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Space station computer outage may force spacewalk

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This May 23, 2011 photo released by NASA shows the International Space Station at an altitude of approximately 220 miles above the Earth, taken by Expedition 27 crew member Paolo Nespoli from the Soyuz TMA-20 following its undocking.AP

CAPE CARNAVAL, Fla. A computer outage at the International Space Station may require a spacewalk by astronauts and threatens to delay next week's launch of a commercial supply ship for NASA.

NASA said Friday night that a backup computer on the outside of the orbiting lab is not responding to commands.

The main computer, called an MDM or multiplexer-demultiplexer, is working fine, and the six-man crew is in no danger, officials said. But these computers control some robotic functions that would be needed for the upcoming supply run by SpaceX, one of two U.S. companies contracted by NASA to keep the space station well stocked. A backup computer would need to be operating for redundancy of those robotic systems.

SpaceX is supposed to launch the unmanned Dragon capsule on Monday from Cape Canaveral. It contains nearly 5,000 pounds of supplies and science experiments.

The mission is already a month late because of extra prep time needed by the California company and unrelated damage to an Air Force radar-tracking device needed for rocket launches.

Late Friday, Mission Control was trying to determine whether the computer can be repaired or must be replaced. A replacement would have to be accomplished by spacewalking astronauts.

NASA is still aiming for a Monday launch by SpaceX. But that could change, depending on the status of the bad computer.

Astronauts use the space station's big robot arm to grab onto the Dragon capsule and attach it to the outpost.

The space station is currently home to two Americans, one Japanese and three Russians.

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Space station computer outage may force spacewalk

NASA to send International Space Station android a pair of legs

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WASHINGTON, April 11 (UPI) -- Robonaut 2, NASA's robotic astronaut torso, floats about the International Space Station without any legs. But that's about to change, thanks to NASA engineers.

NASA scientists have built R2 a set of high-tech, 9-foot-long legs. The legs are more like big long sloth arms than human legs -- ultra long and flexible with seven joints. Instead of feet, the legs are outfitted with "end effector," which will lock in, via sockets, to tools and handrails.

"The new legs are designed for work both inside and outside the station, but upgrades to R2's upper body will be necessary before it can begin work outside the space station," NASA officials said in a news statement.

R2's new legs will ship up to the space station on Monday, April 14, aboard SpaceX's unmanned Dragon capsule.

SpaceX is the private space launch company founded by PayPal entrepreneur and Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk. The outfit has already completed three separate mission resupply missions to the space station. Dragon will take off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

NASA says some of the technologies that helped engineers craft R2's new legs could prove useful on Earth. Scientists are currently working on a robotic exoskeleton that could aid people with physical disabilities.

[NASA] [Christian Science Monitor]

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NASA to send International Space Station android a pair of legs

Space Station Crew Celebrates Russian Cargo Delivery

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A Russian cargo ship linked up with the International Space Station on Wednesday to deliver tons of vital supplies after a swift, six-hour trip to the orbiting outpost.

The unmanned Progress 55 spacecraft linked up with the space station at 5:14 p.m. ET, nearly six hours after launching into orbit atop a Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Central Asian nation of Kazakhstan.

The Progress 55 spacecraft performed flawlessly during a "silky smooth six-hour adventure," NASA spokesman Rob Navias said on NASA TV. [See photos of the Progress 55's launch to the space station]

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Russian space officials applauded the docking success, with the space station's cosmonauts hailing Progress 55 as "a great present for Cosmonautics Day." April 12 is Cosmonautics Day in Russia, a holiday that celebrates the 1961 launch of Yuri Gagarin on the world's first human spaceflight.

Progress 55 (also known as the Progress M-23M) brought 1,764 pounds of propellant, 926 pounds of water, 105 pounds of oxygen and 3,126 pounds of food, science experiments and other supplies for the station's six crew members. The crew includes NASA's Rick Mastracchio and Steve Swanson; Russian cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov, Mikhail Tyurin and Oleg Artemyev; and Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata.

Russia's Progress vehicles have been making the six-hour trips to the station since 2012. The Soyuz capsules that ferry astronauts and cosmonauts to and from the station have done the same express flight since last year. Before the fast-track trips, Progress and Soyuz spacecraft took two days to reach the station.

When Swanson, Skvortsov and Artemyev launched from Baikonur about two weeks ago, they were expected to make an express trip to the station; however, due to a slight issue with the positioning of the Soyuz after launch, they instead took two days to dock with the space station.

Miriam Kramer, Space.com

This is a condensed version of a report from Space.com. Read the full report. Follow Miriam Kramer on Twitter and Google+. Follow Space.com on Twitter, Facebook and Google+.

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Space Station Crew Celebrates Russian Cargo Delivery

NASA Astronaut Beams First Instagram Photo from Space

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An astronaut on the International Space Station recently made a giant leap into the social media world with the first Instagram photo beamed down from space.

NASA astronaut Steve Swanson posted a selfie taken in the station's cupola a large, multi-sided window that faces Earth as the first Instagram photo sent from space. The photo posted to the station's Instagram account (ISS) on April 7, and since then, it has garnered nearly 4,000 "likes."

"Back on the ISS, life is good," Swanson wrote in an image caption. The veteran astronaut flew to space before during two previous space shuttle missions.

In the photo, Swanson is wearing a shirt featuring a spaceship from one of his favorite TV shows, "Firefly" a short-lived show about a crew of space cowboys that traverse the universe looking for smuggling work where they can get it. Swanson brought a box set of "Firefly" DVDs up to the station during one of his previous space shuttle missions.

Since Monday, Swanson has beamed back two more photos from the station. One image shows the northern lights glowing green above Europe and the other, posted Wednesday (April 9), is a photo of Swanson going through some medical testing aboard the orbiting outpost.

Astronauts have a history of social media use while in space. NASA's Mike Massimino became the first person to use Twitter in space when he posted: "Launch was awesome!! I am feeling great, working hard, & enjoying the magnificent views, the adventure of a lifetime has begun!" from his account @Astro_Mike in 2009.

Since then, other astronauts have followed suit. Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield sent informational videos and tweets down from the station during his time onboard. He even made a music video using David Bowie's "Space Oddity" that gained popularity after it was posted right before he flew back to Earth.

NASA recently launched its own Instagram account that features new science discoveries, launch information and space history photos.

"We're constantly looking to expand our social media portfolio to include tools that will best tell NASA's story of exploration and discovery," said NASA spokesperson Lauren Worley said in a statement in September 2013. "Instagram has a passionate following of users who are hungry for new and exciting photos."

Check out Swanson's Instagram account here: http://instagram.com/iss

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NASA Astronaut Beams First Instagram Photo from Space

What Happens to Bacteria in Space?

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In the otherwise barren space 220 miles above Earth's surface, a capsule of life-sustaining oxygen and water orbits at 17,000 miles per hour. You might know this capsule as the International Space Station (ISS), currently home to six humansand untold billions of bacteria. Microbes have always followed us to the frontiers, but it's only now that scientists at NASA and elsewhere are seriously investigating what happens when we bring Earth's microbes into space.

Most space microbes get there by hitching a ride onor inthe bodies of astronauts. But the next unmanned ISS resupply mission, due to blast off on Monday, will carry a special microbial payload on behalf of Project MERCCURI. The payload includes 48 different microbescollected from stadiums, toilets, and even pre-launch spacecraftwhose growth in space will be compared to a parallel set of microbes on Earth. A second phase of the project will sequence swabs from the ISS to determine the microbiome of the space station.

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Plates of bacteria being prepared for launch. Project MERCCURI

Project MERCCURI is a crowdsourced project, aimed at science outreach as much as research itself. But NASA, too, is intensely interested in studying its "microbial observatory"as Mark Ott, a senior microbiologist at the Johnson Space Center, called the ISS in a recent talk. The ISS is a unique lab space. "We have a shortage of microgravity on Earth," sums up David Coil, a microbiology on the Project MERCCURI team,

In the interest of astronaut health, NASA has sent disease-causing bacteria up into space before. (In carefully packaged plates, of course.) The stress of space-living weakens immune systems, making the possibility of disease all the worse.

So how have disease-causing microbes fared in space so far? Unfortunately for us, they've fared very well.

An attention-grabbing study from 2007 found that Salmonella, which you probably associate with food poisoning, becomes more virulent when grown on the ISS. The space-bred microbes were injected into mice back on Earth, and the mice promptly became sicker and succumbed more quickly.

Last year, researchers found that Pseudomonas aeruginosa (below), a common bacteria that can cause infections grew faster and formed thicker aggregates of cells called biofilms. These biofilms also formed a bizarre "column-and-canopy" structure that it doesn't form on Earth. Other bacteria like E. coli and staph also grow better in space.

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What Happens to Bacteria in Space?

SpaceX to launch robotic capsule to International Space Station next week

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A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Dragon capsule filled with cargo for the International Space Station lifts off from the Space Launch Complex 40 on Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida in this March 1, 2013 NASA handout photo obtained by Reuters.Reuters

A private spaceflight company will launch its third robotic resupply mission to the International Space Station next week.

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket carrying the company's unmanned Dragon vehicle loaded down with supplies is expected to launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida on April 14. This will be SpaceX's third official flight to the station under a $1.6 billion contract with NASA to fly 12 missions to the orbiting outpost using the Dragon capsule and Falcon 9 rocket. You can watch the SpaceX launch live on Space.com via NASA TV starting at 3:45 p.m. ET on April 14. Launch is scheduled for 4:58 p.m. ET.

Dragon will fly to the station loaded down with 5,000 lbs. of cargo and scientific experiments, according to NASA. The supplies include legs for Robonaut 2, a humanoid robot designed to eventually assist astronauts on the station with their day-to-day tasks. SpaceX initially aimed to launch the Dragon delivery mission in March, but damage to a ground-based U.S. Air Force radar station used to support Florida launches delayed the flight.

[See photos of SpaceX's third resupply trip to the station]

"These new legs, funded by NASA's Human Exploration and Operations and Space Technology mission directorates, will provide R2 [Robonaut 2] the mobility it needs to help with regular and repetitive tasks inside and outside the space station," NASA officials said in a statement on March 12. "The goal is to free up the crew for more critical work, including scientific research."

SpaceX's Dragon will stay attached to the station's Harmony module until mid-May when it will detach and splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja California, NASA officials said. When it splashes down, Dragon is expected to be carrying about 3,000 lbs. of experiments and equipment that can be recovered on Earth.

At the moment, Dragon capsules are the only robotic cargo vehicles capable of bringing supplies back to Earth from the orbiting outpost. Other robotic spacecraft like Russia's Progress vehicles or Europe's Automated Transfer Vehicles can deliver supplies to the station, but are designed to burn up in Earth's atmosphere after leaving port.

NASA also has contract with Orbital Sciences to fly cargo missions to the station using the Antares rocket and Cygnus spacecraft. The Dulles, Va.-based company has a $1.9 billion deal with the space agency for eight unmanned flights.

If launch occurs on time, Dragon is due to arrive at the station at around 7 a.m. ET on April 16. If the SpaceX launch does not occur on time, there will be another opportunity for launch on April 18.

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SpaceX to launch robotic capsule to International Space Station next week


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