Rocks Here Sequester Some of Mars' Early Atmosphere

NASA - Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) logo.

Sep. 2, 2015

This view combines information from two instruments on NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to map color-coded composition over the shape of the ground in a small portion of the Nili Fossae plains region of Mars' northern hemisphere.

This site is part of the largest known carbonate-rich deposit on Mars. In the color coding used for this map, green indicates a carbonate-rich composition, brown indicates olivine-rich sands, and purple indicates basaltic composition.

Carbon dioxide from the atmosphere on early Mars reacted with surface rocks to form carbonate, thinning the atmosphere by sequestering the carbon in the rocks.

An analysis of the amount of carbon contained in Nili Fossae plains estimated the total at no more than twice the amount of carbon in the modern atmosphere of Mars, which is mostly carbon dioxide. That is much more than in all other known carbonate on Mars, but far short of enough to explain how Mars could have had a thick enough atmosphere to keep surface water from freezing during a period when rivers were cutting extensive valley networks on the Red Planet. Other possible explanations for the change from an era with rivers to dry modern Mars are being investigated.

This image covers an area approximately 1.4 miles (2.3 kilometers) wide.  A scale bar indicates 500 meters (1,640 feet).  The full extent of the carbonate-containing deposit in the region is at least as large as Delaware and perhaps as large as Arizona.

The color coding is from data acquired by the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM), in observation FRT0000C968 made on Sept. 19, 2008.  The base map showing land shapes is from the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (HiRISE) camera. It is one product from HiRISE observation ESP_010351_2020, made July 20, 2013. Other products from that observation are online at http://www.uahirise.org/ESP_032728_2020.

The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has been using CRISM, HiRISE and four other instruments to investigate Mars since 2006. The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Laurel, Maryland, led the work to build the CRISM instrument and operates CRISM in coordination with an international team of researchers from universities, government and the private sector. HiRISE is operated by the University of Arizona, Tucson, and was built by Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colorado.

Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington. Lockheed Martin Space Systems, Denver, built the orbiter and collaborates with JPL to operate it.

For more information about Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/MRO/main/index.html

Images, Text, Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/JHUAPL/Univ. of Arizona/Tony Greicius.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Cosmic Recycling

ESO - European Southern Observatory logo.

2 September 2015

The Prawn Nebula in close-up

Dominating this image is part of the gigantic nebula Gum 56, illuminated by the hot bright young stars that were born within it. For millions of years stars have been created out of the gas in this nebula, material which is later returned to the stellar nursery when the aging stars either expel their material gently into space or eject it more dramatically as supernova explosions. This image was taken with the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope at the La Silla Observatory in Chile as part of ESO’s Cosmic Gems programme.

Deeply immersed in this huge stellar nursery are three clusters of hot young stars — only a few million years old — which glow brightly in ultraviolet light. It is the light from these stars that causes the nebula’s gas clouds to glow. The radiation strips electrons from atoms — a process known as ionisation — and when they recombine they release energy in the form of light. Each chemical element emits light in characteristic colours and the large clouds of hydrogen in the nebula are the cause of its rich red glow.

The Prawn Nebula IC 4628 in the constellation of Scorpius

Gum 56 — also known as IC 4628 or by its nickname, the Prawn Nebula — is named after the Australian astronomer Colin Stanley Gum, who, in 1955, published a catalogue of H II regions. H II regions such as Gum 56 are huge, low density clouds containing a large amount of ionised hydrogen.

A large portion of the ionisation in Gum 56 is done by two O-type stars, which are hot blue–white stars, also known as blue giants because of their colour [1]. This type of star is rare in the Universe as the very large mass of blue giants means that they do not live for long. After only roughly a million years these stars will collapse in on themselves and end their lives as supernovae, as will many of the other massive stars within the nebula.

Besides the many newborn stars nestled in the nebula, this large region is still filled with enough dust and gas to create an even newer generation of stars. The regions of the nebula giving birth to new stars are visible in the image as dense clouds. The material forming these new stars includes the remains of the most massive stars from an older generation that have already ended their lives and ejected their material in violent supernova explosions. Thus the cycle of stellar life and death continues.

Zooming in on the Prawn Nebula

Given the two very unusual blue giants in this area and the prominence of the nebula at infrared and radio wavelengths, it is perhaps surprising that this region has been comparatively little studied as yet by professional astronomers. Gum 56 has a diameter of around 250 light-years, but despite its huge size it has also often been overlooked by visual observers due to its faintness, and because most of the light it emits is at wavelengths not visible to the human eye.

The nebula is at a distance of about 6000 light-years from Earth. In the sky it can be found in the constellation Scorpius (The Scorpion) where it has a projected size which is four times the size of the full Moon [2].

A close-up look at the Prawn Nebula

This image, which only captures a part of the nebula, was taken with the 2.2-metre MPG/ESO telescope using the Wide Field Imager (WFI) camera as part of the ESO Cosmic Gems programme. The programme makes use of telescope time that cannot be used for science observations to produce images of interesting, intriguing or visually attractive objects. All data collected may also be suitable for scientific purposes, and are made available to astronomers through ESO’s science archive.

Notes:

[1] Note that these stars fall outside the field of view of this particular image and do not appear in the picture.

[2] A wide-angle view of the Prawn Nebula taken by the VLT Survey Telescope was published earlier (eso1340a): http://www.eso.org/public/images/eso1340a/

More information:

ESO is the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation in Europe and the world’s most productive ground-based astronomical observatory by far. It is supported by 16 countries: Austria, Belgium, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, along with the host state of Chile. 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, the world’s most advanced visible-light astronomical observatory and two survey telescopes. VISTA works in the infrared and is the world’s largest survey telescope and the VLT Survey Telescope is the largest telescope designed to exclusively survey the skies in visible light. ESO is a major partner in ALMA, the largest astronomical project in existence. And on Cerro Armazones, close to Paranal, ESO is building the 39-metre European Extremely Large Telescope, the E-ELT, which will become “the world’s biggest eye on the sky”.

Links:

Photos of the MPG/ESO.2.2-metre telescope: http://www.eso.org/public/images/archive/search/?adv=&subject_name=mpg

Photos taken with the MPG/ESO.2.2-metre telescope: http://www.eso.org/public/images/archive/search/?adv=&facility=15

Images, Text, Credits: ESO/IAU and Sky and Telescope/Videos: ESO/Nick Risinger (skysurvey.org). Music: Johan B Monell.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

ATLAS and CMS experiments shed light on Higgs properties

CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research logo.

Sept. 2, 2015

Image above: Candidate Higgs boson event from collisions in 2012 between protons in the ATLAS detector on the LHC (Image: ATLAS/CERN).

Three years after the announcement of the discovery of a new particle, the so-called Higgs boson, the ATLAS and CMS Collaborations present for the first time combined measurements of many of its properties, at the third annual Large Hadron Collider Physics Conference (LHCP 2015). By combining their analyses of the data collected in 2011 and 2012, ATLAS and CMS draw the sharpest picture yet of this novel boson. The new results provide in particular the best precision on its production and decay and on how it interacts with other particles. All of the measured properties are in agreement with the predictions of the Standard Model and will become the reference for new analyses in the coming months, enabling the search for new physics phenomena. This follows the best measurement of the mass of the Higgs boson, published in May 2015 after a combined analysis by the two collaborations: http://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.191803

“The Higgs boson is a fantastic new tool to test the Standard Model of particle physics and study the Brout-Englert-Higgs mechanism that gives mass to elementary particles,” said CERN Director General Rolf Heuer. “There is much benefit in combining the results of large experiments to reach the high precision needed for the next breakthrough in our field. By doing so, we achieve what for a single experiment, would have meant running for at least 2 more years.”

Image above: Candidate Higgs boson event from collisions between protons in the CMS detector on the LHC (Image: CMS/CERN).

There are different ways to produce a Higgs boson, and different ways for a Higgs boson to decay to other particles. For example, according to the Standard Model, the theory that describes best forces and particles, when a Higgs boson is produced, it should decay immediately in about 58% of cases into a bottom quark and a bottom antiquark. By combining their results, ATLAS and CMS determined with the best precision to date the rates of the most common decays.

Such precision measurements of decay rates are crucially important as they are directly linked to the strength of the interaction of the Higgs particle with other elementary particles, as well as to their masses. Therefore, the study of its decays is essential in determining the nature of the discovered boson. Any deviation in the measured rates compared to those predicted by the Standard Model would bring into question the Brout-Englert-Higgs mechanism and possibly open the door to new physics beyond the Standard Model.

For a longer version of this article, see the CERN press release: http://press.web.cern.ch/press-releases/2015/09/atlas-and-cms-experiments-shed-light-higgs-properties

Note:

CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is one of the world’s largest and most respected centres for scientific research. Its business is fundamental physics, finding out what the Universe is made of and how it works. At CERN, the world’s largest and most complex scientific instruments are used to study the basic constituents of matter — the fundamental particles. By studying what happens when these particles collide, physicists learn about the laws of Nature.

The instruments used at CERN are particle accelerators and detectors. Accelerators boost beams of particles to high energies before they are made to collide with each other or with stationary targets. Detectors observe and record the results of these collisions.

Founded in 1954, the CERN Laboratory sits astride the Franco–Swiss border near Geneva. It was one of Europe’s first joint ventures and now has 22 Member States.

Related links:

Large Hadron Collider (LHC): http://home.web.cern.ch/topics/large-hadron-collider

ATLAS experiment: http://home.web.cern.ch/about/experiments/atlas

CMS experiment: http://home.web.cern.ch/about/experiments/cms

The Standard Model: http://home.web.cern.ch/about/physics/standard-model

The Higgs boson: http://home.web.cern.ch/topics/higgs-boson

Brout-Englert-Higgs mechanism: http://home.web.cern.ch/topics/higgs-boson/origins-brout-englert-higgs-mechanism

For more information about the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), visit: http://home.web.cern.ch/

Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: CERN/Matilda Heron.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Soyuz Heads to Space Station with New Crew, Return Transportation for One-Year Mission Team

ROSCOSMOS - Soyuz TMA-18M Mission patch.

Sep. 2, 2015

Three crew members representing Russia, Denmark and Kazakhstan have launched to the International Space Station to provide a new ride home for the station’s one-year crew and continue important research that advances NASA's journey to Mars.

Image above: Sergey Volkov of Roscosmos, Andreas Mogensen of ESA (European Space Agency) and Aidyn Aimbetov of the Kazakh Space Agency launched aboard Soyuz TMA-18M from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 12:37 a.m. EDT on Wednesday (10:37 a.m. in Baikonur). Image Credit: ROSCOSMOS.

Sergey Volkov of Roscosmos, Andreas Mogensen of ESA (European Space Agency) and Aidyn Aimbetov of the Kazakh Space Agency launched aboard Soyuz TMA-18M from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 12:37 a.m. EDT on Wednesday (10:37 a.m. in Baikonur). They are set to dock to the station at 3:42 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 4. NASA TV coverage of docking will begin at 3 a.m.

At 2:40 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 5, NASA TV will provide a live broadcast as Expedition 44 Commander Gennady Padalka of Roscomos hands over command of the space station to Expedition 44 Flight Engineer Scott Kelly of NASA. Expedition 45 begins on Sept. 11 when Padalka, Mogensen and Aimbetov undock from the orbital outpost in the Soyuz spacecraft designated TMA-16M and return to Earth. The Soyuz TMA-16M carried Padalka, Kelly, and Roscosmos’ Mikhail Kornienko to space in March. Because each Soyuz remains in orbit for about six months, the spacecraft swap is necessary at the midway point of the one-year mission.

Expedition 45/Visiting Crew Launches to the International Space Station

With the arrival of Volkov, Mogensen and Aimbetov, nine people will be aboard the orbiting laboratory for the first time since 2013. The three join Expedition 44 Flight Engineers Kelly and Kjell Lindgren of NASA, Commander Padalka and Flight Engineers Oleg Kononenko and Kornienko of Roscosmos, and Kimiya Yui of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA).

On Tuesday, Sept. 15, Kelly and Kornienko will reach the halfway point of their one-year mission to advance understanding of the medical and psychological challenges astronauts face during long duration spaceflight, in addition to developing countermeasures that will help minimize adverse effects. The pair will spend 342 consecutive days living in space before returning to Earth with Volkov in March 2016 aboard the Soyuz TMA-18M.

In the coming months, Expedition 45 crew members will conduct more than 250 science investigations in fields such as biology, Earth science, human research, physical sciences, and technology development.

Images above: Andreas Mogensen of ESA (European Space Agency) Aidyn Aimbetov of the Kazakh Space Agency and  Sergey Volkov of Roscosmos salute before boarding Soyuz TMA-18M. Image Credit: ROSCOSMOS.

The recently installed CALorimetric Electron Telescope (CALET) searches for dark matter, measures cosmic rays and observes sources of high-energy phenomena in the galaxy. CALET seeks answers for several unknowns, including the origin of cosmic rays, how cosmic rays accelerate and move across the galaxy, and the existence of dark matter and its relation to nearby cosmic ray sources. Once scientists take an inventory of the highest-energy radiation in space, they may be able to characterize the radiation environment experienced by humans and encountered by space electronics. This may help determine risk of exposure to this type of radiation.

Ongoing station research also includes the Flame Extinguishment Experiment-2 JAXA (FLEX-2J), a study of combustion in microgravity. Fires burn differently in space, where fuels form spherical droplets and flames burn in a globular shape rather than teardrop. The crew studies the interactions of flames on the motion and ignition, or non-ignition, of millimeter-sized droplets. Results could provide key insights and improve computer modeling of fuel combustion to aid in reducing emissions and improving fuel efficiency in space and on Earth.

Soyuz TMA-18M launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Image Credit: ROSCOSMOS

During the second half of the marathon one-year mission, the team will continue a wide variety of human research studies, such as the Assessing Telomere Lengths and Telomerase Activity in Astronauts (Telomeres). Telomeres are "caps" on the ends of chromosomes that protect them from fraying, much like the aglet on the end of a shoelace. Telomeres shorten over time, and the rate at which this occurs can be increased by stress, leading to accelerated aging, cardiovascular disease, cancer and an impaired immune system. The Telomeres investigation uses crew member blood samples to examine how telomeres and telomerase, an enzyme that maintains the length of telomeres, are affected by space travel and to better evaluate the impact of future spaceflight.

The International Space Station is a convergence of science, technology and human innovation that enables us to demonstrate new technologies and make research breakthroughs not possible on Earth. It has been continuously occupied since November 2000 and, since then, has been visited by more than 200 people and a variety of international and commercial spacecraft. The space station remains the springboard to NASA's next giant leap in exploration, including future missions to an asteroid and Mars.

For NASA TV streaming video, downlink and scheduling information, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv

For more information about the International Space Station, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/station

To follow activities on orbit, visit the space station Facebook page at: http://www.facebook.com/ISS

Follow the crew members and the station on Twitter at: http://www.twitter.com/nasa_astronauts and http://www.twitter.com/Space_Station

Related links:

CALorimetric Electron Telescope (CALET): http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/1074.html

Flame Extinguishment Experiment-2 JAXA (FLEX-2J): http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/1185.html

Images (mentioned), Video, Text, Credits: ROSCOSMOS/NASA/Stephanie Schierholz/Johnson Space Center/Dan Huot/Karen Northon.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Comet Hitchhiker Would Take Tour of Small Bodies

NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) logo.

Sep. 1, 2015

Catching a ride from one solar system body to another isn't easy. You have to figure out how to land your spacecraft safely and then get it on its way to the next destination. The landing part is especially tricky for asteroids and comets, which have low gravitational pull.

A concept called Comet Hitchhiker, developed at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, California, puts forth a new way to get into orbit and land on comets and asteroids, using the kinetic energy -- the energy of motion -- of these small bodies. Masahiro Ono, the principal investigator based at JPL, had "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" in mind when dreaming up the idea.

Image above: This artist concept shows Comet Hitchhiker, an idea for traveling between asteroids and comets using a harpoon and tether system. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornelius Dammrich.

"Hitchhiking a celestial body is not as simple as sticking out your thumb, because it flies at an astronomical speed and it won’t stop to pick you up. Instead of a thumb, our idea is to use a harpoon and a tether," Ono said. Ono is presenting results about the concept at the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics SPACE conference on September 1.

A reusable tether system would replace the need for propellant for entering orbit and landing, so running out wouldn't be an issue, according to the concept design. 

While closely flying by the target, a spacecraft would first cast an extendable tether toward the asteroid or comet and attach itself using a harpoon attached to the tether. Next, the spacecraft would reel out the tether while applying a brake that harvests energy while the spacecraft accelerates.

This technique is analogous to fishing on Earth. Imagine you're on a boat on a lake with a fishing pole, and want to catch a big fish. Once the fish bites, you would release more of the line with a moderate tension, rather than holding it tightly. With a long enough line, the boat will eventually catch up with the fish.

Once the spacecraft matches its velocity to the "fish" -- the comet or asteroid in this case -- it is ready to land by simply reeling in the tether and descending gently. When it's time to move on to another celestial target, the spacecraft would use the harvested energy to quickly retrieve the tether, which accelerates the spacecraft away from the body.

"This kind of hitchhiking could be used for multiple targets in the main asteroid belt or the Kuiper Belt, even five to 10 in a single mission," Ono said.

Ono and colleagues have been studying whether a harpoon could tolerate an impact of this magnitude, and whether a tether could be created strong enough to support this kind of maneuver. They used supercomputer simulations and other analyses to figure out what it would take.

Researchers have come up with what they call the Space Hitchhike Equation, which relates the specific strength of the tether, the mass ratio between the spacecraft and the tether, and the change in velocity needed to accomplish the maneuver.

In missions that use conventional propellant, spacecraft use a lot of fuel just to accelerate enough to get into orbit.

"In Comet Hitchhiker, accelerating and decelerating do not require propellant because the spacecraft is harvesting kinetic energy from the target," Ono said.

Image above: Comet Hitchhiker, shown in this artist rendering, is a concept for orbiting and landing on small bodies. Image Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornelius Dammrich.

For any spacecraft landing on a comet or asteroid, being able to slow down enough to arrive safely is critical. Comet Hitchhiker requires a tether made from a material that can withstand the enormous tension and heat generated by a rapid decrease in speed for getting into orbit and landing. Ono and colleagues calculated that a velocity change of about 0.9 miles (1.5 kilometers) per second is possible with some materials that already exist: Zylon and Kelvar.

"That's like going from Los Angeles to San Francisco in under seven minutes," Ono said.

But the bigger the velocity change required for orbit insertion, the shorter the flight time needed to get from Earth to the target -- so if you want to get to a comet or asteroid faster, you need even stronger materials. A 6.2 mile-per-second (10 kilometer-per-second) velocity change is possible, but would require more advanced technologies such as a carbon nanotube tether and a diamond harpoon.

Researchers also estimated that the tether would need to be about 62 to 620 miles long (100 to 1,000 kilometers) for the hitchhiking maneuver to work. It would also need to be extendable, and capable of absorbing jerks on it, while avoiding being damaged or cut by small meteorites.

The next steps for studying the concept would be to do more high-fidelity simulations and try casting a mini-harpoon at a target that mimics the material found on a comet or asteroid.

Comet Hitchhiker is in Phase I study through the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) Program. NIAC is a program of NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate, located at the agency's headquarters in Washington. Professor David Jewitt at the University of California, Los Angeles, partnered in this research. JPL is managed by the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena for NASA.

For a complete list of the selected proposals and more information about NIAC, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/niac

For more information about the Space Technology Mission Directorate, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/spacetech

Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/JPL/Elizabeth Landau/Tony Greicius.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

ROSCOSMOS: ISS orbit correction

ROSCOSMOS - Russian Vehicles patch.

Sept. 1, 2015

August 31 at 9:00 54 minutes Moscow time adjustment took place the International Space Station's orbit to a working orbit for docking TPK Soyuz TMA-18M with ISS. Changing trajectory was powered by TGK Progress M-28M engines.

ISS altitude correction by Progress-M cargo

Flight altitude stations increased by 1 km and the average value should be around 401 km. The engines of the space truck worked 495 seconds.

Start TPK Soyuz TMA-18M to the ISS is scheduled for September 2, 2015 at 07:37 Moscow time.

ROSCOSMOS Press Release: http://www.federalspace.ru/21689/

Image, Text, Credits: Press Service of the Russian Federal Space Agency/NASA/Orbiter.ch Aerospace.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Space Station Bio Includes a Bonanza of Biological Research

ISS - International Space Station patch.

Sep. 1, 2015

Flutter, slither, swim or crawl your way over to this month’s International Space Station look at biological research. We’ll be highlighting the study of life and the technology that supports this science throughout September. Researchers examine biological systems in space to understand the basic and complex mechanisms of life on Earth and to determine the best methods for keeping astronauts healthy during spaceflight.

Fruit flies, roundworms, medaka fish and rodents are a few examples of animals studied aboard the station. Scientists investigate model organisms like these because they are easy to reproduce and study in a laboratory, and can provide insight into the basic cellular and molecular mechanisms of the human body.

Image above: The medaka fish is studied on the International Space Station to examine the impact of microgravity on its bones. Impacts to the medaka’s bones in microgravity may help scientists determine the reasoning for a decrease in astronaut bone density during spaceflight. Image Credits: Philipp Keller, Stelzer Group, EMBL.

Biological studies aboard the space station also include research of cells, plants, genetics, biochemistry and human physiology, to name a few. This month, we’ll note the study of microbes, which can threaten crew health and jeopardize equipment aboard the space station. If scientists can understand how microbes behave in microgravity, the same techniques can be used to identify microbes in hospitals, pharmaceutical laboratories and other environments on Earth where microbe identification is crucial.

We’ll learn more about research on cells of the immune system in microgravity, something scientists are studying to better understand how human immune systems change as they age. Also in September, you can cheers the space station as we unveil how the study of plants in space can lead to air purification technology that keeps the air clean in wine cellars, and is also used in homes and medical facilities to help prevent mold.

Image above: A fruit fly infected with fungus. Fruit flies that developed aboard the International Space Station showed weakened immunity to fungal infections post-spaceflight. Image Credits: Deborah Kimbrell.

There are a plethora of plants in space, meaning there are a plethora of plant studies aboard the station at any given time. Last month, NASA astronauts sampled fresh romaine lettuce aboard the space station for the first time. BRIC hardware has supported a variety of plant growth investigations aboard the space station, including the BRIC-19 investigation, which looks at the growth and development of Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings in microgravity. There are many other plant growth studies that examine A. thaliana in space, observing its reactions to light and the cellular processes that activate in the absence of gravity.

Image above: NASA plans to grow food on future spacecraft and on other planets as a food supplement for astronauts. Fresh food, such as vegetables, provide essential vitamins and nutrients that will help enable sustainable deep space pioneering. Image Credits: NASA.

And finally, human physiology studies aboard the space station are paramount to enabling future exploration missions to an asteroid, Mars and beyond. NASA Astronaut Scott Kelly and Roscosmos Cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko will reach the midpoint of their One-Year Mission in September and help researchers gain valuable data about human health and the effects of microgravity on the body over a period twice as long as a typical U.S. mission. In addition, the Twins Study includes ten separate investigations of identical twin astronauts Scott and Mark Kelly that will provide insight into the subtle changes that may occur in spaceflight as compared to Earth by studying two individuals who have the same genetics, but are in different environments for one year.

Formulate the ‘logical’ conclusion and follow the ‘bio’ happening on the space station throughout September. We will keep you informed of how the study of life in space improves life on Earth and will one day sustain life during deep space missions and on Mars or other planets.

Related links:

International Space Station (ISS): http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/index.html

BRIC hardware: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/708.html

BRIC-19 investigation: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/1082.html

Twins Study: http://www.nasa.gov/twins-study

One-Year Mission: http://www.nasa.gov/1ym#.VQneJ47F98H

Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Laura Niles/Kristine Rainey.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch