Posts Tagged ‘astronauts’
Time-Lapse ISS Video of Earth Lets You Orbit in HD
The movie starts in the Pacific Ocean and flies over North and South America before sunrise over Antarctica. The neuronal network of nighttime cities is marvelous to behold — not to mention the lightning storms off the southern coast of Mexico and into the Pacific.
It takes roughly a minute to fly from Vancouver Island to the southern portion of Chile. A real latitudinal arc on the ISS takes much longer, of course, but I like this fast view because it’s somewhat humbling — this planet is not really that big. Plus, you get an appreciation for just how much if it is oceans.
Raw data was downloaded from the Gateway To Astronaut Photography of Earth, a Johnson Space Center project. to see even more astronaut images, which should keep you sated until the ISS gets a sometime next year.
[]
Russian Soyuz Spacecraft Lands Safely in Kazakhstan, Three Astronauts in Tow
a gallery of the capsule's Kazakh landing.
Three astronauts remain on board the ISS: Russian Sergei Volkov, American Michael Fossum, and Japanese Satoshi Furukawa. All three are due to return to Earth on November 22nd, which, as we noted, for the first time in a decade, as the preceding launch of three new astronauts has been repeatedly delayed.
[]
Astronaut Captures Perseid Meteor Shower From His Perch on the ISS
Earth-Based Mars500 Crew Breaks Endurance Record For Longest "Space" Mission
An increasingly pale six-member crew on a fake mission to Mars has just reached a new landmark: . The streak beats the record held by someone who actually spent that time in space, former Mir space station resident Valeri Polyakov.
The Mars500 crew is just a couple months away from returning to Earth after a simulated round trip to the Red Planet. In February, the crew and three crew members donned spacesuits, stepping out of their capsule for the first time in 250 days to walk on the fake Martian surface. The European Space Agency, which is sponsoring the experiment, said the crew is now enduring the of the mission — several months of isolation in a cramped cabin with no Mars-walk to look forward to.
The point is to study the psychological and physical toll of long-distance space travel, to help prepare actual space crews that would need to spend more than a year cooped up in a spacecraft en route to Mars. If the Mars500 crew’s video and photo diaries are any indication, participants will as a coping mechanism.
The crew is living in a wood-paneled simulated space capsule in a Moscow parking lot, and is scheduled to “return” on Nov. 5. Each man is free to walk out at any time, but they’re all committed for the long haul, ESA said.
[]
Boeing Workers Will Fly to ISS Aboard Their Company’s New Spaceship
The aerospace firm is planning to send its own employees to the International Space Station on the first crewed mission of its CST-100 ship, the company said Friday. Apparently internal interviews are already ongoing, because Boeing wants its astronauts to help drive further development of the space capsule.
Riding aboard an Atlas V rocket — another decision Boeing — the CST-100 will launch three times in 2015, starting with two unmanned launches. One launch will take it into orbit and a second will involve an aborted orbit attempt, in a test of the capsule’s escape abilities should something go wrong during launch.
If all goes well, it will launch a third time with a two-person crew, who will dock it with the ISS. That would pave the way for frequent CST flights to the ISS by 2016, BBC reports.
The company has never announced a name for the vehicle, which has been dubbed CST-100 since its unveiling last year — for “crew space transportation” and 100 kilometers, which marks the internationally accepted boundary of space.
Boeing will use the Atlas V, the same rocket that earlier today, because of its 100 percent success rate so far — and it doesn’t hurt that Boeing is part owner of the rocket maker, United Launch Alliance. Boeing said that had no bearing on its decision, according to BBC.
Boeing is developing the capsule as part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Development program, which is seeking private space taxis to ferry astronauts to space now that the shuttles are all retired.
Do you have the right stuff? Better send your resume to Boeing.
[]
NASA Says Space Debris Could Approach the Shuttle for the Very Last Time on Tuesday
Mission managers are studying the debris to determine its size and trajectory, according to .
Space junk threatens the station fairly often — , a big piece of junk narrowly missed the station and forced the six-member crew to scramble into a Soyuz rocket for possible escape. Managers had practically zero warning of that piece of , which officials later said was probably the largest object to ever approach the station.
This most recent piece of junk is from the Cold War era satellite COSMOS 375, which was deliberately destroyed on Oct. 30, 1970, shortly after its launch. COSMOS was part of a Russian program to repel space-based attacks.
It is one of more than 500,000 pieces of debris in Earth’s orbit that are tracked by the U.S. Strategic Command. NASA and others have proposed a wide range of the free-flying objects, but none have been attempted yet.
[]
Drink Up! Red Wine Can Counteract the Negative Aftereffects of Space Travel
Scientists have long known that red wine has health benefits; it contains resveratrol and antioxidants like flavonoids that are good for your heart, the . A new study shows resveratrol can prevent bone density loss and muscle atrophy, two problems that commonly plague astronauts and those who lead sedentary lifestyles.
Researchers in France (fittingly) worked with rats in an environment that simulated the weightlessness of spaceflight. Er, they hung them up by their tails. One control group did not get any special treatment, and another group got a daily dose of resveratrol.
The control group lost bone and muscle density and developed insulin resistance, according to the Journal of the . The resveratrol group did not suffer those side effects.
“Resveratrol may not be a substitute for exercise, but it could slow deterioration until someone can get moving again,” said Gerald Weissmann, M.D., editor-in-chief of the FASEB Journal.
Astronauts on long-duration trips on the ISS or Mars spacecraft could perhaps take resveratrol supplements. Similarly, people with sedentary lifestyles, due to disability or other factors, could benefit from the compound. Or they could just drink some red wine.