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 …
Charismatic megafauna The oceanographers amongst us are often hard pressed to distinguish ourselves from marine biologists. Whilst many in the general public like to imagine our work surrounded by dolphins and resembling something out of a Caribbean vacation, the reality of tracing global biogeochemical cycles and deciphering complex bio-physical interactions in a dynamic and rapidly […]
One more day to go!! NAAMES 2016 field campaign is almost reaching its end. We are going to reach WHOI on Sunday (Jun 5, 2016). A very relaxing summer atmosphere is prevalent on board R/V Atlantis. Having toiled day and night for nearly 3 weeks, scientists are enjoying their well-deserved break on our transit back. […]
The library is packed to capacity as the science team convenes for our daily meeting. We sit, some in comfy chairs, some two to a comfy chair, and some on the floor. We crane our necks towards a projector screen. For the first time in days nearly all of us are in the same room […]
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 …
By Walt Meier Jun. 1, 2016 — We started our last day of the camp with a morning visit to the Inupiat Heritage Center to learn more about the indigenous local culture. Many of the Inupiat in Barrow still live their traditional subsistence lifestyle – hunting, trapping, and fishing for food. They do however take advantage […]
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 …
