Space Biology, Psychology Studies Help NASA Plan Future Missions

 

ISS - Expedition 67 Mission patch.

August 24, 2022

International Space Station (ISS). Animation Credit: ESA

Life science continued dominating the research schedule aboard the International Space Station on Wednesday to benefit humans living on and off the Earth.  The seven Expedition 67 orbital residents explored how living in microgravity affects tissue regeneration, crew psychology, and the human digestion system.

Learning to heal wounds in space is critical as NASA and its international partners plan crewed missions to the Moon, Mars, and beyond. Four station astronauts have been partnering together this week for the skin healing study taking place inside the Kibo laboratory module. Flight Engineers Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines, and Jessica Watkins, all from NASA, with Samantha Cristoforetti of ESA (European Space Agency), are studying surgical techniques such as biopsies, suture splints, and wound dressing, inside Kibo’s Life Science Glovebox.

Image above: A waxing gibbous Moon is pictured on Aug. 11, 2022, from the space station as it orbited 258 miles above the Pacific Ocean north of the Hawaiian island chain. Image Credit: NASA.

Scientists on Earth seek to identify the molecular mechanisms that occur during tissue regeneration in weightlessness. Observations may offer advanced therapies and provide insights into how space-caused accelerated skin aging affects an astronaut’s healing properties. The biomedical experiment may also contribute to better wound healing techniques on Earth.

Three of the astronauts also had time today for a cognitive assessment in between the skin healing study. Lindgren, Hines, and Watkins all took turns practicing the simulated robotic capture of a spacecraft on a computer to understand how an astronaut might perform stressful activities during future space missions. One of six tests that are part of the Behavioral Core Measures human research experiment, the robotics session is helping researchers reliably assess adverse cognitive or behavioral conditions that astronauts may experience during a long-term spaceflight.

Image above: This time lapse of the Milky Way Galaxy taken from the International Space Station (ISS) also captured a lightning strike on Earth so bright that it lit up the space station’s solar panels. Astronaut Kjell Lindgren posted this on Twitter and Instagram on Sept. 2, 2015, saying, "Large lightning strike on Earth lights up or solar panels." Image Credits: NASA/Kjell Lindgren.

Two cosmonauts conducted ultrasound scans of their digestive system after having breakfast during Wednesday morning. Commander Oleg Artemyev and Flight Engineer Denis Matveev are exploring this week how microgravity affects the digestion process with potential applications for Earth-bound conditions. Flight Engineer Sergey Korsakov spent the day testing the commands and operations on the European robotic arm attached to the Nauka multipurpose laboratory module.

Related links:

Expedition 67: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition67/index.html

Learning to heal wounds in space: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=8227

Kibo laboratory module: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/japan-kibo-laboratory

Life Science Glovebox: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Facility.html?#id=7676

Behavioral Core Measures: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7537

Nauka multipurpose laboratory module: https://www.roscosmos.ru/tag/nauka/

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

Images (mentioned), Animation (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Mark Garcia.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

NASA Scientists Help Probe Dark Energy by Testing Gravity

 

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center logo.

Aug 24, 2022

Could one of the biggest puzzles in astrophysics be solved by reworking Albert Einstein’s theory of gravity? A new study co-authored by NASA scientists says not yet.

Image above: This image – the first released from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope – shows the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723. Some of the galaxies appear smeared or stretched due to a phenomenon called gravitational lensing. This effect can help scientists map the presence of dark matter in the universe. Image Credits: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI.

The universe is expanding at an accelerating rate, and scientists don’t know why. This phenomenon seems to contradict everything researchers understand about gravity’s effect on the cosmos: It’s as if you threw an apple in the air and it continued upward, faster and faster. The cause of the acceleration, dubbed dark energy, remains a mystery.

A new study from the international Dark Energy Survey, using the Victor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope in Chile, marks the latest effort to determine whether this is all simply a misunderstanding: that expectations for how gravity works at the scale of the entire universe are flawed or incomplete. This potential misunderstanding might help scientists explain dark energy. But the study – one of the most precise tests yet of Albert Einstein’s theory of gravity at cosmic scales – finds that the current understanding still appears to be correct.

The results, authored by a group of scientists that includes some from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, were presented Wednesday, Aug. 23, at the International Conference on Particle Physics and Cosmology (COSMO'22) in Rio de Janeiro. The work helps set the stage for two upcoming space telescopes that will probe our understanding of gravity with even higher precision than the new study and perhaps finally solve the mystery.

More than a century ago, Albert Einstein developed his Theory of General Relativity to describe gravity, and so far it has accurately predicted everything from the orbit of Mercury to the existence of black holes. But if this theory can’t explain dark energy, some scientists have argued, then maybe they need to modify some of its equations or add new components.

To find out if that’s the case, members of the Dark Energy Survey looked for evidence that gravity’s strength has varied throughout the universe’s history or over cosmic distances. A positive finding would indicate that Einstein’s theory is incomplete, which might help explain the universe’s accelerating expansion. They also examined data from other telescopes in addition to Blanco, including the ESA (European Space Agency) Planck satellite, and reached the same conclusion.

The study finds Einstein’s theory still works. So no explanation for dark energy yet. But this research will feed into two upcoming missions: ESA’s Euclid mission, slated for launch no earlier than 2023, which has contributions from NASA; and NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, targeted for launch no later than May 2027. Both telescopes will search for changes in the strength of gravity over time or distance.

Blurred Vision

How do scientists know what happened in the universe’s past? By looking at distant objects. A light-year is a measure of the distance light can travel in a year (about 6 trillion miles, or about 9.5 trillion kilometers). That means an object one light-year away appears to us as it was one year ago, when the light first left the object. And galaxies billions of light-years away appear to us as they did billions of years ago. The new study looked at galaxies stretching back about 5 billion years in the past. Euclid will peer 8 billion years into the past, and Roman will look back 11 billion years.

The galaxies themselves don’t reveal the strength of gravity, but how they look when viewed from Earth does. Most matter in our universe is dark matter, which does not emit, reflect, or otherwise interact with light. While scientists don’t know what it’s made of, they know it’s there, because its gravity gives it away: Large reservoirs of dark matter in our universe warp space itself. As light travels through space, it encounters these portions of warped space, causing images of distant galaxies to appear curved or smeared. This was on display in one of first images released from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope.

Goddard Glossary: Gravitational Lensing

Video above: This video explains the phenomenon called gravitational lensing, which can cause images of galaxies to appear warped or smeared. This distortion is caused by gravity, and scientists can use the effect to detect dark matter, which does not emit or reflect light. Video Credits: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Dark Energy Survey scientists search galaxy images for more subtle distortions due to dark matter bending space, an effect called weak gravitational lensing. The strength of gravity determines the size and distribution of dark matter structures, and the size and distribution in turn determine how warped those galaxies appear to us. That’s how images can reveal the strength of gravity at different distances from Earth and distant times throughout the universe’s history. The group has now measured the shapes of over 100 million galaxies, and so far, the observations match what’s predicted by Einstein’s theory.

“There is still room to challenge Einstein’s theory of gravity, as measurements gets more and more precise,” said study co-author Agnès Ferté, who conducted the research as a postdoctoral researcher at JPL. “But we still have so much to do before we’re ready for Euclid and Roman. So it’s essential we continue to collaborate with scientists around the world on this problem as we’ve done with the Dark Energy Survey.”

Related links:

Dark Energy Survey: https://www.darkenergysurvey.org/

Dark Energy Survey new study: https://arxiv.org/abs/2207.05766

Theory of General Relativity (Albert Einstein): https://asd.gsfc.nasa.gov/blueshift/index.php/2015/11/25/100-years-of-general-relativity/

Voyager: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/voyager/index.html

Image (mentioned), Video (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Tony Greicius/JPL/Calla Cofield.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

CASC - Long March-2D launches Beijing-3B (BJ-3B)

 

CASC - CZ-2D Y75 / Long March-2D Beijing-3B (BJ-3B) Mission patch.

Aug. 24, 2022

Long March-2D carrying Beijing-3B (BJ-3B) liftoff

A Long March-2D launch vehicle launched the Beijing-3B satellite (BJ-3B) from the Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center, Shanxi Province, China, on 24 August 2022, at 03:01 UTC (11:01 local time).

Long March-2D launches Beijing-3B (BJ-3B)

Beijing-3B (北京三号B) is an Earth-observation satellite with a 0.5 m resolution, designed and manufactured by DFH Satellite Co., Ltd, part of Twenty First Century Aerospace Technology Pte. Ltd.

Beijing-3B (北京三号B) satellite

According to official sources, the satellite entered the desired orbit and will be “mainly be used to provide remote sensing services in the fields of land resources management, agricultural resources survey, environment monitoring and city applications”.

For more information about China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC), visit: http://english.spacechina.com/n16421/index.html

Images, Video, Text, Credits: China Central Television (CCTV)/China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC)/SciNews/Orbiter.ch Aerospace/Roland Berga.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Europe to support Artemis CubeSats in return to the Moon

 

NASA - ARTEMIS-1 Mission patch.

Aug. 24, 2022

In brief

Half a century since Apollo, the Artemis I mission is set to launch on 29 August with a test flight that prepares humankind for our next adventure at the Moon, and Europe is playing a crucial role.

Joining NASA’s Orion spacecraft on the powerful Space Launch System rocket are ten CubeSats that will help prepare for the return of astronauts to our lunar companion. ESA’s deep space antennas, along with the Goonhilly Earth Station in the UK, will be tracking six of the small satellites, ensuring they arrive where they need to be, and their data gets back home.

In-depth

Artemis I – European Service Module perspective

Video above: The European Service Module is ESA’s contribution to NASA’s Orion spacecraft that will send astronauts to the Moon and beyond. It provides electricity, water, oxygen and nitrogen as well as keeping the spacecraft at the right temperature and on course.

Each about the size of a large shoe box, their mission objectives vary as much as their final destinations – the Moon, Earth orbit, deep space, even an asteroid. What unites them is the promise of enhancing our understanding of the space environment from asteroids to space radiation, while demonstrating new technologies for use on future missions getting humans to the Moon, to stay.

General view of Cebreros

Image above: ESA's 35-metre antenna (Deep Space Antenna 2) is located 77 kms west of Madrid, Spain.

“Our Estrack stations will be critical in determining the CubeSat trajectories, returning their data home and supporting the commanding of the six spacecraft,” explains Lucy Santana, responsible for ESA ground facility services for deep space missions.

“We’re very proud to do our bit in returning humankind to the Moon”.

CubeSats disperse

About an hour and a half after launch, the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS) will perform a ‘trans-lunar injection burn’ to nudge Orion and the fleet of CubeSats in the direction of the Moon. The CubeSats will then be deployed, dispersing like dandelion seeds spread in the wind.

Argomoon – the personal photographer for Orion's boost to the Moon

Image above: ArgoMoon will be one of the first satellites to be deployed as it has a very interesting mission: to photograph the Interim Cryogenic Propulsion Stage (ICPS) that propels Orion and the European Service Module onwards to the Moon from Earth orbit.

In the hours after liftoff, CubeSats will be deployed at specific times based on the requirements of each mission. Argomoon from the Italian Space Agency (ASI) will be the first that ESA tracks just a few hours after launch with the Cebreros station in Spain.

Very soon after separation, as the rest of the CubeSats are deployed, more eyes on the sky will be needed as they move into their own trajectories. For this, ESA in cooperation with Goonhilly will provide about 75 hours of tracking support across its deep space stations in the two weeks after launch.

Reflecting on deep space

Image above: The Goonhilly 6 antenna, part of the Goonhilly’s ground station in Cornwall, UK.

“We look forward to contributing to this iconic mission from here in the UK. Goonhilly played a role in distributing the Apollo Moon landing footage back in 1969: we’re now taking one step further and supporting humanity’s return to the Moon”, explains Matthew Cosby, Chief Technology Officer at Goonhilly.

“Our 32m deep space antenna has been used to communicate with ESA spacecraft since 2021. Supporting the Artemis I CubeSats is a fantastic way to further showcase our capabilities as we continue to expand this commercial service.”

Making waves

One of the main ways Estrack will support the Artemis CubeSats is by pinning down their location and trajectory using an effect called ‘the Doppler shift’. Each satellite is transmitting information at a frequency of around 8 GHz, which stations on Earth will acquire and track.

How not to lose a spacecraft deep in space

If the spacecraft is moving towards Earth while emitting its message, the light wave gets slightly squashed, shortening the wavelength and increasing its frequency. Conversely, if the CubeSat is moving away from Earth, its message is stretched, and its frequency lengthened. With this information, mission control will be able to have an accurate estimation of where the spacecraft are and where they are headed.

Forward to the Moon - small satellites offering a big return

The CubeSats being connected to Earth by Goonhilly and ESA’s deep space antennas illustrate the potential of small spacecraft in providing great insights.

Lunar IceCube and LunaH-map are designed to search the Moon for water – the discovery of which would be crucial for long-term missions as it is needed for explorers to harvest breathable air and create rocket fuel from ice.

Biosentinel and CuSP will add to our understanding of space radiation, filling critical gaps in knowledge about the health risks to explorers in deep space from solar radiation and high-energy galactic cosmic rays.

Biosentinel - the Artemis CubeSat sending yeast to deep space

Image above: BioSentinel will do the world’s first biology experiment in deep space, taking yeast cells into orbit around the Sun to study how they are affected by space radiation. This will be the furthest we have taken living organisms into space than ever before. Here, pink wells contain actively growing yeast cells.

Finally, ArgoMoon and NEA Scout will demonstrate new operations technologies that will shape the way we fly future missions to the Moon.

NEA Scout will visit the smallest ever asteroid to be studied by a spacecraft – 2020 GE is thought to be a little smaller than a school bus. While exploring the asteroid, it will use an 86-square-metre solar sail to harness solar radiation for propulsion.

The data from these first-of-a-kind missions will stream in through European antennas on Earth, where teams will get it where it needs to be and ensure we keep track of the dispersing satellites.

NEA Scout – the asteroid-exploring CubeSat powered with a giant solar sail

Image above: NEA Scout will deploy an aluminium-coated solar sail about the size of a racquetball court, to use sunlight to propel itself around a small asteroid.

Landing on the Moon was hard. Returning for a longer stay will require even more planning, imagination and ingenuity, and ESA’s Estrack network of antennas dotted across the globe will be vital. With decades of experience in ground operations and a global network of eyes on the sky, ESA is playing a leading role in connecting Earth to space as we go forward to the Moon.

Follow @esaoperations live from 12:00 CEST on 29 Aug to get insights straight from the heart of ESA mission control, as the Artemis CubeSats are deployed, found, and spread their wings and Europe helps bring humankind to the Moon, and catch the live stream on ESA Web TV, Channel 1 from 12:30 CEST. https://twitter.com/esaoperations

Related articles:

Artemis I to Launch First-of-a-Kind Deep Space Biology Mission
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2022/08/artemis-i-to-launch-first-of-kind-deep.html

NASA’s Moon-observing CubeSat Ready for Artemis Launch
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2022/08/nasas-moon-observing-cubesat-ready-for.html

Related links:

Artemis I: https://www.esa.int/Science_Exploration/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/Orion/Artemis_I

NASA’s Orion spacecraft: https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/orion/index.html

Space Launch System (SLS): https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/systems/sls/index.html

ESA’s deep space antennas: https://www.esa.int/Enabling_Support/Operations/ESA_Ground_Stations

Goonhilly Earth Station: https://www.goonhilly.org/

Italian Space Agency (ASI): https://www.asi.it/2022/03/missione-artemis-argomoon-il-fotoreporter-lunare-made-in-italy-scalda-i-motori-sulla-rampa-di-lancio-per-i-test-finali/

Lunar IceCube: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/goddard/2019/lunar-icecube-mission-to-locate-study-resources-needed-for-sustained-presence-on-moon

LunaH-map: https://lunahmap.asu.edu/

Biosentinel: https://www.nasa.gov/feature/ames/artemis-i-to-launch-first-of-a-kind-deep-space-biology-mission

CuSP: https://blogs.nasa.gov/artemis/tag/cusp/

NEA Scout: https://www.nasa.gov/content/nea-scout

Images, Video, Text, Credits: ESA/NASA/Dominic Hart/Goonhilly Earth Station/Nathanial Bradford/Argotec/Cebreros.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

NS-23 to Fly 36 Payloads and Tens of Thousands of Club for the Future Postcards to Space

 

Blue Origin logo.

Aug. 24, 2022

On August 31, New Shepard’s 23rd mission, a dedicated payloads flight, will fly 36 payloads from academia, research institutions, and students across the globe. The launch window opens at 8:30 AM CDT / 13:30 UTC from Launch Site One in West Texas.
 
This mission brings the total number of commercial payloads flown on the vehicle to more than 150. Two of the payloads will fly on the exterior of the New Shepard booster for ambient exposure to the space environment. Eighteen of the payloads on this flight are funded by NASA, primarily by the Flight Opportunities program.

Image above: The New Shepard crew capsule descends under parachutes in the West Texas desert on January 23, 2019 (NS-10). Image Credit: Blue Origin.

Twenty-four payloads are from K-12 schools, universities, and STEM-focused organizations, including the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA), American Society for Gravitational and Space Research (ASGSR), and SHAD Canada STEM Foundation, among others. This is double the number of education-focused payloads from previous payload flight manifests. In many cases, these payloads expose students as young as elementary school to STEM skills like coding, environmental testing, and CAD design often not taught until college.

Among the NS-23 payloads are tens of thousands of postcards from Blue Origin’s nonprofit, Club for the Future, whose Postcards to Space program gives people across the world access to space on New Shepard. The Club’s mission is to inspire future generations to pursue careers in STEM for the benefit of Earth. The postcards on this mission come from 19 Club for the Future grant recipients and their partners, including Guayaquil’s Space Society in Ecuador, the U.S. Space and Rocket Center, students who participated in STEM NOLA and Kenner Planetarium events in New Orleans, and schools across Kentucky.

New Shepard liftoff. Animation Credit: Blue Origin

This will be the fourth flight for the New Shepard program this year, the first dedicated payload flight since NS-17 in August 2021, and the ninth flight for this vehicle, which is dedicated to flying science and research payloads to space. To date, the New Shepard program has flown 31 humans to space.

NS-23 Flight Manifest Highlights

Infinity Fuel Cell: AMPES
 
Infinity Fuel Cell’s AMPES experiment demonstrates the operation of hydrogen fuel cell technology in microgravity. The company is collaborating with NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston to develop a scalable, modular, and flexible power and energy product utilizing new manufacturing methods to reduce cost and improve reliability. The technology could be used for lunar rovers, surface equipment, and habitats. NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate Tipping Point program provided funding.

Honeybee Robotics: ASSET-1
 
ASSET is a testbed designed to study the strength of planetary soils, called regolith, under different gravity conditions. ASSET-1 is the experiment’s first flight on New Shepard and will be tested in microgravity to help determine the soil strength of asteroids, for example. ASSET and its future iterations can also be used to study parameters such as particle sizes and different loading conditions. This experimental payload was developed by Honeybee Robotics in Altadena, Calif., which was acquired by Blue Origin earlier this year, and is funded by NASA's Flight Opportunities program.

University of Florida: BISS
 
Principal investigators Rob Ferl and Anna-Lisa Paul adapted technology that was originally designed for the International Space Station to suborbital uses with their experiment, “Biological Imaging in Support of Suborbital Science” (BISS). Through hardware developments and enhancing the way data is collected during the spaceflight, the FLEX fluorescence imaging system enables increasingly precise and dynamic understanding of biological responses to suborbital missions. This will be the fifth flight of the technology development series on New Shepard and includes science collaboration with the University of Wisconsin. Funding was provided by the NASA Flight Opportunities and Biological and Physical Sciences programs.

NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center: CFOSS
 
CFOSS is a space-rated Fiber Optic Sensing System (FOSS) technology to measure temperature and strain data to accelerate technology readiness levels before a low-Earth orbit launch. Developed at NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center, this experiment will be the first spaceflight for NASA’s fiber optics-based instrumentation for structural health monitoring. These measurements can enable the monitoring of additional parameters such as structural deformation and cryogenic liquid level estimations.

OlympiaSpace: ENGARTBOX
 
ENGARTBOX is a project that integrates engineering, science, and art by attempting to overcome the engineering and scientific challenges of producing a painting in a non-gravity environment. The payload was developed by students and teachers at Anatolia College in Thessaloniki, Greece, in the new Anna Papageorgiou STEM Center of the school, in conjunction with Dr. Takis Papadopoulos. The experiment is sponsored by ΒΕΤΑ CAE and Higas, and managed by Dr. Olympia Kyriopoulos from OLYMPIASPACE.

NeoCity Academy: WoS (Wings of Steel)
 
A group of six high school students from NeoCity Academy in Kissimmee, Florida, is sending a three-minute experiment into microgravity to test the effects of gravity on ultrasonic sound waves. Investigating ultrasonic sound waves and their behavior in space could lead to further future discoveries about other types of waves.

Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory: JANUS-APL
 
The Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) will mount its JANUS payload on the New Shepard Propulsion Module for the first time to measure conditions outside the crew capsule and enable access to the space environment. This new capability will provide important insight into a critical but difficult-to-study region of Earth’s atmosphere as well as facilitate lower cost instrument/technology testing for missions to Earth’s orbit and beyond. APL already has multiple follow-on flights on New Shepard to expand this capability to accommodate telescopes, cameras, and the deployment of very small sensors.

MIT Media Lab: WAX CASTING
 
The Wax Casting experiment will test how cleaner propellants such as paraffin and beeswax can be fabricated in space in the future. The goal of the experiment is to visualize what happens when two liquids, melted candle wax and a similar liquid called Heptadecane, are rotated. By rotating these liquids in tubes, researchers can begin to understand how a process to form wax into fuel grains could be effective in future hybrid propulsion systems that combine solid fuel with gaseous oxidizers. Many traditional solid space fuels are harmful to people and the environment, while wax is affordable and non-toxic. The payload was developed by researchers at MIT Media Lab's Space Enabled Research Group with support from Tec-Masters, Inc. of Huntsville, AL. Funding was provided by NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate.

Titan Space Technologies: T-2 Mission Arroway
 
Titan Space Technologies is testing their latest advanced AI capabilities on this mission by continuously analyzing data across multiple sensors and adapting their experiment in real time. These results will help Titan advance the development of their AI-powered platform for space experimentation. Titan designed and executed the payload in fewer than 60 days.

Creare, LLC and Dartmouth University: VARD
 
The VARD payload will demonstrate a novel sensor that measures the volume of liquid in a flexible bladder in microgravity. The sensor and payload were developed at Creare and tested in collaboration with the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. Funding to develop the sensor was provided by NASA’s Small Business Technology Transfer (STTR) Program.

Related links:

Postcards to Space: https://www.clubforfuture.org/missions/

Blue Origin: https://www.blueorigin.com/

Image (mentioned), Animation (mentioned), Text, Credit: Blue Origin.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch

Tissue Regeneration Research Benefits Humans On and Off the Earth

 

ISS - Expedition 67 Mission patch.

August 23, 2022

The orbital residents aboard the International Space Station continued exploring ways to heal wounds in space today. A host of other space research was under way on Tuesday to understand how living in microgravity affects humans.

Four astronauts partnered together again today exploring how skin heals in weightlessness. Flight Engineers Kjell Lindgren, Bob Hines, and Jessica Watkins, all from NASA, with Samantha Cristoforetti of ESA (European Space Agency), studied surgical techniques such as biopsies, suture splints, and wound dressing, throughout Tuesday.

Image above: A brilliant aurora streams above Earth’s horizon in this photograph from the space station as it orbited 270 miles above the Indian Ocean. Image Credit: NASA.

The quartet worked inside the Kibo laboratory module conducting the medical research in the Life Science Glovebox. The advanced study seeks to identify the biological changes that affect tissue regeneration in space. Results may improve wound therapies and treatments for humans living on and off the Earth.

Lindgren also had time on Tuesday to review procedures for a nighttime photography session using the AstroPi science computer in the Harmony module. AstroPi will enable European students to conduct experiments using a pair of different lenses on the computer in conjunction with a variety of station sensors. The academic study seeks to promote interest in and guide students toward STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) careers.

International Space Station (ISS), Flying near aurora. Animation Credit: NASA

The three cosmonauts of the Expedition 67 crew focused on their contingent of microgravity research and lab maintenance today. Commander Oleg Artemyev juggled several experiments in the station’s Russian experiment as he explored space exercise methods, Earth photography using ultrasound sensors, and the human digestive system. Flight Engineer Denis Matveev checked radiation detectors and worked on power systems inside the Zarya module. Flight Engineer Sergey Korsakov analyzed urine samples during the morning then spent the afternoon collecting air samples in the Zvezda, Poisk, and Nauka modules.

Related links:

Expedition 67: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition67/index.html

How skin heals in weightlessness: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=8227

Kibo laboratory module: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/japan-kibo-laboratory

Life Science Glovebox: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Facility.html?#id=7676

AstroPi: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7534

Harmony module: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/harmony

Space exercise methods: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=491

Ultrasound sensors: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=1469

Human digestive system: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=1596

Zarya module: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/zarya-cargo-module

Zvezda module: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/structure/elements/zvezda-service-module.html

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

Nauka multipurpose laboratory module: https://www.roscosmos.ru/tag/nauka/

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.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch

Hubble Spies a Star-Studded Cluster

 

NASA - Hubble Space Telescope patch.

Aug 23, 2022

This scintillating image showcases the globular cluster NGC 6540 in the constellation Sagittarius. The NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope took the image with its Wide Field Camera 3 and Advanced Camera for Surveys. These two instruments have slightly different fields of view, which determines how large an area of sky each instrument captures. This composite image shows the star-studded area of sky that encompasses both instruments’ fields of view.

NGC 6540 is a globular cluster. Globular clusters are stable, tightly bound swarms of stars that can hold tens of thousands to millions of stars, all trapped in a closely-packed group by their mutual gravitational attraction.

The brightest stars in this image are adorned with prominent cross-shaped patterns of light known as diffraction spikes, a type of imaging artifact caused by the support structure of Hubble’s secondary mirror rather than the stars themselves. As light enters the telescope, its path is slightly disturbed by the telescope’s four secondary mirror supports. The diffraction spikes form when light waves recombine on the other side of these supports. They are only noticeable in very bright objects where light is concentrated in one spot, as in the case of bright stars. Light from objects like galaxies and nebulae is dimmer and more spread out, so we don’t normally see diffraction spikes on images of these objects.

Hubble peered into the heart of NGC 6540 to help astronomers measure the ages, shapes, and structures of globular clusters toward the center of the Milky Way. The gas and dust that shrouds the center of our galaxy also blocks some of the light from these clusters and subtly changes the colors of their stars. Globular clusters contain insights into the earliest history of the Milky Way, so studying them can help astronomers understand how our galaxy evolved.

Hubble Space Telescope (HST)

For more information about Hubble, visit:

http://hubblesite.org/

http://www.nasa.gov/hubble

https://esahubble.org/

Hubble’s Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS): https://www.nasa.gov/content/hubble-space-telescope-advanced-camera-for-surveys

Hubble’s Wide Field Camera 3: https://www.nasa.gov/content/hubble-space-telescope-wide-field-camera-3

Text Credits: European Space Agency (ESA)/NASA/Andrea Gianopoulos/Image, Animation Credits: ESA/Hubble & NASA, R. Cohen.

Best regards, Orbiter.ch