Archivo de la etiqueta: iss

Crew Preps for Spacewalks to Analyze Microbes, Replace Hardware

Spacewalk preparations and exercise gear maintenance were the primary tasks for the Expedition 70 crew aboard the International Space Station on Tuesday. Hearing tests and a variety of science and hardware tasks rounded out the day’s plan for the orbital crewmates.

Three astronauts are stepping up preparations for a pair of spacewalks planned this month for science and maintenance. Both spacewalks, planned for Oct. 12 and 20, will be broadcast live on NASA TV, on the agency’s app, and website.

The first spacewalk will see ESA (European Space Agency) Commander Andreas Mogensen and NASA Flight Engineer Loral O’Hara swabbing external station surfaces for microbes. They will carefully collect microbe samples from specific areas on the station using specialized tools. The samples will later be analyzed to determine the types of microbes that may survive in the vacuum of space. This will be the first spacewalk for both astronauts.

The second spacewalk will be with O’Hara going out once again, but this time with NASA Flight Engineer Jasmin Moghbeli who is going on her first spacewalk. The duo will remove faulty radio communications gear and install new solar array hardware during the six-and-half-hour excursion.

Moghbeli tried on her spacesuit on Tuesday afternoon and tested its ability to communicate with mission controllers on the ground. JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa and Mogensen both assisted Moghbeli in the Quest airlock as she ensured her spacesuit was in operable condition.

Furukawa began his day with O’Hara inside the Destiny laboratory module replacing the orbital lab’s exercise cycle. The duo spent the morning uninstalling the workout hardware, updating its components, installing the new cycle, then activating the new aerobic and cardiovascular gear.

At the end of the day, O’Hara took turns with Roscosmos Flight Engineers Nikolai Chub and Oleg Kononenko to conduct a hearing test. Chub earlier installed a variety of cameras to monitor Earth’s upper atmosphere as well as accurately predict the station’s location in space. Kononenko and cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov would spend most of their day servicing a variety of Roscosmos hardware. The pair worked throughout the orbital lab working on electronics, communications, and life support gear.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on X, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

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Mark Garcia

October Begins with Human Research and Space Physics

The Expedition 70 crew is beginning its first full week together following last week’s departure of the station’s longest-serving crew at 371 days. The seven International Space Station residents kicked off Monday with human research and space physics, as well as spacesuit work and life support maintenance.

NASA Flight Engineer Jasmin Moghbeli started her day setting up the Echo ultrasound system in the Columbus laboratory module for the Vascular Aging study. She scanned her neck, leg, and heart with support from ground personnel to help doctors understand accelerated aging-like symptoms that occur in a crew member’s arteries while living in space. Moghbeli also worked on station hardware as she set up a lighting system that will be placed outside the Kibo laboratory module in the vacuum of space.

Eye checks were also on the schedule as NASA Flight Engineer Loral O’Hara examined the eyes of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa using standard medical imaging gear. Doctors are studying how weightlessness affects the retina, the shape of the eye, vision, and other properties to ensure good optical health in space.

O’Hara also joined Commander Andreas Mogensen of ESA (European Space Agency) servicing spacesuits in the Quest airlock. The duo took turns cleaning cooling loops inside the suits before O’Hara finalized the work and recharged suit water tanks and refilled cooling and ventilation garments. Furukawa studied procedures that he will use soon to help astronauts suit up in support of upcoming spacewalks.

Veteran cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko, on his fifth space station mission, set up a video camera for a plasma physics experiment in the Columbus lab. The space physics study observes low temperature gaseous mixtures composed of ionized gas, neutral gas, and micron-sized particles, or plasma crystals, and may improve microgravity research methods and spacecraft designs.

Roscosmos cosmonaut Konstantin Borisov began his morning strapping sensors to himself for a 24-hour session measuring his cardiac activity and blood pressure. Afterward, he photographed battery cables in the Nauka science module then moved on to orbital plumbing duties. Cosmonaut Nikolai Chub connected cables to an optical telescope with a radio detector, checked battery temperatures and connections in Zvezda service module, and finally cleaned the Rassvet module’s ventilation system.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on X, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

Get weekly video highlights at: https://roundupreads.jsc.nasa.gov/videoupdate/

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Mark Garcia

Station Reboost, Spacesuit Work, Maintenance Close Outs for Crew Friday

The Expedition 70 crew members kept busy Friday as they look ahead to an off-duty weekend. The International Space Station is back to seven residents after one NASA astronaut and two Roscosmos cosmonauts departed early Wednesday morning. The seven members spent time today preparing spacesuits for upcoming spacewalks and closing out maintenance procedures they began earlier this week.

Commander Andreas Mogensen of ESA (European Space Agency) and Flight Engineer Loral O’Hara of NASA both worked on spacesuit preparations ahead of a round of spacewalks that will take place in October. Working separately, O’Hara recharged spacesuit water tanks while Mogensen scrubbed water from cooling loops inside the suits.

Flight Engineer Jasmin Moghbeli of NASA spent the majority of this week removing and replacing components of the Cold Atom Lab (CAL), which chills clouds of atoms to temps near absolute zero, allowing crew members to study their fundamental behavior, a task that is much more difficult to probe at higher temps. Today, she wrapped up maintenance work on CAL, completing the installation of the science module and re-mating power and data connections.

After lunch, Moghbeli worked with Flight Engineer Satoshi Furukawa of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) in the Kibo Laboratory. The duo removed sample carriers on MISSE, which analyzes how exposure to space affects the performance and durability of materials and components such as paints, fabrics, seals, and solar cell technologies. The samples were then stowed for future analysis on Earth. Afterward, Furukawa removed and replaced the filter on the station’s Potable Water Dispenser, a system that provides water for crew consumption and food preparation.

Following yesterday’s off-duty day, the three Roscosmos Flight Engineers were back to orbital tasks today. Konstantin Borisov worked in the Nauka module conducting maintenance, while Nikolai Chub ran the 3D printer in the Zvezda module. He then moved on to work in Nauka with Oleg Kononenko to install and connect cables to a water processing system. Kononenko also spent part of the day preparing for an upcoming experiment that studies transport properties of complex plasmas.

Ahead of the weekend, the space station is orbiting slightly higher after the 85P fired its engines for 6 minutes and 22 seconds Friday morning. The orbital reboost sets up the correct phasing for the ISS Progress 86 resupply mission later this year.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on X, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

Get weekly video highlights at: https://roundupreads.jsc.nasa.gov/videoupdate/

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Abby Graf

Expedition 70 Underway; Crew Performs Maintenance

Expedition 70 is well underway aboard the International Space Station after yesterday’s departure of three long-serving station residents, including NASA astronaut Frank Rubio, who returned to Houston this morning. The seven crew members who are still living and working in microgravity completed an array of maintenance activities today.

NASA Flight Engineer Jasmin Moghbeli, who arrived to the station a month ago, spent her morning in the Columbus Laboratory Module performing maintenance and testing the connectivity functions of power outlets. After lunch, she switched gears, working with the Cold Atom Lab. An ongoing activity for the first-time station resident this week, Moghbeli inspected cables and ports to gear up for tomorrow’s completion of replacing components of the payload. In the evening, she started training for upcoming spacewalks, reviewing spacesuit operations and procedures.

NASA Flight Engineer Loral O’Hara, who arrived to the station two weeks ago, started her day with ISAFE eye exams, as part of a new suite of experiments, called CIPHER. Eye exams of this kind examine changes in an astronaut’s eyes and brain due to fluid shifts in microgravity. CIPHER is an all-encompassing, full-body approach that investigates how multiple systems of the body react to spaceflight before, during and after a mission. O’Hara is the first of up to 30 astronauts to participate.

Following eye exams, O’Hara trained for spacewalk emergencies in the unlikely event they would occur using SAFER, the Simplified Aid for EVA Rescue. Before bed, she reconfigured the Microgravity Science Glovebox.

Expedition 70 Commander Andreas Mogensen of ESA (European Space Agency) spent his day completing some training with Astrobee, the stations free-flying robots that help astronauts conduct daily duties. Afterward, he repaired the docking station the cube-shaped robots use for recharging.

Flight Engineer Satoshi Furukawa of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) worked in the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, or BEAM, most of the day. In the station’s first expandable habitat, Furukawa stowed hardware and reconfigured sensors.

The three Roscosmos Flight Engineers—Konstantin Borisov, Oleg Kononenko, and Nikolai Chub—had a light-duty day, completing their required two hours of exercise that helps combat the effects of bone and muscle loss in microgravity.

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Abigail Grace Graf

NASA Astronaut Frank Rubio and Crewmates Land in Kazakhstan

NASA astronaut Frank Rubio ended his record-breaking time in space with a parachute-assisted landing in the Soyuz MS-23 spacecraft on the steppe of Kazakhstan, southeast of the remote town of Dzhezkazgan, at 7:17 a.m. EDT (5:17 p.m. Kazakhstan time) Wednesday, Sept. 27. Rubio, along with Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Prokopyev and Dmitri Petelin, began the journey back to Earth at 3:54 a.m. when the Soyuz undocked from the International Space Station.

Rubio arrived at the International Space Station on Sept. 21, 2022, spending 371 days in low Earth orbit, and breaking the previous American record held by NASA astronaut Mark Vande Hei by 16 days.

During his 371 days aboard the station, Rubio experienced:

• Approximately 5,936 orbits of Earth
• Approximately 157,412,306 statute miles traveled (equivalent of approximately 328 round trips to the Moon and back)
• Fifteen spacecraft visiting the International Space Station, including four Roscosmos Progress cargo ships, two Northrop Grumman Cygnus cargo spacecraft, two Roscosmos Soyuz, four crewed SpaceX Dragons, and three uncrewed SpaceX Dragons.

Expedition 70 now is underway on the space station with NASA astronauts Loral O’Hara and Jasmin Moghbeli, ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut and new station commander Andreas Mogensen, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Satoshi Furukawa and Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko, Nikolai Chub, and Konstantin Borisov.

Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog, @space_station and @ISS_Research on X, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.

Get weekly video highlights at: https://roundupreads.jsc.nasa.gov/videoupdate/

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Abby Graf