Archivo del Autor: yoda

New Crew, New Science Experiments Launching Next Weekend

The International Space Station is gearing up for a pair of spaceships launching next weekend to deliver a new crew and more science and supplies. The Expedition 60 crew is also testing a new robotic assistant and learning how long-term weightlessness impacts crew performance.

Three people are at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan counting down to their historic July 20 launch to the orbiting lab aboard the Soyuz MS-13 crew ship. Astronauts Drew Morgan and Luca Parmitano will flank cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov in the Soyuz spaceship as he commands their six-and-a-half hour ride to their new home in space. The trio’s launch comes 50 years to the day when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped foot on the Moon for the first time.

The following day on July 21, SpaceX will launch its Dragon space freighter from Florida on a day-and-a-half flight to the space station. Dragon is delivering supplies and a variety of new research gear to explore space-mining techniques, neurodegenerative disease treatments, space botany and microbial evolution.

NASA Flight Engineers Nick Hague and Christina Koch are training to capture Dragon with the Canadarm2 robotic arm when it arrives Tuesday, July 23. Hague will command Canadarm2 to reach out and grapple Dragon when the resupply ship reaches a point about 10 meters from the station. Koch will back up Hague and monitor Dragon’s approach and rendezvous from inside the cupola.

Koch set up the Astrobee free-flying robotic helper Friday afternoon and monitored its flight test in the Kibo laboratory module. Engineers are testing and calibrating the cube-shaped Astrobee’s mobility for its potential to perform routine lab monitoring and station tasks.

Hague started the day helping scientists understand how microgravity affects blood flow to the brain for the Cerebral Autoregulation biomedical study. After completing that study, he closed out the Two-Phase Flow heat transfer experiment that may advance the design of cooling systems for Earth and space applications.

Station Commander Alexey Ovchinin is helping his home space agency, Roscosmos, train future cosmonauts today. He performed tasks to help scientists understand how microgravity affects a crewmember’s ability to pilot a spacecraft or remotely control a robotic vehicle on a planetary surface.

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Mark Garcia

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Crew Sequences DNA, Researches Blood Pressure and Tests Time Perception Today

The International Space Station is a unique orbiting laboratory that helps NASA and its partners explore what happens to humans living off the Earth. The Expedition 60 crew is contributing to the microgravity research everyday learning what it takes to live and work successfully in space.

NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Nick Hague began Thursday morning investigating how space radiation-damaged DNA repairs itself. The Genes in Space-6 study sequences DNA samples inside the Biomolecule Sequencer and observes the mutation and molecular repair mechanisms.

Koch then measured her blood pressure to help doctors understand and treat lightheadedness symptoms some astronauts have experienced upon returning to Earth. During the afternoon, she swapped fuel bottles that support flame, fuel and soot experiments taking place inside the Combustion Integrated Rack.

Hague set up a virtual reality camera inside Europe’s Columbus laboratory module to record a cinematic, immersive experience of his science activities in the afternoon. He recorded himself exploring the hypothesis that astronauts working in space perceive time differently affecting mission performance.

Commander Alexey Ovchinin spent all day ensuring the upkeep of the Russian segment of the space station. The veteran cosmonaut swapped out life support system components and tested communications and electronics gear.

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Mark Garcia

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