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Station Gears Up for Spacewalk During Advanced Science Work

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Station Gears Up for Spacewalk During Advanced Science Work

Expedition 56 Flight Engineer Ricky Arnold
Expedition 56 Flight Engineer Ricky Arnold inspects U.S. spacesuits and tethers in the Quest airlock ahead of a pair of U.S. spacewalks currently planned for September.

Two Expedition 56 cosmonauts packed a Russian resupply ship today before preparing for Wednesday’s spacewalk. The other four International Space Station crew members worked on a variety of space science experiments and lab maintenance duties.

Cosmonauts Oleg Artemyev and Sergey Prokopyev are loading a Progress 69 (69P) cargo craft with trash ahead of its departure next week. The 69P delivered over three tons of food, fuel and supplies in February. The spacecraft will undock on Aug. 22 for a fiery disposal over the Pacific Ocean one week later after a series of engineering tests.

The cosmonauts then turned their attention to Wednesday’s spacewalk when they will hand-deploy four tiny satellites, install antennas and cables and collect exposed science experiments. They continued setting up their spacewalking gear inside the Pirs airlock today. They will exit Pirs Wednesday at 11:58 a.m. EDT for about six hours of work outside the station’s Russian segment inside their Orlan spacesuits. NASA TV’s live coverage of the spacewalk begins at 11:15 a.m.

Commander Drew Feustel and Flight Engineer Serena Auñón-Chancellor performed the majority of the science work today onboard the orbital complex. Feustel explored how proteins crystallize and grow in microgravity to help scientists develop safer, more advanced drug therapies on Earth. Auñón-Chancellor started her day with a blood draw before researching radio spectrum usage in space which may benefit satellite communications. Finally, she studied the sedimentation of quartz and clay particles possibly assisting future planetary exploration missions and the petroleum industry on Earth.

Flight Engineer Ricky Arnold spent some time inspecting U.S. spacesuit lights and replacing fan filters before assisting Feustel with the protein crystal growth experiment. Alexander Gerst of ESA checked out U.S. spacesuit batteries then moved on to verifying the functionality of fire extinguishers and breathing masks.

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Mark Garcia

ISS

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JAXA to launch FM voice transponder satellite Diwata-2

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JAXA to launch FM voice transponder satellite Diwata-2

Diwata-2 satellite

Diwata-2 satellite

The Philippine Diwata-2 satellite carrying an amateur radio FM transponder and APRS digipeater is expected to launch in October.

The Business Mirror reports:

The 50-kilogram satellite shall soon be sent into orbit by the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) through its partner, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (Jaxa).

It should be recalled that the DOST had the Philippines’s first microsatellite—the maiden Diwata-1 that was designed, developed and assembled in Japan by nine pioneering Filipino engineers and scientists along with their “sensei” (instructors) from the Tohoku University (TU) and Hokkaido University (HU).

Diwata-1 was launched into the International Space Station onboard the Orbital ATK’s Cygnus spacecraft on March 23, 2016. It was deployed from the ISS into her orbit on April 27 by the Japanese Experimental Module (JEM)—”Kibo” or Hope—around 400 km above Earth’s surface.

Now, two years and four months later, the government is about to unveil the second iteration of Diwata-1—named Diwata-2 targeted for launching onboard Jaxa’s H-IIA rocket from Tanegashima Island in Japan.

Ariston Gonzalez, a researcher/lead research and development engineer for PHL-Microsat at DOST-Asti, is quoted in the article as saying:

“All one has to do is tune in [a ham radio] to the frequency of Diwata-2 to send voice messages while the other party stands by to receive the voice message.”

“target use for ham radio [of Diwata-2] is for emergency situations wherein all commercial communications are down.”

“What Diwata-2 does is to serve as a relay or connecting point for two persons communicating with each other,” he pointed out.”

“One can also store messages on Diwata-2 that can be broadcasted repeatedly across and over the Philippines, such as prerecorded emergency messages in times of disasters, calamities and other kinds of emergency.”

The IARU has coordinated these frequencies for Diwata-2:
– 145.900 MHz downlink
– 437.500 MHz uplink

Read the full Business Mirror story at
https://businessmirror.com.ph/diwata-2-microsatellite-nears-completion-handover-to-jaxa/

Diwata-2 information
http://phl-microsat.upd.edu.ph/diwata2
https://www.facebook.com/PHLMicrosat

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m5aka

AMSAT-UK

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NASA, ULA Launch Parker Solar Probe on Historic Journey to Touch Sun

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NASA, ULA Launch Parker Solar Probe on Historic Journey to Touch Sun

Hours before the rise of the very star it will study, NASA’s Parker Solar Probe launched from Florida Sunday to begin its journey to the Sun, where it will undertake a landmark mission. The spacecraft will transmit its first science observations in December, beginning a revolution in our understanding of the star that makes life on Earth possible.

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NASA Breaking News

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