Новости МКС

[The Heart of the Moon]

Давно уже пора сестрам Уильямс отметиться на МКС. Хорош уже мячики через сетку перекидывать, надо и серьезным делом заняться! 
Я не прав?
Программа "Теннис в космосе" - ничуть не хуже любых других начинаний... Спонсоры будут.

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Mark T. Vande Hei‏Подлинная учетная запись @Astro_Sabot 30 мар.

Presenting the International Space Station Expedition 53 patch. Proud to be listed among these fine folks!

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C8MEZALV0AAWcSc.jpg:large

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О запуске OA-7 Cygnus
https://www.facebook.com/groups/133294990019598/

Andrea Boyd Yep. We were told NET 8th and if so capture/berthing NET 13th and therefore next EVA has been cancelled as it will be after exp49/50 crew depart
Нравится · 1 · 30 марта в 14:43

Примечание.
http://www.iafastro.org/events/iac/iac-2015/plenary-programme/next-generation-plenary/

Andrea Boyd, ESA Flight Controller for ISS

Andrea Boyd is an ISS Flight Controller stationed at the European Astronaut Centre.

A Mechatronic Engineer from The University of Adelaide, Australia, she specialised in robotics at Yeungnam University, South Korea, working after graduation as an Automation Engineer for many industries prior to certification as a process plant and underground Mining Control Systems Specialist, located on site in the remote desert.

Andrea certified as an ISS Flight Operations Engineer for payload control and cross-certified in later years for crew operations, serving in the European Space Agency's Human Spaceflight and Operations Directorate. She has lived, worked and studied in over 65 nations, cooperates with IAC2017 Adelaide and is on the 2015 Australian of the Year Honour Roll for her volunteer work at schools, universities and NGOs, inspiring young people to pursue ambitious careers.

[The Heart of the Moon]

Даже не знаешь, как и комментировать подобные новости...

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Возвращаясь к нештатной ситуации во время EVA41
https://www.nasa.gov/feature/mission-control-team-finds-answers-during-spacewalk

March 31, 2017
 
 Mission Control Team Finds Answers During Spacewalk

 Скрытый текст:

 Flight Director Emily Nelson and Capcom Anne McClain in Houston work to come up with a plan to replace a lost thermal and micrometeoroid shield during a spacewalk.
Credits: NASA/James Blair
 

 Mission support personnel in Houston work to come up with a plan to replace a lost thermal and micrometeoroid shield during a spacewalk.
Credits: NASA/James Blair

240 miles above Earth, traveling 12 times the speed of a bullet, a cloth blanket gets away during a spacewalk and immediately drifts out of reach, into space, away from the space station, forever. It's no danger to the astronauts as it floats away, but immediately there is a new problem:

An important station docking port needs that blanket for protection from the extremes of space, and now it is gone.

That's when you call Houston, or more likely Houston calls you first, and Mission Control finds an answer.

 Скрытый текст:

"This was the kind of thing we train for," said Mission Control Flight Director Emily Nelson "Most of the time we get issues like this to work inside the station. We have a multi-layered team that comes together to solve problems. This is probably the most visible version of this we've had in a long time, but we solve problems large and small with some frequency. It's part of operating a complex orbiting space station."

More on Mission Control's History of Finding Answers
 

[/li]
• Mission controllers guide Apollo 13 crew home
• Mission controllers celebrate Apollo 11 -- the first moon landing
  

Nelson oversaw the work to come up with a solution for protecting the docking port and its critical seal with a used cover during the March 30 spacewalk. The used cover had been removed earlier in the spacewalk from another piece of station equipment, and it wasn't designed to fit in place of the lost blanket.

"People ask me who came up with the idea to use that cover," she said. "Honestly, all the people in the building watched the crew wrestle with that cover (the one eventually used to substitute for the lost shield) earlier in the day, so it occurred to everybody almost simultaneously that 'Hey, we've got a cover that's roughly the right size and we just stuck that in the airlock, so maybe we could use it?'"

"That's true," said John Mularski, the lead EVA, or spacewalk, officer. "Everybody watching the video had the exact same idea, but then somebody had to implement the details of it."

"Using the cover was pretty obvious, but knowing we were going to be able to find a way to securely tether it so that we wouldn't constrain any further ISS operations -- that part was not at all obvious," Nelson said.

As has been the case many times past in both famous and everyday instances, Mission Control faced the challenge of not only fitting a square peg into a round hole, but also doing it on deadline and making it work as if the two were made to go together.

"Anne McClain, our spacewalk communicator astronaut, and Steve Bowen, an experienced spacewalker who was working as our spacecraft communicator for the day, sanity checked how we were going to do that," Nelson said. "Anne did a phenomenal job of reading the concept to the crew. The crew then did a phenomenal job understanding and visualizing what we really wanted.

"The crew was doing it in the dark so that made it more complicated. We had a great camera view of the big picture but had no light. When the sun came up, we used the robotic arm camera to see we were in a good configuration."

"From the moment we realized the shield had escaped to the time we had it fixed was about 2 hours and 20 minutes," Mularski added.

"The unique aspect of this problem was the need for our greater team to work incredibly quickly," Nelson explained. "It was designers, analysts and engineers who work behind the scenes, working with operations engineers, flight controllers, and crew members."

"Everyone on the broader team comes from a different perspective. We all have our different expertise. But the team works together to make sure we're doing the right things, and at the end of the day we need to make sure we're making the situation better and not in some way making it worse," added Daren Welsh, the EVA flight controller who was responsible for working with engineering teams to develop the technical details of the solution and creating a plan the team could execute.

Last Updated: March 31, 2017
Editor: Mark Garcia

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https://www.roscosmos.ru/23378/

КОРРЕКЦИЯ ОРБИТЫ МКС
3 апреля 2017
 

   Программа МКС

    3 апреля 2017 года будет проведена коррекция орбиты Международной космической станции. Для выполнения маневра будут использованы двигатели служебного модуля «Звезда». Коррекция орбиты МКС планируется с целью формирования баллистических условий для посадки 10 апреля 2017 года транспортного пилотируемого корабля (ТПК) «Союз МС-02» и полёта пилотируемого корабля «Союз МС-04».

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NORAD каталогизировала и отслеживает "сбежавший" защитный экран

Jonathan McDowell‏Подлинная учетная запись @planet4589 6 ч. назад

Node 3 Axial Shield 1 cataloged as 42434/1998-067LF, in 398 x 408 km x 51.6 deg orbit after its loss by fumblefingers Kimbrough in EVA-41:-)

1 42434U 98067LF 17090.93220665 +.00059380 +00000-0 +88568-3 0 9990
2 42434 051.6406 063.3799 0007769 001.6217 358.4746 15.54463877000124

[Salo]

https://www.roscosmos.ru/media/files/docs/2017/dokladstrategia.pdf
 
 
 
 

[The Heart of the Moon]

Так что ждем киборгов в космосе, чем раньше, тем быстрее.

[Salo]

https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/04/nasa-is-planning-a-daring-repair-mission-to-save-a-2-billion-particle-detector/

NASA is planning a daring repair mission to save a $2 billion particle detector  
The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer "is changing our understanding of the cosmos."
 Eric Berger - 4/3/2017, 4:40 PM
 
The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer has served during the last six years as a silent witness to the formation of the universe, quietly collecting about 100 billion cosmic rays, particles, and nuclei with energies up to 1 trillion electron volts. "The results show unexpected phenomena--they are not predicted by current cosmic ray models--and this is changing our understanding of the cosmos," principal investigator Sam Ting told Ars.
But as this publication recently reported, there is a problem with the AMS particle detector's cooling system, and NASA is planning an extensive set of repairs. This will likely include a series of "Hubble-esque" spacewalks in 2018 to install a new cooling system for the $2 billion instrument. After the initial story, Ting provided Ars with more information about the scope and timing of the repairs.
According to Ting, there are four redundant pumps in the cooling system that keep AMS' silicon tracker at a constant 10 degrees Celsius, plus or minus three degrees. The system was originally designed to last three years in space, but now after almost six years two of the four pumps have stopped functioning. The experiment is using the third pump, which is operating normally. The fourth pump has shown signs of malfunctioning and is therefore kept in reserve.
Given that the rest of the experiment is continuing to function beyond its design lifetime, both the AMS scientists and NASA would like to see the experiment continue and are preparing to fix a machine that wasn't designed with on-orbit servicing in mind. The repairs will therefore involve several tricky spacewalks, for which NASA has had teams of astronauts, engineers, and flight directors training for more than a year. Ting explained that the repair plans are still not final, but are coming into shape.
"Together with the NASA Johnson Space Center, we have improved the pump design to extend the lifetime of AMS to coincide with the lifetime of the ISS," he said. "Twelve new pumps have been ordered and will be delivered in September of this year. After extensive tests, four of the new pumps are scheduled to be sent to the space station in the later part of 2018 as replacements."
Despite the cost (one person involved in the planning said that under some scenario, the repairs could cost as much as $100 million), researchers say the additional time collecting data is critical to the experiment's success. "By collecting data until at least 2024, we should be able to make a statement on the origin of dark matter and antimatter," Ting said. "So far, all other the instruments are operating normally and we expect to stay operational on the space station for its lifetime."

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РОСКОСМОС‏Подлинная учетная запись @roscosmos 37 мин. назад

Проведена плановая коррекция орбиты Международной космической станции - https://www.roscosmos.ru/23386/ .

https://www.roscosmos.ru/23386/

ЦУП. МКС СКОРРЕКТИРОВАЛА СВОЮ ОРБИТУ

03.04.2017 17:30

 

   В соответствии с программой полёта Международной космической станции (МКС) 3 апреля 2017 года проведена плановая коррекция орбиты МКС.

   
    Для выполнения маневра в 17:20 мск были включены двигатели служебного модуля «Звезда» Международной космической станции. Время работы двигателей составило 35,6 сек. В результате станция получила приращение скорости на 0,55 м/сек.
     

   Коррекция орбиты МКС проведена с целью формирования баллистических условий для посадки 10 апреля 2017 года транспортного пилотируемого корабля (ТПК) «Союз МС-02» и полёта пилотируемого корабля «Союз МС-04», выведение которого на орбиту и стыковка со станцией запланированы на 20 апреля 2017 года.

[zandr]

https://www.roscosmos.ru/23387/

ЦПК. ЗАСЕДАНИЕ МВК И ПРЕСС-КОНФЕРЕНЦИЯ ОСНОВНОГО И ДУБЛИРУЮЩЕГО ЭКИПАЖЕЙ МКС 51/52

В Центре подготовки космонавтов имени Ю.А.Гагарина состоялось заседание Межведомственной комиссии, которая, рассмотрев результаты подготовки основного и дублирующего экипажей длительной экспедиции МКС 51/52 к космическому полету, рекомендовала их для продолжения предстартовой подготовки на космодроме БАЙКОНУР.   

В состав основного экипажа вошли летчик-космонавт, Герой Российской Федерации Фёдор ЮРЧИХИН, для которого этот полет станет пятым в карьере, и астронавт NASA Джек ФИШЕР, который побывает в космосе впервые. Дублерами являются летчик-космонавт, Герой Российской Федерации Сергей РЯЗАНСКИЙ и астронавт NASA Рэндолф БРЕЗНИК.   

В ходе пресс-конференции, которая состоялась после заседания Межведомственной комиссии, основной и дублирующий экипажи ответили представителям средств массовой информации на интересующие их вопросы.   

«Мы будем усердно работать на станции, когда останемся на ней вдвоем, и приложим все усилия, чтобы выполнить и полностью реализовать научную программу», - сказал бортинженер транспортного пилотируемого корабля «Союз МС-04» Джек ФИШЕР, отвечая на вопрос журналистов о работе на борту МКС в сокращенном составе.   

«Если раньше работу на Международной космической станции выполняли трое человек, то сейчас нам придется передвигаться быстрее и делать это вдвоем. Я думаю, что чувство плеча будет нам помогать. Ну и будем перемещаться быстрее», - рассказал Федор ЮРЧИХИН.   

«Мы можем добиться успеха только когда работаем вместе», - поддержал командира корабля «Союз МС-04» Фёдора ЮРЧИХИНА Джек ФИШЕР.   

Талисманом и индикатором невесомости экипажа станет плюшевый щенок: «Он никогда меня не покидал и готовится к своему уже пятому полету. Он стойко переносит все трудности: покоряет со мной горные вершины, летает в космос, погружается под воду», - рассказал российский космонавт Фёдор ЮРЧИХИН.   

Вторым талисманом станет игрушечное цветное Солнце - символ больницы, в которой от рака вылечили дочь астронавта NASA Джека Фишера.   

После завершения пресс-конференции основной и дублирующий экипажи, согласно многолетней традиции, посетили кабинет Юрия ГАГАРИНА, точно воспроизведённый в музее ЦПК. И оставили запись в памятной книге. Затем экипажи посетили Красную площадь, где почтили память Сергей Королёва и захороненных в Кремлёвской стене космонавтов.   

Старт ракеты-носителя «Союз-ФГ» с пилотируемым кораблем «Союз МС-04» запланирован на 20 апреля. Планируемая продолжительность экспедиции составляет 136 суток.

[zandr]

http://tass.ru/kosmos/4149141

Американские мыши не полетят в космос с новой экспедицией на МКС
ЗВЕЗДНЫЙ ГОРОДОК /Московская область/, 3 апреля. / ТАСС/. Мыши не войдут в "экипаж" очередной экспедиции на МКС, сообщил на пресс-конференции в Центре подготовки космонавтов россиянин Федор Юрчихин. На этот раз на МКС полетят два человека вместо привычных трех. Место третьего члена экспедиции займет полезный груз.
"Мышей там точно не будет. Вес контейнера порядка 70 кг. Определены вещи, которые могут компактно улечься в контейнер: влажные салфетки, продукты питания, - рассказал космонавт. - Нужно заполнить контейнер таким образом, чтобы он не мешал нам работать с органами управления аппарата". Также он добавил, что точный перечень грузов станет понятен на первой "примерке" космического корабля 6 апреля.
Юрчихин пояснил, что NASA и Роскосмос ранее вели предварительные переговоры об отправке вместе с пилотируемой экспедицией на корабле "Союз" американских мышей для проведения совместного эксперимента на борту МКС.
Старт ракеты-носителя "Союз-ФГ" с пилотируемым кораблем "Союз МС-04" с очередной экспедицией намечен на 20 апреля на 10:13 мск. В тот же день ориентировочно в 16:22 мск ожидается стыковка с модулем "Поиск" российского сегмента станции. Планируемая продолжительность экспедиции составляет 136 суток.

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NASA Goddard‏Подлинная учетная запись @NASAGoddard 26 мин назад

NASA's Robotic Refueling Mission departs International Space Station: https://go.nasa.gov/2o2QDmO  via @NASA_SatServ

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2017/nasa-robotic-refueling-mission-departs-station

April 3, 2017
 
 NASA Robotic Refueling Mission Departs Station
 
The International Space Station serves as an orbiting test and demonstration laboratory for scientific experiments to be performed inside and outside the space station. The experiments are inherently transient with typical life cycles of about one to five years. Once their test objectives are accomplished, they are removed to make way for new experiments.

On Feb. 19, a NASA experiment -- a test module called Raven -- was successfully launched on SpaceX-10/Dragon and installed on the exterior of the station, where it will test autopilot technologies for spacecraft. As the Raven payload took its perch on the station, another Satellite Servicing Projects Division (SSPD) creation -- the Robotic Refueling Mission (RRM) payload, departed. Aboard the Dragon trunk in which Raven arrived, RRM made its way back to Earth on March 19, where it reentered the atmosphere. Though both payloads were and are critical to the advancement of satellite servicing, after

 Скрытый текст:

RRM served its purpose and accomplished its objectives, it was time for RRM to leave the station and make way for new experiments.
RRM has established a firm legacy in demonstrating satellite servicing capabilities and that on-orbit servicing is technologically ready for implementation. RRM launched in July 2011 aboard the final space shuttle flight and was the last payload to be removed from the shuttle cargo bay by an astronaut. It was subsequently mounted outside onto a Express Logistics Carrier built at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. RRM demonstrated and tested the tools, technologies and techniques needed to robotically refuel and repair satellites in space that were not designed to be serviced.
 

 Astronaut Mike Fossum's spacewalk for the Robotics Refueling Mission Payload on July 12, 2011.
Credits: NASA
 
The Robotic Refueling Mission was an essential bridge between the manned servicing carried out in the Hubble Servicing Missions and robotic servicing that will be demonstrated in the upcoming Restore-L mission," said Ben Reed, deputy division director for SSPD. "Our team worked very hard to develop the suite of RRM tools and experiments and are extremely pleased to see what they accomplished. We are eager to apply the lessons learned from RRM to the Restore-L mission as well as future servicing efforts."

The year was 2010 when planning for RRM began. The fourth Hubble Space Telescope servicing mission had just ended. The space shuttle was in the twilight of its career, scheduled for retirement in 2011. The hundreds of engineers at Goddard who had supported servicing Hubble were not sure what a future without shuttle would hold. A team, led by the "father of servicing" Frank Cepollina, began brainstorming how to continue servicing without shuttle. With no time to waste, Cepollina's team determined that the future of servicing would rely on robotics and the space station robotic arm was the best mechanism to test and develop robotic servicing techniques. Eighteen months later -- extremely quick for a project of this complexity -- RRM was in the cargo bay of space shuttle Atlantis, ready to launch and demonstrate to the world that robotic servicing had come of age.  

"The space station is on-orbit and already has a robot," said Frank Cepollina, the previous associate director of the SSPD. "Space station was tailor-made for RRM and worked beautifully as a testbed for servicing."

The washing machine-sized RRM payload housed four unique tools that were used by the station's twin-armed Canadian "Dextre" robot to accomplish the precise, complex tasks needed to refuel a satellite. These tasks included cutting and peeling back thermal blankets, unscrewing multiple caps, accessing valves and transferring a simulated satellite fuel. In January 2013, with this fluid transfer in space, RRM confirmed that current-day robotic technology could refuel a triple-sealed satellite fuel valve, transferring 1.7 liters of ethanol.
 
 
A look back at the highlights from Phase 1 of the Robotic Refueling Mission (RRM). RRM consisted of the RRM "module" -- a box covered with activity boards -- and four stowed RRM Tools. The International Space Station's twin-armed Canadian "Dextre" robot acted as a skilled spacecraft refueling and servicing technician. During operations, controllers on the ground remotely commanded Dextre to reach into the RRM module and pick up RRM tools. Dextre then went to work on RRM's components and activity boards, demonstrating such servicing tasks such as cutting wires, unscrewing caps, turning valves, transferring fluid, inspection and intermediary steps leading up to coolant replenishment.
Credits: NASA
 
In separate launches in 2013 and 2014, two new task boards and a tool were sent to the space station as part of RRM "Phase 2." The task boards further demonstrated activities vital to servicing free-flying satellites. Similarly, the new tool, the Visual Inspection Poseable Invertebrate Robot, or VIPIR, exhibited state-of-the-art near and midrange inspection using an articulable, "snake-like" borescope tool.

Through these two phases and multiple days of operations, the RRM team has bonded and consistently performed under pressure. Together they created a payload and completed a mission critical to the future of satellite servicing. Currently, they are developing and working to execute a third phase of RRM, which will continue to advance the technology necessary for robotic refueling. RRM 3 will focus specifically on servicing cryogenic fluid and xenon gas interfaces which will support future scientific missions as humans extend their exploration further into our solar system.

"Space station was a wonderful facility to test our technologies, and we know that RRM's departure will make room for another great experiment," said Jill McGuire, RRM project manager. "We are proud of what we accomplished with RRM, and are excited to contribute to the next stages of enabling robotic satellite servicing."

For more information on RRM, visit: https://sspd.gsfc.nasa.gov/robotic_refueling_mission.html

By Peter Sooy and Vanessa Lloyd
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

 
Last Updated: April 3, 2017
Editor: Rob Garner

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Orbital ATK‏Подлинная учетная запись @OrbitalATK 16 мин. назад

Our #OA7 mission carrying the S.S. John Glenn #Cygnus spacecraft is now scheduled for April 18

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https://blogs.nasa.gov/orbital/2017/04/03/orbital-atk-crs-7-mission-targeted-for-april-18-launch/

Orbital ATK CRS-7 Mission Targeted for April 18 Launch       
Posted on April 3, 2017 at 5:41 pm by Linda Herridge.


The payload fairing containing the Orbital ATK Cygnus pressurized cargo module is mated to the Centaur upper stage, or second stage, of the United Launch Alliance rocket March 17 in the Vertical Integration Facility at Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. Photo credit: United Launch Alliance

 
NASA, Orbital ATK and United Launch Alliance (ULA) are now targeting April 18 for the launch of Orbital ATK's seventh contracted commercial resupply services mission to the International Space Station. ULA has developed a plan to resolve an earlier booster hydraulic issue, and is moving forward with launch vehicle processing. Both the Atlas V rocket and Cygnus spacecraft remain secure. Several tons of cargo including crew supplies and science experiments packed aboard Cygnus remain in good shape.
                
 This entry was posted in Cygnus, Orbital ATK on April 3, 2017 by Linda Herridge.

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https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/2017/04/04/station-prepares-for-april-crew-swap/?linkId=36182341

Station Prepares for April Crew Swap
Posted on April 4, 2017 at 12:15 pm by Mark Garcia.

 Скрытый текст:

Expedition 51 crew members (from left) Fyodor Yurchikhin and Jack Fischer pose for a portrait in front of the Soyuz spacecraft mockup in Star City, Russia. Credit: NASA/Rob Navias

Three Expedition 50 crew members are getting ready to end their stay aboard the International Space Station and return to Earth April 10. Two Expedition 51 crew members, who will replace them, are in Russia finalizing their mission preparations before they launch April 20.

Commander Shane Kimbrough and Flight Engineers Sergey Ryzhikov and Andrey Borisenko have been living in space since October 19. The trio will enter the Soyuz MS-02 spacecraft on Monday and undock from the Poisk module at 4 a.m. EDT. They will land in Kazakhstan at 7:20 a.m. ending their mission after 173 days in space. The crew departure and Soyuz landing will be televised live on NASA TV.

NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson will take over command of the station the day before Kimbrough and his crewmates leave. Staying behind with Whitson will be European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet and cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy of Roscosmos. This will be Whitson's second stint as commander of the orbital laboratory having last led the Expedition 16 crew in 2008.

Back in Russia, two Expedition 51 crewmates, Jack Fischer of NASA and Fyodor Yurchikhin of Roscosmos, have completed their final qualification exams. They will fly to Kazakhstan on Wednesday for ceremonial duties, check out their Soyuz MS-04 rocket and wrap up mission training before launching from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.

 This entry was posted in Expedition 50, Expedition 51 and tagged European Space Agency, Expedition 50, International Space Station, NASA, Roscosmos, Soyuz on April 4, 2017 by Mark Garcia.

[tnt22]

https://arstechnica.com/science/2017/04/nasa-is-planning-a-daring-repair-mission-to-save-a-2-billion-particle-detector/

NASA is planning a daring repair mission to save a $2 billion particle detector
The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer "is changing our understanding of the cosmos."
 Eric Berger - 4/3/2017, 4:40 PM

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The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer has served during the last six years as a silent witness to the formation of the universe, quietly collecting about 100 billion cosmic rays, particles, and nuclei with energies up to 1 trillion electron volts. "The results show unexpected phenomena--they are not predicted by current cosmic ray models--and this is changing our understanding of the cosmos," principal investigator Sam Ting told Ars.

But as this publication recently reported, there is a problem with the AMS particle detector's cooling system, and NASA is planning an extensive set of repairs. This will likely include a series of "Hubble-esque" spacewalks in 2018 to install a new cooling system for the $2 billion instrument. After the initial story, Ting provided Ars with more information about the scope and timing of the repairs.

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According to Ting, there are four redundant pumps in the cooling system that keep AMS' silicon tracker at a constant 10 degrees Celsius, plus or minus three degrees. The system was originally designed to last three years in space, but now after almost six years two of the four pumps have stopped functioning. The experiment is using the third pump, which is operating normally. The fourth pump has shown signs of malfunctioning and is therefore kept in reserve.
 
Given that the rest of the experiment is continuing to function beyond its design lifetime, both the AMS scientists and NASA would like to see the experiment continue and are preparing to fix a machine that wasn't designed with on-orbit servicing in mind. The repairs will therefore involve several tricky spacewalks, for which NASA has had teams of astronauts, engineers, and flight directors training for more than a year. Ting explained that the repair plans are still not final, but are coming into shape.

"Together with the NASA Johnson Space Center, we have improved the pump design to extend the lifetime of AMS to coincide with the lifetime of the ISS," he said. "Twelve new pumps have been ordered and will be delivered in September of this year. After extensive tests, four of the new pumps are scheduled to be sent to the space station in the later part of 2018 as replacements."

Despite the cost (one person involved in the planning said that under some scenario, the repairs could cost as much as $100 million), researchers say the additional time collecting data is critical to the experiment's success. "By collecting data until at least 2024, we should be able to make a statement on the origin of dark matter and antimatter," Ting said. "So far, all other the instruments are operating normally and we expect to stay operational on the space station for its lifetime."

Further ReadingThe Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer has a problem with its cooling system

Listing image by NASA
 

[Salo]

 Jeff Foust‏ @jeff_foust  10 мин.10 минут назад
Komarov: we are ready to discuss an extension of ISS beyond 2024, but no commitment yet. #33SS
 
   Jeff Foust‏ @jeff_foust  14 мин.14 минут назад  
Komarov, on another 1-yr mission: will discuss this in the future. NASA side more optimistic about such missions; we're more skeptical #33SS
 
   Jeff Foust‏ @jeff_foust  28 мин.28 минут назад  
Komarov: in discussions with ESA on Moon Village, but also with NASA on a role on cislunar gateway station. #33SS
 
   Jeff Foust‏ @jeff_foust  36 мин.36 минут назад  
Komarov: MLM won't be ready for launch in December as planned, but do expect it to launch in first half of 2018. #33SS
 
   Jeff Foust‏ @jeff_foust  36 мин.36 минут назад  
Roscosmos head Igor Komarov, in a press conference at #33SS, says situation with MLM module for ISS "more complicated than expected."

[tnt22]

https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/fast_neutron-spectrometer

April 4, 2017

NASA's New Spectrometer to Help Future Crews Cope with Cosmic Radiation

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 The team of scientists and engineers that designed and built the Fast Neutron Spectrometer at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, gather around their device before it is shipped to the processing facility in Houston for launch.
Credits: NASA/Fred Deaton
 

 This image shows the small glass scintillator fibers that can help make this a more effective neutron detector. When used in space, it will record the exposure of space travelers to incoming cosmic radiation.
Credits: NASA
 

 Seen center of the image, the Fast Neutron Spectrometer will help accurately detect neutrons in space. The neutrons are potentially harmful to humans.
Credits: NASA

One of the main health concerns of living and working in space is the long-term exposure to high levels of radiation. NASA scientists have developed a new device to monitor radiation exposure to neutrons and are testing it on the International Space Station.

Launched on the fifth Orbital ATK resupply mission to the station, the Fast Neutron Spectrometer is designed to detect and measure the energy of neutrons, which are known to be specifically harmful to humans. Understanding neutron radiation will help keep crews safe when NASA sends humans to Mars.

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"There are multiple types of radiation in space," said Mark Christl, team lead for the study at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. "While there are already advanced instruments to detect gamma rays produced by supernovas or black holes, X-rays and other charged particles, we needed a way to detect and measure neutron radiation to quantify the impact on human biology. Neutron detection techniques have not seen the same leap in technology advancement."

Neutron radiation is created when the high-energy particles from our sun and outside our solar system interact with other particles or matter, such as a spacecraft or a planetary surface. But these neutrons are only viable for approximately 13 minutes before they decay into charged particles.

"If they're more than 13 minutes away from you, it's not really a problem," Christl said. "If you're in a capsule or on a planet's surface with little or no magnetic field or atmosphere, you can potentially be covered in a neutron field."

The Fast Neutron Spectrometer is mainly a passive tool, waiting for neutrons to strike it. It is comprised of an aluminum housing with a plastic scintillator that slows down the neutron when it hits the device, and glass scintillator fibers that absorb the neutrons and re-emit the energy in the form of light. This advanced version provides two distinct signals for measurement - the first to measure its energy and the second to confirm a neutron was detected rather than another kind of particle. The standard, all-plastic devices can't clearly determine the differences between these signals.

"Detectors for other radiation types are already used in many industries," said Christl. "They're used in particle accelerators for scientific research, the oil industry or medical field to measure radiation exposure. Scientists have been working on remarkable advancements in these detectors, but neutron radiation detectors have not received that kind of attention. At NASA, we saw this as an opportunity to address a problem our astronauts will have as they go on longer journeys in our solar system."

NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough installed the device on the space station on Dec. 2, 2016. Since then, it has been moved to different locations around the interior of the station and it currently resides in the Node 1 module. The Fast Neutron Spectrometer will monitor for neutrons for six months, sending data for any neutron strikes to a laptop computer on the station. That data will be downloaded daily for processing and analysis by the team at Marshall.

The device was tested and calibrated at particle accelerators and by using other radioactive sources on Earth. If the technique is verified, Christl hopes it can be used on future missions to determine when - and how much - the neutrons are contributing to the radiation absorbed by a crew of space travelers. Even though the space station's radiation environment is not considered "deep space," the spectrometer is a new capability ready for validation in a space environment.

The project is a collaborative effort within the agency. A team at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, is looking into the actions crew members may take if they receive warning of an oncoming wave of radiation from a solar eruption, running simulations and coming up with ways to rearrange the contents of a spacecraft to increase the shielding. Another team at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston is advancing the detection of charged particles.

"There is a serious need to monitor the radiation dose the crew receives," Christl said. "We use different techniques for charged particles and neutrons and we'll need to know the dose from both to know how much radiation the astronauts are receiving. These radiation detectors may force missions to change in mid-stream, but it will help keep our astronauts safe."

Bill Hubscher
NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center
 
Last Updated: April 4, 2017
Editor: Kristine Rainey