Category Archives: Space Station

The International Space Station has delivered a cube satellite with a global positioning system payload, developed by Australias space engineering research center and the University of New South Wales, to orbit using aNanoRacksdeployer.

The Australian defense department said Tuesdaythe Namaru GPS technology on board the U.S.-builtBiarri-Pointcubesat will support on-orbit research activities.

Australiasdefense science and technology group organized mission integration efforts for the GPS payload.

[Namaru] is conducting a range of experiments aimed at increasing our understanding of outer atmospheric effects on small satellites and improving our situational awareness of space, saidChristopher Pyne, Australian minister for the defense industry.

He added the countrys2016 defense white paper explains the applications of space-based technology in data collection, navigation, surveillance and communication activities of its military and coalition operations.

The Australian government has also invested $1.27 billion on defense industry and innovation programs in a push to address defense capacity requirements and transform ongoing R&D programs into new defense platforms, according to Payne.

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Australia's GPS Cubesat Payload Deploys From Space Station Into Orbit - ExecutiveBiz (blog)

Instead, thrust comes from an internal fan and steering is through three reaction wheels the latter classic satellite technology.

Inside is one of two exquisitely-engineered (see this and this video) self-contained 3d inertial orientation control modules both aimed at general-purpose use in space-craft, drones and even as self-propelled rolling cube ground robots.

The 100mm cube weighs 1.34 kg including a wireless communicator and a battery and includes six MEMS inertial sensors and three brushless DC motors driving three orthogonal rotating wheels as reaction masses (see image).

The sensors are mounted on the modules vertexes to improve attitude estimation accuracy, Hall sensors in the motors also feed-back rotational speed and each wheel has an electromagnetic brake. The brakes can generate 2.1Nm of torque, reducing wheel speed from 6000rpm to zero within 100ms, including demagnetization time.

Also in the module is a wireless tranceiver for telemetry and commands, and the lithium polymer battery.

A smaller inertial unit has 31mm reaction wheels and squeezes these, a guidance control computer and 6-axes of inertial sensing inside a 50g mass budget. Exploration of microgravity asteroids is a potential use for this one, said JAXA.

A video describing both of the inertial steering modules can be viewed here

Int-Ball, short for JEM Internal Ball Camera, was delivered to the Kibo Japanese Experiment Module by a Dragon spacecraft in early June.

Many of its parts were 3d-printed.

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Inertia steers Int-Ball drone through International Space Station - Electronics Weekly

Footage from the ISS livestream, uploaded to YouTube, shows a massive hazy object come into view in the background away from the space station.

Commentators have described it as first appearing as a line of orange lights, before it begins to take on a larger form.

As the clip comes to the end, the lights appear to dim back into space.

The video was released by brothers Blake and Brett Cousins who run YouTube channel thirdphaseofmoon yesterday.

The pair showed an interview with a UFO expert in an effort to identify the mysterious anomaly.

Nasa*YouTube

In the video the expert says: "First, what I was looking at is I dont know exactly what I was looking at.

In the very beginning, you see these orange dots around it and by the end of it the entire thing almost shrinks up a little bit.

Almost as if its a giant mothership for all we know.

There have already been more than 40,000 views of the video.

One viewer said: Looks like the Battlestar Galactica just jumped into orbit.

NASA

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ISS Nasa live cam cuts after 'suddenly locking on to mystery glowing UFO'

In the very beginning, you see these orange dots around it and by the end of it the entire thing almost shrinks up a little bit. Almost as if its a giant mothership for all we know.

UFO expert

Another said: Its an interstellar mother ship, watching what NASA is doing, as NASA have lied since the first encounter with UFO.

But a sceptical third said: To me it looks like the ISS filmed a storm in the upper atmosphere.

Thirdphaseofmoon has made it onto a number of UFO website and YouTube channel blacklists by more sceptical investigators, amid claims they use hoax and misrepresented footage.

The brothers deny this and claim to be legitimate researchers.

UFO chasers have reported seeing scores of UFOs on the livestream this year but they have turned out to be nothing more than ice, space debris, or lens flares which is when light refracts inside the camera lens and then is projected on to the still or video image.

Express.co.uk showed the video to Scott Brando, who runs debunking website ufoofinterest.org, who said it was just reflected light coming from the ISS itself, so there was no UFO and nothing was actually there.

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UFO LATEST: Truth about 'alien mothership' filmed 'tracking ... - Express.co.uk

The microgravity conditions of the International Space Station (ISS) may hold the key to improving our understanding of how to combat toxic nerve agents such as sarin and VX. That is the hope of Countermeasures Against Chemical Threats (CounterACT) project that is part of an initiative at the National Institutes of Health aimed at developing improved antidotes for chemical agents.

"With increasing worldwide concern about the use of chemical weapons, there is significant interest in developing better counteragents," said David A. Jett, Ph.D., director of the CounterACT program, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), a part of NIH.

Organophosphates (OPs), a family of chemicals that includes several pesticides as well as sarin and VX nerve agents, block the activity of the enzyme acetylcholinesterase (AChE). This enzyme is critical for allowing muscles to relax after they have been stimulated by the nervous system. When the activity of AChE is blocked (for example, by OPs), muscles cannot relax, leading to paralysis and eventually death.

Developing antidotes to this type of poisoning requires detailed knowledge about the structure of the AChE enzyme. Until now, the forces of gravity on Earth have posed a challenge to this area of research. That's where traveling into space comes in.

In June of this year, samples of the human AChE enzyme were sent to the International Space Station U.S. Laboratory by a team of CounterACT scientists led by Andrey Kovalevsky, Ph.D., Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Zoran Radic, Ph.D., University of California, San Diego. Using these samples, astronauts are currently growing large crystals of pure enzyme of a size that cannot be formed on Earth due to interference from gravity.

"By taking advantage of the microgravity conditions of the International Space Station, we hope to grow better, more uniform crystals that we are unable to grow on Earth," said Dr. Kovalevsky.

Once the crystals are grown to a large enough size, they will be returned to Earth and analyzed by a sophisticated imaging method called neutron diffraction that can provide an atomic-level view of the enzyme.

"Using this technique, we will be able to get a closer look at how the enzyme interacts with pesticides and nerve agents and learn about how the bond between the two can be chemically reversed," said Dr. Radic. "This method would not work on the smaller enzyme crystals that can be grown here."

Antidotes to OP exposure reactivate AChE by directly breaking its chemical bond with the OP. However, the speed at which the countermeasures available today are able to do this is too slow to be fully effective. This project will help researchers to develop antidotes that break the AChE-OP bond more quickly and that can also be delivered orally, which is another key to dealing with large-scale exposure to nerve poisons.

"Developing better countermeasures against these sorts of nerve agents is a major thrust of our overall program," said Dr. Jett. "This project is the kind of cutting-edge science we envisioned when we established the CounterACT program."

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Originally posted here:
Space station project seeks to crystallize the means to counteract nerve poisons - Space Daily

National Institutes of Health (press release)

Space station project seeks to crystalize the means to counteract nerve poisons National Institutes of Health (press release) In June of this year, samples of the human AChE enzyme were sent to the International Space Station U.S. Laboratory by a team of CounterACT scientists led by Andrey Kovalevsky, Ph.D., Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Zoran ... Space station crystals to aid search for better antidotes for chemical ...UPI.com all 3 news articles »

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Space station project seeks to crystalize the means to counteract nerve poisons - National Institutes of Health (press release)

Space watchers have seen footballs, mini-soccer balls and water balls float through the International Space Station but never a drone ball. Now, new footage of a spherical Japanese robot shows it hovering and skittering around the Destiny laboratory.

The hope is that the robot will not only save the crewmembers time today, but could also improve robotic-human cooperation in future space expeditions, according to a statement from the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

"Int-Ball," as the drone is called, would add to a growing legacy of robot "helpers" in space, including NASA's Robonaut 2 (which can throw switches and may eventually do simple spacewalk tasks) and the adorable, talking Japanese Kirobo, which made small talk with astronaut Koichi Wakata in 2013.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency's JEM Internal Ball Camera, called Int-Ball, can record video in space while remote controlled from the ground.

Videos show Int-Ball, under the watchful eye of NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, moving near the walls, taking pictures of experiments and other regions in its vicinity. One shot shows a laptop lazily floating by. In another clip, Peggy Whitson's fellow NASA astronaut Jack Fischer playfully hides behind a camera, taking pictures of the drone.

If the drone works out as planned, it could reduce or eliminate the time astronauts spend taking pictures, an activity that takes up about 10 percent of their working hours right now, JAXA officials said in the statement.

NASA astronauts Peggy Whitson and Jack Fischer work on the International Space Station as Int-Ball observes, above.

It also would let teams on the ground, where Int-Ball is controlled, look at the crew's work from the drone's viewpoint, JAXA added. "The effective cooperative work between in-space and on-the-ground [teams] will contribute to maximized results of 'Kibo' utilization experiments," the agency said, referring to the Japanese experiment module on the space station.

Int-Ball launched aboard SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft on the CRS-11 resupply mission June 3 and arrived at the space station June 5. It's now in testing to ensure that its images and video are recording information as planned, under control from the JAXA Tsukuba Space Center.

JAXA added that Int-Ball's camera which appears to be located between two "eyes" on the robot uses technology that has already been tested on past drones. The ball's exterior and interior were fully 3D-printed on the ground.

Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

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BB-8 Flies? Adorable Japanese Drone Ball Tours Space Station - Space.com

An adorable little robotic camera drone with wide illuminated eyes and a perpetually surprised expression has joined the crew of the International Space Station.

Known as Int-Ball, the bot can be controlled remotely by researchers on the ground, allowing them to capture images and video from aboard the artificial satellite.

Int-Ball contains actuators, rotational and acceleration sensors and electromagnetic brakes, which allow it to move around autonomously in zero gravity.

Developed by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), it was delivered to the ISS on 4 June 2017, and has already started feeding photos and video back to Earth.

JAXA claims that Int-Ball could eventually replace the need for astronauts to capture photos and record video aboard the ISS - tasks that currently take up about 10% of their time.

It could also enable more cooperative work between astronauts and researchers, as those on the ground would be able to see things from the same perspective as the crew.

During its time on the ISS, JAXA will be take part in experiments both inside and outside the space station, in order to test and improve its performance.

JAXA hopes that it will also help to promote the use of robotics technology in future space exploration missions.

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Cute zero-gravity robot is newest member of the International Space Station crew - Mirror.co.uk

Now anyone can see Europe from an astronaut's point of view with this epic video shot from the International Space Station.

Captured with a 4K ultra-high-definition camera, the video shows a crystal-clear view of Europe, starting with Spain and flying east all the way to Budapest, Hungary. In the time it took to shoot this video clip a little over 3 minutes the space station traveled nearly 1,000 miles (1,600 kilometers). [Earth from Space: Amazing Astronaut Photos]

The space station orbits about 250 miles (400 km) above Earth, and it captures the view down below with several onboard cameras. Traveling at about 17,500 mph (28,000 km/h) relative to the ground, it whizzes around the globe every 92 minutes. But the view is not the same every 92 minutes, because the space station's flight pathshifts slightly with each orbit.

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station capture views of Zadar, Croatia; Vienna; Munich; and Salzburg, Austria.

The footage was recorded in August 2016, and NASA's Johnson Space Center, which oversees activities on the space station, released the video Monday (July 17). The groovy background music was produced by Swedish composer Joakim Karud.

Editor's note:Space.com senior producerSteve Spaletacontributed to this report.

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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See Europe from Above in Breathtaking Ultra-HD Video from Space - Space.com

An analysis by John Bucknell (x-Spacex senior engineer) describes an 11 meter diameter robotic vehicle with a 6,000-megawatt nuclear thermal rocket in a NTTR arrangement. The rocket would be single stage to orbit and would be immediately be able to refly after landing and refueling much like todays airliners. Even fully reusable Spacex rockets where all stages are resused would need to be re-assembled.

He describes SSTOH missions to place a 21 meter minor and 214 meter major diameter toroidal habitat in space, capable of full terrestrial gravity simulation by spinning at 3 rpm. The habitat begins as two thin films defining the interior and exterior surfaces of the torus, which is then inflated with lunar-sourced water in a 1m thick shell and allowed to freeze.

Access to space is driven by the economics of launch vehicles. A previously published rocket propulsion cycle called the Nuclear Thermal Turbo Rocket (NTTR) is able to achieve payload fractions of more than 45% to Low Earth Orbit (LEO). This rocket is intended to be completely reusable for the launch mission as it is a Single Stage to Orbit (SSTO) vehicle, which improves economics vastly. However, providing material to LEO is not always the most economical solution for permanent space-based habitation. In-situ resource utilization (ISRU) has been proposed as a method for avoiding the Earths gravity well for space-based construction with solutions proposed using Lunar, Martian as well as other resources.

The Air enhanced nuclear thermal rocket has been described a few at times at Nextbigfuture.

The proposed space station would be close to the size of Titanic but the space station would consist of mostly water ice

Water ice can be used as both reaction mass for propellant in liquid form and as structure in solid form. Nuclear Thermal rockets in particular are well-suited to in-space propulsion as they can add enthalpy to a variety of propellants for thrust without requiring processing plants to achieve chemically active reactants, thus saving on mission payload mass. A mission is proposed that leverages the NTTR vehicle as well as ISRU to construct an orbital habitat of Lunar water ice with a single terrestrial launch (Single Stage to Orbital Habitat SSTOH).

The lunar water ice is extracted from permanently shadowed regolith on the Lunar south pole, where the NTTR vehicle propulsively lands and places 54 tons of payload. The lunar payload is comprised of a small 30 MWth nuclear reactor and associated mechanisms able to extract sub-surface ice.

NOTE NASA will soon officially confirm that there is surface water ice at the lunar pole. The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter did find evidence of frost on the moon earlier in the year, but there is a NASA paper that will be released soon that will confirm surface water ice.

The NTTR vehicle fills its propellant tank with 720 tons of lunar water, and using the water as a propellant delivers 400 tons of water to the habitat in LLO before returning to the Lunar water extraction plant. The reusable NTTR vehicle makes 100 trips to inflate the 40,000-ton habitat, with approximately one trip per 24 hours. Subsequently, the lunar water extraction reactor can be transported to the habitat as a power supply and the NTTR vehicle can push the habitat to a Lagrange point.

The 40,000 ton habitat would be just short of the max cargo of a Panamax container ship. The ISS weighs 450 tons.

In such a fashion, a single vehicle of low investment can produce a 199,000m^3 habitat within 5 months of launch.

In 2015, Bucknell presented the Nuclear Thermal Turbo rocket which added air-breathing to a nuclear thermal rocket. Bucknell design would have 1664 ISP. 60% more than the best prior nuclear thermal rocket designs.

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Plan for a mostly water ice space station 90 times bigger than the ISS - Next Big Future

You, a lone Soviet cosmonaut, are sent to investigate a communications blackout on a space station. When you arrive the place is falling apart, the crew is missing, and its up to you to find out what happened to the station and the workers aboard it. Set in the 80s, Outreach fuses real-world history with conspiracy theories. The environments are realistic, modeled on Russias famous Mir space station, meaning theres no technology that didnt exist at the time. Developer Pixel Spill spent months researching the era, and it shows. Everything from computer consoles to clothing has a feel of authenticity. Its like stepping back in time.

And this realism extends to the way you navigate the station, with zero gravity to deal with. You can push against scenery to propel your body forward, or grab railings to pull yourself along. Its slightly headspinning at first, and adjusting to the fact that theres no up or down takes some getting used to. But when you master it, floating around is a lot of fun. And when you realise that you can grab objects, throw them, and watch them spin through the air realistically, the story will take a temporary backseat as you experiment and play around with the physics. The zero-gravity movement feels just right, which is the result of a lot of painstaking tweaking and adjusting by Pixel Spill.

Theres something wonderfully eerie about the lifeless station. Abandoned space stations are nothing new in games, but the realism element in Outreach makes it feel unique. The chunky tech is reminiscent of Alien: Isolation, which Pixel Spill cites as a big influence on the art design. I drift through the station discovering remnants of the mysteriously missing crew: conversations recorded on cassette tapes, letters, and family photos. I methodically check each and every module for clues, but find nothing. Then I reach a door with a broken handle, meaning Im going to have to go for a spacewalk to reach the next area.

When I step outside into the expanse of space, the size of the Earth below makes me feel dizzy. The sense of scale is incredible. And while I felt relatively safe in the confines of the station, out here Im suddenly overwhelmed by dread. A sensation thats justified when I try and leap towards a handrail, only to miss, float helplessly away and die horribly in the depths of space.

This section is remarkably tense, requiring patience, timing, and concentration to carefully grab each rail and pull yourself to a distant airlock. You have to hit the grab button at precisely the right time, otherwise youll overshoot the rail and drift away from the station with no way to make your way back. I make it eventually, but I die several times in the process. Then, cruelly, the demo ends, and I dont get to see whats inside.

Outreach is fascinating, but my demo leaves me none the wiser about what kind of story itll tell. Will it be a psychological thriller? Or is there something supernatural going on aboard the station? Im looking forward to finding out in the finished game. Pixel Spill promises players will discover the lives and motivations of the crew and learn about something called Project Outreach, which sounds suitably sinister.

The developer also says that youll uncover the true nature of the space station as you explore it, which is filling my head with questions. Im told the game will be a relatively short experiencemaybe three or four hours, the length of a long movieand Im okay with that. Short, focused, well-told stories are fast becoming one of my favourite kinds of game on PC, and I hope Outreach is one that delivers

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Exploring an abandoned Soviet space station in Outreach - PC Gamer