ISS - Expedition 65 Mission patch.
September 20, 2021
Expedition 65 is kicking off the week with a host of space biology and robotics activities aboard the International Space Station today.
International Space Station (ISS), flying over the Earth. Animation Credit: NASA
Five astronauts out of the seven crewmates who comprise the space station crew joined each other today for a review of upcoming research operations with rodents. The quintet reviewed roles and procedures for the study to learn how microgravity affects normal skin and healing functions. The astronauts will take turns transferring the mice from the Mouse Habitat Unit to the Life Science Glovebox for observation.
Full-fledged operations for the Rodent Research-1 Demonstration will begin Tuesday and continue before the SpaceX Cargo Dragon returns to Earth with the rodents on Sept. 30. NASA Flight Engineers Megan McArthur and Shane Kimbrough will trade shifts on Tuesday with Commander Akihiko Hoshide of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and Flight Engineer Thomas Pesquet of ESA (European Space Agency). NASA Flight Engineer Mark Vande Hei will also contribute to the experiment later in the week.
Image above: The prominent city lights of Europe from Amsterdam to Paris and London across the English Channel are pictured from the space station. Image Credit: NASA.
Kimbrough started Monday checking out and activating the toaster-sized Astrobee robotic fee-flyers in cooperation with engineers on the ground. Hoshide began his day extracting DNA from microbe samples for sequencing to understand the microbial environment of the station. McArthur replaced fuel bottles inside the Combustion Integrated Rack. Pesquet set up student-controlled Earth observation hardware then cleaned up debris to support the Plant Habitat-04 space crop experiment.
Cosmonauts Oleg Novitskiy and Pyotr Dubrov are continuing to set up hardware, including cables and laptop computers, inside the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module. The new gear will enable the crew to control the European Robotic Arm from both inside and outside the station. The duo then split up Monday afternoon for Russian communications work and life support maintenance.
Related links:
Expedition 65: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition65/index.html
Mouse Habitat Unit: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Facility.html?#id=1537
Life Science Glovebox: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Facility.html?#id=7676
Rodent Research-1 Demonstration: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=8584
Astrobee: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Facility.html?#id=1891
Microbial environment: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=8372
Combustion Integrated Rack: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Facility.html?#id=317
Earth observation hardware: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=87
Plant Habitat-04: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=8276
Space Station Research and Technology: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/overview.html
International Space Station (ISS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html
Image (mentioned), Animation (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Norah Moran.
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