Category Archives: Space Station

Boeing Co.s engineering failures didnt begin or end with the 737 MAX. Its once-dominant space program, which helped put Americans on the moon five decades ago, has also struggled.

The companys biggest space initiatives have been dogged by faulty designs, software errors and chronic cost overruns. It has lost out on recent contracts with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to return science experiments and astronauts to the moon, amid low rankings on price and technical merit. Boeing needs revenues from its defense and space arm, which makes everything from military jets to satellites, as a safety net as it navigates through the MAX crisis and slowed demand for new commercial jets in the pandemic.

Its space ambitions will soon face a major test with another attempt to launch a capsule called the Starliner. In the first launch, just over a year ago without astronauts on board, a software error sent the Starliner into the wrong orbit, and then another threatened a catastrophic end to the mission. A successful launch, which could come as soon as March, would help restore the companys reputation for reliability and engineering prowess.

The problems pose a serious challenge for Chief Executive David Calhoun one year into his tenure as he charts a new course in the face of uncertainties wrought by the pandemic.

After making record profit of $10.5 billion in 2018, Boeing has since lost nearly half that amount as of Sept. 30, largely due to a sharp drop in commercial aircraft deliveries and MAX-related charges. Defense and space revenue of $19.5 billion in the first nine months of last year eclipsed its commercial units $11.4 billion in sales. Jefferies analysts estimate Boeing brought in more than $6 billion in space revenue for all of last year.

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Boeings Other Big Problem: Fixing Its Space Program - The Wall Street Journal

HELSINKI Chinese private rocket firm iSpace is planning an IPO while also making progress on technology for a reusable launch vehicle.

Beijing-based iSpace is planning to file an initial public offering on the Science and Technology Innovation Board (STAR Market), a market established in 2019 to support tech companies.

STAR Market announced the move Jan.12 (Chinese) naming CITIC Securities and Tianfeng Securities as advisory firms.

The STIB was created to focus on companies in high-tech and strategic emerging sectors and support Chinese science and technology innovation, according to Xinhua.

Beijing Interstellar Glory Space Technology Ltd., also known as iSpace, became the first nominally private Chinese company to launch a satellite into orbit in July 2019.

The companys Hyperbola-1 four-stage 20.8-meter-tall solid rocket sent two satellites into low Earth orbit after liftoff from Jiuquan, a national launch center.

Last year the company raised $173 million in series B round funding to back development of a new series of launch vehicles and reusable methalox engines.

iSpace is currently developing a 28-meter-tall, 3.35-meter-diameter liquid oxygen-methane launcher named Hyperbola-2.

Hyperbola-2 will be capable of delivering over 1,100 kilograms of payload into a 500-kilometer Sun-synchronous orbit, or 800 kilograms when the first stage is to be recovered and reused. The launchers 15-ton thrust JD-1 engine completed a 200-second hot fire test last May.

Chinese NewSpace rivals Landspace ( $175 million) and Galactic Energy ($29.9 million) also secured funding in 2020 as launch companies continue to attract interest and investment.

A 2014 central government policy shift opened the Chinese launch and small satellite sectors to private capital. Since then around 20 launch vehicle-related firms have been established in China.

These commercial launch companies are being supported by a national strategy of civil-military fusion. This includes facilitating the transfer of restricted technologies to approved firms in order to promote innovation in dual-use technology. The State Administration for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (SASTIND) oversees activities.

Provincial and local governments are also providing support for space companies as they look to attract high-end and emerging technology firms.

Last week iSpace also announced progress in developing the reusable first stage of its Hyperbola-2 liquid methane-liquid oxygen propellant launch vehicle.

The firm carried out tests of struts for landing legs of the first stage, including structural, dynamic and vibration tests, as well as performance in high and low temperatures.

The components are designed to help absorb the impact of landing following powered descent. iSpace tested telescopic deployment arms for the landing legs in November (Chinese).

iSpace is planning to conduct hop tests, similar to those of the SpaceX Grasshopper tech demonstrator, in 2021, starting at the level of meters, followed by one-kilometer and 100-kilometer-altitude vertical launch and landing tests.

Landspace, Galactic Energy and Deep Blue Aerospace are also developing reusable liquid-propellant launchers. Landspaces methalox Zhuque-2 is expected to make a first, expendable launch this year, before being converted for reusability.

Galactic Energy and Deep Blue Aerospace, established after early starters Landspace and iSpace, are developing their respective Pallas-1 and Nebula-2 kerosene-liquid oxygen launch vehicles.

The companies are expected to compete for domestic commercial launch contracts, as well as potential international customers. They also face competition from China Rocket Co. Ltd, Expace and CAS Space, all spinoffs from giant state-owned entities. A recent call for space station cargo proposals from Chinas human spaceflight agency however suggests that involvement in civil space projects is a possibility in the future.

Chinas state-owned main space contractor, CASC, is also looking into reusability. It is expected to convert the Long March 8, which had an expendable test launch in December, for vertical takeoff, vertical landing by 2025.

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China's iSpace advances with IPO plans, reusable launcher landing leg tests - SpaceNews

AN OVERTON woman has told of her 'X-Files' experience after spotting a mysterious object in the sky in December.

Wendy Lunt was engaged in a spot of stargazing on the evening of December 28, taking pictures of the night sky and sending to family when she spotted something unusual in one of the images.

One of the images Wendy says contained what looks like a 'man-made' object, but it had disappeared before she had a chance to take a second picture.

While not going quite as far to suggest the object was something from another world, she has posed the question of what the mystery was.

"I took the picture on my iPad, I was just messing around and I'd been asked by my grandkids to take some photos of the sky," said Wendy.

"I wasn't even looking for everything, just took my camera out.

"Everyone's got a few suggestions. It's not a star and as you can see it's too bright to be a star.

"We 'ummed and ahhed' whether it was the [International] Space Station (ISS) but that goes too fast. I didn't see it again so whether it moved I don't know.

"I think when we see [the ISS] it's smaller than that and they say its goes quite quick.

"It's a really definite shape, it looks man made, not a star or a meteorite. It is a very long way away.

"We live in Cloy Lane near Overton, so we get clear skies, no light pollution. There wasn't much else out, there's a lot of background stars.

"I've asked people what they think it is so I'm putting the question out there, what do people think it is?

"I'm not sure it's just the shape of it.

"Is it a piece of space rubbish I'm just putting the question out to find out.

"It would be nice for people to wonder what it is."

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A space station? Space junk? Or something more 'extraterrestrial'. Unidentified flying object leaves Overton woman asking questions - Whitchurch...

A wine that took a ride on the space station on board on the Northrop Grumman supply ship in November 2019. The 320 merlot and vine snippets were launched by space X in the march through canes in the grape growing business.

French wine to return from space after the long awaited 12 months. This has excited most experts in tasting some 12 bottles to be washed down in the Gulf of Mexico through a space dragon capsule. This came after 12 wine bottles were sent into space to orbit the world in the name of science. Not just limited to wines but vines and other pounds of gear research, including mice to land in the Gulf of Mexico off the coast of Tampa via space dragon capsule. The bottles of French wine were properly secured and corked into a steel cylinder to prevent breaking on the aboard orbiting lab.

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The great of the wine testing will only be done until the end of February. A bottle or two will be opened for tasting by top Frances connoisseurs, the space cargo unlimited, the organization behind the experiment will later conduct some chemical testing. With scientists waiting anxiously to taste and see how space altered all the sedimentation and bubbles. Company CEO and co-founder Nicolas Gaume said it being just an agricultural science who admits it being fun when it comes to sample the wine.

Gaume also stated of it being a solution towards the feeding of humanity through agriculture not limited to earth but space having the key for a better tomorrow. Due to rapid climate changes on the continent, grapes have and will need to adapt to tough conditions as times goes by. With expectations of future exploring of the moon and mars, to enjoy earths pleasures. Being French is about having the best food and good wines, Nicolas said in a press statement.

Mr. Nicolas did disclose that some private investors helped in funding the project but refuses to state the initial project cost.

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Source: The Guardian

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Bordeaux-ver the moon: French wine to return from the space station - News Landed

WASHINGTON The first in SpaceXs new generation of Dragon cargo spacecraft completed its mission with a splashdown off the Florida coast Jan. 13.

The CRS-21 Dragon spacecraft splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico west of Tampa at 8:26 p.m. Eastern. It had undocked from the station a day and a half earlier after original plans for an undocking and splashdown Jan. 11 were postponed by poor weather.

The Dragon brought back to Earth about 2,000 kilograms of research payloads and other cargo from the station. The spacecraft, launched Dec. 6, brought nearly 3,000 kilograms of cargo to the station, including the Bishop commercial airlock developed by Nanoracks.

The CRS-21 mission was the first to use the new version of the Dragon cargo spacecraft, based on the vehicle SpaceX developed for the commercial crew program. It includes additional cargo volume and on-orbit lifetime, and can dock and undock autonomously, rather than be berthed by the stations robotic arm.

The new cargo Dragons also splash down off the Florida coast. Original cargo Dragon missions splashed down in the Pacific, southwest of California, and could take a day or more to return to port. On the CRS-21 mission, time-sensitive cargo from the Dragon was transported by helicopter to a lab at the Kennedy Space Center within six hours.

The Dragon is the second cargo spacecraft to depart the station in as many weeks. Northrop Grummans NG-14 Cygnus spacecraft left the station Jan. 6, three months after its arrival. That spacecraft remains in orbit performing experiments, including one testing combustion in weightlessness, and will reenter Jan. 26.

Weve really hit our stride. This is our new normal, Robyn Gatens, acting ISS director at NASA Headquarters, said at a Jan. 13 meeting of the NASA Advisory Councils human exploration and operations committee. Lots of vehicles coming and going, lots of activity on the station.

The seven-person crew currently on the station, including four NASA astronauts, is enabling what she called significant more crew time for what can be dedicated to utilization, or research activities there. She noted that had long been the goal of the commercial crew program, which enables the station to support seven people rather than the six it could traditionally accommodate when the only means to travel there was via Russias three-person Soyuz spacecraft.

NASA has not yet set an end date for the Crew-1 commercial crew mission currently docked there. Gatens said its likely to end some time in May, about six months after its launch. It will overlap with the next Crew Dragon mission, Crew-2, whose launch is no earlier than March 30.

That date may slip, though, to accommodate the second uncrewed test flight of Boeings CST-100 Starliner spacecraft. Thats scheduled to launch March 29, although Phil McAlister, director of commercial spaceflight at NASA Headquarters, said at the same committee meeting that the Starliner launch could move up a few days to March 25.

The CRS-21 Dragon brought back to Earth a variety of scientific experiments, ranging from heart tissue cells tested on the station to fiber optic cables produced in microgravity. It also brought back a very different commercial payload: 12 bottles of red wine flown to the station in late 2019 by European company Space Cargo Unlimited. The wine, along with 320 snippets of grape vines also flown on the station, will be shipped to a facility in Bordeaux, France, to see how they were affected by their time in space. That will include what the company called a private, organoleptic wine tasting to compare the wine flown in space to wine that remained on Earth.

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Next-generation Dragon cargo spacecraft returns from space station - SpaceNews

Poor weather on Earth forced a SpaceX supply ship to wave off the opportunity to make the first successful autonomous undocking from the International Space Station on Monday (Jan. 11).

The upgraded Dragon cargo ship, hauling 5,200 lbs. (2,500 kilograms) of scientific experiments and other supplies, was supposed to depart the orbiting complex at 10 a.m. EST (1500 GMT).

NASA and SpaceX decided to abandon the attempt at 9:53 a.m. EST (1453 GMT) due to poor weather at the craft's splashdown site in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Daytona, Fla. The two entities will decide later when to make the next undocking attempt, officials said on NASA TV, which broadcast the undocking attempt live.

SpaceX's upgraded Cargo Dragon capsule can carry 20% more cargo (and experiments) compared to its predecessor and can splash down in the Atlantic Ocean rather than the Pacific, making for a faster turnaround time on science since experiments can arrive at the nearby NASA Kennedy Space Center in as little as four hours. The new Dragon can also remain on station twice as long as previous cargo Dragon types, allowing for longer science investigations.

Video: See SpaceX's 1st automated uncrewed docking at space stationRelated: SpaceX launches upgraded Cargo Dragon to space station for NASA

This Cargo Dragon launched on Dec. 6 and made SpaceX's first autonomous supply ship docking at the International Space Station about 24 hours later. This mission, called CRS-21, marked the first time a Cargo Dragon did not use the Canadarm2 robotic arm to berth to the space station.

This mission also marks the first time two Dragon spacecraft were docked at the space station simultaneously, NASA said on NASA TV, since a Crew Dragon is currently parked at the orbiting complex after ferrying four astronauts to the station in November.

In a statement, NASA officials said the CRS-21 Dragon will bring "significantly more science back to Earth than possible in previous Dragon capsules" due to upgrades in the cargo spacecraft. Dragon's return near NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida will also be the first time such an event has happened since the agency's space shuttle fleet retired in 2011, allowing the science to be processed there.

A selection of the returning experiments includes:

NASA added that the ground teams will need to work quickly to bring the precious science back to Earth as the effects of gravity take hold on the experiments.

"After a SpaceX boat scoops the capsule out of the water, a waiting team pulls time-critical science out of the spacecraft and loads it onto a waiting helicopter," NASA said in the same statement. "The helicopter will deliver this science to shore a few hours after splashdown. Any remaining scientific cargo will come back either in a second helicopter load or stay aboard the boat and be removed at the port."

Follow Elizabeth Howell on Twitter @howellspace. Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.

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Bad weather on Earth delays SpaceX Dragon's return from space station - Space.com

Ultimate Showdown

Who would win in a fight: the International Space Station (ISS) or a single Cheeto Puff orbiting the Earth?

Its an argument that raged online this morning after a Reddit users seven-year-old daughter asked whether one Cheeto could destroy the ISS in a head-on collision. Thankfully, the overwhelming consensus even among several self-identified aerospace engineers and one scientist who helped design the ISS is that the Cheeto doesnt stand a chance and that the ISS crewmembers would be safe.

But there is room for debate, it seems, over how much destruction the cheesy projectile would cause along the way.

The question seems silly, butanything hurtling toward the space station at 9.3 miles per second poses a risk even a greasy cheese snack. Space collisions are a real risk, and the ISS recently had to dodge out of the way of incoming space junk that ultimately passed within 1.4 kilometers of the station.

Neither NASA nor PepsiCo, the maker of Cheetos, responded to Futurisms inquiry by press time. But the Cheeto would likely be less dangerous than orbital debris, in part because when Frito creator Charles Doolin invented the Cheeto in 1948, he probably didnt have hypervelocity impacts or space travel in mind.

Upon impact, according to the consensus view on Reddit, the brittle Cheeto would likely break down into a cloud of plasma and disperse. That makes a collision far less dangerous than one with a solid, compact object.

Certainly, I would expect the spongy/porous/very low-density material of the Cheeto puff to have far less of an effect than a denser material of the same mass, Letter_13, a self-identified aerospace engineer who weighed in on the debate told Futurism.

Letter_13 declined to share their real identity and professional affiliation due to security concerns at their job.

Things get tricky when you bump things together so hard that they turn into rapidly expanding clouds of superheated gases, Letter_13 told Futurism.

Being in space would only make the Cheeto more fragile, Letter_13 told Futurism.

[The Cheeto] would absolutely become more brittle in space many of the oils contained in the Cheeto puff would begin to boil off and evaporate in a vacuum, drying the unfortunate snack out even further and making it more brittle, they explained. This would be accelerated dramatically if the Cheeto were orbiting the earth in direct sunlight (which could potentially cook/bake the thing into just a hunk of carbon).

Depending on where it hit, it may leave a dent, though more than likely it would just leave a bit of an orange stain (if that), Letter_13 wrote in the original thread.

Really, it comes down to where the Cheeto hits the ISS, according to a Redditor who goes by danielravennest and claims to be part of the team that designed the ISS.

Danielravennest didnt respond to Futurisms request for comment but did argue in the thread that the Cheeto probably wouldnt even dent an ISS module. However, it would be able to take out a solar cell or two if it crashed into a panel.

At the typical impact velocities in orbit, objects are moving faster than the speed of sound and carry more kinetic energy than it takes to turn them into plasma, danielravennest wrote. Critical areas of the ISS are protected by Meteor/Debris Shields (Whipple Shields). These are sheet metal spaced away from the module hull, air tanks, etc. So on impact, the object and the part of the shield they hit are both turned to plasma, and sprays out in a cone. So the module hull isnt damaged unless it were a large object.

The solar arrays are the largest part of the Station by area, but they are a thin plastic backing with thin solar cells attached, danielravennest added. They have been hit several times. All that happens is you punch a hole and lose one or two cells.

More on space collisions: Experts Predict Sizeable Chance of Epic Space Junk Collision Tonight

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Debate Rages Over Whether Single Speeding Cheeto Could Destroy Space Station - Futurism

Components for the Long March 5B rocket that will launch the core module of Chinas space station. Credit: CASC

The core section of Chinas space station is scheduled to launch in the next several months, the first of 11 missions carrying lab elements, cargo, and astronauts to the fledgling outpost over the next two years, according to Chinese space program officials.

The launch of the first element of the Chinese station is one of more than 40 missions scheduled this year by China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp., or CASC, Chinas largest state-owned aerospace contractor.

CASCs subsidiaries build Chinas Long March rockets, manufacture satellites, and oversee construction of the Chinese space station.

The China National Space Administration, the countrys space agency, said last month that the third phase of the Chinese human spaceflight program will begin in earnest in 2021, building on earlier missions testing out the human-rated Shenzhou space transport vehicle, spacewalk procedures, and docking systems needed for building the full-scale space station.

The heavy-lift Long March 5B rocket assigned to launch the space stations Tianhe core module has completed testing at its factory in Tianjin, China, and will soon be delivered by transport ship to the Wenchang launch base on Hainan Island.

At Wenchang, the Long March 5B rocket will be stacked on its mobile launch platform and mated with the Tianhe module, which measuresmore than 54.4 feet (16.6 meters) long, has a maximum diameter of around 13.8 feet (4.2 meters), and has a launch weight of roughly 49,600 pounds (22.5 metric tons).

Manufacturing and testing of the Tianhe module has also been completed in preparation for its launch this year.

Previous Long March 5 launch campaigns required about two months from the time of the rockets arrival at the Wenchang spaceport until liftoff. If Chinese teams follow that precedent, the Long March 5B launch with the Tianhe module could occur as soon as this spring.

The Long March 5B rocket is a variant of Chinas Long March 5 rocket family tailored to haul heavy payloads into low Earth orbit.

Flying without a second stage, the Long March 5B will carry its payloads into space using just its core stage and four strap-on liquid-fueled boosters. Large payloads will occupy the second stages volume on the Long March 5B, which can deliver up to 55,000 pounds (25 metric tons) of payload to low Earth orbit.

The Long March 5B configuration completed its first demonstration flight in May 2020, following delays stemming from a Long March 5 launch failure in 2017 that also pushed back the schedule for launching the first element of the Chinese space station.

The 11 missions to kick off assembly of Chinas space station include the three launch of three pressurized modules on Long March 5B rockets, resupply flights using Tianzhou cargo freighters launched on Long March 7 rockets from Wenchang, the Shenzhou crew capsules launched on Long March 2F rockets from Jiuquan, an inland spaceport in the Gobi Desert in Chinas Inner Mongolia region.

The fully-assembled outpost will be about one-sixth the mass of the International Space Station, and is closer in size to Russias retired Mir station than the ISS.

China launched two Tiangong prototype space labs in 2011 and 2016.

The Tiangong 1 space lab hosted two Shenzhou crew in 2012 and 2013, and Chinas most recent human spaceflight mission Shenzhou 11 docked with the Tiangong 2 module in 2016.

China also launched a test flight of the Tianzhou supply ship, similar in function to Russias Progress or SpaceXs Cargo Dragon capsule supporting the International Space Station. The first Tianzhou freighter took off on a Long March 7 rocket in 2017 and docked with the Tiangong 2 space lab, proving out automated docking and in-orbit refueling technology.

After the Tiangong pathfinders verified key technologies for the Chinese space station, officials are moving ahead with integrating the complex in low Earth orbit a few hundred miles above Earth.

The Long March 7 rocket for the Tianzhou 2 mission, the first cargo delivery flight to the Chinese station, is undergoing final assembly in its factory, according to CASC. The Long March 2F launcher for the Shenzhou 12 crew flight is undergoing final factory tests, which should be completed soon after the Chinese New Year in February, officials said.

A specific schedule for the launches of the Tianzhou 2 and Shenzhou 12 missions were not disclosed by Chinese sources.

Chinese officials have said they have selected crew members for the Shenzhou 12 mission, and astronaut training is underway. The astronauts will carry out multiple spacewalks on their mission to link up with the Tianhe module in orbit.

CASC described the space station missions as the top priority on the organizations schedule this year. Other major activities in Chinas space program this year include the arrival of the Tianwen 1 robotic mission in orbit around Mars in February, setting the stage for landing of a Chinese rover on the Red Planet in the May timeframe.

In a statement previewing Chinese space program in 2021, officials also hinted at further planning for exploration of the Moon by Chinese astronauts. But the statement offered no details on the lunar mission planning, which follows Chinas successful robotic sample return mission to the Moon in late 2020.

Other Chinese launches expected to add up to the more than 40 missions in CASCs schedule this year include Long March rocket flights to deploy weather satellites, research payloads, and Chinese military spacecraft in orbit.

There are also a handful of commercial launches in CASCs backlog, including missions to deliver batches of small Earth-imaging satellites for the Argentine company Satellogic.

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Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.

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China to begin construction of space station this year - Spaceflight Now

As part of its project of landing space exploration crews on the moon, China should establish a space station in lunar orbit rather than one orbiting the earth, the father of Chinas lunar mission said Wednesday in a meeting.

Its better to build the space station in moon orbit so the future moon landing would not be as difficult as the former Apollo program, said Ouyang Ziyuan, a Chinese Academy of Sciences academician and first chief scientist of Chinas lunar probe project.

The Apollo program of the American National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) succeeded in landing the first humans on the Moon in 1969. The last U.S. pair of moon walkers was from the Apollo 17 mission in December 1972.

Ouyangs suggestion of building a lunar space station, first proposed in 2018, came before the U.S. disclosed its latest moon landing plan, which includes putting a space station into lunar orbit. His discussion of the idea suggests that Chinas top space scientists are continuing to work out plans for lunar exploration as the countrys space ambitions expand.

China is proceeding with development of the Tiangong Space Station in earth orbit and will finish construction by next year. It will be the only station circling the earth after the service life of the International Space Station (ISS) runs out in 2024. The Long March-5B rocket, Chinas new large-carrier rocket, made its maiden flight in May 2020 to launch space station modules. In 2020, China successfully completed the Change 5 lunar mission, collecting rock samples from the surface of the moon and returning to earth.

The American Artemis Program announced last year by Vice President Mike Pence aims to put the first woman and the next man on the moon through two stages by 2024. Before eventually landing moon walkers, the project would send robotic rovers to the surface of the moon and fly four astronauts around the moon on a 10-day journey.

One feature of NASAs multibillion-dollar program would be the 2024 launch of a Lunar Gateway, which would be a space station orbiting the moon. The gateway would serve as a rendezvous point for two astronauts to board a spacecraft that would transfer them to the surface of the moon.

NASA has set up collaborations with international partners for the Lunar Gateway, including space authorities in Japan, Canada and the European Union. Russias Roscosmos also showed interest in the cooperation.

Ouyang proposed a similar plan more than a year before the announcement of the Artemis Program, urging construction of a space station similar to the Lunar Gateway proposal and skipping an earth-orbiting space station.

There have been decades of space stations operating in earth orbit, such as the Soviet Unions Mir Space Station and the ISS. Ouyang said it would not carry much significance for China to build a new space station now.

Most important space station tasks have been done during the past decades, he said.

If we want to land on the moon, we can simply go down to the surface from a lunar space station, Ouyang said. If we want to go back, astronauts can just return to the space station.

Chinese space authorities didnt initially accept Ouyangs proposal and continued planning to build an earth-orbiting space station.

I think it did not mean we failed to understand the advantages of building the lunar station, Ouyang said. Instead, the problem is the lack of technology.

Wu Yanhua, the deputy head of Chinas National Space Administration, said the country would first focus on technology, and space station construction would be a priority. Further discussion of crewed lunar missions would come after the completion of the earth-orbiting station, he said last year.

Unlike the Cold War-era space race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, China will focus on scientific research value and exploration in future crewed moon missions, Wu said.

Contact editor Bob Simison (bobsimison@caixin.com).

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China Should Build a Space Station Orbiting the Moon, Father of Lunar Mission Says - Caixin Global

Researchers from the Texas A&M College of Medicine will investigate the effect of long-term spaceflight on the eyes.

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At least 60 percent of astronauts who spend at least a month in space experience negative changes to their bodies due to microgravity and other factors like increased radiation exposure. One potential effect is Spaceflight-Associated Neuro-Ocular Syndrome (SANS), a condition in the eye that can lead to decreased sharpness of vision and swelling and flattening of structures in the eye.

AsNASAis gearing up for a return to the moon and eventually a mission to Mars (which would require humans to spend 1.5 to 2.5 years in space), solving this issue has become increasingly important. NASA has chosen researchers from theTexas A&M University College of Medicineto conduct an investigation on the effect of long-term spaceflight on the eyes and on the arteries, veins and lymphatic vessels that serve the eye and maintain vision.

NASA is worried about the impact that long-term spaceflight will have on astronauts health and their ability to complete missions, because of the fact that their vision can be significantly impaired, saidDavid C. Zawieja, regents professor at the College of Medicine and lead investigator of the experiment. Their vision can be impaired it can be temporary, it can be permanent, it can be mild, it can be severe, it can be in one eye more than the other. Theres a lot that we dont know, but what we do know is that this is a mission-critical problem.

The project, also known as theRodent Research 23 (RR-23) mission, launched a total of 20 animal models this past December to the International Space Station (ISS) for a duration of about five weeks. This week, the animal models returned to Earth, delivered to NASAs Kennedy Space Center in Florida and then flown directly to College Station, where experiments are currently being conducted by specialized teams from the College of Medicine and colleagues.

This is the first time in history that live animals brought back from space are being researched at a non-NASA affiliated institution or group, an arrangement that was partly due to the COVID-19 pandemics social distancing measures necessitating more lab space.

Co-investigator teams on this project include those from the labs ofPooneh Bagher, Dr. Anatoliy Gashev, and Travis Hein from the Department of Medical Physiology;andBinu Tharakan from the Department of Surgery at the Morehouse School of Medicine. In addition, Farida Sohrabji and David Earnest from the Department of Neuroscience and Experimental Therapeutics are also helping their respective teams.

In 2017, Zawieja and his colleagues worked on a similar project, called theRodent Research 9 (RR-9) mission, that studied the effects of long-term microgravity on eyesight. They studied the vascular dynamics in the brain and spinal cord and examined the potential impact of changes in cerebral spinal fluid pressure on animal models they launched to the ISS.

For this RR-23 mission, Zawieja and colleagues are taking a different approach. Instead of studying the micro vessels of the brain, this research focuses on the potential imbalance of the microcirculation in the eye itself, creating local edemaparticularly near the back of the eye.

Since astronauts have been spending more than a few hours or even a day or two in space, there is a very well-defined redistribution of body fluids, Zawieja said. What happens is they kind of get chicken legs and buffalo torsos and a puffy head and neck because the fluids that will normally drain toward your feet and your legs on Earth now dont have gravity pulling them down. A lot of fluids will get redistributed centrally and toward the head and neck which produces a number of issues for the astronauts stuffy nose, puffy face, puffy neck and potentially SANS.

Currently, the teams are dissecting and examining the various structures of the animal models eyes. They also are analyzing the models to see if the vessels are working normally. If they find that the vessels are working abnormally, they will further examine them to see if there is evidence of potential localized edema in the back of the eye that could be compressing the optic nerve and producing the pathology associated with SANS loss of visual acuity. They will also compare the space animal model results to two other control groups that stayed on Earth.

The teams must dissect and examine the flight animal model within a short time frame before the effects of weightlessness start reversing.

The idea is to try to catch whatever changes may have occurred before they start reversing, Zawieja said. The good thing is we know from other data that it takes probably a minimum of three to five days before these effects start reversing and going back to normal because the vessels will eventually adapt to the local environment that theyre in.

The research conducted from RR-23 will allow scientists to better understand the impacts of long-term spaceflight on SANS and in the future, create countermeasures that will prevent astronauts from developing SANS. We suspect that the final analyses from this project will also help determine the future success of longer space missions to destinations like Mars, Zawieja said.

Zawieja anticipates that the final analyses and examinations of the RR-23 mission will conclude at the beginning of 2022.

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How Does Long-Term Spaceflight Affect Vision? - Texas A&M Today - Texas A&M University Today