Category: Space Station

[/caption]The educational experiment currently being carried out on the space station has just returned a surprise result. It would appear the two web-weaving spiders being studied have turned their fortunes around – they have scrapped their aimless 3D mess of silk and started to create the symmetrical 2D webs more commonly seen on Earth. The experiment started off a little precarious as one of the spiders went AWOL, but it would appear the pair are back and better than ever, spinning picture perfect spider webs.

This experiment, currently being studied by hundreds of K-12 students in the USA, is one of the payloads of the STS-126 shuttle mission to the International Space Station (ISS), dubbed the “home improvement mission.” Not to be outdone by the space walking astronauts, the little arachnid ISS passengers have decided to do some home improvements of their own…

“While y’all have been busy doing your extreme makeover, our spiders have done an extreme makeover and have torn down their first web and have made another one,” flight controllers informed the ISS crew.

“I thought we were your main entertainment, but I guess we’ve been taken over by spiders,” Michael Fincke, space station commander, said in response.

However, it looks like that was just the adjustment period. On Thursday, mission control noticed the web and notified the crew to take a closer look. “We noticed the spiders’ made a symmetrical web,” Fincke radioed to Mission Control on Friday. “It looks beautiful.”

This striking turn-around by the spiders will be of great interest to biologists and students alike. Although it was interesting to study how different forms of life adapt to conditions in space, I don’t think anyone was predicting such a dramatic change in fortune. I just hope the spider duo get an extra treat for their troubles.

It turns out that the space station crew not only have spiders and butterflies in space to keep them company, they also have a collection of fruit flies to feed to the busy spiders. However, having seen the animated movie “Fly Me to the Moon” in August, we already know how flies adapt to space…

Source: MSNBC

[/caption]The system has only just been installed and it is already broken down. Unfortunately, the crew of the International Space Station (ISS) don’t have the luxury of returning their faulty urine recycling system to the store to replace it with a new one.

The $154 million recycler was started up just as Thursday’s space walk was ending, but it suddenly shut down for an unknown reason. Today (Friday), the crew re-started the device, only for a sensor to alert NASA that one of the motors inside was not working. NASA engineers are now working hard to establish whether this revolutionary machine has a simple glitch, or whether the motor needs to be replaced. Either way, an answer needs to be found within the next week, as a sample of recycled water needs to be transported on board Shuttle Endeavour when it returns to Earth so it can be tested…

There are currently 10 crewmembers on the ISS, working on the home improvement STS-126 mission launched by Shuttle Endeavour. STS-126 carried the much-publicised urine recycling system, a (much needed) new toilet, a new kitchen and more crew accommodation. This is all in preparation for next year’s crew expansion plans, boosting the continuous presence from three to six astronauts and cosmonauts. The increased temporary crew presence on the space station has meant the orbital outpost is a hive of activity. The ISS has even had its orbit re-boosted by the attached Endeavour, pushing the station one mile higher. On Saturday, the crew will carry out their third spacewalk of the mission.

So what has gone wrong with the waste water recycler? Unfortunately, NASA does not know, but they are on a time-crunch to get the equipment working. Endeavour is set to return to Earth on Thanksgiving (November 27th), but STS-126 commander Christopher Ferguson has said he’d be willing to modify the schedule to allow more time to get the water purifier working.

NASA engineers are working around the clock to root out the recycler problem, but so far the sensors indicate there is a fault with one of the motors. Therefore, the problem is either with the sensor itself (in which case a method will be needed to bypass it) or the motor will need to be replaced by a later shuttle mission.

The urine recycler has been under development since the 1980’s and Bob Bagdigian, project manager at Marshall Space Flight Center, has been working on the project continuously. Bagdigian even cheered the launch of Endeavour with some recycled water from the urine and sweat of Marshall employees used to test prototypes in the laboratory. The water was a 2005 vintage. Apparently the water tastes fine… just like water. That’s because it is water (purified through distillation and filtration processes).

Let’s just hope NASA works out the recycler problems within the week so the ISS crew can send that sample back to Earth for tests.

This is a prime example of how advancing our ability to live in space can affect how we live on Earth. The urine recycler is basically a miniaturized version of water treatment plants. This technology has potential spin-off applications for mobile water purification methods in poor water quality regions in draught-stricken countries.

“This technology of how to reuse our things and be careful with them is really applicable to life on planet Earth,” space station commander Mike Fincke added.

Source: Chron.com

[/caption]Air quality is a serious issue for any space-based activity. After all, if a harmful gas is leaked into the sealed space station, the astronauts on board cannot simply open the window to get some fresh air. The International Space Station (ISS) and stations before it (including the Russian-built Mir) have all been afflicted with poor air-quality conditions. This is a concern for astronauts and cosmonauts as their health can suffer significantly when exposed to certain chemicals accidentally leaked.

In an effort to remove the threat of harmful chemical build-up in the ISS, a new hi-tech electronic “nose” will be tested on board the ISS next month. If successful, the ENose will be fitted as standard on manned space missions, including long-term missions to the Moon and Mars…

Crewmembers on board space ships and stations will be critically aware of the risk of poor air quality. Air pollution is a huge issue at the best of times here on Earth, but we have the advantage that we can (usually) move freely to locations where air quality is better. Naturally, this might be hard if you live in a city where exhaust fumes and stagnant weather can cause problems, or if you are affected by natural disasters such as volcanic activity or wildfires (as I found out for myself last week!), but generally we can close our windows (to stop polluted air from getting in) or open them (to vent bad air out).

However, in space, you’re stuck with the air that is being circulated, meaning an emergency will quickly develop if an undetected contaminant is released. As I write this, I’m looking at the carbon monoxide detector in my office; if CO is detected it will set off an early warning beeper hopefully saving me from being overcome by the odourless gas. This is the critical thing for the space station, should an odourless gas be released into the air, the crew may not know about it until it’s too late.

So, next month, NASA will be sending an air quality early warning detector to the station. “This ENose is a very capable instrument that will increase crew awareness of the state of their air quality,” said Carl Walz, a former astronaut and director of NASA’s Advanced Capabilities Division, which funds ENose development. “Having experienced an air-quality event during my Expedition 4 mission on the space station, I wish I had the information that this ENose will provide future crews. This technology demonstration will provide important information for environmental control and life-support system designers for the future lunar outpost.”

This life-saving gadget will use 32 sensors to identify several key organic and inorganic gaseous chemicals. These gases may be released due to solvent use or before the onset of an electrical fire. The human nose can be very tolerant of high concentrations of harmful chemicals, smelling them when it is too late, so technology has to step in and detect low levels of contaminents before they become an issue. The geeky-named “ENose” will be able to detect “fractional parts per million to 10,000 parts per million,” of harmful airborne chemicals.

The ENose sensors contain polymer films that alter their electrical conductivity in response to exposure to different chemicals. Depending on the key chemicals detected, the detector’s response will depend on which sensors have been triggered. A picture will quickly emerge as to what is causing the contamination and the crew will be notified about the emerging danger. Aerosols and vapour can both be detected.

This air-sniffing piece of kit is about the size of a shoebox and weighs only nine pounds (4 kg) and draws 20 W of power. If it is successful, the ENose will most likely be integrated into future lunar colonies, then manned missions to Mars.

A previous incarnation of the ENose was tested on the ISS in 1998 for six months (according to the NASA press release), which brings up the obvious question: Why has it taken ten years to carry out more tests on this critical bit of equipment? Surely another early warning system is currently in place? As far as I can tell, there doesn’t seem to be…

Source: Computer World

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Ten years ago today the Russian built Zarya control module was launched into space and the International Space Station was born. The orbiting outpost has gone from one small module to an expansive station with ten different modules made in several different countries, a huge backbone truss structure made of 12 large pieces, and three sets of the largest solar arrays ever sent into space. The current space shuttle mission is providing the furnishings to outfit the station into a five-bedroom, two bath, two kitchen space research outpost. 164 people have visited the station in these past ten years, as the 313 ton station has circled the Earth more than 57,300 times and traveled a distance of more than 1.3 billion miles (2 billion km). See a very nifty animation of how the station was built at USA Today, see a list of all the flights so far dedicated to ISS construction, and find all the stats you’ll ever want on the ISS here.

Frequent readers of Universe Today know I have a soft spot in my heart for the ISS, and today I’d like to share some of my favorite images from the past ten years of station construction. Above is a collage of the Zarya module a decade ago, (left) and the station’s current configuration.

Before the station could house its first occupants, it took several missions to outfit the ISS and bring up supplies. Here, astronaut Koichi Wakata from Japan floats through the Zvezda module in October of 2000, which the STS-92 crew stocked almost completely with supplies for the first crew. Permanent occupancy began just a few weeks later when the Expedition One crew of Bill Shepherd, Yuri Gidzenko, and Sergei Krikalev opened the ISS hatch on Nov. 2, 2000.

Shortly after the Expedition One crew arrived, the STS-97 space shuttle crew visited and installed the P6 Truss, which contains the first set of the huge solar arrays. The P6 provided enough solar power so that that soon afterward, the first laboratory could be installed. The P6 was temporarily installed on top of the Z1 Truss in December 2000.

In February of 2001 space shuttle Atlantis brought up the Destiny Laboratory. Here, the lab is in the grasp of the shuttle’s remote manipulator system (RMS) robot arm, moving it from its stowage position in the shuttle’s cargo bay and attaching it to the ISS.

The truss sections make up the “backbone” of the station. Most of the trusses are huge in themselves, some weighing 27,000 pounds. But together, they expand the station’s length to the size of a football field. Here in November 2002, Astronauts John Herrington (left) and Michael Lopez-Alegria from the STS-113 shuttle crew, work on the newly installed Port One (P1) truss. This mission activated the “railcar” on the truss, allowing astronauts to move easily up and down the truss for construction and maintenance. The station’s robotic arm (SSRMS) can also be attached to the car.

Backdropped by the blackness of space and Earth’s horizon, this full view of the International Space Station was photographed by the departing Space Shuttle Discovery crew following undocking after a construction mission in August of 2005.

In an emergency operation, astronaut Scott Parazynski anchored himself to a foot restraint on the end of the Orbiter Boom Sensor System to repair a torn solar array during the STS-120 in October of 2007. Parazynski cut a snagged wire and installed homemade stabilizers designed to strengthen the damaged solar array’s structure and stability after it was torn while re-deploying the array after it was moved to its permanent position.

A close-up view of the shiny new Columbus laboratory (top right), added during the STS-122 mission in February 2008, photographed by Space Shuttle Atlantis crew shortly after the undocking of the two spacecraft.

In March of 2008, astronauts installed a large robot named Dextre outside the station. The two-armed, $200-million robot will reduce the amount of time astronauts must spend outside the space station, and could eliminate the need for up to a dozen spacewalks a year. Here’s a comparison between Dex and Hal.

And finally, here’s a new image from the latest STS-126 mission. Astronauts Steve Bowen and Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper (out of frame) worked to clean and lubricate part of the station’s starboard Solar Alpha Rotary Joints (SARJ) and to remove two of SARJ’s 12 trundle bearing assemblies. The spacewalkers also removed a depleted nitrogen tank from a stowage platform on the outside of the complex and moved it into Endeavour’s cargo bay. They also moved a flex hose rotary coupler from the shuttle to the station stowage platform, as well as removing some insulation blankets from the common berthing mechanism on the Kibo laboratory.

A tool bag floated away in space as spacewalking astronauts worked outside the International Space Station Tuesday. Heide Stefanyshyn-Piper had a grease gun explode inside her tool bag, getting the dark gray goop all over a camera, the inside of the bag, and her gloves. While she was trying to clean it up, the whole bag floated away. “Oh, great,” Piper said. It was one of the largest items ever to be lost by a spacewalker. Lost were two grease guns, needed to clean and lube the jammed Solar Alpha Rotary Joint for the space station’s solar arrays. Flight director Ginger Kerrick said the bag and also an errant screw that also floated past that spacewalkers posed no hazards to the ISS or shuttle. By late Tuesday, the bag was already well away from the complex, about 2.5 miles (4 km) in front of the shuttle-station complex. The rest of the spacewalk went well, as Piper and her partner Stephen Bowen shared tools and accomplished all the planned objectives. Mission planners are studying options for replacing, or doing without, two grease guns lost.

Also lost is one of two spiders on board a special experiment…


While one orb weaver spiders weaved away in an ususual unsymmetrical manner, one spider is MIA.
“We don’t believe that it’s escaped the overall payload enclosure,” said Kirk Shireman, NASA’s deputy station program manager. “I’m sure we’ll find him spinning a web sometime here in the next few days.”

“The web was more or less three-dimensional and it looked like it was all over the inside of the spider hab,” said NASA astronaut Sandra Magnus, the space station’s science officer. “We took some pictures of it.” And here’s an image:
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Painted lady butterfly larvae were also included as a separate part of the experiment.

Students will compare the space butterflies’ lifecycle and how the spiders weave webs and feed in weightlessness with similar spiders and butterflies on Earth.

Also inside the station, astronauts moved two 1,700-pound (770 kg) water recycling racks into the Destiny lab module, as well as combustion research gear, and a new toilet and crew sleep stations.

The water recycling gear, which will convert condensate and urine into pure water for drinking, food preparation, hygiene and oxygen generation, is crucial for NASA’s plans to boost the station’s crew size to six next year. The astronauts hoped to hook up the two water processing racks today (Wednesday) and to begin pumping stored urine into the system Thursday.

Water samples will be returned to Earth aboard Endeavour for detailed chemical analysis. A full three months of testing is planned in orbit, with additional ground tests after the next shuttle visit in February, before any astronauts are allowed to drink the recycled water.

Sources: MSNBC, UPI