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Scott Kelly: Work-life balance important in space

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Astronaut Scott Kelly, left, and cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko reflect on the challenges of living aboard the International Space Station for nearly a full year. NASA TV

Settling in aboard the International Space Station for a marathon 342-day stay in orbit, astronaut Scott Kelly says he's taking life in space "one day at a time," adding he plans to work at a slightly slower pace to maintain an even keel and keep his energy up as the days turn into weeks and the weeks into months.

Cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko, who is joining Kelly for what NASA bills as the "One-Year Mission," said time tends to drag a bit on a long-duration flight, but he has no concerns about any potential psychological issues.

"The time flies a little slower here," Kornienko said in a NASA interview conducted Monday. "But as far as our psychological compatibility, we have been working really hard on the ground to work that out, and we have lots and lots of support. Our psychological success is a given. I'm very sure about our success, and I'm sure we will not have even a modicum of any psychological issues."

Kelly, Kornienko and Soyuz TMA-16M commander Gennady Padalka -- all three veterans of previous stays aboard the space station -- arrived at the lab complex Friday night, six hours after a sky-lighting launch from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. They were welcomed aboard by Expedition 43 commander Terry Virts, cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov and European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti.

"The ride to orbit was impressive as it always is," Kelly said in the NASA interview. "But once I got on board the space station, it really felt like I was visiting an old home, it felt very comfortable. But there is a lot of work to be done here, and the pace of work at times can be hectic. ... We've basically been working since we got here."

He said it will be important to maintain a manageable pace throughout the long flight and not to focus too much on upcoming events.

"Right now, I'm just kind of taking it day by day," he said, adding he plans to work at "maybe a little bit slower pace than I did last time (to keep) my energy level up so I have the appropriate reserves to deal with all these different major activities ... and, you know, respond if something happens that we have to work through the night or respond to some kind of emergency situation.

"I think a good life-work balance is important, and that's even more important in some cases on the space station."

Throughout their nearly yearlong stay in orbit, Kelly and Kornienko will participate in a wide variety of experiments to study the effects of prolonged weightlessness on the human body as well as the psychological impact of a long-duration stay in a confined space away from family and friends.

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Scott Kelly: Work-life balance important in space

Space Station astronaut snaps breathtaking pictures of record-breaking typhoon

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Super Typhoon Maysak viewed from the International Space Station on Tuesday March 31, 2015.

Image: Twitter/AstroSamantha

By Andrew Freedman2015-04-01 00:18:36 UTC

Super Typhoon Maysak's maximum sustained winds of 160 miles per hour are churning the waters of the Western Pacific Ocean on Tuesday, lashing the tiny island of Yap, with a population of only 11,000, with strong winds and heavy rain.

Yet from far above, the storm looks other-wordly, like something that might fit better on Jupiter rather than our home planet.

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station overflew the typhoon's massive circulation on Tuesday, with Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti snapping this breathtaking shot of the storm as it buffeted the tiny island of Yap. She also captured several close-up images of the storm's eye, which is surrounded by the storm's fiercest winds and heaviest rains.

Super Typhoon Maysak has already set records by achieving its high intensity, marking the first time there have been two major typhoons of Category 3 or above before April 1.

The typhoon is the third of the year so far in the Western Pacific, which sets a record for the most typhoons so early in the Western Pacific typhoon season. Typically, the most active period in this ocean basin is from May through October.

Forecasts call for the Super Typhoon to weaken as it encounters cooler ocean waters and a more hostile atmospheric environment before it nears the northern Philippines on April 4. Depending on its exact track and intensity, Super Typhoon Maysak may present a significant flooding threat, even if its winds were to die down by then.

Here's another view of the storm from space, this time via satellite, as it moves to the northwest, sustained by unusually mild ocean waters. The island to the south of the storm's clear, calm eye is Yap, which is part of the Federated States of Micronesia.

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Space Station astronaut snaps breathtaking pictures of record-breaking typhoon

U.S., Russian crew blasts off for year-long stay on space station – Video

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U.S., Russian crew blasts off for year-long stay on space station
NASA #39;s Scott Kelly and two Russian cosmonauts launched to the International Space Station aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket on Friday. Rough Cut (no reporter narration). Subscribe: http://smarturl.it/...

By: Reuters

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U.S., Russian crew blasts off for year-long stay on space station - Video

[ISS] Soyuz TMA-16M Docks to Space Station, Year Long Mission Underway – Video

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[ISS] Soyuz TMA-16M Docks to Space Station, Year Long Mission Underway
A Russian Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft with Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka and Mikhail Korniyenko as well as NASA astronaut Scott Kelly onboard docked to the International Space Station ...

By: SpaceVids.tv

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[ISS] Soyuz TMA-16M Docks to Space Station, Year Long Mission Underway - Video

Space Engineers, The Ghost Station (Joint Survival S3, Ep #30) – Video

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Space Engineers, The Ghost Station (Joint Survival S3, Ep #30)
Remember all that lag we were getting? The stuttering? Well, we found out just what was causing it, far away, just out of sight. ---------------------------What is this game?----------------------...

By: Video Sage

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Space Engineers, The Ghost Station (Joint Survival S3, Ep #30) - Video

Astronaut Already Feels at Home in Space as 1-Year Journey Begins

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NASA TV NASA astronaut Scott Kelly (left) gives a thumb's up sign while floating next to fellow one-year crewmate Mikhail Kornienko of Russia on the International Space Station after a video chat with NASA chief Charles Bolden and others on March 30, 2

NASA's Scott Kelly one of two people spending a year on the International Space Station already feels like the orbiting outpost is home.

"It's great to be up here," veteran astronaut Kelly said during a live interview from the space station with NASA administrator Charles Bolden today (March 30). "It's like coming to my old home."

Kelly has been to the station multiple times, but his current mission is unlike anything attempted on the space laboratory before. Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko (who launched to orbit on March 27) will spend about a year on the space station, the longest amount of time anyone has ever spent living and working on the lab. [See photos from the yearlong mission]

NASA officials hope that the research Kornienko and Kelly conduct on the station during their stay could help send astronauts to Mars by the 2030s. A crew of Mars explorers might need to spend 500 days or more in space, so learning more about what happens to the body in microgravity is important for any space agency hoping to venture farther into the solar system.

NASA TV NASA Administrator Charles Bolden (right) speaks to one-year astronaut Scott Kelly on the International Space Station via a video link on March 30, 2015. At the moment, NASA scientists know a lot about what happens to astronauts after six months in weightlessness the usual amount of time a crewmember spends on the station. But they have little-to-no information about what happens when a person stays in space for a longer amount of time.

"I really want to thank you for taking on this challenge," Bolden told Kelly during the interview. "It really is important that we get it all right because we do plan to put humans on Mars in the next few decades. The 2030s is the target the president set, and we think we can really make that."

First lady Michelle Obama wished Kelly well via social media when he launched to space Friday: "We have liftoff! @StationCDRKelly just launched for the @Space_Station on his #YearInSpace," she said via Twitter. "Good luck, Captain."

Kelly also responded in kind, taking the chance to post his first photo from space during the yearlong mission.

"@FLOTUS Thank you," Kelly posted on Twitter. "Made it! Moving into crew quarters on @space_station to begin my #yearinspace."

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Astronaut Already Feels at Home in Space as 1-Year Journey Begins

Astronaut Scott Kelly sets out to break an American record in space

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JUDY WOODRUFF: Finally, a conversation about an out-of-this-world experience: living in space.

Astronaut Scott Kelly arrived this weekend at the International Space Station. He will stay there for almost a year, the longest duration an American has ever spent in space. Hes the identical twin brother of former astronaut Mark Kelly. And both will participate in a study to see the effects of living in space.

After Scott Kelly lifted off on Friday, Jeffrey Brown spoke with a former astronaut, Chris Hadfield, whose final stay on the space station lasted five months.

JEFFREY BROWN: Chris Hadfield, welcome to you.

The twin study is especially interesting this time, right, the research on the two brothers, Scott and Mark Kelly, one in space, one on the ground. What kinds of things are being looked at?

CHRIS HADFIELD, Canadian Space Agency: Yes, it sounds like science fiction, doesnt it, to have an identical twin on a space ship and another one down on the ground?

But its just luck, but, boy, it sure provides some interesting medical and scientific opportunity. You take two people that are as identical as they can be. You put them in wildly different environments, one of them that is really brand-new for humanity, living in weightlessness off the planet, and then you watch how they change over a year. You measure all of those subtle things, bone density, muscle strength, psychology, vision, blood pressure, blood pressure regulation, all of those, liver function, everything.

And it is really going to help us not only understand spaceflight for long-term flight, for going from here to the moon and Mars and beyond, but also just understand the effects on the body of flight itself, the subtle changes that happen within the body, and teach us inherently about physiology. Its a really cool thing. Its never been done before.

JEFFREY BROWN: Well, so, then, of course, there is the length of time. This would be twice as long, I think, twice longer than any American up to this point.

Whats the why go longer? And lets start to talk a little bit about the new difficulties that that presents in staying up that long.

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Astronaut Scott Kelly sets out to break an American record in space

China considering space-based solar power station

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Chinese scientists say a solar power station in a geosynchronous orbit could supply a constant stream of electricity.

NASA's conceptual drawing of a space-based solar power station. Credit: NASA

Chinese scientists are considering how they can build and put into orbit a massive space station that would supply a constant stream of solar energy to Earth.

The project, which is still in the conceptual stage, would involve a satellite that weighs more than 10,000 lbs., dwarfing anything previously placed into orbit, including the International Space Station, according to the China-based Xinhuanet, part of the Xinhua News Agency.

While space-based solar power is not a new idea, some Chinese scientists believe a collector could be launched as soon as 2020, although others place the launch date further out, as far away 2050.

"China will build a space station in around 2020, which will open an opportunity to develop space solar power technology," Li Ming, vice president of the China Academy of Space Technology, was quoted as saying to the Xinhuan news agency.

Members of the both the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and the Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE) wrote a report five years ago that suggested China should begin with an experimental space-based solar power station by 2030, and build a commercially viable space power station by 2050.

Wang Xiji, of the CAS and a member of the International Academy of Astronautics, said building a solar space station is feasible, although it would be an unprecedented and monumental task.

Xiji said a solar space station in a geosynchronous orbit could circumvent the problem with intermittent energy production on Earth, which must contend with nighttime and weather interruptions.

Duan Baoyan, a member of the CAE, said space-based solar panels could generate 10 times as much electricity as ground-based panels.

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China considering space-based solar power station


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