Category Archives: Space Station

Brook Haven School sent 19 of its best science students into orbit recently when they got the chance to interview astronaut Thomas Pesquet aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

By making the trek to Santa Rosa Junior College, students were able to establish an 11-minute contact via radio from the SRJCs ground up-link station. The activity was part of the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) project, which promotes learning opportunities as part of the Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) initiative.

Sebastopols Brook Haven was selected as one of 12 schools to participate in this venture.

We were beyond excited to be chosen by ARISS, said Brook Haven Principal Debbie Hanks. Our team of teachers, volunteers and students worked hard to prepare for this remarkable experience.

Math teacher Jim Mclelland said students, all fifth through eighth graders, were involved in learning about the space station prior to the April 19 event. Students submitted more than 200 questions, and teachers narrowed it down to about 20.

The hard part was picking the best ones, Mclelland said. As the International Space Station traveled at 17,500 miles per hour, our students were able to ask 19 questions and get answers, as well as offer a group appreciation to Thomas Pesquet before we lost contact, when the ISS went over the horizon.

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Space station link-up sends students into orbit | News | sonomawest ... - Sonoma West

It's very early days, but two papers published today have detected hints of elusive dark matter within data collected at the International Space Station (ISS).

Dark matter is the hypothetical substance that makes up 26.8 percent of the known Universe, and explains why our Universe holds together. For decades, scientists have struggled to detect it, and now they might have a new lead - the two separate studies have shown that the number of antiprotons streaming down on the ISS make more sense if dark matter exists.

No one's claiming they've actually detected dark matter here, so don't freak out just yet. But with the hunt for dark matter getting so dire that scientists are now actively looking for ways the Universe makes sense without it, any evidence that validates its existence is a big deal.

Researchers first came up with the concept of dark matter - a mysterious kind of matter that doesn't interact with electromagnetic radiation and therefore is invisible to us - to explain the imbalance between the amount of matter in the Universe and the amount of gravity that holds together our galaxies.

The imbalance lies in the fact that if you add up all the matter in the stars, planets, and cosmic gas within the Universe, it still doesn't explain how we have so much gravity - unless you factor in dark matter.

Despite finding evidence of its hypothesised effects, anything more solid has remained frustratingly elusive. And scientists are now looking for alternative explanations for all the extra gravity in our Universe.

But these latest studies offer up some new hope.

Two separate teams, one from Germany and the other from China and Taiwan, have analysed the amount of antiprotons detected by the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) - an experiment set up on the ISS to count how many antiprotons stream down on the station.

Antiprotons are the antimatter partners of protons, and they make up a small part of the cosmic rays that are constantly streaming through space.

These antiprotons are usually produced through collision between high-energy cosmic rays and interstellar gas (we've been able to create them at the Large Hadron Collider), but they're also predicted to be produced by the hypothetical collision of dark matter - when two dark matter particles annihilate one another.

To get an idea of whether or not this was the case, the two teams independently came up with predictions for how many antiprotons they'd expect the AMS experiment to detect in two scenarios - with or without the presence of dark matter.

The German team found that the data far more accurately matched a model where dark matter annihilation was taking place. More specifically, a model where a dark matter particle existed with a mass of 80 GeV/c2.

The Chinese team used a different set of assumptions but came to the same conclusion - the AMS data made more sense if you assume that dark matter exists. Their model predicted a similar dark matter particle with mass between 40 and 60 GeV/c2.

Most importantly, both teams independently showed that the data better matched models assuming the presence of dark matter than those that assumed dark matter didn't exist.

The fact that two separate teams came up with the same answer is promising, but we're still a long way off confirming dark matter's existence.

However, the research does correspond with a previous dark matter hint discovered using AMS data - an overabundance of positrons, or antimatter electrons, flowing down from space.

Some physicists think these could also be evidence of dark matter, while others think the excess can be explained by other astronomical phenomena, such as pulsars.

Researchers back in 2016 also found a glut of high-energy radiation in the centre of the Milky Way, which some physicists linked to dark matter (although this has been thoroughly debated since).

"That could just be a coincidence," theoretical astrophysicist Dan Hooper from Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, who wasn't involved in the new studies, told Emily Conover from Science News.

But "it does look pretty encouraging to me for that reason," he added.

The research has been published here and here in Physical Review Letters, and you can also read them here and here on arXiv.org.

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Two Independent Teams Find Hints of Dark Matter in Space Station Data - ScienceAlert

The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer has measured cosmic rays streaming toward Earth since 2011, searching for evidence of distant dark matter.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. After six years in space, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS), a sensitive particle detector aboard the International Space Station, is being prepared for a cooling system retrofit to keep the instrument operational until the station's retirement in 2024 or beyond.

Station commander Peggy Whitson and newly arrived rookie flight-engineer Jack Fischer, both with NASA, will kick off preliminary work on the $2 billion, 8.5-ton (77 metric tons) science instrument on a spacewalk tomorrow (May 12).

During their spacewalk, which is scheduled to last 6.5 hours, the astronauts plan to install a cable so engineers can test a data circuit in the AMS. The instrument was installed outside the station during the final flight of space shuttle Endeavour, in May 2011. [Photos: AMS Hunts Exotic Particles in Space]

AMS is designed to study cosmic rays for signs of dark matter being annihilated in space.

Unlike regular matter, which emits or interacts with electromagnetic radiation, dark matter has never been observed directly. The existence of dark matter is inferred through its gravitational effects on visible matter.

Current theories suggest dark matter may account for 85 percent of all the matter in the universe.

So far, AMS has tracked more than 100 billion cosmic ray hits in its detectors, AMS lead scientist Samuel Ting, a Nobel laureate with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said in an interview with Space.com.

"We have measured an excess of positrons [the antimatter counterpart to an electron], and this excess can come from dark matter. But at this moment, we still need more data to make sure it is from dark matter and not from some strange astrophysics sources," Ting said. "That will require us to run a few more years."

AMS has also been measuring energy spectrums of helium, lithium, boron, carbon and other elements that fly toward Earth as cosmic rays.

"None of the energy distributions agree with theoretical predictions by a huge amount," Ting said. "Not a single one agrees. That's how little we know."

To keep AMS operational through the lifetime of the station, NASA plans to replace the device's cooling pumps next year, Ting said.

Two of AMS' four cooling pumps have failed, Ting said, though the particle detector needs just one pump to operate.

"In talking with NASA, we decided that since we will be there for the lifetime of the station, it would be prudent to replace with new pumps," Ting said. "This will be done sometime next year."

The pumps are part of a liquid carbon-dioxide cooling system that dissipates heat from the AMS as the station orbits in and out of sunlight.

The cable being installed during Friday's spacewalk will test a system that reads out engineering data from the device.

"We want to check if the readout system is still there. It's more or less an assurance check [to] make sure the communications will be there," Ting said.

Friday's spacewalk, which is scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. EDT (1200 GMT), will be the 200th devoted to station assembly and maintenance since construction of the outpost began in 1998.

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

Read more:
Dark Matter Probe on Space Station to Be Revitalized - Space.com

By Adam Stewart

Staff writer

This spring, U.S. Air Force Col. Nick Hague got the news he had been waiting on for two years: He will join the ranks of Steve Hawley, Joe Engle and Ronald Evans as a Kansan to travel into outer space.

Hague, who was selected by NASA as an astronaut in 2013 and completed training in 2015, is assigned to travel to the International Space Station in September 2018, NASA announced March 28.

Its a six-month mission to the I.S.S., Hague said in a phone interview May 4.

He will be a flight engineer for Expedition 57/58, which will launch from Russia aboard Soyuz 56S, according to a NASA biography.

It was really hard to believe, he said of getting the news. You wait for something, you work hard for something. I still have those Pinch me moments now.

Background

Hague was born in 1975 in Belleville and grew up in Hoxie, where he graduated from Hoxie High School in 1994. He graduated from the U.S. Air Force Academy in 1998 with a bachelors degree in astronautical engineering, and he later received a masters degree in aeronautical and astronautical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Hague said he always found the idea of space travel intriguing, and many experiences in his youth, including a field trip to the Cosmosphere in Hutchinson, got him interested in becoming an astronaut.

The ultimate dream was to go explore space, he said.

He said the Apollo astronauts who made the moon landings were an inspiration, but added that his family and parents were crucial inspirations as well, teaching him the importance of persistence. And now he counts on his wife, U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Catie Hague, and his two sons for support.

He applied to become an astronaut for the first time in 2003. On his third application, in 2013, he was accepted.

Required skills and training

Hague said it is obvious that anyone who wants to become an astronaut needs to have considerable technical knowledge, but he said people might not realize how important the ability to work well with others and to handle stress is. The success of a mission is a whole-team effort, he said.

Competing in athletics and participating in other group activities in his youth helped develop those teamwork skills, Hague said, and his Air Force career helped him take the next step.

Hague said learning Russian Russian Soyuz spacecraft are the only vehicles to send crew to the I.S.S. since the U.S. space shuttle program ended in 2011 has been one of the more challenging parts of training for the assignment.

In the meantime, Hague has been assisting NASAs mission from the ground in the Space Station Operations branch supporting resource planning and operations. Hague said that involves lending an astronauts perspective in planning missions.

As a flight engineer, Hague will conduct scientific experiments aboard the I.S.S. and help maintain the station.

Lessons learned

Hague said achieving his goals has been a step-by-step process, with failure along the way. The important thing has been picking himself back up and working again to reach his goals.

He said the world can seem a long way from small-town Kansas, but he is proof that big dreams arent out of reach. He said achieving big dreams starts with knowing it wont be easy and not letting that stop you.

Dont give up, he said. Dream big and work hard.

More here:
Kansan's going up: International Space Station is astronaut's ... - Hutchinson News

From the International Space Station, Expedition 42 Flight Engineer Terry W. Virts took this photograph of the Gulf of Mexico and U.S. Gulf Coast at sunset

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This image of an area on the surface of Mars, approximately 1.5 by 3 kilometers in size, shows frosted gullies on a south-facing slope within a crater. The image was taken by Nasa's HiRISE camera, which is mounted on its Mars Reconaissance Orbiter

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The Orion capsule jetted off into space before heading back a few hours later having proved that it can be used, one day, to carry humans to Mars

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The Soyuz TMA-15M rocket launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Monday, Nov. 24, 2014, carrying three new astronauts to the International Space Station. It also took caviar, ready for the satellite's inhabitants to celebrate the holidays

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NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman shared this image of Yellowstone via his twitter account

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Nasa celebrated Black Friday by looking into space instead sharing pictures of black holes

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X-rays stream off the sun in this image showing observations from by NASA's Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, or NuSTAR, overlaid on a picture taken by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO)

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This near-infrared color image shows a specular reflection, or sunglint, off of a hydrocarbon lake named Kivu Lacus on Saturn's moon Titan

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Although Mimas and Pandora, shown here, both orbit Saturn, they are very different moons. Pandora, "small" by moon standards (50 miles or 81 kilometers across) is elongated and irregular in shape. Mimas (246 miles or 396 kilometers across), a "medium-sized" moon, formed into a sphere due to self-gravity imposed by its higher mass

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An X1.6 class solar flare flashes in the middle of the sun in this image taken 10 September, captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory

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An image from Nasa's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) shows a 200,000 mile long solar filament ripping through the Sun's corona in September 2013

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A false colour image of Cassiopeia A comprised with data from the Spitzer and Hubble Space Telescopes and the Chandra X-Ray observatory

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An image of the Large Magellanic Cloud galaxy seen in infrared light by the Herschel Space Observatory. Regions of space such as this are where new stars are born from a mixture of elements and cosmic dust

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Nasa's Mars Rover Spirit took the first picture from Spirit since problems with communications began a week earlier. The image shows the robotic arm extended to the rock called Adirondack

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Nasa astronaut Scott Kelly captured this photograph of the green lights of the aurora from the International Space Station

The Space Shuttle Challenger launches from Florida at dawn. On this mission, Kathryn Sullivan became the first U.S. woman to perform a spacewalk and Marc Garneau became the first Canadian in space. The crew of seven was the largest to fly on a spacecraft at that time, and STS-41G was the first flight to include two female astronauts

Galaxy clusters are often described by superlatives. After all, they are huge conglomerations of galaxies, hot gas, and dark matter and represent the largest structures in the Universe held together by gravity

Nasa's Hubble Space Telescope has unveiled in stunning detail a small section of the Veil Nebula - expanding remains of a massive star that exploded about 8,000 years ago

The arrangement of the spiral arms in the galaxy Messier 63, seen here in an image from the Nasa Hubble Space Telescope, recall the pattern at the center of a sunflower

The spectacular cosmic pairing of the star Hen 2-427 more commonly known as WR 124 and the nebula M1-67 which surrounds it

Four images from New Horizons Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) were combined with colour data from the Ralph instrument to create this enhanced colour global view of Pluto

The HiRISE camera aboard Nasa's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter acquired this closeup image of a "fresh" (on a geological scale, though quite old on a human scale) impact crater in the Sirenum Fossae region of Mars. This impact crater appears relatively recent as it has a sharp rim and well-preserved ejecta

This photograph of the Florida Straits and Grand Bahama Bank was taken during the Gemini IV mission during orbit no. 19 in 1965. The Gemini IV crew conducted scientific experiments, including photography of Earth's weather and terrain, for the remainder of their four-day mission following Ed White's historic spacewalk on June 3

For 50 years, NASA has been "suiting up" for spacewalking. In this 1984 photograph of the first untethered spacewalk, NASA astronaut Bruce McCandless is in the midst of the first "field" tryout of a nitrogen-propelled backpack device called the Manned Maneuvering Unit (MMU)

This Nasa Hubble Space Telescope image presents the Arches Cluster, the densest known star cluster in the Milky Way

Nasa astronaut Reid Wiseman tweeted this photo from the International Space Station on 2 September 2014

On Mars, we can observe four classes of sandy landforms formed by the wind, or aeolian bedforms: ripples, transverse aeolian ridges, dunes, and what are called draa

A sokol suit helmet can be seen against the window of the Soyuz TMA-11M capsule shortly after the spacecraft landed with Expedition 39 Commander Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Soyuz Commander Mikhail Tyurin of Roscosmos, and Flight Engineer Rick Mastracchio of NASA near the town of Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan

Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system and perhaps the most majestic. Vibrant bands of clouds carried by winds that can exceed 400 mph continuously circle the planet's atmosphere

This Chandra X-Ray Observatory image of the young star cluster NGC 346 highlights a heart-shaped cloud of 8 million-degree Celsius gas in the central region

More:
Nasa should get rid of International Space Station as soon as possible and go to Mars instead, says Buzz Aldrin - The Independent

After a few years in Early Access, Starbound launched in full last year. Chris liked it, and it's since introduced some pretty wholesome updatesthe latest of which will let players craft and customise their own space stations.

"All for a relatively reasonable cost", personalised interstellar dwellings will come with an entrance for your mech and a teleported for your convenience. Stations can then be upgraded and expanded, so says developer Chucklefish in this blog post, so as to create the "intricate corridor maze of your dreams", should that be something you're into.

"This is something weve wanted for a really long time and it has finally found its place in the upcoming update," Chucklefish adds, in reference to the incoming but as yet dateless update 1.3.

When that arrives it'll also come packing a new mech assembly feature which, as you might imagine, lets you assemble your own mechs. Doing so involves visiting a Mech Assembly Station, where you can swap parts, paint, and view the appearance and stats of your mechs. Horns are optional too, apparently.

Again, Starbound's update 1.3 is without a concrete launch date for now, however its updates are typically filled with gifs. Here are but a few:

View post:
Starbound is getting player-made space stations - PC Gamer

Milton-Freewater Rotarians enjoyed a video screening recently about astronaut Peggy Whitson, who holds the all-time woman-in-space record with more than 534 days. She broke the record on April 24 this year. She holds the record for the most spacewalks by a woman astronaut and is the first woman to command the International Space Station twice, noted Rotarian Robby Robbins in a report.

The video takes viewers on a tour of International Space Station modules while Peggy describes life on board. Peggy shows the living facilities aboard, including a galley, bedrooms, bathrooms and viewing lounge while addressing typical questions people ask about life there.

She also went through the science labs that support activities for the United States, Russia, Japan and Europe.

The first piece of the ISS was launched in 1998 aboard a Russian rocket. As more pieces were added it was ready for the first crew to arrive on Nov. 2, 2000. It currently supports the 51st mission crew of six. It is approximately the size of a football field and has the facilities of a five-bedroom house.

At the meeting, Rotary President Ben Currin said the Rotary district conference this year will be held May 25-28 in Seaside, Ore. Rotarys international convention follows on June 10-14 in Atlanta.

Etcetera appears in daily and Sunday editions. Annie Charnley Eveland can be reached at annieeveland@wwub.com or afternoons at 526-8313.

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MF Rotarians watch Space Station video - Walla Walla Union-Bulletin

Astronaut Jack Fischer, a crew members on the International Space Station, waved prior to the launch of the Soyuz MS-04 spacecraft at the Russian-leased Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in April.

Educators from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology are expanding their classroom space this week.

On Wednesday, graduate and undergraduate students from the Cambridge schools department of Aeronautics and Astronautics will get the chance to participate in a live videochat with NASA astronaut Jack Fischer, an MIT alumnus who is currently aboard the International Space Station, 220 miles above the earth.

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The question-and-answer session between students, faculty, and Fischer marks somewhat of a rare occasion for those interested in life as an astronaut. The last time MIT conducted such an interview was in 2011, when two MIT graduates, Greg Chamitoff and Mike Fincke, were aboard the ISS.

Its kind of an exciting opportunity, said William Litant, spokesman for the Aeronautics and Astronautics department. Its a good kind of community-building experience here, too.

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Litant said MIT has produced more astronauts than any other school in the country besides the Military Academies. He said it seems that at any given moment theres a former or current astronaut strolling through the schools campus. Four of the astronauts who walked on the moon got their degrees from MIT, according to NASA officials.

This is where astronauts tend to visit, he said. No matter where you turn, you see an astronaut.

Fischer, Wednesdays visitor, wont be grounded when he speaks to students. He will field questions from them as he floats inside the space station, taking a break from his day-to-day duties as an outer space explorer.

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Fischer, who received a masters degree in aerospace engineering from MIT in 1998, is part of the Expedition 51/52 crew that launched to the space station in April, according to NASA.

The roughly 20-minute conversation will be streamed live on NASA TV, so those who arent part of the classroom environment can still get a feel for what its like to be an astronaut.

Litant said the questions from students tend to range from What is it like sleeping in space? to What do you do to entertain yourself?

It really runs the gamut, from serious technical questions to real human-interest type stuff, he said. It adds to the enthusiasm that our students already have here.

In a statement, NASA officials said that by connecting students directly to astronauts, it provides unique, authentic experiences designed to enhance student learning.

The video call offers a real-time opportunity for aspiring young aerospace engineers to pose questions about living, working, and researching in space to an alumnus who is doing just that, officials said.

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MIT students will chat live with astronaut on International Space Station - The Boston Globe

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The International Space Station is passing over Staffordshire in May 2017 - and there's chance to see it as long as the night skies are clear.

The ISS is the brightest man-made object in the sky and the third brightest overall.

It can sometimes be spotted during the day but is mostly visible at night during part of the 10 minutes it takes to travel from one horizon to the other.

Read more: Toy store The Entertainer set to open Stoke-on-Trent shop

The space station is visible as a bright white dot because of sunlight reflecting off its surface and it should be possible to get a glimpse when it passes over Staffordshire this month.

It can sometimes be mistaken for a fast-moving plane or a shooting star.

The ISS is moving at four-and-a-half miles per second or about 17,500 miles per hour as it orbits the earth about 15 times a day from more than 200 miles up.

The station is a research facility and has a crew of six who may well be looking down on us as we look up at them.

The first expedition launched in October 2000. More than 200 people have visited it since then.

In 2012, NASA launched a Spot The Station service giving notifications of when the ISS is calculated to be visible from specific locations on the earth's surface.

Read more: Do you have OCD, think you do, or know someone else who does? These producers want to hear from you

Date

Visible

Max Height

Appears

Disappears

Tue May 9, 4:20 AM

3 min

14

10 above S

10 above ESE

Thu May 11, 4:11 AM

5 min

24

11 above SSW

10 above E

Fri May 12, 3:21 AM

3 min

16

15 above SSE

11 above ESE

Sat May 13, 2:31 AM

< 1 min

10

10 above SE

10 above ESE

Sat May 13, 4:03 AM

5 min

37

14 above SW

10 above E

Sun May 14, 3:13 AM

4 min

27

23 above S

10 above E

Mon May 15, 2:22 AM

2 min

18

18 above SE

11 above ESE

Mon May 15, 3:55 AM

6 min

53

12 above WSW

10 above E

Tue May 16, 3:05 AM

4 min

41

29 above SSW

11 above E

Wed May 17, 2:14 AM

2 min

29

29 above SE

11 above E

Wed May 17, 3:47 AM

6 min

67

10 above WSW

11 above E

Thu May 18, 1:23 AM

1 min

15

15 above ESE

10 above E

Thu May 18, 2:56 AM

5 min

58

22 above WSW

10 above E

Thu May 18, 4:31 AM

< 1 min

15

10 above W

15 above W

Fri May 19, 2:06 AM

4 min

46

42 above SSW

10 above E

Fri May 19, 3:39 AM

6 min

70

10 above W

11 above E

Sat May 20, 1:15 AM

2 min

28

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See the International Space Station pass over Staffordshire this May ... - Stoke Sentinel

The signatures of 21 Austin High School students are going to the International Space Station, along with parts made by the schools machine tool technology class.

I was like, 'Wow,' senior Ryan Anthony said when NASA representative Bob Zeeke brought a space station locker to the school Monday morning.

Zeeke is program manager of NASAs HUNCH program (High schools United with NASA to Create Hardware) and made the visit to Austin because students at the school milled the stainless steel stud latch bolts that hold lockers in place.

He said 11 schools were involved with creating the lockers, but Austin is the only one from Alabama involved with the program.

Zeeke said the locker students signed could be on the space station as early as October. He said this is the second of 15 lockers students built and that it will go into NASAs secured inventory sometime this month.

The standards and quality of work here are spot on, Zeeke said about Austins program receiving flight status from NASA.

Johnson Space Center started the HUNCH program in 2003 as a way to give high schools students the opportunity for hands-on experience through applying science, technology, engineering and mathematics skills.

Austins first success came when students were selected to design and manufacture training and flight-certified hardware for NASA astronauts.

NASA provided materials, equipment and mentoring, but students designed and fabricated products for the International Space Station training center.

In 2015, Austin students were selected to design and assemble handrails, which are scattered throughout the space station and double as places where astronauts tie down cargo.

A year later, the schools relationship with NASA changed significantly when Austin received flight status, which means students could make parts used on the space station.

Students made 55 stainless steel stud latch bolts, which are part of the locker door mechanical latching system, and 10 aluminum flight extravehicular activity threaded brush tools astronauts use during space walks. Astronauts use brush tools to clean and lubricate threaded sockets outside the space station.

Austin was part of the HUNCH program 13 years before its parts got into space.

Colton Sandlin, a junior, was the first to sign the locker.

Tenth-grader Haley Dobbs was the only female student to sign the locker.

I didnt know about this until the morning, but its cool to be part of something going into space, she said.

Teacher Bill Gibson, who worked in the aerospace machining business before coming to Austin more than 35 years ago, said its rewarding when students get to see their hard work gain recognition.

Its about them, he said about the students as they one by one signed the locker and posed for pictures.

Zeeke said its possible that the locker could return to Austin after it has been used on the space station, but his goal is to get pictures of the locker on the space station with astronauts.

That would be cool and something to show people, senior Aaron McAbee said.

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Austin-made parts, signatures headed to space station - The Decatur Daily