Category Archives: Space Station

Lockheed Martin artist rendering of the NextSTEP habitat docked with Orion in cislunar orbit as part of a concept for the Deep Space Gateway. Orion will serve as the habitats command deck in early missions, providing critical communications, life support and navigation to guide long-duration missions. Photo: Lockheed Martin

NASA awarded Lockheed Martin a contract for the Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships (NextSTEP) habitat study contract.

The plan is to put a space station near the moon as a kind of cosmic rest-stop for deep space missions to places like Mars. Its called the Deep Space Gateway and NASA asked Lockheed Martin to design a prototype at Kennedy Space Center.

Lockheed engineers are using theDonatello Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM), an old space shuttle cargo container that was once used to send supplies to the International Space Station.

Using recycled parts will lower the cost of the prototype, and speed up development. Making use of existing capabilities will be a guiding philosophy for Lockheed Martin to minimize development time and meet NASAs affordability goals, said Bill Pratt, Lockheed Martin NextSTEP program manager. The team will also use a mix of virtual and augmented reality to test the tech that will keep the astronauts safe.

The Deep Space Gateway will receive crews from NASAs Orion spacecraft also in development with Lockheed Martin.

Work on the prototype will last about 18 months.

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Lockheed Recycles Shuttle Parts For Deep Space Station - WMFE

Island Packet

The International Space Station visits the Lowcountry sky this week. Here's when to see it, starting Sunday Island Packet The International Space Station will be a regular visitor to the night and early morning skies of the Lowcountry in coming days. Starting Sunday evening, you will be able to see the station streak across the sky for 6 minutes starting at 9:55 p.m ...

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The International Space Station visits the Lowcountry sky this week. Here's when to see it, starting Sunday - Island Packet

Astronaut Jerry Linenger has looked down upon Earth from space, but as he prepared to speak to the crowd at Nerd Nite, NatGeos annual event at Comic-Con 2017, he saw something hed likely never seen before.

A mermaid. With a trident. Sitting up front to watch his talk.

Perhaps due to the incredible things Linegers done as an astronaut who lived on the Mir space station for nearly 5 months and survived a fire on it, Linenger took everything the loud music, swirling planetary lightshow and costumed crowd in stride.

I learned a lot about living in isolation and being off the planet removed from mankind, said Lineger, who spent 2 years prior to his time on Mir living in Russia learning the language before going up.

There were other challenges, too.

I had a little one-and-a-half-year-old and my wife was pregnant. We had the worst fire ever in an orbiting spacecraft, and during that fire my survival instinct kicked in, Lineger said, adding that during the fire he was determined he would get home to his son. That parental instinct, survival of the species, kicked in.

Lineger was on hand, along with JPLs Bobak Ferdowsi and Mallory Lefland and fellow astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman, to talk about NatGeos series Mars and One Blue Planet while guests ate, listened to a DJ and watched a dancer in a flight suit perform inside a clear inflated ball.

Hoffman, an astronomer and MIT professor who repaired the Hubble Telescope during one of his five Shuttle flights, spoke to the crowd about the elements of a Mars mission.

Afterward Hoffman gave a short interview in which he said what had been most memorable about his work in space: Fixing the Hubble.

That was incredibly satisfying, because that was such a complicated mission he said. Many people thought it was too much, but we actually did it. And of course it worked.

Did he miss anything during his time in space? Since he was busy and the shuttle missions werent longer than a few weeks, he says he didnt really miss the Earth. Other than wanting to see his family and friends, there was only one thing he could think of hed missed.

To munch down on a nice, crunchy salad, he said. All the space food is really mushy.

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Astronaut describes surviving fire on the space station during Comic-Con 2017's NatGeo Nerd Nite - OCRegister

ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WLOS)

The International Space Station (ISS) orbits the Earth and you can see it fly over Asheville--if you know where and when to look.

At 10:48 p.m. on Saturday, July 22, 2017 the ISS will fly over Asheville and be visible as it crosses overhead for about six minutes. (If you're seeing this story ahead of the flyover, a good way to remember to watch the ISS is to set an alarm on your cell phone, if you have one)

If skies are clear in your area, look west-southwest about 10:48 p.m., and wait for the ISS to become visible over the horizon. It will look like a bright, fast-moving star, and will travel overhead and move out of sight into the north-northeast.

The ISS travels at about 17,150 mph as it zooms by, and you can view how many people are aboard it right here.

You can track where the ISS is here.

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LOOK UP! The International Space Station flies over Asheville - WLOS

TOKYO -- Japanese astronauts on the International Space Station have been joined by a floating camera drone developed by the space agency as an important -- and cute -- partner for the crew.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) started building the JEM Internal Ball Camera, or Int-Ball, in June 2016. The robot was launched into space this past June 4 and now operates in the Japanese Experiment Module as the first-ever working drone on board a spacecraft, according to JAXA.

The Int-Ball measures less than 15cm in diameter -- around the size of a large grapefruit -- thanks to a miniaturized control module with built-in sensors developed by the agency. Bursts of air from fans propel it through the zero-gravity environment, either autonomously or via commands from an earthbound operator.

A central camera sits like a nose between LED "eyes" that light up when images are being shot or an error is encountered. This is meant to make it easy to tell which way the Int-Ball is facing, JAXA says. The drone's internal components and exterior casing were all produced via 3-D printing.

The lack of gravity means that the Int-Ball can get by without the bulky motors needed by drones back home. Instead, stability is key -- if the camera-bot can be blown around by small air currents, its images could turn out blurry or it could get in the crew's way in the narrow spaces where they operate. The Int-Ball's control module allows for the fine control over the propulsion fans needed for this purpose.

The drone's sole job for now is taking pictures and video of astronauts' experiments and onboard equipment, which are sent to Earth in real time. Astronauts typically use hand-held cameras for photography -- a task that eats up 10% of their work time, according to JAXA. Having the Int-Ball take on some of this will save time and effort. The goal is to spare the human crew from having to spend any time on photography.

JAXA is thinking about expanding the Int-Ball's duties to include such tasks as managing supply inventories and surveying onboard problems. Adding voice recognition would let nearby crew members give commands. The little ball could become a trusty astronaut's companion like the "Gundam" science fiction franchise's Haro spherical robot, to which the Int-Ball bears a striking resemblance.

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Japanese robotic camera welcomed aboard space station - Nikkei Asian Review

Youve used Google Street View to check out a new apartment, map traffic before you hit the road and search for haunting slices of the everyday world.

Now, the comprehensive terrestrial mapping system has gone extraterrestrial, allowing users to peer inside the International Space Stationfrom their computer 248 miles below with 360-degree, panoramic views.

The Street View imagery was captured by Thomas Pesquet, an astronaut with the European Space Agency, who spent six months aboard the ISS before returning to earth in June.

Google Street View, which is featured in Google Maps and Google World, was launched in 2007 and quickly expanded locations around the globe, including places as remote as Mount Everest base campand as offbeat as Scotlands Loch Ness. The vast majority of Street Views photography is shot by a vehicle, whose movement is available to fans online.

[The search for the Loch Ness monster has moved online, thanks to Google]

Googles foray into space is the first time StreetView imagery was captured beyond planet Earth.

In a blog post about his experience, Pesquet wrote that it was difficult to find the words or take a picture that accurately describes the feeling of being in space.

Working with Google on my latest mission, I captured Street View imagery to show what the ISS looks like from the inside, and share what its like to look down on Earth from space, he added.

The virtual tour allows users to peek into areas where astronauts eat, exercise, work and even bathe.

Pesquets imagery reveal an environment that may look a bit cramped and chaotic if not altogether dizzying to humans anchored on earth, but some of the scenes from inside the ISS are downright mesmerizing.

The images were captured using DSLR cameras and then stitched together back on earth to create panoramic views.

Pesquet noted that the ISS is a busy place with six crew members working and researching 12 hours a day.

There are a lot of obstacles up there, and we had limited time to capture the imagery, so we had to be confident that our approach would work. Oh, and theres that whole zero gravity thing, he wrote.

Floating through the ISS online, youll notice clickable dots with detailed descriptions of the space and its objects to help viewers understand what theyre looking at. Pesquet noted that this is the first time annotations helpful little notes that pop up as you explore the ISS have been added to Street View imagery.

The ISS is a large spacecraft that orbits around Earth at more than 17,500 miles per hour and is home for astronauts from around the world, according to NASA. The ISS is made up of many pieces that were constructed by astronauts beginning in 1998. By 2000, as more pieces of the station were added, the station was ready for people, according to NASA. Portions of the station are connected via modules known as nodes, according to NASA.

The first crew arrived on November 2, 2000, NASA wrote. People have lived on the space station ever since. Over time more pieces have been added. NASA and its partners around the world finished the space station in 2011.

NASA compares the inside of the station to the inside of a house, noting that the structure which weighs almost one million pounds and covers an area the side of a football field has five bedrooms, two bathrooms, a gymnasium and a big bay window.

The station houses labs from the United States, Russia, Japan and Europe.

We can collect data on the Earths oceans, atmosphere, and land surface, Pesquet wrote. We can conduct experiments and studies that we wouldnt be able to do from Earth, like monitoring how the human body reacts to microgravity, solving mysteries of the immune system, studying cyclones to alert populations and governments when a storm is approaching, or monitoring marine litter the rapidly increasing amount waste found in our oceans.

Several times a week, Mission Control at NASAs Johnson Space Center in Houston determines where Earthlings can spot the station from the ground below from thousands of locations all over the globe. To find out the best time to see the station from your town, click here.

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Google Street View's latest destination: The International Space Station - Washington Post

Fly me to the moon, let me play among the stars, students sang in a large Campbell Middle School classroom as they tucked away their workbooks and laptops.

They werent rehearsing to form a Frank Sinatra tribute band. Crooning the tune is the celestial motivation for a group of roughly a dozen students hoping to get their lines of code to the International Space Station this summer.

The Zero Robotics program at Campbell Middle aims to take students work to the moon and beyond, all while teaching students about space exploration, computer science and coding.

The five-week summer program is an offshoot of a national high school program and competition provided through a partnership between MIT Space Systems Lab, the Innovation learning Center and Aurora Flight Sciences. It is sponsored by NASA, the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space and the Northrup Grumman Foundation.

The program sees students learn about efficient use of fuel and how to write specific lines of code. Once theyve had enough practice on and off the computer, students write and send the best line of code to the competition in their respective state. There are nine other teams in California competing.

Students must complete objectives, such as navigating around obstacles, docking to other satellites or going in a particular direction, all while conserving the most amount of fuel possible.

Winning teams will get their code uploaded to the International Space Station and watch via a live feed as small robots aboard the space station follow their program. The robots are similar to the ones students work with in the program back on Earth.

Students participate in a game to program movements for synchronized, position, hold, engage, reorient, experimental satellites, or SPHERES for short.

I thought the SPHERES would be shaped like the Earth, but they are shaped like a 3D octagon, said sixth-grade student Tamba Bangurah.

This is the first year students from the Campbell Union School District have participated. Summer camp program coordinator Tanner Marcoida said he had been planting the seed among some students toward the end of the school year to generate interest in participating.

If we have the best code out of our region, then our code will be uploaded to the space station and we will get to see the SPHERES, the actual robots that are on the space station in zero gravity, he said. We actually get to see them play out the game that they have been coding this entire time. Thats quite the treat for hard work.

Documenting the middle school students feat is a film crew from National Geographic.

Marcoida and his students have had Thomas Verrettes film crew follow their daily lessons and games and it will stick around until the final winner is announced.

I didnt know what school I would be in at the time, what students Id be following and the educators, Verrette said. I used the orientation as that resource. I watched how all the educators responded to the program and interviewed quite a few of them and then decided on Campbell.

After deciding Marcoida and his students would be an interesting group to film, he showed up the second day of camp with cameras to get the students used to the crew and having cameras in the room.

The kids are great, Verrette said. Every once in awhile theyll smile and laugh because they forget that were there. In some ways they are a lot easier to deal with than adults when youre trying to document something.

Verrette said he hopes when the documentary is complete and released, people have a newfound respect for science.

As for a release date, Verrette said that is to be determined.

For more information about Zero Robotics, visit zerorobotics.mit.edu.

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Summer program aims to send students' coding projects to space - The Mercury News

When a resupply mission lifts off in August bound for the International Space Station, it will be carrying an important cargo for researchers studying Parkinsons disease: aprotein consideredto be a key to potential future therapies.

Theleucine-rich repeat kinase 2(LRRK2) protein will be the focus of an experiment conducted on the Space Station.It is hoped that the microgravity conditions aboard the Space Station will allow growth of larger, more regular LRRK2 protein crystals, which would help scientists solve the proteins structure providing valuable information for thedesign of optimized therapies to fight Parkinsons disease (PD).

The experiment is the result of a partnership between theMichael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinsons Researchand the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS).

Were thrilled that PD research has been selected to travel to the International Space Station and honored to partner with CASIS on behalf of the PD community here on Earth, said Michael J. Fox, the actor who started the foundation after he was diagnosed with Parkinsons, in a video message played at the International Space Station Research and Development Conference held in Washington, DC, July 17 20.

The SpaceX CRS-12 cargo resupply mission scheduled for liftoff in August will carry LRRK2 protein to the Space Station to be used in the Crystallization of LRRK2 Under Microgravity Conditions (CASIS PCG 7) experiment.

In its role as manager of the Space StationsU.S. National Laboratory, CASIS is responsible for coordinating transfer of scientific materials to and from theSpace Station and oversight of work conducted in the laboratory. The Michael J. Fox Foundation, which initiated this project, has supported earthside preparation of the protein for growth in space.

Advancing Understanding of LRRK2 as a Key Parkinsons Drug Target

LRRK2 is considered to be the greatest known genetic contributor to Parkinsons disease, according to the Michael J. Fox Foundation. Most Parkinsons cases are categorized as idiopathic of unknown cause with only about 10 percent of cases having been linked to a genetic cause. LRRK2 gene mutations are the most common cause of Parkinsonsin that minority, which represents only 1 to 2 percent of total Parkinsons cases.

However, LRRK2 mutations account for a much higher proportion of Parkinsonscases among people of certain ethnic groups, notably Ashkenazi Jews, North African Arab Berbers, and Basques, than they doin the general population.

The foundationnotes that while estimates vary, it is believed that mutated LRRK2 (predominantly the mutation scientists refer to as G2019S) account for some 15 to 20 percent of Parkinsons cases among Ashkenazi Jews, and about 40 percent of cases in North African Arab Berbers. Also, other genetic changes in LRRK2 have been found to increase risk of developing Parkinsons among people of other ethnic backgrounds, such as in Asians of Chinese descent.

Because LRRK2 protein function is heightened in people with Parkinsons disease, and is associated with a mutation in the LRRK2 gene, the foundation believes therapies targeting this gene could also accelerate development of treatments that can benefit a broader Parkinsons population.

However, one obstacle holding back this line of drug development is the limited understanding of LRRK2s exact structure. The foundationnotes that greater understanding of a proteins shape and structure can help developers design therapies more likely to engage a particular protein in treatment of disease.

Overcoming Gravitational Limitations

Earths gravitational field allows only low resolution versions of LRRK2 protein to be grown. However, the Crystallization of LRRK2 Under Microgravity Conditions (CASIS PCG 7) experiment will use automated biotechnology devices operating in the microgravity environment to grow larger, better-formed protein crystals with fewer defects that may yield higher resolution views of LRRK2. These will then be returned to Earth for postflight analysis.

Having a better detailed view of the precise shape and morphology of LRRK2s crystalline structure would help scientists better understand Parkinsons pathology, and accelerate development of LRRK2 inhibitor therapies designed to prevent, slow, or stop Parkinsons disease progression.

The unique environment of the International Space Station untethers research from restrictions imposed by gravity,CASIS president and executive director, Gregory H. Johnson, said in a press release. CASIS is glad to partner with The Michael J. Fox Foundation to explore the structure of this important piece of the Parkinsons puzzle.

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Key Parkinson's Protein Gets Starring Research Role on International Space Station - Parkinson's News Today

A gravity-free Google Street View has landedon the International Space Station (ISS).

Related: Google grant seeks to curb gun violence in 10 U.S. cities

The search engine on Thursday announced that anyone can now see inside the ISS using its popular map tool, Street View. Launched in 2007, the technology feature in Google Maps and Google Earth provides 360-degree views from different positionspreviously limited to streets aroundthe world. For the first time ever, Google has extended the feature into outer space.

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Earth is seen behind the International Space Station from Space Shuttle Discovery as the two spacecraft begin their relative separation in this NASA handout photo taken on September 8, 2009. Google Street View on Thursday landed on the ISS. NASA/Handout/Reuters

Users can poke through 15 parts of the ISS. Tiny dots within the images allow users to launch notes that explain specific functions. In the Pirs, Docking Compartment 1, for example, clicking on the description for the Orlan Spacesuitexplains that the accessory is designed to protect an Extravehicular Activity crewmember from the vacuum of space, ionizing radiation, solar energy and micrometeoroids.

The ISS is a large spacecraft and science lab that orbits around the Earth. It houses astronauts from around the world and acts as a base for space exploration, with possible future missions to the moon, Mars and asteroids. The station is made of many parts, also called modules,the first of which was launched by a Russian rocket in 1998. The first crew arrived on November 2, 2000, and NASA and its international partners finished the stationin 2011.

As Google users now can see, the space station is as big inside as a house with five bedrooms. It has two bathrooms, a gymnasium and a big bay window. Six people are able to live there. It weighs almost a million pounds and is big enough to cover a football field that includes the end zones.

Thomas Pesquet, an astronaut at the European Space Agency, spent six months aboard the ISS as a flight engineer and captured Street View imagery to share what it looks like from the inside, and what its like to look down on Earth from outer space. Looking at Earth from above made me think about my own world a little differently, and I hope that the ISS on Street View changes your view of the world too, he wrote Thursday in a blog post.

Modules called nodes connect parts of the station to each other. The ISShas science labs from the United States, Russia, Japan and Europe, where astronauts learn about living and working in space. From Earth, the ISS often can be seen with the naked eye. The ISS is one of the first steps in NASAs plan to send humans deeper into space than ever before.

Googles milestone comes 48 years after the first manned mission landed on the moon.

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Tour the International Space Station With Google Street View - Newsweek

The city of Alpha in Luc Besson's latest fantasy film, "Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets," shares a few similarities to the existing International Space Station, which is highlighted in the opening scene of the movie.

In the new adventure movie "Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets," directed by Luc Besson, the title city of Alpha has a present-day origin: the International Space Station.

The opening of "Valerian" a film inspired by the popular French comic series "'Valrian et Laureline," created by Pierre Christin and Jean-Claude Mzires has a scene that showcases the International Space Station (ISS) as it grows into a galactic United Nations, hosting meet-and-greets with representatives from Earth and, later, aliens. It grows physically, too, until it is large enough that it needs to be moved out of low-Earth orbit. [Read our full "Valerian" review!]

The fictional metropolis Alpha was inspired by Point City, which was first written about in the sixth volume of the "Valerian and Laureline" graphic novel series, entitled "Ambassador of the Shadows."

The ISS' evolution is a plausible one: The station has a history of bringing cultures together to build itself and to exchange ideas. In "Valerian," the first greeting in the montage takes place in the not-too-distant year 2020, where two human astronauts are shown embracing, and as we advance in time, we see increasingly strange aliens introduce themselves to humans on board the station.

Certainly, the international crews that have continuously occupied the existing ISS since 2000 would have milder reactions to meeting foreign astronauts than hypothetically meeting alien life-forms. However, the ISS was nevertheless groundbreaking in its ability to unite five space agencies to expand scientific research possibilities and to mend older nationalistic divisions. Many of the space programs involved with the station NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), CSA (Canada), JAXA (Japan), ESA (Europe) include countries that have warred with one another in the last century.

This image is a side-by-side view of early space station concepts in fact and fiction. In the decade following these illustrations, the "Valerian and Laureline" comic was written, later inspiring director Luc Besson to create the 2017 "Valerian" film.

Early concepts for the ISS had the space station taking the shape of a giant wheel. Wernher von Braun developed an ISS station concept in 1952 that was round in order to provide simulated gravity through rotation, with a capacity to house dozens of scientists, accordingthis Space.com infographic.

Science-fiction storytellers were clearly inspired by these concepts, and a few years later, in 1968, Stanley Kubrick's film "2001: A Space Odyssey" developed a model for a space station that was in a similar wheel shape. The year before, 1967, the first issue of "Valerian and Laureline" was published by Dargaud, according to "Valerian" film representatives. Point Central, a vast space station that lies at the crossroads of space that inspired Alpha in the film adaptation, appeared a few years later, in the 1975 comic "Valerian Vol 6: Ambassador of the Shadows."

Right now, NASA and U.S. officials have only promised to fund the ISS through 2024, so it's uncertain what the future will hold for the orbiting lab. But as crews from around the world work together to research and live in space, science-fiction writers have inspiration to continue writing tales of the ISS expanding someday into that kind of vibrant metropolis.

Mission specialists Lopez-Alegria and Herrington working on a newly installed Port One (P1) truss on the International Space Station in 2002.

Follow Doris Elin Salazar on Twitter @salazar_elin.Follow us@Spacedotcom,FacebookandGoogle+. Original article onSpace.com.

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In 'Valerian,' International Space Station Evolves into Interstellar Metropolis - Space.com