mercredi 15 novembre 2017

Cygnus Open for Business; Crew Unloading New Bacteria, Plant and Tech Studies












ISS - Expedition 53 Mission patch.

Nov. 15, 2017

International Space Station (ISS). Animation Credit: NASA

The Expedition 53 astronauts are continuing to unload several thousand pounds of space cargo from the new Cygnus resupply ship that arrived Tuesday morning. Some of the new science cargo contains a bacteria that curiously loses its harmful properties in microgravity and CubeSats that will be deployed in Earth orbit.

The Cygnus is now installed on the Unity module and open for business. The astronauts entered the cargo craft Tuesday and started replenishing the station with almost 7,400 pounds of crew supplies, science experiments, spacewalk gear, station hardware and computer parts.


Image above: The Cygnus spacecraft is pictured after it had been grappled with the Canadarm2 robotic arm by astronauts Paolo Nespoli and Randy Bresnik on Nov. 14, 2017. Image Credit: NASA.

Some of the new research payloads will be looking at the space impacts on microbiology and botany. The advanced space research will explore the effectiveness of antibiotics on astronauts and observe how plants absorb nutrients in microgravity. Some pathogens for the STaARS Bioscience-5 study delivered aboard Cygnus have also been safely transferred to the NEXUS facility for later observation.

A couple of the newest technology experiments will deploy CubeSats to explore laser communications and hybrid solar panels. Scientists will study the ability of small satellites to communicate with each other using lasers and also explore if a combination of antenna and solar cells can speed up communication rates.

Related links:

Expedition 53: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition53/index.html

Effectiveness of antibiotics: https://www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/engineering/projects/ecamsat

Plants absorb nutrients in microgravity: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/2717.html

STaARS Bioscience-5: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/2644.html

Laser communications: https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/small_spacecraft/ocsd_project.html

Hybrid solar panels: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/cubesat/isara.php

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), Image (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Mark Garcia.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch