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If you have ever wondered what life on a different planet might be like, it might look a little like this. Susana Victoria Perez (@susana_vp) has more. Buzz60

Student volunteers wave from inside the Lunar Palace 1, a laboratory simulating a lunar-like environment, in Beijing.(Photo: STR, AFP/Getty Images)

They tried it with animals; now its time to try it with humans.

Yes, a group of human guinea pigs actually, four Chinese university students are trying to find out how it feels to live in a self-sustaining space station on another planet.

They are part of a project aimed at creating an ecosystem that provides everything humans need to survive, Reuters reported.

The students, from Beihang University, previously known as the Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, entered the Lunar Palace-1 module on Sunday with the aim of living self-sufficiently for 200 days.

The module containsfour bed cubicles, a common room, a washroom, a waste-treatment room and an animal-raising room, according to a report by the official Xinhua News Agency and the People's Daily newspaper.

"I'll get so much out of this," Liu Guanghui, a Ph.D student, who entered the 1,700-square-foot temporary residence on Sunday, told Reuters. "It's truly a different life experience."

Human waste will be treated through a bio-fermentation process, Xinhua reported,and vegetables and other crops will be grown with the help of food and waste byproducts.

The experiment comes as China seeks to become a global power in space exploration, with plans to send the first probe to the dark side of the moon by 2018 and to put astronauts on the moon by 2036, Reuters reported.

Liu Hong, a professor at at the university who is leading the project,said everything needed for human survival had been carefully calculated.

Four student volunteers take an oath before entering the Lunar Palace 1, a laboratory simulating a lunar-like environment.(Photo: STR, AFP/Getty Images)

"We've designed it so the oxygen (produced by plants at the station) is exactly enough to satisfy the humans, the animals and the organisms that break down the waste materials," she told Reuters.

The project also is a test of the psychological impact on humans of a long stay on another planet.

"They can become a bit depressed," Liu told the agency. "If you spend a long time in this type of environment it can create some psychological problems."

The project's support team has found mapping out a specific set of daily tasks for the students is one way that helps them to remain happy, Reuters reported.

"We did this experiment with animals, ... so we want to see how much impact it will have on people," Liusaid.

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Chinese students to live 200 days in sealed space module with nothing going in and nothing coming out - USA TODAY

July 11, 2017 by Tomasz Nowakowski, Astrowatch.net, Universe Today Credit: NanoRacks

Founded in 2009, the Houston, Texas-based company NanoRacks LLC provides commercial hardware and services onboard the International Space Station (ISS) for government and commercial customers. To date, the firm has sent more than 550 payloads from over 30 countries to ISS, creating trends in commercial hardware in space. In an interview with Astrowatch.net, Jeffrey Manber, the founder and CEO of NanoRacks, talks about the company's future and past achievements.

Astrowatch.net: What are you future plans for the company? What is your priority for the coming years?

Jeffrey Manber: We are growing into the world's first commercial space station company. Today, our focus is on completing our commercial airlock on the ISS, which will allow far larger satellites and cargo to be deployed from the station. We are also moving forward on re-use of existing in-space hardware for commercial habitats and marketing other real estate in space, such as Blue Origin's suborbital New Shepard platform. We want to be the market leader in owning or operating as much real estate in space, from low-earth orbit to deep space to the moon and Mars, as is commercially possible.

Astrowatch.net: Your company is involved in many projects onboard the ISS. Could we call NanoRacks a trend setter when it comes to developing commercial hardware on ISS?

Manber: I would like to think that is correct. We were first to market on the station in owning and marketing our own hardware. We were first to have non-U.S. customers, first to have commercial satellite customers using the space station and we paved the way for using the space station in myriad commercial projects, from education to basic research to biopharma.

Astrowatch.net: How is your cooperation with NASA going? Do you plan some projects involving other space agencies?

Manber: Great question. The relationship with NASA has matured in many ways. NASA and the space station program office no longer question whether companies can and should make a profit providing services on the station using their own hardware. The space station office now supports our new projects, such as airlock, where we are self-funding. So the partnership with NASA has matured. They are at times a customer, they are our regulator and they are our landlord. Just as it should be in a commercial relationship!

We have very good relations with other space agencies. ESA is a customer of ours for satellite deployment. So, too, the European Union Commission. We work extensively within the Japanese module KIBO via the U.S.-Japan barter arrangement, so we have wonderful relations with the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and so too with the Russian Space Agency (Roscosmos), with whom we work on both Progress and Soyuz.

NanoRacks is unusual in how deep is our relations with non U.S. space agencies. This is good as we look to return to the moon and move on to Mars.

Astrowatch.net: Are commercial space companies the future of spaceflight?

Manber: The industry is on the cusp of having space be just another place to do business. We are seeing multiple private launch vehicle efforts, we are seeing government behaving more and more as a customer. We are seeing companies like NanoRacks beginning to look beyond the International Space Station to see a marketplace where there are multiple space stations, all commercial, some unmanned for in-space manufacture, some manned as hotels, some for professionals to train for deep space missions.

Astrowatch.net: Which of NanoRacks' products on ISS is the most important for you and why? Which one was the biggest milestone for your company?

Manber: Right now our satellite deployment hardware is important because it is a large percentage of our current revenue! But as we look to the future, the airlock will be key, because not only will it increase our revenue from today for cargo egress and satellite deployment, but at some point in the future, we will remove the airlock from ISS and attach it to our own commercial platform.

How cool is that? Oh, I would say our biggest milestone was successful deployment of satellites. Or when we agreed to accept NASA funding for a research hardware called Plate Reader and NASA was nervous because we were new. So we agreed that if Plate Reader did not work, we would refund the taxpayers money. Luckily, it all worked! But I have not seen any other company make that same offer when taking the space agency's funding. But it was a turning point for us when NASA realized we were serious.

Astrowatch.net: You have recently made a statement that the company's mission is to democratize access to space. How close to achieving this goal is NanoRacks?

Manber: It is fair to say that after 550 payloads in seven years of operations from over 30 nations, including high schools and new nations to space, that after stimulating the growth of an entire new marketcommercial CubeSatsNanoRacks is today democratizing use of this incredible new frontier. Anyone, anywhere, from China to Vietnam, from Peru to Brooklyn, can and has used NanoRacks to undertake a commercial space research project. We have even had multiple customers whose funding came from crowd sourcing websites. It is a revolution and we are proud to be a leader in realizing this revolution in space utilization. Who knows what will be the situation in just five years?

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NanoRacks CEO discusses trends in commercial space hardware - Phys.Org

As part of its mission to send people into space, humanity has to answer many questions, and one of those questions involves whether humans are mentally capable of spending long periods of time within relatively tiny self-sustaining space stations. To help determine this, four university students have volunteered to spend 200 days living inside of a self-sustaining space station located in a Beijing suburb.

The four volunteers are students at Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and theyre now officially residents of the Lunar Palace-1, where they kicked off their 200-day test on Sunday. The system is designed to supply everything theyll need, recycling everything the team produces while using plants for oxygen and special lights in substitution of sunlight. The team will not experience sunlight for the full 200 days.

Importantly, this project will also evaluate the mental effects of spending long periods of time in this type of environment. While the residency may not be burdensome in short cases, the long-term effects could be serious, possibly leading to depression or other issues. The researchers have created a list of daily tasks as a way to help combat any depression that may set in, but further data may lead to better solutions in the future.

The researchers are also specifically looking at how the prolonged period without exposure to sunlight will effect the volunteers, though Reuters reports that not much information was provided on that topic. This isnt the first time the Lunar Palace-1 has had residents; a previous 60-day run was performed, a time period in which at least one resident reported feeling a bit low after awhile.

SOURCE: Reuters

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Students will spend 6 months living in a 'space station' to test mental effects - SlashGear

July 11, 2017 by Chris Bergin

TheInterim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS) is now deep into its latest phase of processing, as it prepares to be housed in theSpace Station Processing Facility (SSPF) a facility once packed with modules waiting for their ride on Shuttles to make up the elements of the International Space Station (ISS). The ICPS will be the Upper Stage for the maiden flight of the Space Launch System (SLS). ICPS:

The ICPS will only have a short lifetime with SLS, as the program aims to swiftly move to themore powerful Exploration Upper Stage (EUS)that will be the workhorse Upper Stage for SLS throughout the 2020s.

However, for the ICPS, the mission with SLS is only a change of call signs for this veteran unit, with years of previous and future service with the United Launch Alliance (ULA) Delta IV rocket fleet.

The official plan has revolved around moving to the EUS by the second or third flight of SLS, pending the readiness of the new EUS. The initial plan was to human rate another ICPS for EM-2, but NASA wants to bring the EUS online by the second SLS flight.

Based on the schedule slips for SLS and the large gap between EM-1 and EM-2 the plan is to revamp the Mobile Launcher umbilicals to cater for the Block 1B SLS after EM-1 (Exploration Mission-1) launches.

The EM-1 upper stage which is effectively a regular Delta Cryogenic Second Stage (DCSS) was shipped from the ULA facility in Decatur, Alabama aboard the Mariner barge earlier this year, arriving at the Cape in March.

It is currently housed in ULAs Horizontal Integration Facility (HIF) to begin processing for launch at the ULA Delta Operations Center. That work is now drawing to a close.

The next move will see it take a short journey to the SSPF, prior to a formal handover between ULA and NASA.

The Operations Planning team, specifically the Spacecraft Offline Operations (SOO) team are supporting the delivery of the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS) to the Space Station Processing Facility (SSPF). It is expected to be accelerated ten days from predicted August 1, 2017 to July 21, 2017, noted a Ground Systems Development and Operations (GSDO) update.

The SSPF is a three story structure containing 42,455 sq meters (457,000 sq ft) of offices, laboratories, and processing areas. It is located on NASA Causeway immediately east of the O&C (Operations & Checkout) Building.

The facility houses bays that were used for horizontal processing of components for the International Space Station and other Space Shuttle Payloads. With the payloads since launched on the now-retired Space Shuttle fleet resulting in the impressive orbital outpost that is now into its utilization phase the facility is almost empty of space hardware.

Prelaunch activities that took place in the SSPF included receipt, handling, and assembly of space station hardware, testing of experiments for proper configuration, and verification of critical systems and system interfaces. As such it makes it the perfect home for the ICPS ahead of its launch with the first SLS rocket.

The ICPS wont be officially handed over (or turned over) until some weeks after the ICPS arrives in the SSPF, allowing the Stages caretakers from ULA to continue to look after the ICPS and provide guidance to its new engineers.

Preparations are underway and include a contractor letter of direction for host role in the early weeks with the formal DD250 turnover to follow, hurricane plan development and approval, SSPF facility panel sampling, added the GSDO update.

(The) plan is for United Launch Alliance (ULA) access to perform monitoring and maintenance until formal turnover, and a likely transporter demonstration at the SSPF. All of these are to be addressed by the planned readiness review scheduled for July 19, 2017, at the Operations Processing Project Review (OPPR).

The eventual destination for the ICPS will bethe Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at KSC, in preparation for mating atopthe SLS stack.

The stack will be integrated while sitting onthe Mobile Launcher, which will provide the lifeblood of electrical and fluid support, along with the all-important prop loading whilst at the pad.

That connection between the ML and the ICPS will be the Interim Cryogenic Propulsive Stage Umbilical (ICPSU) will be a T-0 umbilical.

While some umbilicals have already been installed onto the ML, the ICPSU is expected to be connected in September to October timeframe well ahead of the timeframe the first SLS is scheduled to be mated with the ML in the VAB.

(Images: NASA, ULA and L2 Orbital ATK and L2)

(L2 is as it has been for the past several years providing full exclusive SLS and Exploration Planning coverage. To join L2, click here:https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/l2/)

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SLS Upper Stage set to take up residence in the former home of ISS modules - NASASpaceflight.com