Category Archives: Space Station

UFO on Nasa video International Space Station This week1
OVNI UFO.

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UFO on Nasa video International Space Station This week1 - Video

GREENVILLE The Bone Densitometer is currently in several pieces. But most of the testing on an exact replica has been completed. Its taken two years from the time the contract was signed until the products grand unveiling aboard the International Space Station in June.

The Bone Densitometer will measure bone and muscle loss in mice during orbital space flight. The tests are necessary in order to develop countermeasures for bone and muscle loss in crew members and for bone-loss syndromes on Earth.

Its just one of several projects being completed at Techshot in Greenville. But with an expected launch date of June 6, it is the hot item at the facility.

However, building equipment for experiments in space is nothing new at Techshot. For the first 16 years of its existence, the companys only contract was with NASA, and many of the payloads on space shuttle missions were designed and built at Techshot. Today Techshot works for the military as well as private companies including Coca Cola and Procter and Gamble.

There are few companies comparable to Techshot.

For what we do, I would say about a half-dozen companies do what we do, said Rich Boling, vice president of corporate advancement. We build the picks and shovels [for the scientists]. We design everything here.

After the Bone Densitometer is launched, there are two or three other projects being put together at Techshot marching toward flight Boling said. The company is also designing a new and improved stretcher for the Army, and through its subsidiary, Techshot Lighting LLC, has already developed special LED lights to be used in tents for the military.

Un-manned spacecrafts are now used to take equipment and experiments to the space station. Boling said the Bone Densitometer will not be coming back to Greenville, but its findings will.

While the company had to redefine its mission with the elimination of the shuttle program and NASA cuts a few years ago, Boling said it is stronger than ever and now works with the private sector. The company may be asked by NASA, the military or private company to come up with a solution for a problem. Not only do their engineers find the solution, but also build and design it on site.

As for the next Techshot machine headed to space, the Bone Densitometer measures x-ray absorption by bone and soft tissue and reports bone density in mice. It can also measure soft tissue density, lean/fat ratio and total animal mass.

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OUT OF THIS WORLD: Greenville firm’s Bone Densitometer destined for space

Nasa

400km ABOVE: The International Space Station photographed from the shuttle Endeavour.

After the White House decided recently to prolong the life of the International Space Station until 2024, the US' top science official declared that the four-year extension would help Nasa get a big return on its US$100 billion (NZ$120b) investment.

The station is "proving to be an amazingly flexible laboratory," said John Holdren, chief science adviser to President Barack Obama.

Yet despite his endorsement, critics ranging from space bloggers to official Nasa watchdogs say the agency still has work to do before the station reaches its scientific potential.

"The old adage is that if you build it, they will come," said Keith Cowing, a former Nasa space station payload manager who runs the popular website Nasa Watch.

"Well, it's there, but Nasa has a lot of catching up to do in terms of fully utilising the capability of the space station."

Billed as the "largest spacecraft ever built," the football-field-sized observatory began in 1998 with the launch of a bus-sized module from Russia. Since then, the station's two major partners - the US and Russia - have steadily added pieces and equipment, along with contributions from Japan, Canada and Europe.

Astronauts have lived there continuously since 2000, but as recently as 2008 crew members were spending only about three hours a week on science.

Now Nasa officials say it's up to about 50 hours a week, due largely to the crew size doubling from three to six members in 2009. But about 15 per cent of the US racks for experiments onboard the station sat empty as of December 31, and in a report issued last July, Nasa's internal watchdog raised questions about the "real world" benefit of station science.

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Space station science under microscope

The deadline is approaching for the CALL FOR PAPERS 3rd Annual International Space Station Research and Development Conference - Discoveries, Applications and Opportunities

Organized by the American Astronautical Society with the support of NASA and the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS)

Hyatt Regency McCormick Place

Chicago, Illinois

ABSTRACT DEADLINE: February 14, 2014

The annual International Space Station (ISS) Research and Development Conference will be held June 17-19, 2014, at the Hyatt Regency McCormick Place in Chicago. Abstracts and poster proposals are solicited under the categories of Discoveries in Microgravity Science; Discoveries in Space Science, Earth Science, Engineering and Education; Applications Benefiting Earth; Applications Enabling Exploration; Applications in Technology; Commercial Applications; and Opportunities. Topics should relate to science, exploration and technology activities (past, present, planned or under development) on the International Space Station.

One of NASAs top strategic goals is to sustain the operation and full use of the International Space Station and expand efforts to utilize the ISS as a National Laboratory for scientific, technological, diplomatic and educational purposes and for supporting future objectives in human space exploration (2011 NASA Strategic Plan).

NASAs International Space Station website

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments_category.html

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CALL FOR PAPERS 3rd Annual International Space Station Research and Development Conference

A small colony of sterile ants in space will help scientists learn how these creatures adjust to microgravity.

For millions of years, ants have been one of most industrious creatures on Earth. Now we're going to see how they fare in space.

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With the help of NASA, a team of scientists now seeks to understand how the insects, renowned by biologists for their navigational and organizational skills, adjust to microgravity.

The experiment could provide us with a better understanding of foraging methods used by ants, the University of Colorado's Stefanie Countryman, one of the co-investigators of the experiment, told the Monitor.

After a two-day voyage, Orbital Science's robotic Cygnus spacecraft delivered the 640 small black common pavement ants to the International Space Station on January 12.

To avoid infestation, sterile worker ants were chosen for the project.

The ants were divided into eight equal groups each consisting of 80 ants. They were assigned to their individual habitats, eight in total. A habitat, says Stanford biologist Deborah Gordon, principal investigator of the project, is a 4-inch by 6-inch covered arena made of acrylic with three sub sections Nest, Forage Area 1, and Forage Area 2.

The ants were first kept in the nest area before the experiment was initiated. As soon as the ants reached the space stationthey were moved to Forage Area 1 a more compact subsection within the habitat where density of ants was high. Their interactions and path shape were monitored on video for 25 minutes, according to NASA.

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Ants in space! Cygnus craft delivers 640 new astronauts to space station.

1 day ago Jan. 24, 2014 - 4:33 PM PST

On January 12, the International Space Station crew unloaded the recently-arrived Antares rocket, which contained precious cargo like food, spare parts and tiny satellites. Along for the ride was a colony of ants with a very unique purpose: to demonstrate how the ever-efficient insects adapt to life in microgravity.

If youve ever had an ant invasion in your home, you know this pattern: A single ant finds a source of nourishment and then turns into a milling mass of ants ferrying food back to the colony. Meanwhile, individual ants fan out to investigate the rest of the room.

These behaviors do not come from the queen or some other central force. Instead, they are built on innate algorithms that ants developed over millions of years, according to Stanford University. Ants have poor vision, so they rely on smell and touch for guidance while exploring. When the number of ants is more dense, they are more likely to touch each other, which triggers them to explore in tight spirals. If they run into a low number of other ants, they walk in a straight line. This combination means that they spend more time thoroughly exploring an area that is interesting enough to attract other ants and cover a lot of ground while exploring other regions.

Its a system that interests robotics researchers. If a fleet of robots is exploring a collapsed building, they can work more quickly if they dont have to rely on a central commander to tell them where to go.

But what happens if you disrupt the very basis of the ants communication system? Stanford University researchers decided to answer the question by sending ants into space, where low gravity would alter how many times they encounter other ants. About 70 ants were placed in a container that shifted in size to reveal different behaviors.

Stanford biology professor Deborah Gordon

In microgravity, the struggle to walk interferes with interactions, in particular the relation between density and interaction rate, said biology professor Deborah Gordon, who designed the experiment. Thus each ant has less information about density, and so less information to influence its path shape and searching behavior.

How the ants react could inform robot behavior in scenarios where radio communications have been interrupted. If its smoky or dusty and they can no longer communicate, the robots could develop a new system on the spot that still allows them to search an area thoroughly and efficiently.

Gordon, whose interest in ants began with a broader interest in central control-free systems like brains and embryos, said it is very exciting to send an experiment to the ISS. Her team will now study video from the ants time aboard the space station to work out how they responded to microgravity.

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How ants in space could help researchers build a better robot

[ITA] Ultimate Space Colonization: 2# Kerbin Kethane Space Station 1
Ecco la seconda puntata della USC! Oggi lanceremo il primo modulo della KKSS! Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KerbalItalia Twitch: http://www.twitch.tv/ke...

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[ITA] Ultimate Space Colonization: 2# Kerbin Kethane Space Station 1 - Video

Tutorial - Space Station / Planets (How to spray paint)
Original spray paint painting by Markus Fussell. On going look into the making of my art using only spray paint and random tools. This piece inspired by 60s ...

By: Mark Fussell

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Tutorial - Space Station / Planets (How to spray paint) - Video

Minecraft - MainBlock Day 167 - Space Station Upgrades, Adding More Solar Panels
NEW Channel! - KBDToysTV: - https://www.youtube.com/user/KBDToysTV Extreme Ant Farm - Ep 1 - http://youtu.be/P3x43rF-1I4 Ant Farm Survival Day 1 - http://you...

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Minecraft - MainBlock Day 167 - Space Station Upgrades, Adding More Solar Panels - Video

KSP Space Station ep. 1: Kerbal Return!
In this video, Fredsey safely pilots his resupply shuttle home.

By: Bagel Rabbit

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KSP Space Station ep. 1: Kerbal Return! - Video