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Tag: international space station

  • US Agrees to Extend Space Station Operations Through 2030

    US Agrees to Extend Space Station Operations Through 2030

    The International Space Station (ISS) has earned another lease on life, with the Biden-Harris administration committed to funding it through 2030.

    The ISS has a long history of scientific advancement, but its retirement is drawing near. The station was first launched in 1998, making it over 30 years old.

    According to NASA, the Biden-Harris administration has authorized funding it through 2030, buying more time toward a replacement.

    “The International Space Station is a beacon of peaceful international scientific collaboration and for more than 20 years has returned enormous scientific, educational, and technological developments to benefit humanity. I’m pleased that the Biden-Harris Administration has committed to continuing station operations through 2030,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said. “The United States’ continued participation on the ISS will enhance innovation and competitiveness, as well as advance the research and technology necessary to send the first woman and first person of color to the Moon under NASA’s Artemis program and pave the way for sending the first humans to Mars. As more and more nations are active in space, it’s more important than ever that the United States continues to lead the world in growing international alliances and modeling rules and norms for the peaceful and responsible use of space.”

  • Microsoft and HPE Partner to Deliver AI and Edge Computing to Space

    Microsoft and HPE Partner to Deliver AI and Edge Computing to Space

    Microsoft and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) have partnered to bring AI and edge computing to the International Space Station (ISS).

    HPE has been working with NASA to create a commercial, off-the-shelf supercomputer for use on the ISS. The Spaceborne Computer-2 (SBC-2) is specifically built on the HPE Edgeline Converged Edge system, designed for the harshest edge environments — which space certainly qualifies as.

    Microsoft and HPE are working to connect the SBC-2 to Azure, to enable cloud computing, along with AI and machine learning development in the ultimate edge environment.

    “HPE and Microsoft are collaborating to further accelerate space exploration by delivering state-of-the art technologies to tackle a range of data processing needs while in orbit. By bringing together HPE’s Spaceborne Computer-2, which is based on the HPE Edgeline Converged Edge system for advanced edge computing and AI capabilities, with Microsoft Azure to connect to the cloud, we are enabling space explorers to seamlessly transmit large data sets to and from Earth and benefit from an edge-to-cloud experience. We look forward to collaborating with Microsoft on their Azure Space efforts, which share our vision to accelerate discovery and help make breakthroughs to support life and sustainability in future, extended human missions to space.” —Dr. Mark Fernandez, Solutions Architect of Converged Edge Systems at HPE and Principal Investigator for Spaceborne Computer-2

    Microsoft first announced its Azure Space program in October, as a concerted effort to bring cloud computing to space.

    “Today’s announcement advances Azure Space in bringing Azure AI and machine learning to new space missions and emphasizes the true power of hyperscale computing in support of edge scenarios—connecting anyone, anywhere to the cloud,” writesTom Keane Corporate Vice President, Azure Global, Microsoft Azure. “Our collaboration with HPE is just the first step in an incredible journey and will provide researchers and students access to these insights and technologies, inspiring the next generation of those who wish to invent with purpose, on and off the planet.”

  • William Shatner and NASA Share Twitter Exchange

    William Shatner and NASA Share Twitter Exchange

    Iconic actor William Shatner tweeted to NASA on Saturday, and received an update on the status of the International Space Station.

    Back in April, NASA honored Shatner with its highest award bestowed upon civilians, the Distinguished Public Service medal. The medal cited Shatner for “outstanding generosity and dedication to inspiring new generations of explorers around the world, and for unwavering support for NASA and its missions of discovery.”

    Best known for his role as Captain James Tiberius Kirk on Star Trek: The Original Series, Shatner has been somewhat of an informal spokesman for NASA over the past few years, issuing a Star Trek-themed wake-up call to the astronauts of the Discovery mission STS-133 in 2011. In 2012, the actor recorded a message for the occupants of the International Space Station, and also narrated a video regarding NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover:

    Here is the Twitter exchange from Saturday:

    Shatner, an avid Twitter user, has contacted NASA before via the platform, and in 2013 traded tweets with astronaut Chris Hadfield, Canada’s first space station commander:

    Shatner, 83, was recently in the news for panning a new Facebook app called “Mentions,” which is geared toward celebrities, and tracks how many times their names are mentioned in social media.

    Shatner’s assessment of “Mentions”:

    “I’m not quite sure why Facebook released this app for ‘celebrities’. It seems to be ill conceived. I will probably use it to post to my Facebook when I’m on my phone but it doesn’t allow for mail or groups. I will continue to use my regular Facebook App as well as the Pages app.”

    Image via YouTube

  • William Shatner Honored by NASA for Service

    William Shatner Honored by NASA for Service

    NASA honored iconic actor William Shatner with its highest award bestowed upon civilians Saturday, the Distinguished Public Service medal. Shatner received the citation while attending his own Hollywood Charity Horse Show in Los Angeles, which raises money for children’s causes.

    The medal cited Shatner for “outstanding generosity and dedication to inspiring new generations of explorers around the world, and for unwavering support for NASA and its missions of discovery.”

    Best known for his role as Captain James Tiberius Kirk on Star Trek: The Original Series, Shatner has been somewhat of an informal spokesman for NASA over the past few years, issuing a Star Trek-themed wake-up call to the astronauts of the Discovery mission STS-133 in 2011. In 2012, the actor recorded a message for the occupants of the International Space Station, and also narrated a video regarding NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover:

    David Weaver, NASA’s associate administrator for the Office of Communications at NASA Headquarters in Washington, said in a statement, “William Shatner has been so generous with his time and energy in encouraging students to study science and math, and for inspiring generations of explorers, including many of the astronauts and engineers who are a part of NASA today.” Weaver added, “He’s most deserving of this prestigious award.”

    Shatner, 83, was born on March 22, 1931, in the Côte Saint-Luc neighborhood of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and has shown support for his home country’s space exploration efforts. Last year he traded tweets with astronaut Chris Hadfield, Canada’s first space station commander.

    Shatner’s latest artistic endeavor is a reality show called The Shatner Project, which is set to premiere some time this year, and will be a five-episode series in which the actor and wife Liz will gut their 1970′s-era California home, and remodel it. Commenting on the new series, Shatner states, “I am embracing change. Our home will be unfamiliar territory for a while but I am excited by all of it.”

    Image via NASA

  • NASA Spacewalk Finishes 1.5 Hours Early

    NASA Spacewalk Finishes 1.5 Hours Early

    Without a doubt, the most awe-inspiring and visually stunning movie of 2013 was Gravity, a movie concerning space starring George Clooney and Sandra Bullock. In Alfonso Cuarón’s film, both Clooney’s and Bullock’s characters are sent hurtling through space after their spacewalk goes awry following collision from space debris. Luckily for NASA, Saturday’s spacewalk saw none of the complications Clooney and Bullock faced.

    Saturday’s spacewalk was the first of three planned missions to replace a faulty unit on the exterior of the International Space Station. Ten days ago, a flow control valve malfunctioned inside of a pump module which controls the external and internal temperatures of the ISS. After the initial malfunction, NASA attempted to fix the situation from the ground by rerouting the mechanism through a different valve.

    While the solution worked temporarily, the situation was urgent enough that NASA elected to schedule a series of spacewalks to resolve the issue. The urgency to make the repair stems from the fact that the ISS is about to reach the point in the year where it receives the most direct sunlight, which runs from December 30 to January 9 this year. During this time, the ISS must perform barrel rolls (hopefully by tapping Z twice) in order to avoid overheating. Due to these evasive maneuvers, spacewalks and cargo shipments are not permitted, and hence the urgency of the situation.

    Originally, the astronauts were simply supposed to prep the pump module for module. Astronauts Rick Mastracchio and Mike Hopkins were able to finish the prep work in 3 hours, though, and were given permission to actually remove the module with their remaining 3.5 scheduled hours.

    Spacewalk Astronauts

    Leaving the astronauts out much longer than necessary was a potentially difficult decision for NASA, seeing as Hopkins was wearing the same suit which sprung a water leak last June when worn by Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano. Luckily for NASA and Hopkins, the repairs made to Parmitano’s suit held up and were of no concern.

    The only concern which did occur during the spacewalk had to do with temperature control: “The only issue that I personally am having is it’s very, very cold,” stated Mastracchio. In particular, it was Mastracchio’s toes that were cold. While Houston was able to warm Mastracchio’s little piggies by blowing warm air into his boots, Mastracchio ultimately called it quits 1.5 hours early due to the chilly conditions.

    The situation faced by Mastracchio and Hopkins Saturday was not unique. In 2010, astronauts Doug Wheelock and Tracy Caldwell Dyson performed an almost identical procedure to repair the ISS’s cooling system. Due to their prior experience, Wheelock and Dyson were in Houston aiding Mastracchio and Hopkins during the repair efforts: “It’s a little bit [of] a different failure we’re facing this time around, but the spacewalks to remove the old pump module and replace it with a new spare is exactly the same as what we did in 2010. We’ve had a lot of lessons learned back then, and so we’ve implemented those changes into our procedure in the way that we prepare our suits and our tools, so we’ll be ready to go on Saturday,” stated Wheelock.

    Wheelock also spoke about the familiarity of the situation for Mastracchio and Hopkins, adding, “We practice all of these skills, just rehearse them over and over again in the pool. The crew has done these particular skills. The skills are the same, but space always has surprises for us, especially when we go outside.”

    Space may have had some unusual surprises for Hopkins as this was his first-ever spacewalk. Fortunately, he had an experienced partner to help out. This spacewalk marked Mastracchio’s seventh. His previous 6 spacewalks have totaled 38 hours and 30 minutes, placing him 14th on the lists of astronauts documenting the most hours of spacewalking.

    The next spacewalk is scheduled for Monday, December 23rd, while the third is currently scheduled for Christmas. However, due to currently being ahead of schedule, the third walk may not be necessary. If it does occur, the spacewalk on December 25 will be the first spacewalk to ever occur on Christmas.

    Images via YouTube

  • Time-Lapse Video Captures Northern Lights

    Time-Lapse Video Captures Northern Lights

    Canadian photographer Richard Gottardo recently spent 7 hours in Southern Alberta, capturing the remarkable color changes displayed by the northern lights, or the aurora borealis, which were seen over the Rocky Mountains.

    The aurorae, from the Latin word for “sunrise,” and also the name of the Roman goddess of dawn, is a natural light display in the sky that can be viewed particularly in the high-latitude Arctic and Antarctic regions. The aurora borealis, or aurora australis, as it is known in the southern hemisphere, is caused by the collision of charged particles with atoms in the high altitude atmosphere, also called the thermosphere.

    Below is Gottardo’s clip:

    The colliding particles, which originate in the magnetosphere, are directed by the Earth’s magnetic field into the atmosphere. Most aurorae occur in a small band known as the auroral zone, which is typically 3° to 6° in latitudinal extent, and at all local times or longitudes. The auroral zone is typically 10° to 20° from the magnetic pole, which is defined by the axis of the Earth’s magnetic dipole. Although, during a geomagnetic storm, the auroral zone expands to lower latitudes.

    Below is a clip of the aurora australis, captured by the crew of Expedition 29, on board the International Space Station. The shots were taken on September 17, 2011, during an ascending pass from south of Madagascar to just north of Australia, over the Indian Ocean:

    The aurora borealis most often occurs near the equinoxes. The northern lights have had a number of names throughout history. The Cree Native American tribe of Canada call this phenomenon the “Dance of the Spirits,” an in Medieval Europe, the aurorae were commonly seen to be a sign from God.

    Human persistence of vision allows the playback of roughly 24 pictures per second, in succession, to resemble what can be perceived as being normal motion. The more images inserted into a one second timeline, also called overcranking, the “slower” the scene will appear upon playback. Time-lapse photography, on the other hand, is an extreme form of undercranking, to where a very small amount of frames are run together, producing an illusion of fast motion upon normal playback.

    Image via YouTube.

  • Olympic Torch: Watch Its Return to Earth

    Olympics fans, space buffs and just about anyone who likes interesting events will likely want to watch the Olympic torch return to Earth tonight. At around 9:49 pm EST, the torch will return from its trip to the International Space Station and touchdown in Kazakhstan.

    The torch took flight last week aboard the Russian Soyuz TMA-09M spacecraft, on a mission to deliver three new inhabitants to the station; NASA astronaut Rick Mastracchio, Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Tyurin, and Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata.

    During its time in space, the torch was taken on a spacewalk as part of the relay for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games, to be held in Sochi, Russia, from February 7 to 23.

    Along with returning the torch, three other space station temporary residents – Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano, NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg, and Russian cosmonaut Fyodor Yurchikhin – will come back to Earth, after spending some five-and-a-half months living in space.

    Viewers can expect to see some warm and fuzzy moments as the returning crew will reunite with their loved ones.

    NASA TV will broadcast a few different web casts today on Space.com, including the Soyuz undocking from the space station at 6 pm EST. The landing web cast will begin at 8:30 EST.

    As per Olympic tradition, the Olympic torch is making its rounds. During its 123-day tour, the iconic symbol has visited St. Petersburg, the Kalingrad region, the Arctic Circle, Murmansk, and Red Square, among other noteworthy stops.

    Some of the torch’s famous Russian chaperones have included actress Tatyana Arntgolts, sports commentator Yury Gusev, and athlete Sergey Rozhkov.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Sixth Grader Set to Brew Beer in Space

    STEM School and Academy, Colorado, sixth Grader Michael Bodzianowski, 11, recently won a national competition to perform an experiment that involves brewing beer in microgravity. While the intended goal isn’t to foster space keggers, or possible space madness, galactic beer could benefit “future civilization, as an emergency backup hydration and medical source,” according to Bodzianowski’s teacher, Sharon Combs.

    The National Center for Earth and Space Science Education sponsored the competition as part of the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program. Out of 744 proposals, submitted by 3,900 5th through 11th grade students, 11 were selected to fly to the International Space Station within the next few months. Bodzianowski hopes to travel to NASA for the launch from Cape Canaveral.

    “He (Bodzianowski) came up with this idea all on his own,” Combs said. “He got a book for Christmas that was about weird facts and explains how in the Middle Ages they used to drink beer because it was purer than water.” Bodzianowski’s proposal states that beer is good for space for “both medical and survival reasons, and it is fairly easy to conduct with limited human interactions.”

    Bodzianowski will receive a research mini-laboratory, so that he can prepare the experiment. Once it’s launched into space, an astronaut will finish executing the plan, according to Bodzianowski’s instructions. The sixth grader will run an aspect of the experiment on the ground, in tandem, to gauge any differences that might arise.

    While Bodzianowski will remain the “Principal Investigator” of the experiment, his school put up the $21,500 fee that will cover the cost of the launch. Subaru, Raytheon and OtterBox supplemented faculty and parental donations.

    “You never know how some of these experiments can be a stepping stone to something else,” Combs said. “That’s how science works.”

    In related news, the latest crew of the International Space Station left for orbit on a Russian Soyuz rocket from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 4:58 PM EDT on September 25th, for a six-hour flight, before docking to the Russian-made segment of the facility. Before long, they’ll be able to get their drank on.

    Image via YouTube.

  • NASA 3D Printer Flying to ISS in 2014

    NASA 3D Printer Flying to ISS in 2014

    Despite vast cuts to NASA’s budget over the past several years, the space agency still seems to be able to push beyond the boundaries of reality and make science fiction science fact.

    Just last week, the Mars Curiosity rover was able to find evidence of water on the Red Planet. Now, NASA has announced that it will send a 3D printer to the International Space Station in 2014.

    The thought behind the project is to avert any potential disasters that could happen in space due to limited resources: “Imagine an astronaut needing to make a life-or-death repair on the International Space Station. Rather than hoping that the necessary parts and tools are on the station already, what if the parts could be 3D printed when they needed them?” stated Aaron Kemmer, the chief-executive of Made in Space, the technology start-up that has been chosen to lead development for the project.

    3D printing, more formally known as additive manufacturing, works by layering material (right now the most popular being forms of plastic polymers) on top of itself in different patterns, leading to the formation of 3D, solid objects.

    Mike Chen, the co-founder of Made in Space, explained why being able to print objects in space is much more advantageous than making them here in Earth and then shipping them out of the atmosphere: “Everything that you launch is going to have to withstand up to 9Gs in the rocket and crazy vibrations. Things in space are vastly over-engineered, really, for the first 8 minutes of its existence. Think about what you can do now that you have 3D printing capabilities on orbit. For the first time, we’ll be able to design things for space that don’t ever have to exist in a gravity environment.”

    The biggest challenge facing the Made in Space currently, however, is exactly how to make a printer that will operate correctly in outer-space. The team needs to find solutions to such problems as not having enough power and containing fumes that are given off as a by-product of the 3D printing process.

    If the team is successful, though, averting crises in space will be much easier. So far this year, astronauts in the ISS have had to repair a coolant leak, attempt repairs to a broken solar-panel, and abort a space-walk due to the astronaut’s helmet filling with water. These issues would be much easier to handle if any tool or part the astronauts needed was able to be at their disposal in a matter of minutes, instead of waiting for Earth to send them the parts or improvising, like the 1970 Apollo 13 crew had to.

    The team at Made in Space, despite current technological limitations, still has huge aspirations: “We’re going to build a Death Star. Then it’s all going to be over,” stated Jason Dunne, chief technology officer.

    If one had to choose between zombie apocalypse or death by Death Star as an end to the Earth, the decision would be nigh impossible. Please make this a reality, Made in Space. For all us nerds/geeks/fan-people. Please.

    Image via YouTube

  • Orbital Sciences Sends its First Commercial Cargo Ship to ISS

    Orbital Sciences Sends its First Commercial Cargo Ship to ISS

    The AP reported yesterday that the Orbital Sciences Corporation successfully launched a rocket from the eastern shore of Virginia. The occasion was marked, as most occasions are, by a tweet:

    OSC’s Cygnus capsule is bound for NASA’s International Space Station with 1300 pounds of food, clothes, and other goodies including a chocolate stash for astronaut Karen Nyberg.

    Following some tests, Cygnus will be expected to dock with the ISS on Sunday. NASA’s associate administrator Robert Lightfoot said of the occasion that “If you needed more tangible proof that this is a new era of exploration, it’s right here, right now in Virginia.”

    David W. Thompson, the president and CEO of OSC, said “We are very pleased with the early operations of the COTS demonstration mission… The Cygnus spacecraft appears to be fully healthy and operating as expected during this early phase of its mission… There is clearly still a lot of work in front of us, but the mission looks like it is off to a great start.”

    The successful launch makes OSC the second business to ship goods into space by rocket. Space Exploration Technologies Corp, or SpaceX, has been delivering supplies to NASA under contract for over a year now. SpaceX bases their launches out of California.

    After about 30 days of being attached to the ISS, Cygnus will be filled with refuse and sent to break up upon reentry to the atmosphere, as all Russian, Japanese, and European supply craft end up — trash bins for astronauts. The executive vice-president of OSC, Frank Culbertson, said of the process that “We categorize it as disposable cargo… Others may call it trash.”

    This first mission is just a test; if all goes as planned, a second Cygnus capsule will be launched in December. The second launch would be the first operational mission under OSC’s $1.9 billion contract with NASA.

    If you want to check out OSC’s press release regarding the launch, it’s located here.

    [Image via a YouTube video of a previous launch by Orbital Sciences]

  • NASA Reveals Its Zero Gravity 3D Printer

    NASA Reveals Its Zero Gravity 3D Printer

    It’s no secret that NASA wants to take 3D printers into space. The technology would be immensely useful to the men and women on the International Space Station as they would be able to quickly repair components with plastic replacements. There is a problem though – how do you 3D print something in a zero gravity environment?

    In a video released by NASA, the agency goes into how its experimenting with 3D printers here on earth to ensure that the technology will be able to function in zero gravity environments. Here’s what NASA has to say about its latest endeavor:

    The goal of 3-D printing is to take this capability to microgravity for use on the International Space Station. In space, whatever astronauts have available on orbit is what they have to use — but just like on Earth, parts break or get lost. When that happens, there’s a wait for replacement parts, or the need to have multiple spares that have to be launched. The ability to conduct 3-D printing in space could change all of that.

    NASA plans to launch the first 3D printer into space in June of next year. It will hopefully be the first of many as the space agency plans to use 3D printers in a number of space missions over the next few years and decades. In fact, one of its most ambitious plans is to create a 3D printer that extrudes food to make pizzas for long manned space flights.

    [h/t: Gizmodo]

  • NASA Board to Investigate Spacewalk Malfunction

    NASA Board to Investigate Spacewalk Malfunction

    One week ago, ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano and NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy glided outside the International Space Station (ISS) to do routine maintenance and prepare rigging cables for the arrival of a new Russian laboratory module. Shortly into the spacewalk, Parmitano reported excessive water floating free inside his spacesuit helmet and the spacewalk, which was scheduled to last for over six hours, was cut short.

    Today, NASA announced that it has appointed a new board dedicated to investigate the incident. The board is chaired by Chris Hansen, the ISS chief engineer at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. The other members of the five-person board are astronaut Mike Foreman; Sudhakar Rajula, a human factors specialist at Johnson; Joe Pellicciotti, the chief engineer at NASA’s Engineering and Safety Center; and Richard Fullerton, NASA’s ISS safety and mission assurance lead.

    According to NASA’s announcement, the board will “gather relevant information, analyze facts, conduct any necessary tests, identify the cause or causes of the anomaly and any contributing factors, and make recommendations to the NASA administrator to prevent similar incidents from occurring during future spacewalks.” The board will also examine past spacewalks, as well as maintenance and quality assurance procedures.

    The board’s investigation will coincide with a NASA engineering analysis that will resolve any equipment malfunctions to enable spacewalks to resume. The engineering team is currently examining the spacesuit and life support equipment Parmitano used during the spacewalk.

  • Spacewalk Cut Short by Wardrobe Malfunction

    Spacewalk Cut Short by Wardrobe Malfunction

    Early this morning, European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Luca Parmitano and NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy exited the International Space Station to conduct assembly and maintenance on the spacecraft. The spacewalk was scheduled to last around 6.5 hours and was being streamed live by the space agencies. The mission was cut short, however, by a malfunction in one astronaut’s spacesuit.

    Shortly into the spacewalk Parmitano reported that there was water floating in his spacesuit helmet, and that the back of his head was wet. NASA’s flight director quickly called an end to the spacewalk, and Parmitano and Cassidy made their way back into the space station.

    The cancellation made today’s spacewalk the second shortest in the history of the International Space Station. Engineers are now searching for the cause of the suspected leak in Parmitano’s helmet. NASA has stated that Parmitano was never in any danger and that none of the tasks he and Cassidy were scheduled to complete were urgent or would put the crew of the station in danger. In addition to routine maintenance, the astronauts were rigging cables to prepare for the arrival of a new Russian laboratory module.

    The relevant NASA footage of the spacewalk can be seen below. Parmitano can be heard at around the 1:50 mark confirming that the liquid in his helmet is not sweat.

  • International Space Station Drops Windows For Linux

    Linux has become the operating system of choice for NASA’s laptops when it comes to the International Space Station. The ISS has been using Windows XP, though the majority of its ground-based support systems on Earth are reportedly Linux-based.

    ZDnet reports:

    Specifically, the ISS astronauts will be using computers running Debian 6. Earlier, some of the on-board computers had been using Scientific Linux, a Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) clone. While not the newest version of Debian, Debian 7 has just been released, Debian is nothing if not well-tested and reliable.

    While Linux has been used on the ISS ever since its launch (PDF link) and for NASA ground operations almost since the day Linus Torvalds created it, it hasn’t seen that much use on PCs in space. “Things really clicked,” said Chuvala in an interview, “after we came to understand how Linux views the world, the interconnectedness of how one thing affects another. You need that worldview. I have quite a bit of Linux experience, but to see others who were really getting it, that was exciting.”

    ExtremeTech reports:

    The laptops that were upgraded belong to the station’s OpsLAN. The crew use the OpsLAN to perform day-to-day activities, such as viewing stock inventory, controlling scientific experiments, or checking their current location. Presumably the laptops used to run bespoke Win32 apps on Windows XP, and now those apps have been re-written to work on Linux — hopefully they’re not being emulated in WINE. To get the astronauts and cosmonauts up to speed, they will be trained by the Linux Foundation.

    Not only are the computers being witched to linux, but the first humanoid robot in space, R2, is also reportedly powered by Linux.

  • Google Analytics Expands Real-Time Geolocation To Outer Space

    New 3.5″ floppy exporting and send to fax support wasn’t the only April Fools’ addition to Google Analytics today. Google announced via Google+ that it has expanded real-time geolocation for real-time analytics to include the International Space Station, following up on last year’s interplanetary reporting for Google Analytics.

    Here’s the post.

    Google Analytics

    Google Analytics49 seconds ago

    Improved Real-time Geolocation

    We're constantly working to improve real-time analytics to help businesses understand how users interact with their sites. We've heard you loud and clear — you feel limited by geo-locations only on planet earth.

    That's why we're excited to announce that we're expanding geolocation support beyond our atmosphere to the International Space Station. This is also a great follow-up to last year's Interplanetary Reports: http://goo.gl/RwYZS. 

    GA Real-time: now with expanded geolocation support! Log in to your real-time dashboard to check this out soon, it's available only for a limited time.

    7    0 Powered by socialditto

    More April Fools’ fun here.

  • SpaceX Problem Alters Dragon Capsule Schedule

    SpaceX Problem Alters Dragon Capsule Schedule

    The second SpaceX mission to resupply the International Space Station (ISS) began early this morning as a Falcon 9 rocket lifted the Dragon capsule into orbit.

    Though the launch was successful, a problem with three of the capsule’s four thruster pods delayed the opening of its solar arrays. SpaceX engineers had to wait until the capsule was over its Australia-based ground station to “command inhibit override” and reactivate enough of the thruster pods to deploy the arrays. While only one of the thruster pods was reactivated, it was enough to successfully deploy the arrays.

    SpaceX spent hours trying to reactivate the two thruster pods that were still malfunctioning. At around 3 pm EST Space X founder Elon Musk tweeted that the thruster pods were back online and that the capsule is no longer drifting:

    The problems caused the capsule to miss one of its scheduled burns that would take it toward its scheduled docking with the ISS. As a result, the docking could be delayed.

    SpaceX and NASA have scheduled a teleconference for 3 pm EST. More details about the Dragon capsule and its docking schedule should be revealed during the call.

    The Dragon capsule is carrying 1,200 pounds of cargo and science equipment that will be delivered to the ISS’s crew of six international astronauts. The capsule is scheduled to return with refuse and used equipment on March 25. SpaceX successfully completed its first resupply mission to the ISS back in October 2012 when it delivered 882 pounds of supplies to the satellite.

    The launch of the capsule can be seen in the video below, which NASA released earlier today:

  • Watch Astronaut Chris Hadfield Make a Space Sandwich

    Here’s Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield giving us a tour of his space kitchen and showing off his zero-gravity culinary prowess.

    When you’re done with this, make sure you catch his recent reddit AMA. It’s out of this world! (I’ll show myself out).

  • NASA to Host Google Hangout From the International Space Station

    NASA to Host Google Hangout From the International Space Station

    NASA announced this week that it will host the first-ever Google+ Hangout live from the International Space Station (ISS).

    The Hangout will take place from 11 am to 12 pm EST on February 22. The event will allow NASA fans to interact with astronauts both on Earth and aboard the ISS. Astronauts Kevin Ford, Chris Hadfield, and Tom Marshburn will be on-hand to answer questions about life on the ISS.

    Since only up to 10 people can “Hangout” at one time (though the event will be open for anyone to watch live), NASA is encouraging its social media fans to submit video questions before the Hangout. During the Hangout “several” of these video questions will be chosen to be aired and answered by the ISS station crew and other astronauts. The videos must be uploaded to YouTube with the tag #askAstro and must be 30 seconds or shorter. The deadline for submitting videos is February 12.

    NASA will also take live questions from its social media feeds on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ during the Hangout. The same hashtag, #askAstro, will be used to identify questions during the Hangout. The agency stated that “unique and original questions” are more likely to be answered.

    Though this is the first NASA Hangout from the ISS, it won’t be the last. The agency has stated that it will continue to host Hangouts “with astronauts on the ground and in space, scientists, engineers, and managers on the agency’s missions and milestones.”

  • Space Life Weakens Immune Systems, Shows Study

    Space Life Weakens Immune Systems, Shows Study

    A new study performed aboard the International Space Station (ISS) has shown that being in space weakens astronauts’ immune systems. Researchers hope the findings can help prevent disease for those of us still on the planet.

    European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Thomas Reiter performed the experiments while on the ISS, as seen in the video below. Human immune cells were allowed to float freely in microgravity while others were placed in a centrifuge that simulated gravity. The cells in the centrifuge were found to be more healthy than those left to float.

    Analysis showed that a transmitter called the Rel/NF-kB pathway stopped working in microgravity, preventing immune cells from working correctly.

    “Normally, when our bodies sense an invasion, a cascade of reactions occur that are controlled by the information held in our genes, similar to an instruction book,” said Isabelle Walther, a researcher with the Space Biology Group in Zurich, Switzerland. “Finding which gene does what is like looking for the right key to fit a keyhole, without having found the keyhole yet.”

    Researchers stated that these findings could help disease research in two ways. First, being able to deactivate genes associated with the immune system could help patients who suffer from autoimmune diseases. Second, drugs could be developed to target genes that fight specific diseases.

    “We are working towards a finer control of disease,” said Millie Hughes-Fulford, a NASA astronaut and an investigator on the research. “If you imagine our immune system responding to diseases as a waterfall, up until now we have been fighting disease at the bottom of the waterfall. In the future we could target the raindrops before they have a chance to cascade into waterfalls. We live in exciting times.”

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  • NASA to Launch ISS Instrument to Monitor Ocean Winds

    NASA to Launch ISS Instrument to Monitor Ocean Winds

    NASA announced this week that it will launch an instrument called the ISS-RapidScat to the International Space Station (ISS) next year to measure ocean winds. The instrument, originally built to test NASA;s QuikScat satellite, will measure the Earth’s ocean surface wind speed and direction. The data will improve weather forecasts and hurricane monitoring.

    “The ability for NASA to quickly reuse this hardware and launch it to the space station is a great example of a low-cost approach that will have high benefits to science and life here on Earth,” said Mike Suffredini, NASA’s International Space Station program manager.

    Scatterometers measure the scattering effect produced when scanning the Earth’s surface using a microwave radar sensor. The previous wind data instrument, the QuikScat, stopped collecting ocean wind data in 2009 after operating for 10 years. No replacement will be available soon, which is why NASA adapted existing QuikScat hardware.

    “ISS-RapidScat represents a low-cost approach to acquiring valuable wind vector data for improving global monitoring of hurricanes and other high-intensity storms,” said Howard Eisen, ISS-RapidScat project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). “By leveraging the capabilities of the International Space Station and recycling leftover hardware, we will acquire good science data at a fraction of the investment needed to launch a new satellite.”

    The ISS-RapidScat will be launched to the ISS on a SpaceX Dragon cargo mission. It will be installed on the end of the ISS’s Columbus laboratory and have measurement accuracy “similar” to QuikScat. The instrument is expected operate for two years.

    (Image courtesy NASA/JPL-Caltech/JSC)

  • New Crew Lifts Off to the International Space Station [VIDEO]

    The next crew of the International Space Station (ISS) has left the Earth. The Expedition 34 crew today lifted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 7:12 am EST.

    The crew consists of NASA astronaut Tom Marshburn, Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) cosmonaut Roman Romanenko, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Chris Hadfield. The crew is currently riding the Soyuz TMA-07M spacecraft and is scheduled to dock with the ISS on Friday morning.

    The trio are expected to stay on the ISS until May of next year. They will join three people already onboard the space station – Expedition 34 Commander Kevin Ford and Roscosmos Flight Engineers Oleg Novitskiy and Evgeny Tarelkin, who have been on the station since October. Hadfield will become the first Canadian commander of the ISS in March, when the current crew of the space station returns to earth.

    The focus of this expedition, according to NASA, is scientific research including human physiology tests. The crew will serve as subjects for the examination of astronaut bone loss while also conducting experiments (such as on how fire behaves in space), observations of Earth, human research, and technology demonstrations.

    The launch of the Soyuz spacecraft was captured by NASA, and can be seen below. Temperatures were far below freezing at the time of the launch.