Category Archives: Space Station

During his more than two decades in the Air Force, Col. Jack Fischer has gone from the classrooms of the Air Force Academy to the skies above Iraq and Afghanistan in an F-15 and to the cockpit of an F-22 as a test pilot.

But Fischer's next move will take him farther than he's ever been before: Outer space.

Fischer will become America's newest astronaut on April 20, when he blasts off in a Soyuz spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, bound for the International Space Station. Fischer will spend at least four and a half months maybe as long as 6 months helping conduct some 300 experiments on everything from new technologies for exploration to creating lighter and stronger alloys to new medicines.

In interviews with reporters on Tuesday, Fischer speaking from Russia's Star City near Moscow, where he was undergoing his final training said he's "unbelievably excited" and that this journey will allow him to achieve the dream he's had since he was young.

"The first time I went for a jet ride or the first time I flew in the Raptor, you knew it was going to be awesome, but you didn't know it was going to be that awesome," he said. "I think [the blastoff] here in a couple of weeks is going to be an amazing experience that I can't even comprehend at this point. I can't wait to, once the final [rocket] stages kick off and we're actually floating in orbit, to look out the window and see the Earth in its entirety without borders, without boundaries."

Fischer said his grandfather used to work at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, and he got to visit the facility when he was six years old. He said he was awestruck at the massive Saturn V rocket laying on its side there.

"I just walked up to it and thought it was the coolest thing that I had ever seen," Fischer said.

Then-Maj. Jack Fischer poses in front of an F-22A Raptor at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. Fischer, a 1996 Air Force Academy graduate, was one of nine new astronauts selected for NASA's 2009 astronaut candidate class. Photo Credit: Air Force Fischer, of Louisville, Colorado, graduated from the academy in 1996 with a degree in astronautical engineering and got a master's degree in aeronautics and astronautics at MIT two years later. He learned to fly F-15E Strike Eagles at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina, flew two combat tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, and attended Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base in California. He tested weapons at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida before returning to Edwards in 2006 to test the F-22 Raptor.

Fischer was selected for NASA's 20th astronaut class in 2009 and finished two years later.

There is a chance Fischer will be able to make a spacewalk to work on the space station's exterior, which has him "super-excited."

"The only thing between you and space is a little suit," Fischer said when describing his enthusiasm for the possible spacewalk.

Fischer said that freed from gravity, the space station crew will be able to conduct experiments with the potential to help many people. For example, the station will work on a substance that can act as synthetic bone, which could potentially help trauma victims and the military.

"Without the constraints of gravity and convection and sedimentation, we're able to do some pretty cool things with alloys as well as crystals and proteins," Fischer said. "They can form perfectly, which allows us to look at new ways to study the human body, to look at immune system effects, to look for new drugs."

He described one device that he trained on in Japan that melted pellets of various substances with lasers and then rapidly cooled them to make new materials as "one of the coolest experiments that we have on the station."

Fischer said his test pilot training taught him to pay attention to even the smallest details, which will help him observe tiny, unexpected developments as the experiments progress.

Training for his first space mission includes lessons as varied as how to put on a space suit to how to fix a wall in space, Fischer said. And it can be tricky especially since everything has to be done in Russian.

"If you're not good with languages, it's a bugger," Fischer said. "Russian is a tough language, so I've had my hands full. But the people here, the culture, the community, our office and our support system is second to none. Obviously the instructors are top notch. We work together well as a community, so it hasn't been that bad."

Expedition 51 crew members Fyodor Yurchikhin of the Russian Federal Space Agency, left, and U.S. Air Force Col. Jack Fischer of NASA, right, pose for pictures in front of a Soyuz spacecraft mockup March 31 during final qualification exams at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center in Star City, Russia. The men will launch April 20 on the Soyuz MS-04 spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan for a four and a half month mission on the International Space Station. Photo Credit: Rob Navias/NASA Fischer has been working side-by-side with cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin, who will fly with him in the Soyuz, for much of the last three years. The two now know each other so well, Fischer jokingly compared them to an "old married couple."

"I can look over and understand, from a grunt or a motion that he makes with his shoulders, what he's thinking and what he wants me to do," Fischer said. "I think we've gotten to be a pretty darn good team."

Fischer and Yurchikhin are scheduled to fly down to Baikonur on Wednesday morning, where they will be quarantined for about two weeks before the launch and conduct final pre-launch training. That two-week stretch will be "pretty laid back" compared to the intense training he's undergone so far, he said.

Having deployed for the Air Force several times in the past, Fischer is used to saying goodbye to his family for months on end. But due to the quarantine this time, saying goodbye behind glass will be unusual, he said and a little more dramatic with the rocket launch.

"It's a little tougher for the family," Fischer said. "You make sure that you don't have anything left unsaid."

Looking to the future, Fischer said he'd like to see America build the technologies and infrastructure necessary to get humans to Mars. But, he said, if the administration decides "a pit stop to the Moon" is needed to perfect the technology, that could be a good step on the path towards Mars. And, in a few years, he would love to return to space in NASA's new Orion spacecraft.

When asked if he thought humans would ever make contact with extraterrestrials, Fischer said, "I sure hope they do! That's why we explore, is to find them. Someday, I sure hope we meet them."

Perhaps not surprisingly for an Air Force test pilot-turned-astronaut, Fischer's favorite space movie is "The Right Stuff," which tells the story of the beginnings of the space program and the original Mercury 7 astronauts.

Fischer said astronauts and cosmonauts on the space station relax by watching movies and having long conversations about their families or other subjects over dinner.

But perhaps their favorite pastime is taking advantage of the amazing view and taking as many photographs as they can, he said.

"It is such a unique perspective, that we do our very best to capture that perspective and share it with the world," Fischer said. "You have realize that spaceflight is a gift, and you have to make the most of it."

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Meet America's next astronaut: From F-15 combat to the International Space Station - AirForceTimes.com

By NASA // April 3, 2017

ABOVE VIDEO:Work continues aboard the International Space Station on upgrades to prepare it for future operational activities.

(NASA) Work continues aboard the International Space Station on upgrades to prepare it for future operational activities.

Ground controllers, using the stations robotic arm, moved the Pressurized Mating Adapter-3 (PMA-3) from the Tranquility module to the stations Harmony module March 26. PMA-3 will be outfitted with one of two International Docking Adapters to accommodate U.S. commercial spacecraft carrying astronauts on future missions.

Four days after the PMA-3 move, NASAs Shane Kimbrough and Peggy Whitson conducted the second in a series of three planned spacewalks to complete work related to the upgrades.

The third spacewalk is planned in April. Also, James Webb Space Telescope Completes Acoustic and Vibration Tests, MAVEN Data Helps Measure Loss of Mars Atmosphere, Getting Excited About STEM, and New NASA App for Amazon Fire TV!

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This Week @NASA: International Space Station Upgrades | - SpaceCoastDaily.com

New York Post

Astronaut breaks space station during record spacewalk New York Post Spacewalking astronauts carried out an impromptu patch job outside the International Space Station on Thursday, after losing a vital piece of cloth shielding when it floated away. As the drama unfolded, Peggy Whitson set a record for the most ... Big mishap hits International Space StationMorning Ticker Spacewalking astronauts lose a piece of shield needed for International Space StationLos Angeles Times Space station debris shield floats away during spacewalkAOL Newser -Space.com -AP News -NASA all 275 news articles »

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Astronaut breaks space station during record spacewalk - New York Post

The International Space Station, reimagined for the movie "Life." In the film, a Mars sample return mission sends Martian soil to the station for analysis.

In the new science-fiction horror movie "Life,"a group of astronauts aboard the International Space Station finds a living organism in a Martian dirt sample, and (as you can probably guess from the trailer) things go horribly wrong from there.

While much of "Life" exists in the realm of fiction, NASA and other space agencies are discussing the possibility of bringing samples of Mars dirt back to Earth. Would a real-world Mars sample-return mission look anything like the one in the movie?

The nature of such a mission would depend on many factors, but one aspect of the movie's plot seems highly unrealistic: It's unlikely there would ever be a good reason to send a Martian dirt sample to a space station, according to Catharine Conley, the planetary protection officer for NASA. [Bringing Pieces of Mars to Earth: How NASA Will Do It]

An artist's impression of a SpaceX Red Dragon capsule touching down on the surface of Mars. SpaceX has said it wants to use the capsule to bring a Martian dirt sample back to Earth.

There have been a handful of sample-return missions that succeeded in bringing bits of the cosmos back to Earth. The Apollo astronauts brought back a significant number of moon rocks (so many, in fact, that NASA lost track of more than 500 of them). NASA's OSIRIS-Rex mission is on a mission to return a sample of an asteroid to Earth in 2023. The agency's Mars 2020 rover will collect soil and rock samples that could be picked up by a sample-return mission later. Currently, there is no solid plan for how those Mars samples would get back to Earth (the private spaceflight company SpaceX has proposed using one of its Red Dragon capsules to retrieve the Martian dirt).

There is no strict protocol for how sample-return missions are handled, because each one is different, Conley told Space.com. An asteroid-sample-return mission like OSIRIS-Rex, which is bringing back material from a rock that has no atmosphere and has been exposed to space radiation for millions of years, isn't considered a biohazard threat to the planet. But a sample coming back from Mars would probably be handled very differently, she said.

"Planetary protection requirements are applied on a mission-by-mission basis," Conley said. There's a framework of questions that can help mission planners approximate what protections they will have to put in place. For a Mars sample return mission, it would probably be an international board then evaluates the mission plan based on the best available information about the potential threat that a sample could pose, and how to contain that threat, Conley said.

In "Life," the sample is brought to the space station (which is modeled fairly accurately) as a way of keeping a potential Martian biohazard away from Earth. But the station's nearness to Earth is one reason why sending a Mars sample to there (or any laboratory orbiting the planet) probably wouldn't make sense for a real-world sample-return mission, Conley told Space.com.

The characters in the film come to a similar conclusion too late. After a few failed attempts to kill the alien creature, the characters realize that the creature seems robust enough to survive the fall through Earth's atmosphere, meaning it could potentially wreak destruction on the entire human race. (In the film, the space station is thrown off course and begins falling toward the planet at a rapid rate. But anything looping around the Earth will eventually fall toward the ground if the spacecraft doesn't use thrusters to maintain its orbit although that may take decades depending on the speed of the craft and the altitude of its orbit).

The fall through Earth's atmosphere generates an incredible amount of heat enough to vaporize a midsize spacecraft without a heat shield. However, chunks of some large spacecraft and large space rocks can survive the fall to the ground, so its not impossible that a biological sample tucked inside a protective layer could also survive the journey.

A character from the movie "Life" peers into a sealed hutch that contains a life-form found in a dirt sample from Mars. In reality, detailed science studies in space can be time-consuming and expensive.

Another problem with the movie's approach to handling a Mars sample is that it'd be extremely difficult and expensive to look for trace signs of life while in space.

Mars does not appear to be home to any obvious forms of life; there are, of course, no trees or animals living there. But there are also no lichens growing on rocks and no immediate signs of bacteria, algae or single-celled creatures living on the surface. Mars, however, used to be a much more hospitable environment, so there is a possibility that there are signs of past life in the Martian soil, or further evidence that the planet possesses the necessary building blocks of life.

"Mostly, the way you look for biology like a lot of the new techniques for looking for disease organisms is that you break [the samples] up into molecules and you look at the molecules," Conley said. "So those would be the kinds of techniques that we would be looking to use on a Mars sample."

Based on what scientists know about Mars, it's possible that finding signatures of present or past life on the Red Planet will require complex analyses that have to be done in a lab on Earth, where scientists have access to the widest range of tools.

The tools available on the space station are much more limited. Almost every aspect of life in space is altered by the weightless environment, including using the bathroom, taking a shower, eating, sleeping and exercising. Science is different in space, too. In weightlessness, physical systems behave differently than they do on Earth. Everything floats, of course, which poses unique hazards regarding sample containment. The lack of gravity also changes how crystals grow, fires burn and liquids behave. Therefore, instruments, like microscopes, would need to be calibrated to the space environment, and often designed differently to operate under those conditions, Conley said.

To analyze a Martian sample in space, scientists would have to adapt and test several different experimental procedures for the space environment, something that would take a lot of time, effort and money, Conley said.

"Actually getting the equipment you need to do these careful analyses up to [a location in space] would be extraordinarily expensive [and] considerably less reliable than operating equipment on Earth, where we know how it works properly," she said.

That also applies to the containment device that would be used to hold the Mars samples. The international recommendations for a sample-return mission recommend that scientists begin designing the containment device years in advance, and then spend a few years testing it and demonstrating that it can perform as well as it needs to, Conley said. Once again, performing that kind of testing in space would be incredibly expensive and slow if something breaks or needs to be replaced, the scientists can't just call up the company that made the part and ask them to drive over a new one, Instead, they'd have to pack one onto a rocket and send it to the station.

Yet another problem with looking for trace signs of life in Martian samples on the space station is the same problem that plagues rovers on the Mars surface sometimes scientists don't know what kind of equipment they'll need to test the sample until they already have the sample. Depending on the chemical composition of the Martian soil, scientists might need to conduct different tests to pursue the big question of whether life could have formed there. On Earth, additional equipment is easily obtainable, but in space or on Mars, it's extremely difficult and time- consuming to procure.

"If you're not able to use multiple techniques to assess something, then you're not necessarily able to make the measurement that's going to tell you when something's interesting, " Conley said. By bringing Martian samples back to Earth, scientists can use the appropriate tool to answer whatever question pops up.

Finding signs of past or present life on Mars will likely require bringing a sample of Martian dirt back to Earth, but that scenario is limited by two main factors: engineering and budget. Right now, there are no operational means of bringing a dirt sample to Earth from Mars, and it's far more cost-effective to send a robot to Mars than to bring a sample back, Conley said. So, for now, a Mars sample-return mission has not progressed beyond the concept phase.

But all that could change if humans found clear evidence of life on Mars; for example, if a rover spotted lichen on a rock or bacteria in a soil sample, Conley said.

Conley said she was not aware of any official discussions about what would happen if a Mars rover discovered something that looked "a lot like life." (Although astrobiologists have undoubtedly talked about this among themselves.)

"Once you find something [that looks like life], then all bets are off, and we're going to reconsider everything," Conley said. "The assumption is that there will be so many opinions and so much additional information by the time we actually do discover something that looks like life [so] that particular 'what if' hasn't been addressed in any great detail."

The community might decide to send astronauts to Mars to do additional studies, or bring samples back to Earth. But that would all depend on what information was available, Conley said. She said that the people overseeing a sample-return mission would want to enter that discussion with a clean slate, so the mission would be tailored to that specific situation. Which means it's impossible to say for sure whether a sample-return mission might send Martian dirt to the space station but it still seems rather unlikely.

Editor's Note: This article has been updated to state that a Mars sample return mission would most likely be reviewed by an international board; however, that is not currently a formalized condition of a Mars sample return mission.

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

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Why a Mars Dirt Sample Probably Wouldn't be Sent to the Space Station - Space.com

Spacewalk support personnel quickly teamed up for a solution to cover the Tranquility modules port after a thermal and micrometeoroid shield was inadvertently lost during todays spacewalk. The team supporting EVA Officer John Mularski explored options in a room nearby Mission Control, and chose to install a cover that had been removed earlier from the Pressurized Mating Adapter-3.

Expedition 50 Commander Shane Kimbrough and Flight Engineer Peggy Whitson of NASA concluded their spacewalk at 2:33 p.m. EDT. During the spacewalk, which lasted just over seven hours, the two astronauts successfully reconnected cables and electrical connections on the Pressurized Mating Adapter-3. PMA-3 will provide the pressurized interface between the station and the second of two international docking adapters to be delivered to the complex to support the dockings of U.S. commercial crew spacecraft in the future.

The duo were also tasked with installing four thermal protection shields on the Tranquility module of the International Space Station. The shields were required to cover the port where the PMA-3 was removed earlier in the week and robotically installed on the Harmony module. During the spacewalk, one of the shields was inadvertently lost. The loss posed no immediate danger to the astronauts and Kimbrough and Whitson went on to successfully install the remaining shields on the common berthing mechanism port.

A team from the Mission Control Center at NASAs Johnson Space Center in Houston devised a plan for the astronauts to finish covering the port with the PMA-3 cover Whitson removed earlier in the day. The plan worked, and the cover was successfully installed, providing thermal protection and micrometeoroid and orbital debris cover for the port.

To round out the spacewalk, Kimbrough and Whitson also installed a different shield around the base of the PMA-3 adapter for micrometeoroid protection. The shield was nicknamed a cummerbund as it fits around the adapter similar to a tuxedos cummerbund worn around the waist.

Having completed her eighth spacewalk, Whitson now holds the record for the most spacewalks and accumulated time spacewalking by a female astronaut.

Spacewalkers have now spent a total of 1,243 hours and 42 minutes outside the station during 199 spacewalks in support of assembly and maintenance of the orbiting laboratory.

For more information about the International Space Station, visit http://www.nasa.gov/station.

Astronaut Peggy Whitson signs her autograph near an Expedition 50 mission patch attached to the inside the International Space Station.

At 11:51 a.m. EDT, Peggy Whitson broke the record for cumulative spacewalking time by a female astronaut, previously held by NASA astronaut Sunita Williams. This was Whitsons eighth spacewalk.

So far, Whitson and NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough have successfully installed an upgraded computer relay box and hooked up cables and electrical connections on the Pressurized Mating Adapter-3. PMA-3 will provide the pressurized interface between the station and the second of two international docking adapters to be delivered to the complex to support the dockings of U.S. commercial crew spacecraft in the future.

The duo were also tasked with installing four thermal protection shields on the Tranquility module of the International Space Station. The shields were required to cover the port where the PMA-3 was removed earlier in the week and robotically installed on the Harmony module. During the spacewalk, one of the shields was inadvertently lost. The loss posed no immediate danger to the astronauts and Kimbrough and Whitson went on to successfully install the remaining shields on the common berthing mechanism port.

A team from the Mission Control Center at NASAs Johnson Space Center in Houston devised a plan for the astronauts to finish covering the port with the PMA-3 cover Whitson removed earlier in the day. The plan worked, and the cover was successfully installed, providing thermal protection and micrometeoroid and orbital debris cover for the port.

The spacewalk is planned to last six and a half hours.

Follow @space_station on Twitter for updates. For more information about the International Space Station, visit http://www.nasa.gov/station.

Astronaut Shane Kimbrough is pictured during a spacewalk that took place Jan. 6, 2016.

Two astronauts switched their spacesuits to battery power this morning at 7:29 a.m. EDT aboard the International Space Station to begin a spacewalk planned to last about six-and-a-half hours. Expedition 50 Commander Shane Kimbrough and Flight Engineer Peggy Whitson of NASA will further prepare the space station for commercial spacecraft dockings, as well as perform maintenance and inspection.

Watch the spacewalk on NASA TV and on the agencys website.

Kimbrough is designated extravehicular crew member 1 (EV 1), wearing the suit bearing red stripes and helmet camera #18. Whitson is designated extravehicular crew member 2 (EV 2), wearing the suit with no stripes and helmet camera #17.

Follow @space_station on Twitter for updates. Learn more about the International Space Station online, including additional information about the current crew members.

Astronauts Peggy Whitson and Shane Kimbrough participate in a pre-breathe session before starting a spacewalk Jan. 6, 2017. Astronaut Thomas Pesquet (foreground) assisted the duo.

Expedition 50 Commander Shane Kimbrough and Flight Engineer Peggy Whitson of NASA will venture outside the International Space Station for a six-and-a-half hour spacewalk Thursday, March 30. The spacewalk will begin at about 8 a.m. EDT, with complete coverage on NASA Television and the agencys website starting at 6:30 a.m.

Kimbrough and Whitson will reconnect cables and electrical connections on the Pressurized Mating Adapter-3 (PMA-3), which was robotically moved Sunday, March 26 from the Tranquility module to the Harmony module on station. The PMA-3 provides the pressurized interface between the station modules and the docking adapter. The duo will also install the second of the two upgraded computer relay boxes on the stations truss and install shields and covers on PMA-3 and the now-vacant common berthing mechanism port on Tranquility.

This will be the 199th spacewalk in support of space station assembly and maintenance. Kimbrough will embark on the sixth spacewalk of his career. This will be the eighth spacewalk by Whitson, who will surpass NASA astronaut Suni Williams record for the most spacewalks by a female astronaut.

Follow @space_station on Twitter for updates. For more information about the International Space Station, visit http://www.nasa.gov/station. To subscribe or unsubscribe from this list, please email heo-pao@lists.nasa.gov.

Astronaut Peggy Whitson was pictured during her seventh spacewalk which took place Jan. 6, 2017.

Expedition 50 Flight Engineer Peggy Whitson is set to go on her eighth spacewalk Thursday morning and surpass astronaut Suni Williams record for the most spacewalks by a female astronaut. Whitsons last spacewalk was on Jan. 6 with Commander Shane Kimbrough when she hooked up new lithium-ion batteries and inspected the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer.

Read more about spacewalks at the International Space Station.

Thursdays spacewalk will see Whitson and Kimbrough finish cable connections at the Pressurized Mating Adapter-3 just recently attached to the Harmony modules space-facing port. The PMA-3 relocation gets the station ready for the new International Docking Adapter-3 set to be delivered on a future SpaceX Dragon cargo mission.

European Space Agency astronaut Thomas Pesquet, who conducted last weeks spacewalk with Kimbrough, will assist the duo in and out of their spacesuits and monitor the activities from inside the station. The spacewalkers are scheduled to exit the Quest airlock Thursday at 8 a.m. EST for 6.5 hours of station maintenance work. NASA TV will cover all the spacewalk activities beginning at 6:30 a.m.

The Pressurized Mating Adapter-3 is in the grip of the Canadarm2 robotic arm during its relocation and attachment to the Harmony module on March 26,2017.

The crew researched the effects of living in space and set up a specialized microscope for a physics experiment today. Two astronauts are also getting ready for a Thursday spacewalk to continue setting up the International Space Station for commercial crew vehicles.

Flight Engineers Peggy Whitson and Thomas Pesquet used a tape measure this morning and measured their arms, legs, hips, waist and chest. Researchers are studying how microgravity impacts body size and shape and are comparing crew measurements before, during and after a space mission.

Whitson later began setting up gear for the ACE-T-1 (Advanced Colloids Experiment Temperature Control-1) physics study. She opened up the Fluids Integrated Rack and reconfigured the Light Microscopy Module to research tiny suspended particles designed by scientists and observe how they form organized structures within water.

Commander Shane Kimbrough is getting ready for another spacewalk on Thursday at 8 a.m. EDT. This time hell go outside with Whitson to finish cable connections at the Harmony module where the Pressurized Mating Adapter-3 (PMA-3) was robotically attached on Sunday. The PMA-3 relocation gets the adapter ready for the new International Docking Adapter-3 set to be delivered on a future cargo mission.

Astronaut Shane Kimbrough takes an out-of-this-world selfie during a spacewalk on March 24, 2017.

The Pressurized Mating Adapter-3 (PMA-3) was robotically removed Sunday from the Tranquility module and attached to the Harmony module after being prepared during a successful spacewalk Friday. A second spacewalk is scheduled for Thursday at 8 a.m. EDT to finalize the PMA-3 cable connections on Harmony.

Download hi-res video of briefing animations depicting the activities of all three spacewalks.

Commander Shane Kimbrough disconnected cables from PMA-3 while still attached to Tranquility during a spacewalk on Friday. That work allowed ground controllers to use the Canadarm2 robotic arm to remotely grapple and remove PMA-3 from Tranquility and attach it to Harmony.

The relocation readies the PMA-3 for the future installation of the new International Docking Adapter-3 (IDA-3) set to be delivered on a future cargo mission. The IDA-3 will accommodate commercial crew vehicle dockings and provide the pressurized interface between the station and the adapter.

Thursdays spacewalk will see Kimbrough and Peggy Whitson complete the PMA-3 attachment work on the Harmonys space-facing port. The duo will also install computer relay boxes containing software upgrades to enable future commercial crew vehicle dockings at the International Space Station.

Spacewalkers Thomas Pesquet (left) and Shane Kimbrough meet at the Quest airlock to begin wrapping up their successful spacewalk. Credit: NASA TV

Expedition 50 Commander Shane Kimbrough of NASA and Flight Engineer Thomas Pesquet of ESA (European Space Agency concluded their spacewalk at 1:58 p.m. EDT. During the spacewalk, which lasted just over six-and-a-half hours, the two astronauts successfully disconnected cables and electrical connections on the Pressurized Mating Adapter-3 to prepare for its robotic move Sunday, March 26.

The PMA-3 provides the pressurized interface between the station modules and the International Docking Adapter, which will accommodate commercial crew vehicle dockings.

The astronauts also lubricated the latching end effector on the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator extension for theCanadarm2robotic arm, inspected a radiator valve and replaced cameras on the Japanese segment of the outpost.

A second spacewalk has been rescheduled to Thursday, March 30, and a third spacewalk now is targeted for Thursday, April 6.

The second spacewalk will feature Kimbrough and Flight Engineer Peggy Whitson of NASA reconnecting cables and electrical connections on PMA-3 at its new home on top Harmony. They also will install the second of the two upgraded computer relay boxes on the stations truss and install shields and covers on PMA-3 and the now-vacant common berthing mechanism port on Tranquility.

The plan for the final spacewalk is for Whitson and Pesquet to replace an avionics box on the starboard truss called an ExPRESS Logistics Carrier, a storage platform. The box houses electrical and command and data routing equipment for the science experiments and replacement hardware stored outside of the station. The new avionics box is scheduled to launch on the upcoming Orbital ATK Cygnus cargo spacecraft mission.

Spacewalkers have now spent a total of 1,236 hours and 38 minutes working outside the station during 198 spacewalks in support of assembly and maintenance of the orbiting laboratory.

For more information about the International Space Station, visit http://www.nasa.gov/station.

Spacewalker Thomas Pesquet took a selfie during a spacewalk on Jan. 13, 2017.

Two astronauts switched their spacesuits to battery power this morning at 7:24 a.m., EDT aboard the International Space Station to begin a spacewalk planned to last about six-and-a-half hours. Expedition 50 Commander Shane Kimbrough and Flight Engineer Thomas Pesquet of ESA (European Space Agency) will further prepare the space station for commercial spacecraft dockings, as well as perform maintenance and inspection.

Watch the spacewalk on NASA TV and on the agencys website.

Kimbrough is designated extravehicular crewmember 1 (EV 1), wearing the suit bearing red stripes. Pesquet is designated extravehicular crewmember 2 (EV 2), wearing the suit with no stripes.

Follow @space_station on Twitter for updates. Learn more about the International Space Station online, including additional information about the current crew members.

Astronauts Thomas Pesquet and Shane Kimbrough are seen during a pre-breathe exercise before starting a spacewalk on Jan. 13, 2017.

Expedition 50 Commander Shane Kimbrough of NASA and Flight Engineer Thomas Pesquet of ESA (European Space Agency) will venture outside the International Space Station for a six-and-a-half hour spacewalk Friday, March 24. The spacewalk will begin at 8 a.m. EDT, with complete coverage on NASA TV and the agencys website starting at 6:30 a.m.

The two astronauts will prepare the Pressurized Mating Adapter-3 (PMA-3) for installation of the secondInternational Docking Adapter, which will accommodate commercial crew vehicle dockings.

Kimbrough and Pesquet will disconnect cables and electrical connections on PMA-3 to prepare for its robotic move Sunday, March 26. The PMA-3 provides the pressurized interface between the station modules and the docking adapter. PMA-3 will be moved from the port side of the Tranquility module to the space-facing side of the Harmony module, where it will become home for the docking adapter, which will be delivered on a future flight of a SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft. The spacewalkers also will install on the starboard zero truss a new computer relay box equipped with advanced software for the adapter.

The two astronauts will lubricate the latching end effector on the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator extension for theCanadarm2robotic arm, inspect a radiator valve suspected of a small ammonia leak and replace cameras on the Japanese segment of the outpost. Radiators are used to shed excess heat that builds up through normal space station operation.

This will be the 198th spacewalk in support of space station assembly and maintenance. Kimbrough, who will embark on the fifth spacewalk of his career, will be wearing helmet camera #18. This will be the second spacewalk of Pesquets career, and he will be wearing helmet camera #20.

Follow @space_station on Twitter for updates. For more information about the International Space Station, visit http://www.nasa.gov/station.

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Space Station - blogs.nasa.gov

Updated April 02, 2017 16:04:14

For one weekend only, children in Alice Springs have had the opportunity to try their hands at construction, using drills and other tools to make their very own space station.

The free event, called An Unsafe Adventure for Kids was organised by the local Scouts and took place on a vacant site in the heart of the town.

The event was a community affair with local businesses donating the wooden pallets and solar panels used to create the station.

Kids were encouraged, under the watchful eye of their parents, to build their own structures and get involved in risk-taking play, using tools and their imagination.

"One of the big problems today is people hurting themselves and others because they haven't dealt with risk before," project organiser and Scouts leader Eugene Blom said.

Mr Blom said luckily "Alice Springs is full of people who aren't helicopter parents".

In the space station adults were "droids" and did what they were told, but they were also programmed to stop "astronauts" from sawing their fingers off.

For parents, the weekend was an opportunity to get their kids off the couch and to bring risk back into their everyday life.

"Have fun with your kids. No screens! No internet! No wifi!" one parent said.

The event was a success, with more than 100 children and "droids" turning up with their tool belts.

"We get to use our imagination and just do whatever we want," one young participant said.

The project was also a recruitment drive for the local Scouts group, which is struggling to survive.

"They're on their last legs. We have five Scouts, we have 10 Cubs," Mr Blom said.

It was hoped the event would create community awareness about the kind of activities Scouts run and generate some interest in membership.

"If I wanted to put on an activity like this for Scouts I'd have 20 kids here, but I thought 'you know what the community's up for this'," he said.

Topics: play-and-learning, community-development, community-and-society, alice-springs-0870, nt

First posted April 02, 2017 15:52:00

Originally posted here:
DIY space station encourages kids to use tools and imaginations - ABC Online

Astronauts were conducting a routine spacewalk when they encountered a major problem that required evasive action.

It was supposed to be a triumphant moment for Astronaut Peggy Wilson as she completed a record-breaking spacewalk on the International Space Station, but it quickly turned into an emergency that required evasive action. A piece of cloth shielding suddenly went floating away, prompting Wilson to report the problem to Mission Control at NASA, who will need to monitor the piece in case it comes flying back toward the space station.

Its an important piece of shielding because it stops micrometeorite debris from damaging the ISS. It was one of four pieces that Whitson and Shane Kimbrough, the other astronaut working with her, had to install near the docking location on the space station. The three other shields were put in spots that protected the ISSs most vulnerable areas in that location.

Whitson was clearly frustrated by the mishap in her communications with Mission Control, according to media reports, but it doesnt change the fact that she is now the worlds oldest and most experienced woman in space with her eighth career spacewalk.

Here are some of the most recent statements from NASA describing the spacewalks.

Expedition 50 astronauts will conduct up to three spacewalks outside the International Space Station (ISS) in late March and early April to prepare for the future arrival of U.S. commercial crew spacecraft and upgrade station hardware. The first spacewalk remains on schedule for Friday, March 24. A second spacewalk has been rescheduled to Thursday, March 30, and a third spacewalk now is scheduled for Thursday, April 6.

NASA TV will provide complete coverage beginning each day at 6:30 a.m. EDT, with the six-and-a-half hour spacewalks scheduled to begin about 8 a.m.

The first spacewalk will prepare the Pressurized Mating Adapter-3 (PMA-3) for installation of the second International Docking Adapter, which will accommodate commercial crew vehicle dockings. The PMA-3 provides the pressurized interface between the station modules and the docking adapter. Expedition 50 Commander Shane Kimbrough of NASA and Flight Engineer Thomas Pesquet of ESA (European Space Agency) will disconnect cables and electrical connections on PMA-3 to prepare for its robotic move Sunday, March 26. PMA-3 will be moved from the port side of the Tranquility module to the space-facing side of the Harmony module, where it will become home for the docking adapter, which will be delivered on a future flight of a SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft. The spacewalkers also will install on the starboard zero truss a new computer relay box equipped with advanced software for the adapter.

The two spacewalkers will lubricate the latching end effector on the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator extension for the Canadarm2 robotic arm, inspect a radiator valve suspected of a small ammonia leak and replace cameras on the Japanese segment of the outpost. Radiators are used to shed excess heat that builds up through normal space station operation.

The second spacewalk will feature Kimbrough and Flight Engineer Peggy Whitson of NASA reconnecting cables and electrical connections on PMA-3 at its new home on top Harmony. They also will install the second of the two upgraded computer relay boxes on the stations truss and install shields and covers on PMA-3 and the now-vacant common berthing mechanism port on Tranquility.

The final spacewalk will tentatively feature Whitson and Pesquet replacing an avionics box on the starboard truss called an ExPRESS Logistics Carrier, a storage platform. The box houses electrical and command and data routing equipment for the science experiments and replacement hardware stored outside of the station. The new avionics box is scheduled to launch on the upcoming Orbital ATK Cygnus cargo spacecraft mission.

This will be the 198th, 199th and 200th spacewalks in support of space station assembly and maintenance. Kimbroughs two spacewalks will be the fifth and sixth of his career. Whitson will be making the eighth and ninth spacewalks of her career more than any other female astronaut. Pesquet will undertake the second and third spacewalks in his career.

Students from Betsy Ross Elementary School in Anaheim, California, will speak with NASA astronauts living and working aboard the International Space Station at 11:40 a.m. EDT Monday, April 3. The 20-minute, Earth-to-space call will air live on NASA Television and the agencys website.

Expedition 50 Commander Shane Kimbrough and Flight Engineer Peggy Whitson, both of NASA, will answer questions from students in several grades. Students at Betsy Ross Elementary School have been hard at work exploring the space program, NASA and the space station leading up to the downlink. They have conducted research through virtual field trips while also designing realistic models of the space station. With each engaging activity, the students knowledge of NASA and the space program has been greatly enhanced.

Kimbrough launched to the space station Oct. 19, 2016, and will return April 10. Whitson launched to the space station Nov. 17, 2016, and is scheduled to return to Earth later this spring.

Media interested in covering the event should contact Keith Sterling, director of communications & public information, Anaheim Elementary School District. Ross Elementary is at 535 S. Walnut Street in Anaheim.

Linking students directly to astronauts aboard the space station provides unique, authentic experiences designed to enhance student learning, performance and interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). This in-flight education downlink is an integral component of NASA Educations STEM on Station activity, which provides a variety of space station resources and opportunities to students and educators.

Continued here:
Big mishap hits International Space Station - Morning Ticker

An artists conception shows the Deep Space Gateway in the vicinity of the moon, with an Orion crew vehicle nearby. (NASA Illustration)

President Donald Trump hasnt yet revealed his choice for NASA administrator, but the space agency is already shifting the focus of its exploration program to a way station known as the Deep Space Gateway.

The concept for a habitable platform in the vicinity of the moon, known as cislunar space, was fleshed out this week on NASAs website, andduring meetings of the NASA Advisory Council in Washington, D.C.

Payloads and astronauts could be sent to the gateway starting in the 2020s using the heavy-lift Space Launch System rocket and the Orion crew vehicle, both of which are still under development.

The gateway would be a crew-tended spaceport with a high-power electric propulsion system.

I envision different partners, both international and commercial, contributing to the gateway and using it in a variety of ways with a system that can move to different orbits to enable a variety of missions, said Bill Gerstenmaier, NASAs associate administrator for human exploration and operations. The gateway could move to support robotic or partner missions to the surface of the moon, or to a high lunar orbit to support missions departing from the gateway to other destinations in the solar system.

During the advisory councils sessions, Gerstenmaier said modules for the gateway would be sent to its assembly point in a series of SLS missions running through 2026, supplemented by commercial shipments.

A new type of reusable vehicle, known as the Deep Space Transport, would be developed for long-duration missions beyond the moon including trips to Mars. The transport would take advantage of electric as well as chemical propulsion, and could use the gateway as its home base.

Sometime in the late 2020s, the gateway and the transport vehicle would go through a yearlong shakedown cruise in the vicinity of the moon to validate the systems readiness for missions to Mars and other deep-space destinations.

The tentative timetable shared with the advisory council calls for the Mars trips to begin in the 2030s, which is consistent with NASAs previously announced exploration goals.

Gerstenmaieremphasized that the plan would incorporate contributions from partner organizations such as the European and Canadian space agencies, as well as commercial ventures.

Histimetable assumes that NASA will proceed with the development of a more powerful version of the SLS, known as Block 2.

The plan leaves room for the launch of NASAs Europa Clipper probe to an ice-covered moon of Jupiter in 2022. But it doesnt leave room for retrieving and studying a piece of an asteroid, as had been planned by the Obama administration. NASA has essentially acknowledged that the Asteroid Retrieval Mission is no longer in the cards, although the ARM program to work on solar electric propulsion will continue.

Gerstenmaier indicated that NASA was close to decidingwhether itll be feasible to put a crew on the first flight of the SLS, known as Exploration Mission 1 or EM-1. If the answer is yes, EM-1 is likely to be delayed from late 2018 to 2019 or 2020.

That flight would send an Orion vehicle on a nonstop round trip ranging far beyond the moon and back, by virtue of whats known as a free-return trajectory. The only question about EM-1 is whether NASA can justify the added cost and risk of putting a crew on board.

There are other, bigger questions about the overall plan: Does it mesh with President Donald Trumps dream to see American footprints on distant worlds? Will Congress go along with it? And will NASAs 15-year-plus timetable for journeys to Mars be outpaced by SpaceXs grander plan for Mars settlement?

Answers could start coming in the next few weeks, but those answers could be totally different a decade from now. Watch this cislunar space.

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After the International Space Station, NASA plans Deep Space ... - GeekWire

What do wounded veterans and astronauts have in common? Both could benefit from scientists that are researching a better way to regenerate bone tissue damaged by combat and long periods of time in the weightlessness of space.

Melissa Kacena, associate professor of orthopedic surgery at Indiana Universitys School of Medicine, is leading a team studying whether a new treatment for stimulating bone growth is better than current options.

Theres a need to develop new bone-healing therapies that are safe and effective. Thats what my lab has been doing over the last several years, Kacena told Salon regarding a new patent-pending healing agent thats being tested on laboratory rodents and pigs.

If the treatment proves to be viable and safe it could someday be used to treat humans, including victims of car crashes, and be part of future astronauts medical kitsfor long-term space travel, where bone injuries are very likely to occur.

Research into the effects of the microgravity conditions at the International Space Station has concluded that humans lose a considerable amount of bone-mineral density in weightlessness. This phenomenon causes bones to become more brittle, increasing the chances of fractures in an environment where traditional hospitalization and physical therapy isnt an option.

Last week, bone samples from rodents that were administered the healing agent in orbit were shot back to earth from the International Space Station. The samples will give Kacena and a team from the U.S. Army Medical Research and Material Command a better understanding of the effectiveness of the new bone healing agent. The research will also shed light on the biology behind re-growing tissue that could help create new treatment options for patients suffering from chronic non-healing wounds.

Salon spoke with Kacena recently about why some of her research on this project was done using lab rodents at the International Space Station.

Obviously, the question everybody wants answeredis will we be able to regrow lost limbs someday?

[Laughs.] I certainly hope that we can do that. Certainly there are lizards who can re-grow limbs, but its hard for humans. Its more about regenerating really injured limbs. I wouldnt say that were going to be starting from the hip and growing down to the toe. Thats a hard accomplishment. Im sure someday theyll be able to do that, just like they can grow organs.

Walk us through the research that youre doing.

So, my work is supported by the U.S. Army and the Department of Defense. The reason why theyre interested in this is that our military personnel from the Middle Eastern conflicts in the last couple of decades have sustained injuries to their extremities, to their legs and their arms. The armor is much better than it used to be and our responders are much better at dealing with our injured warriors, so a lot of them survive. If orthopedic surgeons are able to salvage the limb and not amputate it the patient needs a large-skeletal reconstruction.

To do this in most cases, surgeons need to use something called bone morphogenetic proteins, or BMPs, to help regenerate the bone tissue, because it wont regenerate on its own. There arent enough viable, live cells for that to occur, so you need something to stimulate them. BMPs have their pros and their cons, but in the last few years there has been some research that indicates that there is a potential of developing cancer with the utilization of the BMPs. Its a small chance, but still, people dont like to hear, I can help your bone but I might give you cancer.

How does doing some of the research at the International Space Station fit into this?

Were looking at how bone-healing occurs with the BMPs and [with] our bone-healing agent, and were looking at that on earth and in space. The reason why we care about looking at this in space is that a lot of drugs work great in animals but they dont work as well as we had hoped in humans. That may be because of the differences in physiology between the humans and the animals, but sometimes it may be because of the model thats being used to test the therapies. Thats what I think is happening here.

Take for example a soldier that has sustained a blast injury, or someone involved in a really bad car accident: If a large chunk of your femur, which is the thigh bone, or your tibia, which is your shin bone, is removed, youre not going to be walking; youre going to be on crutches or bed-ridden for a long time. With our wounded warriors, if youre talking about trying to salvage a limb from amputation, in some cases they could be looking at about six months of limited-to-no weight bearing, so no walking around on the limb.

I can take out almost half of a femur of a mouse and it will walk almost immediately after emerging from anesthetic. If you do any of these surgeries on mice, rats and pigs weve also been working with pigs because we are trying to translate this into the clinic, and for FDA approval you need to show the results in rodent as well as large mammal models these animals, as soon as they wake up from anesthetic, immediately start trying to walk around and they do walk around. We cant tell the mice not to do this, but if we put them in space they cant do this.

So you think the weightlessness of space better helps to see the effect of your bone-healing agent.

I think space flight is a better [testing] model. The reason why I say this is that we know that bone-healing and bone-regeneration are better when you bear weight. A therapy may look like its working well in an animal because its bearing weight which is contributing to the healing process. The human thats bed-ridden or on crutches wont be bearing weight and maybe the healing doesnt occur as well as it does in the animals that the healing is from the effect of the weight bearing and maybe not so much the drug. Thats one very critical thing about why were doing this in space.

This research seems to have two components: one for treating injury on earth and the other for treating the human body in space.

So, we need to understand better for the future astronauts, and potentially for the colonization of the Moon and Mars and so forth, how bone healing and regeneration occurs in space. Thats another important aspect. We know that humans lose about oneto threepercent of their bone-mineral density for each month that theyre in space. Somebody with severe osteoporosis loses about onepercent in a year. For a mission to Mars thats 36 months of possibly losing oneto threepercent per month. Right now astronauts tend to be in space for six months at a time. We dont know whether the loss would continue over the whole 36 months or whether it would plateau at some point, but certainly at this point it looks like it [the bone-mineral loss] continues at the same rate, at least through the six months that astronauts tend to be in space.

And theres little they can do for this?

They use drugs that help with osteoporosis here on earth and they use exercise, and the combination of the two is somewhat helpful, at least based on the data Ive seen on this, but it definitely not 100 percent preventative. Given that issue, there would be concern. Mars and the Moon both have partial gravity, so if you are in space flight for some long time where youre essentially in zero gravity, and thenyou go to a partial gravity environment and youve lost a whole bunch of bone, youre increasing your risk of fracturing while youre in space.

From what I have understood through conversations with different folks at NASA, there is concern because astronauts use their arms and hands in space to pull themselves to different places. It may be that instead of a hip fracture or spinal fracture, which are common with osteoporosis, it may be more arm- or hand-related fractures. We need to understand how you can help with fracture healing because you dont have access to hospitals like here on earth. They need to think about what kind of drugs to have in their medical kit to try to help with all of these different scenarios if youre going to be isolated in space for a long period of time.

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International Space Station research could lead to new bone-regeneration therapies - Salon

March 31, 2017 by Jenny Howard Crystal formation within a 50 millimeter loop, taken on Expedition 6. Crystal growth investigations have been occurring on the station since before humans lived there because of the unique environment microgravity provides. Credit: NASA

Crew members aboard the International Space Station will begin conducting research this week to improve the way we grow crystals on Earth. The information gained from the experiments could speed up the process for drug development, benefiting humans around the world.

Proteins serve an important role within the human body. Without them, the body wouldn't be able to regulate, repair or protect itself. Many proteins are too small to be studied even under a microscope, and must be crystallized in order to determine their 3-D structures. These structures tell researchers how a single protein functions and its involvement in the development of disease. Once modeled, drug developers can use the structure to develop a specific drug to interact with the protein, a process called structure-based drug design.

Two investigations, The Effect of Macromolecular Transport on Microgravity Protein Crystallization (LMM Biophysics 1) and Growth Rate Dispersion as a Predictive Indicator for Biological Crystal Samples Where Quality Can be Improved with Microgravity Growth (LMM Biophysics 3), will study the formation of these crystals, looking at why microgravity-grown crystals often are of higher quality than Earth-grown, and which crystals may benefit from being grown in space.

Rate of Growth - LMM Biophysics 1

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Researchers know that crystals grown in space often contain fewer imperfections than those grown on Earth, but the reasoning behind that phenomenon isn't crystal clear. A widely accepted theory in the crystallography community is that the crystals are of higher quality because they grow slower in microgravity due to a lack of buoyancy-induced convection. The only way these protein molecules move in microgravity is by random diffusion, a process that is much slower than movement on Earth.

Another less-explored theory is that a higher level of purification can be achieved in microgravity. A pure crystal may contain thousands of copies of a single protein. Once crystals are returned to Earth and exposed to an X-Ray beam, the X-ray diffraction pattern can be used to mathematically map a protein's structure.

"When you purify proteins to grow crystals, the protein molecules tend to stick to each other in a random fashion," said Lawrence DeLucas, LMM Biophysics 1 primary investigator. "These protein aggregates can then incorporate into the growing crystals causing defects, disturbing the protein alignment, which then reduces the crystal's X-ray diffraction quality."

The theory states that in microgravity, a dimer, or two proteins stuck together, will move much slower than a monomer, or a single protein, giving aggregates less opportunity to incorporate into the crystal.

"You're selecting out for predominantly monomer growth, and minimizing the amount of aggregates that are incorporated into the crystal because they move so much more slowly," said DeLucas.

The LMM Biophysics 1 investigation will put these two theories to the test, to try to understand the reason(s) microgravity-grown crystals are often of superior quality and size compared to their Earth-grown counterparts. Improved X-ray diffraction data results in a more precise protein structure and thereby enhancing our understanding of the protein's biological function and future drug discovery.

Crystal Types - LMM Biophysics 3

As LMM Biophysics 1 studies why space-grown crystals are of higher quality than Earth-grown crystals, LMM Biophysics 3 will take a look at which crystals may benefit from crystallization in space. Research has found that only some proteins crystallized in space benefit from microgravity growth. The shape and surface of the protein that makes up a crystal defines its potential for success in microgravity.

"Some proteins are like building blocks," said Edward Snell, LMM Biophysics 3 primary investigator. "It's very easy to stack them. Those are the ones that won't benefit from microgravity. Others are like jelly beans. When you try and build a nice array of them on the ground, they want to roll away and not be ordered. Those are the ones that benefit from microgravity. What we're trying to do is distinguish the blocks from the jelly beans."

Understanding how different proteins crystallize in microgravity will give researchers a deeper view into how these proteins function, and help to determine which crystals should be transported to the space station for growth.

"We're maximizing the use of a scarce resource, and making sure that every crystal we put up there benefits the scientists on the ground," said Snell.

These crystals could be used in drug development and disease research around the world.

Explore further: First-class protein crystals thanks to weightlessness on earth

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Twinning is a crystal-growth disorder in which the specimen is composed of distinct domains whose orientations differ but are related in a particular, well-defined way. Twinning, which is a known problem in protein crystallography, ...

(Phys.org) Innovative methods of drug discovery do not always take place in an academic laboratory. They may start there, but they can also happen in orbit aboard the International Space Station, as protein crystallization ...

On April 18, 2014, former astronaut and UAB Professor Lawrence DeLucas, O.D., Ph.D., stood at Cape Canaveral and watched several hundred crystallization experiments blast into orbit aboard the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Then ...

Crystals that don't experience mechanical stress during growth have superior quality. Levitating liquid metal is the idea behind the project 'Perfecting metal crystals' led by the University of Twente in the Netherlands.

Magnetic reconnection, a universal process that triggers solar flares and northern lights and can disrupt cell phone service and fusion experiments, occurs much faster than theory says that it should. Now researchers at the ...

Calculating a proton's spin used to be an easy college assignment. In fact, Carl Gagliardi remembers answering that question when he was a physics graduate student in the 1970s. But the real answer turned out not to be simple ...

Crew members aboard the International Space Station will begin conducting research this week to improve the way we grow crystals on Earth. The information gained from the experiments could speed up the process for drug development, ...

The electron microscope, a powerful tool for science, just became even more powerful, with an improvement developed by Cornell physicists. Their electron microscope pixel array detector (EMPAD) yields not just an image, but ...

Researchers from the ARC Centre for Ultrahigh bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems (CUDOS) in the University of Sydney's Australian Institute for Nanoscale Science and Technology have made a breakthrough achieving radio ...

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The $190 billion orbiting white elephant that killed the Shuttle and so many space missions has never yielded anything of value.

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Space station crew cultivates crystals for drug development - Phys.org - Phys.Org