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Space-based businesses dont all have to be about communications or Earth observation European startup Space Cargo Unlimited, for instance, is focused on what operating in a microgravity environment can unlock for research and manufacturing. Accordingly, the company just launched an unusual payload to the International Space Station (ISS) 12 bottles of wine.

The wine is not leisure-time supplies for the astronauts on board the ISS; instead, its part of an experiment that will study how the aging process for wine is affected by a microgravity, space-based environment. Wine samples taken from the same batch will be aged simultaneously on Earth over the same 12-month period, and then the results will be compared when the ISS wine shipment returns on a future cargo craft trip back.

One of the wine samples in its protective container prior to launch

Both the Earth and the ISS wine samples will remain sealed in their glass bottle environments, and theyll be kept at a constant temperature of around 18 degrees celsius (or around 64 degrees Fahrenheit), undisturbed, to let the interior complex biological environment of the bottles do their work. Researchers predict there will be taste differences that result from the effect that microgravity and space-based radiation will have on physical and chemical reactions, but the only way to find out for sure is to give it a shot.

It sure sounds like this could set up a new line of literally space-aged wines that command a pretty premium, but Space Cargo Unlimited says that their work is more following in the footsteps of Louis Pasteur, who essentially developed pasteurization though experiments with wine fermentation. To that end, its hoping this experiment will produce results that could have broader applications across food preservation and the related technologies.

Space Cargo Unlimiteds wine samples launched aboard a Northrop Grumman Antares rocket, loaded onto a Cygnus cargo spacecraft, which successfully docked with the ISS on Monday morning.

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A startup just launched red wine to the International Space Station to age for 12 months - TechCrunch

Science and Technology

November 6, 2019 Atlanta, GA

Click image to enlarge

This sample includes five small area organic photovoltaic devices that were fabricated in the Kippelen Research Group at Georgia Tech. Samples with similar geometry were sent to the ISS to investigate the effects of exposure to space environments. (Photo: Bernard Kippelen, Georgia Tech)

Adapted from Georgia Tech Research Horizons

Five different types of solar cells fabricated by research teams at the Georgia Institute of Technology have arrived at the International Space Station (ISS) to be tested for their power conversion rate and ability to operate in the harsh space environment as part of the MISSE-12 mission. One type of cell, made of low-cost organic materials, has not been extensively tested in space before.

Textured carbon nanotube-based photovoltaic cells designed to capture light from any angle will be evaluated for their ability to efficiently produce power regardless of their orientation toward the sun. Other cells made from perovskite materials and a low-cost copper-zinc-tin-sulfide (CZTS) material along with a control group of traditional silicon-based cells will be among the 20 photovoltaic (PV) devices placed on the Materials International Space Station Experiment Flight Facility on the exterior of the ISS for a six-month evaluation. For two of the cells, the launch marked their second trip into space.

The research questions are the same for all the photovoltaic cells: Can these photo-absorbers be used effectively in space? said Jud Ready, principal research engineer in the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), associate director of Georgia Techs Center for Space Technology and Research, and deputy director of Georgia Techs Institute for Materials. With this test, we will gain insights into the degradation mechanisms of these materials and be able to compare their power production under varying conditions.

Organic solar cells developed in the laboratory of Professor Bernard Kippelen at Georgia Tech are processed at low temperatures using solution-based processes over large areas to produce cells with an absorber that can be about 200 times thinner than the width of a human hair.

With a very low weight and power conversion efficiency values of up to 16%, organic solar cells could yield power values in the hundreds of thousands of watts per kilogram of active material, which is very attractive for space applications, said Kippelen, the Joseph M. Pettit Professor in the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. However, the effects of continuous exposure of these devices in a space environment have not been thoroughly explored. Our interest is in investigating the robustness of the interfaces formed in these devices in a space environment, as well as to improve our understanding of the mechanisms of degradation for organic solar cells in space.

Traditional flat solar cells are most efficient when the sunlight is directly overhead. Because the direction of the solar flux varies with the orbit, large space vehicles like the ISS use mechanical pointing mechanisms to keep the cells properly aimed. Those complex mechanisms create maintenance issues, however, and are too heavy for use on very small spacecraft such as CubeSats.

To overcome the pointing problem, Readys team developed 3D textured solar cells that can efficiently capture sunlight arriving at different angles. The cells use towers made from carbon nanotubes and covered with PV material to trap light that would bounce off standard cells when they are not angled toward the sun.

With our light-trapping structure, we are agnostic to the sun angle, said Ready. Our cells actually work better at glancing angles. On CubeSats, that will allow efficient capture regardless of the orientation of the sun.

Perovskite cells produced in the laboratory of Zhiqun Lin, professor in the School of Materials Science and Engineering, will also be tested. These materials have known failure mechanisms caused by moisture and oxygen absorption. These two failure mechanisms wont be present on the outside of the International Space Station, so this test will allow us to see the performance of these materials without those issues. We should be able to determine whether these known issues might be masking other degradation causes, Ready said.

CZTS materials are potentially next-generation solar cells made up of low-cost, Earth-abundant materials: copper, zinc, tin and sulfur. The materials have a high absorption coefficient and may be resistant to radiation useful for space applications and offer an attractive tradeoff between cost and performance, Ready said.

Silicon-based solar cells produced by the University Center of Excellence in Photovoltaic Research and Education at Georgia Tech will provide a way to compare the performance of the other cells. The laboratory, headed by Regents Professor Ajeet Rohatgi from the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, provided boron-doped p-type cells with a phosphorus-doped n+ emitter and aluminum-doped p+ back surface field.

These silicon photo-absorber cells will serve as controls to compare the performance of other photo-absorber materials in space, said Rohatgi.

The 20 PV cells will briefly join three other cells fabricated by Georgia Tech researchers that are already on the ISS. Those three, and two on the newest mission, were part of a 2016 experiment that was unable to record data, though it did provide information about the effects of the space environment on the solar cells.

The Georgia Tech photovoltaic cells were launched to the ISS on Nov. 2 aboard the S.S. Alan Bean, a Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft from NASAs Wallops Island Facility, as part of a routine resupply mission. For their testing, the cells were integrated into a test package by Alpha Space Test & Research Alliance of Houston.

In addition to those already mentioned, the project also included Canek Fuentes-Hernandez, Matthew Rager, Hunter Chan, Christopher Tran, Christopher Blancher, Zhitao Kang and Conner Awald and Brian Rounsaville, all from Georgia Tech.

Research NewsGeorgia Institute of Technology177 North AvenueAtlanta, Georgia 30332-0181 USA

Media Relations Contact: John Toon (404-894-6986) (jtoon@gatech.edu).

Writer: John Toon

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Solar Cells from STAMI Members Reach the International Space Station for Testing - Georgia Tech News Center

Northrop Grummans Cygnus supply ship was captured by the space stations robotic arm at 4:10 a.m. EST (0910 GMT) Monday. Credit: NASA TV/Spaceflight Now

NASA astronaut Jessica Meir took control of the International Space Stations Canadian-built robot arm Monday to capture a Northrop Grumman Cygnus supply ship carrying crew provisions, spacewalking gear to repair an aging particle physics experiment, tech demo satellites for the U.S. military, and an oven to bake the first cookies in space.

The automated cargo freighter arrived at the space station Monday, using GPS and laser-guided navigation to fine-tune its rendezvous along an approach corridor below the research complex. The Cygnus spacecraft held its position less than 40 feet, or about 12 meters, below the station for Meir to command the robotic arm to capture the supply ship at 4:10 a.m. EST (0910 GMT) Monday.

Engineers in mission control were expected to take over commanding of the robot arm to berth the Cygnus spacecraft to the stations Unity module a few hours later, setting the stage for astronauts to open hatches leading to the pressurized cargo carrier to begin unpacking the supplies inside.

The Cygnus spacecraft launched Saturday atop an Antares rocket from Wallops Island, Virginia, with approximately 8,168 pounds (3,705 kilograms) of food, experiments, hardware, and small satellites set for deployment in orbit in the coming months.

Heres a breakdown of the cargo manifest provided by NASA:

The equipment inside the Cygnus cargo freighters Italian-made pressurized compartment include tools and replacement hardware for an upcoming repair of the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer.

European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano and NASA flight engineer Andrew Morgan will perform the spacewalks to repair the AMS instrument, which was not designed to be serviced in space. The complicated repairs are expected to require four or five spacewalks to complete, beginning in mid-November.

Mounted on the space stations truss on the final mission of the space shuttle Endeavour in 2011, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer is effectively a powerful magnet that attracts cosmic rays, subatomic particles traveling through space at nearly the speed of light.

Three of the four coolant pumps on AMSs silicon tracker, which measures the trajectory and energy of the cosmic rays captured by the instrument, have failed, prompting NASA engineers to develop a plan to repair the coolant system. The work required the development of special tools to cut into the AMS instrument, install new hardware, and re-seal tiny coolant lines.

The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer was never designed to be serviced in space. Read our earlier story for details on the repairs.

There were 15 small satellites riding aboard the Cygnus spacecraft for Saturdays launch.

The biggest of the group is a U.S. Air Force satellite named STPSat 4, which weighs roughly 220 pounds (100 kilograms) and will be transferred into the space stations Kibo module by astronauts the Cygnus hatch is opened. Sponsored by the militarys Space Test Program, STPSat 4 will be one of the largest satellites ever deployed from the space station.

STPSat 4 carries five experiments from the Air Force Research Laboratory, the U.S. Air Force Academy, and the U.S. Navy. The experiments will test radio frequency module tiles, help develop new solar array technology, collect data with a miniaturized space weather instrument, demonstrate the performance of an advanced U.S.-built star tracker, and assist in nanosatellite tracking.

Craig Technologies, based on Floridas Space Coast, is providing integration services for the STPSat 4 spacecraft, which will be released from the Space Station Integrated Kinetic Launcher for Orbital Payload Systems, or SSIKLOPS, deployer. The mechanism, which was first used in 2014, is designed to release small satellites with masses between 100 and 200 pounds.

The other CubeSats on-board the NG-12 mission are sponsored by NASA, the Air Force, and the National Reconnaissance Office. NanoRacks, a Houston-based space services company, arranged the launch of most of the CubeSats.

Some will be ejected from the space station after the Cygnus spacecrafts arrival, and others will be released from the Cygnus itself after the cargo vehicle departs the station in January.

Other payloads aboard the Cygnus supply ship include a rodent research experiment. Scientists loaded mice into the spacecraft to investigate how the animals respond to changes in their circatidal clock in microgravity.

The 12-hour circatidal clock, in which animals experience equal amounts of light and dark phases each day, is associated with maintaining stress responsive pathways. Scientists want to know if exposure to microgravity changes the animals circadian rhythm.

Recent research shows that genes associated with the 12-hour clock are linked with the most common form of human liver disease. The rodent research experiment on the space station could reveal new insights into liver disease, and give scientists ideas for new pharmaceutical treatments, according to NASA.

The Cygnus also carries an experimental garment that astronauts could use to protect themselves from harmful radiation on future deep space missions to the moon and Mars, outside the natural shielding of Earths magnetic field.

The Cygnus also delivered an oven to the space station designed to bake cookies in microgravity, demonstrating technology that will help future crews cook their own food on lengthy expeditions to the moon or Mars.

But an oven in microgravity doesnt work the same as one on Earth. The heating elements on the Zero-G Oven, developed by Zero G Kitchen and Nanoracks, are arranged around the oven to focus heat in the center, similar to the way a toaster oven works.

Currently, on the International Space Station, there is rally a limited ability to prepare foods in ways that were used to, said IanFichtenbaum, founder and co-chef of Zero G Kitchen.

Astronauts will load cookies into the oven on a special tray designed to keep the food from floating away in microgravity. Temperatures inside the oven will reach up to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (177 degrees Celsius) during baking, according to NASA.

Baking in space is different because theres no gravity, Fichtenbaum said. On earth, that air is churning around in the oven, and thats convection. In space, that is not happening. Instead, we have to use conduction through the oven, conduction through the air, to warm it up.

The first cookie to be baked in space comes from DoubleTree by Hilton, which provided chocolate chip cookie dough for the baking experiment.

Science is awesome, food is awesome, and this is just going to be an amazing journey to see what comes out of this, said JordanaFichtenbaum, founder and co-chef of Zero G Kitchen.

The Cygnus spacecraft also delivered mice to the space stationto investigate how the animals respond to changes in their circatidal clock in microgravity.

The 12-hour circatidal clock, in which animals experience equal amounts of light and dark phases each day, is associated with maintaining stress responsive pathways. Scientists want to know if exposure to microgravity changes the animals circadian rhythm.

Recent research shows that genes associated with the 12-hour clock are linked with the most common form of human liver disease. The rodent research experiment on the space station could reveal new insights into liver disease, and give scientists ideas for new pharmaceutical treatments, according to NASA.

The Cygnus also carries an experimental garment that astronauts could use to protect themselves from harmful radiation on future deep space missions to the moon and Mars, outside the natural shielding of Earths magnetic field.

The AstroRad Vest could shield astronauts from radiation from unpredictable solar storms, which can deliver enough radiation in a few hours to cause serious health problems for space fliers, officials said.

Our innovation was selective shielding, so were selectively shielding those organs that are most prone to either acute radiation syndrome or a cancer down the road, saidOren Milstein, co-founder and chief scientific officer for StemRad, an Israeli company that originally developed the vest garment to protect first responders from radiation during a nuclear accident.

StemRad is partnering with Lockheed Martin, the prime contractor for NASAs Orion crew capsule, to transfer the vest technology to space.

Astronauts on the International Space Station will wear the vest to check its comfort and function, according toKathleen Coderre, the AstroRad Vests principal investigator from Lockheed Martin.

The vest weighs nearly 50 pounds (about 22 kilograms). Milstein said the garment is made ofdense polyethylene embedded in a highly flexible textile mesh.

It is an ergonomic experiment, so the vest needs to protect the crew from the deep space radiation environment, but it also needs to be comfortable to wear, flexible enough for them to do their daily duties, Coderre said.

A similar vest will fly on the Orion crew module on the Artemis 1 mission, an unpiloted test flight into orbit around the moon that will verify the spacecrafts readiness to carry astronaut. That experiment will test the vests protective capability in the deep space radiation environment, which is more harsh than the radiation present at the International Space Station in low Earth orbit.

Email the author.

Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.

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Space station receives spacewalking gear, new baking oven - Spaceflight Now

(TNS) A bipartisan group of senators proposed a bill Wednesday that would fund NASA for the next fiscal year and extend U.S. operations of the International Space Station through 2030.

The measure, called the NASA Authorization Act of 2019, is co-sponsored by U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz and directs Congress to provide the space agency with $22.8 billion for fiscal year 2020.

The bill would, among other things, extend authorization for the space station through 2030 and direct NASA to take steps to grow the space economy, said Cruz, a Texas Republican who chairs the aviation and space subcommittee.

U.S. Sens. Kyrsten Sinema and Maria Cantwell, both Democrats, and Roger Wicker, a Republican, are co-sponsors.

The NASA authorization bill is one step in a long budget process. If passed, it would still require Congress to pass an appropriations bill to fund the items listed in the bill. The $22.8 billion proposal for NASAs budget marks a slight increase from last years $21.5 billion budget, which was $1.6 billion more than President Donald Trump's original 2019 proposal for the space agency.

Trumps 2020 budget proposal included $21 billion for NASA, a slight decrease from 2019. He later requested an additional $1.6 billion to expedite NASAs Artemis program to return humans to the Moon.

Federal funding for the 20-year-old space station currently is scheduled to end after 2024, but Congress can extend that date, and has in the past. Experts have said the space station can operate safely until at least 2030. The legislation calls for the U.S. maintaining a continuous human presence in low-Earth orbit through and beyond the useful life of the ISS.

Astronauts from the U.S., Russia, Japan, Canada and Europe serve on the space station, from which crews conduct a range of experiments.

The measure would also make NASAs stated goal of returning to the Moon and a future journey to Mars a national goal.

Not only will this legislation help ensure Americans safely return to the moon, it will help ensure Americas dreams of taking the first step on the surface of Mars become a reality, Cruz said.

However, the bill identifies 2028 as the target date for a return to the lunar surface, a break from the Trump Administrations stated goal of getting humans back to the Moon by 2024.

NASA has been scrambling to meet the expedited timeline in the wake of March comments by Vice President Mike Pence directing the agency to accelerate that timeline to 2024 using any means necessary. NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine has said the Artemis moon program could cost up to $30 billion, but the agency has not provided a budget plan to Congress.

The bill would also support the development of next-generation spacesuits, as well as life and physical science research, to ensure that humans can live in deep space safely. NASA engineers demonstrated the new Exploration Extravehicular Mobility Unit or xEMU spacesuits in Washington in October, which will allow astronauts to reach down and touch the lunar surface.

NASA has been working on new spacesuits for more than a decade an effort that has stumbled, in part, because of inadequate funding. The suits currently worn by astronauts during spacewalks outside the space station are 40 years old and reaching the end of their lifespan.

The legislation also bolsters NASAs efforts to detect asteroids that could threaten Earth in the near future. It directs NASA to develop a dedicated division to launch space-based infrared survey telescope to detect near-Earth objects.

2019 the Houston Chronicle.Distributed byTribune Content Agency, LLC.

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New Bill Would Extend U.S. Operation of Space Station - Government Technology

The International Space Station has taken delivery of 12 bottles of fine French wine, after they were flown up to astronauts aboard a rocket.

But the recipients won't actually be able to drink them: they are there not for enjoying, but for ageing.

The red Bordeaux wine will age for a year up there before returning to Earth. Researchers will study how weightlessness and space radiation affect the ageing process. The goal is to develop new flavours and properties for the food industry.

Sharing the full story, not just the headlines

The bottles flew up aboard a Northrop Grumman capsule that launched from Virginia on Saturday and arrived at the International Space Station on Monday. Each bottle was packed in a metal canister to prevent breakage.

Universities in Bordeaux, France, and Bavaria, Germany, are taking part in the experiment from Space Cargo Unlimited, a Luxembourg startup.

The eye of Hurricane Dorian as captured by Nasa astronaut Nick Hague from onboard the International Space Station (ISS) on 3 September

Nasa/EPA

The River Nile and its delta captured at night from the ISS on 2 September

Nasa

The galaxy Messier 81, located in the northern constellation of Ursa Major, as seen by Nasa's Spitzer Space Telescope

Nasa/JPL-Caltech

The flight path Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft is seen in this long exposure photograph as it launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on 25 September

Nasa/Bill Ingalls

Danielson Crater, an impact crater in the Arabia region of Mars, as captured by Nasa's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft

Nasa/JPL-Caltech

A team rehearses landing and crew extraction from Boeing's CST-100 Starliner, which will be used to carry humans to the International Space Station at the White Sands Missile Range outside Las Cruces, New Mexico

Nasa/Bill Ingalls

Bound for the International Space Station, the Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on 25 September

Nasa/Bill Ingalls

Hurricane Dorian as seen from the ISS on 2 September

Nasa

A string of tropical cyclones streams across Earth's northern hemisphere in this picture taken from the ISS on 4 September

Nasa

The city of New York as seen from the ISS on 11 September

Nasa

The eye of Hurricane Dorian as captured by Nasa astronaut Nick Hague from onboard the International Space Station (ISS) on 3 September

Nasa/EPA

The River Nile and its delta captured at night from the ISS on 2 September

Nasa

The galaxy Messier 81, located in the northern constellation of Ursa Major, as seen by Nasa's Spitzer Space Telescope

Nasa/JPL-Caltech

The flight path Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft is seen in this long exposure photograph as it launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on 25 September

Nasa/Bill Ingalls

Danielson Crater, an impact crater in the Arabia region of Mars, as captured by Nasa's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft

Nasa/JPL-Caltech

A team rehearses landing and crew extraction from Boeing's CST-100 Starliner, which will be used to carry humans to the International Space Station at the White Sands Missile Range outside Las Cruces, New Mexico

Nasa/Bill Ingalls

Bound for the International Space Station, the Soyuz MS-15 spacecraft launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on 25 September

Nasa/Bill Ingalls

Hurricane Dorian as seen from the ISS on 2 September

Nasa

A string of tropical cyclones streams across Earth's northern hemisphere in this picture taken from the ISS on 4 September

Nasa

The city of New York as seen from the ISS on 11 September

Nasa

Winemaking uses both yeast and bacteria, and involves chemical processes, making wine ideal for space study, said University of Erlangen-Nuremberg's Michael Lebert, the experiment's scientific director, in a company video.

The space-aged wine will be compared to Bordeaux wine aged on Earth. What's left will go to those who helped pay for the research, according to a company spokeswoman.

This is the first of six space missions planned by the company over the next three years touching on the future of agriculture given our changing world.

"This is a once-in-a-lifetime adventure," Nicolas Gaume, chief executive and co-founder of Space Cargo Unlimited, said in a statement.

NASA is opening the space station to more business opportunities like this and, eventually, even private astronaut missions.

The Cygnus capsule that pulled up to the space station on Monday contains multiple commercial ventures. Also on board: an oven for baking chocolate chip cookies, as well as samples of carbon fibre used by Italy's Lamborghini in its sports cars.

Budweiser has already sent barley seeds to the station, with an eye to becoming the beverage of choice on Mars. In 2015, a Japanese company known for its whiskey and other alcoholic drinks sent up samples. Scotch also made a visit to space in another experiment.

As for high-flying wine cellars, this isn't the first. A French astronaut took along a bottle of wine aboard shuttle Discovery in 1985. The bottle remained corked in orbit.

The space station's current crew includes three Americans, two Russians and an Italian.

Additional reporting by Associated Press

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International Space Station receives a dozen bottles of fine wine - The Independent

Illustration depicting a Type I X-ray burst. The explosion first blows off the hydrogen layer, which expands and ultimately dissipates. Then rising radiation builds to the point where it blows off the helium layer, which overtakes the expanding hydrogen. Some of the X-rays emitted in the blast scatter off of the accretion disk. The fireball then quickly cools, and the helium settles back onto the surface. Credit: NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center/Chris Smith (USRA)

NASAs Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER) telescope on the International Space Station detected a sudden spike of X-rays at about 10:04 p.m. EDT on August 20, 2019. The burst was caused by a massive thermonuclear flash on the surface of a pulsar, the crushed remains of a star that long ago exploded as a supernova.

The X-ray burst, the brightest seen by NICER so far, came from an object named SAX J1808.4-3658, or J1808 for short. The observations reveal many phenomena that have never been seen together in a single burst. In addition, the subsiding fireball briefly brightened again for reasons astronomers cannot yet explain.

Once the helium layer is a few meters deep, the conditions allow helium nuclei to fuse into carbon. Then the helium erupts explosively and unleashes a thermonuclear fireball across the entire pulsar surface. Zaven Arzoumanian, Deputy Principal Investigator for NICER

This burst was outstanding, said lead researcher Peter Bult, an astrophysicist at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and the University of Maryland, College Park. We see a two-step change in brightness, which we think is caused by the ejection of separate layers from the pulsar surface, and other features that will help us decode the physics of these powerful events.

The explosion, which astronomers classify as a Type I X-ray burst, released as much energy in 20 seconds as the Sun does in nearly 10 days. The detail NICER captured on this record-setting eruption will help astronomers fine-tune their understanding of the physical processes driving the thermonuclear flare-ups of it and other bursting pulsars.

A pulsar is a kind of neutron star, the compact core left behind when a massive star runs out of fuel, collapses under its own weight, and explodes. Pulsars can spin rapidly and host X-ray-emitting hot spots at their magnetic poles. As the object spins, it sweeps the hot spots across our line of sight, producing regular pulses of high-energy radiation.

J1808 is located about 11,000 light-years away in the constellation Sagittarius. It spins at a dizzying 401 rotations each second, and is one member of a binary system. Its companion is a brown dwarf, an object larger than a giant planet yet too small to be a star. A steady stream of hydrogen gas flows from the companion toward the neutron star, and it accumulates in a vast storage structure called an accretion disk.

This burst was outstanding! Peter Bult, an astrophysicist at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center

Gas in accretion disks doesnt move inward easily. But every few years, the disks around pulsars like J1808 become so dense that a large amount of the gas becomes ionized, or stripped of its electrons. This makes it more difficult for light to move through the disk. The trapped energy starts a runaway process of heating and ionization that traps yet more energy. The gas becomes more resistant to flow and starts spiraling inward, ultimately falling onto the pulsar.

Hydrogen raining onto the surface forms a hot, ever-deepening global sea. At the base of this layer, temperatures and pressures increase until hydrogen nuclei fuse to form helium nuclei, which produces energy a process at work in the core of our Sun.

The helium settles out and builds up a layer of its own, said Goddards Zaven Arzoumanian, the deputy principal investigator for NICER and a co-author of the paper. Once the helium layer is a few meters deep, the conditions allow helium nuclei to fuse into carbon. Then the helium erupts explosively and unleashes a thermonuclear fireball across the entire pulsar surface.

Astronomers employ a concept called the Eddington limit named for English astrophysicist SirArthur Eddington to describe the maximum radiation intensity a star can have before that radiation causes the star to expand. This point depends strongly on the composition of the material lying above the emission source.

Our study exploits this longstanding concept in a new way, said co-author Deepto Chakrabarty, a professor of physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge. We are apparently seeing the Eddington limit for two different compositions in the same X-ray burst. This is a very powerful and direct way of following the nuclear burning reactions that underlie the event.

As the burst started, NICER data show that its X-ray brightness leveled off for almost a second before increasing again at a slower pace. The researchers interpret this stall as the moment when the energy of the blast built up enough to blow the pulsars hydrogen layer into space.

The fireball continued to build for another two seconds and then reached its peak, blowing off the more massive helium layer. The helium expanded faster, overtook the hydrogen layer before it could dissipate, and then slowed, stopped and settled back down onto the pulsars surface. Following this phase, the pulsar briefly brightened again by roughly 20 percent for reasons the team does not yet understand.

During J1808s recent round of activity, NICER detected another, much fainter X-ray burst that displayed none of the key features observed in the Aug. 20 event.

In addition to detecting the expansion of different layers, NICER observations of the blast reveal X-rays reflecting off of the accretion disk and record the flickering of burst oscillations X-ray signals that rise and fall at the pulsars spin frequency but that occur at different surface locations than the hot spots responsible for its normal X-ray pulses.

A paper describing the findings has been published by The Astrophysical Journal Letters.

NICER is an Astrophysics Mission of Opportunity within NASAs Explorer program, which provides frequent flight opportunities for world-class scientific investigations from space utilizing innovative, streamlined, and efficient management approaches within the heliophysics and astrophysics science areas. NASAs Space Technology Mission Directorate supports the SEXTANT component of the mission, demonstrating pulsar-based spacecraft navigation.

Reference: A NICER Thermonuclear Burst from the Millisecond X-Ray Pulsar SAX J1808.43658 by Peter Bult, Gaurava K. Jaisawal, Tolga Gver, Tod E. Strohmayer, Diego Altamirano, Zaven Arzoumanian, David R. Ballantyne, Deepto Chakrabarty, Jrme Chenevez, Keith C. Gendreau, Sebastien Guillot and Renee M. Ludlam, 23 October 2019, The Astrophysical Journal Letters.DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/ab4ae1

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Record-Setting X-Ray Burst From Massive Thermonuclear Blast Detected From Space Station - SciTechDaily

adidas has team up with a number of brands, persons and the likes in recent times, creating memorable collaborations along the way. This week, the team announced a partnership that is truly out of this world, partnering with the International Space Station (ISS) U.S. National Laboratory. The partnership is aimed at pushing the boundaries of technology to test and create new and innovative products, human performance and sustainability.

As part of the adidas and ISS National Labs commitment to new enhancements in their respective fields, the teams will pursue breakthrough to improve future designs and engineering for athletes both on and off Earth. With the support of the ISS National Lab and technologies developed by NASA, the collaboration focuses on product innovation, whereby the brand is set to become the first to test footwear innovation in the extremes of space. The main focus of the testing covers adidas Boost technology, without the stresses of gravity. The aim is to provide more enhanced comfort on existing models. Another of the tests will feature its range of footballs, which were delivered to the NASA-contracted SpaceX CRS-18 cargo mission a few months back. The tests involve the spherical aerodynamics of the ball, along with the panel shapes and textures.

Future tests are set to involve pushing the limits of human performance and sustainability through various research elements. The research will draw insights from the astronaut training regimen, whereby they endure the harshest of physical tests and conditions, which could provide potential learnings for athletes. The zero-gravity environment of space provides the ultimate testing ground to maximise material usage and value in extreme conditions and confined environments. One of the goals from the testing is also to advance sustainable creation and recreation methods to save the planet.

Watch the video below on some of the designs and testing:

The testing of the adidas partnership with the International Space Station (ISS) U.S. National Laboratory is set to begin in 2020. The team will send its Boost pellets and footwear to the space station via a SpaceX cargo mission. The experiments will be conducted by the astronauts onboard the ISS.

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adidas Partners with International Space Station National Lab - Fortress of Solitude

tech2 News StaffNov 07, 2019 14:58:07 IST

AproposedIndian Space Station planned for launch in 2024-2026, for which the Indian Space Research Organisation has set things in motion, will have enough room for three astronauts aboard.

While plans are still in very early stages, and will onlykick into high gear after the Gaganyaan mission slated for January 2022, initial designs of the space station have already been sketched, according to a report in The Times of India.

The report suggests that the space station will bea 20-tonne modular abode,that can be built andused independently in different systems.The station will orbit the Earth in the low-Earth orbit (LEO) at an altitude of 120-140 kilometres.

The Chinese Tiangong-1 space station before the fall.

ISROintends to send three Indian astronauts to space on the 'Gaganyaan' rocket, andreturn themsafely in the same crew module after spending seven days in orbit.While foremost a technology demonstrator mission,the Gaganyaan mission will see the astronaut trio travel to Earth's orbit and carry out scientific experiments for seven days in the zero-gravity of low-Earth orbit. The crew module will be launched onthe Geosynchronous Satellite Launch VehicleMark-III (GSLV-MkIII), placing the 7,800-kgGaganyaan spacecraftto low-Earth orbit.

Once the mission is complete, ISRO intends to use the technologies from Gaganyaan the orbital module, life-support system, and human-rated launch vehicles, for example in subsequent space station programs. This will be made possibleunder the aegis of the newly-instituted Human Spaceflight Centreunder ISRO.

On May 2019,ISRO and IAF signed an MoUto cooperate in the crew selection and training of astronauts for the Gaganyaan mission. Gaganyaan is going to be Indias first-ever manned mission to space. It will send three astronauts for seven days and the spacecraft will be placed in a low-earth orbit of around 300-400 km.

Before sending the astronauts, two unmanned missions will be conducted by ISRO. The GSLV Mk III, the three-stage heavy-lift launch vehicle, will be used to launch Gaganyaan as it has the necessary payload capability.

The Human Space Flight Centre in Bengaluru will be looking at all the activities about the mission along with the Institute of Aerospace Medicine.

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Indias planned space station to reportedly have room for three astronauts aboard it - Firstpost