Blogs

Ocular Health:  Virts performed his first (flight day 10) Ocular Health ultrasound and cardiac sessions.  Wilmore helped perform ultrasound scans on the eyes of Virts. The ultrasound images will be used to identify changes in globe morphology, including flattening of the posterior globe, and document optic nerve sheath diameter, optic nerve sheath tortuosity, globe axial …

It’s the most wonderful time of the year — for spotting a Geminid meteor! The 2014 Geminid meteor shower is forecast to be a lively meteor shower with great views in the skies over Earth. The week of Dec. 8 is a good window for Geminid-watching, but the night of Dec. 13-14 is the anticipated …

Editor’s Note: The following is an excerpt from the NASA Earth Science in the News column, published in the November/December issue of The Earth Observer newsletter. You can download the current issue here. America’s Tiny Four Corners Region is an Outsized Methane Hotspot; TIME.com. One small spot in the U.S. Southwest is surprisingly the producer of the largest concentration of methane (CH4) gas […]

NASA astronaut and Expedition 42 Flight Engineer Terry Virts worked on medical science Wednesday morning and later set up commercial research gear for an experiment to be delivered on the next SpaceX mission. Meanwhile, station Commander Barry Wilmore and Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti continued this week’s maintenance work on a U.S. spacesuit. During the morning …

Ocular Health:  Wilmore set up Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) hardware and software to perform eye exams using the OCT Laptop.  The Fundoscope and OCT laptop was also used for a retinal imaging examination on Virts with remote guidance from ground specialists.  The Ocular Health protocol calls for a systematic gathering of physiological data to characterize …

Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti and Commander Barry Wilmore began fan pump separator replacement work Tuesday on a U.S. spacesuit. Cristoforetti started her day with medical science collecting saliva and urine samples for stowage in a science freezer. NASA astronaut Terry Virts worked on a variety of science including updating Ultrasound scanner software, checking a botany …

Ocular Health:  Virts conducted Flight Day 15 Ocular Health vision test. With Wilmore acting as the Crew Medical Officer (CMO), eye and blood pressure measurements were collected on Virts. Tomorrow, retinal images will be collected using the fundoscope. The Ocular Health protocol calls for a systematic gathering of physiological data to characterize the risk of …

Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti joined Commander Barry Wilmore on Monday reviewing procedures to replace a fan pump separator on a U.S. spacesuit. Earlier, Wilmore partnered up with NASA astronaut Terry Virts for the Body Measures experiment that studies changes to a crew member’s body shape while living in microgravity. › Read more about Body Measures …

Microbiome:  Cristoforetti completed survey questions, set up for the body surface and perspiration sampling operation, and performed the body sample collection throughout the day.  Wilmore collected surface samples from inside ISS.  The Microbiome experiment investigates the impact of space travel on both the human immune system and an individual’s microbiome (the collection of microbes that …

Microbiome: Cristoforetti collected saliva and completed a questionnaire survey in support of the Microbiome investigation. The Microbiome experiment investigates the impact of space travel on both the human immune system and an individual’s microbiome (the collection of microbes that live in and on the human body at any given time). 3D Printing in Zero-G:  Cristoforetti …