Category Archives: Transhuman News

A solar instrument package designed and built by the University of Colorado and seen as key to monitoring the Earth's climate has arrived at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida in preparation for a launch in November.

Known as the Total and Spectral Solar Irradiance Sensor, designed and built by CU's Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics for NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., it represents a $90 million contract value to LASP, along with an associated mission ground system, according to a news release.

TSIS-1, as it's called, is scheduled to launch in November on a commercial SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in a Dragon capsule, destined for the International Space Station.

CU Professor Peter Pilewskie, of LASP, the mission's lead scientist on the project, said TSIS will continue a 39-year record of measuring total solar radiation, the longest continuous climate record from space, the release stated.

Read the original:
CU Boulder instruments destined for space station reach Florida ... - Boulder Daily Camera

The International Space Station is a unique scientific platform enabling researchers from around the world to develop experiments that could not be performed on Earth. A line of unpiloted resupply spacecraft keeps this work going, supporting efforts to enable future human and robotic exploration of destinations well beyond low-Earth orbit.

The next mission to the space station will be the 12th commercial resupply services flight for SpaceX. Liftoff is targeted for Aug. 13 at approximately 12:56 p.m., from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

This underscores the center's role as a premier, multi-user spaceport as this will be the ninth SpaceX rocket to take off from the launch pad, all this year. Pad 39A's history includes 11 Apollo flights, the launch of the Skylab space station in 1973, and 82 space shuttle missions.

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will boost a Dragon spacecraft filled with almost 6,000 pounds of supplies. The payloads include crucial materials to directly support dozens of the more than 250 science and research investigations that will occur during Expeditions 52 and 53.

About 10 minutes after launch, Dragon will reach its preliminary orbit and deploy its solar arrays. A carefully choreographed series of thruster firings are scheduled to allow the spacecraft to rendezvous with the space station.

NASA astronaut Jack Fischer and European Space Agency astronaut Paolo Nespoli will grapple Dragon using the space station's robotic arm and install it on the station's Harmony module.

The station crew will unpack the Dragon and begin working with the experiments that include plant pillows containing seeds for NASA's Veggie plant growth system experiment. The plant pillows were prepared in Kennedy's Space Station Processing Facility.

Veggie, like most of the research taking place on the space station, is demonstrating how the research benefits life on Earth as it advances NASA's plans to send humans to Mars.

The Dragon spacecraft will spend approximately one month attached to the space station. It will remain until mid-September when the spacecraft will return to Earth with results of earlier experiments, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Baja California.

With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords.

Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year.

If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.

Read this article:
Dragon to be packed with new experiments for International Space Station - Space Daily

Submitted by University of Puget Sound

NASA astronaut Jack Fischer will be in the hot seat on the International Space Station on Friday, August 11. He will be under the scrutiny of dozens of American and Russian middle school children watching from Earth, as he referees a microgravity game of program your robot to grab the most floating objects in the finals of the international Zero Robotics tournament.

Among the faces watching the livestream at the Museum of Flight: 18 schoolchildren from Tacoma and Gig Harbor whose team beat out three regional rivals to face off on the big day against 12 other finalist teams from the United States and Russia.

The local group of seventh- and eighth-grade students are participants in University of Puget Sounds Summer Academic Challenge, a science and math-based enrichment program run by the colleges Access Programs for underrepresented students from Tacoma Public Schools.

The annual Zero Robotics game on the space station is led by NASA and MIT Space Systems Laboratory, with Schools Out Washington coordinating the Washington state competition. The game challenges schoolchildren from across the country and overseas to design a robotics program to solve a problem of genuine interest to NASA and MIT.

The Puget Sounders team from University of Puget Sound came first in the state by designing the best program to control NASAs colorful sphere-shaped robots or SPHERES (Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites). Their program, in a real-life scenario, potentially could pick up spacecraft spare parts or broken satellite items that are floating in space and bring them to the space station.

The 13 finalist student teams will be watching their robots in action, via a livestream feed, in venues from Massachusetts to Alabama to California. The Puget Sounders team will view the tournament at 8:20 a.m. on August 11 from the Space Gallery of the Museum of Flight in Tukwila, just south of Seattle. You can watch it live on University of Puget Sound Access Programs Facebook page.

The kids got five weeks to train and experiment with a graphical simulator, which has on-screen elements that look rather like a puzzle, and that have their movements translated into computer code, said Joseph Coln 10, Puget Sound Access Programs coordinator. They had to come up with a strategy for collecting high-value objects floating in the station that would also give them the scope to defend their own bin of objects or to try to grab competitors objects.

On the big day, each teams computer code will be loaded on to computers on the space station. The team that scores the most points for collecting objects will win. All teams participating in the program receive trophies to recognize their work.

Amy Gerdes, the Access Programs teacher guiding the Puget Sounders, said the Zero Robotics experience in coding and its real-world application help prepare the students for studies and careers in the sciences, math, computer technology, and engineering.

Win or lose, the code will be archived by Zero Robotics and potentially used in the future by space agencies on missions to Mars or for ongoing cleanup of Earths atmosphere, she said. Thats pretty special.

WHAT: The Zero Robotics competition finals, involving 13 student teams (12 in the U.S.; one in Russia) will be held on the International Space Station. There will be four Washington state teams, including the state winner, the Puget Sounders, watching the contest via a livestream feed. The media are invited.

WHEN: Friday, August 11, 8:00 a.m.11:00 a.m. Tournament starts at 8:20 a.m.

WHERE: Museum of Flight (Space Gallery), 9404 E. Marginal Way S., Seattle, WA 98108

The Puget Sounders team members: Adrianna Pettway, Aunya Crow, Gabriela Lizarraga, Gabrielle Mullen, Jasmine Chhang, Jasmine Jackson, Jenica Truong, Joseph Irish, Lavina Polk, Micah Long, Miguel Angel Davila, Mikyla Fowler, Monee Dubose, Nicholas Yeun, Quienten Miller, Quinton Pettison, Tyler Budd, and Yahbi Kaposi.

The Zero Robotics Middle School Summer Program provides students with a five-week curriculum introducing them to computer programming, robotics, and space engineering. It is provided through a partnership between the MIT Space Systems Lab, Innovation Learning Center, and Aurora Flight Sciences. It is sponsored by NASA, the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS), and the Northrup Grumman Foundation.

University of Puget Sounds Summer Academic Challenge is run by the colleges Access Programs, which promote academic excellence for middle and high school students, in partnership with Tacoma Public Schools. The Summer Academic Challenge is a tuition-free summer math and science enrichment program that helps underrepresented students prepare for their next academic year. The program is an integral component of University of Puget Sounds commitment to diversity and its strategic goal to increase the enrollment of individuals from underrepresented minoritized groups, to improve structural diversity, and to promote students retention and success.

Schools Out Washingtons mission is to ensure all young people have safe places to learn and grow when not in school. The nonprofit group is dedicated to building community systems to support quality afterschool, youth development, and summer programs for Washingtons children and youth ages five through young adulthood.

Continued here:
Robots Run by Local Students Compete on International Space Station - southsoundtalk.com