You are not logged in.
Offline
The cargo is here and now comes the hard part A new doorway to space
The Nanoracks Bishop Airlock Module will serve as another door to space, helping to move larger payloads inside and outside the station. This will alleviate one bottleneck slowing down the deployment of new small satellites and CubeSats from the space station. Bishop will also significantly increase the amount of research that can be done in low-Earth orbit - research that helps us better understand the space environment but also has implications for Earth imaging, medical research, and biomanufacturing.
The new airlock arrives aboard the SpaceX Dragon on the company's 21st commercial resupply services mission for NASA. It's the first commercial airlock added to the space station and will be attached to the port on U.S. Node 3, also called Tranquility.
Offline
Latest cargo is COVID-19 drug research and bio-mining launching to the International Space Station
COVID-19 medicine
Scientists will use Europe's commercial ICE Cubes Service to test a COVID-19 medicine in microgravity in order to better understand how remdesivir interacts with its delivery substance cyclodextrin so that the drug's efficiency can be improved. It will be the first time any COVID-19 related research takes place on the International Space Station.
Offline
Unlike the Crew Dragon spaceship that flew four astronauts into orbit a few weeks ago, this model was designed to ferry supplies to and from space. It carried 6,400-plus pounds of Christmas presents, science experiments, and other resupply material. But the Crew Dragon is still attached to the ISS as well — it is slated to stay in space until May, then fly its crew back to Earth.
Offline
Pictures are worth a thousand words...
Look closely: Wasabi peas, Ocean Spray Crasins, apricots, French's yellow mustard, Smuckers strawberry jam, and of course, Sriracha sauce - with Huggies velcroed on the wall to clean up astro faces after eating.
Whom is in the photo
NASA caption: Four Expedition 64 crew members are pictured relaxing after a meal at the end of the work day inside the Unity module. From left are, NASA astronaut Kate Rubins, Roscosmos cosmonaut and station Commander Sergey Ryzhikov, JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Kud-Sverchkov.
Offline
What does space do to the human body? 29 studies investigate the effects of exploration
https://www.cell.com/c/the-biology-of-spaceflight
profiles of 56 astronauts," a paper summarizing this collection states.
Offline
Another Made in Space from the 3D printing... Made In Space makes ceramic turbine part in orbit in another 3D printing milestone
The microwave-sized CMM makes parts via "stereolithography," which uses an ultraviolet (UV) laser and UV-curable resin. This 3D-printing technique can make complex objects such as turbine blisks with a high degree of accuracy, turbine "blisk" (short for "bladed disk").
"Manufacturing turbine components in microgravity could produce parts with better performance, including higher strength and lower residual stress, due to a reduction in defects caused by gravity, such as sedimentation and composition gradients,"
The blisk and some simpler test objects were fabricated by Made In Space's Ceramic Manufacturing Module (CMM), which arrived at the space station aboard Northrop Grumman's robotic Cygnus cargo vehicle in October.
Made In Space, a subsidiary of the space-solutions company Redwire, had already launched four machines to the ISS before the CMM — one pathfinding 3D printer, a commercial 3D printer called the Additive Manufacturing Facility (AMF), a commercial polymer recycler and a device that manufactures the high-value optical fiber ZBLAN.The recycler is designed to convert bags and other plastic trash into "feedstock" that can be used by the AMF printer. Both of these machines are still in operation on the ISS. The ZBLAN project is also ongoing; it's investigating the feasibility of making ZBLAN in orbit and selling it down here. (ZBLAN has the potential to be far superior to traditional silica-based optical fiber, but gravity-induced imperfections make the stuff hard to manufacture on Earth, Made In Space representatives have said.)
Micro gravity vibrations must be isolated to make a product better than what we see here on earth and it seems that we are able to do so with these machines....
Offline
Even with space x crewed dragon making there is still an issue for Nasa as they will need to US may buy seat on Russia's Soyuz for astronaut's flight to ISS in Spring 2021,
the April 9th flight currently consist of three Russian cosmonauts: Oleg Novitskiy, Pyotr Dubrov and Sergei Korsakov.
The talks on the issue are being held with the US private company of Axiom Space," the source said.If such an agreement is reached, US astronaut Mark Vande Hei may replace Korsakov in the crew.
Offline
Connor and two businessmen, one from Canada and one from Israel, have agreed to pay Axoim $55 million for the experience. The company declined to say whether the tickets are fully paid already, or if the voyagers have made deposits. Axiom's financial arrangement with SpaceX also was not disclosed.
The three men are lining up research projects and educational programs to beam back to Earth during their mission, according to Axiom communications manager Beau Holder.
Axiom has support from NASA as the company builds a successor to the International Space Station, but there are many unknowns about the flight.
Axiom has agreements with NASA to connect privately owned segments to the space station starting in 2024. After the orbiting platform reaches obsolescence -- around 2030 -- Axiom intends to separate its units from the station and fly independently.
Passengers must spend 15 weeks in training after a physical, according to Axiom's mission description.
Offline
Offline
Axiom raises $130M for its space station — and adds Blue Origin alum to its board
Axiom Space is focusing on arranging privately funded trips to the International Space Station. Its first mission, known as Ax-1, is due to send former NASA astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria and three paying customers to the station in a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule next year.
Axiom’s plan for its own space station would begin with the launch of a commercial module that would be hooked up to the International Space Station in the 2024 time frame. Additional modules would be added to Axiom’s complex during the years that follow. If the ISS is decommissioned in 2028, as planned, Axiom would detach its modules and operate them independently as a privately owned space station.
Offline
Thanks for the update
This topic has been idle since 2014 .... here is an update to bring it back into view:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/northrop-gru … 40891.html
William Harwood
Sat, February 20, 2021, 1:18 PM
A Northrop Grumman Antares rocket boosted a Cygnus cargo ship into orbit Saturday after a picture-perfect launch from Virginia's Eastern Shore, carrying more than 8,000 pounds of supplies and equipment bound for the International Space Station.The rocket's two Russian-built RD-181 first stage engines ignited at 12:36 p.m., throttled up to full thrust and pushed the booster skyward from pad 0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport - MARS - at NASA's Wallops Island, Virginia, flight facility.
<snip>
A few minutes before launch, the International Space Station flew directly over NASA's Wallops Island, Virginia, launch facility where the Antares rocket and Cygnus cargo ship were awaiting liftoff. <snip>If all goes well, the Cygnus spacecraft will reach the station early Monday. Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi and crewmate Mike Hopkins will capture the cargo ship using the lab's robot arm. Flight controllers at the Johnson Space Center in Houston then will take over by remote control to pull the ship in for berthing.
"This vehicle is carrying over 8,000 pounds of cargo to the International Space Station," said Joel Montalbano, manager of the station program in Houston. "We've been talking to the crew onboard (and) they're eagerly awaiting the Cygnus arrival, and look forward to opening the hatch and getting inside and continuing the science and research program we have scheduled."
(th)
This is the once owned Orbital ATK launch system and cygnus now Northrop Grumman Antares rocket
Offline
Houston have a problem with With 11 people on space station, astronauts get crafty with sleeping spots
Normally at 6 but
The Crew-1 quartet is set to return to Earth on Wednesday (April 28), so the current crowding is only temporary.
Offline
astronauts are focusing on the "pick-and-eat salad" crops,
Offline
What does the future have in store for the International Space Station?
https://www.aerotime.aero/27884-what-fu … ce-stationAbundant harvest in Antarctic greenhouse shows promise for moon agriculture
https://www.space.com/mars-lunar-greenh … ca-harvest
Thanks for the article link as the Station has been a sort trouble spot in space history and may be so for the future of man if we do not do more than experiments and travel around in circles.
The station needs to be more as real people want to ride in orbit, do work and make things that allow man to branch out for the orbiting platform.
Offline
Russians-prepare-for-arrival-of-new-space-station-module wrap up preparations for detaching the two-decades-old Pirs airlock and docking compartment next month, clearing the way for the long-planned arrival of a new laboratory module.
Russian multi-purpose laboratory module — Nauka — will be launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan around the middle of July. Two days after launch, a Progress cargo ship now docked at Pirs will pull away from Zvezda, taking the old docking compartment with it. Both spacecraft will burn up harmlessly in a targeted re-entry over the Pacific Ocean.
Axiom Space expands SpaceX private crew launch deal, with four total missions to the space station
Houston-based Axiom had previously announced its Ax-1 mission would launch with SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket and Crew Dragon capsule, and now the Ax-2, Ax-3 and Ax-4 missions will as well.
Ax-1 is currently scheduled to launch in January 2022.
Offline
Also with the items is "catalytic reactor for the station’s life support system"
Offline
Technical problems prevent astronauts from installing new solar panels on space station
While the current solar arrays on the space station are still functioning, they have been supplying power to the space station for more than 20 years and are showing some signs of wear after long-term exposure to the space environment. The arrays were originally designed to last 15 years.
The arrays were rolled up like carpet and are 750 pounds (340 kilograms) and 10 feet (3 meters) wide.
Unfurled, the arrays are expected to be about 63 feet (19 meters) long and 20 feet (6 meters) wide.
The new solar arrays are slated to be placed in front of the old ones. This will increase the space station's total available power from 160 kilowatts to 215 kilowatts.
It's also a good test for the new solar arrays because this same design will power parts of the Gateway lunar outpost, which will help humans return to the moon through NASA's Artemis program in 2024.
Offline
Offline
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technolo … d=msedgdhp
Astronauts on International Space Station are growing chile peppers in a first for NASA
By Rachel Trent, CNN 57 mins agoAstronauts on the International Space Station are trying to spice up their diets.
These experiments are ** without ** gravity!
(th)
Offline
It's a reasonable working assumption that whatever is grown on Earth can be grown on Mars either in Earth-replicating facilities or specialist high CO2 facilities, with or without hydroponic, aquaponic and aeroponic technologies. Pollination may be an issue - but gravity is unlikely to be, I feel, given how many different plants have been grown in zero G.
We should start with the things that we know have been grown successfully in farm towers and Antarctic bases e.g. lettuce and other salads. Nutritious bean shoots should also be an easy early win.
There's no big rush with at least 500 tons of supplies coming in on Starships every two years. Most of the basic food stuffs - grains, pasta, dairy produce, meat and so on - can be imported in for a few years, maybe even a couple of decades before it becomes necessary to supply the growing Mars population via Mars ISRU agriculture.
Offline
These are to give crew something to do not just for food growth as they need fresh every now and again in the diet.
Offline
Making room for a new Russian module after a short 20 year of use Farewell, Pirs; ISS module decommissioned, set for destructive reentry
Nauka science module launches to ISS
Offline
The ISS got a surprise AG test when Space station mishap with Russian module more serious than NASA first reported
Thursday that the station had rotated 45 degrees. But
The space station spun 540 degrees and flipped upside down when Russia's new module mistakenly fired its thrusters
Offline
Like clock work the NG-16 arrives at ISS, Northrop Grumman talks Cygnus’ future use
Delivering a total of 3,723 kg of crew supplies, unpressurized cargo, science experiments, spacewalk equipment, station hardware, and computer equipment, the NG-16 mission is the fifth of six guaranteed flights to the station under the CRS2 (Commercial Resupply Services 2) contract with NASA.
Overall, there are three types of Cygnus missions available to NASA for the CRS2 contract period:
Mission A: Antares-launched, pressurized cargo mission (all of CRS2 to date) Antares-launched Cygnus which delivers [up to] 3,750 kg of cargo.
Mission B: Atlas V-launched, larger pressurized cargo module mission
Mission C: Antares or Atlas V-launched external, unpressurized cargo only mission.
Offline