Introduction The use of color to display data is a solved problem, right? Just pick a palette from a drop-down menu (probably either a grayscale ramp or a rainbow), set start and end points, press “apply,” and you’re done. Although we all know it’s not that simple, that’s often how colors are chosen in the […]
New Status: H-II Transfer Vehicle 4 (HTV4) Status: HTV4 launched successfully Saturday August 3rd at 2:48 PM CDT from Tanegashima Space Center, Japan. Capture and berthing are planned for Friday August 9th at 6:30 AM CDT. Over the weekend, Reaction Control System (RCS) and Main Engines thruster testing and leak checks were performed on both …
NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg took this photograph of moonrise and sunrise over Earth’s limb on August 4, 2013. In a tweet, Nyberg noted that she also saw Jupiter and Mercury as she looked out from the International Space Station, but the glare of the Sun’s light hid them in her photo. When astronomer and Slate blogger Phil Plait […]
New Status: InSPACE-3 Operations: Flight Engineer (FE)-6 Nyberg performed her first two test sessions of InSPACE-3 today. InSPACE-3 obtains data on fluids containing ellipsoid-shaped particles that change the physical properties of the fluids in response to magnetic fields. InSPACE-3 collects and records data on fluids containing ellipsoid-shaped particles that change the physical properties of the …
New Status: Multi-Purpose Small Payload Rack (MSPR) Combustion Chamber (CC) Communication Cable Checkout: Flight Engineer (FE)-3 Cassidy successfully performed activation and checkout of the MSPR CC Communication Cable. Following this activity, ground specialists initiated steps to verify the video quality downlinked from the G1 camcorder. Investigating the Structure of Paramagnetic Aggregates from Colloidal Emulsions (InSPACE)-3 …
Here is a video of a bright Perseid seen by our all-sky camera located at PARI (NC) in the early morning hours of July 30. Several Perseids have already been detected and they are not set to peak for over a week! The nights of August 11-12 and 12-13 will be the best time to observe, …
New Status: Ocular Health: The crew continued Ocular Health activities with Flight Engineer (FE)-3 Cassidy acting as Crew Medical Officer (CMO) to perform ultrasound scans on FE-5 Parmitano and FE-6 Nyberg. Parmitano and Nyberg also performed cardiac ultrasound scans and blood pressure measurements using the Ocular Health hardware. The cardiac ultrasound aims to obtain vascular …
Periodically, Earth Observatory answers reader questions on this blog. Here’s a recent note from Manny J of New York City: “I recall that starting on May 15, 2013, the cold did not leave [New York]. In fact, it still felt like winter because it refused to warm up. Then came June 2013, with the sky overcast […]
New Status: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Layer2 Ethernet Hub and Multiplexer (LEHX) Setup: Flight Engineer (FE)-3 Cassidy configured the LEHX Hub and a System Laptop Terminal (SLT) with a medium rate data cable to enable communication with the Improved Payload Ethernet Hub Gateway (iPEHG). He set up the SLT to communicate with the Joint …
New Status: 52P Launch and Dock: 50P launched at 3:45pm CDT Saturday with nominal ascent. Rendezvous and docking occurred at 9:26pm CDT and were completed successfully in automated mode. H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV)-4 Rendezvous and Capture On-Board Training (OBT): Flight Engineer (FE)-3 Cassidy, FE-5 Parmitano, and FE-6 Nyberg conducted proficiency training in preparation for HTV-4 …
