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DoD News Now: 1500 November 24, 2014
2014 - Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel steps down, praise for Secretary Hagel #39;s service from Commander in Chief Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry and new astronauts settle into...

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DoD News Now: 1500 November 24, 2014 - Video

ISS Tour |international space station |HD information about |really nice Tour
Channel URL: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8w1qtb2exvMdaNPWWdtEtw ============================================= http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Space_Station ...

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NanoRocks Sample Video
Video from the NanoRocks on NanoRacks experiment on board the International Space Station with fisheye distortion removed. The video shows the collisional evolution of several particle samples...

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NanoRocks Sample Video - Video

What's Thanksgiving like in space?

In a sense, not too different from the first Thanksgivings in America, says NASA astronaut Barry "Butch" Wilmore, commander of Expedition 42 aboard the International Space Station.

After all, the English settlers of Plymouth Colony were pioneers in an unknown land, crossing vast oceans to explore new worlds not unlike astronauts of today.

"The first thing that comes to mind is going all the way back to those early settlers when they endured some really rough times, crossing the ocean and getting started in an unknown land," Wilmore said in a recorded message from aboard the International Space Station.

Of course, not everything is the same. While early settlers may have feasted on wild fowl, venison, corn, beans, and mussels, and modern Thanksgiving tables aren't complete without turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and mashed potatoes, astronauts aboard the space station will be cutting open bags of freeze-dried, irradiated, and thermostabilized foods on Thursday.

What's on the space station's menu this Thanksgiving?

According to NASA, the meal will include smoked turkey, candied yams and green beans and mushrooms. The meal also will feature NASAs own freeze-dried cornbread dressing just add water. Dessert features thermostabilized cherry-blueberry cobbler.

Each food item comes in its own vacuum-packed single-serve packet, so astronauts simply cut open the packet and eat right out of it, no preparation or cleanup necessary.

Thanksgiving is often a work day in outer space, but astronauts don't seem to mind.

"People often ask us what it's like to be onboard ISS for the holidays," NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins said in a 2013 Thanksgiving video beamed down from the station. "Though we miss our families, it's great to be in space. As astronauts, this is what we train for and this is where we want to be."

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Thanksgiving in space: What's on the menu?

What's Thanksgiving like in space?

In a sense, not too different from the first Thanksgivings in America, says NASA astronaut Barry "Butch" Wilmore, commander of Expedition 42 aboard the International Space Station.

After all, the English settlers of Plymouth Colony were pioneers in an unknown land, crossing vast oceans to explore new worlds not unlike astronauts of today.

"The first thing that comes to mind is going all the way back to those early settlers when they endured some really rough times, crossing the ocean and getting started in an unknown land," Wilmore said in a recorded message from aboard the International Space Station.

Of course, not everything is the same. While early settlers may have feasted on wild fowl, venison, corn, beans, and mussels, and modern Thanksgiving tables aren't complete without turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and mashed potatoes, astronauts aboard the space station will be cutting open bags of freeze-dried, irradiated, and thermostabilized foods on Thursday.

What's on the space station's menu this Thanksgiving?

According to NASA, the meal will include smoked turkey, candied yams and green beans and mushrooms. The meal also will feature NASAs own freeze-dried cornbread dressing just add water. Dessert features thermostabilized cherry-blueberry cobbler.

Each food item comes in its own vacuum-packed single-serve packet, so astronauts simply cut open the packet and eat right out of it, no preparation or cleanup necessary.

Thanksgiving is often a work day in outer space, but astronauts don't seem to mind.

"People often ask us what it's like to be onboard ISS for the holidays," NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins said in a 2013 Thanksgiving video beamed down from the station. "Though we miss our families, it's great to be in space. As astronauts, this is what we train for and this is where we want to be."

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Thanksgiving in space: What's on the menu? (+video)

By Calla Cofield

Caption: Cmdr. Barry "Butch" Wilmore holds up freeze-dried cornbread stuffing one of the Thanksgiving food items he and the rest of the International Space Station crew will enjoy this week.(NASA)

A spread of Thanksgiving dishes aboard the International Space Station in 2013.(NASA)

Like most Americans back on the ground, astronauts aboard the International Space Station will celebrate Thanksgiving with a feast: NASA food scientists have created zero-g versions of classic Thanksgiving dishes for this week's celebration.

The American astronauts currently living on the orbiting laboratory 250 miles above Earth's surface commander Barry "Butch" Wilmore and flight engineer Terry Virts as well as Italian-born flight engineer Samantha Cristoforetti, will get a day off this Thursday (Nov. 27) to celebrate Thanksgiving. (Watch Wilmore deliver a Thanksgiving greeting in this video.) At mealtime, they'll gather for some "traditional" Turkey Day fare in zero-g form, of course.

The in-flight menu includes smoked turkey, candied yams, green beans and mushrooms, cornbread stuffing and cherry-blueberry cobbler. In addition, the crewmembers may enjoy some personal Thanksgiving favorites. [Space Food Photos: What Astronauts Eat in Orbit]

"I'm from Tennessee, so I grew up drinking sweet tea so I've got a little sweet tea as well," Wilmore said in his Thanksgiving video. "So, we're going to have all of that up here and try to share in the spirit of the season."

The astronauts will likely share the meal with their newly arrivedRussian shipmates, flight engineers Alexander Samokutyaev, Anton Shkaplerov and Elena Serova, who got to the station late Sunday (Nov. 23). The Russians do not have the day off, but crewmembers dine together most days. The orbiting laboratory frequently hosts an international crew, and astronauts generally join in the celebrations of their crewmates.

Food aboard theInternational Space Stationis either freeze-dried or thermostabilized (a process similar to canning, but with the food packed in pouches), so it has a long shelf life and can be stored without refrigeration. There are no microwaves or ovens on board the station, so food is heated using warm water. Such storage methods do not work well with all foods, so it can be a challenge to recreate specific dishes.

One Thanksgiving staple, sweet potatoes, may one day be grown in space, NASA officials said.Deep-space missions to Mars, or even more distant destinations, will likely require astronauts to grow their own food. According to NASA, sweet potatoes could be an ideal crop for these missions: They would provide astronauts with energy (from carbohydrates) and beta-carotene, they can adapt to a controlled environment with artificial sunlight, and in addition to the tuber itself, the side shoots from the potato are also edible.

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Thanksgiving meals in space

International Space Station Commander Barry Butch Wilmore holds up the first object made in space with additive manufacturing or 3-D printing. Wilmore installed the printer on Nov. 17, 2014, and helped crews on the ground with the first print on Nov. 25, 2014. NASA

The first 3D printer in space has popped out its first creation -- a replacement part for the first 3D printer in space.

The 3D printer, delivered to the International Space Station two months ago, made a sample faceplate for the print head casing.

"We chose this part to print first because, after all, if we are going to have 3D printers make spare and replacement parts for critical items in space, we have to be able to make spare parts for the printers," project manager Niki Werkheiser said. "If a printer is critical for explorers, it must be capable of replicating its own parts, so that it can keep working during longer journeys to places like Mars or an asteroid. Ultimately, one day, a printer may even be able to print another printer."

Using data from calibration tests performed last week, controllers sent print instructions from the ground to the ISS. Space station commander Butch Wilmore removed the small plastic creation from the printer Tuesday, a day after its manufacture.

18 Photos

American astronaut Reid Wiseman tweets breathtaking photos from the International Space Station

Some of the plastic piece stuck to the print tray, said NASA spokesman Dan Huot. He noted it's part of the learning process and will be further investigated.

"This is the first time we've ever used a 3D printer in space, and we are learning, even from these initial operations," Werkheiser said. "As we print more parts we'll be able to learn whether some of the effects we are seeing are caused by microgravity or just part of the normal fine-tuning process for printing. When we get the parts back on Earth, we'll be able to do a more detailed analysis to find out how they compare to parts printed on Earth."

About 20 objects will be printed in the next few weeks, all for return to Earth for analysis, NASA said. The space agency hopes to one day use 3D printing to make parts for broken equipment in space - "an on-demand machine shop," according to Werkheiser.

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First 3D printer in space makes debut creation

After a series of calibration tests, the first 3-D printer to fly to outer space has manufactured its first potentially useful object on the International Space Station: a replacement faceplate for its print head casing.

"An astronaut might be installing it on the printer," said Aaron Kemmer, the chief executive officer of Made In Space, which built the 3-D printer for NASA's use.

The 9.5-inch-wide contraption was delivered to the space station by a robotic SpaceX Dragon cargo ship in September, and NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore set it up inside the station's experimental glovebox a week ago.

NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore, the International Space Station's commander, holds up the first 3-D-printed part made in space. It's a replacement print head faceplate, which holds internal wiring in place within the 3-D printer's extruder. The faceplate, which bears the logos for Made in Space and NASA, measures roughly 3 by 1.5 inches (7.6 by 3.8 centimeters) with a thickness of a quarter-inch (6 millimeters).

Since then, the crew has been printing out plastic test patterns, or "coupons," to check how the machine works in zero gravity. "Everything worked exactly as planned, maybe a little better than planned," Kemmer told NBC News. He said only two calibration passes were needed in advance of the first honest-to-goodness print job, which finished up at 4:28 p.m. ET Monday and was pulled out of the box early Tuesday.

"It's not only the first part printed in space, it's really the first object truly manufactured off planet Earth," Kemmer said. "Where there was not an object before, we essentially 'teleported' an object by sending the bits and having it made on the printer. It's a big milestone, not only for NASA and Made In Space, but for humanity as a whole."

Made In Space's 3-D printer is similar to the earthly variety: A thin filament of ABS plastic is fed through the machine, melted and then extruded through the print head to build up the desired object, layer by thin layer. Over the course of hours, the printer's computer program controls precisely where the squirts of plastic are directed.

On Earth, 3-D printers can make toys and tchotchkes, or plastic pistols and prosthetics. In space, astronauts may someday count on 3-D printers to make tools or spare parts from standard-issue feedstock, rather than having to rely on a stockpile of hardware flown up from Earth at a cost of $10,000 a pound. That capability will be particularly important for trips to Mars because in deep space, no one can point you to a hardware store.

However, the space environment poses challenges for 3-D printing technology. Does the machine work in weightlessness the way it does in Earth's gravity? Can the plastic be built up into predictable structures? How easy is it to remove the finished part?

NASA reported that the replacement faceplate adhered more strongly to the machine's print tray than anticipated, "which could mean layer bonding is different in microgravity, a question the team will investigate as future parts are printed."

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3-D Printer in Space Makes First Object: A Spare Part

Italy #39;s first female astronaut arrives at space station
Italy #39;s first female astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti has arrived at the International Space Station. She was among the crew members in a Soyuz capsule which blasted off from Kazahkstan on...

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Italy #39;s first female astronaut delivers espresso to ISS
Three new crew members have arrived at the International Space Station. The research laboratory has been short-staffed for the last two weeks since three astronauts returned home. The crew #39;s...

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Italy's first female astronaut delivers espresso to ISS - Video