Autonomous Mission Operations (AMO) Run 2: Following the successful completion of the first AMO experiment run last week, today the crew executed the second of three crew initiated experiment runs by using onboard AMO software to complete the autonomous deactivation and activation of an EXPRESS Rack (ER) 7 at Lab P2. The AMO investigation tests …
While the Compton Spectrometer and Imager (COSI) gazes into space, another experiment is listening for whispers from the Earth itself. Housed in two humble white boxes tucked behind COSI’s solar panel, a triad of microphones are recording infrasound – sound too deep for humans to hear. Infrasound sources include volcanoes, earthquakes, ocean waves, the aurora, …
The hatch to BEAM was opened up again today for the second day of outfitting the expandable module to determine its habitability and durability. BEAM, or the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, is set to demonstrate the overall performance and capability of expandable habitats for the next two years. The crew is predicted to enter BEAM …
Multi-Omics: Over the weekend the crew checked the remaining Fructooligosaccharide (FOS) packages and stowed the Fructooligo Bag for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Multi-Omics investigation. Today, the crew collected samples and inserted them into the Box Module in the Minus Eighty-degree Freezer for ISS (MELFI). The Multi-Omics analysis of human microbial-metabolic cross-talk in the …
The Bigelow Expandable Activity Module’s (BEAM) hatch was opened up for the first time today. Astronaut Jeff Williams entered BEAM and checked sensors, installed air ducts and reported back to Earth that it was in pristine condition. After Williams completed the BEAM checks he exited and closed the hatch for the day. The crew will …
NASA astronaut Jeff Williams opened the hatch to the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module (BEAM) at 4:47 a.m. EDT Monday, June 6. Along with Russian cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka, Williams entered BEAM for the first time to collect an air sample and begin downloading data from sensors on the dynamics of BEAM’s expansion. Williams told flight controllers …
Radiation Dosimetry Inside ISS-Neutron (RaDI-N): Following retrieval of the RaDI-N hardware from the Russian crewmembers, the USOS crewmember deployed all 8 Space Bubble Detectors around the ISS for the Radi-N2 experiment. The Canadian Space Agency (CSA) investigation measures neutron radiation levels on the ISS. RaDI-N uses bubble detectors as neutron monitors which have been designed …
This week’s blog comes from Tod Lauer, a research astrophysicist at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory in Tucson, Arizona. New Horizons Principal Investigator: “Lauer! We’ve got to have full resolution! Now!” Me: “I’m pushing the images as hard as I can – any more and the pixels will blow apart for sure!” Okay, the New …
For a few seconds early Thursday, night turned into day as an extremely bright fireball lit the pre-dawn sky over much of Arizona, blinding all-sky meteor cameras as far away as western New Mexico. Based on the latest data, a small asteroid estimated at 5 feet (1-2 meters) in diameter – with a mass of a …
NanoRacks CubeSat Deployer #8 (NRCSD#8) Deployment Operations: The final NRCSD #8 silo was successfully deployed yesterday at 9:15 PM CDT which concludes three consecutive days of deployment operations. Eight silos were deployed during these operations, each containing two CubeSats for a total of 16 Doves. The Dove satellites are a fleet of nanosatellites that enables …
