In the last two weeks, we’ve wrapped up the test flights and major preparations for NASA’s ATom mission. ATom is an airborne science experiment aboard the DC-8 flying laboratory that will study the most remote parts of the Earth’s atmosphere. We want to learn how much pollution reaches areas most people would consider untouched by […]
Video: Exquisite Panoramas from the International Space Station
If you are like me, you have probably fantasized about looking down and photographing Earth while floating in the zero gravity of space. I suppose I should never say never, but my chances of becoming an astronaut do look pretty slim at this point in my life. But even if I can’t experience space firsthand, […]
ISS Daily Summary Report – 07/25/16
Biological Research In Canisters (BRIC) 23: Over the weekend, the crew transferred all four of the BRIC-23 canisters that were actuated last week to the Minus Eighty Degree Celsius Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI). Two of the four canisters were transferred to MELFI following a 24-hour growth period and the remaining two canisters were transferred …
New Spacesuit and Science Unloaded From Dragon
Expedition 48 is moving ahead with preparations for an upcoming spacewalk. New science also is under way aboard the International Space Station after being delivered last week. A new U.S. spacesuit was unpacked from inside Dragon and will be used during an August spacewalk to install a Commercial Crew docking port. An older U.S. spacesuit …
New Heart and DNA Studies Begin after Dragon Delivery
The Expedition 48 crew is beginning work on new science delivered aboard the SpaceX Dragon space freighter. More cargo is also being unloaded from the new Russian Progress 64 resupply ship. NASA astronaut Kate Rubins has begun work on the new Heart Cells study that will observe how heart muscle tissue adapts to microgravity. Rubins …
ISS Daily Summary Report – 07/22/16
Thermolab Deinstrumentation for Circadian Rhythms: The crew removed the double sensors and Thermolab Unit before cleaning and stowing the equipment following completion of the European Space Agency (ESA) Circadian Rhythm experiment. The measurement process took 36 hours to complete. Biological Rhythms 48 Hours Actiwatch Preparation: Today, the crew configured and donned the Actiwatch to commence …
Pluto: Preparing for the Perfect Alignment
Today’s blog is from Anne Verbiscer, a research associate professor in the Department of Astronomy at the University of Virginia. On the New Horizons science team she studies the scattering properties and composition of icy surfaces in the Pluto system and the Kuiper Belt. Every year, planets orbiting the sun beyond Earth’s orbit reach what …
Instrument Prep and ATom’s First Test Flight
I’m Christina Williamson, a postdoctoral scientist at CIRES CU-Boulder/NOAA-ESRL interested in Atmospheric Aerosols, the small particles in the air that cause haze, and on which clouds are formed. I’m working with a few colleagues from NOAA to take a suite of instruments on NASA’s ATom mission that will measure the number and size of particles […]
ISS Daily Summary Report – 07/21/16
Dragon Operations: The crew was scheduled to ingress and configure Dragon for on-orbit operations today, however, these tasks were completed yesterday. Today they transferred critical cargo and unpacked double cold bags to retrieve science as well as transferring 2 “Polar” freezers from Dragon into the EXPRESS rack locations that had been prepared for them. Mouse …
ATom Mission to Sample the Atmosphere is Ready for Take Off
Take 78 percent nitrogen, 21 percent oxygen, 0.9 percent argon, 0.03 percent carbon dioxide – that’s 99.93 percent of the atmosphere. But the trace gases and airborne particles that make up that last approximately 0.07 percent are what NASA’s Atmospheric Tomography (ATom) mission is interested in. ATom is a chemistry mission to study the movement […]