Blogs

Marrow:  Today a 51S crewmember completed their Flight Day (FD) 60 breath and ambient air sample collections for the Marrow investigation, which looks at the effect of microgravity on bone marrow. It is believed that microgravity, like long-duration bed rest on Earth, has a negative effect on the bone marrow and the blood cells that …

The International Space Station is once again providing a platform to test the growth of cabbage and lettuce for future human consumption in space. Aside from today’s botany set up, the Expedition 53 crew also explored how living in space affects the human physiology. NASA astronaut Joe Acaba began setting up hardware for the Veggie-3 …

There are no days off and there is always more work to be done, but scientist-musicians on board the research vessel find a few minutes to jam.

Human Research Program (HRP) Collections (Biochemical Profile, Repository): Over the weekend a 52S crewmember completed Flight Day (FD) 15 urine sample collections in support of the Biochemical Profile and Repository experiments. Today another 52S crewmember completed their FD-15 urine samples, and with operator assistance, conducted blood sample collections. The blood samples were processed for double …

The Expedition 53 crew members continued testing a new exercise device today while also exploring how their bodies are adapting to living in space. The station residents are also gearing up for three spacewalks planned in October. Commander Randy Bresnik joined Paolo Nespoli for a workout session on the new Miniature Exercise Device-2 (MED-2). The …

Muffin O’Clock Through Einstein’s Theory of Relativity, it was discovered that time is not a static measurement, rather it is relative to the observer. Somewhat similarly, time becomes both integral and meaningless while on a boat, completely relative to the scientist’s schedule. Time is integral to the individual with their stopwatch waiting for the precise […]

Almost a month at sea. It’s not the first time. I have been at sea several times in these years but every time is special and unique. It is unique for the research we conduct, for the people we meet, the seas we cross, and the infinite things we still learn from each other at […]

Tumbling along like a tumbling tumbleweed Ok, so the title might just have outed my love for all things Lebowski, but hopefully I will be able to make a link, irregardless of how tenuous it might be, between tumbleweeds and and the subject of this post, drifters. First things first, we have to remind ourselves what […]

Cloud formation depends on several factors, and one of those is the presence of aerosols.  Marine aerosols come from a number of sources (sea salt, biogenic aerosols, continental aerosols that are carried over by wind) and differ in size and composition.  We’ve collected CCN and CPC data to determine, respectively, the concentration of particles that […]