Category Archives: In Space Infrastructure

In Space Infrastructure, Living in Space, Science and Technology

Microbial astronauts now and in the past

May 5, 2014 TopSpacer

Life’s spread into the solar system may have gotten inadvertent transport via earth’s spacecraft:

Extremophiles, Surveyor III, and the Possibility of Life Beyond Earth? – Roger Launius’s Blog
Hardy little space travelers could colonize Mars, space station research shows that — ScienceDaily

Life probably spread already from earth via debris thrown into space from giant meteorite impacts in the distant past: How Life-Bearing Rocks from the Chicxulub Asteroid Impact must have Spread through the Solar System: Earth rocks capable of carrying and protecting life have probably to travelled to Europa, Titan and beyond, say astrobiologists – The Physics arXiv Blog

Also, if life originated on Mars, it would have colonized earth in a similar manner:

In Space Infrastructure, Science and Technology, Space Systems

FISO: Continuum trunk & tentacle robots for space – Ian Walker, Clemson

May 3, 2014 TopSpacer

The latest presentation to the Future In-Space Operations (FISO) study group is now posted in the FISO Working Group Presentations Archive. Slides and movies are available in a zip file and there is an audio (mp3) available for the talk, Continuum Trunk and Tentacle Robots for Space Applications, Ian Walker , Clemson University – April.30.2014.

Here is a sampling of Walker’s slide’s:

Overview

TraditionalRobots

TrunksAndTentacles

Octarm

Designs

In Space Infrastructure, Living in Space, Space Systems

Video: Space to Ground – ISS report

April 25, 2014 TopSpacer

The latest episode of NASA’s Space to Ground report on activities aboard the International Space Station:

In Space Infrastructure, Living in Space

Video: Astronauts on spacewalk replace balky relay box outside the ISS

April 24, 2014 TopSpacer

On Wednesday at the International Space Station:

… Expedition 39 Flight Engineers Rick Mastracchio and Steve Swanson of NASA conducted a spacewalk April 23 to replace a backup computer relay box on the station’s S0 (s-zero) truss. The relay box, which failed April 11, is called a multiplexer-demultiplexer, and assists in providing insight and commanding for the station’s truss systems and associated hardware.

Here are some highlights of the EVA: