The science behind and beyond Luca's mission

ESA - Beyond Mission logo.

5 February 2020

As ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano marks his 200 days in space as part of his Beyond mission, it is time to pack up a few experiments, wrap up science reports and give way to further research that will continue beyond his second spaceflight.

Science in microgravity

When Luca lands tomorrow in the steppes of Kazakhstan, he will have supported over 200 experiments, of which over 50 are European.

Together with Roscosmos’ Alexander Skvortsov and NASA’s Christina Koch, Luca will share the ride back home in the Soyuz MS-13 spacecraft with 14 radiation dosimeters and a hard drive full of data on the behavior of dusty plasmas.

Radiation devices down to Earth

Ionising radiation is an invisible hazard that poses a major health risk to people in space. Away from the protection of Earth’s magnetic field, astronauts are exposed to significantly higher doses on the International Space Station than an airline pilot or a radiology nurse.

For the last 15 years, all European astronauts have used a device called the European Crew Personal Dosimeter to measure the radiation dose during their stay in orbit. Luca wore it around his waist throughout his seven-month mission – and even during his four spacewalks.

Back on Earth, scientists will analyse the radiation levels he has been exposed to.

Space risks – Fighting radiation

Luca is also bringing back 12 passive radiation detector packages that mapped the radiation environment in Europe’s Columbus laboratory. These are part of the Dosis 3D experiment, and you can now virtually navigate through the space lab, spot the devices and check the dose measured in each location during past missions on this website.

The results will help build a clearer picture of astronauts’ radiation environment and prepare for deep-space missions to come.

Columbus cartoon: Episode 14

Farewells

Last week, a Cygnus space freighter departed the Space Station after nearly three months with hardware from two other European experiments.

The disposal of cables from the Vessel-ID experiment marks the end of an era for this long-running  technology demonstration. Outside the Columbus laboratory, the Vessel-ID antenna has been receiving shipping signals since June 2010, and even helped save the life of a Norwegian sailor caught in violent sea weather.

Outside the Columbus laboratory, the Vessel-ID antenna has been receiving shipping signals since June 2010 and even helped save the life of a Norwegian sailor caught in violent sea weather.

ISS Benefits for Humanity: Found at Sea

Luca deactivated the experiment on Friday 25 October 2019. A successor is ready for launch on a cubesat this year.

Floating around in weightlessness, astronauts lose muscle function and bone mass. Myotones is an experiment designed to measure the muscle tone, stiffness and elasticity.

Christina Koch with science freezer

Christina Koch was the second astronaut to take part in this research, and the first female test subject. Scans of her muscle resting tone, blood draws and ultrasound imaging are helping scientists gain a better picture of what happened to her body in space.

Used Myotones consumables, mainly for blood sampling, were disposed during Cygnus’ destructive reentry into Earth’s atmosphere.

Wrapping up

Luca wrapped up the final sessions of several experiments covering nutrition, time perception, energy balance and motor adaptation in space. The astronaut completed all tests for the Time, Acoustic Diagnostics, NutrISS, Grip and Grasp experiments.

Columbus Flight Director during Myotones experiment

Running in the background were two small cubes with ambitious goals. ESA’s first commercial facility for research on the International Space Station, ICE Cubes, is looking into contingency measures against the impacts of space radiation and enhancing cybersecurity for future space missions, while maintaining an interactive art installation.

In the final reports, scientists on ground and User Support and Operation Centres throughout Europe reiterated their “big thank you” to Luca and the other astronauts for “their commitment to science and the high quality of the data we have received.”

To be continued

Other experiments that will continue to run unattended after Luca’s departure are collecting bacteria for cleaner spacecraft, monitoring thunderstorms from space and understanding heat transfer in space bubbles.

Related links:

Dusty plasmas: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/Research/Plasma_Kristall

Invisible hazard: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/The_radiation_showstopper_for_Mars_exploration

Dosis 3D experiment: https://dosis-3d-data-viewer.thinkspaceconsulting.com/

Vessel-ID: http://www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Space_Engineering_Technology/Space_station_tracks_months-long_voyages_of_ships_at_sea

Myotones: http://blogs.esa.int/alexander-gerst/2018/07/05/testing-the-tone-with-myotones/

NutrISS: https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2019/09/NutrISS_experiment

Time: https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2018/06/Lost_in_time

Grip: http://blogs.esa.int/alexander-gerst/2018/06/21/deutsch-fingerfertigkeit-im-all/

ICE Cubes: https://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/Research/Ice_Cubes_cool_new_commercial_opportunity_on_the_International_Space_Station

User Support and Operation Centres: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/Columbus/User_Support_and_Operations_Centres_USOCs

Collecting bacteria: https://www.esa.int/ESA_Multimedia/Images/2019/05/Matiss-2_experiment_on_the_Space_Station

Monitoring thunderstorms: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/Research/Atmosphere_Space_Interactions_Monitor

Space bubbles: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/Research/Bubbles_in_space

Human and Robotic Exploration: http://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration

International Space Station (ISS): https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/International_Space_Station

Images, Video, Text, Credits: ESA/NASA/Ed Grace.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Rosetta and the chameleon comet

ESA - Rosetta Mission patch.

5 February 2020

A grand synthesis of Rosetta data has shown how its target comet repeatedly changed colour during the two years it was watched by the spacecraft. The chameleon comet’s nucleus became progressively less red as it made its close pass around the Sun, and then red again as it returned to deep space.

Colour changes at Rosetta's comet

Just like a chameleon changes its colour depending on its environment, so too did comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Unlike a chameleon, the colour changes on 67P/C-G reflect the amount of water ice that is exposed on the surface and in the surroundings of the comet.

At the beginning of Rosetta’s mission, the spacecraft rendezvoused with the comet while it was still a long way from the Sun. At such distances, the surface was covered in layers of dust and little ice was visible. This meant the surface appeared red when analysed with the VIRTIS (Visible and Infrared Thermal Imaging Spectrometer) instrument.

Comet on 7 July 2015 – NavCam

As the comet drew closer it crossed an important boundary, known as the frost line. Occurring at a distance around three times further from the Sun than the Earth, anything within the frostline will be heated sufficiently by the Sun that the ice will turn into a gas, a process called sublimation.

As Rosetta followed 67P/C-G across the frostline, VIRTIS began to notice the colour of the comet change. As the comet approached the Sun, the heating increased and the hidden water ice began to sublime pushing away the dust grains too. This revealed layers of pristine ice, which made the nucleus turn bluer in colour as seen by VIRTIS.

Around the comet’s nucleus, the situation was reversed. When the comet was far from the Sun, there was little dust surrounding the comet, but what there was contained water ice and so appeared bluer. This surrounding dust cloud is called the coma.

Colour changes at Rosetta's comet

As the comet crossed the frostline, the ice in the dust grains surrounding the nucleus sublimed quickly, leaving just the dehydrated dust grains. And so the coma turned redder as it approached perihelion, its closest approach to the Sun.

Once the comet was heading back into the outer solar system, VIRTIS showed the colour situation reverse again, so the nucleus became redder and the coma bluer.

To track the way the comet evolved, the VIRTIS team had to analyse more than 4000 separate observations spanning across two years of the Rosetta mission.

“To answer the big question of how does a comet work it is very important to have a long time series such as this,” says Gianrico Filacchione from Italy’s INAF-IAPS Istituto di Astrofisica e Planetologia Spaziali, who led the study.

The reason is that comets are extremely dynamic environments. Jets tend to swiftly appear on their surfaces and then decrease just as suddenly. Therefore, comparing occasional snap shots risks our understanding of the comet’s long-term evolution being biased by the transient changes. Having such a large quantity of measurements, however, means that even short timescale changes can be tracked.

Comet on 5 August 2014 - NavCam

This is because ground observations cannot resolve a comet’s nucleus, which in the case of 67P/CG is only about 3 km in size. Now that the team can describe and understand both the long-term evolution of the comet, and the steps it took along the way, it means that the readings from the other instruments onboard Rosetta can be placed into context.

But that does not mean we know everything about comets. Spectral analysis shows that the red colour of the dust is created by so-called organic molecules. These are molecules made of carbon, and there is a rich variety of them on the comet. Scientists believe that they are important for understanding how life formed on Earth.

In order to study them up close and identify these molecules, however, would require a sample of the comet’s surface to be returned to Earth.

“Bringing back to Earth a piece of the comet is really the Holy Grail for a cometary mission,” says Gianrico.

Until that is possible, however, he will continue to use the VIRTIS data to investigate 67P/C-G’s organics.

“There are definitely more exciting results to come,” says Matt Taylor, ESA Project Scientist for Rosetta, “The data collection may be over, but the analysis and the results will continue for years yet, adding to the rich legacy of cometary knowledge provided by Rosetta.”

“The correlation of what is happening on the nucleus is something completely new that cannot be done from Earth,” says Gianrico.

Notes for editors:

“An orbital water-ice cycle on comet 67P from colour changes,” by G. Filacchione et al is published in Nature.

Related links:

Visible and Infrared Thermal Imaging Spectrometer (VIRTIS): https://sci.esa.int/web/rosetta/-/35061-instruments?section=virtis-visible-and-infrared-thermal-imaging-spectrometer

Rosetta: http://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Space_Science/Rosetta

Images, Text, Credits: ESA/Matt Taylor/Rosetta/NAVCAM – CC BY-SA IGO 3.0/INAF-IAPS, Institute for Space Astrophysics and Planetology/Fabrizio Capaccioni/Gianrico Filacchione.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

NASA's ECOSTRESS Mission Sees Plants 'Waking Up' From Space

ISS - ECOSTRESS Mission logo.

February 5, 2020

Like many people, plants are less active at night. The agency's 'space botanist' can see when they begin to stir, and start their day.

Image above: The image shows plants "waking up" near Lake Superior. Red areas began to wake up at around 7 a.m. local time; green areas awoke around 8 a.m.; and blue areas, at about 9 a.m. The data was acquired by ECOSTRESS during the summer season.

Although plants don't sleep in the same way humans do, they have circadian rhythms - internal clocks that, like our own internal clocks, tell them when it's night and when it's day. And like many people, plants are less active at night. When the Sun comes up, they kick into gear, absorbing sunlight to convert carbon dioxide they draw from the air and water they draw from the soil into food, a process called photosynthesis. They also "sweat" excess water through pores on their leaves to cool themselves down, a process called evapotranspiration.

NASA's ECOsystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer on Space Station (ECOSTRESS) can see when plants "wake up" and begin these processes from space. The image above shows plants waking up (as evidenced by evapotranspiration) west of Lake Superior near the U.S.-Canada border. Plants in the red and pink areas began to awake at around 7 a.m. local time. Those in green areas awoke closer to 8 a.m., and those in blue areas, closer to 9 a.m.

ECOSTRESS launched to the International Space Station in June 2018. The space station's unique orbit enables the instrument to capture data over the same areas at different times of day. When the mission team analyzes the data, they gain new insight into how plants behave throughout the course of a day.

International Space Station (ISS)

For this image, the mission team collected and combined all of ECOSTRESS's morning data for the summer season. In doing so, they observed that the earliest risers were near the lake, with plant activity spreading gradually northwestward as the morning progressed.

ECOSTRESS' ability to detect plant behavior in this way can be especially helpful to resource managers and farmers, who can use the data to determine how much water their crops need, which ones are most water-efficient and which ones aren't getting enough water, even before they show visible signs of dehydration. What's more, the instrument can provide this data on a global scale over areas as small as a football field.

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, built and manages the ECOSTRESS mission for the Earth Science Division in the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington. ECOSTRESS is an Earth Venture Instrument mission; the program is managed by NASA's Earth System Science Pathfinder program at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.

Related link:

Evapotranspiration: https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/10926

More information about ECOSTRESS is available here: https://ecostress.jpl.nasa.gov

Image, Animation, Text, Credits: NASA/Written by Esprit Smith, NASA's Earth Science News team/JPL/Rexana Vizza.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

ALMA catches beautiful outcome of stellar fight

ALMA - Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array logo.

5 February 2020

ALMA image of HD101584

Astronomers using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), in which ESO is a partner, have spotted a peculiar gas cloud that resulted from a confrontation between two stars. One star grew so large it engulfed the other which, in turn, spiralled towards its partner provoking it into shedding its outer layers.

Like humans, stars change with age and ultimately die. For the Sun and stars like it, this change will take it through a phase where, having burned all the hydrogen in its core, it swells up into a large and bright red-giant star. Eventually, the dying Sun will lose its outer layers, leaving behind its core: a hot and dense star called a white dwarf.

Location of HD101584 in the constellation of Centaurus

“The star system HD101584 is special in the sense that this ‘death process’ was terminated prematurely and dramatically as a nearby low-mass companion star was engulfed by the giant,” said Hans Olofsson of the Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden, who led a recent study, published in Astronomy & Astrophysics, of this intriguing object.

Thanks to new observations with ALMA, complemented by data from the ESO-operated Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment (APEX), Olofsson and his team now know that what happened in the double-star system HD101584 was akin to a stellar fight. As the main star puffed up into a red giant, it grew large enough to swallow its lower-mass partner. In response, the smaller star spiralled in towards the giant’s core but didn’t collide with it. Rather, this manoeuvre triggered the larger star into an outburst, leaving its gas layers dramatically scattered and its core exposed.

Wide-field view of the region of the sky where HD101584 is located

The team says the complex structure of the gas in the HD101584 nebula is due to the smaller star’s spiralling towards the red giant, as well as to the jets of gas that formed in this process. As a deadly blow to the already defeated gas layers, these jets blasted through the previously ejected material, forming the rings of gas and the bright bluish and reddish blobs seen in the nebula.

A silver lining of a stellar fight is that it helps astronomers to better understand the final evolution of stars like the Sun. “Currently, we can describe the death processes common to many Sun-like stars, but we cannot explain why or exactly how they happen. HD101584 gives us important clues to solve this puzzle since it is currently in a short transitional phase between better studied evolutionary stages. With detailed images of the environment of HD101584 we can make the connection between the giant star it was before, and the stellar remnant it will soon become,” says co-author Sofia Ramstedt from Uppsala University, Sweden.

Co-author Elizabeth Humphreys from ESO in Chile highlighted that ALMA and APEX, located in the country’s Atacama region, were crucial to enabling the team to probe “both the physics and chemistry in action” in the gas cloud. She added: “This stunning image of the circumstellar environment of HD101584 would not have been possible without the exquisite sensitivity and angular resolution provided by ALMA.”

While current telescopes allow astronomers to study the gas around the binary, the two stars at the centre of the complex nebula are too close together and too far away to be resolved. ESO’s Extremely Large Telescope, under construction in Chile’s Atacama Desert, “will provide information on the ‘heart’ of the object,” says Olofsson, allowing astronomers a closer look at the fighting pair.

Zooming into HD101584

More information:

This research was presented in a paper published in Astronomy & Astrophysics.

The team is composed of H. Olofsson (Department of Space, Earth and Environment, Chalmers University of Technology, Onsala Space Observatory, Sweden [Chalmers]), T. Khouri (Chalmers), M. Maercker (Chalmers), P. Bergman (Chalmers), L. Doan (Department of Physics and Astronomy, Uppsala University, Sweden [Uppsala]), D. Tafoya (National Astronomical Observatory of Japan), W. H. T. Vlemmings (Chalmers), E. M. L. Humphreys (European Southern Observatory [ESO], Garching, Germany), M. Lindqvist (Chalmers), L. Nyman (ESO, Santiago, Chile), and S. Ramstedt (Uppsala).

The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), an international astronomy facility, is a partnership of ESO, the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) of Japan in cooperation with the Republic of Chile. ALMA is funded by ESO on behalf of its Member States, by NSF in cooperation with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) and the National Science Council of Taiwan (NSC) and by NINS in cooperation with the Academia Sinica (AS) in Taiwan and the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI). ALMA construction and operations are led by ESO on behalf of its Member States; by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO), managed by Associated Universities, Inc. (AUI), on behalf of North America; and by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) on behalf of East Asia. The Joint ALMA Observatory (JAO) provides the unified leadership and management of the construction, commissioning and operation of ALMA.

ESO is the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation in Europe and the world’s most productive ground-based astronomical observatory by far. It has 16 Member States: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, along with the host state of Chile and with Australia as a Strategic Partner. ESO carries out an ambitious programme focused on the design, construction and operation of powerful ground-based observing facilities enabling astronomers to make important scientific discoveries. ESO also plays a leading role in promoting and organising cooperation in astronomical research. ESO operates three unique world-class observing sites in Chile: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope and its world-leading Very Large Telescope Interferometer as well as two survey telescopes, VISTA working in the infrared and the visible-light VLT Survey Telescope. Also at Paranal ESO will host and operate the Cherenkov Telescope Array South, the world’s largest and most sensitive gamma-ray observatory. ESO is also a major partner in two facilities on Chajnantor, APEX and ALMA, the largest astronomical project in existence. And on Cerro Armazones, close to Paranal, ESO is building the 39-metre Extremely Large Telescope, the ELT, which will become “the world’s biggest eye on the sky”.

Links:

ESOcast 216 Light: ALMA Catches Beautiful Outcome of Stellar Fight
https://www.eso.org/public/videos/eso2002a/

Research paper: https://www.eso.org/public/archives/releases/sciencepapers/eso2002/eso2002a.pdf

Photos of ALMA: https://www.eso.org/public/images/archive/search/?adv=&subject_name=Atacama%20Large%20Millimeter/submillimeter%20Array

Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA): https://www.eso.org/public/teles-instr/alma/

Atacama Pathfinder EXperiment (APEX): https://www.eso.org/public/teles-instr/apex/

Images, Text, Credits: ALMA/ESO/NAOJ/NRAO, Olofsson et al. Acknowledgement: Robert Cumming/IAU and Sky & Telescope/Digitized Sky Survey 2. Acknowledgement: Davide De Martin/ESO/Bárbara Ferreira/Elizabeth Humphreys/Chalmers University of Technology Onsala/Hans Olofsson/Uppsala University/Sofia Ramstedt/Video: ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), Olofsson et al. Acknowledgement: Robert Cumming; N. Risinger (skysurvey.org), Digitized Sky Survey 2. Music: Astral Electronic.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Station Crew Splits Up Thursday before Next Cargo Mission

ISS - Expedition 61 Mission patch.

February 4, 2020

The crew aboard the International Space Station is preparing to split up while also getting ready for a U.S. space delivery.

NASA astronaut Christina Koch is packing up and cleaning her crew quarters today ahead of her return to Earth early Thursday. She will board the Soyuz MS-13 crew ship on Wednesday about 9:30 p.m. EST with crewmates Alexander Skvortsov of Roscosmos and Luca Parmitano of ESA (European Space Agency).

Image above: Clockwise from left are, NASA astronauts Christina Koch, Andrew Morgan and Jessica Meir and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Luca Parmitano. Parmitano is the Expedition 61 Commander leading Flight Engineers Koch, Morgan and Meir aboard the International Space Station. Image Credit: NASA.

The trio will undock Thursday at 12:50 a.m. then parachute to a landing in Kazakhstan at 4:12 a.m. (3:12 p.m. Kazakh time). NASA TV and ESA Web TV begins its live coverage Wednesday at 9 p.m. when the departing crew says farewell to their station counterparts and closes the Soyuz hatch.

Image above: Soyuz MS spacecraft infographic - Modules and Specs. Image Credit: ESA.

This will cap a 328-day-long mission for Koch that began on March 14. She is now in second place for the single longest spaceflight by a U.S. astronaut surpassed only by former astronaut Scott Kelly with 340 days during his final station mission.

Expedition 62 will officially begin when Koch and her Expedition 61 crewmates undock from the Poisk module. Continuing their stay in space will be Commander Oleg Skripochka of Roscosmos and NASA Flight Engineers Jessica Meir and Andrew Morgan. They will end their stay aboard the orbiting lab and return to Earth in April.

Image above: Soyuz MS-13 docked at the Inaternational Space Station (ISS). Image Credits: ESA/L. Parmitano, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

Meir and Morgan are getting ready for another mission that begins Sunday when Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus cargo craft lifts off at 5:39 p.m. It will rendezvous with the station Tuesday where the duo will be in the cupola to capture Cygnus at 3:30 a.m. with the Canadarm2 robotic arm.

Ground controllers will then remotely command the Canadarm2 to install Cygnus to the Unity module where it will stay for 90 days. Cygnus will be delivering over 8,000 pounds of new research gear and crew supplies.

Related links:

Expedition 61: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition61/index.html

Expedition 62: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition62/index.html

Soyuz MS-13: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/soyuz-launches-arrivals-and-departures/

Poisk module: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/poisk-mini-research-module-2

NASA TV: https://www.nasa.gov/live

ESA’s Web TV: https://www.esa.int/esawebtv.esa.int

Canadarm2: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/mobile-servicing-system.html

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), Text, Credits: NASA/Mark Garcia.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Astronaut Christina Koch’s Space Station Science Scrapbook

ISS - International Space Station patch.

Feb. 3, 2020

After almost a year in space, NASA astronaut Christina Koch is coming home. When Koch returns to Earth, she will have lived in space for 328 days, setting the record for the longest single spaceflight by a woman. On Dec. 28, 2019, she surpassed the previous record of 288 days held by NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson. Her extended mission will provide researchers the opportunity to observe effects of long-duration spaceflight on a woman as the agency plans to return to the Moon under the Artemis program and prepare for human exploration at Mars. During this record-setting mission, Koch spent many of her hours on science activities aboard the space station and wore many hats: farmer, biologist, physicist, engineer, test subject and many more.

Christina Koch - Space Station Scientist

Here is a look back at Koch’s efforts as she conducted research in microgravity on Mizuna mustard greens, combustion, bioprinting and kidney diseases, among others.

Official portrait of NASA astronaut Christina Koch. Image Credit: NASA

Human Health and Performance

Astronauts facilitate and conduct numerous experiments during their missions, and they also are experiments themselves, helping us understand how the human body adapts to spaceflight. Investigations in which Koch participated as a research subject volunteer are helping provide standard baseline measurements with better health data from space that will allow researchers to compare data more accurately; evaluate strategies for improved individual and team performance; and ensure astronauts maintain healthy immune systems. Here, Koch is helping store samples for a Human Research Program experiment.

Space Crop Production

Astronauts grew leafy greens frequently during Koch’s time aboard. She conducted a number of botany studies in microgravity that will help us better understand the role of gravity and the spaceflight environment on plant biology at many levels: cellular, tissue, whole plant and community. In the bottom picture, Koch collects and packs Mizuna mustard greens grown in space. Some of the leaves were consumed by the crew as a taste test, while the rest were stowed in a science freezer for analysis on Earth. In addition to providing fresh food for the crew, results of this research will help engineers to design improved sustainable biological life support systems.

New Robotic Partners

Inside Japan's Kibo laboratory module, Koch monitors a test of the free-flying Astrobee robotic assistant. Astrobee is designed to help scientists and engineers develop and test new technologies to assist astronauts with routine chores, and give ground controllers additional eyes and ears on the space station. The set of three autonomous robots, powered by fans and vision-based navigation, perform crew monitoring, take environmental samples and assist logistics management on the orbiting laboratory.

Keeping the Flames Burning

Koch works on the Advanced Combustion via Microgravity Experiments (ACME) Chamber insert, which is attached to the maintenance work area for hardware replacement. ACME is a set of five independent studies researching how fire behaves in space with the goal of improving fuel efficiency, reducing pollutant production in combustion on Earth and preventing spacecraft fires. The crew members set up the hardware, gas bottles, etc. for each set of tests, which scientists run from Earth at NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio.

Studying Kidney Health

Although serious medical conditions caused by poor kidney health – including osteoporosis and kidney stones – could occur during spaceflight, none of these has been observed during long-duration missions. Here Koch works inside the Life Sciences Glovebox conducting research for the Kidney Cells investigation that seeks innovative treatments for kidney stones, osteoporosis and toxic chemical exposures. This experiment examines how kidney health is affected by microgravity and other factors of space travel, including water conservation and recycling, and altered diets. The results of these studies will help protect the health of astronauts and contribute to better treatments for kidney-related conditions on Earth.

One of the Coldest Places in the Universe

Koch floats through the station with science hardware in tow. The equipment is stowed inside a cargo transfer bag retrieved from the SpaceX Dragon resupply ship. The hardware is part of the Cold Atom Laboratory that produces clouds of atoms chilled to about one ten billionth of a degree above absolute zero: much colder than the average temperature of deep space. At these low temperatures, atoms have almost no motion, allowing scientists to study fundamental behaviors and quantum characteristics that are difficult or impossible to probe at higher temperatures.

The Window to the World

Here Koch looks through the station's "window to the world," the seven-windowed cupola. She was photographing landmarks as the orbiting lab flew 259 miles above the Pacific Ocean off the coast of South America. While astronauts look out this window for fun, they also use it to make valuable Earth observations such as unexpected weather events, which robotic sensing platforms cannot capture. The station is home to many Earth observation experiments and some of the highest quality optics ever flown on a human-occupied spacecraft. For example, the International Space Station Agricultural Camera (ISSAC) collected data from the red and near-infrared bands of the light spectrum to reveal changes in vegetation on the northern Great Plains far below.

Mixing It Up

Here Koch checks out hardware for the Capillary Structures experiment. The investigation studies a new method of using structures of specific shapes to manage fluid and gas mixtures for more reliable life support systems on future space missions. Capillary systems can be simpler to use than current water-purification and air-cleaning systems because they rely on specific geometric shapes and fluid dynamics rather than complex machinery. Similar technology also could be used in water recovery systems, desalination plants and other facilities on Earth.

Getting a Closer Look

Koch uses a microscope to observe and photograph growing protein crystal samples as part of the Microgravity Crystals experiment. Protein crystals grown in microgravity are larger and more organized than those grown on Earth in the presence of gravity. Understanding how and why this is can help researchers from all fields better develop, formulate, manufacture and store various products, including pharmaceuticals.

Printing Tissue

The BioFabrication Facility installed during Koch’s time on station will be tested for its ability to print organ-like tissues, taking a step toward proving the viability of making human organs in space. The orbiting laboratory is a great place to perform this type of research because printing the tiny, complex structures found inside human organs, such as capillary structures, may be done easier in microgravity since it has proven difficult so far to accomplish in Earth’s gravity environment.

Ready for Deployment

Koch works inside Japan's Kibo laboratory module setting up a small satellite deployer loaded with three CubeSats developed by the nations of Japan, Rwanda and Egypt. The deployer was placed inside Kibo's airlock before the Japanese robotic arm grappled it and moved it outside Kibo where it ejected all three CubeSats into Earth orbit.

Related links:

Christina Koch: https://www.nasa.gov/astronauts/biographies/christina-hammock-koch/biography

Astrobee: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Facility.html?#id=1891

Advanced Combustion via Microgravity Experiments (ACME): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=1651

How fire behaves in space: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/combustion-research-microgravity-clean-burning-fuel-space-station

Kidney Cells: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7819

Cold Atom Laboratory: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Facility.html?#id=7396

International Space Station Agricultural Camera (ISSAC): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=79

Capillary Structures: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7329

Microgravity Crystals: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7977

BioFabrication Facility: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Facility.html?#id=7599

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, Video, Text, Credits: NASA/Michael Johnson/JSC/International Space Station Program Science Office/Morgan Re.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Station Preps for Crew Departure and New U.S. Cargo Ship

ISS - Expedition 61 Mission patch.

February 3, 2020

NASA astronaut Christina Koch and two fellow Expedition 61 crewmembers are in their final week aboard the International Space Station. The other three lab residents are gearing up for next week’s arrival of a U.S. space freighter.

Koch will wrap up a 328-day mission aboard the orbiting lab on Thursday. Koch blasted off to join the station crew on March 14 with Expedition 59-60 crewmates Nick Hague and Alexey Ovchinin. Hague and Ovchinin have since returned home on Oct. 3.

Image above: NASA astronaut Christina Koch works on the Cold Atom Lab that enables research into the quantum effects of gases chilled lower than the average temperature of the universe. Image Credit: NASA.

Koch will land in Kazakhstan Thursday at 4:12 a.m. EST (3:12 p.m. Kazakh time) aboard the Soyuz MS-13 crew ship with Alexander Skvortsov of Roscosmos and Luca Parmitano of ESA (European Space Agency). Skvortsov and Parmitano began their mission with NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan on July 20. Morgan is due to return to Earth in April.

When Koch lands, her mission-stay will be second only to former astronaut Scott Kelly. He lived aboard the station for 340 continuous days for the single longest spaceflight by a U.S. astronaut.

She and her two homebound crewmates prepared today for the flight back to Earth. The trio familiarized themselves with the return procedures and the gravity loads they will experience upon reentering Earth’s atmosphere.

Image above: Flying over Arctic Ocean, near Australia, seen by EarthCam on ISS, speed: 27'549 Km/h, altitude: 432,82 Km, image captured by Roland Berga (on Earth in Switzerland) from International Space Station (ISS) using ISS-HD Live Now application with EarthCam's from ISS on February 3, 2020 at 15:27 UTC. Image Credits: Orbiter.ch Aerospace/Roland Berga.

Expedition 62 officially begins when Koch and her crewmates undock Thursday at 12:50 a.m. Morgan and fellow NASA astronaut Jessica Meir will continue their stay in space with Commander Oleg Skripochka of Roscosmos.

Meir and Morgan are getting ready for the next Cygnus space freighter and its cargo of several tons of science experiments and crew supplies. Cygnus will launch Sunday at 5:39 p.m. and rendezvous with the station two days later for a robotic capture at 4:30 a.m.

Related links:

Expedition 61: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition61/index.html

Expedition 62: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition62/index.html

Soyuz MS-13 crew ship: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/soyuz-launches-arrivals-and-departures/

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), Text, Credits: NASA/Mark Garcia.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch