Monthly Archives: February 2017

Andrei Borisenko filming one of his 360-degree tours of the space station.

airspacemag.com February 21, 2017 3:15PM

Packed inside a Dragon cargo ship scheduled to dock with the space station tomorrow morning is a technology that, for all the attention it gets on Earth, has yet to be tried in orbit: an Oculus Rift headset, modified and certified for use in space.

The French space agency CNES sent up the headset and associated hardwaretogether called Perspectivesfor use in neuroscience experiments to be conducted by French astronaut Thomas Pesquet. American and European astronauts have used clunky, custom-built VR rigs on the station, but this is the first of the modern, high-end commercial VR headsets to go up. The Perspectives system will remain on the station for future astronaut studies.

It wasnt easy getting the hardware approved for spaceflight, says Maurice Marnat, who works for the MEDES Institute for Space Medicine and Physiology at the CNES CADMOS laboratory in Toulouse. Engineers first had to make sure the Oculus headset could pass safety tests regarding flammability and shatter-proofing (fortunately the lenses are plastic, not glass).

The stations onboard laptopsnewly arrived HP Zbooksare powerful by past space standards, says Marnat, but are not ideal for VR, which demands a lot of computing power. But theyll do for now. The engineers also couldnt use Oculus own Constellation infrared head-tracking system on the station, so they adapted a European head-tracker used for previous space experiments. Then they had to test the whole thing on zero-G airplane flights to make sure the magnetometer and other position sensors would work in the absence of gravity.

Pesquet will use the Perspectives headset in an experiment called GRASP, which tests a weightless subjects perceptions when reaching for virtual objects.

The ESA astronaut, who has been living on the station since November, also has been shooting 360-degree videos with a Giroptic camera. CNES and ESA expect to post Pesquets VR videos online within the next week or so.

They wont be the first, however. The Russian space agency Roskosmos, in cooperation with the Russia Today TV network, has been posting a series of 360-degree video tours of the space stations different elements [YouTube channel] by cosmonaut Andrei Borisenko, who does a pretty good job of adapting the typical astronaut tour for VR.

360-degree cameras like Giroptics and the one used by Borisenko are still fairly low-resolution, which leaves us still waiting for the day when, goggles strapped on head, well feel like were floating right there alongside the astronauts. U.S. astronauts have shot some experimental ultra-high-definition footage, and NASA and Oculus are looking into routinely filming high-resolution 360 video on the station, but they havent yet finalized their plans.

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Virtual Reality Comes to the Space Station - Air & Space Magazine

Universe Today

Spectacular SpaceX Space Station Launch and 1st Stage Landing Photo/Video Gallery Universe Today Historic maiden blastoff of SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center) at 9:38 a.m. EDT on Feb 19, 2017, on Dragon CRS-10 resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA. Credit: Ken ... SpaceX launches space station cargo shipWDEF News 12 Busy Traffic Week Ahead For International Space Station Crew As Two Cargo Crafts Deliver SuppliesSpaceCoastDaily.com Florida Tech Science Cargo Headed to Space StationFlorida Tech Now The Verge -NASA -NASA Blogs all 71 news articles »

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Spectacular SpaceX Space Station Launch and 1st Stage Landing Photo/Video Gallery - Universe Today

Mashable

India capable of building its own space station: ISRO chief Mashable India's space agency has time and again set world records and earned praises for operating on thin budgets. But one thing that many space enthusiasts in the country have longed for but haven't seen getting materialised is a space station they could ... India has capability to set up space station, says ISRO chiefHindustan Times India Can Send Its Own Astronauts And Build A Space Station, Says ISRO ChiefIndiatimes.com Ready to build space station if govt says so: ISRO chief AS Kiran ...Times of India Xinhua -Scroll.in -Tech Times all 63 news articles »

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India capable of building its own space station: ISRO chief - Mashable

A Soyuz rocket and Progress supply ship packed with nearly 3 tons of cargo, provisions and fuel for the International Space Station rolled out to a launch pad at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Monday.

The Progress MS-05 cargo freighter is set for liftoff Wednesday at 0558:33 GMT (12:58:33 a.m. EST; 11:58:33 a.m. Baikonur time) on a two-day trip to the space station.

The launch will be the last mission of the Soyuz-U version of Russias most-flown rocket. The Soyuz-U was a workhorse for the Russian space program, launching nearly 800 times with military spy satellites, cosmonaut crews and space station resupply missions to a series of Russian orbital outposts since 1973.

Newer versions of the expendable Soyuz booster are now flying with upgraded engines.

Wednesdays launch will be the first Soyuz-U flight, and the first Progress cargo launch, since a rocket failure doomed a Russian resupply mission Dec. 1 on the way to the space station.

Russian investigators believe foreign object debris or a manufacturing defect in the third stages RD-0110 engine led the failure, which caused the Progress MS-04 spaceship to crash in Siberia downrange from the Baikonur Cosmodrome.

The most likely cause of the contingency was the third stage liquid oxygen tank opening as a result of exposure of (RD-0110) engine destruction elements that occurred (as a) result of fire, and further destruction of the oxidizer compound pump, the Russian space agency, or Roscosmos, said in a Jan. 11 statement.

The oxidizer pump fire could have been caused by the introduction of foreign object debris into the pump cavity, or a violation of engine assembly procedures, Roscosmos said.

Engineers replaced the third stage RD-0110 engine on the Soyuz-U booster flying Wednesday with a powerplant from a different manufacturing batch after the inquiry discovered some engines produced by the same contractor were made with substandard alloys.

The automated Progress MS-05 cargo freighter, known as Progress 66P in the space stations visiting vehicle manifest, will reach orbit around 8 minutes, 49 seconds, after liftoff Wednesday. Docking with the International Space Stations Pirs module is set for 0834 GMT (3:34 a.m. EST) Friday.

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Watch live: Soyuz booster set for launch with space station supply ... - Spaceflight Now

As a SpaceX Dragon cargo ship closed in on the International Space Station early Wednesday, a Russian Soyuz-U rocket making the venerable boosters final flight successfully lifted a Progress supply ship into orbit, three months after an upper stage failure destroyed another station-bound freighter.

Mounted atop a snow-covered launch pad -- the same pad used by cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin at the dawn of the Space Age -- the Soyuz-U rocket carrying the Progress MS-05/66P cargo ship thundered to life at 12:58 a.m. EST (11:58 a.m. local time) and climbed away from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Streaking through a cold, cloudless sky, the booster arced away to the east, climbing directly into the plane of the space stations orbit. Four liquid-fuel strap-on boosters and the rockets central core stage performed normally, leaving it to the third stage RD-0110 engine to complete the push to orbit.

The most recent previous Progress launch on Dec. 1 ended in failure when the upper stage engine apparently malfunctioned, possibly because of debris sucked into an oxygen turbopump. But it was clear sailing Wednesday and, eight minutes and 46 seconds after liftoff, the cargo ship was released into its planned preliminary orbit.

If all goes well, the Progress will execute an automated approach to the space station, docking at the Earth-facing Pirs module around 3:34 a.m. Friday. On board: 1,763 pounds of propellant, 926 pounds of water, 51 pounds of oxygen and 2,900 pounds of food, crew supplies and other dry goods.

While the Progress was climbing into orbit and setting off after the station, a SpaceX Dragon cargo ship launched Sunday atop a Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center was on final approach to the station.

The Dragon was programmed to approach the outpost from behind and below, pulling up to within about 30 feet around 6 a.m. EST and then standing by so European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet, operating the labs robot arm, could lock onto a grapple fixture.

At that point, flight controllers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston planned to take over arm operations, pulling the Dragon in for berthing at the Earth-facing port of the forward Harmony module.

Another view of the Progress/Soyuz launch at the snow-covered Baikonur Cosmodrome.

NASA/Roscosmos

Mounted in the capsules pressurized compartment are 3,150 pounds of supplies and equipment, including 580 pounds of crew food and clothing, 842 pounds of spare parts and other vehicle hardware and more than 1,600 pounds of science gear.

Twenty mice also are on board to help researchers learn more about what processes prevent most vertebrates from regrowing lost limbs or tissue. Also on board: methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA, in an experiment to learn more about how the deadly bacteria mutate to design more effective drugs.

Mounted in the Dragons unpressurized trunk section are another 2,100 pounds of equipment: a $92 million ozone monitoring instrument, a $7 million sensor to monitor lightning strikes and experimental gear designed to help engineers perfect autonomous rendezvous and docking software.

SpaceX plans three more 2017 cargo delivery missions to the station, in April, August and November. Two more Progress missions are on tap, in July and October, along with two flights by Orbital ATKs Cygnus cargo ship in March and October.

The Russians are retiring the Soyuz-U rocket, first launched in 1973, in favor of an upgraded version, the Soyuz 2A.1, that features improved avionics but the same RD-0110 upper stage engine that is used in piloted versions of the rocket.

In the wake of the December failure, the Soyuz-U launched Wednesday was subjected to extensive inspections, a new RD-0110 upper stage engine was installed and cameras were mounted on the rockets hull to document ascent performance -- a first for the workhorse rocket.

The successful flight Wednesday is expected to clear the way for the return of three station fliers and the launch of two more in April.

The Soyuz MS-02 spacecraft is scheduled to land in Kazakhstan on April 10, bringing commander Sergey Ryzhikov, flight engineer Andrey Borisenko and NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough back to Earth after 173 days in space.

Ten days later, on April 20, the Soyuz MS-04 spacecraft will carry veteran cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin and NASA rookie Jack Fischer into orbit. They will join Expedition 51 commander Peggy Whitson, Pesquet and Oleg Novitskiy aboard the space station.

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SpaceX, Russian cargo ships heading for space station - CBS News

When SpaceXs Dragon capsule, loaded with supplies and experiments, docks with the International Space Station sometime Wednesday, a part from Olean will have made the trip.

Students in Jim Hilyers product design and manufacturing senior class at the Olean BOCES Career and Technical Education Center designed and manufactured part of the stainless steel latch assembly for a storage locker aboard SpaceX-11, which launched Sunday from Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The project was completed through High Schools United with NASA to Create Hardware (HUNCH), an educational initiative started by Stacy Hale to give students the opportunity to create hardware with NASAs aid. NASA provides materials, equipment and mentoring to each of the HUNCH teams across the country so they can complete their projects to near-expert quality over the course of their studies.

Olean High School senior Korryn Martin served as the lead designer and programmer on this years project. She started with an original drawing of the part created in the 1980s as part of the space shuttle program which she used to develop a new, modified design. She explains the new drawing also involved changing some of the old coding.

Martin says she spent part or all of 20 classes on the project. In addition to creating the new drawing, she did all of the programming for the computer numeric control machining of the piece. Each piece takes about an hour to make on the machine, which uses three separate bits to slowly manufacture the part, taking 20/1,000ths off with each pass.

This project has been pretty interesting, Martin says. Im kind of interested in space, and ever since I was a young age, I have been interested in making or inventing something. So this project has brought both of those interests together.

Hale brought a storage locker to be used in the launch, about the size of a bread box, to the BOCES class so students could sign the locker with a special Sharpie.

It is cool that your signature is going to be out of this world, Hale told the students at the time.

Olean Mayor Bill Aiello was on hand, along with Joyce Louser, a representative of State Sen. Catharine Youngs office, who read a letter congratulating the class on its accomplishments.

The signatures will be short-lived, however, as once the items have been removed from the storage containers, the lockers are usually jettisoned and burn up upon re-entry into the earths atmosphere.

Hale says the storage lockers weigh a little over 9 pounds, but each locker requires more than 170 pounds of raw materials to make. In addition to providing a valuable learning experience for the students, the HUNCH program has saved NASA a lot of money, he says.

Before HUNCH, Lockheed wanted to charge NASA $1 million to make 20 of the storage lockers, he says. That is about $50,000 each. We probably make them for less than $4,000.

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Hilyer, the BOCES teacher, says the NASA HUNCH program has been great for our CTE students, giving them the opportunity to work on real-world projects that incorporate CAD, CNC programming and machining. Its also great that our students can put on their resume that theyve created parts for NASA.

Several students from the Olean BOCES classes plan to attend a HUNCH ceremony April 22 at the Plum Brook Station, a remote test facility for the NASA Glenn Research Center located in Sandusky, Ohio.

Meanwhile, Martins mother, Kristina Capizzi, says her daughter struggled in school but has been much more interested since she started attending the CTE Center as a junior last year.

For her part, Martin agrees.

I am planning to move to Florida after graduation, she says. I am thinking of possibly taking a two-year course in programming or CAD design.

Elon Musks SpaceX developed the Dragon rocket and capsule as a private contractor working with NASA.

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State & Union: Part from local BOCES on way to space station ... - Olean Times Herald