We published a photograph of a lone turquoise melt pond as our Image of the Day on August 2, 2014. Although that was one of the largest that scientists participating in the 2014 MABEL campaign saw, it certainly wasn’t the only one. In fact, that melt pond had plenty of company—and we had no shortage […]
ISS Daily Summary Report – 08/01/14
Burning and Suppression of Solids (BASS)-II Operations: Flight Engineer (FE)-6 Gerst conducted flame tests for the BASS-II investigation which examines the burning and extinction characteristics of a wide variety of fuel samples in microgravity. The experiment will guide strategies for materials flammability screening for use in spacecraft as well as provide valuable data on solid …
Charting MABEL’s course
For more than 65 hours this month, NASA’s high-altitude ER-2 aircraft flew from Fairbanks over melting sea ice, glaciers, forests, permafrost, lakes, volcanoes and more. It zigged and zagged over the Beaufort Sea, and soared straight over the Bagley Ice Field. The goal: to use a laser altimeter called MABEL to take elevation measurements over […]
A View to Remember
Over four missions, astronaut Carl Walz logged 231 days in space. Before the launch of the International Space Station resupply Orb-2 mission from Wallops Island, Virginia, in July 2014, he described a few of views of Earth from space that he remembers best. Walz is now Vice President of Human Space Flight Operations at Orbital, […]
ISS Daily Summary Report – 07/31/14
Burning and Suppression of Solids (BASS)-II Operations: Flight Engineer (FE)-5 Wiseman conducted flame tests for the BASS-II investigation which examines the burning and extinction characteristics of a wide variety of fuel samples in microgravity. Today, Wiseman burned four samples of 2 centimeter wide acrylic slabs. The slabs measured 1, 2, 4, and 5 millimeters thick. …
ISS Daily Summary Report – 07/30/14
FLame Extinguishment Experiment (FLEX)-2 Operations: Commander (CDR) Swanson removed the Combustion Integration Rack (CIR) alignment guides which isolated the rack and allowed ground teams to start another FLEX-2 test point via ground commanding. FLEX-2 uses small droplets of fuel to study the special burning characteristics of fire in space. This test session will utilize 50% …
ISS Daily Summary Report – 07/29/14
Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV)-5 Launch: ATV-5 George Lemaitre launched today at 6:47pm CDT from Kourou, French Guiana. Ascent was nominal. Solar array and antenna deployment occurred on schedule. The cargo vehicle is scheduled to dock to the ISS Service Module aft port on August 12. Burning and Suppression of Solids (BASS)-II Operations: Flight Engineer (FE)-6 …
Deep Blue Water and a Roller Coaster Ride
After just over a full week at sea, we have found the rhythm of our life and work routines. We collect water with the CTD rosette, deploy instruments over the side of the ship, work in the lab, eat, and sleep. That might sound like a lot of work and no play, but we do […]
Adjusting the Range: How to Scale Data
Palettes aren’t the only important decision when visualizing data with color: you also need to consider scaling. Not only is the choice of start and end points (the lowest and highest values) critical, but the way intermediate values are stretched between them.
ISS Daily Summary Report – 07/28/14
Burning and Suppression of Solids (BASS)-II Operations: Flight Engineer (FE)-6 Gerst conducted flame tests for the BASS-II investigation. The concurrent rods were burned as well as flat nomex fabric sample. The BASS-II investigation examines the burning and extinction characteristics of a wide variety of fuel samples in microgravity. The BASS-II experiment will guide strategies for …