The crew aboard the International Space Station is getting ready for a busy traffic month set to begin March 1. Meanwhile, advanced microgravity research and spacesuit work continues inside the orbital lab. One-Year crew members Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko are preparing to come home March 1 after 340 days in space. Flight Engineer Sergey …
Veg-01 Plant Harvest: Kelly harvested, cleaned and dried the Zinnia plants grown for the Veg-01 experiment. This investigation is used to assess on-orbit function and performance of the Veggie facility, focusing on the growth and development of seedlings in the spaceflight environment and the composition of microbial flora on the plants and the facility. …
Today's blog post is from Kimberly Ennico, a member of the New Horizons' Composition Theme Team and one of the deputy project scientists. She works at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California, and has been on detail to the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado. No one can doubt the beauty of Pluto …
Burning and Suppression of Solids – Milliken (BASS-M): Today, Kopra completed the sixth set of BASS-M operations, preparing and testing five different samples with ground assistance from the Principal Investigator. The BASS-M investigation tests flame-retardant cotton fabrics to determine how well they resist burning in microgravity. Results benefit research on flame-retardant textiles that can be …
Ocular Health Testing: Today Kelly and Kornienko, with Kopra as the operator, completed their Return minus 30 day (R-30) Ocular Health testing by performing ocular and cardiac ultrasound scans. The Ocular Health protocol calls for a systematic gathering of physiological data to characterize the risk of microgravity-induced visual impairment/intracranial pressure in ISS crewmembers. Researchers believe …
Two astronauts are wrapping up spacesuit maintenance today while a variety of human research takes place inside the International Space Station. Outside the station, the 57.7 foot long Canadarm2 robotic arm is being prepared for the upcoming release of a space freighter. Commander Scott Kelly and astronaut Time Peake from the European Space Agency are …
Burning and Suppression of Solids – Milliken (BASS-M): Today Kopra completed the fifth set of BASS-M operations, preparing and testing five different samples with ground assistance from the Principal Investigator. The BASS-M investigation tests flame-retardant cotton fabrics to determine how well they resist burning in microgravity. Results benefit research on flame-retardant textiles that can be …
The Expedition 46 crew continued studying how living off the Earth affects exercise, the biological clock and fire today. The orbiting space residents also worked on a spacesuit and other lab maintenance tasks. NASA astronaut Tim Kopra scanned his legs mid-morning with an ultrasound for the Sprint study exploring exercise techniques for crews working in …
Mycological Evaluation of Crew Exposure to ISS Ambient Air (Myco): Shortly after wakeup, Kelly took body samples for the Myco investigation and then inserted them into a Minus Eighty Degree Celsius Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI) for return to Earth. Analysis of the samples will focus on microflora, particularly fungi, which may cause opportunistic infections …
The Expedition 46 crew members participated in immunology research today helping scientists learn to keep astronauts healthy on longer and farther space missions. The crew also continued more vision checks and explored heart health. Commander Scott Kelly, British astronaut Time Peake and cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko each participated in a different experiment looking at the immune …
