NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission with astronauts Nick Hague, Butch Wilmore, and Suni Williams, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov, is preparing to return to Earth following their science mission aboard the International Space Station. Hague, Williams, and Wilmore completed more than 900 hours of research between over 150 unique scientific experiments and technology demonstrations during their stay aboard the orbiting laboratory.
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission with agency astronauts Nick Hague, Butch Wilmore, and Suni Williams, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov is preparing to return to Earth following their science mission aboard the International Space Station. Hague, Williams, and Wilmore completed more than 900 hours of research between more than 150 unique scientific experiments and technology demonstrations during their stay aboard the orbiting laboratory.
Here’s a look at some scientific milestones accomplished during their journey:
Mighty microalgae
NASA astronaut Nick Hague processes samples for Arthrospira C, an investigation from ESA (European Space Agency) that transplants and grows Arthrospiramicro-algae aboard the International Space Station. These organisms conduct photosynthesis and could be used to convert carbon dioxide exhaled by crew members into oxygen, helping maintain a safe atmosphere inside spacecraft. Arthrospira also could provide fresh food on long-duration space missions.
Hague, wearing a red t-shirt, khaki pants, and a black headband, faces a blue worktable. In his right hand he holds a metal box about the size of a box of tissues with red panels and white wiring on the front. A laptop is attached to his pants and multiple wires, cords, equipment, and laptops are visible behind him.
Improving astronaut exercise
Researchers are testing the European Enhanced Exploration Exercise Device (E4D), a modular device that combines cycling, rowing, and resistance exercises to help keep crews healthy on long-duration missions. A single, small device effective at countering bone and muscle loss and improving cardiovascular health could help crew on future missions. NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore works on installing the device aboard the International Space Station ahead of its evaluation.
Garden watering
This red romaine lettuce growing in the International Space Station’s Advanced Plant Habitat is part of Plant Habitat-07, a study of how different moisture levels affect the microbial communities in plants and water. Results could show how less-than-ideal conditions affect plant growth and help scientists design systems to produce safe and nutritious food for crew members on future space journeys.
Packing it in
Packed bed reactors are systems that “pack” materials such as pellets or beads inside a structure to increase contact between any liquids and gasses flowing through it.
#science #adventure #space
NASA’s SpaceX Crew-9 mission with agency astronauts Nick Hague, Butch Wilmore, and Suni Williams, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov is preparing to return to Earth following their science mission aboard the International Space Station. Hague, Williams, and Wilmore completed more than 900 hours of research between more than 150 unique scientific experiments and technology demonstrations during their stay aboard the orbiting laboratory.
Here’s a look at some scientific milestones accomplished during their journey:
Mighty microalgae
NASA astronaut Nick Hague processes samples for Arthrospira C, an investigation from ESA (European Space Agency) that transplants and grows Arthrospiramicro-algae aboard the International Space Station. These organisms conduct photosynthesis and could be used to convert carbon dioxide exhaled by crew members into oxygen, helping maintain a safe atmosphere inside spacecraft. Arthrospira also could provide fresh food on long-duration space missions.
Hague, wearing a red t-shirt, khaki pants, and a black headband, faces a blue worktable. In his right hand he holds a metal box about the size of a box of tissues with red panels and white wiring on the front. A laptop is attached to his pants and multiple wires, cords, equipment, and laptops are visible behind him.
Improving astronaut exercise
Researchers are testing the European Enhanced Exploration Exercise Device (E4D), a modular device that combines cycling, rowing, and resistance exercises to help keep crews healthy on long-duration missions. A single, small device effective at countering bone and muscle loss and improving cardiovascular health could help crew on future missions. NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore works on installing the device aboard the International Space Station ahead of its evaluation.
Garden watering
This red romaine lettuce growing in the International Space Station’s Advanced Plant Habitat is part of Plant Habitat-07, a study of how different moisture levels affect the microbial communities in plants and water. Results could show how less-than-ideal conditions affect plant growth and help scientists design systems to produce safe and nutritious food for crew members on future space journeys.
Packing it in
Packed bed reactors are systems that “pack” materials such as pellets or beads inside a structure to increase contact between any liquids and gasses flowing through it.
#science #adventure #space
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00We're constantly doing experiments, we're constantly collecting data, we're constantly
00:06trying to answer questions, and usually that leads to more questions.
00:09The focus of the question though is, what happens when you take gravity away?
00:15Because it's such a strong force, it masks lots of the nuances in different things that
00:21behave around us, and understanding those nuances helps us understand more about ourselves
00:26as well as the universe and how we interact with it.
00:29So we look at medicines, we look at materials and making new materials, we look at how we
00:35behave so that we know how medicines might interact with us or how to counteract diseases.
00:40You name it, we're doing research on it up here.
00:44We've had opportunities to do all sorts of science, spacewalks.
00:48It's varied and pretty awesome, actually, opportunity to do something different every
00:53single day.
00:54You can see Butch Walmart with the different canisters to collect those microorganism swabs.
01:00A great view from the helmet camera of NASA astronaut Nick Hague, you can see floating
01:05off just past that left hand of his, those are the wedge-shaped NICER patches that he'll
01:10be inserting into the NICER experiment, the X-ray telescope.
01:16Anytime you look out the window it's pretty amazing.
01:18The Aurora Borealis, the Aurora Australis, just to see the variety of the Earth from
01:23above, it's just thrilling.
01:27These are called astrobees.
01:29So they actually can come off the wall and fly around.
01:33Huge opportunities for people to test out guidance navigation control on a quote-unquote
01:38spacecraft in microgravity inside here.
01:41So we have companies, universities, students all flying these astrobees around at different
01:47times.
01:48Some of them are actually even grabbing onto other pieces that we might have floating around
01:51and that might help us clean up space debris.
01:54We have a tray right here that does some combustion experiments.
01:58Right on the other side of Butch is a glove box where we've done some stem cell research
02:03as well as DNA sequencing.
02:05And there's an airlock where it can take payloads out of the space station and those could be
02:11Earth observation satellites, they could be launchers of other microsatellites, they could
02:15be doing all sorts of amazing stuff.
02:18The mission of the space station, the scientific exploration is something that we deeply believe
02:24in and its ability to make a positive impact for all of humanity.