ISS - Expedition 56 Mission patch.
July 1,2018
This week aboard the International Space Station, crew members of Expedition 56 initiated a number of new scientific investigations and continued work on many others.
The crew also staged equipment and bags slated for return on the SpaceX-15 Dragon, which launched to the space station on Friday, June 29, and is scheduled to berth on July 2.
Animation above: The SpaceX Dragon cargo craft on a Falcon 9 rocket launched from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida at 5:42 a.m. EDT June 29, 2018, carrying supplies and science experiments to the International Space Station. Animation Credit: NASA.
Read more details about scientific work this week aboard your orbiting laboratory:
Launching little satellites
This week, the crew installed a NanoRacks CubeSat Deployer (NRCSD) on the Multipurpose Experiment Platform (MPEP) in preparation for its use, targeted for the week of July 9. Each NRCSD accommodates up to 6.5 Units (one unit, or 1U, measures 10x10x10 centimeters) and eight launch cases, which are ejected through the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) Airlock. NRCSDs meet the growing demand to deploy CubeSat nanosatellites for a variety of customers.
Image above: View of two deployed CubeSats, similar to those planned to be released by NRCSD-14 the week of July 9, as they float free from the space station with Earth in the background. Image Credit: NASA.
This deployment, NRCSD-14, includes nine CubeSats: RainCube, Radix, CubeRRT, HaloSat, TEMPEST-D, EnduroSat AD, EQUISat, MemSat and RadSat-g.
Watching water jets break up
The crew replaced sample syringes in the JEM for the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) Atomization investigation this week.
This experiment uses a high-speed camera to observe the disintegration processes of low-speed water jets under various conditions. These observations validate a new atomization concept, developed from drop tower experiments on Earth, to correctly predict the breakup positions of a liquid stream. This information is key to improving spray combustion processes inside rocket and jet engines.
Space station turns concrete mixer
For the first of eight sessions of Microgravity Investigation of Cement Solidification (MICS), the crew transferred a MICS 3 ampoule kit to the Portable Glovebag, broke the seals and mixed the contents of the upper and center ampoules. Later, crew mixed the center and lower ampoules in each sample bag, then pushed alcohol in the lower ampoule to cover the hardened cement samples. Each sample bag was returned to the kit bag and stowed for return.
Image above: Astronaut Serena M. Auñón-Chancellor conducts the Microgravity Investigation of Cement Solidification (MICS) experiment using the new Portable Glovebag. Image Credit: NASA.
MICS supports evaluation of microstructure and material properties of benchmark cement samples, characterizing in detail different responses to thermal and mechanical loading. Positive attributes found in the hardening process due to the microgravity environment may help improve cement and concrete processing on Earth.
Navigating in the stars, with the stars
Crew conducted operations for the Sextant Navigation investigation, which tests use of a hand-held sextant as emergency navigation for future space vehicles such as Orion. Sextants have a small telescope-like optical sight to take precise angle measurements between pairs of stars, enabling navigation without computer assistance. Crewmembers test specific techniques, focusing on stability, for using this tool in space.
Image above: “Nothing beats waking up on a technological marvel and then starting the day off with an antique method of navigating. Sextant Operations from @Space_Station! Still considered a potential backup method of navigation for future vehicles…” said NASA astronaut Serena M. Auñón-Chancellor on her Twitter, @AstroSerena. Image Credit: NASA.
Other work was done on these investigations: SPHERES, Airway Monitoring, CIR/ACME, Time, Lighting Effects, CEO, ASIM, SUBSA, Area PADLES, Veggie/PONDS, HDEV, Marrow, Vascular Echo, Functional Immune, Probiotics, STaARS BioScience-9, Multi-Omics, MagVector, Team Task Switching and CAL.
Space to Ground: Rocket's Red Glare: 06/29/2018
Related links:
Expedition 56: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition56/index.html
NanoRacks CubeSat Deployer (NRCSD): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Facility.html?#id=1196
CubeSat: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/cubesats/overview
Atomization: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=282
Microgravity Investigation of Cement Solidification (MICS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7658
Sextant Navigation: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7646
Orion: https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/orion/index.html
SPHERES: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=303
Airway Monitoring: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=1067
CIR/ACME: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=1651
Time: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7504
Lighting Effects: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=2013
CEO: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=84
ASIM: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=1822
SUBSA: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=308
Area PADLES: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=877
Veggie/PONDS: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7581
HDEV: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=892
Marrow: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=1673
Vascular Echo: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=1664
Functional Immune: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=2011
Probiotics: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=2047
STaARS BioScience-9: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7783
Multi-Omics: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=1689
MagVector: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=1070
Team Task Switching: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7538
CAL: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Facility.html?#id=7396
Spot the Station: https://spotthestation.nasa.gov/
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), Animation (mentioned), Video, Text, Credits: NASA/Michael Johnson/Yuri Guinart-Ramirez, Lead Increment Scientist Expeditions 55 & 56.
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