Category Archives: Space Station

NASA Makes Huge Space Travel News
NASA makes space travel news by announcing that they have awarded contracts to Boeing and SpaceX for creating spacecraft to shuttle astronauts to and from the International Space Station....

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NASA Makes Huge Space Travel News - Video

Space to Ground: Preparing for Liftoff: 9/19/14
NASA #39;s Space to Ground is your weekly update on what #39;s happening aboard the International Space Station. Got a question or comment? Use #spacetoground to talk to us.

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Space to Ground: Preparing for Liftoff: 9/19/14 - Video

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. The 3-D printing boom is about to invade space.

NASA is sending a 3-D printer to the International Space Station in hopes that astronauts will be able to one day fix their spacecraft by cranking out spare parts on the spot.

The printer, made by a Northern California company called Made in Space, is among more than 5,000 pounds of space station cargo thats stuffed into a SpaceX Dragon capsule that was supposed to lift off before dawn Saturday. Rainy weather forced SpaceX to delay the launch until Sunday.

Besides real-time replacement parts at the station, NASA envisions astronauts, in the decades ahead, making entire habitats at faraway destinations like Mars.

If were really going to set up shop on Mars, we have to do this, Jeff Sheehy, NASAs senior technologist, said Friday. We really cant afford to bring everything we need for an indefinite amount of time. Well need to get to the point where we can make things that we need as we go.

At Kennedy Space Center, the company showed off a number of objects made by its 3-D printers. On display was a scaled-down model of an air filter that the Apollo 13 astronauts devised to survive their aborted moon mission in 1970. It took five hours to print the model in a lab.

SpaceX is making the supply run for NASA, the same California company that just won a huge contract to deliver U.S. astronauts to the space station. Its Falcon 9 rocket with an unmanned Dragon is scheduled to blast off at 1:52 a.m. Sunday; slightly better weather is expected.

This April 2014 photo provided by NASA shows a 3-D printer after it passed flight certification and acceptance testing at NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.Photo: AP

The small 3-D printer on board is a demo unit meant to churn out sample items made from the same type of plastic used for Lego bricks.

It was designed to operate safely in weightlessness inside a sealed chamber. The printing process is the same as on Earth, creating an object with layer upon layer of plastic.

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3-D printer being sent to the International Space Station

Unless you're a serious space nerd, you probably haven't been following the various rockets and spacecraft that SpaceX has launched since its first historic mission to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2012. But there's good reason to pay attention to the SpaceX CRS-4 mission, which may also go down in the record books. Just as it did on that inaugural flight to the ISS, the Dragon spacecraft will carry supplies, but this time the payload includes some crucial cargo - a 3D printer that works in space.

Watch our CNET News video to find out how a Silicon Valley startup designed a printer that works in zero gravity.

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Since 2010, Made In Space has been tinkering away on the groundbreaking hardware. During an interview at the company's offices at the NASA Ames Research Park, CEO and co-founder Aaron Kemmer stressed the significance of sending an additive manufacturing device to space.

"We've been building tools for thousands of years. This is the first time that it's not happening down here, but up there [in space]. That's paradigm shifting," said Kemmer, "We can actually leave planet Earth if we can start doing this more and more, if we start living off the land, building there, getting independent from planet Earth, rather than being completely dependent."

Made In Space is shooting for the moon, in more ways than one. It's already working towards utilizing the resources on hand to avoid needing to launch feedstock (such as ABS or PLA filament) for the 3D printers. R3DO, another Made In Space project, is a recycler that reuses 3D printed objects that are either no longer useful or broken to create new 3D prints. That could reduce space waste, but Made In Space has an even more ambitious idea: to print objects using regolith. Ever looked at a photo of the moon? It's the powdery substance that covers much of the surface - part soil, part dust, part ground rock. When Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon, he left his footprints in regolith. Kemmer says the material could be used "almost as concrete to build housing structures and roads."

With the ability to create objects on-demand, 3D printers have already been lauded as an alternative to traditional manufacturing and shipping methods which are costly and time-consuming.

"3D printing really has the capability to disrupt that. In space it's ten times, even a hundred times harder," Kemmer explains, "Because you have to have rockets in the equation and they are very dangerous and very expensive."

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3D printer heading to space could enable lunar exploration

A SpaceX Dragon cargo ship during berthing last year at the International Space Station. SpaceX plans to launch its fourth operational station resupply mission early Saturday. SpaceX

SpaceX engineers loaded last-minute equipment and research gear aboard a Dragon cargo ship Friday, setting the stage for launch atop a Falcon 9 rocket early Saturday on a two-day flight to the International Space Station.

Loaded with more than 5,100 pounds of cargo, including 20 mice in a compact habitat, spacesuit batteries, an experimental 3D printer, IMAX cameras and an instrument to measure ocean wind speeds, the Dragon cargo craft was scheduled for liftoff from pad 40 at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 2:14 a.m. EDT Saturday, roughly the moment Earth's rotation carries the pad into the plane of the space station's orbit.

Assuming an on-time launch, the Dragon cargo ship is expected to rendezvous with the space station early Monday, pulling up to within about 30 feet and standing by while the lab's robot arm locks on around 7:30 a.m. and pulls the capsule in for berthing at the Earth-facing port of the forward Harmony module.

If all goes well, the spacecraft will remain attached to the station until around Oct. 18, returning to a Pacific Ocean splashdown, bringing some 3,800 pounds of research samples and equipment back to waiting scientists and engineers.

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For the first time humans will be able to build tools in space. The SpaceX Dragon cargo craft, scheduled to launch on Saturday, will carry a 3D p...

Hans Koenigsmann, vice president of mission assurance at SpaceX, told reporters Friday the rocket and capsule were in good shape and ready for flight, but forecasters predicted a 50 percent chance of rain and thick clouds that could force a 24-hour delay. The outlook for Sunday calls for a 70 percent chance of acceptable weather, and a third launch opportunity may be available next Tuesday if needed.

If the Dragon is not off the ground by then, SpaceX will have to stand down until Sept. 28 to make way for the launch of a Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying three fresh crew members to the outpost. The Soyuz TMA-14M spacecraft, carrying commander Alexander Samokutyaev, flight engineer Elena Serova and NASA astronaut Barry "Butch" Wilmore, is scheduled for launch Sept. 25 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Joining station commander Maxim Suraev, European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst and NASA flight engineer Reid Wiseman, the combined six-member Expedition 41 crew faces a particularly busy Fall schedule, unloading the SpaceX cargo ship, repacking it with samples and equipment for return to Earth, capturing an Orbital Sciences Cygnus cargo craft in mid October and carrying out three spacewalks Oct. 7, 15 and 22.

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SpaceX readies Dragon for launch to space station

THE MISSION IS IN SIGHT
NASA is poised to announce the final phase of development and certification to provide safe, reliable and cost-effective transportation to and from the International Space Station from the...

By: NASAKennedy

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THE MISSION IS IN SIGHT - Video

Time-lapse video shows view of earth from the international space station - Fly over planet at night

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Time-lapse video shows view of earth from the international space station - Fly over planet at night - Video

Blue Dot: Three months of science in space
ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst gives an overview of some of the science he has performed during his Blue Dot mission on the International Space Station so far. From robotic surgery to vaccines...

By: European Space Agency, ESA

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Blue Dot: Three months of science in space - Video

International Space Station contact with Institut Florimont from ITU
ITU radioamateur station 4U1ITU facilitates radio contact with the International Space Station and Geneva school students Aim to inspire students to seek careers in science and technology....

By: ITU

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International Space Station contact with Institut Florimont from ITU - Video

Dr. George Nelson: How best to use your neighborhood space station
The International Space Station has maintained a continuous human presence in space since November of 2000. Upon completion of the Space Station and the retirement of the Space Shuttle, NASA #39;s...

By: GoogleTechTalks

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Dr. George Nelson: How best to use your neighborhood space station - Video