The lunar module above the Moon during the Apollo 11 mission (NASA)
Back in 2008, Richard Branson outlined his vision for Virgin Galactic’s future. Once tourists are taken into Earth orbit, it seems possible that space hotels could be developed for longer stop-overs in space. He then went on to mention that short “sight-seeing” tours to the Moon could be started from these ultimate hotels. If we are to make travel to the Moon routine enough to send tourists there, the trip would need to be as short as possible.
So how long is the commute from the Earth to the Moon anyway? Human beings and machines have made that trip on several occasions. And while some took a very long time, others were astonishingly fast. Let’s review the various missions and methods, and see which offers the most efficient and least time-consuming means of transit.
The MIT BioSuit, a skintight spacesuit that offers improved mobility and reduced mass compared to modern gas-pressurized spacesuits. Credit: MIT.
So far, every spacesuit humans have utilized has been designed with a specific mission and purpose in mind. As of yet, there’s been no universal or “perfect” spacesuit that would fit every need. For example, the US ACES “pumpkin” suits and the Russian Sokol are only for launch and reentry and can’t be used for spacewalks. And the Apollo A7L suits were designed with hard soled boots for astronauts to walk on the Moon, while the current NASA EMU and the Russian Orlan are designed for use in space, but with soft soled booties so as not to damage the exterior of the space station.
What would constitute the perfect spacesuit that could be used for any mission? It would have to be lightweight while being impervious to rips, impacts and radiation, but also be flexible, fit multiple sizes, and be comfortable enough to be worn for long periods of time.
With those specifications in mind, is it possible to create the perfect spacesuit?
An astronaut using NASA’s current EMU spacewalking suit, outside the International Space Station. Credit: NASA
“Designing a spacesuit turns into a battle between protection and mobility,” said NASA astronaut trainer Robert Frost in an article on Quora. “The more we try to protect the wearer, the less mobile they become. The more mobile we make them, the less protected they are.”
The perfect spacesuit would be, to quote Elon Musk, “badass.”
That’s the terminology the SpaceX used in negotiations with suit-making companies to create the pressure suit for SpaceX’s future commercial passengers. SpaceX is now designing their own suit, and Musk said SpaceX is looking for not just utility but esthetics, too.
“It needs to both look like a 21st-century space suit and work well,” he said during a reddit AMA.
But even with SpaceX’s ‘badass’ suit, they are designing with one purpose in mind.
And there are obstacles to having a “badass space suit design,” wrote Eric Sofge in an article in Popular Science. “A launch-entry suit is ungainly, an oversize one-piece embedded with rigid interfaces for the helmet and gloves, and enough room to inflate, basketball-like, when pressurized—especially in the seat, so an astronaut isn’t forced to stand up.”
New Ideas
One of the best hopes on the horizon is a “shrink-wrap” type of spacesuit that MIT has been developing. It is a lightweight, form-fitting, flexible spacesuit — a la Seven of Nine on Star Trek: Voyager— lined with tiny, muscle like coils.
Dava Newman wearing the biosuit. Image credit: Donna Coveney
“With conventional spacesuits, you’re essentially in a balloon of gas that’s providing you with the necessary one-third of an atmosphere [of pressure,] to keep you alive in the vacuum of space,” said one of the developers, Dava Newman. “We want to achieve that same pressurization, but through mechanical counterpressure — applying the pressure directly to the skin, thus avoiding the gas pressure altogether. We combine passive elastics with active materials. … Ultimately, the big advantage is mobility, and a very lightweight suit for planetary exploration.”
MIT is using a nickel-titanium shape-memory alloy and they are continuing to test ideas. Some problems with this suit include the difficulty of putting on such a tight suit in a zero-gravity environment and how a gas-pressurized helmet can be connected to the compression-pressurized suit.
The NASA Z-2 suit will incorporate the “technology” design the public voted on. Credit: NASA
NASA recently revealed the winner of a public-voted spacesuit design called the Z-2. While it looks a bit like Buzz Lightyear’s fictional suit, it has bearings in the joints that make more flexible than NASA’s current EMU. It also has a rear-entry port, allowing it to be docked to the side of a mobile transporter or habitat, essentially turning the suit into its own air lock. This helps to avoid bringing in abrasive soil and dust such as lunar regolith Martian soil. NASA is currently testing the Z-2 prototype with plans to develop a better suit, the Z-3. If it works well, the Z-3 might be used in a space walk from the International Space Station by 2017.
So, still, the perfect spacesuit eludes us.
But here are some other additions that would make the perfect spacesuit:
Self-healing: Currently, having multiple layers is the best way to defend against rips or tears, which can be fatal in the vacuum of space. But MIT’s body suit would utilize mechanical counterpressure to counteract a rip, and engineers at ILC Dover are looking into integrating self-healing materials, such as polymers embedded with microencapsulated chemicals that would create a foam to heal a torn suit.
Spacesuit Glove. Courtesy of Johnson Space CenterBetter gloves: gloves have been one of the hardest things to design in spacesuits. Making a glove that is both flexible and protective is a challenge. Astronaut Duane Carey compared spacewalks to trying to fix your car while wearing winter mittens. Astronauts have had skin rubbed until it bleeds and have lost fingernails because of how the current gloves wear. NASA is constantly working on better gloves.
Augmented Vision: Currently, NASA’s polycarbonate helmets could be confused with fishbowls. One material that could be used for future helmets is a clear ceramic called ALON, which is thinner than bulletproof glass and three times as strong. Another addition could be an internal heads-up display — like ones used by F-16 pilots – to provide data and information.
The cooling undergarment used under NASA’s EMU spacesuit. Credit: NASA.
A better cooling system: Current suits have “underwear” with about 300 feet of plastic tubing that circulate waters to draw away body heat. Purdue University engineers are developing a polymer using glass fibers coated with thermoelectric nanocrystals that absorb heat and discharge electricity.
Artificial Gravity: Remember the magnetic boots worn in Star Trek: The Undiscovered Country and Star Trek: Insurrection? The University of Massachusetts is developing a dry adhesive that could help astronauts and those pesky floating tools to “stick” to surfaces. It is made of a carbon fiber weave and mimics the skin and tendon structure of gecko feet. Another idea — while not quite the same – is a way to counter muscle and bone atrophy in zero-G: Draper Labs are developing gyroscopes the could be attached to the arms and legs of spacesuits that could provide resistance similar to the force of gravity on Earth.
Long-life Battery Power: One issue for long spacewalks is having enough battery power. Michigan Tech is developing units that can convert movement into electricity. Also, Elon Musk might have some ideas for long-lasting batteries…
So, while many entities are working on ideas and concepts, the perfect spacesuit has yet to be developed. If humans are going to go to an asteroid, back to the Moon, to Mars or on a mission to deep space, we’ll need a suit as close to perfect as possible.
NASA will make a “major announcement” today on the return of human spaceflight launches for the U.S, specifically which commercial space company — or companies — will taxi astronauts to and from the International Space. You can watch the press conference live here today (Sept. 16) at 4 pm EDT (1 pm PDT, 20:00 UTC).
The competition for the Commercial Crew Program (CCP) has been between four companies: SpaceX, Boeing, Sierra Nevada and Blue Origin. Some media reports indicate NASA will make commercial crew awards to the obvious front-runners, Boeing and SpaceX.
SpaceX’s Dragon became the first commercial spacecraft to deliver cargo to the space station in 2012, and SpaceX has been working on a version of the Dragon that can carry humans as well.
Boeing’s CST-100 can carry up to seven passengers or a mix of humans and cargo.
Sierra Nevada has been working on the Dream Chaser, a winged spacecraft that looks similar to a mini space shuttle. Blue Origin has been developing a capsule called Space Vehicle.
The CCP program was developed after the space shuttle program ended in 2011. While NASA focuses its human spaceflight efforts on the new Space Launch System and going beyond Earth orbit, they will use commercial companies that will launch from the US to ferry their astronauts to the space station.
Image from the "tail cam" on SpaceShipTwo of engine ignition. Credit: Virgin Galactic.
Virgin Galactic released video from SpaceShipTwo’s flight test last Friday, January 10, 2014. This was the third supersonic, rocket-powered test of the Virgin Galactic system after dozens of successful subsonic test flights. The pilots Dave Mackay and Mark Stucky tested the spaceship’s Reaction Control System, the newly installed thermal protection coating on the vehicle’s tail booms, and the “feather” re-entry system, all with great success.
See some images from the flight below.
You can read our coverage from Friday’s test flight here.
Image from SpaceShipTwo’s third powered flight on January 10, 2014. Credit: Virgin Galactic.Feathered Flight during Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo’s third powered flight on January 10, 2014 over the Mojave desert. This image was taken by MARS Scientific as part of the Mobile Aerospace Reconnaissance System optical tracking system.
The Soyuz TMA-11M rocket is launched with Expedition 38/39. Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls.
Update: the crew has now arrived safely at the ISS. You can watch the arrival video below.
Three new crew members are on their way to the International Space Station. NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Koichi Wakata and Soyuz Commander Mikhail Tyurin of Roscosmos launched on a Soyuz TMA-11M spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 11:14 p.m. EST (04:14:00 UTC, 10:14 a.m. Thursday, Kazakh time). They’ll use the accelerated “fast-track” trajectory and arrive at the station in just a few hours, at 10:31 UTC (5:31 a.m. EST Thursday.)
You can watch the launch video below.
In an usual situation, when the new crew arrives, there will be nine crew members and three Soyuz vehicles at the ISS. The timing of crew exchange works to enable a complicated “relay race” of a special Olympic torch from the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics in Russia. The new crew is bringing the unlit torch along, then, over the weekend Russian cosmonauts Oleg Kotov and Sergei Ryazanskiy, who are part of the space station’s current crew, will take the torch out on a spacewalk, with plans to take pictures and video (they’ll try to take pictures when the station flies over Russia and the southern resort of Sochi). The real reason for the spacewalk is to do some routine Russian maintenance outside the station.
The Soyuz TMA-11M spacecraft launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome with the crew of Expedition 38. Via NASA TV.
Then, on Sunday, three crew members will return home (Fyodor Yurchikhin, Luca Parmitano and Karen Nyberg) and they will bring the torch back home, with landing planned at about 9:50 p.m. EST on Nov 10 (02:50 UTC on Nov 11.) The torch then will be given back to Olympic officials and it will be used in the opening ceremonies of the February games.
After that crew departs, Expedition 38 will begin with Kotov as Commander.
Nine crew members together on the International Space Station. The Expedition 38 crew entered the ISS at 12:44 UTC (7:44 am EST). The crew of nine will work together till Sunday. Credit: NASA
There have not been nine crew members on the ISS since 2009. During the second half of the new crew’s Expedition, when it changes to Expedition 39, Wakata will make history by becoming the first Japanese commander of the International Space Station. You can read more about Wakata and Mastracchio and their upcoming mission in an interview they did with Elizabeth Howell during their training.
The new fast-track trajectory has the Soyuz rocket launching shortly after the ISS passes overhead. Then, additional firings of the vehicle’s thrusters early in its mission expedites the time required for a Russian vehicle to reach the Station, in about 6 hours or four orbits.
The current Expedition 37 crew took this picture inside the ATV-4 before undocking as a tribute to Albert Einstein. Credit: ESA/Luca Parmitano.
The Expedition 37 crew onboard the International Space Station closed the hatch and said goodbye to the ATV-4 “Albert Einstein” cargo ship early this morning, Oct. 28. Europe’s 4th Automated Transfer Vehicle undocked at 08:55 UTC (4:55 a.m. EDT). The cargo carrier was filled with trash and it will be deorbited on Nov. 2 for a destructive entry back into the Earth’s atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean. ATV-4 has been at the ISS since June 15, delivering more than 7 tons of food, fuel and supplies. Its departure helps prepare for more action at the ISS: the current Soyuz spacecraft docked at the station will be moved to a different location so that a new Soyuz can dock with three new crew members. The Soyuz TMA-11M is scheduled to launch on Nov. 6, 2013 with the Expedition 38/39 crew of Rick Mastracchio, Koichi Wakata, Mikhail Tyurin.
Some images of the undocking, below:
This photo was taken from Japan shorty after the undocking:
Nefertiti, the "Johnson Jumper" spider hunting for flies inside her habitat on board the International Space Station (ISS). (NASA)
Astronauts have said adapting to weightlessness is much easier than readapting to gravity when they returned to Earth. Muscle weakness, wobbly legs, and feeling like the room is spinning is common after long duration spaceflight, not to mention the long-term issues like bone loss, diminished eyesight, and a heart that has to recondition itself to pump blood harder to overcome gravity. As Canadian Chris Hadfield said, “My body was quite happy in space without gravity.”
It turns out spiders have similar issues. This Phiddipus Johnsoni, or red-backed jumping spider named Nefertiti is shown walking and preying on flies in her habitat while in orbit on the International Space Station and then doing the same while readapting to gravity on Earth. While trying to capture its prey, it ends up flopping awkwardly onto its back. No more flying like SuperSpider.
Nefertiti was in space 100 days in 2012 as part of a student-initiated science experiment of YouTube’s Space Lab, an online video contest. After returning home, this spidernaut was sent to the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. and was part of exhibition of the first jumping spider to survive the trip to space. Unfortunately Nefertiti died just a few days after being sent to the museum.
Sometimes you’ve just got to get away from it all. From your planet, your Solar System and your galaxy. If you’re looking to escape, you’ll need to know just what velocity it’ll take to break the surly bonds of gravity and punch the sky.
We record Astronomy Cast as a live Google+ Hangout on Air every Monday at 12:00 pm Pacific / 3:00 pm Eastern. You can watch here on Universe Today or from the Astronomy Cast Google+ page.
A strange but amazing cloud seen from the International Space Station. Credit: Mike Hopkins/NASA
The astronauts on board the International Space Station saw a strange and unexpected view out their windows yesterday. “Saw something launch into space today. Not sure what it was but the cloud it left behind was pretty amazing,” tweeted NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins.
ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano also got a shot of the cloud, as well as another picture of a contrail left from the launch.
So what launched into space? Of course, there was no launch from NASA because of the government shutdown, and I couldn’t find any other launches on the docket anywhere else, so I checked in with Robert Christy at the Zarya.info website, who usually knows of everything going up (or down) in space.
‘A missile launch seen from space: an unexpected surprise!’ tweeted ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano. Credit: ESA/Luca Parmitano.
“Without precise date, time and location it’s not possible to say for sure,” Christy replied, “I believe there was a missile launch from Kapustin Yar (Kazakhstan) on October 10 so if the photo was taken over the Eastern Europe or central Asia region than that might be what he saw.”
Strategic Rocket Forces carried out a successful test launch of a Topol/SS-25 missile on October 10, 2013. The missile was launched at 17:39 MSK (13:39 UTC) from Kapustin Yar to the Sary Shagan test site in Kazakhstan. According to a representative of the Rocket Forces, the test was used to confirm characteristics of the Topol missile, to test the systems of the Sary Shagan test site, and “to test new combat payload for intercontinental ballistic missiles.”
I had thought ICBM’s were a relic of the Cold War, but according to Wikipedia, “As of 2009, all five of the nations with permanent seats on the United Nations Security Council have operational long-range ballistic missile systems: all except China have operational submarine-launched missiles, and Russia, the United States and China also have land-based ICBMs (the US’ missiles are silo-based, China and Russia have both silo and road-mobile missiles).” Additionally, Israel launched an ICBM test in 2008, India test-fired one in 2012 and there was much speculation that a launch by North Korea in December 2012 to put a satellite into orbit was really a way to test an ICBM.
Parmitano also got an image of the cloud:
Another view of the cloud in space from the missile launch. Credit: ESA/Luca Parmitano.
“An immense cloud forms outside the atmosphere after the disintegration,” Parmitano said via Twitter.
Robert Christy noted that at the launch time noted by the RussianForces website, the ISS was over Iran, heading northeast towards Mongolia, and the Sun was about to set at Kapustin Yar.
“The view from the ISS would have been with a low sun angle, shining ‘over the photographer’s shoulder’ – hence the rather striking image against a darkish background with no glare from the Sun,” Christy told Universe Today via email.
Oh, the things you can see out your window in space!
Clay Anderson's shadow during a spacewalk he took in July 2007, while he was part of Expedition 15. Credit: NASA
“Talk about a selfie!” wrote former astronaut Clay Anderson on Twitter yesterday (Oct. 1). He posted that comment along with a favorite photo from Expedition 15, when he was standing in restraints on the robotic Canadarm2. Off in the distance, he saw his shadow against the solar array panels of a Soyuz spacecraft.
That got us thinking — what are the best astronaut selfies? Below are some of our favourites (some intentional, some not) from over the years. Any that we have missed? Let us know in the comments!
JAXA astronaut Aki Hoshide takes a self-portrait during Expedition 32 in September 2012. “Visible in this outworldly assemblage is the Sun, the Earth, two portions of a robotic arm, an astronaut’s spacesuit, the deep darkness of space, and the unusual camera taking the picture,” NASA wrote. Credit: NASA
Apollo 12’s Pete Conrad is visible in the helmet of crewmate Al Bean during their moon landing in November 1969. Credit: NASAExpedition 15 crewmember and NASA astronaut Clay Anderson nabbed this self-portrait during a spacewalk in August 2007. Credit: NASASelf-portrait of Expedition 36/37 European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano during a July 2013 spacewalk. Credit: NASAAl Shepard raises the American flag during Apollo 14 in February 1971. Below is the shadow of his crewmate, Ed Mitchell. Credit: NASANASA astronaut Mike Fossum grabbed this self-portrait in July 2011, with space shuttle Atlantis visible in the background. Credit: NASANASA astronaut Joe Tanner grabs a helmet shot during a spacewalk on STS-115 in September 2006. Credit: NASAGemini 12 astronaut Buzz Aldrin snaps a picture of himself during a spacewalk in November 1966. Credit: NASAMike Fossum, a mission specialist on STS-121, took this shot in July 2006. In the visor you can see space shuttle Discovery, part of the International Space Station and fellow crewmate Piers J. Sellers. Credit: NASANASA astronaut Scott Parazynski takes a self-portrait during STS-120, which ran from October to November 2007. Credit: NASAGemini 10 astronaut Mike Collins in July 1966. Credit: NASA/Arizona State UniversityExpedition 6’s Don Pettit takes a portrait in January 2003. Also visible in the picture (upper right) is his crewmate, Ken Bowersox. Credit: NASAA teensy-tiny Neil Armstrong is visible in the helmet of Buzz Aldrin during the Apollo 11 landing in July 1969. Credit: NASA
