Daily Archives: March 27, 2022

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In a press conference this evening, NASA officials said Axiom Space's private Ax-1 space mission is ready to launch to the International Space Station as early as April 3 at 1:13 p.m. EDT (1713 GMT), but only if NASA completes a critical fueling test of its new Space Launch System megarocket.

The Ax-1 mission, which will launch four private spaceflyers to the station on a 10-day trip, eight of them on the ISS, on a SpaceX rocket. SpaceX uses Pad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA's Artemis 1 Space Launch System megarocket is standing atop the nearby Pad39B for a vital "wet dress rehearsal" which is scheduled for April 1 to April 3.

It is possible that NASA will complete the Artemis 1 fueling test early enough on April 3 for Ax-1 to fly. If not, the private mission's launch window extends through at least April 7, NASA said.

NASA, SpaceX and Axiom Space have completed a day-long flight readiness review meeting today, March 25, for the planned Axiom Mission (Ax-1) to the International Space Station set to launch no earlier than April 3, 2022.

The mission, which will launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon spacecraft, will carry four private astronauts to the space station for the first time. It is the first all-private mission to the station in its over 20-year history.

Ax-1 will launch former NASA astronaut Michael Lpez-Alegra and paying passengers Larry Connor, Mark Pathy and Eytan Stibbe. Lpez-Alegra will command the flight. The space travelers will spend 10 days in space and plan to perform a series of science experiments and studies on the space station while also enjoying the commercial spaceflight experience.

"During the 10-day mission, the crew will spend eight days on the International Space Station conducting scientific research, outreach, and commercial activities," NASA officials said in a statement.

NASA will hold a press teleconference tonight at 6 p.m. EDT (2200 GMT) to discuss plans for the Ax-1 mission. You can listen in on the mission live here.

Speaking during tonight's press conference will be:

Read this article:
Ax-1 private mission to space station: Live updates - Space.com

Illustration of an Artemis astronaut on the Moon. Credit: NASA

Upgrade work continues outside the space station

An updated strategy for landing Artemis astronauts on the Moon

And unsealing pieces of the past a few of the stories to tell you about This Week at NASA!

On March 23, the crew onboard the International Space Station conducted the second spacewalk this month to continue upgrades to the orbiting laboratory. During the outing, NASA astronaut Raja Chari and European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer worked to install new thermal system and electronics components on the stations U.S. segment. They also worked to install a power and data cable on the Columbus modules Bartolomeo science platform, replace an external camera on the stations truss, and conduct other upgrades to station hardware.

Updated Strategy for Landing Artemis Astronauts on the Moon

Also on March 23, we announced plans to create additional opportunities for commercial companies to develop an astronaut Moon lander that can transport humans between our lunar orbiting space station known as Gateway and the lunar surface, for missions beyond Artemis III, which will be the first mission to land astronauts on the Moon in more than 50 years. The announcement is part of a strategy by the agency to pursue two parallel paths for continuing lunar lander development and demonstration, one that calls for additional work under an existing contract with commercial partner, SpaceX, and another open to all other U.S. companies. This effort is meant to maximize NASAs support for competition and provides redundancy in services to help ensure NASAs ability to transport astronauts to the lunar surface.

One of the last unopened Apollo-era lunar samples collected 50 years ago during Apollo 17 has been opened at our Johnson Space Center in Houston. Sample 73001 had been kept vacuum sealed and in pristine condition in anticipation of the day that scientists equipped with advanced technology could examine it. The Apollo Next Generation Sample Analysis Program is studying the sample and others like it, as we prepare to send astronauts back to the Moon for more samples on upcoming Artemis missions.

On March 21, the number of confirmed exoplanets, or planets outside of our solar system, ticked past the 5,000 mark. The milestone was reached when the latest batch of 65 exoplanets was added to the NASA Exoplanet Archive. This stream of exoplanet discoveries that began 30 years ago, includes contributions from NASAs TESS, Kepler, and Spitzer space telescopes, with more discoveries possible in the future from our James Webb and Nancy Grace Roman space telescopes.

On March 22, the newest U.S.-European sea level satellite, named Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich, became the official reference satellite for global sea level measurements. This means that sea surface height data collected by other satellites will be compared to the information produced by Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich to ensure accuracy. The satellite, which is named after NASAs former Earth Science Division Director, the late Dr. Michael Freilich, was launched in November 2020.

Thats whats up this week @NASA

Read more from the original source:
This Week @NASA: Landing Artemis Astronauts on the Moon, Space Station Upgrade Work - SciTechDaily

There will always be somebody ready to do whatever it takes to feed their fellow citizens, says Spanish chef Jos Andrs. Thats been his mission since 2010, when he launched his nonprofit organization World Central Kitchen (WCK) to cook hot meals for victims of the Haitian earthquake. He later brought the organization to storm-ravaged Houston and Puerto Rico. Over the past couple of years, WCK also served more than 40 million meals to people whose lives and livelihoods were affected by the pandemic.

[Photo: courtesy ThinkFoodGroup]One day after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, WCK mobilized to address the war, setting up in eight locations along the Polish border with Ukraine. Within weeks, the nonprofit had established partnerships with restaurants and food trucks to distribute meals to people at border crossings, shelters, train stations, and other locations across the region, including Ukraine, Poland, Hungary, Moldova, and Romania. Its also focused on getting bulk produce and supplies to partner restaurants inside Ukraine to alleviate strained supply chains. The organization is now serving some 180,000 daily meals to people displaced by the war. It has also mobilized restaurants and chefs outside the region to support its efforts in Ukraine by hosting #ChefsForUkraine fundraising dinners.

At the same time, Andrs has been working to bring his food into space. In early April, two dishes designed by his company, ThinkFoodGroup, will launch with a multinational crew headed to the International Space Station, on a mission put together by commercial space company Axiom Space. Andrs, who got involved through his friendship with veteran astronaut Michael Lpez-Alegra, commander for the upcoming mission, says that he has long dreamed of making meals for astronautsand even going to space himself.

Fast Company talked with him about working in a war zone, designing meals for astronauts, and the power of paella.

Fast Company: How is your work in Ukraine different from what youve done in other crisis zones?

Jos Andrs: Were a young NGO. Weve never been in an active war zone. Weve been in situations of instability, like Venezuela or Haiti, but this is a true war scenario. We began working in the countries surrounding Ukraine, except for Russia. We began in Poland, but very quickly we sent teams to Hungary and Romania. I think were doing 180,000 meals a day, mainly because more and more refugees keep leaving Ukraine. We see that the need inside [Ukraine also] keeps increasing.

Everybody talks about the three million refugees, but nobody talks about the other two to three million, if not more, that are displaced inside Ukraine. So there are at least six million people whose lives have been destroyed. Plus the other millions who are in cities where theres bombing and shelling. So we are talking about probably 10-, 12-, 13 million people whose lives are not the same anymore. This is a major event.

FC: Whats the security situation for an NGO like World Central Kitchen?

JA: Obviously, there is a lot of security advice. Sometimes it sounds more [like something] from a James Bond movie than real life, but you take them seriously. Some foreign Russian assets try to distort facts to create mayhem, but you still have to take all security advice seriously. Because of the security risk, we have to send food to different cities using different protocols and systems. Were figuring out how to navigate checkpoints: Its quicker to get through when security recognizes that you are feeding people.

FC: How are you actually getting food to people?

JA: Ive found that there will always be somebody ready to do whatever it takes to feed their fellow citizens. Weve been supporting people [in local food businesses] with money, with assets, with equipment, and with food. We are supporting bakeries and distributors. We have been serving venison that people have huntedand lots of soups because its so cold and people need warmth.

[Photo: courtesy ThinkFoodGroup]FC: Youre also trying to feed people in space. How did your collaboration with Axiom Space come about?

JA: Ive been talking to NASA now for a long time. I had NASA people come to my main office meet with me and my team a few times in the last 10 or 12 years. At Axiom, we ended up working with a lot of people from the NASA team we used to talk to. I am friends with [astronaut] Michael Lpez-Alegrahe is also Spanishwho is leading the group to the [International Space Station] with Axiom. When I created WCK, I always said, We send doctors and nurses to help the sick, so why dont we send cooks to feed people who need it? I always wanted to push those boundaries. The truth is that we will be on Mars or Jupiter or whatever one day. We have all this technology to go to another planet but we dont have the will on earth to make our planet better.

FC: How did you decide what dishes to serve on the ISS?

I mean: Spanish chef, Spanish astronaut. For me, we had to do one of the most iconic Spanish dishes, paella. Its a rice dishwe made one with chicken and mushrooms and there are rice dishes around the world. In India you have biryani, in Brazil and China you have rice dishes, too. So, it felt kind of international. We also made secreto de cerdo con pisto, an ibrico pork dish with tomatoes, onions, eggplant, and peppers, because I wanted to showcase another Spanish dish. But I now realize that one of the astronauts cant eat pork! The most important one to me is the paella.

[Photo: courtesy ThinkFoodGroup]FC: What were the R&D challenges of designing a dish that can travel into space?

JA: Well, first of all, we did this all in the middle of a pandemic. A lot of it was less science and more trial and error. I had my team members helping me with this one, and they tested over 100 iterations of the paella. We had to create a meal where all of the ingredients could be put in an opaque bag, and put on a metal shelf to get warmed up for half an hour before being consumed. We had to figure out how liquid would reduce in the bag to make sure the paella wasnt too soft or too hard and the moisture level was perfect. We had to figure out the quantities of each raw ingredient, how and how they would cook under pressure. We tested it in Houston and then in our offices and in our homes trying to recreate the conditions.

FC: Theres now a rift between the ISSs two main partners, the United States and Russia. Russias space chief even raised the idea of Russia leading the ISS into an uncontrolled deorbit in a series of tweets criticizing U.S. sanctions against Russia. Has this affected your work?

JA: This meal will be shared by all Axiom Mission 1 astronauts. Paella is a communal dish, and everybody in the Ax-1 crew will share it. I dont know that this is the beginning of the peace process, but its good for people to eat together and see each other across a table.

FC: Do you plan on making more dishes to be consumed in space down the line?

JA: I hope so. Critics will say that with so much hunger on this planet, why spend money to go to space? I say we can do both. More and more people are going to be going to space. Its important to have good people working on these things.

FC: Do you plan on going to space?

JA: Youre going to laugh at me, but Ive been getting into shape over the last two or three years. Somebody told me everybody has a 1% chance of going up there. I mean, Ive been down in a submarine into the deep sea. Im a cook who barely graduated [from high school]. Anything is possible. I started cooking rice dishes with my father when I was a kid, and now I am making the same dish for a crew going to the International Space Station.

Link:
From Ukrainians to astronauts on the ISS, Jos Andrs is feeding anyone in needand well - Fast Company

(NASA/Roscosmos via AP) In this photo provided by NASA/Roscosmos, the International Space Station continues its orbit around the Earth as seen from a Soyuz spacecraft departing with NASA astronauts Andrew Feustel and Ricky Arnold and Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev, who had spent 197 days in space. The University of Utah Health received funding to study how space travel affects the health of astronauts.

| March 26, 2022, 1:00 p.m.

This story is part of The Salt Lake Tribunes ongoing commitment to identify solutions to Utahs biggest challenges through the work of the Innovation Lab.

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Editors note This story is available to Salt Lake Tribune subscribers only. Thank you for supporting local journalism.

Dr. Hans Schwertz always dreamt of the stars. As a kid back home in Germany, he found himself gazing at the sky after reading a book about space. One of his prized possessions growing up was a print of the picture Earthrise snapped by Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders.

I always told my kids I would love to stand on the moon and see the earth rise, Schwertz, an adjunct professor of family and preventive medicine at the University of Utah Health who practices medicine in Montana said. That would be so cool.

Schwertz realized hed probably never fly to the moon, so he searched for a different way to get a taste of space. As an occupational doctor, he started researching the impacts space travel has on astronauts.

Schwertz and Dr. Matthew Rondina, a professor of internal medicine and pathology at the U., pitched a grant proposal to NASA that would examine how astronauts physically adapt and acclimate to space by looking at bone marrow cells and blood platelets during space travel. Such cells help protect against infectious disease and inflammation and can weaken outside of Earths environment.

(Hans Schwertz) Dr. Hans Schwertz, adjunct professor of family and preventive medicine at the University of Utah Health, working on a research project examining how astronauts' cells react and adapt to space travel. The research is one of ten biology projects funded by NASA in 2021.

NASA passed on their proposal twice, but their third attempt ended in success. Schwertz and Rondina were awarded one of ten biology grants offered by NASA in 2021, U. Health announced Wednesday.

I was in actual tears, as cheesy as that sounds, Schwartz said when he found out NASA accepted their proposal. I guess the third time was the lucky charm.

Its been nearly 60 years since America began space exploration. Research indicates astronauts experience a stressful environment in space and are exposed to cosmic radiation, confinement, lower gravitational pulls, different kinds of bacteria, lowered immunity and a loss of muscle and bone mass. These conditions have been linked to an increased risk of hemorrhages, blood clots and slower recovery times.

Schwertz says as NASA plans to explore Mars or establish a space station on the moon, the U. Healths research could prove invaluable, especially since the long-term effects of space travel on astronauts remain largely unknown.

We are talking about long time spans [in space] and about areas that are not protected by the Earths magnetic field, he noted. So cosmic radiation and stuff like that will be much more pronounced and that needs to be explored, and there needs to be research on what risks we put on those astronauts.

Through a voluntary process, blood samples of astronauts will be drawn before they go to space, during space travel, and examined in real-time, then researchers will compare the two culture samples. Once the astronauts return to Earth, another blood sample will be taken. The team of five will also simulate cosmic radiation in a lab to see how the cells react to exposure.

(Hans Schwertz) Dr. Hans Schwertz, adjunct professor of family and preventive medicine at the University of Utah Health, working on a research project examining how astronauts' cells react and adapt to space travel. The research is one of ten biology projects funded by NASA in 2021. This photo was taken prior to the COVID-19 pandemic when masks inside U. Health facilities were not mandated.

Additionally, Rondina highlights this research could advance medicine on Earth by broadening the understanding of how bone marrow cells and platelets contribute to inflammation, immunity and wound healing.

This knowledge could potentially lead to new treatments for a host of autoimmune diseases and other disorders, Rondina said in the U. Health statement.

If everything goes as planned, Schwertz and Rondinas research could board the International Space Station and blast off into space within the next year.

I cannot tell you how much I will enjoy that moment when I stand at the Kennedy Space Center with my family, kids in hand and watch the experiment really fly, Schwertz said proudly. Its going to be so rewarding to show them this is possible.

Excerpt from:
NASA funds University of Utah Health project on biological impacts of space travel - Salt Lake Tribune