Scientists involved in the Minute 319 “pulse flow” say the effort has achieved its main objective: delivering water to special ecological restoration zones along the Colorado River. While cottonwood and willows have retreated from most areas due to a lack of water, conservation groups including the Sonoran Institute and Pronatura Noroeste have been working to […]
NanoRacks BioRack Troubleshooting: Flight Engineer (FE)-3 Swanson inserted BioRack experiment containers and controllers into the BioRack frame. Using the keyboard and Multiple Input, Multiple Output (MIMO) monitor, he commanded the BioRack manually to activate the experiment controllers. Ground teams are still troubleshooting as to why the ground could not command the BioRack frame in Platform …
Hybrid Training Part Eleven: Commander (CDR) Wakata donned the Hybrid Training hardware which provides electrical impulses to his non-dominant arm during concentric and eccentric arm motions. The electrical impulses help to simulate the resistance gravity would provide on the ground. This was Wakata’s eleventh of twelve Hybrid Training sessions. Hybrid Training will be used for …
Urine Collection: Commander (CDR) Wakata collected urine for his Return-15 day session for the Cardio Ox and Biochemical Profiles investigations. The Biochemical Profile experiment tests blood and urine samples obtained from astronauts before, during, and after spaceflight. Specific proteins and chemicals in the samples are used as biomarkers, or indicators of health. Post-flight analysis yields …
Congratulations to Earth Matters reader Mike G. for being the first to solve our April Puzzler! As Mike pointed out, this image shows granite outcrops in Yosemite National Park. Over on Facebook, Cooper Girard was the first to get the location; he also sagely noted that Yosemite’s landscape is the product of a granitic pluton […]
53 Progress (53P) Re-dock: On Wednesday, 53P undocked from the Russian Segment Service Module (SM), remained in orbit, then performed a test to re-rendezvous and dock with ISS today which was performed nominally at 7:15am CDT. The test demonstrated vehicle ability to automatically complete a full rendezvous and docking with the Kurs-NA System. 53P is …
The Pacific Ocean is the largest of these basins as well as the deepest. Its expanse runs 155 million square miles and contains “more than half of the free water on earth.” The CLIVAR P16S field campaign has entered the waters of the South Pacific knows as a subtropical gyre. Gyre means “circular or spiral motion.” In the ocean, wind generated surface currents travel in a circular direction, either clockwise or counterclockwise, forming a large, circular body of water. Blooms (large cell numbers) of phytoplankton cannot grow in these gyres because the water that piles up within the center of circulation is nutrient deficient.
Extravehicular Activity (EVA) #26: Today, Mastracchio (EV1) and Swanson (EV2) successfully performed an EVA to remove and replace External (EXT)-2 Multiplexer/Demultiplexer (MDM). Once the MDM was installed, ground teams powered on the new MDM, loaded software, and configured it as a viable backup. The MDM had previously failed on April 11,2014. The EV crew also …
A bright first appeared 51 miles above the town of Dumas in northern Mississippi and proceeded slightly west of north at 40,000 mph, burning up between the Tennessee towns of Saulsbury and Middleton at an altitude of 23 miles. The time of the event was 12:46:36 AM CDT. It was about as a bright as …
By Ludovic Brucker We still wonder whether our campaign was successful, or fair. For sure, it was a mix of good and tough times. The pluses, making our campaign a good time: – We’re back from our field site, healthy and with all our fingers and toes! – We set up an almost perfect camp, […]
