1. Space Station

Category Archives: Space Station

Forum Highlights International Space Station Future Research

Posted on by

Image Caption: An image of Crystal of Trypsin grown in microgravity during Expedition 4 on the International Space Station. Credit: NASA

Laura Niles, NASA

To highlight the direction for life and physical sciences aboard the International Space Station, a panel of experts gathered today for the Destination Station: International Space Station Science Forum. This forum, the first in a new series of public discussions dedicated to research aboard the station, emphasized current and future microgravity research that will prepare astronauts for long-duration missions farther into the solar system than ever before and provide lasting benefits to life on Earth.

Not only does the space station provide a one-of-a-kind orbiting laboratory for researching many science disciplines in microgravity, but it also serves as a technology development testbed for deep space exploration and is a destination to grow a robust commercial market in low-Earth orbit. While the use of the space station continues to grow, science studied aboard is underway at an unprecedented pace. In addition to continued scientific opportunity, there also are key areas in which to focus on the most crucial research needs in space.

In 2011, the National Research Council published a report on how best to use the space station. This report, entitled Recapturing a Future for Space Exploration: Life and Physical Sciences Research for a New Era, established priorities and provided recommendations for life and physical sciences research in microgravity for the 2010-2020 decade.

We took a broad look at what research needed to be done in the physical sciences and the life sciences to underpin the future of space exploration, said Elizabeth Cantwell, director for mission development in the engineering directorate at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in Livermore, California, and co-chair of the National Research Councils decadal study. We recommended that because animal studies underpin so much of our knowledge and understanding of human health terrestrially, that animal studies be supported more strongly in the space station science program and that microbial studies be beefed up in the form of long-term ability to study microbes in space on the space station.

Among other recommendations for the space station, the report endorsed a clearly defined and prioritized integrated life and physical sciences research portfolio and associated objectives. This report detailed seven major disciplines for focus by station research, including plant and microbial biology and animal and human biology.

Life science research already conducted aboard the space station includes studies of protein crystals, pharmaceutical treatments and model organisms like plants and fish. Model organisms have characteristics that allow them to easily be maintained, reproduced and studied in a laboratory and have a genetic makeup that is relatively well-documented and well-understood by scientists. Upcoming research in the area of omics, the study of the entire complement of biomolecules like proteins or genes, and in rodent research will further enable humans to carry out long-term space exploration and support a greater understanding of how gravity shapes fundamental biological processes.

In response to the report, we identified new facilities that we needed, like new rodent and plant habitats, and starting this year, those facilities are going to keep coming online one-by-one, and each will be used on every flight over and over on the space station for the next 10 years, said Julie Robinson, Ph.D., chief program scientist for the International Space Station.

Protein crystals have been studied in microgravity throughout the space stations assembly, and investigations using protein crystals continue today. High quality crystals grown on the space station are used to determine protein structure. This helps researchers understand better protein the three-dimensional structure of proteins and may lead to designing new therapeutics for diseases. In fact, a previous study of protein crystals on the space station led to the discovery of a water molecule in a protein-inhibitor complex that now is being used to develop a treatment for Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Read more:

Forum Highlights International Space Station Future Research

As defense budgets shrink, drive for international space cooperation grows

Posted on by

Stars and Stripes

Published: May 22, 2014

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. Civilian space projects, including the International Space Station, have driven cooperation between the U.S. and its allies for more than 20 years.

With defense belt-tightening squeezing military space endeavors across Europe, North America and the Pacific, the people in uniform are hatching plans for similar cooperation in defense satellite work.

Some cooperative projects are already flying, including a military communications satellite used by American, Canadian and Australian forces. Air Force Lt. Gen. Ellen Pawlikowski told an audience at the Space Symposium in Colorado Springs on Wednesday that working with allies makes financial sense as the Pentagon plans to cuts billions from its space budget over the next decade.

"We needed to reach out and share the costs of access to space," said Pawlikowski who commands the Space and Missile Systems Center at Los Angeles Air Force Base, which develops the Air Force's new satellites and rockets.

Allies were reaching out to the U.S. at the Space Symposium, which drew a large international contingent among its 9,000 attendees.

"Let's be clear: It is very difficult for a single European nation to afford a full-spectrum capability," said Col. Dominique Arbiol, a French air force officer who oversees military space efforts there.

"My minister is very, very keen on international cooperation," said Cdmr. Volker Brasen, a German navy officer who serves as a top space officer in his country's defense ministry.

Read this article:

As defense budgets shrink, drive for international space cooperation grows

Robot, heal thyself: Dextre becomes the first robot to repair itself in space – Video

Posted on by


Robot, heal thyself: Dextre becomes the first robot to repair itself in space
Dextre, the Canadian robotic handyman on board the International Space Station, has done several repair and maintenance jobs to date, as well as the Robotic Refueling Mission technology demonstrati...

By: canadianspaceagency

See the original post here:

Robot, heal thyself: Dextre becomes the first robot to repair itself in space - Video

In space, take your protein pills and get your Sriracha on

Posted on by

Space food has come a long way since 1966 when this photo was taken of a NASA test subject consuming a meal of pot roast and gravy through a feeding tube pack aboard a Gemini spacecraft mockup. Photo by Underwood Archives/Getty Images

In space, green beans taste like grass and sliced strawberries are repulsively sweet. Thats according to NASA astronaut Douglas Wheelock, who spent more than 178 days living and eating aboard the International Space Station and space shuttle Discovery.

The astronaut palate is a mysterious thing. Some say their favorite foods taste like plastic in space. Others say flavor gets better. What is undisputed is that a persons taste for something on Earth cant be trusted in orbit.

This is partly because the bodys fluids realign in microgravity, causing nasal congestion, says Pamela Dalton, a researcher at the Monell Chemical Senses Center. Swelling in the nasal passage also obstructs the transport of odor molecules to their receptors, which, Dalton said, can translate to a 70 percent reduction in flavor. After a few weeks the swelling subsides, but some congestion remains.

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield known by earthlings as the guy who performed a rendition of David Bowies Space Oddity while commander of the International Space Station said being in space was like suffering a perpetual head cold.

Imagine standing on your head for hours, he said. Its kind of like that.

To compensate, astronauts have been known to go heavy on the hot sauce. Wasabi, Louisiana hot sauce, peppery olive oil and Tabasco clutter the ISS cabinets.

The perennial favorite? Shrimp cocktail freeze-dried shrimp and a tomato-based sauce with bits of horseradish.

Its got a really strong, searing, wasabi kind of cut to the flavor that opens up the sinuses, Hadfield said. Moreover, the distinctive texture of shrimp that fibrous chewiness survives rehydration better than other foods.

Read more:

In space, take your protein pills and get your Sriracha on

Safety First? It's Time for a Fresh Look at the Risks of Spaceflight

Posted on by

In the wake of all the jabs about trade sanctions, trampoline launches and a space station pullout, America's dependence on Russian space hardware is suddenly looking like a bad idea. But Rand Simberg, a self-described recovering aerospace engineer, says policymakers should have seen it coming.

"I think the scales have been falling off people's eyes in Washington, and now they realize what a huge mistake they made 20 years ago," Simberg told NBC News.

Simberg argues that there's a connection between the current troubles with Russia and America's post-Apollo space policy. "The reason that we're dependent on the Russians," he said, "is because we're chicken...," he said. (Simberg added another word after "chicken" that may not be suitable for a family publication.)

In his book "Safe Is Not an Option," Simberg argues that America's space program has stagnated because it's become so risk-averse. The way he sees it, policymakers learned the wrong lessons from the 1986 Challenger shuttle disaster and the 2003 loss of the shuttle Columbia.

Rather than doubling down on an expensive launch system, NASA and Congress should have looked to more reliable, more commercially viable alternatives, he says. And Simberg fears that they're making the same mistake with the heavy-lift Space Launch System, which is arguably more expensive than the shuttle.

Some members of Congress argue that spaceflight has to be expensive, and has to be under the control of the government, because commercial launch providers may not measure up to their safety standards. But Simberg says the bureaucratic fixation on complete safety is wrong-headed.

"The point that I make in the book is that there is no 'safe,'" he said. "It's always a continuum. There is no 'safe' or 'unsafe' unless we quantify what's the cost of a loss of crew."

He explains that the safety of a risky endeavor should be measured against the importance of that endeavor. For example, the U.S. military's role is so important that casualties, even non-combat casualties, are a given. If space exploration and settlement is in the national interest, Simberg argues that there should be a more reasonable balance between those endeavors and their risks.

"We're behaving as though space isn't important," Simberg said. "I am not going to try to convince somebody that space is important. I'm just saying that if it is, we should be doing things differently."

This week he laid out some recommendations in an op-ed column for USA Today and a follow-up on The Corner, a blog at National Review Online. The top item: Accelerate NASA's commercial crew program, which is currently supporting the development of U.S. commercial spaceships to carry astronauts to and from the International Space Station. NASA is aiming to have those spaceships ready by 2017, but Congress has consistently pared down funding requests for the effort.

See more here:

Safety First? It's Time for a Fresh Look at the Risks of Spaceflight

"Lightfields" Aurora Borealis seen from the International Space Station – Video

Posted on by


"Lightfields" Aurora Borealis seen from the International Space Station
Song made by Fredrik Westergren using Reason 7.0, REAPER, and Garritan Instant Orchestra Amazing videos from the ISS courtesy of the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, NASA Johnson Space...

By: Tuvstarr World Music

Read the original here:

"Lightfields" Aurora Borealis seen from the International Space Station - Video

SpaceX Dragon departs International Space Station after month’s stay – Video

Posted on by


SpaceX Dragon departs International Space Station after month #39;s stay
Subscribe: http://smarturl.it/reuterssubscribe SpaceX #39;s Dragon spacecraft leaves the International Space Station after a month-long mission aboard the orbital outpost. Rough Cut (no reporter...

By: Reuters

See original here:

SpaceX Dragon departs International Space Station after month's stay - Video


  1. Space Station