Orbiter.ch Space News: Space Station Science Highlights: Week of June 29, 2020

jeudi 2 juillet 2020

Space Station Science Highlights: Week of June 29, 2020

ISS - Expedition 63 Mission patch.

July 2, 2020

Scientific investigations conducted aboard the International Space Station during the week of June 29 included research on autonomous robot assistants, the properties of liquid metals, and the physics of neutron stars.

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:

Astrobees buzzing along

Image above: NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy works with Honey, one of three Astrobee free-flying robots the crew is testing aboard the space station. Another Astrobee, Bumble, is visible docked to a charging station to Cassidy’s right. The autonomous robots could eventually perform routine tasks and free up astronaut time for more science. Image Credit: NASA.

Crew members initiated the first autonomous operations this week for Astrobee, free-flying robots designed to help scientists and engineers develop and test technologies that can assist astronauts with routine chores and give ground controllers additional eyes and ears on the space station. Crew members have been testing capabilities of the three cube-shaped devices – named Honey, Bumble, and Queen – such as computer vision, robotic manipulation, control algorithms, and human-robot interaction. Similar robots ultimately could perform crew monitoring, scientific sampling, logistics management, and other activities and allow astronauts to focus more on science and engineering duties. The Astrobees operate autonomously but can be controlled from the ground as well. After completion of commissioning activities, Astrobee replaces the SPHERES robots that have operated on the space station for more than a decade.

Molten metal in microgravity

Materials manufactured from liquid metal could revolutionize production of future spacecraft and other hardware. Round Robin - Thermophysical Property Measurement (Round Robin), an investigation from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), examines the properties of molten metals in microgravity to improve models of flow of liquids in manufacturing processes. Many of the materials investigated currently are used to manufacture a wide range of space hardware and others are new materials that NASA and commercial space companies plan to use to make devices for exploration and colonization missions. The project also could help companies make faster, better, and lower-cost consumer products on Earth.

Image above: The International Space Station's U.S. forward segment with the SpaceX Crew Dragon vehicle (right center) docked to the Harmony module's International Docking Adapter. Adjacent to the Crew Dragon is the H-II Transfer Vehicle-9 (HTV-9) from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency attached to the Harmony module's Earth-facing port. Image Credit: NASA.

The extraordinary physics of neutron stars

Thanks to increasing automation and careful planning, a number of investigations aboard the space station require little or no crew involvement. One such investigation operating during the week, Neutron star Interior Composition Explorer (NICER), studies the extraordinary physics of neutron stars. The glowing cinders left behind when massive stars explode as supernovas, these stars are the densest objects in the universe and contain exotic states of matter impossible to replicate in any lab. They get the name “pulsar” from their bright beams of light that sweep the sky as the stars spin, making them appear to pulse. NICER also contains software for the Station Explorer for X-ray Timing and Navigation Technology (SEXTANT) demonstration, which studies using pulsars as natural beacons for a future GPS-like system for spacecraft navigation.

Image above: The International Space Station's main solar arrays drape across the Earth above the Pacific Ocean west of Hawaii. Image Credit: NASA.

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

- 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 neutron “bubble detectors” that only measure neutrons and ignore other forms of radiation.
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=874

- The Integrated Impact of Diet on Human Immune Response, the Gut Microbiota, and Nutritional Status During Adaptation to Spaceflight (Food Physiology) investigation documents the effects of dietary improvements on immune function and the gut microbiome and the ability of those improvements to support adaptation to spaceflight.
https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7870

A Power Spacewalk Outside the Space Station on This Week @NASA – June 26, 2020