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Space Station Live: Investigating "Genius Materials" On the Space Station – Video

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Space Station Live: Investigating "Genius Materials" On the Space Station
Space Station Live commentator Pat Ryan talks to Dr. Eric Furst, Principal Investigator for the InSPACE experiment, from the University of Delaware. InSpace,...

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Space Station Live: Investigating "Genius Materials" On the Space Station - Video

Red tape in outer space? More regulations could be on way

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WASHINGTON It's a story almost as old as humanity: Braving unknown dangers, a team of explorers settles a wild frontier, and then almost as quickly bureaucrats tie it up with red tape.

This time, the frontier is outer space. And the regulators are from the Federal Aviation Administration, which licenses commercial-rocket launches in addition to monitoring the airlines.

The FAA has so far been constrained by one major loophole: Once a spacecraft reaches orbit, it's largely free of regulation a libertarian's final refuge.

But that could change soon.

This week, at a congressional hearing and an industry conference in Washington, FAA officials and space attorneys began seriously discussing rules of the road for outer space, from mining rights to safety practices.

Although there have been some broad guidelines the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, for example, prohibits nations from claiming the moon specific space regulations have been few and far between. In part that's because few countries let alone private companies have had the ability to blast people or products into orbit.

But the commercial space industry, once a pipe dream for "Star Trek" fans, has burgeoned in recent years.

In 2012, the California company SpaceX became the first commercial-rocket company to deliver cargo to the International Space Station. And space tourism companies, such as Virgin Galactic and XCOR Aerospace, are preparing to fly passengers to suborbital space as soon as this year.

Those efforts have led Congress, the administration and industry to begin talking about how to ensure that people and property stay safe in microgravity.

These proposals run the gamut, from figuring out how to restrict the amount of dangerous "space junk" shed by spacecraft to finding a way to coordinate traffic in Earth's orbit.

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Red tape in outer space? More regulations could be on way

Live from Space! National Geographic, NASA Team Up for Cosmic TV Event

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TV-viewers around the world will be treated to an unprecedented live tour of the $100 billion International Space Station next month when the National Geographic Channel airs a two-hour special from the astronauts' orbital home.

During the "Live from Space" TV event, NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio and Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata two of the six spaceflyers currently living on the station will show how they stay fit, conduct science experiments and even use the toilet in microgravity. They'll also talk to viewers via video chat, according to Nat Geo. Meanwhile, veteran NASA astronaut Mike Massimino, who is perhaps most famous for his spacewalking repairs the Hubble Space Telescope, will be partaking in the two-hour event, live from Houston.

Cosmic Quiz: Do You Know the International Space St...

The International Space Station is the largest structure in space ever built by humans. Let's see how much you know about the basics of this science laboratory in the sky.

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Cosmic Quiz: Do You Know the International Space St...

The International Space Station is the largest structure in space ever built by humans. Let's see how much you know about the basics of this science laboratory in the sky.

The TV special, which will air in mid-March, is meant to coincide with the reboot of Carl Sagan's popular "Cosmos" miniseries, according to Nat Geo. The new iteration of the show, called "Cosmos: A SpaceTime Odyssey," is hosted by astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, and the first episode is set to air March 9 on Fox and the National Geographic Channel.

The International Space Station is the largest manmade structure ever built in space. Five different space agencies representing 15 countries contributed to its construction and rotating crews of astronauts have continuously occupied the orbiting lab since 2000.

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Live from Space! National Geographic, NASA Team Up for Cosmic TV Event

Space Station Instrument Will Be the Coldest Thing in the Universe

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The International Space Station is set to become the coldest place in the known universe. Credit: NASA

When temperatures fall to record lows, some hardy folks like to boast that they went about their daily tasks unfazed by the wind chill warnings. Well, if sub-zero bragging rights are at stake, the International Space Station will soon have the entire universe beat.

In 2016, a new instrument due to be added to the ISS NASAs Cold Atom Laboratory will become the coldest location in the known universe. The instrument is capable of achieving a temperature of 100 Pico-kelvin, or one ten-billionth of a degree above absolute zero. For perspective, the average temperature of space is a balmy 2.7 Kelvin, or -454.81 degrees Fahrenheit.

At these extremely low temperatures, ordinary concepts of solid, liquid and gas are irrelevant. Matter can be in two places at once, objects behave simultaneously as particles and waves, and nothing is certain.

The temperature isnt the only thing thats cool about the Cold Atom Lab. Scientists will use the instrument to study the behavior of a strange form of matter known as Bose-Einstein condensates. Bose-Einstein condensates occur when atoms get so cold near absolute zero that they coalesce into a single wave of matter.

Diagram of the Cold Atom Lab. Credit: NASA/JPL/Cal-Tech

The Cold Atom Lab has one big advantage over Earth: microgravity. Earthbound cooling chambers need to use a lot of energy and powerful magnets to counteract the forces of Earths gravity in order to hold a molecule in place for observation. As a result, they can only observe molecular behavior for a second at a time and cannot achieve 100 pico-Kelvin temperatures. Without gravity, and with the aid of magnetic traps, scientists on the ISS can observe molecular behavior for up to 20 seconds at a clip, and drop the temperature closer to absolute zero.

Scientists on the ISS plan to mix two Bose-Einstein condensates together, and no one is really sure what will happen in a hyper-cold, microgravity environment.

If scientists can drop the temperature low enough in the Cold Atom Lab, theyll be able to assemble atomic wave packets as wide as a human hair large enough for the human eye to see.

A deeper understanding of Bose-Einstein condensates could lead to important technological innovation. Studying this unique state of matter has already yielded new laser and optical physics, such as an atom laser, which promise to improve electronic chip and circuit construction.

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Space Station Instrument Will Be the Coldest Thing in the Universe

NASA Astronauts Talk Space Fitness with US Olympic Bobsled Team

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Two NASA astronauts on the International Space Station connected with the United States Olympic bobsled team in Sochi, Russia before the 2014 Winter Games kick off Friday (Feb. 7).

Astronauts Mike Hopkins and Rick Mastracchio chatted fitness in space and on the ground with Curt Tomasevicz and other members of the U.S. bobsled team during a NASA-sponsored Google Hangout about the upcoming games and how astronauts exercise in space. Tomasevicz spoke to Hopkins and Mastracchio from Sochi, where he will compete in the coming weeks.

NASA astronaut Jeannette Epps, CrossFit Games Champion Rich Froning Jr., and Houston Texans professional football player Jared Crick also spoke with the space station astronauts from the ground during the Hangout. [Photos: 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics and Space Travel]

"We do a lot of science, we do a lot of maintenance on the station," Hopkins said during the event. "But one of the most important things that we do and one of the big reasons we here, obviously today is to talk about fitness and exercise. We have between an hour and a half to two hours a day that's [a] dedicated part of our work time to exercise."

Mastracchio and Hopkins spoke to the group from their gym on the space station that holds three specialized pieces of equipment they can use to work out in microgravity. A treadmill, stationary bike and the Advanced Resistive Exercise Device (ARED) are all available to help the astronauts get in their exercise while in space.

The ARED allows astronauts to put a specific amount of resistance on their bodies, helping them weightlift in weightlessness.

The astronauts exercise for about two hours each day to keep up bone density and prevent muscle loss during their time in space. Before launching into space, astronauts work with trainers on the ground to develop a plan for exercise while in orbit.

While the astronauts are in space, Mission Controllers on the ground analyze the data collected during Mastracchio and Hopkins' workouts in order to determine their fitness.

"Within two weeks of launching and being up in space, my fitness level as they [Mission Controllers] defined it had dropped 15 percent," Hopkins said. "From that point on, it's just a battle to get yourself back to that shape that you were in before you launched."

Mastracchio and Hopkins are both planning to watch the Olympics while in orbit. They showed off a "Team U.S.A." flag hanging in the exercise area, and said they have a picture of Tomasevicz and other Olympians on the station with them.

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NASA Astronauts Talk Space Fitness with US Olympic Bobsled Team

Russian Soyuz rocket launched to International Space Station

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A Russian Soyuz rocket boosted an unmanned Progress supply ship into orbitWednesday, kicking off a six-hour rendezvous with the International Space Station.

With a sky-lighting burst of flame, the Progress M-22M/P-54 spacecraft climbed away from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at11:23 a.m. EST(GMT-5,10:23 p.m.local time) at roughly the moment Earth's rotation carried the launch complex into the plane of the space station's orbit.

The space station passed 260 miles above Kazakhstan within a few minutes of liftoff, giving the lab's crew a glimpse of the rocket's fiery climb go space.

"We got a pretty good view of the first stage," flight engineer Rick Mastracchio told NASA flight controllers in Houston. "After (stage) separation, we pretty much lost it, but it was a good show for a few seconds."

The climb to space went smoothly and the Progress supply ship slipped into its planned preliminary orbit, with a high point of around 150 miles and a low point of roughly 120 miles, about nine minutes after liftoff. A few moments later, the spacecraft's solar panels and antennas deployed as expected.

"We have confirmation of separation of the Progress vehicle (from the Soyuz booster) and also deployment of the solar arrays and the appendages associated with the automated rendezvous and docking system," commentator Kyle Herring reported from NASA's mission control in Houston.

If all goes well, the cargo ship will carry out an automated four-orbit rendezvous with the space station, gliding to a docking at the Earth-facing Pirs module at6:25 p.m.As usual, Russian cosmonauts aboard the lab complex planned to be standing by in the Zvezda command module to remotely take over manual control of the approaching Progress if necessary.

The spacecraft is loaded with 2.8 tons of equipment and supplies for the station's six-man crew, including 2,897 pounds of spare parts, experiment hardware and general supplies, 1,764 pounds of propellant, 926 pounds of water and 110 pounds of oxygen.

The next space station resupply mission will be carried out by a commercially developed SpaceX Dragon supply ship launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla. Liftoff is expected in mid March.

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Russian Soyuz rocket launched to International Space Station

Let’s Play Space Engineers – Episode 75: Space Station Project Part 5 – Video

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Let #39;s Play Space Engineers - Episode 75: Space Station Project Part 5
On this episode of Space Engineers, we continue the Space Station Project. Today we work on the Observation Deck. I had the idea to make this deck into it #39;s ...

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Let's Play Space Engineers - Episode 75: Space Station Project Part 5 - Video

Let’s Play Space Engineers – Episode 77: Space Station Project Part 7 – Video

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Let #39;s Play Space Engineers - Episode 77: Space Station Project Part 7
On this episode of Space Engineers, we continue the Space Station Project. This time I #39;m trying to work on ironing out the way the observation deck will "doc...

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Let's Play Space Engineers - Episode 77: Space Station Project Part 7 - Video

Minecraft – MainBlock Day 171 – Sticky Piston Doors on the Space Station, THE FINISHING TOUCHES – Video

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Minecraft - MainBlock Day 171 - Sticky Piston Doors on the Space Station, THE FINISHING TOUCHES
NEW Channel! - KBDToysTV: - https://www.youtube.com/user/KBDToysTV Extreme Ant Farm - Ep 1 - http://youtu.be/P3x43rF-1I4 Ant Farm Survival Day 1 - http://you...

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Minecraft - MainBlock Day 171 - Sticky Piston Doors on the Space Station, THE FINISHING TOUCHES - Video


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