Category Archives: Transhuman News

NASA and Bigelow Aerospace are preparing to launch an expandable habitat module to the International Space Station this year. The agency joined Bigelow Thursday at its Las Vegas facility to mark completion of the companys major milestones.

The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, or BEAM, leverages key innovations in lightweight and compact materials, departing from a traditional rigid metallic structure. In its packed configuration aboard SpaceXs Dragon spacecraft launched on a Falcon 9 rocket, the module will measure approximately 8 feet in diameter. Once attached to the space stations Tranquility Node and after undergoing a series of hardware validations, the module will be deployed, resulting in an additional 565 cubic feet of volume about the size of a large family camping tent accessible by astronauts aboard the orbiting laboratory.

Expandable habitats could be a new way to dramatically increase the amount of volume available to astronauts while also enhancing protection against radiation and physical debris. Innovative advances in efficiency provided by expandable habitats may give the nation new options for extending human presence farther into the solar system, both in transit and on the surface of other worlds, while also supporting the development of innovative platforms for commercial use in low-Earth orbit.

In the next decade, NASA plans to extend human spaceflight from low-Earth orbit operations to proving ground operations in cis-lunar space orbiting the moon. In the proving ground, NASA and its partners will validate vital hardware, including deep space habitats, as well as operations and capabilities necessary to send humans on long-duration missions to Mars or other deep-space destinations in which they must operate independently from Earth. The International Space Station serves as the world's leading laboratory for conducting cutting-edge research and is the primary platform for technology development and testing in space to enable human and robotic exploration of destinations beyond low-Earth orbit, including Mars.

Were fortunate to have the space station to demonstrate potential habitation capabilities like BEAM, said Jason Crusan, director of Advanced Exploration Systems at NASA Headquarters in Washington. Station provides us with a long-duration microgravity platform with constant crew access to evaluate systems and technologies we are considering for future missions farther into deep space.

Once BEAM is attached to the Tranquility Node, the space station crew will perform initial systems checks before deploying the habitat. During the BEAMs minimum two-year test period, crews will routinely enter to take measurements and monitor its performance to help inform designs for future habitat systems. Learning how an expandable habitat performs in the thermal environment of space and how it reacts to radiation, micrometeroids, and orbital debris will provide information to address key concerns about living in the harsh environment of space.

The BEAM is an example of NASAs increased commitment to partnering with industry to enable the growth of the commercial use of space. Bigelow Aerospace is building on technology NASA conceived in the 1990s and licensed to the company. NASA and Bigelow Aerospace are each benefitting from the sharing of expertise, costs, and risks to pursue mutual goals.

The module is scheduled to launch on SpaceXs eighth cargo resupply mission to the space station later this year.

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New Expandable Habitat To Launch To ISS This Year

What's one thing NASA astronaut Scott Kelly can't do without when he moves into space this week for a year? A belt.

Kelly went beltless during his five-month mission at the International Space Station a few years back, and he hated how his shirttails kept floating out of his pants. So this time, the 51-year-old retired Navy captain packed "a military, tactical-style thing" that can hold a tool pouch. He calls it a "superhero utility belt."

Meanwhile, Kelly's 54-year-old partner on the yearlong stay at the space station Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko can't do without his vitamins. When their Soyuz rocket blasts off from Kazakhstan on Saturday (Friday afternoon in the U.S.), three bottles of over-age-50 vitamins will be on board.

After more than two years of training, Kelly and Kornienko are eager to get going. It will be the longest space mission ever for NASA, and the longest in almost two decades for the Russian Space Agency, which holds the record at 14 months. Medicine and technology have made huge leaps since then, and the world's space agencies need to know how the body adapts to an entire year of weightlessness before committing to even longer Mars expeditions.

More yearlong missions are planned, with an ultimate goal of 12 test subjects. The typical station stint is six months. "We know a lot about six months. But we know almost nothing about what happens between six and 12 months in space," said NASA's space station program scientist, Julie Robinson. Among the more common space afflictions: weakened bones and muscles, and impaired vision and immune system.

Then there is the psychological toll. Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, a frequent flier who will accompany Kelly and Kornienko into orbit, predicts it will be the psychological not physical effects that will be toughest on the one-year crew.

Russian cosmonauts Mikhail Kornienko and Gennady Padalka team up with NASA astronaut Scott Kelly for a photo op in front of their Soyuz TMA-16M spacecraft during a final preflight check on Monday at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Kelly and Kornienko will spend a year on the International Space Station, while Padalka is due to set a record for cumulative time in space (900 days) during his stint on the station.

NASA actually got a 2-for-1 deal with Kelly. He is teaming up with brother Mark for a battery of medical tests so researchers can compare the physique and physiology of the space twin with his genetic double on the ground. Raised by police-officer parents, they've lived parallel lives as Navy fighter and test pilots and space shuttle commanders.

Mark Kelly, a four-time space flier, will be at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for his brother's launch; wife Giffords will watch from Houston with Johnson Space Center friends. He's already endured numerous blood draws and ultrasounds in the name of space science.

As for what Scott will endure, "Imagine if you went to work where your office was and then you had to stay in that place for a year and not go outside, right? Kind of a challenge," Mark said in an AP interview.

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Astronaut Packs 'Superhero Belt' for His Year in Space

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. What's one thing astronaut Scott Kelly can't do without when he moves into space this week for a year? A belt.

Kelly went beltless during his five-month mission at the International Space Station a few years back, and he hated how his shirttails kept floating out of his pants. So this time, the 51-year-old retired Navy captain packed "a military, tactical-style thing" that can hold a tool pouch.

Actually, scratch "pouch." He prefers "superhero utility belt."

Kelly's partner on the yearlong stay at the space station Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko can't do without his vitamins. When their Soyuz rocket blasts off from Kazakhstan on Saturday (Friday afternoon in the U.S.), three bottles of over-age-50 vitamins will be on board.

After more than two years of training, Kelly and Kornienko are eager to get going. It will be the longest space mission ever for NASA, and the longest in almost two decades for the Russian Space Agency, which holds the record at 14 months.

Medicine and technology have made huge leaps since then, and the world's space agencies need to know how the body adapts to an entire year of weightlessness before committing to even longer Mars expeditions. More yearlong missions are planned, with an ultimate goal of 12 test subjects. The typical station stint is six months.

"We know a lot about six months. But we know almost nothing about what happens between six and 12 months in space," said NASA's space station program scientist, Julie Robinson.

Among the more common space afflictions: weakened bones and muscles, and impaired vision and immune system. Then there is the psychological toll.

Russian cosmonaut Gennady Padalka, a frequent flier who will accompany Kelly and Kornienko into orbit, predicts it will be the psychological not physical effects that will be toughest on the one-year crew.

"Being far away from Earth, being sort of crammed, having few people to interact with," Padalka said. He'll break the record for most time spent in space during his six-month stay, closing in on a grand total of 900 days by the time he returns to Earth in September.

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US astronaut flying 'superhero utility belt' on 1-year mission; Russian packing megavitamins