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https://blogs.nasa.gov/stationreport/2017/08/09/iss-daily-summary-report-8092017/

ISS Daily Summary Report – 8/09/2017
Posted on August 9, 2017 at 4:00 pm by HQ.

Human Research Program (HRP):

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The crew collected blood, urine and air samples today to satisfy Return minus 15 days (R-15) Cardio Ox, Flight Day 15 (FD 15) and R-15 Biochemical Profile and R-30 and Launch plus 12 days (L+12) Marrow requirements.

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• By collecting Cardio Ox ultrasound and ECG data, along with blood and urine samples, scientists will try to determine whether biological markers of oxidative and inflammatory stress are elevated during and after space flight and whether this results in an increased, long-term risk of atherosclerosis in astronauts.
• The Biochem Profile experiment tests blood and urine samples obtained from astronauts before, during and after spaceflight. Specific proteins and chemicals in the samples are used as biomarkers, or indicators of health. Post-flight analysis yields a database of samples and test results which scientists can use to study the effects of spaceflight on the body.
• The Marrow investigation looks at the effect of microgravity on bone marrow. It is believed that microgravity, like long-duration bed rest on Earth, has a negative effect on the bone marrow and the blood cells that are produced in the bone marrow.
  

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Multi Omics-Mouse:

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The crew continued preparations for the Multi-Omics Mouse investigation subjects arriving on SpX-12. They removed the Mouse Habitat Cage Units from the Cell Biology Experiment Facility (CBEF) and performed water nozzle checks. They also installed batteries in the vacuum cleaner and the CO2 Valve Unit.

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At Home In Space:

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The crew completed a At Home in Space questionnaire.This Canadian Space Agency experiment assesses culture, values, and psychosocial adaptation of astronauts to a space environment shared by multinational crews on long-duration missions. It is hypothesized that astronauts develop a shared space culture that is an adaptive strategy for handling cultural differences and they deal with the isolated confined environment of the spacecraft by creating a home in space. At Home in Space uses a questionnaire to investigate individual and culturally related differences, family functioning, values, coping with stress, and post-experience growth.

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Robonaut:

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The crew continued troubleshooting the intermittent fault in Robonaut's power supply.  Installation of a grounding jumper did not resolve the issue so additional troubleshooting steps are under development. Robonaut is a humanoid robot designed with the versatility and dexterity to manipulate hardware, work in high risk environments, and respond safely to unexpected obstacles. It is comprised of a torso with two arms and a head, and two legs with end effectors that enable the robot to translate inside the ISS by interfacing with handrails and seat tracks.

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Dragon Robotics On-Board Trainer (RoBOT):

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In preparation for SpX-12 berthing currently scheduled for August 16, the crew completed this training consisting of a 30 meter approach, two Capture Point hold runs and 2 meter runs.

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Remote Power Controller Module (RPCM) P12B_B Trip:

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This RPC powers the S-Band transponder for String 2. There were no impacts to voice or telemetry as S-Band String 1 was and continues to be prime. String 2 was in hot backup for ACS/UHF Audio Interface (AUAI) troubleshooting. The trip signature indicates a Field Effect Transistor (FET) Hybrid failure which would be the first occurrence for this RPC. Multiple closure attempts of RPC 10 were performed with no success. Two fully functional strings of ISS S-band are required per the SpaceX Launch Commit Criteria (LCC) Flight Rule. Teams met this morning to discuss and recommend a forward plan. This is an external RPCM that can be Removed and Replaced (R&R) by the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (SPDM).

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Failed Main Bus Switching Unit (MBSU) Retrieval Status:

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Last night, ground teams successfully translated the Mobile Transporter from Worksite 3 to Worksite 7. The degraded MBSU was then successfully installed on the JAXA Experiment Module (JEM) Orbital Replacement Unit (ORU) Transfer Interface (JOTI) and the slide table was retracted into the JEM airlock. The airlock will be pressurized Thursday morning. This MBSU is one of two failed units externally stowed on orbit that will be brought inside to undergo maintenance and repair.

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ISS Reboost:

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An ISS reboost using 67P thrusters was successfully performed. This reboost, in combination with the next one planned for August 25th, will set up required conditions for 50S landing on September 3rd and 52S launch on September 12th.

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Int-Ball Letter Vol. 3: Exploring inside "Kibo"!

JAXA | 宇宙航空研究開発機構

Опубликовано: 9 авг. 2017 г.

JAXA has disclosed "Int-Ball Letter" Vol. 3 in which the latest video of the Kibo's internal drone on the International Space Station is presented. This time, we will introduce how Int-Ball flies inside "Kibo."

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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.

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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.
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РОСКОСМОС‏Подлинная учетная запись @roscosmos 57 мин. назад

Время перекуса на МКС! Как вам моя космическая "чашечка" кофе? // It's time for a coffee break!

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https://spaceflightnow.com/2017/08/09/station-bound-instrument-to-open-new-chapter-in-the-story-of-cosmic-rays/

Station-bound instrument to open new chapter in the story of cosmic rays
August 9, 2017 Stephen Clark
 
Physicists are gearing up to send a re-engineered science instrument originally designed for lofty balloon flights high in Earth's atmosphere to the International Space Station next week to broaden their knowledge of cosmic rays, subatomic particles traveling on intergalactic routes that could hold the key to unlocking mysteries about supernovas, black holes, pulsars and dark matter.

Fastened in the cargo bay of a SpaceX Dragon capsule, the cosmic ray observatory will be robotically connected to a port outside the space station's Japanese Kibo laboratory for a three-year science campaign sampling cosmic rays, particles accelerated to nearly the speed of light by violent and mysterious forces in the distant universe.

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This mosaic image of Crab Nebula, a six-light-year-wide expanding remnant of a star's supernova explosion, was taken by the Hubble Space Telescope. Recent research shows that galactic cosmic rays flowing into our solar system originate in clusters like these. Credit: NASA/ESA/Arizona State University

First discovered more than a century ago, most cosmic rays are blocked by the atmosphere fr om reaching Earth's surface, requiring scientists to send up detectors on high-altitude balloon flights or space missions.

Their name is a misnomer. Cosmic rays are not a form of light like gamma-rays or X-rays, but bits of matter sent careening through space by powerful forces elsewhere in our galaxy and beyond.

"Cosmic rays are direct samples of matter fr om outside our solar system, possibly from the most distant reaches of the universe," said Eun-Suk Seo, lead scientist on the Cosmic Ray Energetics and Mass, or CREAM, instrument and a professor of physics at the University of Maryland.

Scientists have flown variants of the CREAM instrument seven times on balloon research missions, logging more than six months of flight time. Engineers modified the existing science payload for the rigors of spaceflight, finishing the instrument for as little as $10 million to $20 million, Seo said, a fraction of the cost of a standalone space mission or an instrument developed from scratch.

Changes to the balloon-borne instrument, managed at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, included making the on-board electronics more robust against radiation, and ensuring the package could survive the shaking of a rocket launch.


Eun-Suk Seo, University of Maryland professor of physics, stands in an on-campus control room. Credit: Faye Levine/University of Maryland

Dozens of stacked layers of silicon pixels, carbon targets, tungsten planes and scintillating fibers will detect particles, ranging from subatomic units of relatively light hydrogen to heavy iron, coming from deep space and determine their mass, charge and trajectory.

Each cosmic ray comes with its own backstory, and the particles will reveal clues about their origins as they collide with the matter inside CREAM's detector. Scientists will trace the shower of secondary particles generated by each cosmic ray's crash into the instrument's cross section of pixels and targets.

The most energetic cosmic rays can penetrate all the way to Earth's surface, but detectors on the ground only pick up the leftovers generated from collisions with oxygen and nitrogen atoms in the atmosphere, producing "air showers" of secondary particles the rain down on the planet.

"The original cosmic rays, for you to detect them, you have to fly an instrument in space," Seo said. "That's what we are doing. We identify (cosmic rays) particle-by-particle, tell what they are, how much energy they have, and characterize them. We (sample) them directly before they are broken up in the atmosphere."

CREAM will be sensitive to cosmic rays with higher energies than previous cosmic ray detectors flown in space, including the $2 billion Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer delivered to the space station on the second-to-last space shuttle flight in 2011.

"What CREAM is going to do is to extend the direct measurements to the highest energies possible, to energies that are capable of generating these gigantic air showers that can reach all the way to the ground," Seo said.

Huge explosions like stellar supernovas, along with extreme gravitational forces from other cosmic phenomena, send cosmic rays shooting through space at mind-boggling velocities approaching the speed of light. One of the CREAM instrument's chief objectives is to study wh ere the particles come from.

NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope proved some cosmic rays come from the expanding debris remnants of supernovas, but the case is still open for other types of cosmic rays.

"It's generally believed that cosmic rays originate in supernovas," Seo said. "There are other possible contributions or accelerators, pulsars, colliding galaxies, black holes, AGNs (active galactic nuclei)."

But some cosmic rays are believed to be too energetic to be accelerated by supernovas.

"A supernova is very powerful, but still it's a finite engine," Seo said.


A cutaway diagram of the CREAM instrument. Credit: University of Maryland

Subatomic particles like protons are the most common type of cosmic ray at lower energies, and cosmic rays become rarer as scientists look at higher energies. But balloon science campaigns found the drop-off in particle detections at higher energies is not as steep as predicted, a result known as spectral hardening.

"At high energies that are in our energy range ... there are more cosmic rays than were expected from the simple supernova acceleration scenario," Seo said.

Comparisons of two types of particles — protons and helium — suggest low-energy and high-energy cosmic rays could come from different sources.

"At lower energies, we already know protons are the most dominant component, but as you approach this acceleration lim it you expect to see this composition change," Seo said. "But this hasn't been observed yet because we are not able to do the direct measurements at that higher energy. With CREAM, we are to explore these higher energies to actually observe such composition changes to confirm such a supernova acceleration scenario."

Seo said CREAM will build up statistics on the flux, or variability, of high-energy cosmic rays with continuous observations not possible on a short-duration balloon flight.

"By utilizing the space station, we can increase our exposure by an order of magnitude," Seo said. "In order words, every day on the station, we will increase the statistics, and as the statistical uncertainties get reduced, and we can detect higher energies than before."

One way physicists say cosmic rays could be born is during collisions between particles of dark matter, a mysterious substance that makes up about 27 percent of all the mass and energy in the universe. Only 5 percent of the universe is regular matter — stuff we can see and touch — while the rest is dark energy, an enigmatic force that helps drive the expansion of the universe.

"The question of whether these are from an exotic source like dark matter has generated lots of excitement, but for us to actually know whether there is some exotic source like dark matter, or an astrophysical source like a pulsar ... we will need a lot more understanding of cosmic rays," Seo said.

Scientists from the United States, South Korea, France and Mexico are part of the CREAM project. The instrument weighs about 2,773 pounds (1,258 kilograms) inside the Dragon spacecraft's payload trunk.

Liftoff from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida is scheduled for Aug. 14.

"It's a very exciting time for us in high-energy particle astrophysics, and the long development road of CREAM culminating in this space station mission has been a world-class success story," Seo said.

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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 full moon is pictured from the International Space Station.

The Expedition 52 crew members pulled out their medical hardware today for a variety of eye checks and other biomedical research. The station residents are also making space and packing up gear for next week's cargo delivery aboard the SpaceX Dragon.

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The crew each participated in a series of eye exams throughout Thursday working with optical coherence tomography (OCT) gear. OCT is a medical imaging technique that captures imagery of the retina using light waves. A pair of cosmonauts then peered into a fundoscope for a more detailed look at the eye's interior. The regularly scheduled eye checks were conducted with real-time input from doctors on the ground.

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.

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Space Station Crew Member Discusses Life in Space on a NASA Podcast

NASA

Опубликовано: 10 авг. 2017 г.

Aboard the International Space Station, Expedition 52 Flight Engineer Jack Fischer of NASA discussed life and research on the complex during a NASA Johnson Space Center podcast in-flight interview Aug. 10. Fischer is in the final weeks of a four and a half month mission on the outpost, headed for a landing Sept. 3 in Kazakhstan in a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

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Space to Ground: A Closer Look: 08/11/2017

NASA Johnson

Опубликовано: 11 авг. 2017 г.

NASA's Space to Ground is your weekly update on what's happening aboard the International Space Station.
Got a question or comment? Use #spacetoground to talk to us.

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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.

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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.

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• 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

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• CREAM (1,258kg)
  

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[/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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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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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
...


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.

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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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Командиры космоса

Телестудия Роскосмоса

Опубликовано: 11 авг. 2017 г.

Главная медицинская комиссия ЦПК имени Юрия Гагарина признала годными к новому космическому полету космонавтов Роскосмоса Александра Мисуркина и Антона Шкаплерова.

(2:31)

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SpeedyTime 5 – Water in Space

NASA Johnson

Опубликовано: 11 авг. 2017 г.

The International Space Station is a one-of-a-kind spot for scientists who want to do experiments where there's no gravity, to find out how other natural forces function without gravity's influence. In this "SpeedyTime" segment, Expedition 52 flight engineer Jack Fischer uses a few simple tools to demonstrate what happens to water in space when there's no pull of gravity.

(1:08 )

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Jack Fischer‏Подлинная учетная запись @Astro2fish 12 мин. назад

Congrats to the middle schools competing in the @ZeroRobotics competition today. They programmed our @NASA_SPHERES robots! #STEM

Video

NASA SPHERES: Zero Robotics Competition
SPHERES consist of 3 free flying satellites on board the International Space Station that test a diverse range of hardware and software from scientists all over America.

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https://blogs.nasa.gov/stationreport/2017/08/10/iss-daily-summary-report-8102017/

ISS Daily Summary Report – 8/10/2017
Posted on August 10, 2017 at 4:00 pm by HQ.

Circadian Rhythms:

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A crewmember removed the Armband Monitor and the Thermolab Unit mounted to their belt, completing 36 hours of monitoring for the Circadian Rhythms investigation. Circadian Rhythms investigates the role of synchronized circadian rhythms, or the "biological clock," and how it changes during long-duration spaceflight. Researchers hypothesize that a non-24-hour cycle of light and dark affects crew members' circadian clocks. The investigation also addresses the effects of reduced physical activity, microgravity and an artificially controlled environment. Changes in body composition and body temperature, which also occur in microgravity, can affect crew members' circadian rhythms as well. Understanding how these phenomena affect the biological clock will improve performance and health for future crew members.

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Utilization Preparations for SpaceX-12 Arrival:

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In preparation for SpX-12 arrival scheduled for August 16th, crewmembers relocated all three Space Automated Bioproduct Lab (SABL) units and the Multi-Purpose Small Payload Rack (MSPR) Experiment Laptop Terminal. They also removed the Phase Change Heat eXchanger (PCHX) locker for return.

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Rodent Research-5 (RR-5) Systemic Therapy of NELL-1 for Osteoporosis:

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The crew completed a final inventory audit for RR-5. They then stowed some items and trashed others.

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Mobile Servicing System (MSS) Operations:

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Yesterday and overnight, Robotics Ground Controllers translated the Mobile Transporter (MT) from Worksite 7 (WS7) to WS3. The team then powered up the MSS and maneuvered the Space Station Remote Manipulator System (SSRMS) and the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator (SPDM) to use SPDM Arm2 to transfer the empty Main Bus Switching Unit (MBSU) Flight Releasable Attachment Mechanism (FRAM) from SPDM Enhanced Orbital Replacement Unit (ORU) Temporary Platform (EOTP) Side 2 to External Stowage Platform 2 (ESP2) Site 4. Finally, controllers stowed the SPDM on Mobile Base System (MBS) Power Data Grapple Fixture 2 (PDGF2).

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Ku Band Contingency Command and Telemetry (CCT) Checkout:

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In response to the loss of S-Band redundancy due to the loss of power to the S-Band-2 transponder, ground teams completed a checkout of the Ku-Band CCT command and voice capability. During the test all control centers, including Sp-X Mission Control, successfully sent test commands to ISS via Ku-Band. Additionally, Ku-Band voice between ISS and MCC-Moscow was verified in the event this is needed during the upcoming Russian Extra-Vehicular Activity (EVA).

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https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-television-to-air-six-hour-spacewalk-at-international-space-station

Aug. 11, 2017
MEDIA ADVISORY M17-091

NASA Television to Air Six-Hour Spacewalk at International Space Station


Expedition 52 commander Fyodor Yurchikhin holds one of the five satellites set to be deployed during the Russian spacewalk on Aug. 17, 2017.

Two Russian cosmonauts will venture outside the International Space Station Thursday, Aug. 17, to deploy several nanosatellites, collect research samples and perform structural maintenance. Coverage of the spacewalk will begin at 10 a.m. EDT on NASA Television and the agency's website.

Expedition 52 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Flight Engineer Sergey Ryazanskiy, of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, will don their spacesuits and exit the station's Pirs airlock at approximately 10:45 a.m.

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Ryazanskiy will begin the schedule of extravehicular activities with the manual deployment of five nanosatellites from a ladder outside the airlock. The satellites, each of which has a mass of about 11 pounds, have a variety of purposes.

One of the satellites, with casings made using 3-D printing technology, will test the effect of the low-Earth-orbit environment on the composition of 3-D printed materials. Another satellite contains recorded greetings to the people of Earth in 11 languages. A third satellite commemorates the 60th anniversary of the Sputnik 1 launch and the 160th anniversary of the birth of Russian scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky.

The spacewalkers also will collect residue samples from various locations outside the Russian segment of the station and install handrails and struts to facilitate future excursions.

Yurchikhin will be designated extravehicular crew member 1 (EV1) for this spacewalk, the ninth of his career. Ryazanskiy, embarking on his fourth spacewalk, will be extravehicular crew member 2 (EV2). Both will wear Russian Orlan spacesuits bearing blue stripes. The spacewalk will be the 202nd in support of space station assembly and maintenance and the seventh spacewalk this year.

Check out the full NASA TV schedule and video streaming information at:

https://www.nasa.gov/nasatv

Get breaking news, images and features from the station on Instagram and Twitter at:

http://instagram.com/iss

and

https://twitter.com/Space_Station

-end-

Kathryn Hambleton
 Headquarters, Washington
 202-358-1100
kathryn.hambleton@nasa.gov

Dan Huot
 Johnson Space Center, Houston
 281-483-5111
daniel.g.huot@nasa.gov

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Last Updated: Aug. 11, 2017
Editor: Katherine Brown

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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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ISS National Lab‏Подлинная учетная запись @ISS_CASIS 8 ч. назад

Meet @TechshotInc's ADvanced Space Experiment Processor--designed for regenerative medicine experiments in space→ http://goo.gl/9xH8qu 

Спойлер

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Techshot on SpaceX-12.pdf

[anik]

Оригинально: на МКС отправляли "Сферу-53", а запускать с нее будут "ТС530-Зеркало"...

[Старый]

anik пишет:
Оригинально: на МКС отправляли "Сферу-53", а запускать с нее будут "ТС530-Зеркало"...

Очевидно буквы "С53" из полного названия и означают "Сфера-53"

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Сергей Рязанский‏Подлинная учетная запись @SergeyISS 4 ч назад

Поймал город #Байконур и «Гагаринский старт», откуда стартовал наш экипаж. // Took pictures of the city of Baikonur and Gagarin's Start.