Category Archives: Space Station

Artist's rendering of Cygnus spacecraft approaching the International Space Station. CREDIT: Orbital Sciences Corporation

Orbital Sciences Corp. is one of two private companies that currently hold a contract with NASA to fly unmanned cargo missions to the International Space Station.

The Dulles, Va.-based company's $1.9 billion deal with the space agency requires Orbital to fly eight unmanned cargo missions to the International Space Station using its Antares rocket and Cygnus capsule.

Orbital specialized in launching small satellites for much of the company's history. Recently, the firm has become involved in the manufacturing of missile defense systems. In total, the company has built more than 560 launch vehicles and more than 170 satellites.

Orbital's formal relationship with NASA began in 1983 when the firm signed an agreement to build a Transfer Orbit Stage vehicle that was eventually used during a launch of the space shuttle Discovery. [See Photos of Orbital Sciences' Cygnus and Antares]

By 1991, officials from Orbital signed an $80 million deal allowing NASA to use the company's Pegasus rocket to deliver small payloads into orbit. Pegasus a winged three-stage rocket designed to fly to low-Earth orbit was the first privately developed space launch vehicle.

In the past, the aerospace firm has also signed deals with the U.S. Air Force, Japan's Broadcasting Satellite System Corporation and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Cygnus space capsule

Orbital's unmanned Cygnus spacecraft is designed to deliver pressurized crew supplies, scientific experiments and other unpressurized cargo to the space station.

The capsule is currently being built and is scheduled for its first test flight atop the company's Antares rocket in November 2013.

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Orbital Sciences Corporation: Satellites, Rockets and the Space Station

WASHINGTON -- Two members of the Expedition 35 crew will venture outside the International Space Station April 19 for a six-hour spacewalk to deploy and retrieve several science experiments and install a new navigational aid.

NASA Television will broadcast the spacewalk live beginning at 9:30 a.m. EDT. Russian flight engineers Pavel Vinogradov and Roman Romanenko will open the hatch to the Pirs airlock and docking compartment to start the spacewalk at 10:06 a.m.

The spacewalkers' first task will be to install the Obstanovka experiment on the station's Zvezda service module. Obstanovka will study plasma waves and the effect of space weather on Earth's ionosphere.

They will retrieve the Biorisk experiment, which studied the effect of microbes on spacecraft structures. If time permits, they also will retrieve one section of the Vinoslivost experiment, which exposed materials samples to space.

While at the far end of Zvezda, Vinogradov and Romanenko will replace a faulty retro-reflector device, one of a suite of navigational aids that will provide assistance to the European Space Agency's Albert Einstein Automated Transfer Vehicle 4 cargo ship during its final approach for an automated docking to the space station in June.

This spacewalk will be the 167th in support of space station assembly and maintenance, the seventh for Vinogradov and the first for Romanenko. Both spacewalkers will wear spacesuits marked by blue stripes. Romanenko's suit will be equipped with a helmet camera to provide close up views of the spacewalk activity as it progresses.

This is the first of as many as six Russian spacewalks planned for this year. Two U.S. spacewalks are scheduled in July.

For NASA TV schedule and video streaming information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For information on the International Space Station, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/station

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NASA TV Provides Coverage of Space Station Spacewalk

ESA

An artist's conception shows the International Space Station in the midst of an experiment in quantum entanglement.

By Clara Moskowitz LiveScience

"Spooky" quantum entanglement connects two particles so that actions performed on one reflect on the other. Now, scientists propose testing entanglement over the greatest distance yet via an experiment on the International Space Station.

Until now, entanglement has been established on relatively small scales in labs on Earth. But now physicists propose sending half of an entangled particle pair to the space station, which orbits about 250 miles (400 kilometers) above the planet.

"According to quantum physics, entanglement is independent of distance," physicist Rupert Ursin of the Austrian Academy of Sciences said in a statement. "Our proposed Bell-type experiment will show that particles are entangled, over large distances around 500 kilometers for the very first time in an experiment."

Ursin and his colleagues detail the proposed experiment on Monday in the New Journal of Physics, published by the Institute of Physics and the German Physical Society. [Wacky Physics: The Coolest Little Particles in Nature]

Tests of quantum entanglement are called Bell tests after the late Northern Irish physicist John Bell, who proposed real-world checks of quantum theories in the 1960s. Entanglement is one of the weirdest quantum predictions, positing that entangled particles, once separated, can somehow "communicate" with each other instantly. The notion unsettled Albert Einstein so much he famously called it "spooky action at a distance."

To better understand entanglement and test its limits, the researchers suggest flying a small device called a photon detection module to the International Space Station, where it could be attached to an existing motorized Nikon 400mm camera lens, which observes the ground from the space station's panoramic Cupola window.

Once the module is installed, the scientists would entangle a pair of light particles, called photons, on the ground. One of these would then be sent from a ground station to the device on the orbiting lab, which would measure the particle and its properties, while the other would stay on Earth. If the particles keep their entangled state, a change to one would usher in an instant change to the other. Such a long-range test would allow the physicists to probe new questions about entanglement.

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Space station could test 'spooky' entanglement over record distance

"Spooky" quantum entanglement connects two particles so that actions performed on one reflect on the other. Now, scientists propose testing entanglement over the greatest distance yet via an experiment on the International Space Station.

Until now, entanglement has been established on relatively small scales in labs on Earth. But now physicists propose sending half of an entangled particle pair to the space station, which orbits about 250 miles (400 kilometers) above the planet.

"According to quantum physics, entanglement is independent of distance," physicist Rupert Ursin of the Austrian Academy of Sciences said in a statement. "Our proposed Bell-type experiment will show that particles are entangled, over large distances around 500 km for the very first time in an experiment."

Ursin and his colleagues detail the proposed experiment today (April 9) in the Institute of Physics and German Physical Society's New Journal of Physics. [Wacky Physics: The Coolest Little Particles in Nature]

Tests of quantum entanglement are called Bell tests after the late Northern Irish physicist John Bell, who proposed real-world checks of quantum theories in the 1960s. Entanglement is one of the weirdest quantum predictions, positing that entangled particles, once separated, can somehow "communicate" with each other instantly. The notion unsettled Albert Einstein so much he famously called it "spooky action at a distance."

To better understand entanglement and test its limits, the researchers suggest flying a small device called a photon detection module to the International Space Station, where it could be attached to an existing motorized Nikon 400 mm camera lens, which observes the ground from the space station's panoramic Cupola window.

Once the module is installed, the scientists would entangle a pair of light particles, called photons, on the ground. One of these would then be sent from a ground station to the device on the orbiting lab, which would measure the particle and its properties, while the other would stay on Earth. If the particles keep their entangled state, a change to one would usher in an instant change to the other. Such a long-range test would allow the physicists to probe new questions about entanglement.

"Our experiments will also enable us to test potential effects gravity may have on quantum entanglement," Ursin said.

Plus, the project should be relatively quick to perform during just a few passes of the space station over the ground lab, with each experiment lasting just 70 seconds per pass, the researchers said.

"During a few months a year, the ISS passes five to six times in a row in the correct orientation for us to do our experiments," Ursin said."We envision setting up the experiment for a whole week and therefore having more than enough links to the ISS available."

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Space Station May Test 'Spooky' Entanglement Over Largest Distance Yet

Space Station News Live: April 2, 2013
Space Station Live: April 2, 2013.

By: okrajoe

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Space Station News Live: April 2, 2013 - Video

If nature is kind, the first detection of dark matter might be credited to the International Space Station soon.

Today (April 3), researchers announced the first science results from the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS), a $2 billion cosmic-ray particle detector mounted on the exterior of the football-field-size International Space Station. The instrument has observed a striking pattern of antimatter particles called positrons that may turn out to be a product of collisions between dark matter particles.

Though the findings are still uncertain, and the signal could also arise from a more mundane source, the data are, nonetheless, groundbreaking, experts said.

"I think it is fair to say that this is the most important physics result thus far to come from the International Space Station,"theoretical physicist Robert Garisto, who was not involved in the AMS project, wrote today on Twitter. [Photos: See the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer in Space]

Garisto is editor of the physics journal Physical Review Letters, which published the AMS results in a paper released today.

No matter what the AMS measurements ultimately herald be it dark matter or something else the findings would not have been possible without the platform of the International Space Station, a $100 billion orbiting laboratory staffed full-time by teams of three to six astronauts. AMS collects cosmic-ray particles, which are abundant in space, though largely blocked on Earth by our planet's atmosphere.

In its first 18 months of operations, AMS detected about 30 billion cosmic rays, including 400,000 positrons a haul that allowed significantly more precise statistics than experiments conducted on Earth.

"It's a very major step forward by at least an order of magnitude in sensitivity," Brown University physicist Richard Gaitskell told SPACE.com. Gaitskell is a founding investigator on the Large Underground Xenon experiment, which aims to detect dark-matter particles directly underground in South Dakota.

Dark matter is an invisible substance thought to make up more than 80 percent of the matter in the universe. The elusive stuff is difficult to detect because it very rarely interacts with normal matter, except through its gravitational pull.

One of the leading explanations for dark matter is that it is made up of particles called WIMPs (weakly interacting massive particles), which may produce a detectable signature when they collide and annihilate each other. This happens because WIMPs are thought to be their own antimatter partner particles. When matter and antimatter meet, they destroy each other, so if two WIMPs were to make contact, they would obliterate one another.

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Potential Dark Matter Discovery a Win for Space Station Science

A Hubble Space Telescope image indicating a huge ring of dark matter around the center of the CL0024+17 cluster of galaxies.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

(CNN) -- Nearly two years after it was sent up to the International Space Station, a giant particle physics detector has provided its first results in the search for the mysterious "dark matter" believed to be a major component of the universe.

The international team running the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer released its initial findings Wednesday at the European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN, in Switzerland.

The scientists are studying flux in cosmic rays, the charged high-energy particles that permeate space, for evidence of the invisible dark matter particles colliding with each other, leading to what is termed "annihilation."

A result of this would be a higher presence of the charged particles known as positrons, the antimatter counterpart of electrons.

According to a CERN statement, the results announced Wednesday "are consistent with the positrons originating from the annihilation of dark matter particles in space, but not yet sufficiently conclusive to rule out other explanations."

How particle smasher and telescopes relate

Over the last few decades, scientists have come to the conclusion that the universe's composition is only about 5% atoms -- in other words, the stuff that we see and know around us. That means the rest is stuff we can't see. About 71% is something called "dark energy," and another 24% is "dark matter."

Research is ongoing to figure out precisely what these "dark" components are, because they do not interact with ordinary matter and have never been directly detected.

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Space station detector gives first clues to 'dark matter'

NASA's first manned outpost in deep space may be a repurposed rocket part, just like the agency's first-ever astronaut abode in Earth orbit.

With a little tinkering, the upper-stage hydrogen propellant tank of NASA's huge Space Launch System rocket would make a nice and relatively cheap deep-space habitat, some researchers say. They call the proposed craft "Skylab II," an homage to the 1970s Skylab space station that was a modified third stage of a Saturn V moon rocket.

"This idea is not challenging technology," said Brand Griffin, an engineer with Gray Research, Inc., who works with the Advanced Concepts Office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala.

"It's just trying to say, 'Is this the time to be able to look at existing assets, planned assets and incorporate those into what we have as a destination of getting humans beyond LEO [low-Earth orbit]?'" Griffin said Wednesday (March 27) during a presentation with NASA's Future In-Space Operations working group. [Gallery: Visions of Deep-Space Stations]

A roomy home in deep space

NASA is developing the Space Launch System (SLS) to launch astronauts toward distant destinations such as near-Earth asteroids and Mars. The rocket's first test flight is slated for 2017, and NASA wants it to start lofting crews by 2021.

The SLS will stand 384 feet tall (117 meters) in its biggest ("evolved") incarnation, which will be capable of blasting 130 metric tons of payload to orbit. Its upper-stage hydrogen tank is big, too, measuring 36.1 feet tall by 27.6 feet wide (11.15 m by 8.5 m).

The tank's dimensions yield an internal volume of 17,481 cubic feet (495 cubic m) roughly equivalent to a two-story house. That's much roomier than a potential deep-space habitat derived from modules of the International Space Station (ISS), which are just 14.8 feet (4.5 m) wide, Griffin said.

The tank-based Skylab II could accommodate a crew of four comfortably and carry enough gear and food to last for several years at a time without requiring a resupply, he added. Further, it would launch aboard the SLS in a single piece, whereas ISS-derived habitatswould need to link up multiple components in space.

Because of this, SkylabII would require relatively few launches to establish and maintain, Griffin said. That and the use of existing SLS-manufacturing infrastructure would translate into big cost savings a key selling point in today's tough fiscal climate.

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NASA Mega-Rocket Could Lead to Skylab 2 Deep Space Station

Astronauts work to install the alpha magnetic spectrometer on the International Space Station on May 26, 2011.

Astronauts work to install the alpha magnetic spectrometer on the International Space Station on May 26, 2011.

An international team of researchers announced in Switzerland on Wednesday that an experiment on the International Space Station may have seen hints of something called dark matter. The finding could be a milestone in the decades-long search for the universe's missing material.

Only a tiny sliver of stuff in the universe is visible to scientists; the rest is dark matter. Researchers don't know what it is, but they know it's there. Its gravity pulls on the things we can see.

"We live in a sea of dark matter. Our galaxy is embedded in a huge roughly spherical halo of dark matter particles," says Michael Salamon, who is with the U.S. Department of Energy.

Salamon, who was part of the team behind Wednesday's announcement, says that dark matter is beyond anything predicted by current scientific theories.

"What that means is, if we detect dark matter and learn something about its nature, we will have made a major impact to our understanding of physics and nature itself," he says.

That's a big part of why scientists from 16 countries spent $2 billion building a detector designed to pick up any hint of this mystery material. Their Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer was carried into space two years ago and bolted onto the side of the International Space Station.

Researchers announced Wednesday the AMS has detected a large number of high-energy particles, which could be coming from collisions of dark matter. Theories suggest that when dark matter particles smash together, they annihilate one another. The enormous energy released creates visible particles, and it's these particles that might be showing up in the detector.

Sam Ting, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist who is responsible for the AMS, says this is only the beginning. As the AMS collects more particles, it should be able to tell whether they are coming from dark matter collisions.

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Sensor On Space Station May Have Seen Hints Of Elusive Dark Matter

The European Organization for Nuclear Research said it has data that could signal the presence of dark matter, an elusive unseen target that physicists believe makes up as much as a quarter of the universe.

Dark matter is mass that scientists cant detect directly, but whose existence is inferred through its gravitational pull on visible matter, such as planets. Using a collector mounted on the International Space Station for more than a year, scientists at the CERN research institute gathered data on particles, called positrons, they believe may be expelled when dark matter collides in a burst of energy and is destroyed.

The collector gathered data on 400,000 positrons, the antimatter form of electrons, creating the largest collection of such particles recorded in space, according to a statement today. The data are consistent with theories on dark matter and the experiment will confirm in coming months whether the positrons are a signal for dark matter, Geneva-based CERN said.

Dark matter is one of the most important mysteries of physics today, CERN said, adding it will take several years to refine its studies.

The search for dark matter is moving ahead on two fronts. Last month, scientists at CERN announced they have more certainty a particle they observed last year is a Higgs Boson, a missing link in physics that would help them explain the makeup of universal phenomena, such as dark matter, that telescopes cant detect.

In that case, the data was gained using the $10.5 billion Large Hadron Collider, a 27-kilometer (17-mile) circumference particle accelerator buried on the border of France and Switzerland. CERN has had 10,000 scientists working on the research, in which billions of subatomic particles are hurled at each other at velocities approaching the speed of light.

To contact the reporter on this story: Thomas Mulier in Geneva at tmulier@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: David Risser at drisser@bloomberg.net; Reg Gale at rgale5@bloomberg.net

A file photo shows Astronaut Robert L. Curbeam, Jr. preparing to replace a faulty TV camera on the exterior of the International Space Station during December 2006.

A file photo shows Astronaut Robert L. Curbeam, Jr. preparing to replace a faulty TV camera on the exterior of the International Space Station during December 2006. Source: NASA via Bloomberg

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Space Station Collects Clues on Universe’s Dark Matter