Waking to a dry morning, I sluggishly dawdled to the water dispenser where my housemate was staring at a strong column of ants. “They’re back in force. We should do something about them.” It was a predictable biological event pattern – one that happens whenever there is a long spell of dry heat. I thought […]
One of the best parts of a field campaign are the ‘little moments’ that sneak in while you work. They can really make your day. On that front this field campaign has been no slouch. Yesterday for example, we saw a juvenile black bear while we were traveling to a new field site. We also […]
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 recent megafire around Fort McMurray drew worldwide attention. Not only did this fire devastate a community, the fire also grew exceptionally large and started very early in the fire season. Northern forests are rapidly changing, and fire plays a crucial role in this transition. Fires in the boreal forest emit large amounts of carbon […]
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 […]
