By Eric Lindstrom I figured I would go off topic today and discuss a disturbing observation by someone who has spent more than half a lifetime going to sea. This is my personal opinion and does not reflect any policy or perspective of NASA. However, those of you on land really need to know that […]
A Globe Trotter’s Lessons Learned
As we prepare for our last flight in ATom-1, I’ve been reflecting on what I should do differently next time around as we begin preparation for ATom-2, which will start uploading in December 2016 for flights starting in January 2017. Packing less “stuff” I’m a bit of a girly girl who likes her comforts. But […]
Spacewalk Preps as Station Orbits over Three Hurricanes
Commander Jeff Williams and Flight Engineer Kate Rubins are two days away from their second spacewalk in as many weeks. The duo are reviewing the tasks they will perform outside the International Space Station for 6.5 hours of maintenance work beginning Thursday at 8 a.m. EDT. Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi will assist Williams and Rubins …
Monkey Business over the Tropical Thermocline
By Eric Lindstrom The focus of SPURS-2 is the upper ocean and the fate of rainwater. However, in order to study the top of the ocean one needs to know what is going on deeper down. The beauty of SPURS-2 is not skin-deep! SPURS-2, like many prior physical oceanography experiments, requires a basic background and […]
ISS Daily Summary Report – 08/29/2016
Biomolecule Sequencer WIFI Reconnection and Sample Sequence Completion: Over the weekend the crew completed the deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sequencing process that began last week and transferred the screenshots to the Surface Pro 3 tablet for downlink. The Biomolecule Sequencer investigation seeks to demonstrate for the first time that DNA sequencing is feasible in an orbiting …
Crew Preparing for Second Spacewalk and Soyuz Departure
Commander Jeff Williams and Flight Engineer Kate Rubins are going back outside the International Space Station Thursday morning for their second spacewalk in less than two weeks. The duo will retract and cover a thermal control radiator no longer being used and install lights and a new high definition camera for better views of Earth …
Installation of Next Level of Work Platforms for NASA’s Space Launch System Begins at Kennedy Space Center
The first half of the E-level work platforms, E South, was installed Aug. 26 in High Bay 3 inside the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The platform was lifted up by crane from the floor of the transfer aisle and lowered into the high bay for installation about 246 …
Challenging Back Half
ATom-1, the first of four ATom deployments over the next few years, is about to wind down. We’ve covered over 60,000 km and flown all the way around the world, but unlike the Jules Verne classic, it took us only 24 days (and not 80) to make it back to Palmdale, California. I managed not […]
August Puzzler
Every month on Earth Matters, we offer a puzzling satellite image. The August 2016 puzzler is above. Your challenge is to use the comments section to tell us what part of the world we are looking at, when the image was acquired, what the image shows, and why the scene is interesting. How to answer. Your answer can be […]
6 Ways Earth Observations Tackle Real-World Problems
This summer, recent college graduates and early career professionals launched 30 small research projects as part of NASA’s DEVELOP program. The aim is to use NASA satellite observations of Earth to address an environmental or public policy issue. The young researchers have just 10 weeks to do it! On Aug. 10, 2016, the “DEVELOPers” gathered at NASA Headquarters […]