samedi 20 août 2022

Dragon Splashes Down With Scientific Cargo for Analysis

 







SpaceX - Dragon CRS-25 Mission patch.


August 20, 2022


Image above: Aug. 19, 2022: International Space Station Configuration. Four spaceships are docked at the space station including the SpaceX Crew Dragon Freedom and Russia’s Soyuz MS-21 crew ship and the Progress 80 and 81 resupply ships. Image Credit: NASA.

SpaceX’s uncrewed Dragon cargo spacecraft splashed down at 2:53 p.m. EDT Saturday, Aug. 20, north of Cape Canaveral off the Florida coast, marking the return of the company’s 25th contracted cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station for NASA. The spacecraft carried more than 4,000 pounds of valuable scientific experiments and other cargo back to Earth.

Dragon cargo splashes down. Animation Credit: NASA

Some of the scientific investigations returned by Dragon include:

- Space’s impact on materials: The Materials International Space Station Experiment-15-NASA (MISSE-15-NASA) experiment tests, qualifies, and quantifies the impact of the low-Earth orbit environment on new materials and components, such as spacecraft materials and wearable radiation protection. Successful experiment results could have applications both in the harsh environments of space and on Earth.

- Spacesuit cooling: Spacesuit Evaporation Rejection Flight Experiment (SERFE) demonstrates a new technology using water evaporation to remove heat from spacesuits and maintain appropriate temperatures for crew members and equipment during spacewalks. The investigation determines whether microgravity affects performance and evaluates the technology’s effect on contamination and corrosion of spacesuit material.

- Cell signaling in microgravity: The ESA (European Space Agency) sponsored investigation Bioprint FirstAid Handheld Bioprinter (Bioprint FirstAid) enables the rapid use of formerly prepared bio-inks, containing the patient’s own cells, to form a band-aid patch in the case of injury.

Related article:

Dragon Departs Station to Return Scientific Cargo to Earth
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2022/08/dragon-departs-station-to-return.html

Related links:

Experiment-15-NASA (MISSE-15-NASA): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=8585

Spacesuit Evaporation Rejection Flight Experiment (SERFE): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7514

Bioprint FirstAid Handheld Bioprinter (Bioprint FirstAid): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=8552

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/Mark Garcia.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch