Blogs

We recently posted several striking pairs of satellite images of Caribbean islands before and after they were hit by Hurricane Irma. The images show lush, green vegetation turning a dark shade of brown. We were curious about what exactly caused the damage and how quickly vegetation might recover, so we checked in with Edmund Tanner, […]

Sleep.  I don’t mean to say it is taken for granted, but it is dependable. Dependable in the sense that after the day’s activities, we go to sleep. Each and every night.  That’s how it works at home at least.  Here on the ship, work is being conducted 24 hours per day to get the […]

SpaceX’s Dragon cargo craft splashed down in the Pacific Ocean at approximately 10:14 a.m. EDT, southwest of Long Beach, California, and the recovery process is underway, marking the end of the company’s twelfth contracted cargo resupply mission to the International Space Station for NASA. Expedition 53 Flight Engineer Paolo Nespoli of ESA (European Space Agency) …

At 4:40 a.m. EDT, Expedition 53 Flight Engineer Paolo Nespoli of ESA (European Space Agency) and International Space Station Commander Randy Bresnik used the Canadarm2 robotic arm to release the SpaceX Dragon after it was detached from the Earth-facing port of the Harmony module. Dragon’s thrusters will be fired to move the spacecraft a safe …

NASA Television coverage of the departure of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft from the International Space Station is set to begin early Sunday morning, Sept. 17 at 4:30 a.m. EDT. Watch the spacecraft departure live at http://www.nasa.gov/live Dragon has been loaded with more than 3,800 pounds of cargo and research to be returned to Earth and …

Node 1 Communication:  Ground teams utilized the video conferencing system to patch Space to Ground channel 2 (S/G2) to an SSC in Node 1, and asked the crew to confirm that S/G2 voice was audible in Node 1.  Two separate configurations were tested, and both were confirmed to be audible.  Neither video nor return (ISS …

A variety of things during a day at sea The motion woke me up this morning around 10 am. We finally have some weather after days of calm seas. First things first, I made a B-line for the coffee machine in the galley. If you’ve never had a cup of coffee on the deck of […]

Here we are again, sailing, sampling, studying the ocean, and overall enjoying the adventure of living on a floating island with a diverse group of people and learning from them.  Today we are working on the most northern station and ready to bring back home samples and measurements. During my second cruise and third in […]

When we think about the ocean the first reflex is to imagine the blue of a paradise tropical island or massive waves hitting remote cliffs on a stormy night. The most adventurous may think about submarines exploring the deep ocean and rovers sampling underwater volcanoes. There is something extremely fascinating that sits right “in the […]

iPad Operating System (iOS) Upgrade:  Today the crew connected the iPad Air 2 to an Space Station Computer (SSC), allowing ground controllers to update the operating system. Dragon Departure Preparations:  Today the crew completed a computer based training session to review the Dragon departure documentation and a Robotic Onboard Trainer (ROBoT) session which included two …