Ultrasonic Background Noise Test (UBNT): Kopra replaced an AA battery pack behind LAB racks followed by a data download. UBNT detects high-frequency sounds generated by hardware on the U.S.-built portions of the International Space Station. Identifying sources of noise will aid in development of a leak locating system, which would detect the high-pitched sound of …
Gabon is home to one of the most pristine rainforests on the planet—devoid of people and intact in most places, while rich in animals and plants. The Gabonese forests are representative of the Congolian tropical forests, altogether the second largest rainforest in the world after the Amazon. This makes the small Central African country the […]
Today’s blog is from Katie Knight, an undergraduate student at Carson-Newman University in Jefferson City, Tennessee. She works with the New Horizons team to help map some of the unusual terrain on Pluto, seeking patterns and estimating sizes and shapes of some of its unusual features. Hello! My name is Katie Knight, and I’m here …
The three orbiting residents on the International Space Station worked on commercial crew vehicle equipment and lab maintenance today. The crew members also worked on life science and physics research to improve life for citizens on Earth and future space crews. British astronaut Tim Peake started installing and routing cables that will enable communications with …
Space Headaches: Peake completed his Weekly Space Headaches questionnaire today. Headaches can be a common complaint during spaceflight. The Space Headaches experiment will provide information that may help in the development of methods to alleviate associated symptoms and improvement the well-being and performance of crew members in space. Space Acceleration Measurement System Sensor (SAMS)-II: …
On March 1, 2016, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly returned to Earth after spending 340 days living continuously in space. That’s a record. No other American astronaut has completed a longer mission or spent more cumulative days in space. A prolific and talented photographer, Kelly posted hundreds and hundreds of photographs of the Earth below to social media during […]
Field season is an exciting time for scientists – we leave behind the comforts of labs and offices to collect data in remote locations. Preparing for the field season is no easy task and requires an enormous amount of planning. Considerations such as “how many data loggers can I fit in my checked bag?” and […]
The Expedition 47 crew onboard the International Space Station is getting ready to welcome three new crew members when they launch in two weeks. The station will raise its orbit tonight to the correct altitude to receive the new crew that will launch inside the Soyuz TMA-20M spacecraft. NASA astronaut Jeff Williams and Roscosmos cosmonauts …
MAGVECTOR: Peake configured switches on portable power supply 1 and inserted the Universal Serial Bus (USB) in preparation for the European Space Agency’s (ESA’s) MAGVECTOR experiment run. MAGVECTOR qualitatively investigates the interaction between a moving magnetic field and an electrical conductor. The expected changes in the magnetic field structure on the ram and wake side …
NASA astronaut Scott Kelly has returned to Houston and his Expedition 46 crewmates Mikhail Kornienko and Sergey Volkov have returned to Russia. Their historic mission is over but there are three crew members who are still orbiting Earth on the International Space Station. The new station commander of Expedition 47, NASA astronaut Tim Kopra, worked …
