NASA has named three students the winners of the Artemis Moon Pod Essay Contest for their creative visions of a pioneering journey to the Moon. Nearly
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The Sub-Mesoscale Ocean Dynamics Experiment (S-MODE) mission team hopes to learn more about small-scale movements of ocean water such as eddies.
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Spacewalk preparations and biomedical research filled the Expedition 65 schedule on Tuesday. The International Space Station also continues to host a variety of maintenance on science and plumbing systems.
ESA Flight Engineer Thomas Pesquet checked out U.S. spacesuit components ahead of a pair of spacewalks to install new solar arrays on the Port-6 truss structure planned for June. Those solar arrays, the first two of six targeted for installation, will be launched to the station aboard the next SpaceX Dragon mission on June 3.
Commander Akihiko Hoshide worked throughout the day collecting his biological samples and stowing them in science freezers for a pair of human research studies. The Phospho-Aging study looks at rapid bone and muscle loss while the Vascular Aging experiment observes aging-like changes in arteries that take place in microgravity.
Another human research study, the Standard Measures investigation that NASA Flight Engineer Megan McArthur contributed to today, observes and documents the changes to the human body during a long-term spaceflight. McArthur also installed and configured hardware inside the Combustion Integrated Rack to support safe research into fuels and flames on the space station.
In the Tranquility module, NASA Flight Engineer Shane Kimbrough spent the day on orbital plumbing duties. He was assisted throughout Tuesday by Pesquet and NASA Flight Engineer Mark Vande Hei as they serviced the Water Processing Assembly (WPA) to repair a possible leak.
Cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Pyotr Dubrov reviewed procedures for an upcoming spacewalk planned for June 2 for external maintenance and science experiment installations. The duo also partnered up for cardiac research before moving on to communications and systems maintenance in the orbiting lab’s Russian segment.
Maintenance for the WPA in the Tranquility module of the station occurred today as crew members removed the affected parts and configured ducting to perform a dryout of the lines. Maintenance will continue tomorrow with the installation of the replacement units and additional preventative maintenance to restore the hardware to its full functionality.
The WPA was powered off last week due to a suspected leak. This hardware is used to recycle water from multiple sources into clean, drinkable water for crew members aboard the International Space Station.
The crew is in no danger and has multiple spare parts on board to complete the repair process. There is enough water stored on the space station to provide the crew with the necessary consumables for several months if required.
The space station serves a vital role in testing and maturing life support technologies that will be required for future missions to the Moon and Mars. Repairs provide invaluable data to engineers refining these systems for use in future spacecraft and missions.
Mark Garcia
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As an atmospheric scientist, Jie Gong explores ice clouds and other frozen precipitation like snow.
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The seven-member Expedition 65 crew kicked off the workweek working on Japanese science gear, a U.S. immune system study, and spacewalk preparations.
Flight Engineers Mark Vande Hei and Thomas Pesquet joined station Commander Akihiko Hoshide for science maintenance in the Kibo laboratory module on Monday morning. The trio teamed up and installed an experiment platform in Kibo’s airlock, where it will soon be placed outside in the harsh environment of space.
Vande Hei then moved on and serviced donor cell samples for the Celestial Immunity study taking place inside the Kibo lab’s Life Sciences Glovebox (LSG). The experiment looks at cells launched to space and compares them to cell samples harvested on Earth to document the differences in weightlessness. Results could impact the development of new vaccines and drugs to treat diseases on Earth and advance the commercialization of space.
Pesquet later took photographs of U.S. spacesuit gloves for inspection ahead of two spacewalks planned for June. During those spacewalks, new solar arrays will be installed on the station’s Port 6 truss structure to augment the station’s power system. The first two of six new solar arrays will be delivered on the next SpaceX cargo mission planned for launch on June 3 from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.
Hoshide checked power cables on the Confocal Space Microscope that provides fluorescence imagery of biological samples. Then he took turns with NASA Flight Engineer Shane Kimbrough, participating in a computerized cognitive assessment. Next, Kimbrough worked the rest of Monday in the Tranquility module’s Water Processing Assembly to repair a possible leak.
NASA Flight Engineer Megan McArthur opened up BEAM, or the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, and organized cargo during the morning. She then powered down and stowed the LSG after Vande Hei concluded Monday’s immunity research.
Cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Pyotr Dubrov spent the morning organizing Russian spacewalk tools. Afterward, the duo spent the rest of the day working on communications gear and ventilation systems.
Mark Garcia
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