NASA’s Quiet Supersonic Technology Project Passes Major Milestone

NASA - X-59 Quiet Supersonic Technology (QueSST) patch.

Nov. 19, 2018

Image above: Illustration of the X-59 QueSST as it flies above NASA's Armstrong Flight Research Center in California. Image Credit: Lockheed Martin.

NASA has officially committed to a development timeline that will lead to the first flight of its X-59 Quiet Supersonic Technology (QueSST) aircraft in just three years.

This critical milestone comes after a rigorous review, Key Decision Point-C (KDP-C), that confirmed NASA’s continued support of the X-59, in terms of funding, and established an achievable development timeline for NASA’s first piloted, full-size X-plane in more than three decades.

“This aircraft has the potential to transform aviation in the United States and around the world by making faster-than-sound air travel over land possible for everyone,” said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. “We can’t wait to see this bird fly!”

KDP-C commits NASA to the full X-59 development effort through flight-testing in 2021. The cost and schedule commitments outlined in KDP-C align the project with program management best practices that account for potential technical risks and budgetary uncertainty beyond the project’s control.

“This is a monumental milestone for the project,” said Jaiwon Shin, NASA’s associate administrator for aeronautics. “I’m extremely proud of the team for its hard work getting to this point, and we all look forward to watching this aircraft take shape and then take flight.”

The X-59 QueSST is shaped to reduce the loudness of a sonic boom to that of a gentle thump, if it’s heard at all. The supersonic aircraft will be flown above select U.S. communities to measure public perception of the noise – data that will help regulators establish new rules for commercial supersonic air travel over land.

Management of X-59 QueSST development falls under the Low Boom Flight Demonstrator project, part of the Integrated Aviation Systems Program in NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate.

Related links:

Quiet Supersonic Technology (QueSST): https://www.nasa.gov/feature/the-quesst-for-quiet

Low Boom Flight Demonstrator project: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/lowboom/index.html

For more information about NASA’s aeronautics research, visit: https://www.nasa.gov/aeroresearch

Image (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/J.D. Harrington/Sean Potter.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Long March-3B launches BeiDou-3 MEO-17 and BeiDou-3 MEO-18

BeiDou Navigation Satellite System patch.

Nov. 19, 2018

Long March-3B rocket launches BeiDou-3 MEO-17 and BeiDou-3 MEO-18 navigation satellites

A Long March-3B rocket launched BeiDou-3 MEO-17 and BeiDou-3 MEO-18 navigation satellites from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center, Sichuan Province, southwest China, on 18 November October 2018, at 18:07 UTC (19 November at 02:07 local time).

Long March-3B launches BeiDou-3 MEO-17 and BeiDou-3 MEO-18

A Chinese Long March 3B rocket with a Yuanzheng upper stage launches two satellites for the country’s Beidou navigation network into Medium Earth Orbit.

 BeiDou navigation satellite

The satellites are the 42nd and 43rd in the BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS), respectively the 17th and 18th for the BeiDou-3 system.

Beidou Constellation

China plans to launch six other BDS-3 satellites to the medium earth orbit, three satellites to the inclined geosynchronous earth orbit and two satellites to the geostationary earth orbit from 2019 to 2020.

For more information about China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), visit: http://english.spacechina.com/n16421/index.html

For more information about China National Space Administration (CNSA), visit: http://www.cnsa.gov.cn/

For more information about Beidou navigation system: http://www.beidou.gov.cn/

Images, Video, Text, Credits: CASC/CNSA/CCTV/SciNews/Günter Space Page.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

NASA Announces Landing Site for Mars 2020 Rover

NASA - Mars 2020 Rover logo.

Nov. 19, 2018

NASA has chosen Jezero Crater as the landing site for its upcoming Mars 2020 rover mission after a five year search, during which every available detail of more than 60 candidate locations on the Red Planet was scrutinized and debated by the mission team and the planetary science community.

The rover mission is scheduled to launch in July 2020 as NASA’s next step in exploration of the Red Planet. It will not only seek signs of ancient habitable conditions – and past microbial life -- but the rover also will collect rock and soil samples and store them in a cache on the planet's surface. NASA and ESA (European Space Agency) are studying future mission concepts to retrieve the samples and return them to Earth, so this landing site sets the stage for the next decade of Mars exploration.

Image above: On ancient Mars, water carved channels and transported sediments to form fans and deltas within lake basins. Examination of spectral data acquired from orbit show that some of these sediments have minerals that indicate chemical alteration by water. Here in Jezero Crater delta, sediments contain clays and carbonates. The image combines information from two instruments on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars and the Context Camera. Image Credits: NASA/JPL/JHUAPL/MSSS/Brown University.

“The landing site in Jezero Crater offers geologically rich terrain, with landforms reaching as far back as 3.6 billion years old, that could potentially answer important questions in planetary evolution and astrobiology,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. “Getting samples from this unique area will revolutionize how we think about Mars and its ability to harbor life.”

Jezero Crater is located on the western edge of Isidis Planitia, a giant impact basin just north of the Martian equator. Western Isidis presents some of the oldest and most scientifically interesting landscapes Mars has to offer. Mission scientists believe the 28-mile-wide (45-kilometer) crater, once home to an ancient river delta, could have collected and preserved ancient organic molecules and other potential signs of microbial life from the water and sediments that flowed into the crater billions of years ago.

Jezero Crater’s ancient lake-delta system offers many promising sampling targets of at least five different kinds of rock, including clays and carbonates that have high potential to preserve signatures of past life. In addition, the material carried into the delta from a large watershed may contain a wide variety of minerals from inside and outside the crater.

The geologic diversity that makes Jezero so appealing to Mars 2020 scientists also makes it a challenge for the team’s entry, descent and landing (EDL) engineers. Along with the massive nearby river delta and small crater impacts, the site contains numerous boulders and rocks to the east, cliffs to the west, and depressions filled with aeolian bedforms (wind-derived ripples in sand that could trap a rover) in several locations.

“The Mars community has long coveted the scientific value of sites such as Jezero Crater, and a previous mission contemplated going there, but the challenges with safely landing were considered prohibitive,” said Ken Farley, project scientist for Mars 2020 at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. “But what was once out of reach is now conceivable, thanks to the 2020 engineering team and advances in Mars entry, descent and landing technologies.”

Image above: This artist's rendition depicts NASA's Mars 2020 rover studying a Mars rock outrcrop. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

When the landing site search began, mission engineers already had refined the landing system such that they were able to reduce the Mars 2020 landing zone to an area 50 percent smaller than that for the landing of NASA’s Curiosity rover at Gale Crater in 2012. This allowed the science community to consider more challenging landing sites. The sites of greatest scientific interest led NASA to add a new capability called Terrain Relative Navigation (TRN). TRN will enable the “sky crane” descent stage, the rocket-powered system that carries the rover down to the surface, to avoid hazardous areas.

The site selection is dependent upon extensive analyses and verification testing of the TRN capability. A final report will be presented to an independent review board and NASA Headquarters in the fall of 2019.

“Nothing has been more difficult in robotic planetary exploration than landing on Mars,” said Zurbuchen. “The Mars 2020 engineering team has done a tremendous amount of work to prepare us for this decision.  The team will continue their work to truly understand the TRN system and the risks involved, and we will review the findings independently to reassure we have maximized our chances for success.”

Selecting a landing site this early allows the rover drivers and science operations team to optimize their plans for exploring Jezero Crater once the rover is safely on the ground. Using data from NASA’s fleet of Mars orbiters, they will map the terrain in greater detail and identify regions of interest – places with the most interesting geological features, for example – where Mars 2020 could collect the best science samples.

The Mars 2020 Project at JPL manages rover development for SMD. NASA's Launch Services Program, based at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida, is responsible for launch management. Mars 2020 will launch from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

Related article:

Scientists to Debate Landing Site for Next Mars Rover:
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2018/10/scientists-to-debate-landing-site-for.html

Related links:

Terrain Relative Navigation (TRN): https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/mission/technology/entry-descent-landing/

NASA’s Curiosity: http://www.nasa.gov/curiosity

For more information on Mars 2020, visit:  https://www.nasa.gov/mars2020

More information about NASA's exploration of Mars is available online at: https://www.nasa.gov/mars

Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Dwayne Brown/JoAnna Wendel/Grey Hautaluoma/JPL/DC Agle.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Canadian Robotic Arm Installs U.S. Cygnus Cargo Ship to Station

Northrop Grumman - NG-10 CRS Cygnus patch.

November 19, 2018

The Northrop Grumman Cygnus cargo ship was bolted into place on the International Space Station’s Earth-facing port of the Unity module at 7:31 a.m. EST. The spacecraft will spend about three months attached to the space station before departing in February 2019. After it leaves the station, the uncrewed spacecraft will deploy several CubeSats before its fiery re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere as it disposes of several tons of trash.

Image above: The International Space Station heads into an orbital sunset as the Canadarm2 robotic arm guides the Cygnus space freighter to its installation point on the Unity module. Image Credit: NASA TV.

The spacecraft’s arrival brings close to 7,400 pounds of research and supplies to space station. Highlights of NASA-sponsored research to advance exploration goals and enable future missions to the Moon and Mars include:

Sensory input in microgravity

Changes in sensory input in microgravity may be misinterpreted and cause a person to make errors in estimation of velocity, distance or orientation. VECTION examines this effect as well as whether people adapt to altered sensory input on long-duration missions and how that adaptation changes upon return to Earth. Using a virtual reality display, astronauts estimate the distance to an object, length of an object and orientation of their bodies in space. Tests are conducted before, during and after flight. The investigation is named for a visual illusion of self-movement, called vection, which occurs when an individual is still but sees the world moving past, according to principal investigator Laurence Harris. The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) sponsors the investigation: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7484

Solidifying cement in space

The MVP-Cell 05 investigation uses a centrifuge to provide a variable gravity environment to study the complex process of cement solidification, a step toward eventually making and using concrete on extraterrestrial bodies. These tests are a follow-on to the previous studies known as Microgravity Investigation of Cement Solidification (MICS), which studied cement solidification in microgravity.  Together, these tests will help engineers better understand the microstructure and material properties of cement, leading to design of safer, lightweight space habitats and improving cement processing techniques on Earth. This investigation is sponsored by NASA: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7874

NG CRS-10: SS John Young Cygnus capture

Investigations sponsored by the U.S. National Laboratory on the space station, which Congress designated in 2005 to maximize its use for improving quality of life on Earth, include:

From stardust to solar systems

Much of the universe was created when dust from star-based processes clumped into intermediate-sized particles and eventually became planets, moons and other objects. Many questions remain as to just how this worked, though. The EXCISS investigation seeks answers by simulating the high-energy, low gravity conditions that were present during formation of the early solar system. Scientists plan to zap a specially formulated dust with an electrical current, then study the shape and texture of pellets formed: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7785

Principal investigator Tamara Koch explains that the dust is made up of particles of forsterite (Mg2SiO4), the main mineral in many meteorites and related to olivine, also known as the gemstone peridot. The particles are about the diameter of a human hair.

Image above: Cygnus berthed on ISS, seen by EarthCam on ISS, speed: 27'563 Km/h, altitude: 415,07 Km, image captured by Roland Berga (on Earth in Switzerland) from International Space Station (ISS) using ISS-HD Live application with EarthCam's from ISS on November 19, 2018 at 18:20 UTC. Image Credits: Orbiter.ch Aerospace/Roland Berga.

Growing crystals to fight Parkinson’s disease

The CASIS PCG-16 investigation grows large crystals of an important protein, Leucine-rich repeat kinase 2, or LRRK2, in microgravity for analysis back on Earth. This protein is implicated in development of Parkinson’s disease, and improving our knowledge of its structure may help scientists better understand the pathology of the disease and develop therapies to treat it. Crystals of LRRK2 grown in gravity are too small and too compact to study, making microgravity an essential part of this research: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7855

NG CRS-10: SS John Young Cygnus berthing

Better gas separation membranes

Membranes represent one of the most energy-efficient and cost-effective technologies for separating and removing carbon dioxide from waste gases, thereby reducing greenhouse gas emissions. CEMSICA tests membranes made from particles of calcium-silicate (C-S) with pores 100 nanometers or smaller. Producing these membranes in microgravity may resolve some of the challenges of their manufacture on Earth and lead to development of lower-cost, more durable membranes that use less energy. The technology ultimately may help reduce the harmful effects of CO2 emissions on the planet: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7721

Related links:

Expedition 57: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition57/index.html

Canadian Space Agency (CSA): https://www.canada.ca/en/space-agency.html

U.S. National Laboratory: https://www.iss-casis.org/

Space Station Research and Technology: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/index.html

International Space Station (ISS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

Image (mentioned), Videos, Text, Credits: NASA/Marck Garcia/NASA TV/SciNews/Orbiter.ch Aerospace/Roland Berga.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

ESO’s VLT captures details of an elaborate serpentine system sculpted by colliding stellar winds

ESO - European Southern Observatory logo.

19 November 2018

Coils of Apep

The VISIR instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope has captured this stunning image of a newly discovered massive triple star system. Nicknamed Apep after an ancient Egyptian deity, this may be the first ever gamma-ray burst progenitor found.

This serpentine swirl, captured by the VISIR instrument on ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT), has an explosive future ahead of it; it is a Wolf-Rayet star system, and a likely source of one of the most energetic phenomena in the Universe — a long-duration gamma-ray burst (GRB).

“This is the first such system to be discovered in our own galaxy,” explains Joseph Callingham of the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON), lead author of the study reporting this system. “We never expected to find such a system in our own backyard” [1].

Apep in the constellation of Norma

The system, which comprises a nest of massive stars surrounded by a “pinwheel” of dust, is  officially known only by unwieldy catalogue references like 2XMM J160050.7-514245. However, the astronomers chose to give this fascinating object a catchier moniker — “Apep”.

Apep got its nickname for its sinuous shape, reminiscent of a snake coiled around the central stars. Its namesake was an ancient Egyptian deity, a gargantuan serpent embodying chaos — fitting for such a violent system. It was believed that Ra, the Sun god, would battle with Apep every night; prayer and worship ensured Ra’s victory and the return of the Sun.

Digitized Sky Survey image around Apep

GRBs are among the most powerful explosions in the Universe. Lasting between a few thousandths of a second and a few hours, they can release as much energy as the Sun will output over its entire lifetime. Long-duration GRBs — those which last for longer than 2 seconds — are believed to be caused by the supernova explosions of rapidly-rotating Wolf-Rayet stars.

Some of the most massive stars evolve into Wolf-Rayet stars towards the end of their lives. This stage is short-lived, and Wolf-Rayets survive in this state for only a few hundred thousand years — the blink of an eye in cosmological terms. In that time, they throw out huge amounts of material in the form of a powerful stellar wind, hurling matter outwards at millions of kilometres per hour; Apep’s stellar winds were measured to travel at an astonishing 12 million km/h.

These stellar winds have created the elaborate plumes surrounding the triple star system — which consists of a binary star system and a companion single star bound together by gravity. Though only two star-like objects are visible in the image, the lower source is in fact an unresolved binary Wolf-Rayet star. This binary is responsible for sculpting the serpentine swirls surrounding Apep, which are formed in the wake of the colliding stellar winds from the two Wolf-Rayet stars.

Zooming in on Apep

Compared to the extraordinary speed of Apep’s winds, the dust pinwheel itself swirls outwards at a leisurely pace, “crawling” along at less than 2 million km/h. The wild discrepancy between the speed of Apep’s rapid stellar winds and that of the unhurried dust pinwheel is thought to result from one of the stars in the binary launching both a fast and a slow wind — in different directions.

This would imply that the star is undergoing near-critical rotation — that is, rotating so fast that it is nearly ripping itself apart. A Wolf-Rayet star with such rapid rotation is believed to produce a long-duration GRB when its core collapses at the end of its life.

Notes

[1] Callingham, now at the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON), did part of this research while at the University of Sydney working with research team leader Peter Tuthill. In addition to observations from ESO telescopes, the team also used the Anglo-Australian Telescope at Siding Spring Observatory, Australia.

More information:

This research was presented in a paper entitled “Anisotropic winds in Wolf-Rayet binary identify potential gamma-ray burst progenitor” which appeared in Nature Astronomy on 19 November 2018.

The team was composed of: J. R. Callingham (ASTRON, Dwingeloo, the Netherlands), P. G. Tuthill (Sydney Institute for Astronomy [SIfA], University of Sydney, Australia), B. J. S. Pope (SIfA; Center for Cosmology and Particle Physics, New York University, USA; NASA Sagan Fellow), P. M. Williams (Institute for Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, UK), P. A. Crowther (Department of Physics & Astronomy, University of Sheffield, UK), M. Edwards (SIfA), B. Norris (SIfA), and L. Kedziora-Chudczer (School of Physics, University of New South Wales, Australia).

ESO is the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation in Europe and the world’s most productive ground-based astronomical observatory by far. It has 16 Member States: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, along with the host state of Chile and with Australia as a Strategic Partner. ESO carries out an ambitious programme focused on the design, construction and operation of powerful ground-based observing facilities enabling astronomers to make important scientific discoveries. ESO also plays a leading role in promoting and organising cooperation in astronomical research. ESO operates three unique world-class observing sites in Chile: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope and its world-leading Very Large Telescope Interferometer as well as two survey telescopes, VISTA working in the infrared and the visible-light VLT Survey Telescope. ESO is also a major partner in two facilities on Chajnantor, APEX and ALMA, the largest astronomical project in existence. And on Cerro Armazones, close to Paranal, ESO is building the 39-metre Extremely Large Telescope, the ELT, which will become “the world’s biggest eye on the sky”.

Links:

ESOcast 185 Light: Cosmic Serpent: https://www.eso.org/public/videos/eso1838a/

Research paper: https://www.eso.org/public/archives/releases/sciencepapers/eso1838/eso1838a.pdf

Photos of the VLT: http://www.eso.org/public/images/archive/category/paranal/

Behind the Paper blog post: https://astronomycommunity.nature.com/users/181582-joseph-callingham/posts/40890-riding-the-serpent-the-discovery-and-study-of-apep

ESO’s Very Large Telescope (VLT): https://www.eso.org/public/teles-instr/paranal-observatory/vlt/

VISIR: https://www.eso.org/public/teles-instr/paranal-observatory/vlt/vlt-instr/visir/

ASTRON: https://www.astron.nl/

Anglo-Australian Telescope: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Australian_Telescope

Siding Spring Observatory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siding_Spring_Observatory

Images, Text, Credits: ESO/Calum Turner/ASTRON/Joseph Callingham/IAU and Sky & Telescope/Digitized Sky Survey 2. Acknowledgment: Davide De Martin/Video: ESO/Digitized Sky Survey 2/N. Risinger (skysurvey.org). Music: astral electronic.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Space Station Science Highlights: Week of November 12, 2018

ISS - Expedition 57 Mission patch.

Nov. 18, 2018

Last week, the Expedition 57 crew members aboard the International Space Station conducted scientific investigations and prepared for the arrival of Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus vehicle, which launched early Saturday morning. The resupply vehicle delivered 7,400 pounds of food, fuel and supplies to the station two days later.

Learn about some of the science launching aboard the Northrop Grumman Commercial Resupply-10 mission here: 3D Printing, Virtual Reality, Simulated Stardust and More Headed to Orbiting Lab: https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2018/11/3d-printing-virtual-reality-simulated.html

Here’s a look at some of the science conducted last week aboard the orbiting lab:

Final operations conducted in crystallography investigation

A crew member performed the final microscopy operations by placing samples under the microscope for observation, and providing photographic documentation for BioServe Protein Crystallography (BPC-1) last week.

Animation above: ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst conducts an (Optical Coherence Tomography) OCT examination. Animation Credit: NASA.

BPC-1 seeks to demonstrate the feasibility of conducting protein crystal growth in real time aboard the space station. Crew members can observe crystal formation and adjust for follow-on experiments. This approach optimizes a scientist’s ability to grow crystals in microgravity without having to wait for samples to return to Earth and re-launch.

Free-flying AI soars through Columbus

Astronauts on future lengthy missions deep into space face hard work and long hours, and long communication delays back to Earth that could slow down their work pace. Soon, though, they may be able to call for assistance from artificial intelligence (AI). Pilot Study with the Crew Interactive Mobile Companion (CIMON) observes the effects of AI for crew support in terms of helping the crew and the crew's acceptance of using AI during long-term flight.

A spherical device a bit larger than a basketball, CIMON can see, hear, speak, understand and move autonomously. It is intended to assist with routine crew activities such as moving hardware, and for complex science tasks such as recording measurements and other data. Ultimately, it can serve as a mobile camera to provide crew members with video-assisted instructions and document procedures for either live or retrospective analysis.

Image above: ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst with CIMON, an artificial intelligence helper aboard the station. Image Credit: NASA.

Last week, crew members prepared CIMON for demonstrations. They adjusted his microphone, checked the camera view and charged the batteries. By Thursday, Cimon was able to demonstrate free flying and navigation in the station’s Columbus Module.

New investigation set to begin in LMM

Proteins are important biological molecules that can be crystallized to provide better views of their structure, which helps scientists understand how they work. The Effect of Macromolecular Transport on Microgravity Protein Crystallization (LMM Biophysics 4) studies why microgravity-grown crystals are often higher in quality than those grown on Earth by examining the movement of single protein molecules in microgravity.

Space to Ground: Honoring a Legend: 11/16/2018

Last week, a crew member removed an LMM Biophysics-4 sample from the Minus Eighty-degree Laboratory Freezer (MELFI) and installed it into the Light Microscopy Module (LMM) for the start of the Growth Rate Dispersion as a Predictive Indicator for Biological Crystal Samples Where Quality Can be Improved with Microgravity Growth (LMM Biophysics-6) investigation.

Other work was done on these investigations:

- The Plasma Kristall-4 investigation (PK-4) conducts research in the field of "Complex Plasmas": low temperature gaseous mixtures composed of ionized gas, neutral gas, and micron-sized particles: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=1192

- Food Acceptability examines changes in how food appeals to crew members during their time aboard the station. Acceptability of food – whether crew members like and actually eat something – may directly affect crew caloric intake and associated nutritional benefits: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7562

- Meteor is a visible spectroscopy instrument used to observe meteors in Earth orbit: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=1174

- The Veg-03 investigation expands on previous validation tests of the new Veggie hardware, which crew members used to grow cabbage, lettuce and other fresh vegetables in space: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=1159

- The Life Sciences Glovebox (LSG) is a sealed work area that accommodates life science and technology investigations in a workbench-type environment. Due to its larger size, two crew members can work in the LSG simultaneously: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Facility.html?#id=7676

Image above: Sunrise over Peru Coast, just over Ecuador line (longitude 0), seen by EarthCam on ISS, speed: 27'597 Km/h, altitude: 407,95 Km, image captured by Roland Berga (on Earth in Switzerland) from International Space Station (ISS) using ISS-HD Live application with EarthCam's from ISS on November 18, 2018 at 12:23 UTC. Image Credits: Orbiter.ch Aerospace/Roland Berga.

Related links:

Expedition 57: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition57/index.html

BioServe Protein Crystallography (BPC-1): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7729

Crew Interactive Mobile Companion (CIMON): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7639

LMM Biophysics 4: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7741

Light Microscopy Module (LMM): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Facility.html?#id=531

LMM Biophysics-6: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7743

Veggie: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Facility.html?#id=374

Space Station Research and Technology: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/index.html

International Space Station (ISS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

Animation (mentioned), Images (mentioned), Video (NASA), Text, Credits: NASA/Michael Johnson/Vic Cooley, Lead Increment Scientist Expeditions 57/58/Orbiter.ch Aerospace/Roland Berga.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Russian Cargo Craft Docks to Station and Delivers Goods

ROSCOSMOS - Russian Vehicles patch.

November 18, 2018

Image above: The Russian Progress 60 cargo craft is seen shortly after undocking from the Space Station, Dec. 19, 2005. The unpiloted Russian Progress 71 cargo ship is scheduled to launch Friday, Nov. 16, to the orbiting laboratory, bringing food, fuel and supplies to the crew. Image Credit: NASA.

Traveling about 252 miles over Algeria, the unpiloted Russian Progress 71 cargo ship docked at 2:28 p.m. EST to the aft port of the Zvezda Service Module on the Russian segment of the International Space Station.

Progress MS-10 docking to the ISS

In addition to the arrival of Progress today, a Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft is on its way to the space station with about 7,400 pounds of cargo after launching at 4:01 a.m. Saturday from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility on Virginia’s Eastern Shore.

Image above: Nov. 18, 2018: International Space Station Configuration. Three spaceships are docked at the space station including the Progress 70 and Progress 71 resupply ships and the Soyuz MS-09 crew ship. Image Credit: NASA.

The Cygnus spacecraft is scheduled to arrive at the orbital laboratory Monday, Nov. 19. Expedition 57 astronauts Serena Auñón-Chancellor of NASA and Alexander Gerst of ESA (European Space Agency) will use the space station’s robotic arm to grapple Cygnus about 5:20 a.m. Watch installation coverage beginning at 4 a.m. on NASA Television and the agency’s website: http://www.nasa.gov/live

Related links:

Expedition 57: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition57/index.html

NASA TV: http://www.nasa.gov/live

ROSCOSMOS Press Release: https://www.roscosmos.ru/25740/

Space Station Research and Technology: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/index.html

International Space Station (ISS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

Images (mentioned), Video, Text, Credits: NASA/Marck Garcia/NASA TV/SciNews.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch