minute landing burn using only the center engine to set the booster down on its four fold-out landing legs.


Dragon 1 Spacecraft Production – Photo: SpaceX

For Dragon, the mission will begin with separation from the rocket one minute after engine shutdown, to be followed by priming of Dragon's thrusters and the deployment of the two power-generating solar arrays. Dragon will complete a series of orbit-raising maneuvers to arrive at the Station's doorstep two days after launch, approaching from directly below to set up for a robotic capture to mark the start of a month-long docked mission.

The Dragon SpX-12 mission is the last newly-built Dragon 1 spacecraft to launch with SpX-13 through 20 planned to be flown by refurbished spacecraft that made previous visits to ISS. This allows SpaceX to focus resources on the production of Dragon 2 that will fly in a crew and cargo configuration to support ISS crew rotations through the end of the program and make at least six cargo deliveries under NASA's Commercial Resupply Services 2 program.

>> Dragon SpX-12 Cargo Overview


CREAM ISS Package – Photo: ISS-CREAM

The SpX-12 mission is carrying a total cargo upmass of 2,910 Kilograms – 1,652 Kilograms will be delivered inside the craft's pressurized cargo compartment and 1,258kg will be delivered externally via Dragon's Trunk Section.

The sole trunk payload on this mission is CREAM, the Cosmic Ray Energetics and Mass Instrument, that will take up residence on the Station's porch, the Exposed Facility of the Kibo Module to measure ultra-high energy particles to further knowledge in high-energy astrophysics, hoped to answer long-standing questions on peculiarities of the cosmic spectrum.

The internal cargo is comprised of 916 Kilograms of science investigations, 339kg of maintenance hardware, 220kg of crew supplies and 83kg of computer supplies & EVA equipment. Hitching a ride aboard the Dragon are two groups of mice, one group flying on the U.S. Rodent Habitat as the sixth Rodent Research flight and the other is hosted by the JAXA Mouse Habitat Unit – both experiments are looking into the effects the space environment has on various bodily systems, using the mice as a model organism for humans. Both groups will live aboard ISS for a month before returning to Earth alive for post-flight studies.

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[tnt22]

http://spaceflight101.com/dragon-spx12/dragon-spx-12-cargo-overview/

Friday, August 11, 2017

Dragon SpX-12 Cargo Overview

Dragon SpX-12 is the twelfth operational mission of the SpaceX Dragon under NASA's Commercial Resupply Services contract, lifting off in August 2017 as the third Dragon flight of the year to keep up a steady chain of supplies and experiments headed to the International Space Station and its six crew members. The Dragon SpX-12 mission delivers dozens of experiments supporting a total of 330 experiments underway during ISS Expeditions 51 and 52 and the spacecraft also carries a high-profile astrophysics payload that aims to measure the highest-energy particles arriving fr om the distant universe.

Спойлер

Photo: NASA

The SpX-12 mission uses the last newly built Dragon vehicle with all subsequent Dragon missions under CRS-1 (through SpX-20) to be performed by previously flown and refurbished Dragon spacecraft. This facilitates a transition at SpaceX's production line fr om the Dragon 1 spacecraft to the Dragon 2 vehicle that will handle missions under the Commercial Crew Program as well as the CRS-2 contract round that guarantees SpaceX at least six cargo missions through 2024


Photo: NASA

The first Dragon re-flight was carried out earlier in 2017 on the SpX-11 mission that flew the Dragon C106 vehicle which had previously spent time on orbit for the SpX-4 mission back in September/October 2014. The mission was trouble-free and cemented plans of flying the SpX-13 through 20 missions with refurbished Dragons.

SpaceX designed the Dragon cargo craft to be at least partially reusable in that their pressure vessel and propulsion system were baselined for multiple mission cycles. Some components like the trunk section and solar arrays are discarded before re-entry and have to be built new for every Dragon mission and other components like the heat shield, some external panels and avionics components are also replaced between flights.

The Dragon SpX-12 mission is carrying a total cargo upmass of 2,910 Kilograms to the International Space Station, comprised of 1,258 Kilograms of external cargo in the spacecraft's trunk section and 1,652 Kilograms of pressurized cargo to be transferred to ISS by the crew.

[/li]
• Total Cargo: 2,910 Kilograms
• Pressurized Cargo (with packaging): 1,652 Kilograms
• Science Investigations: 916 kilograms
• Vehicle Hardware: 339 kilograms
• Crew Supplies: 220 kilograms
• Computer Resources: 53 kilograms
• Spacewalk Equipment: 30 kilograms
  

[/li][li]Unpressurized Cargo: 1,258 kilograms

[/li]
• CREAM (1,258kg)
  

[/li][/LIST]
[/li][/LIST] Dragon enjoys a special role within the Space Station's visiting vehicle fleet as the only craft capable of returning meaningful cargo downmass to the ground (aside fr om the Russian Soyuz that can carry a few dozen Kilograms of cargo when flying with a full crew of three).


NASA Mission Patch – Credit: NASA

Installed in the Trunk Section of the SpX-12 Dragon is CREAM, the Cosmic Ray Energetics and Mass Instrument, that will take up residence on the Station's porch, the Exposed Facility of the Kibo Module to measure ultra-high energy particles to further knowledge in high-energy astrophysics, hoped to answer long-standing questions on peculiarities of the cosmic spectrum.

The Dragon will launch with three powered Polar Freezers holding various biological experiments to be performed on ISS, a Rodent Habitat Transporter Unit holding 20 mice and a JAXA Mouse Habitat Unit hosting another group of rodents. Both rodent experiments flown by SpX-12 will feature a live return of the mice for post-flight testing on the ground. For return, Dragon will hold four powered Polars to return samples fr om orbit, providing a welcome opportunity to empty out the Station's lab freezers that hold everything from crew member samples & plant parts to mouse organs and samples from the ISS environment.

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CREAM – Cosmic Ray Energetics and Mass

Спойлер

Photo: ISS-CREAM

CREAM – the Cosmic Ray Energetics and Mass Instrument – is an energetic particle detector taking up residence outside the International Space Station to directly sample ultra-high-energy particles from outside the Solar System that exceed the energies achievable with any current-generation particle accelerator on Earth and hold clues on the composition of the universe.

The CREAM experiment is hoped to answer the century-old question on what gives cosmic energies such tremendous energies (1,000 Tera-Electronvolt +) and how does that affect the composition of the universe. CREAM can measure particles at higher energies than the Space Station's high-profile astro-physics payload, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer 2, and is therefore hoped to reveal what causes a 'knee' or decline in the cosmic energy spectrum around a thousand trillion electron-volts wh ere particle theory would not predict such a decrease.

>> Detailed Overview of the CREAM Instrument

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Satellites

Спойлер

The Dragon SpX-12 mission is carrying numerous satellites to the International Space Station including the Kestrel Eye 2M microsatellite and a series of CubeSats including the ELaNa 22 CubeSats flown by NASA. Click the links below for detailed technical information on the SpX-12 CubeSats:

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• Kestrel Eye 2M (Military Reconnaissance, Tech Demo)
• ASTERIA (Tech Demo, Exoplanet Science)
• Dellingr (Tech Demo, Heliocentric Science)
• OSIRIS-3U (Space Weather)
• Overview 1A (Virtual Reality)
  

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Protein Crystal Growth 7

Спойлер

Image: NASA

The Protein Crystal Growth 7 experiment, operated by CASIS and the Michael J. Fox Foundation, goes by the full name of "Crystallization of LRRK2 Under Microgravity Conditions" and attempts to utilize the microgravity environment to grow larger version of the LRRK2 protein which has been implicated in Parkinson's disease. Large LRRK2 crystals will enable scientists to fully understand its structure and its role in Parkinson's, thus helping in the development of therapies against this target protein.

The use of protein crystallography requires high-resolution diffraction-quality crystals of a protein in order to be able to model the three dimensional structure of the molecules. Many protein molecules synthesized on Earth fall short of that requirement, allowing only partial structural information to be extracted. For targets in which high-resolution crystal structures are needed, production of crystals in the space environment may be a solution.


PCG-6 – Photo: NASA

Growing Protein crystals in space yields larger, more uniform and pristine crystals than those grown on Earth due to the absence of a number of issues such as sedimentation and shear forces, preventing the growth of large molecules. In case of LRRK2, Earth-grown crystals are too small and compact to study with current laboratory methods despite ten years of efforts to map out the protein's structure.

The PCG7 study will grow LRRK2 crystals aboard the Space Station and return them to Earth to undergo analysis using x-ray diffraction and neutron diffraction studies. This will yield complete crystalline structure information of the target protein and help inform potential inhibitor therapies that could prevent, slow or even stop the progression of Parkinson's disease.

The PCG7 experiment employs the Microlytic Crystal Former Optimization Chip (16 Channel) plate – a commercial product that is similar to previously flown PCG multi-channel/well plates. The hardware is launched in cold stowage to remain frozen until being transferred to the ISS environment to start the three-week nucleation and crystallization process. Return to Earth is completed in refrigerated storage.

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Lung Tissue

Спойлер

Image: Joan Nichols, UTMB

"Effect of Microgravity on Stem Cell Mediated Recellularization (Lung Tissue)" aims to use the microgravity environment to test methods for growing new lung tissue. Exploiting state-of-the-art bio-engineering techniques, the Lung Tissues experiment will use different types of lung cells grown in a specialized framework that provides them with critical growth factors to allow for an assessment on how gravity affects cell growth and specialization. Bioengineered human lung cells can be used as a predictive model of human responses for the study of lung development, lung physiology and disease pathology.

The Lung Tissue study provides the first comprehensive look at what happens to lung function and repair during prolonged exposure to the space environment, characterized by the absence of gravity, hyperoxia and elevated radiation exposure. In-vitro studies of human lung mimics can simplify complex mechanisms of pathogenesis and reveal the processes involved in the development of various lung diseases. Lung mimics can also be used for assessments of drug or chemical toxicity by biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, allowing for rapid and risk-free testing of new chemicals, lowering the cost for developing new drugs.


Image: Joan Nichols, UTMB

The microphysiologic human organ culture model (MHOC) developed by the research team consists of lung epithelium and endothelium which allows for comprehensive in-vitro studies of lung physiology, response to trauma and development of lung disease. The lung mimics are created by seeding progenitor cells (that still have to differentiate into specific cell types) onto an accellular lung scaffold (colloidal crystals + growth factors) with micro- or nano-structures which give rise to the appropriate cell-to-cell interactions leading to lung tissue formation with particular focus on the alveolar-capillary junction that includes both epithelial and endothelial cells. MHOC lung mimics can include epithelial type I & II cells, smooth muscle cells, fibroblasts and mesemchymal stem cells (MSC) as well as other progenitor cells.

The MHOC models can be constructed to include cell phenotypes of interest for specific studies such as MSCs and macrophages which will be used by Lung Tissues to examine the influence of spaceflight on human immune responses which are in part driven by macrophages and MSCs in the lung. There currently is no knowledge on the influence of spaceflight on the function of stem or progenitor cells or MSCs, although they play a major role in modulating human immune responses and support the generation of new lung tissue. MSCs help in tissue repair, modulate immune response and therefore are prime candidates for clinical applications in regenerative medicine.


Bioreactor Bag – Photo: Joan Nichols, UTMB

Lung Tissues addresses the primary hypothesis that spaceflight alters the ability of human lung progenitor cells and macrophages to function due to the absence of gravity and elevated radiation levels. The space environment may affect the proliferation and self-renewal capacity of MSCs which hinders lung tissue repair and immune response. A future goal of the study is to work out strategies for modulating MSC or macrophage responses in space to decrease health risks in space flight and potentially develop treatments for immunosuppressive conditions on Earth.

The Lung Tissue experiment rides to ISS in BioCell Habitat containers conditioned at 37°C and charged with 5% carbon dioxide. On ISS, the cultures are placed into the SABL with a control unit to supply the required thermal environment and CO2. The Station crew will complete periodic sampling of the cultures, taking a 4.5ml sample from the culture bags and freezing it at -80°C for the remainder of the flight and then at -20°C or colder for return aboard the SpaceX Dragon. The cells remaining in the bags at the end of the ~5-week mission will be chemically fixed and returned in cold bags at under 4°C.


SABL Incubator – Image: BioServe/University of Colorado

The Space Automated Bioproduct Lab (SABL) is a new space life science facility to be deployed on the International Space Station for a wide variety of research ranging from fundamental, applied and commercial space life sciences research to education-based investigations. The Space Automated Bioproduct Lab is an incubator facility to host cell culture and other biological experiments, supporting bacteria, yeast, algae, fungi, viruses, animal cells and tissues and small plant and animal organisms.

SABL provides an experiment volume of 22.8 liters suitable for 18 Group Activation Packs. The system measures 41.9 by 27.9 by 19.4 centimeters in size and it can support temperatures of –5°C to +43°C, offering a number of accommodations that make the facility easy to use for Astronauts onboard ISS such as a front door that can be opened without removing any connectors for a simple exchange of payloads or payload trays. Thermal control is provided by a water cooling loop and electrical heaters.

The facility is controlled via a high-resolution color touchscreen, the first of its kind deployed on ISS. Data is delivered to and from the facility using USB 2.0, Ethernet and A/D In-Out interfaces. Within the sample chamber, experiments can be documented using high-definition imagery and scanning, high-resolution imaging.

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Rodent Research 9

Спойлер

Rodent Habitat – Image: NASA

Rodent Research 9 has the full name "Effects of Spaceflight on the Musculoskeletal and Neurovascular Systems and Their Implications in Mice" and studies how the microgravity environment affects the immune systems, muscles and bone structure of rodents over an extended stay in space. The experiment, unlike some of the previous Rodent Research studies, will use a live return of the mice so that scientists can study how their time in Zero-G affected their various bodily systems and tissues.

RR-9 is actually the sixth Rodent Research flight following up on a proof-of-concept mission on SpX-4 and rodent science missions on SpX-6, 8, 10 and 11 that looked at various research topics such as space-induced rise in intracranial pressure, antibody response, and methods for prevention of skeletal muscle atrophy and osteoporosis. The RR-9 experiment takes a multi-pronged approach to look at space-related stress factors and their effect on the Musculoskeletal and Neurovascular Systems of vertebrates acting as model organisms for humans.

Rodent Research 9 addresses three objectives: a) determine the effects of long-duration space flight on cerebral arterial and venous tone, constrictor responsiveness, mechanical stiffness / gross structure, and capillary endothelial cell structure and lymphatic contractile activity; b) study the retinal micro-vascular and tissue remodeling that impact visual function and identify factors and cellular mechanisms that trigger space environment-induced alteration of cell-to-cell interaction in the function of the blood-retinal barrier; and c) determine the scope of knee and hip joint degradation undergone during long-duration space flight.


Rodent Research Ops in Microgravity Science Glovebox – Photo: NASA

Given the genetic and physiological similarities between mice and humans, this experiment can provide insights into how human tissue and systems change under space-related stress factors. The research also contributes to disease treatment and prevention through revealing pathways of cellular degradation in human circulatory, immune and nervous systems. Ideally, the study will help in the development of drugs and other regimens to mitigate adverse health effects arising from long-term space travel.

Rodent Research 9 involves 20 mice flown to ISS in the Transporter Unit before taking up residence in the ISS-based Habitat Unit for the duration of the 30-day mission. Daily video downlink is needed to monitor the health of the animals. At the end of the rodents' stay on ISS, they will be transferred into a clean Transporter Unit for return to Earth aboard Dragon.

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Mouse Habitat Experiment

Спойлер

Image: JAXA


Image: JAXA


Image: JAXA

The Japanese Mouse Habitat Experiment in some ways is similar to the U.S.-led Rodent Habitat set up on the Space Station in 2014, however, there are a number of significant differences including the use of artificial gravity and the accommodation of one mouse per cage for individual studies of behavioral changes. The Mouse Habitat Experiment consists of two major segments, the main Onboard Cage Unit for the accommodation of mice for 30 to 180 days and Transportation Cage Unit that accommodates the animals for up to ten days from launch to transfer to ISS and from the end of the ISS-based experiment to the return to Earth aboard a visiting vehicle.

Flying rodents to ISS provides an extremely valuable opportunity for a variety of studies from the mechanisms of bone loss in space over the adverse effects of space radiation to aging studies as well as a range of other studies looking at changes undergone by cells, tissues and organ systems as a result of prolonged exposure to space.

The Mouse Habitat will be set up in the Cell Biology Experiment Facility CBEF in the Kibo module that provides two research sections. One Cage Unit facilitating six mice will be set up in the Micro-g section wh ere mice experience the full space environment (microgravity, radiation) and the artificial gravity section that makes use of the short-arm centrifuge of CBEF which had so far only been used to expose plants to an artificial gravity environment, but as ground studies have shown, the centrifuge is also suitable to create a gravity environment for small mammals. Having six mice exposed to artificial gravity takes the microgravity environment out of the equation so that a comparison between the micro-g experiment and artificial-G experiment can highlight the adverse effects caused solely by radiation and those caused by microgravity alone. This will be the first long-term experiment involving mammals in an artificial gravity environment.

Each cage unit, around 15 centimeters in diameter includes systems to provide the mice with food and air circulation. Sensors installed within the cages record the temperature and humidity environment as well as carbon dioxide and ammonia content within the cage units. Cameras are used to document behavioral changes for the entire duration of the experiment.

The Mouse Habitat Experiment is set up for a live return of all 12 animals involved in a single experiment run, sparing the ISS crew the procedures associated with dissecting and preserving the specimens which will be completed by skilled researchers on the ground with access to more advanced analysis systems to examine collected samples down to a cellular and biochemical level.

The first experiment involving the Mouse Habitat is expected in early 2016, a study of epigenetic alterations.

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CASIS National Laboratory Payloads

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Activity of Mutated Drosophila in Microgravity
Visible differences in flight between normal and mutant Drosophila flies will be monitored to identify if there are any positive differences in movement by placing the flies in a microgravity environment. The International Space School Educational Trust (ISSET) in partnership with King's College in London lead this endeavor.

Cactus-Mediated Carbon Dioxide Removal in Microgravity
Oxygen output and carbon dioxide intake of a cactus sempervivum will be measured and evaluated to provide information on how to improve the efficiency of carbon dioxide regulation of long-term space travel. The ISSET  is in partnership with King's College in London on this investigation.

Conversion of Adipogenic Mesenchymal Stem Cells into Mature Cardiac Myocytes
Conversion of Adipogenic Mesenchymal Stem Cells into Mature Cardiac Myocytes uses the microgravity environment of space to examine how stem cells differentiate into specialized heart cells (cardiac myocytes). Previous studies using microgravity chambers on Earth have found that low gravity environments help specially programmed stem cells move toward becoming new heart muscle cells. The Cardiac Myocytes experiment delivers frozen stem cells in an experimental setup to the ISS wh ere the cells are thawed, cultured under specific conditions, tagged, and then returned to Earth for analysis and comparison with control batches.

The Effect of Microgravity on Stem Cell Mediated Recellularization
The Effect of Microgravity on Stem Cell Mediated Recellularization (Lung Tissue) uses the microgravity environment of space to test strategies for growing new lung tissue. Using the latest bioengineering techniques, the Lung Tissue experiment cultures different types of lung cells in controlled conditions aboard the ISS. The cells are grown in a specialized framework that supplies them with critical growth factors so that scientists can observe how gravity affects growth and specialization as cells become new lung tissue.

Genes in Space-4
Heat shock proteins are a family of chaperone proteins in cells that are induced by stress, including physical, chemical, or environmental stress. Their induction provokes a shielding role that protects the cell from entering an apoptosis, or cell death pathway. Under stressful conditions, the cell elevates the levels of different heat shock proteins that will work to stop different apoptotic proteins. Astronauts' bodies are subject to different kinds of stress in space (cosmic radiation, microgravity, etc.), so although their heat shock response will initiate, the question is—will it continue to protect cells even after prolonged exposure to multiple stressors? This study is novel because the efficiency of heat shock proteins has not been studied in humans after a prolonged exposure to cosmic radiation and microgravity. This experiment will use a model organism, the roundworm (Caenorhabditis elegan), and will investigate if the gene is expressed during stressful conditions in microgravity.

Eli Lilly-Lyophilization
Lyophilization in Microgravity (Eli Lilly-Lyophilization) examines freeze-drying processes in the microgravity environment onboard the ISS. Freeze-drying is used to preserve food and medication but may create layering or other textures in the presences of gravity. Eli Lilly-Lyophilization freeze-dries a range of samples under microgravity conditions onboard the ISS and then returns the samples to Earth for comparison with control samples.

Evaluation of Radiation Deterrent Materials
Passive radiation-shielding materials will be evaluated based on density, cost, and on-orbit radiation deterrent effect to determine the most advantageous material for long-term space travel. The Higher Orbits Foundation and the 2016 Andromeda Award Winning Team DASA from Go For Launch! Deerfield Program will lead this investigation.

NanoRacks – Cuberider-1
NanoRacks-CUBERIDER-1 (NanoRacks-CR-1) is an educational module that runs on computer code written by 9th and 10th graders. Students program sensors on NanoRacks-CR-1 to record data in the microgravity environment and conduct tests onboard the ISS and then send results back to Earth. Through this investigation, students devise their own experiments and experience space science firsthand.

NanoRacks-National Center for Earth and Space Science Education – Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP) Mission 11
The Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP) was launched in June 2010 as an education initiative that gives students the ability to design and propose real experiments to fly in low Earth orbit. The program provides seamless integration across STEM disciplines through an authentic, high-visibility research experience—an approach that embraces the Next Generation Science Standards. SSEP immerses hundreds of students at the local level in the research experience—students are truly given the ability to be real scientists and engineers. On the 11th mission from SSEP, 21 separate investigations will be launched from communities all over the United States and Canada.

NanoRacks-Ramon SpaceLab-01
NanoRacks-Ramon SpaceLab-01 (NanoRacks-RSL-01) is a compilation of five NanoRacks MixStix investigations onboard the ISS. These investigations are aimed at examining the effect of microgravity on yeast fermentation, testing whether microgravity accelerates the dissolving of medication in simulated stomach acid, testing the formation of more stable emulsions of oil and water in space, measuring the growth of yeast in urine as a potential source of vitamins and a mechanism of filtering urine for drinking, and observing the transfer of a fluorescent plasmid during conjugation of Escherichia coli (E. coli) bacteria in microgravity as a step toward genetically engineering proteins.

NDC-3: Chicagoland Boy Scouts and Explorers
Boy Scout Troop 209, based in the Chicago-land area, will conduct an experiment so that the team can measure the mutation rate of a bacterium in a microgravity environment. Its findings could impact research on everything from tissue growth to cancer.

Spaceborne Computer
Spaceborne Computer intends to run a year-long experiment of a high-performance commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) computer system on the ISS. COTS computer systems can be programmed to detect and respond to radiation events by lowering operating speeds or 'powering down.' This research helps scientists identify ways of using software to protect ISS computers without expensive or bulky protective shielding.

Space Technology and Advanced Research Systems (STaARS-1) Research Facility
The STaARS-1 Research Facility is a multipurpose facility that will enable a broad range of experiments on the ISS. In the pharmaceutical market, STaARS-1 will facilitate novel drug discovery, drug compound production, and virulence modeling. STaARS-1 will support biomedical therapeutic markets through drug delivery system development, regenerative tissue engineering (stem cell technologies), and biofilm formation prevention. Within the energy markets, STaARS-1 will support studies targeting novel biofuel production through enhanced quality and quantity of multiple compounds.

STaARS BioScience-1
STaARS BioScience-1 investigates the question of why a harmful strain of bacteria appears to abandon its harmful properties when exposed to microgravity environments. The bacteria Staphylococcus aureus (S. Aureus) N315 is an antibiotic-resistant strain of bacteria that mysteriously becomes innocuous when exposed to induced microgravity conditions on Earth. Extending this research into space, STaARS BioScience-1 uses automated equipment to grow S. Aureus N315 in protected batch cultures onboard the ISS and then returns the samples to Earth-based labs for detailed analysis of their biochemistry and genetic expression.

STaARS-iFUNGUS
Intraterrestrial Fungus (STaARS-iFUNGUS) cultures a rare type of fungus in the microgravity environment of space in order to search for new antibiotics. The fungus, Penicillium chrysogenum, differs from other fungi because it comes from deep in the Earth's subsurface and shows potential as a source for new antibacterial compounds. The STaARS-iFUNGUS experiment transports frozen samples of fungal spores to the ISS, grows the fungus in different nutrient mixtures over different intervals, refreezes the samples, and then returns them to Earth, wh ere scientists examine how they grew and what chemicals they produced.

Story Time from Space – 4
Story Time From Space combines science literacy outreach with simple demonstrations recorded onboard the ISS. Crew members read five science, technology, engineering, and mathematics-related children's books in orbit and complete simple science concept experiments. Crew members videotape themselves reading the books and completing demonstrations. Video and data collected during the demonstrations are downlinked to the ground and posted in a video library with accompanying educational materials. This marks the fourth opportunity for these books to launch to station.

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Прогноз погоды L-3

F9 Dragon CRS-12 L-3 Wx Forecast

Пока только 70 % GO в день пуска и резервный день

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https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacex/2017/08/11/weather-forecast-for-mondays-planned-launch-of-spacex-crs-12/
или
https://blogs.nasa.gov/kennedy/2017/08/11/weather-forecast-for-mondays-planned-launch-of-spacex-crs-12/

Weather Forecast for Monday's Planned Launch of SpaceX CRS-12
Posted on August 11, 2017 at 10:24 am by Anna Heiney.

Meteorologists with the U.S. Air Force 45th Space Wing are predicting a 70 percent chance of favorable weather for liftoff of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Dragon spacecraft. Launch of the company's twelfth commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station is scheduled for Monday, Aug. 14 at 12:31 p.m. EDT from Launch Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Rain and thunderstorms are expected today and through the weekend, especially in the afternoon – a familiar summer weather pattern for Florida's Space Coast. Heading into Monday, cumulus clouds and flight through precipitation are forecasters' primary launch weather concerns, but the early afternoon launch time is helpful.

This entry was posted in Cargo Resupply (CRS) on August 11, 2017 by Anna Heiney.

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TechCrunch‏Подлинная учетная запись @TechCrunch 55 мин. назад

Why HPE is sending a supercomputer to the ISS on SpaceX's next rocket http://tcrn.ch/2hQoAFJ

https://techcrunch.com/2017/08/11/why-hpe-is-sending-a-supercomputer-to-the-iss-on-spacexs-next-rocket/

Why HPE is sending a supercomputer to the ISS on SpaceX's next rocket
Posted 9 hours ago by Darrell Etherington (@etherington)

Hewlett Packard Enterprise is sending a supercomputer to the International Space Station aboard SpaceX's next resupply mission for NASA, which is currently set to launch Monday.

Officially named the "Spaceborne Computer," the Linux-based supercomputer is designed to serve in a one year experiment conducted by NASA and HPE to find out if high performance computing hardware, with no hardware customization or modification, can survive and operate in outer space conditions for a full year – the length of time, not coincidentally, it'll likely take for a crewed spacecraft to make the trip to Mars.

Typically, computers used on the ISS have to be "hardened," explained Dr. Mark Fernandez, who led the effort on the HPE side as lead payload engineer. This process involves extensive hardware modifications made to the high-performance computing (HPC) device, which incur a lot of additional cost, time and effort. One unfortunate result of the need for this physical ruggedization process is that HPCs used in space are often generations behind those used on Earth, and that means a lot of advanced computing tasks end up being shuttled off the ISS to Earth, with the results then round-tripped back to astronaut scientists in space.

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This works for now, because communication is near-instantaneous between low-Earth orbit, where the ISS resides, and Earth itself. But once you get further out – as far out as Mars, say – communications could take up to 20 minutes between Earth and spaceship staff. If you saw The Martian, you know how significant a delay of that magnitude can be.








 
"Suppose there's some critical computations that need to be made, on the mission to Mars or when we arrive at Mars, we really need to plan ahead and make sure that that computational capacity is available to them, and it's not three- or five-year old technology," Dr. Fernandez told me. "We want to be able to get to them the latest and greatest technology."

This one-year experiment will help Dr. Fernandez hopefully show that in place of hardware modifications, a supercomputer can be "software hardened" to withstand the rigors of space, including temperature fluctuations and exposure to radiation. That software hardening involves making adjustments on the fly to things like processor speed and memory refresh rate in order to correct for detected errors and guarantee correct results.

"All of our modern computers have hardware built error correction and detection in them, and it's possible that if we give those units enough time, they can correct those errors and we can move on," Dr. Fernandez said.

Already on Earth, the control systems used to benchmark the two experimental supercomputers sent to the ISS have demonstrated that this works – a recent lightning storm struck the data center where they're stationed, causing a power outage and temperature fluctuations, which did not impact the results coming fr om the HPCs. Dr. Fernandez says that's a promising sign for how their experimental counterparts will perform in space, but the experiment will still help show how they can react to things you can't test as accurately on Earth, like exposure to space-based radiation.
 

The SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with the Dragon spacecraft onboard, launches from pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, Saturday, June 3, 2017. Dragon is carrying almost 6,000 pounds of science research, crew supplies and hardware to the International Space Station in support of the Expedition 52 and 53 crew members. The unpressurized trunk of the spacecraft also will transport solar panels, tools for Earth-observation and equipment to study neutron stars. This will be the 100th launch, and sixth SpaceX launch, from this pad. Previous launches include 11 Apollo flights, the launch of the unmanned Skylab in 1973, 82 shuttle flights and five SpaceX launches. Photo Credit: (NASA/Bill Ingalls)
 
And while the long-term goal is to make this technology useful in an eventual mission to Mars, in the near-term it has plenty of potential to make an impact on how research is conducted on the ISS itself.

"One of the things that's popular today is 'Let's move the compute to the data, instead of moving the data to the compute,' because we're having a data explosion," Dr. Fernandez explained. "Well that's occurring elsewh ere as well. The ISS is bringing on board more and more experiments. Today those scientists know how to analyze the data on Earth, and they want to send the data down to Earth. It's not a Mars-type latency, but still you've got to get your data, got to process it and got to get back and change your experimental parameters. Suppose, like at every other national lab in the nation, the computer was right down the office from you."

Local supercomputing capability isn't just a convenience feature; time on the ISS is a precious resource, and any thing that makes researchers more efficient has a tremendous impact on the science that can be done during missions. Japan's JAXA space agency recently started testing an automated camera drone on board for just this purpose, for instance, since not having to hold a camera means researchers can spend more time on actual experimentation. For HPC, this could have an even larger impact in a couple of different ways.


JAXA's Jem Int-Ball drone camera is also designed to save astronauts time.

"You do your post-processing right down the hall on the ISS, you've saved time, your science is better, faster and you can get more work out of the same amount of experimental time," Dr. Fernandez said. Secondly, and more important to me, the network between the ISS and Earth is precious, and it's allocated by experiment. If I can get some people to get off the network, that will free up bandwidth for people who really need the network."

In the end, Dr. Fernandez is hoping this experiment opens the door for future testing of other advanced computing techniques in space, including Memory-Driven computing. He also hopes it opens the door for NASA to consider making use of the same sort of system on future Mars missions, to help with the experimentation potential of those journeys, and to help improve their chance of success. But in general, Dr. Fernandez says, he's just hoping to contribute to the work done by those advancing various fields of research in space.

"I want to help all the scientists on board, and that's one of the dreams of this experiment," he said.

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https://www.nasa.gov/content/upcoming-elana-cubesat-launches

Upcoming ELaNa CubeSat Launches

ELaNa 22
 Launch Date:  NET August 14, 2017
 Deployment Date: NET November 2017
 Mission: SpaceX-12 – Falcon 9, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida
 3 CubeSat Missions scheduled to be deployed
 

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• ASTERIA – Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.
• Dellingr – NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.
• OSIRUS-3U – Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pa.