Category Archives: Space Station

Chinas first module of its upcoming Tiangong space station makes use of ion drives, technology that could vastly cut down the time it takes to travel to Mars and greatly reduce the amount of fuel needed to make that trip, as the South China Morning Postreports.

The module, called Tianhe and launched in late April, is powered by four ion thrusters that use electricity to accelerate ions as a form of propulsion. In fact, the module could soon become the first spacecraft in history to transport humans using the technology, according to SCMP.

Ion drives are orders of magnitude more efficient compared to chemical propulsion. To keep the International Space Station in orbit for a year, the thrusters consume four tons of rocket fuel. With ion thrusters, itd need just 400 kilograms to stay in orbit for the same amount of time, according to the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

A trip to Mars could be cut down from eight months to just 39 days.

China is betting big on ion thrusters, hoping to use them not just for its space station but for upcoming satellite constellations and nuclear-powered spacecraft capable of carrying astronauts to Mars as well, according to SCMP.

The technology has been around for decades, but mainstream adoption has been hampered by the fact that the thrust produced isnt very significant. Scaling up the thrusters could end up putting astronauts in danger and shorten the lifespan of satellites.

But scientists at the Chinese Academy of Sciences may have cracked the code. One of its ion drives currently in development has been burning for more than 11 months straight, according to the newspaper.

A magnetic field makes sure the particles dont create any damage or erode the engine, while a special ceramic material stops it from getting damaged by radiation.

Space projects are usually very big, an anonymous Beijing-based space scientist told SCMP. A typical mission involves hundreds or even thousands of individuals. But the competition in space is essentially a competition over some very small but extremely important details.

The ion thruster is one of those areas where the devil is in the detail, the scientist added.

READ MORE: How Chinas space station could help power astronauts to Mars[South China Morning Sea]

More on ion thrusters: This Mini Ion Thruster Is Adorably Tiny

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Originally posted here:
China's New Space Station Is Powered by Ion Thrusters - Futurism

Were finally able to open our doors to private citizens and allow others to experience the magic of living and working in space, said Dana Weigel, deputy manager for the space station at NASA. The dream is really to allow everyone access to space, and this is a pretty exciting starting point here.

Producers of Discoverys Who Wants to Be an Astronaut expect the winner to be on board for the second Axiom mission to the space station, which might take off six or seven months after the first one. For now, an agreement between the Discovery team and Axiom has not been finalized, and NASA has yet to choose Axiom to conduct the second private space tourism flight.

The NASA-led part of the station could accommodate two private astronaut missions a year, space agency officials have said, and other companies are also interested in participating.

We are seeing a lot of interest in private astronaut missions, even outside of Axiom, Ms. Weigel said. At this point, the demand exceeds what we actually believe the opportunities on station will be.

Still, on Tuesday, Axiom announced two people who would be in the seats for that second mission: Peggy Whitson, a former NASA astronaut who now works for Axiom, will be the commander, and John Shoffner, a paying passenger who made his fortune as head of a company that manufactures conduits for fiber optic cables, will serve as pilot for the mission.

Dr. Whitson, who holds the record for the most cumulative time in space by a NASA astronaut 665 days joined Axiom as a consultant a year ago, in hopes of getting to space again and adding to her record. Yes, most definitely, she said. That was the carrot.

Mr. Peterson said plans for the Discovery show grew out of discussions with Axiom early in 2020 and that it would be a premium documentary and less like Survivor or other ruthless reality television competitions.

See the rest here:
Space Station May Host Wave of TV Shows and Films - The New York Times

TEL AVIV, Israel, May 25, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --UltraSight, a digital health pioneer, transforming cardiac imaging through the power of AI, announced that it will conduct a study as part of the upcoming 'Rakia' space mission. UltraSight was selected by the Israel Space Agency in collaboration with The Ramon Foundation to conduct a study as part of the upcoming 'Rakia' space mission. The study will be held in collaboration with the Israeli Aerospace Medicine Institute (IAMI).

"Research has shown that the space environment negatively impacts the human cardiovascular system of astronauts spending long durations in space," said Eran Schenker, MD, Chief Innovation Medical Officer, IAMI. "Providing easy access to cardiac diagnostic information, for ongoing cardiac monitoring or for emergency medical interventions is of critical importance."

UltraSight's AI software platform pairs with handheld ultrasound devices to conduct sonography at the point- of care, whether in space or in primary care settings, helping more patients to be accurately diagnosed and treated. UltraSight offers users with no sonography training, real-time guidance and assessment, in order to easily acquire diagnostic quality images. This novel solution holds great potential to provide critical medical information of crewmembers during flight even without a trained sonographer on board or in the mission control center.

During the upcoming space mission, Col. (res.) Eytan Stibbe, will operate a handheld ultrasound device and acquire cardiac ultrasound images using UltraSight's real-time guidance. By acquiring cardiac images several times throughout the space mission, the study aims to monitor changes in heart anatomy during long stays in a microgravity environment. Furthermore, the study will provide additional validation for the ability to introduce cardiac ultrasound to rural and underserved communities.

"Our goal in the upcoming space study is to prove that with UltraSight's real-time guidance, any astronaut can acquire quality cardiac images, simply and independently of ground mission control or trained medical professionals," said Davidi Vortman, CEO of UltraSight. "Our novel technology carries the potential of increasing patient access to cardiac imaging and better care," he added.

About UltraSight

UltraSight aims to revolutionize cardiac sonography through the power of machine learning to enable more accurate and timely clinical decisions. The UltraSight automated guidance system and advanced usability features help bring the benefits of cardiac imaging to more healthcare professionals in new care settings, allowing patients access to ultrasound anywhere.

UltraSight won the TCT 2020 Innovation Competition which took place during the Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics world conference.

Media Contact Luna Newton [emailprotected]+1-(917)-755-1655

SOURCE UltraSight

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UltraSight Selected to Conduct a Study Onboard the International Space Station - PRNewswire

When astronauts venture outside of the International Space Station to go on spacewalks, the most important thing they have to do is focus.This may sound simple, but imagine trying to focus on a memorized set of tasks while stepping out of an airlock and wearing a 300-pound spacesuit with the glow of planet Earth and the sun and the dark void of the universe all around you. A tether connects you to the space station, and the absence of gravity keeps you from falling."There's a lot of things that you really need to do, one of which is just keep your focus, even though it's amazing out there," said NASA astronaut Mike Fincke. "It's really truly breathtaking. The only thing between you and the rest of the universe, seeing the whole cosmos of creation, is the glass faceplate of your visor on your helmet, and it's just awe-inspiring."Depending on the orientation of the space station, which completes 16 orbits of the Earth each day while moving at 17,500 miles per hour, our planet can appear above or below the astronauts.Fincke is a veteran of spaceflight. He's spent 382 days in space, and he's gone on nine spacewalks in Russian and American spacesuits. Fincke is training in Texas for his fourth spaceflight and will launch to the space station later this year on the first crewed experimental test flight of Boeing's Starliner.More than 550 people have been to space and about half of them have been on a spacewalk, Fincke said. Spacewalks are often referred to as EVAs, or extravehicular activities.The first spacewalk by an American astronaut was conducted by NASA astronaut Ed White on June 3, 1965. He left the Gemini 4 capsule at 3:45 p.m. ET and remained outside of it for 23 minutes. (Soviet cosmonaut Aleksei A. Leonov completed the world's first spacewalk on March 18 of that year.)Gemini 4 circled the Earth 66 times in four days. During the spacewalk, White began over the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii and went back inside the capsule as they flew over the Gulf of Mexico.He exited the spacecraft using a hand-held oxygen-jet gun to push himself out, attached to a 25-foot safety tether. NASA astronaut James McDivitt, on the mission with White, took photos of White in space from inside the capsule.White later said the spacewalk was the most comfortable part of the mission, and said the order to end it was the "saddest moment" of his life, according to NASA.Spacewalks: Part of the jobSpacewalks are part of life on the space station. The orbiting laboratory, which has served as a home away from home in low-Earth orbit for astronauts over the past 20 years, requires routine maintenance, upgrades and sometimes, emergency repairs.These walks usually involve two astronauts working outside of the station for about six-and-a-half hours.But countless hours of training and preparation precede any spacewalk experience to keep astronauts safe."A spacewalk is probably the most dangerous thing that we do," Fincke said. "I think it's more dangerous than launching and landing, even though those are really tricky things. If we become separated from the International Space Station, it's super dangerous. Now we have ways to prevent that because it is dangerous, but going outside is an extremely dangerous thing to do."Spacewalks are also incredibly hard and physically demanding, despite the fact that gravity isn't weighing them down."You have to remember a lot of things, you have to memorize a lot of things, you have to think in real time, and, by the way, you're moving that 300-pound piece of equipment around your body and every movement that you make is physically demanding," he said. "And to be able to do that in a calm, cool and collected way while breathing pure oxygen that's only 1/3 or 1/4 of the atmospheric pressure of planet Earth with everybody's eyes on you and trying to make sure you do the job. That is a really tough day."All of the hard work pays off. So far, every spacewalk has been conducted safely.Preparing to walk in spaceTraining on the ground before spaceflight helps astronauts focus on knowing their spacesuits, tools and understanding the tasks they'll be asked to perform."Each spacesuit is its own little spaceship," Fincke said. "It has its own electrical power and thermal control system, oxygen and everything you need to survive for six to eight hours. We have to know our equipment just like anybody who goes on an expedition mountain climbing or underwater. It's what keeps you alive, so we need to know our equipment very well."Understanding how to maneuver in the suit can also help astronauts prepare for what it's like to handle tools in space while wearing big, thick gloves in a pressurized suit.Additionally, there's a choreography to planning the movements of two people working outside of the space station, at times together and other times on separate tasks.But how can astronauts possibly prepare for a spacewalk on Earth?Pool timeThey do it by plunging into the deep end of the pool otherwise known as NASA's Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory in Houston. It's similar for crew training in Russia as well at the Hydrolab."The reason why we train underwater is because we actually wear real spacesuits, we do real tasks and we feel like we are weightless when actually we're just neutrally buoyant so we're floating," Fincke said.Neutral buoyancy means they aren't at the top or the bottom of the pool, so for astronauts, it feels like they're outside in space. Fincke said training in this kind of lab prepared him so well for his first spacewalk that it felt almost exactly the same. The training is that intensive and comprehensive, he said.Naturally, some things can't be simulated, such as the light and temperature changes astronauts experience during their spacewalks. The station's orbit around Earth can expose the astronauts to blinding, hot light from the sun or plunge them into cold darkness, moving from one extreme to the other. While the spacesuits protect them from extreme temperatures, the astronauts can still feel a shift.Spacewalk veterans can act as instructor astronauts to those in training. One thing Fincke often shares with astronauts preparing for spacewalks is understanding their spacesuits inside and out.Exiting the space station's airlock and going outside isn't a quick process; astronauts have to breathe pure oxygen for a while beforehand to avoid decompression sickness, or "the bends."During Fincke's first spacewalk, he breathed pure oxygen at a high rate for 30 minutes, closed his valve and went outside. But the valve didn't actually close, causing him to rapidly lose oxygen and the spacewalk was cut short."Had I been listening or had I understood my suit more, I could have actually heard the oxygen flow in at a slightly higher rate," Fincke said. "Sometimes it's those little things that you hear that can make make a difference."They figured out a solution and completed the walk a few days later. This whole scenario is actually part of an episode of the children's show "Arthur." Fincke appeared as an animated version of himself in an episode called "Buster Spaces Out" as an example to kids about working together to come up with a solution.Ground controlThe ideal amount of time to plan a spacewalk is six months, according to Sarah Korona, EVA flight controller at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. Of course, there are extremes, like a spacewalk she worked on planning for two years while they waited for a piece of hardware to launch, or two days if there's an emergency outside of the space station.If you've ever watched a spacewalk, she's one of the people you'll see sitting in what's called the "front room" on the ground. That's because there are many people working behind the scenes in backrooms to monitor every aspect of the space station, astronauts and spacewalk to provide support. Flight controlling is truly a team effort, she said.Korona and her EVA team build relationships with the astronauts and even get to know their mannerisms because they work together on the ground for years in training. When the flight controllers learn that something outside the space station needs to be fixed, removed, replaced or installed, they plan what hardware is needed, determine the tools required and begin choreographing a plan to accomplish the tasks.The plan is run in the Neutral Buoyancy Lab and crew members provide feedback to ensure that they've created the most efficient spacewalk.There's a flurry of activity on the ground and the space station the week leading up to a spacewalk. On the station, the astronauts prepare their suits, life support systems and tools. They have video conferences with the ground teams to go over every detail of the task plan.The American spacesuits essentially come in parts, so the astronauts can customize them for the best fit. On spacewalk day, they get up early and their fellow crew members on the space station help them suit up. These crew members will also monitor them from inside the space station during the walk.The ground team works in multiple shifts to ensure that every aspect leading up to and after the spacewalk is covered. A normal shift for a flight controller is about nine hours and it's very taxing, Korona said. Flight controllers follow a plan of procedures about 30-pages thick for the astronauts step by step, but there are also contingency plans in case anything goes wrong.Video views from the helmet cameras and those outside of the space station help the flight controllers monitor what's happening.About every 90 minutes, the astronauts check their gloves and helmet absorption pad, or HAP, to make sure there is no water inside their helmets or tears in the gloves. Teams also monitor the astronauts' consumables oxygen, water for cooling, battery power and carbon dioxide removal.This can determine the length of the spacewalk if these start to run out.Spacewalks of the futureSpacewalks are crucial to maintain the space station, but the knowledge gained during these outings can inform the way astronauts approach repairs to their own spacecraft as we push the boundaries of exploration.With NASA's Artemis program, which aims to land the first woman and next man near the lunar south pole by 2024, humans will be staying on the moon for longer than the short visits Apollo astronauts experienced. As we explore the moon and eventually Mars, astronauts will need to be able to repair and maintain their suits, spacecraft and habitats.With Fincke's upcoming mission, he hopes to add another spacewalk to his already impressive list. He said each of his own spacewalks has been memorable, but some moments tend to stand out more than others.During one of his spacewalks, the two crew members finished solving a problem outside of the station and asked teams on the ground what they should do with their remaining time outside. They were asked to take photographs outside of the station because it's impacted by micrometeorites and other things in space something the ground team wanted to track.Fincke took pictures of the space station until it grew dark as they moved into an orbital nighttime. Unable to take photos, Fincke securely clamped himself to the outside of the station and watched as they flew over the dark side of Earth. The universe was his scenery.Astronauts have such a packed schedule of tasks when they exit the space station that there are really only seconds or moments when they can stop and appreciate the view.Fincke said he'll never forget those 23 minutes for the rest of his life.

When astronauts venture outside of the International Space Station to go on spacewalks, the most important thing they have to do is focus.

This may sound simple, but imagine trying to focus on a memorized set of tasks while stepping out of an airlock and wearing a 300-pound spacesuit with the glow of planet Earth and the sun and the dark void of the universe all around you. A tether connects you to the space station, and the absence of gravity keeps you from falling.

"There's a lot of things that you really need to do, one of which is just keep your focus, even though it's amazing out there," said NASA astronaut Mike Fincke. "It's really truly breathtaking. The only thing between you and the rest of the universe, seeing the whole cosmos of creation, is the glass faceplate of your visor on your helmet, and it's just awe-inspiring."

Depending on the orientation of the space station, which completes 16 orbits of the Earth each day while moving at 17,500 miles per hour, our planet can appear above or below the astronauts.

Fincke is a veteran of spaceflight. He's spent 382 days in space, and he's gone on nine spacewalks in Russian and American spacesuits. Fincke is training in Texas for his fourth spaceflight and will launch to the space station later this year on the first crewed experimental test flight of Boeing's Starliner.

More than 550 people have been to space and about half of them have been on a spacewalk, Fincke said. Spacewalks are often referred to as EVAs, or extravehicular activities.

The first spacewalk by an American astronaut was conducted by NASA astronaut Ed White on June 3, 1965. He left the Gemini 4 capsule at 3:45 p.m. ET and remained outside of it for 23 minutes. (Soviet cosmonaut Aleksei A. Leonov completed the world's first spacewalk on March 18 of that year.)

Gemini 4 circled the Earth 66 times in four days. During the spacewalk, White began over the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii and went back inside the capsule as they flew over the Gulf of Mexico.

He exited the spacecraft using a hand-held oxygen-jet gun to push himself out, attached to a 25-foot safety tether. NASA astronaut James McDivitt, on the mission with White, took photos of White in space from inside the capsule.

White later said the spacewalk was the most comfortable part of the mission, and said the order to end it was the "saddest moment" of his life, according to NASA.

Spacewalks are part of life on the space station. The orbiting laboratory, which has served as a home away from home in low-Earth orbit for astronauts over the past 20 years, requires routine maintenance, upgrades and sometimes, emergency repairs.

NASA

These walks usually involve two astronauts working outside of the station for about six-and-a-half hours.

But countless hours of training and preparation precede any spacewalk experience to keep astronauts safe.

"A spacewalk is probably the most dangerous thing that we do," Fincke said. "I think it's more dangerous than launching and landing, even though those are really tricky things. If we become separated from the International Space Station, it's super dangerous. Now we have ways to prevent that because it is dangerous, but going outside is an extremely dangerous thing to do."

Spacewalks are also incredibly hard and physically demanding, despite the fact that gravity isn't weighing them down.

"You have to remember a lot of things, you have to memorize a lot of things, you have to think in real time, and, by the way, you're moving that 300-pound piece of equipment around your body and every movement that you make is physically demanding," he said. "And to be able to do that in a calm, cool and collected way while breathing pure oxygen that's only 1/3 or 1/4 of the atmospheric pressure of planet Earth with everybody's eyes on you and trying to make sure you do the job. That is a really tough day."

All of the hard work pays off. So far, every spacewalk has been conducted safely.

Training on the ground before spaceflight helps astronauts focus on knowing their spacesuits, tools and understanding the tasks they'll be asked to perform.

"Each spacesuit is its own little spaceship," Fincke said. "It has its own electrical power and thermal control system, oxygen and everything you need to survive for six to eight hours. We have to know our equipment just like anybody who goes on an expedition mountain climbing or underwater. It's what keeps you alive, so we need to know our equipment very well."

Understanding how to maneuver in the suit can also help astronauts prepare for what it's like to handle tools in space while wearing big, thick gloves in a pressurized suit.

Additionally, there's a choreography to planning the movements of two people working outside of the space station, at times together and other times on separate tasks.

But how can astronauts possibly prepare for a spacewalk on Earth?

They do it by plunging into the deep end of the pool otherwise known as NASA's Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory in Houston. It's similar for crew training in Russia as well at the Hydrolab.

"The reason why we train underwater is because we actually wear real spacesuits, we do real tasks and we feel like we are weightless when actually we're just neutrally buoyant so we're floating," Fincke said.

Neutral buoyancy means they aren't at the top or the bottom of the pool, so for astronauts, it feels like they're outside in space. Fincke said training in this kind of lab prepared him so well for his first spacewalk that it felt almost exactly the same. The training is that intensive and comprehensive, he said.

Naturally, some things can't be simulated, such as the light and temperature changes astronauts experience during their spacewalks. The station's orbit around Earth can expose the astronauts to blinding, hot light from the sun or plunge them into cold darkness, moving from one extreme to the other. While the spacesuits protect them from extreme temperatures, the astronauts can still feel a shift.

Spacewalk veterans can act as instructor astronauts to those in training. One thing Fincke often shares with astronauts preparing for spacewalks is understanding their spacesuits inside and out.

Exiting the space station's airlock and going outside isn't a quick process; astronauts have to breathe pure oxygen for a while beforehand to avoid decompression sickness, or "the bends."

During Fincke's first spacewalk, he breathed pure oxygen at a high rate for 30 minutes, closed his valve and went outside. But the valve didn't actually close, causing him to rapidly lose oxygen and the spacewalk was cut short.

"Had I been listening or had I understood my suit more, I could have actually heard the oxygen flow in at a slightly higher rate," Fincke said. "Sometimes it's those little things that you hear that can make make a difference."

They figured out a solution and completed the walk a few days later. This whole scenario is actually part of an episode of the children's show "Arthur." Fincke appeared as an animated version of himself in an episode called "Buster Spaces Out" as an example to kids about working together to come up with a solution.

The ideal amount of time to plan a spacewalk is six months, according to Sarah Korona, EVA flight controller at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. Of course, there are extremes, like a spacewalk she worked on planning for two years while they waited for a piece of hardware to launch, or two days if there's an emergency outside of the space station.

If you've ever watched a spacewalk, she's one of the people you'll see sitting in what's called the "front room" on the ground. That's because there are many people working behind the scenes in backrooms to monitor every aspect of the space station, astronauts and spacewalk to provide support. Flight controlling is truly a team effort, she said.

Korona and her EVA team build relationships with the astronauts and even get to know their mannerisms because they work together on the ground for years in training. When the flight controllers learn that something outside the space station needs to be fixed, removed, replaced or installed, they plan what hardware is needed, determine the tools required and begin choreographing a plan to accomplish the tasks.

The plan is run in the Neutral Buoyancy Lab and crew members provide feedback to ensure that they've created the most efficient spacewalk.

There's a flurry of activity on the ground and the space station the week leading up to a spacewalk. On the station, the astronauts prepare their suits, life support systems and tools. They have video conferences with the ground teams to go over every detail of the task plan.

The American spacesuits essentially come in parts, so the astronauts can customize them for the best fit. On spacewalk day, they get up early and their fellow crew members on the space station help them suit up. These crew members will also monitor them from inside the space station during the walk.

The ground team works in multiple shifts to ensure that every aspect leading up to and after the spacewalk is covered. A normal shift for a flight controller is about nine hours and it's very taxing, Korona said. Flight controllers follow a plan of procedures about 30-pages thick for the astronauts step by step, but there are also contingency plans in case anything goes wrong.

Video views from the helmet cameras and those outside of the space station help the flight controllers monitor what's happening.

About every 90 minutes, the astronauts check their gloves and helmet absorption pad, or HAP, to make sure there is no water inside their helmets or tears in the gloves. Teams also monitor the astronauts' consumables oxygen, water for cooling, battery power and carbon dioxide removal.

This can determine the length of the spacewalk if these start to run out.

Spacewalks are crucial to maintain the space station, but the knowledge gained during these outings can inform the way astronauts approach repairs to their own spacecraft as we push the boundaries of exploration.

With NASA's Artemis program, which aims to land the first woman and next man near the lunar south pole by 2024, humans will be staying on the moon for longer than the short visits Apollo astronauts experienced. As we explore the moon and eventually Mars, astronauts will need to be able to repair and maintain their suits, spacecraft and habitats.

With Fincke's upcoming mission, he hopes to add another spacewalk to his already impressive list. He said each of his own spacewalks has been memorable, but some moments tend to stand out more than others.

During one of his spacewalks, the two crew members finished solving a problem outside of the station and asked teams on the ground what they should do with their remaining time outside. They were asked to take photographs outside of the station because it's impacted by micrometeorites and other things in space something the ground team wanted to track.

Fincke took pictures of the space station until it grew dark as they moved into an orbital nighttime. Unable to take photos, Fincke securely clamped himself to the outside of the station and watched as they flew over the dark side of Earth. The universe was his scenery.

Astronauts have such a packed schedule of tasks when they exit the space station that there are really only seconds or moments when they can stop and appreciate the view.

Fincke said he'll never forget those 23 minutes for the rest of his life.

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Ever wonder what it's like to walk in space? Astronauts tell all - WAPT Jackson

I don't know why I'm always so excited when cool stuff flies through the sky at night and we get to see it. From the SpaceX rockets to the Starlink Satellites the night sky is getting a lot more active. Add that to the occasional sighting of the International Space Station and you can pretty much see something exciting every night. even the natural sights are still worth staying up late to see, like the Blood Moon Super Eclipse this morning. This week is an exciting one for night sky viewing as we'll get to see the ISSevery nightas it flies over Twin Falls.

How many times you can see the International Space Station will depend on where you are and how late you want to stay up. From Twin Falls we should be able to see it five times through Memorial Day weekend (at least once each night). Any sightings are contingent on weather conditions.

The ISS passes by us frequently, but if it isn't at the right angle we won't see it. Spot The Station is a website that helps you plan the best times for catching a glimpse of it. Under good conditions and if the station reaches at least a height of 40 degrees, you'll be able to see it if you know where to look.

Seeing the International Space Station is only a matter of knowing when and where to look. There are five times it will fly over us this week and through the weekend where you will get a good look at it. You may also be able to see it on other occasions at lower degrees in the sky, but these are your most likely times to see it each night:

MORE: Some of the Memes & Tweets That Have Made Us Laugh (and Maybe Think)

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You'll Be Able to See the Space Station Again This Week in Idaho - kezj.com

JAXA astronaut Akihiko Hoshide framed the May 26 supermoon above part of the ISS.

Life is a little different on the International Space Station. The residents see 16 sunrises and 16 sunsets every day, and there are no pesky clouds to get in the way of their moon views. Astronaut Akihiko Hoshide captured scenic views of the May 26 supermoon and lunar eclipse from orbit.

Hoshide is with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and is part of the SpaceX Crew-2 mission that arrived at the ISS in April.

From the lab to your inbox. Get the latest science stories from CNET every week.

Hoshide's trio of photos includes two looks at the supermoon, one of which shows part of the ISS in the foreground. There's a fuzzier shot of the eclipse in process, showing a sliver of the moon glowing against the darkness of space.

This is what the May 26 "blood moon" eclipse looked like from the ISS.

NASA shared Hoshide's shots on Wednesday morning, saying, "The crew aboard the space station observed today's supermoon and lunar eclipse!" Thanks to the moon's location in its elliptical orbit around Earth, it appeared a little brighter and a little bigger than usual.

The eclipse may be over now, but the "super flower blood moon" (so named for being a May supermoon that turned red during the eclipse) will live on in images.

Hoshide will likely be on Earth when the next total lunar eclipse comes around in May 2022. Crew-2 is scheduled to return home later this year.

FollowCNET's 2021 Space Calendarto stay up to date with all the latest space news this year. You can even add it to your own Google Calendar.

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ISS astronaut snaps supermoon and lunar eclipse from orbit - CNET

June 3 will mark the 22nd SpaceX cargo resupply mission of scientific research and technology demonstrations.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla It's that time again. The International Space Station is in need of a delivery, and SpaceX is ready to lend a hand with its 22nd cargo resupply mission.

A collection of scientific research and technology demonstrations will fly to the orbiting laboratory on SpaceX's upgraded Dragon spacecraft on June 3.

The commercial space company is targeting a 1:29 p.m. liftoff from Kennedy Space Center's historic Launch Complex 39A.

Among the dozens of experiments heading into space to support the Expedition 65 and 66 crews are tardigrades or "water bears" that NASA says can tolerate more extreme environments than most life forms.

Research involving the organisms will advance astronauts' understanding of stress factors impacting them while in space and allow researchers to develop countermeasures.

Spaceflight can be a really challenging environment for organisms, including humans, who have evolved to the conditions on Earth, said principal investigator Thomas Boothby. One of the things we are really keen to do is understand how tardigrades are surviving and reproducing in these environments and whether we can learn anything about the tricks that they are using and adapt them to safeguard astronauts.

Joining the microscopic will be the equally small symbiotic squid, which will interact with microbes to help develop protective measures to preserve astronaut health while on long-duration missions in space.

Researchers will also be looking to give cotton a boost by examining stressors that can toughen the material-producing plants.

"We are hoping to reveal features of root system formation that can be targeted by breeders and scientists to improve characteristics such as drought resistance or nutrient uptake, both key factors in the environmental impacts of modern agriculture, principal investigator Simon Gilroy said. "Improved understanding of cotton root systems and associated gene expression could enable development of more robust cotton plants and reduce water and pesticide use."

NASA noted a portable ultrasound device, Pilote, tissue chip and new solar panels to help increase the energy available for activities at the ISS will also join the cargo headed to the orbiting laboratory.

You can catch the mission live by tuning into 10 Tampa Bay where we will be streaming on Facebookand YouTube.

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Squid, cotton and 'water bears' among cargo headed to the International Space Station - WTSP.com

Lunar Eclipse 2021: The Super Blood Moon from the International Space Station

Super Blood Moon and Lunar Eclipse today: The much awaited time has arrived. The Super Blood Moon is already visible from many parts of the world. A Lunar Eclipse will also take place. In India, most of us won't be able to witness the celestial spactacle. The total Lunar Eclipse will be at its best in parts of the United States, Australia, the Pacificand New Zealand. Netizens and sky watchers are already clicking amazing videos and photos, and posting on Twitter.Compared to other Full Moons, today's Super Blood Moonor the Flower Moon will be nearest to the Earth in its orbit, making it appear as the closet and largest Full Moon of the year.Unlike a solar eclipse, you won't need special eye glasses to view the Lunar Eclipse.

The total Lunar Eclipse will occur for over several hours, when the moon will pass through Earth's shadow.

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Link:
Lunar Eclipse 2021: The Full Moon From The International Space Station - NDTV

Picture an aircraft hangar filled with vines. Rows upon rows of tiny plants, ranging from a few centimetres high with fledgling green leaves up to one metre tall, all housed in a semi-tropical atmosphere designed to turbo-charge growth.

The floors are white, the wall and roof made of clouded glass creating warm and humid conditions.

This is the hydroponic greenhouse at Mercier Group, one of four that together contain hundreds of thousands of young plants, part of the 30 million vines that are grown at this Loire vine nursery each year.

Im here to meet with Olivier Zekri, head of research and development for Mercier and the man responsible for overseeing the centres newest and most media-friendly arrivals 340 Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon plants that have made their way here via 10 months spent on the International Space Station (ISS).

The vines are part of a wider research project from French startup Space Cargo Unlimited that you might have read about or at least, the part where they were sent to the ISS alongside 12 bottles of Petrus 2000, and that one of the bottles (alongside its terrestrial sibling and an extremely fancy presentation case) is soon to be auctioned by Christies private sales department with a price estate of US$1 million.

I was lucky enough to taste another of those bottles a few months ago, and it has to be said that sending Petrus into space, and then auctioning off a bottle for US$1million to fund further space projects, is pretty smart way to get people talking about you.

The vines havent generated as many headlines, but they are the part of the project with the most long-term potential, particularly when considered within Merciers wider breeding programmes aimed at developing vines with genetic resistance to disease or climate change.

Five years ago Mercier provided vines for a Chinese project to send plants into Space, says Zekri. But we didnt follow them on their return and have not been told how they reacted. So it is great this time around to get the chance to track any changes that have been brought about by the ISS environment.

This time, the vines were sent as small pieces of bud wood, kept at 4 degrees Celsius in 80% humidity within specially-designed containers, then rehydrated and planted on their return to earth in January 2021.

For now half of them are in Zekris laboratory along with over 1,000 young plants that are part of other experiments, but will be moved into the hydroponic greenhouses this June.

The other half are at the Institute of Wine and Vine Science (ISVV) in Bordeaux, being tracked by Professor Stephanie Cluzot and post-doctoral researcher Aleksandra Burdziej.

I first saw them both at Mercier, and the ISVV back in March, and went back this week to catch up with Professor Cluzot and Aleksandra. Frankly, its hard not to get excited about their growth rate. Around 70% of them (at a conservative estimate, according to Cluzot) have survived and are doing well and the biggest are now at least two metres in height, just three months after planting.

It is still far too early to make any comments, as all of our experiments and results have to be peer-reviewed before release, says Cluzot, but we have begun the first round of exposing the vines to pathogens to see how they react.

They are being tracked through every stage of their growth cycle, alongside control plants from the same original bud wood that remained on earth, to understand if the environmental factors of micro-gravity and elevated radiation have led to gene changes.

Initial DNA analysis was carried out in March, continuing throughout the growing season, with the initial exposure to mildew underway, and exposure to phylloxera planned later. In December, the second-generation canes that will be pruned from this years growth will be studied in turn.

If the vines, as we hope, prove to have developed strong resistance through their time on the ISS, says Zekri, the next step would be to isolate the components responsible for producing these new properties, then clone and graft the vines, planting them directly in the vineyard and eventually assess the wine they produce through vinifying the grapes.

In two or three years time, assuming all goes to plan, we will then scale up the programme and begin the process of registering them either as an entirely new variety or, more likely, separate clones of Merlot and of Cabernet Sauvignon. At that point, they will be ready for sale on the open market.

Although not, lets hope, for US$1 million apiece.

See more here:
Anson: Cabernet and Merlot 'space vines' take root on earth - Decanter - decanter.com

A source of poetic musings for some and an area of geostrategic competition for others, space is also starting to become a new niche market for the shrewdest of public and private entrepreneurs. For decades, the conquest of space was essentially just one more area of strategic competition between the great powers but now, the most intrepid economic players are beginning to see it as an opportunity to make handsome profits from everything that happens above an altitude of 100 kilometres the frontier that marks the start of outer space. Rapid technological progress and human need (but also the urge to push boundaries and the pull of exhibitionism and fame) have brought us to a point where space mining and space tourism have already moved beyond the realms of science fiction and into the realms of the possible, becoming real options in the here and now.

With regard to space mining, there is the recent news that NASAs Osiris-Rex probe has begun its journey home with material collected from the surface of asteroid Bennu (with the aim of studying the early solar system). It is not the first, as the Japanese probe Hayabusa reached the vicinity of asteroid Itokawa in September 2005 but, if it does make it back to Earth (in September 2023), it will be the most important mission in this field, demonstrating the technical possibility of landing on an asteroid, despite the lack of gravity, and bringing home resources.

These resources, that is, the mineral wealth resident in the belt of asteroids between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter are estimated, according to NASA, to be worth equivalent to about US$100 billion for every person on Earth today. Then there are the thousands of asteroids located between Mars and Earth, with some 12,000 passing relatively close to our planet every year (identified as NEA Near Earth Asteroids) and, of course, the Moon.

From a strictly economic perspective, the accumulated potential is dazzling, be it on the Moon (the first target in sight) or on carbonaceous (C-type), metallic (M-type) and siliceous (S-type) asteroids. It is first and foremost about accessing water, which is vital for missions to other planets, for human consumption and as a basic input for generating energy for any bases that might be set up out there, and as fuel for interplanetary spacecrafts. But the estimates regarding the existence of rare earths and commodities such as iron, nickel, platinum, gold, iridium, palladium, magnesium, rhodium, osmium and ruthenium are astounding.

Beyond the technical difficulties to be overcome before we can envisage any profitable exploitation of these vast resources, this hypothetical future raises a multitude of legal and ethical concerns.

To begin with, all we have at our disposal is an imperfect Outer Space Treaty (1967), which establishes that no nation can claim ownership of any celestial body but does not specify whether the same applies to the resources on them. The same issue has also been left unresolved in the Artemis Accords, signed on 13 October 2020 by eight countries (Australia, Canada, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States) to regulate the exploitation of the Moon, although they do recognise property rights for those who operate on our natural satellite and establish safety zones around any future bases that may be established there.

Other issues to consider are whether, for example, the Moon is a legal person or not, and whether its future exploitation represents a new form of colonisation. In any case, no paradigm shift can take place until it is possible to produce the fuel needed on those bodies to make such long journeys with such valuable materials.

At a time when international tourism is still a long way from regaining the intensity of the pre-coronavirus pandemic era, there are those who are already planning to take advantage of the adventurous zeal of a few privileged individuals to make money. The first step was not in fact taken by a forward-looking private company, but by Russia, which, in April 2001, whilst in dire financial straits, decided to offer the third seat of its Soyuz spacecraft, bound for the International Space Station (ISS), to a US citizen, Dennis Tito, in exchange for US$20 million.

The initial US reluctance towards allowing this type of activity did not manage to prevent the door being opened to similar flights, offering the same opportunity to seven other extremely wealthy individuals (the last in 2009). And it has not taken long for private companies to climb aboard. This type of space tourism to the ISS is set to resume in 2023. In the meantime, private suborbital flights have come a long way since Mojave Aerospace Ventures took its suborbital spacecraft, SpaceShipOne, to an altitude of 103 kilometres in 2004. Since then, there has been a flurry of projects aimed at solving the technical problems of such a journey and substantially lowering the costs.

In times of forced austerity, this is also what seems to have attracted state agencies to the idea of having private entrepreneurs, such as SpaceX, Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic, with whom to share the risks and costs of their own national projects. These businesses, in the meantime, are already competing with each other to gain an advantage in the private market. Everything seems to point to the fact that this public-private confluence is here to stay when it comes, for example, to taking astronauts or material to the ISS, the Moon or beyond. In May last year, NASA astronauts reached the ISS aboard the Crew Dragon spacecraft of SpaceX, the same company that is soon to take them to the Moon with its Starship spacecraft. These same spacecrafts will soon take private individuals to the ISS and the Moon.

This cooperation between states and private companies is being replicated to respond to the growing needs arising from the boundless technological advances in the fields of telecommunications, artificial intelligence and 6G, with increasingly sophisticated satellite services.

To get an idea of the commercial potential of providing high-speed, low-latency and low-cost internet in rural areas and developing countries, look at the task being undertaken by Elon Musk, for example, through his company Starlink (a subsidiary of SpaceX). By the end of this year, the company expects to have achieved complete coverage, having conducted a total of 28 satellite launches since 2018 (with an average of 60 satellites per launch), and hopes to have a constellation of around 42,000 satellites by the end of 2027, in orbit at an altitude of 550 kilometres. Other projects such as Britains OneWeb, Amazons Project Kuiper or Chinas Starnet are already looming in the background.

Despite the many obstacles to be overcome and doubts to be cleared up, none of them seem to be enough to dampen the eagerness of those who are already looking towards the stars with greedy eyes, with US entrepreneurs making the biggest strides in this direction. And although more questions than answers remain as to how to realise so many business dreams, the number of announcements about ever more bizarre projects continues to multiply, such as the Gateway Foundations project to build a hotel in Earths orbit, or the Orbital Assembly Corporations Voyager Station project, consisting of 24 modules assembled to form a kind of rotating wheel in which to accommodate those who overcome their fear of the risks inherent to this type of adventure and have sufficient financial resources to indulge themselves. Roll up, roll up, ladies and gentlemen!

The rest is here:
Asteroid mining, space tourism and the new space race - Equal Times