Koppernigk

Odds & ends

Coming night you should go out for the Perseids, weather permitting. This meteor swarm is always able to produce a couple of dozen meteorites every hour during peak hours. You can find Perseus in the northeast. A chart can be obtained from www.heavens-above.com

Spacewalk two to repair the defunct cooling system "A" is in progress. A failed pump module, to be precize. You can watch it now, (17:40 UT) on the NASA TV Website. They're now 5 hours into the repairs.

Repair the airco at 350+ kilometers above Earth

Here you see an astronaut being stripped from his suit -more like an exoskeleton. It looks like the ISS cooling system repairs have gone well, after all. It meant an eight hour and three minutes spacewalk, but then again you get what you pay for. If you want to perform your own spacewalk, go here.

Take a deep breath

"Bigelow Aerospace has plans to send an inflatable habitat into space for renting customers. To run an orbital hotel requires some serious efficiency and innovative recycling. Here’s how it could work. ..." (Popular Mechanics)

New propulsion systems - hello Star trek (not really)

Over an hour, but worth while watching.

Fly around the ISS

(Air & Space Magazine )

A commercial commute to space

"Private spaceships could be safe enough to transport astronauts to the space station, a group of 24 former NASA spaceflyers told Congress in an open letter this week.

The astronauts argue in favor of a new plan by President Barack Obama to encourage commercial companies to build spacecraft capable of replacing the space shuttles as NASA's means to reach the International Space Station.

"We believe that the private sector, working in partnership with NASA, can safely develop and operate crewed space vehicles to low Earth orbit," the astronauts wrote. ... " (SPACE.com)

In space, a near miss is always a big miss

Things don't always go well in space, especially because you can't get out and correct things. It's like an oil well getting out of control a mile under the sea.

"An unmanned Russian Progress cargo ship on Friday failed to dock as planned with the International Space Station (ISS) after missing the facility, mission control said.

The Progress M-06M cargo ship, launched on June 30, is carrying 2.6 tonnes of fuel, food and water for the astronauts on the station. Failure of automatic docking systems is relatively common but a complete docking failure is rare.

"The docking was scheduled at 20:58 Moscow time (1658 GMT)," a spokeswoman for mission control told AFP.

"The cargo ship passed the station, at a safe distance. It could be said that it missed. Now the vessel is 3.0 kilometres (1.8 miles) from the station. Our specialists are monitoring the situation."

"It is likely that there will be no further attempts to dock the vessel today," the spokeswoman added.

The ITAR-TASS news agency said that initially the ISS crew had tried to dock the cargo ship automatically but then there was a technical problem and they were not able to carry out the manoeuvre manually.

The Interfax news agency said that the ISS commander, Alexander Skvortsov had told mission control that the cargo vessel was seen in a state of "uncontrollable spinning".

However deputy spokesman for mission control Vitaly Davydov told state television that the cargo ship was fully under control, adding that a new attempt at docking would be made on Sunday.

Meanwhile, a spokesman for mission control told the official RIA Novosti news agency that the mishap was not an emergency situation.

"Information has come via telemetry that there is no emergency situation on the cargo ship."

The ISS, which orbits 350 kilometres (220 miles) above Earth, is a sophisticated platform for scientific experiments, helping test the effects of long-term space travel on humans, a must for any trip to distant Mars." (SpaceTravel)

ISS in bright sunlight at night

Because the ISS stays in bright daylight for a few days up there you can follow every pass all the way. Here's a picture I took a few minutes after midnight, showing you a part of the trail. The ISS was very bright, according to Twisst a solid -3.3.

It's weird to look at a speck in the sky and realize that there are people up there.

When processing the picture the stars came out; stars I can't see because it's still a very bright sky over here in summer and the Moon's a spoilsport as well. ISS must have traveled through Corona Borealis and Hercules, I guess.

ISS in bright sight

"The International Space Station will be extra visible to observers on Earth this weekend – sometimes up to five times a night – thanks to some favorable sun angles that will light up the orbiting space lab.

The space station flies about 220 miles (354 km) overhead, circling the globe once every 90 minutes. Usually, the station is invisible to skywatchers on Earth during some of those orbits because the sun isn't shining on it.

However, over the next few days, the station's path will align with Earth's day-night terminator, keeping the spacecraft in nearly constant sunlight, according to the website Spaceweather.com, which monitors spacecraft sightings and space weather.

That means that every time it flies overhead, skywatchers graced with clear skies should be able to spot the space station as a moving star that can sometimes appear as bright as Venus. The rare solar line-up ends on Monday. ..." (SPACE.com)

Building a Moon base in a lava tube

JAXA has a story about the discovery of a lava tube on the Moon, and an explanation why this can be a good place to build a Moon base. Japan has extensive plans to build one in the near future. What exactly is a lava tube, and why is it so suitable a place for a Moon base?

"A lava tube is a hollow tube formed after lava flow. Most of the caves commonly seen on the Hawaiian Islands or at the foot of Mt. Fuji are lava tubes. Sometimes they are also called air holes or ice caves. Mt. Fuji, the islands of Hawaii and Maria (seas) of the Moon are composed of a rock called basalt and its composition is very similar. Accordingly, it is no surprise that lava tubes are also found on the Moon. Naturally, for lava tubes to be formed, lava would run through the tubes. If so, lava flowing in the tubes could reach far greater distance than that spreading two-dimensionally on the lunar surface. Thus, there is a possibility that lava tubefromation could play an important role in creating the vast lunar seas. By close investigation of tube's interior, we should be able to identify the age, volume, rate, etc., of the lava eruption. Therefore, lunar lava tubes are very important scientific objects.

The lava tube is also very suitable for a lunar base. The lava tube has a roof, meaning the tube interior is protected from radiation exposure and micrometeorite collisions, which occur on the Moon with no atmosphere. The temperature of the lunar surface varies drastically in the range of -200 deg. C to +100 deg. C. Since lava tubes are underground, the temperature in the tubes is kept almost constant. The in-situ exploration in the Apollo program showed that the temperature a few meters under the surface around the landing area is constant at about -20 deg. C. ..." (JAXA)

Spot the secret plane

Spot the X37-B! It seems the little bugger is circling the Earth and will be called back shortly - all without crew aboard. And you can try to find it. Maybe in your neighborhood, you never know.

Seen from "above"

"This image features space shuttle Atlantis's cabin and forward cargo bay and part of the International Space Station while the two spacecraft remain docked during STS-132 mission's Flight Day 4 extravehicular activity. ..." (NASA)

Newton in space

"Astronauts on the International Space Station have given a zero gravity tribute to famed 17th century scientist Sir Isaac Newton in honor of his pioneering work to understand the laws of gravity – which they're currently defying.

British astronaut Piers Sellers, while floating in weightlessness on the station, said Thursday that he let a picture of Newton float free alongside a chip of wood from the storied apple tree that inspired Newton's gravitational studies.

"Sir Isaac absolutely loved it, I've got to tell you," Sellers joked. "We had him in the window and he got to watch his little wood chip float by and ponder the laws of gravitation and everything. I think it was a treat for him." ..." (SPACE.com)

See even more here .

Dangers of microgravity

"Human stem cells grown in a rotating vessel to simulate microgravity are vastly different from those allowed to develop under normal conditions, a new study shows.

The research raises questions about the viability of humans traveling in space without gravity for long periods of time.

Australian scientists used a NASA-developed bioreactor to grow cells from a human embryonic stem cell line. These types of cells can develop into any of the body's three primary layers -- ectoderm, endoderm and mesoderm, which in turn form more than the 220 types of cells found in humans. ... " (Discovery)

Will move a keynote speaker in space

"Space Shuttle Atlantis, ready for liftoff on Friday, will deliver important hardware from Europe to the International Space Station: spare portions of the European Robotic Arm and the first Russian payloads to use the arm.

The European Robotic Arm (ERA) is the second 'intelligent' robot arm for the International Space Station (ISS). The first, used extensively for ISS assembly for almost 10 years, is Canadarm-2 – an iconic part of the ISS photos. ... " (ESA)

keynote speaker at the ISS?

Atlantis and 70% chance of lift-off on Friday

Just two days before shuttle Atlantis blasts off. You can follow the countdown clock here. From that page:

"(...) Space shuttle Atlantis is embarking on its final planned mission. During the 12-day flight, Atlantis and six astronauts will fly to the International Space Station, leaving behind a Russian Mini Research Module, a set of batteries for the station's truss and dish antenna, along with other replacement parts.

NASA astronaut Ken Ham will command an all-veteran flight crew: Pilot Tony Antonelli, and Mission Specialists Michael Good, Garrett Reisman, Piers Sellers and Steve Bowen.

After the final STS-132 Flight Readiness Review, John Shannon, Space Shuttle Program manager, pointed out that Atlantis' last planned mission will be an exciting one.

"Twelve days, three [spacewalks], tons of robotics... We're putting on spares that make us feel good about the long-term sustainability of the ISS, replacing batteries that have been up there for a while, and docking a Russian-built ISS module," Shannon said. "This flight has a little bit of everything, and it's been a great preparation for the team." "

Don't sit under that apple tree...

"A piece of the apple tree that helped British scientist Sir Isaac Newton explain the tug of Earth's gravity and laws of motion in the 17th century is about to escape that gravitational pull when it launches into space this week.

NASA astronaut Piers Sellers, who was born in England, is carrying the historic piece of wood into space for The Royal Society in the United Kingdom. It is packed with the rest of his space luggage for Friday's planned launch of the shuttle Atlantis toward the International Space Station.

"I am flying a chip of wood from Isaac Newton's apple tree. How about that?" Sellers told SPACE.com in an interview last week. "It's even got a little 17th century scrawl on it that says, 'I. Newton.' I don't know if he wrote it or someone else wrote it, but anyway, it's a very old piece of apple tree." ..." (SPACE.com)

If you feel the need to escape...

"NASA's Orion Launch Abort System launched on its first test flight, Pad Abort 1, on May 6, 2010 at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. Here, the escape system (left) has reoriented the Orion capsule mockup and is poised to release it after a successful launch abort. " (SPACE.com)

A short history and future of the ISS

It's a long read but a worthwhile commentary and history at the same time: how the ISS came to be, how it is today and how it might become: The Space Review's The next logical step becomes logical.

Fly me to the Moon

"Got something kicking around in your basement you'd just love to see on the moon? Now's your chance to get it there. Astrobotic, a Pittsburgh-based robotics firm and a contender for the Google Lunar X Prize—where to win a $30 million prize teams must land a robot on the surface of the moon, have it travel 1500 feet over the surface and send images and data back to Earth—is offering payload space on its planned lunar rover for a mere $700,000 per pound, plus a $250,000 cargo integration fee—the first time such an opportunity has ever been offered. ... (Popular Mechanics)