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NASA has always embraced emerging technology for visualization, even if that tech was seemingly developed for frivolous entertainment. We recentlycovered its holographicMars exhibit,andthe many 3D resources that NASA makes availableto developers and educators. Now, the US space agency has partnered with Epic Games Unreal Engine to create a mixed reality International Space Station simulator.

Tobecome a qualified NASA astronaut, candidatesspend up to two years of training learning the ropes through intensive classes and simulations that help them prepare for working while weightless, navigating around different parts of the space shuttle and international space station, and serving as each others emergency medical technicians, among other things.

In the past, astronaut trainingmeant dives in a neutral buoyancy lab, a giant pool thatholds 6.2 million gallons of water, and spending time at NASAs space vehicle mock-up facility, a life-sized model of the space shuttle orbiter and parts of the international space station (ISS). Those physical facilities have limited capacity, though. Adding a mixed realitymock-up, alongside the physical facility, could allow astronauts-in-training a lot more time to hone their skills in a convincing sim.

Unreal Engines main competitor, Unity, has also worked with NASA. For the unfamiliar, both companies make game engines that have been adapted for the creationof enterprise applications, andVR experiences. More game developers use Unity than Unreal Engine by a long shot today. Still, Unreal Engine boastsimpressive customers on the serious games front, including BMW, McLaren, Ikea and Lockheed Martin.

According to a video thatUnreal Engine and NASA released earlier this month, their mixed reality system shows various elements of, and instruments on board the ISS, including different exercise machines and tools that astronauts use for maintenance work there. The simulator is different than the previously-released educational experience,Mission: ISS for Oculus.

Among other things, the mixed reality ISS appsweeps astronauts-in-training off their feet with an active response gravity offload system. It works in conjunction with a robotic crane that makes the trainee feel like he or she would in micro-, lunar- or Martian gravity.Besides using the mixed reality system to train astronauts and engineers for life and work in orbit,NASA willuse it todesign new habitats.

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NASA is using a mixed reality space station to train astronauts - TechCrunch

European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet is caught on camera by the International Space Station's Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator, also known as Dextre, during EVA-40 on March 24, 2017.

Two astronauts wandered outside the confines of theInternational Space Stationtoday (March 24), embarking on the first of three spacewalks scheduled to take place over the next few weeks.

European Space Agency astronaut and flight engineerThomas Pesquetled the way when he emerged from the station's Quest Airlock at 7:22 a.m. EDT (1122 GMT). NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough, commander of the station's Expedition 50 crew, popped out of the airlock shortly after, and the two spacewalkers parted ways to carry out separate tasks around the orbiting lab.

While Kimbrough breezed through his to-do list with enough time left for a "get-ahead" task, Pesquet's tasks kept him busy the entire time. "It was a long spacewalk," NASA spokesman Dan Huot said of the session, which took 6 hours and 34 minutes, during live commentary. NASA astronautPeggy Whitsonassisted with the spacewalk, first by helping them suit up and head out the door, and later by operating the station's robotic arm. [Space Station Photos: Expedition 50 Astronauts in Action]

Thomas Pesquet takes a selfie with Shane Kimbrough in the Cupola at the International Space Station. The SpaceX Dragon cargo ship can be seen through the window.

The primary goals of this spacewalk and the next one, which is scheduled for March 30, are to prepare the space station for the future docking of commercial spacecraft, such as SpaceX's Crew Dragonand Boeing's CST-100 Starliner.

Kimbrough was tasked with disconnecting the Pressurized Mating Adapter-3 (PMA-3), which allows different kinds spacecraft to use the space station's docking ports. This Sunday (March 26), ground crews will operate the station's Canadarm2 robotic arm to move PMA-3 from the Tranquility module to the Harmony module.

During the next spacewalk, on March 30, Pesquet and Whitson will connect PMA-3 to its new home at the Harmony module, where NASA plans to install a new International Docking Adapterfor commercial spacecraft by 2018. "PMA-3 provides the pressurized interface between the station modules and the docking adapter," NASA officials said in a statement.

Kimbrough kicked off his spacewalk by heading to the Starboard-0 (S0) truss to replace an old, external backup computer called Multiplexer-Demultiplexer (MDM). The new computer unit, called the Enhanced Processor and Integrated Communications (EPIC MDM), has upgraded software for the new docking adapter, EVA-40 spacewalk officer Sarah Korona said during a news conference on Wednesday (March 22). Kimbrough will replace a second MDM unit with another EPIC MDM during his next spacewalk, on March 30. After replacing the MDM computers, Kimbrough made a pit stop at the airlock to drop off the old computer before moving on to PMA-3.

Shane Kimbrough replaces one of the space station's external computers during his spacewalk on March 24, 2017.

Meanwhile, Pesquet spent his day doing maintenance unrelated to PMA-3. First, he grabbed a foot restraint from an external stowage platform before making his way over to the P1 truss to investigate a suspected ammonia leak from a radiator valve in the station's cooling system.

"We've been tracking a small rate of leakage from that ammonia system over the last year or so, and our external robotics systems have determined a most likely location where the system may be leaking," NASA Flight Director Emily Nelson said at the news conference. "It's time to get crewmember eyeballs on the area and get a human evaluation to determine whether we have any damage to the system."

Pesquet jostled a set of hoses in the station's radiator heat belt monitor, the suspected source of the leak, in an effort to rattle loose any possible flakes of frozen ammonia. After looking for the leak for about 2 hours, he found no signs ammonia outside the space station. Just to be sure, he carried a high-definition GoPro camera to capture footage for ground crews to investigate the scene more closely. [Astronaut's-Eye View: Stunning Spacewalk Video from Space]

With no ammonia in sight, Pesquet moved on to the space station's Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator, also known as Dextre, which is an extension of the Canadarm2 robotic arm. The two-armed, remote-controlled robot was in need of a little routine maintenance, so Pesquet applied lubricant to the latching endeffector (LEE), or the "hand" at the end of the robotic arm. He spent nearly 4 hours using the ballscrew lubrication tool to inject grease into the LEE. Things got a little messy at this point, so Pesquet had to wipe up grease that was oozing from the machine.

As Pesquet worked on the robotic arm, Whitson controlled it from inside the space station. She brought Dextre closer to Pesquet, who could barely reach it even with an extended foot restraint.

Peggy Whitson operated the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator, also known as Dextre, so Thomas Pesquet could reach it during his second spacewalk on March 24, 2017.

Because Kimbrough was doing better on time than Pesquet, he did his fellow spacewalker a favor by fetching a bag of tools that Pesquet would need for his work at the robotic arm, saving Pesquet an extra trip back to the airlock in between tasks. Then, Kimbrough went to the Japanese Kibo module for his "get-ahead" task, in which he replaced two cameras that had broken lights. The lights will be replaced inside the space station and can still be used in the future, but replacing them in space isn't very practical.

The two spacewalkers finally made it back to the airlock for good, ending the mission at 1:58 p.m. EDT (1758 GMT). Kimbrough completed his fifth spacewalk today, with a total of 32 hours spent doing EVAs (short for "extravehicular activities"). This was Pesquet's second spacewalk, and he now has a total of 12.5 hours of EVA experience.

Shane Kimbrough replaced cameras outside the Japanese Kibo module for a "get-ahead" task after he completed his objectives during his fifth spacewalk on March 24, 2017.

Despite a few minor hiccups, the spacewalk was a great success, with the astronauts accomplishing every task plus one optional task. "Shane Kimbrough had some sticky connectors, and the foot restraint has been a bit unwieldy at timesfor Thomas Pesquet," Huot said. But nothing happened that prevented them from doing everything they needed to do.

On Thursday (March 30), Kimbrough and Whitson will continue EVA work with PMA-3 while Pesquet assists from inside the station.

Email Hanneke Weitering at hweitering@space.com or follow her @hannekescience. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebookand Google+. Original article on Space.com.

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Spacewalking Astronauts Prep Space Station to Dock with Commercial Spaceships - Space.com

A 17-year-old British student, Miles Solomon, spotted an error in NASAs data while working on a school physics project. Whats more, the teenager figured out that radiation sensors on the International Space Station (ISS) were not working properly. The sensors were actually capturing false data.

Once he found the error, Solomon emailed NASA, which said it appreciated the feedback and even invited him to help fix the problem.

Solomons Tapton Secondary School in Sheffield was taking part in a project from Institute for Research in Schools (IRIS) which provided the students with real scientific data from NASAs radiation readings. The measurements were of radiation levels from British astronaut Tim Peaks stint on the ISS in December 2015, taken every 4 seconds. The students were encouraged to look for anomalies and promising patterns.

When he first got the readings, Miles right away had a plan.

'What we got given was a lot of spreadsheets, which is a lot more interesting than it sounds,' he told BBC Radio 4. I went straight to the bottom of the list and I went for the lowest bits of energy there were.

Miles Solomon. Credit: BBC

What he spotted is that on occasions when the sensors didnt detect any radiation, they instead recorded a negative reading of -1. As you cannot have a negative for energy, Solomon and his teacher got in touch with NASA.

"It's pretty cool", said Miles. "You can tell your friends, I just emailed Nasa and they're looking at the graphs that I've made."

It turned out the teen noticed an error that NASA didnt fully see for 15 months. The space scientists said they did actually know of the errors existence but thought it happened once or twice a year rather than many times a day.

The discovery of the error was welcomed by NASA and IRIS, which created the opportunity to get real science in the classroom. They hope this kind of cooperation can inspire students to become scientists.

Miles is very excited, although his friends might be less enthused.

"They obviously think I'm a nerd," shared the self-deprecating student. "It's really a mixture of jealousy and boredom when I tell them all the details."

He also doesnt see the situation as a case of embarrassment for the worlds premiere space program.

"I'm not trying to prove Nasa wrong. I want to work with them and learn from them, Solomon added.

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A British Teenager Finds an Error in NASA's Space Station Data - Big Think

No science-fiction movie that takes place at the International Space Station has been quite as terrifying as "Life," a new space thriller that comes out in theaters today (March 24).

In the film, a Mars sample-return mission delivers the first proof of alien life to a group of astronauts at the International Space Station (ISS). What is at first a harmless, single-celled organism sealed inside a box in the lab grows bigger, stronger, smarter and bloodthirsty. When it breaks out of its container and comes after the astronauts, all hell breaks loose. ['Life' Movie Brings Terrifying Space Thrills (Photo Gallery)]

The all-star cast who play the astronauts in "Life" do not disappoint. Jake Gyllenhaal stars as a doctor who has spent more than 473 days aboard the ISS. Rebecca Ferguson plays a microbiologist whose job it is to protect everyone at the station and on Earth from possible contamination by the alien. Ryan Reynolds plays the role of a spacewalk specialist and provides some necessary comedic relief to this gruesome story.

The plot of "Life" is a bit of a mashup between the movies "Gravity" and "Alien." Just like in the "Alien" saga, the extraterrestrial in "Life" (which is nicknamed Calvin after school children on Earth won a naming contest) is out to kill every living thing aboard the spacecraft in this case, the ISS. As the astronauts fight for their lives, they demolish the ISS. Though Calvin is the reason for their panic, the astronauts create more problems trying to kill it.

At times, the astronauts do things that would be considered foolish in real life, such as using fire to try to kill Calvin. (Starting fires is strictly forbidden at the ISS.) However, watching Ryan Reynolds blast flames at an octopus-like monster while chasing it around the ISS was worth the slight technical inaccuracy.

Astronauts find the first proof of life on Mars in a sample brought to the space station. The creature, which they named Calvin, seems harmless at first before growing into a bloodthirsty monster.

While the film is more of a horror flick than a science-driven narrative about extraterrestrial life and the International Space Station, there's plenty of real space science throughout the story to keep even hard-core space geeks entertained. The ISS is accurately and brilliantly rendered, and space-savvy viewers may recognize some of its features, such as the Canadarm robotic arm, the Cupola window and the docked Soyuz crew capsules.

Despite the superb acting and production that went into the making of this film, the story left me feeling a bit unsettled and unsatisfied near the end. For a group of highly intelligent astronauts at the space station, the astronauts made a lot of bad decisions that only make matters worse. I would have expected better from a group of trained professionals with "the right stuff." Then again, it's hard to guess how astronauts in the real world would deal with a situation as crazy as this. After all, they are still humans.

Overall, the film is worth a watch for anyone who's into space, horror, or both. But if you're expecting a heroic story of six brave astronauts who save the day, you might be disappointed with the ending.

"Life" is rated R (for violence, gore, terror and profanity) and opens in theaters nationwide today (March 24).

Email Hanneke Weitering at hweitering@space.com or follow her @hannekescience. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

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'Life' Brings Alien Terror to the International Space Station - Space.com

Sunday: Low in the west this evening are two planets, though one will be trickier to spot than the other. At 8:30 p.m., the innermost planet Mercury is 6 degrees above the horizon and is the brightest object in this small region of the sky. Uranus is also nearby, but binoculars will be needed to locate this distant planet. To spot Uranus look 3 degrees to the lower left of Mercury.

Monday: The International Space Station makes several high bright passes over the next few days. Tonight the space station appears about 10 degrees above the southwest horizon at 8:57 p.m. The ISS will move northward, passing by the constellations of Taurus, Orion and Gemini before reaching a height of 73 degrees above the northwest horizon three minutes later. At 9:02 p.m., the spacecraft disappears as it slips into Earths shadow 22 degrees above the northeast horizon.

Tuesday: The International Space Station makes two bright passes tonight. The first starts in the south-southwest at 8:04 p.m. The ISS will move close to the bright star Sirius in the south then close to the star Regulus in the west, before disappearing shortly after 8:11 p.m. The second pass is brief and not as bright, but the space station passes extremely close to the planet Mars. The time of closest approach occurs at 9:42 p.m. when the space station will be less than a 10th of a degree from Mars.

Wednesday: The last bright pass of the International Space Station in this group occurs tonight. At 8:49 p.m. the spacecraft is 10 degrees above the western horizon. One minute later the space station passes within 5 degrees of the moon and 2 degrees of Mars. By 8:52 p.m. the ISS is 29 degrees above the northwest horizon. As the space station moves farther to the northeast it fades only slightly, and at 8:54 p.m. the station is 10 degrees above the north-northeast horizon.

Thursday: Tonight, the planet Mars is in the same area of the sky as the crescent moon. At 9 p.m. the pair are separated by 8 degrees. Both objects currently lie between the constellations of Aries and Taurus.

Friday: After being around Mars yesterday, the moon is now near the Hyades star cluster. At 9 p.m. the moon sits at the bottom of the V which represents the head of Taurus the bull. Most of the stars that compose the V and many that cannot be seen are part of the Hyades cluster. The major exception is Aldebaran, the bright red-orange star that happens to lie along our line of sight to the cluster.

Saturday: Though the moon is not too far from the constellation of Orion the Hunter, the Orion Nebula is always a fun target. The nebula can be seen with binoculars or a telescope and is easy to find. Below the three stars that form the hunters belt are three fainter stars in a row perpendicular to the belt stars. The middle star is actually the nebula.

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Skywatch: International Space Station visible several times this week - Tulsa World

French astronaut Thomas Pesquet takes a moment to pose during a spacewalk outside the International Space Station in January 2017.

Astronauts are gearing up for three spacewalks outsidethe International Space Station that will culminate in the station's 200th spacewalk.

The first and second spacewalks are scheduled to occur over the next eight days and will help prepare the station for commercial spacecraft carrying crew to be able to dock. One of them is also aimed at upgrading the station's capability to host Earth-observing instruments. Each will take about 6.5 hours.

"Here we come to the 200th spacewalk and we're still not just fixing things, but improving things and expanding capability and adding functionality continuing to build the space station over time," NASA Flight Director Emily Nelson said during a news briefing today (March 22). "The first half of the [space station] program was about building this enormous facility that's now producing all this amazing scientific research, and we don't just go outside to fix things most of [these three spacewalks] is about improving and expanding." [Astronaut's-Eye View: StunningSpacewalk Video from Space]

The first of the three spacewalks will see American astronaut Shane Kimbrough and French astronaut Thomas Pesquet setting out at 8 a.m. EDT (1300 GMT) Friday (March 24), and you will be able to watch it live on Space.com, courtesy of NASA TV. American astronaut Peggy Whitson will be inside, controlling the robotic arm help her crewmates.

Next, Kimbrough and Whitson will venture out March 30 (nobody on the robotic arm). Those two spacewalks are largely devoted to opening up space for a second International Docking Adaptor, which will allow future commercial spacecraft to dock with the station.

Right now, only Russia's Soyuz spacecraft can dock to bring people aboard astronauts have to use the robotic arm to grab and berth commercial spacecraft, like SpaceX's Dragon and Orbital ATK's Cygnus, which bring cargo to the station. NASA has contracted with SpaceX and Boeingto eventually send crew to the space station, and those arrivals in the coming years would use the new docking ports.

Whitson and Pesquet will conduct the third spacewalk, currently scheduled for April 6 with robotic help from Kimbrough inside. They will install an avionics box, set to be launched on a Cygnus spacecraft soon, that will let scientists install more experiments outside the station to take measurements and monitor Earth.

However, that Cygnus launchwas further postponed todaybecause of an issue with the Atlas V rocket's booster the thirdspacewalk will have to be rescheduled if it's set to arrive too late, since the astronauts will have to wait for the box's delivery.

Kimbrough, Whitson and Pesquet have been studying the procedures for the first spacewalk over the past week interspersed with the usual research aboard the orbiting lab as well as chatting with NASA fans through Facebook Live and talking with France's president, respectively.

After the three spacewalks wrap up, Kimbrough and Russian cosmonauts Andrey Borisenko and Sergey Ryzhikov will be heading back to Earth in a Soyuz spacecraft, and two more crewmembers including first-time NASA flier Jack Fischer and Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin will head up, bringing the crew count back to five.

Email Sarah Lewin at slewin@space.com or follow her@SarahExplains.Follow us@Spacedotcom,FacebookandGoogle+. Original article onSpace.com.

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Space Station Astronauts Poised to Tackle Three-Spacewalk Streak - Space.com

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USA TODAY NETWORK Published 9:58 a.m. ET March 24, 2017 | Updated 7:26 p.m. ET March 24, 2017

epa05716490 A handout photo made available by the European Space Agency (ESA) shows ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet during his first spacewalk at the International Space Station (ISS), 13 January 2017 (issued 14 January 2017). Together with NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough, he spent five hours and 58 minutes outside the Space Station to complete a battery upgrade to the ISS power system. EPA/ESA/NASA HANDOUT HANDOUT EDITORIAL USE ONLY/NO SALES(Photo: ESA/NASA HANDOUT, EPA)

Expedition 50 Commander Shane Kimbrough of NASA and Flight Engineer Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agencyare on the first of threespacewalks outside the International Space Stationto prepare for the future arrival of U.S. commercial crew spacecraft. Watch the spacewalk live in the player above.

During Friday's spacewalk, NASA saysthe astronauts willprepare the Pressurized Mating Adapter-3 (PMA-3) for installation of the secondInternational Docking Adapter, which will accommodate commercial crew vehicle dockings. The PMA-3 provides the pressurized interface between the station modules and the docking adapter.

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Watch: Astronauts conduct spacewalk outside International Space Station - USA TODAY