Orbiter.ch Space News: Space Station Science Highlights: Week of June 22, 2020

vendredi 26 juin 2020

Space Station Science Highlights: Week of June 22, 2020

ISS - Expedition 63 Mission patch.

June 26, 2020

Crew members aboard the International Space Station conducted research on liquid phase sintering in space, measuring neutron radiation aboard the station, and the properties of wet foam during the week of June 22.

Image above: This image of Earth taken from the space station shows a Saharan dust cloud that has blown over the Atlantic Ocean nearing the Caribbean Sea. The Progress 74 resupply ship from Russia is in the left foreground. Image Credit: NASA.

Now in its 20th year of continuous human presence, the space station provides a platform for long-duration research in microgravity and for learning to live and work in space. NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, once again launching astronauts on American rockets and spacecraft from American soil, increases the crew time available for science on the orbiting lab.

Here are details on some of the microgravity investigations currently taking place:

Sintering space exploration materials

Image above: NASA astronaut Doug Hurley works on operations for the Electrolysis Measurement investigation, which examines the influence of gravity on electrolytic gas evolution. Animation Credit: NASA.

The crew exchanged cartridges to run the Materials Science Laboratory Sample Cartridge Assembly-Gravitational Effects on Distortion in Sintering (MSL SCA-GEDS-German) investigation. Sintering is the process of heating different materials to compress their particles together. Liquid phase sintering is a way to fabricate materials for a wide range of applications such as tools and automotive engine parts. In the future, the process could be used for in-space fabrication and repair, making replacement components from metal powder during extraterrestrial exploration, and fabricating structures on the Moon using lunar regolith. This experiment focuses on forecasting density, size, shape, and properties for liquid phase sintered bodies in different gravity conditions.

Image above: Example of a liquid phase sintered tungsten alloy. The MSL SCA-GEDS-German investigation looks at forecasting density, size, shape, and properties for liquid phase sintered bodies in different gravity conditions. Image Credit: San Diego State University.

Rating radiation risk

Neutrons produced when cosmic rays strike the atoms of a spacecraft or the human body can pose a risk to the health of astronauts. An investigation from the Canadian Space Agency, Radi-N2 Neutron Field Study (Radi-N2), characterizes the neutron radiation environment aboard the space station using eight bubble detectors that measure only this type of radiation. During the week, crew members deployed detectors for the investigation, which are attached at fixed locations inside the space station and carried by a crew member.

Radi-N2 follows a previous investigation, RaDI-N, to help reveal the sources of neutron exposure and support development of appropriate protective measures for future spaceflights.

Watching bubbles grow and rearrange

Image above: Image from a run of the Electrolysis Measurement investigation examining the influence of gravity on electrolytic gas evolution. The process passes an electric current through a substance to separate out gases in the form of bubbles and could be used in microfluidic devices to produce oxygen in spacecraft and future human habitations on the Moon and Mars. Image Credit: NASA.

Solid and liquid foams are used in everything from detergents to food products, medicine, oil cleanup, and firefighting. On Earth, it is difficult to study foams because gravity quickly breaks them down, but that problem goes away in microgravity. Using the Fluid Science Laboratory (FSL), a multiuser facility designed by the ESA (European Space Agency) for conducting fluid physics research in microgravity, FSL Soft Matter Dynamics - Hydrodynamics of Wet Foams (FOAM) studies bubble size and rearrangement dynamics for wet or liquid foams. A better understanding of those properties could help industry improve processes using foams. During the week, crew members exchanged sample containers for the ESA investigation.

Other investigations on which the crew performed work:

- Capillary forces, the interaction of a liquid with the solid sides of a narrow tube that acts to draw the fluid up the tube, act even in the absence of gravity. Capillary Driven Microfluidics examines capillary flow in small devices to improve understanding of how it works in microgravity. Microfluidic devices could be used to develop more portable, robust, and affordable medical diagnostic tools to protect the health of astronauts on future long-term missions.
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7377

- Electrolytic Gas Evolution Under Microgravity (Electrolysis Measurement) examines the influence of gravity on electrolytic gas evolution. This process, which uses electrodes to pass an electric current through a substance and separate out gases in the form of bubbles, could be used in microfluidic devices to produce oxygen in spacecraft and future human habitations on the Moon and Mars.
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=1939

- Acoustic Diagnostics, an investigation sponsored by ESA (European Space Agency), tests the hearing of crew members before, during, and after flight to assess possible adverse effects of noise and the microgravity environment of the space station.
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7898

- Plasma Kristall-4 (PK-4), a collaboration between the ESA (European Space Agency) and the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), studies complex plasmas, low temperature gaseous mixtures of ionized gas, neutral gas, and micron-sized particles. The particles can become highly charged and interact with each other, leading to self-organized structures called plasma crystals.
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=1192

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