Category Archives: Space Station

building a space station part 4 continued
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A three-way race to build a commercially operated spaceship to shuttle astronauts -- and other paying customers -- to and from low-Earth orbit is close the finish line, with NASA aiming to award development and flight service contracts as early as next week.

So far, two companies favoring capsule designs -- Boeing and Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX -- have won the lions share of NASAs Commercial Crew program funds. The effort, which began in 2010, is intended to provide a U.S. alternative for flying crews to the International Space Station, which orbits about 260 miles above Earth.

Since NASA retired the space shuttles in 2011, the only human transportation system flying to the station is owned by Russia, which charges about $70 million per person for rides on its Soyuz capsules. NASA hopes to change that before the end of 2017.

NEWS: Space Taxi, Please! NASA Investing $1.1 Bln

Along with Boeing and SpaceX, NASA has been funding space taxi design work at a third company, Colorado-based Sierra Nevada Corp., though its contracts have been about half of what Boeing and SpaceX received.

Sierra Nevada eschewed the capsule design in favor of a small winged spaceplane called Dream Chaser, which resembles a miniature space shuttle. The company has signed partnership agreements with more than 30 companies, nine universities, nine NASA field centers and three international space agencies, a strategy that could provide some flexibility if it is not selected for additional NASA funding.

Weve always looked at this as a system, with the space station being a mission. There are other missions that we are looking at. Having this wide group of companies allows us to look at construction, repair missions, the ability to do short- and long-duration science missions independent of the space station, Mark Sirangelo, Sierra Nevada Space Systems president, told Discovery News.

For us, receiving hundreds of millions of dollars less at the start of the competition put us at a schedule disadvantage -- we couldnt do as many things -- but it made us be a lot more creative in how we were going to manage the last two years, Sirangelo said.

PHOTOS: Dragon's Bounty: SpaceX Mission Complete

Showing that you can manage to a very tight budget is a pretty big thing, he added.

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Race to Build NASA Space Taxi Down to the Wire

Last Updated Aug 29, 2014 9:45 PM EDT

HOUSTON - NASA is engaged in a new space race.

The agency says a decision on which company will build its next-generation vehicle to put astronauts in space is imminent. A $4 billion contract is at stake, and that's made for some intense competition.

Boeing is one of three companies competing to build the successor to the space shuttle. It hopes its CST-100 capsule will be chosen to ferry Americans to the International Space Station.

Three companies are competing for the contract to build the new craft that will ferry astronauts to the International Space Station.

CBS News

John Mulholland heads Boeing's program. He knows there's a lot on the line, but he's confident.

"We've got an incredible team. Human space flight has been at our core since day one, all the way back to Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, the shuttle, the station - all Boeing products developed in partnership with NASA," he said

"It's provided a lot of benefit for us to have that experience to bring to this design," Mulholland said.

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New space race: 3 companies vie to build space shuttle successor

August 30, 2014

Image Caption: A Hyperspectral Imager for the Coastal Ocean (HICO) image of western Lake Erie, Aug. 15, 2014, taken from the orbital perspective of the International Space Station. Credit: HICO Team/Naval Research Laboratory

Jessica Nimon, International Space Station Program Science Office NASAs Johnson Space Center

The green stuff that clouds up fish tanks its not just an aesthetic annoyance. In fact, if youve been watching recent news of algal bloom concerns in Lake Erie, you know that the right conditions for algae can lead to contamination of local water sources, potentially impacting aquatic life and humans. What you might not have known is that among the resources to help study this problem you will find the International Space Stations Hyperspectral Imager for the Coastal Ocean (HICO).

This instrument, mounted to the exterior of the orbiting laboratory, provides a way for researchers to see 90 wavelengths of light not visible to the human eye. This can help with research on harmful algal blooms (HABs) because they, along with other organic materials, have a spectral signature. The biological matter emits a unique wavelength as it absorbs and scatters solar energy, resulting in fluorescence and backscattering. Essentially the light reflects back to HICO, which reads the data like a fingerprint.

Researchers can use the information from HICO to see what theyre missing with their own senses. With it they study biological and chemical signatures for aquatic and terrestrial materials. This can reveal the presence of microscopic plants, organic compounds, suspended sediments and other factors controlling water quality.

HICO was first designed and built by the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) for the Office of Naval Research to assess water quality in the coastal ocean. HICO continues to operate beyond its original one-year mission, having moved past the initial three-year mission when NASA took over the support of operations in January 2013. Researchers continue to use HICO for science around the world.

To address water quality issues, the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS) partnered with the NRL at NASAs Stennis Space Center (SSC) in Mississippi to enable the study of HABs, including those in Lake Erie.

Historically, blooms have been visually observed by the naked eye due to the discoloration of the water, said Ruhul Amin, Ph.D., principal investigator for the HICO CASIS-NRL project. Now optical sensors can detect these changes in the color of the water and quantitatively measure the spectral radiance changes due to algae blooms.

In the Lake Erie area researchers are looking at phytoplankton and algal blooms that occur regularly in summer months, often in the harmful quantities found this year. Of particular concern are blue-green algae Microcystis spp., which can cause health concerns in humans such as nausea, numbness or dizzinesspotentially leading to liver damage. Once airborne in sea spray, the brevetoxin producing HAB Karenia brevisknown as red tidecan go beyond irritating the eyes and lungs of coastal visitors, according to Amin, as it is capable of killing fish, birds and marine mammals. No human fatalities are directly attributed to brevetoxins, he goes on to say, though it is possible to reach fatal toxin levels during K. brevis blooms.

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Algal Growth A Blooming Problem Space Station To Help Monitor

Dickson College UAV 2014 Trips - University of Sydeny
Pictures of the 2014 team at Defence and the University of Sydney. The "Real Astronaut" is Dr. Greg Chamitoff, International Space Station Astronaut and University of Sydney Professor.

By: Andrew Moss

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Dickson College UAV 2014 Trips - University of Sydeny - Video

Galactic Classroom: Science Aboard The International Space Station
In space, water becomes a spherical ball, hovering in the air. Plants grow sideways. Humans lose muscle mass. Without earth #39;s gravity things behave...well, differently. Such is lifeand science...

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Galactic Classroom: Science Aboard The International Space Station - Video

Space Station 13 Episode 19: Medical Assistance
I try to stop the climbing death toll on this station, while getting high, mostly getting high though.

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Space Station 13 Episode 19: Medical Assistance - Video

Russia is developing a national program of manned space explorations which will replace the International Space Station (ISS) program after 2020, the Russian Federal Space Agency, Roscosmos, said Thursday.

"The development of the national strategy of manned spaceflight is underway now. Along with the Russian Academy of Sciences and the industrial sector we are preparing a certain concept beyond the ISS," Roscosmos Deputy Chief Sergei Savelyev told reporters at the 18th St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

China and the European Space Agency, he added, were seen as the potential partners in the new strategy, but the key role will belong to Russia.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, who is in charge of space and defense sectors, said earlier in the week that Moscow had no plans to extend the operation of the ISS beyond 2020, though the United States had proposed to extend ISS cooperation after that year.

On Tuesday, Rogozin also threatened that from June 1 Moscow would shut down 11 U.S. Global Positioning System (GPS) base stations on Russian territory in response to Washington's anti-Russia sanctions and its refusal to plant Russian Glonass ground base stations on U.S. territory.

Meanwhile, Roscosmos plans to resume talks over the placement of Glonass stations in the United States over the next few weeks, Savelyev said.

"I think it will happen in the very near future, over the next two or three weeks ... It would still give us a chance to walk away from the unpleasant situation over sanctions and continue cooperation," the Interfax news agency quoted the official as saying.

Source: Xinhua News Agency

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Russia develops manned space program to replace ISS

Slowdive - Souvlaki Space Station (Live @ Village Underground, London, 19/05/14)
Slowdive performing "Souvlaki Space Station" live at Village Underground, London on May 19th, 2014. All rights reserved to the artist. No copyright infringem...

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Slowdive - Souvlaki Space Station (Live @ Village Underground, London, 19/05/14) - Video

SLOWDIVE, SOUVAIAKI SPACE STATION @ VILLAGE UNDERGROUND LONDON 19 MAY 2014 HD
SLOWDIVE AT THE VILLAGE UNDERGROUND LONDON.

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SLOWDIVE, SOUVAIAKI SPACE STATION @ VILLAGE UNDERGROUND LONDON 19 MAY 2014 HD - Video