Category Archives: Transhuman News

International Space Station - 15 April 2013
This is a short clip of my first ever sighting of the International Space Station (ISS), passing overhead on 15 April 2013.

By: davidjellis

Follow this link:
International Space Station - 15 April 2013 - Video

How Long Does It Take Space Station To Orbit Earth? | Video
ISS commander Chris Hadfield explains orbital mechanics to a high school student.

By: VideoFromSpace

Originally posted here:
How Long Does It Take Space Station To Orbit Earth? | Video - Video

April 18, 2013

Image Caption: NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn conducts the SPHERES-VERTIGO investigation aboard the International Space Station to study the ability to create a three-dimensional model of an unknown object in space using only one or two small satellites. Credit: NASA

NASA

[ Watch The Video ISS Update: SPHERES-VERTIGO ]

It looks like something out of a sci-fi moviefree-formation-flying robotic spheres hovering around the International Space Station with goggles on. The Visual Estimation and Relative Tracking for Inspection of Generic Objects (VERTIGO) study, a part of the Synchronized Position, Hold, Engage and Reorient Experimental Satellites (SPHERES) investigation explores the use of small satellites equipped to analyze and capture data from specified objects, producing a 3-D model of those objects.

The 1.6 kilogram VERTIGO goggles designed for the each SPHERES satellite are similar to a small computer tablet with 1.2 gigahertz data processor, camera, Wi-Fi device and batteries allowing the satellite to see what it is navigating around. This technology could result in techniques for space recycling of old aperture satellites or mapping of an asteroid for exploration, among other missions.

In a March 26 interview on NASA Television, Brent Tweddle, a doctoral candidate at the Space Systems Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass., said the goggles allow for each satellite to, see, perceive and understand its world visually. We use that to communicate that information to the SPHERES satellites using a package called the VERTIGO goggles. [The goggles] are their own little intelligence block that sticks on the front-end of the SPHERES satellite and allows it to see the rest of the world that it wants to navigate through.

Tweddle talked about a variety of topics related to the SPHERES and VERTIGO during the interview, including the different teams interested in this research. He described how the SHPERES are commanded by algorithms. Tweedle also spoke on the February 2012 test run and future SPHERES tests.

The VERTIGO addition to the SPHERES satellites is part of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency-funded International Space Station SPHERES Integrated Research Experiments (InSPIRE) program that leverages the human presence in space for rapid, iterative experimentation and design of space capabilities. It is providing the next generation of scientists and engineers (through the ZERO Robotics Competition) with exposure and experience in carrying out meaningful space experimentation economically and over reasonable time scales.

See original here:
SPHERES-VERTIGO Investigation Conducted Aboard The International Space Station

Two Russian cosmonauts ventured outside the International Space Station Friday (April 19) to begin a six-hour spacewalk to upgrade the orbiting lab with new experiments.

Clad in their bulky Orlan spacesuits, veteran cosmonauts Pavel Vinogradov and Roman Romanenko began their spacewalk just after 10 a.m. EDT (1400 GMT) to install a space weather experiment to the space station's hull and prepare the outpost for the arrival of a robotic cargo ship later this year. You can watch the spacewalk live on SPACE.com, courtesy of NASA TV.

"It's dark outside," one of the cosmonauts said after they opened the hatch of the Pirs docking module, which doubles as a spacewalk airlock and spacecraft parking spot at the station. [Space Station's Expedition 35 Mission in Photos]

The spacewalk's first task is the installation of a new Russian experiment called Obstanovka, which will measure charged particles interact with a variety of materials kept outside of the space station. Obstanovka could offer scientists new insights about how space weather affects the ionosphere, an active region of the Earth's atmosphere, NASA officials explained in a spacewalk description.

Vinogradov and Romanenko also plan to retrieve a Biorisk canister, an experiment that measures the effects of bacteria and fungus on spacecraft materials, as well as part of a materials exposure experiment called Vinoslivost.

"All this is hard work," Romanenko said of the spacewalk in a NASA interview before launching to the station in December. "Also I'm supposed to collect information from other experiments that were installed outside the station."

Vinogradov and Romanenko are also expected to replace a faulty retro-reflector device needed to guide the upcoming arrival of the European Space Agency's Automated Transfer Vehicle 4 an unmanned cargo ship named "Albert Einstein." That robotic spacecraft will launch toward the space station in Juneand park itself at the orbiting laboratory's Russian-built Zvezda service module.

Today's spacewalk is the first for Romanenko and the seventh for veteran space man Vinogradov. Before launch, Romanenko said he was worried he would not get a chance to perform the spacewalk since he is due to return to Earth in May. He is a second-generation spacewalker; his father, former cosmonaut Yuri Romanenko, logged more than 10 spacewalking hours in his career.

The spacewalkers are two members of the six-man Expedition 35 crew currently living aboard the International Space Station. The others are Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield, Russian cosmonaut Alexander Misurkin, and NASA astronauts Thomas Marshburn and Chris Cassidy.

This is the 167th spacewalk dedicated to the construction and upkeep of the International Space Station, which was built by five different space agencies representing 15 countries. Construction of the $100 billion space station began in 1998 and it has been permanently staffed with rotating crews since 2000. It is roughly the size of a five-bedroom house with a wingspan the size of a football field.

See the rest here:
Russian Cosmonauts Take Spacewalk Outside Space Station