In Space Infrastructure, Living in Space, Space Settlement

Space habitat reports – Dec.11.2024

Here is a new selection of videos, articles, and news items about space habitats (govt and commercial), living in space, and space settlement.

=== International Space Station & NASA

** Views of Starship Flight 6 from International Space Station – NASA Johnson

While orbiting approximately 250 miles above Earth, external cameras aboard the International Space Station captured the sixth test flight of SpaceX’s Starship after liftoff at 4 p.m. CST on Tuesday, Nov. 19. For Artemis III, the first crewed return to the Moon in over 50 years, NASA is working with SpaceX to develop Starship as a lunar lander. Prior to the crewed Artemis III mission, SpaceX will perform an uncrewed landing demonstration mission on the Moon.

** One Earth Mission – UCTVInsight

In his last public performance, Maestro Seiji Ozawa conducts Beethoven’s Egmont Overture, as broadcast directly to the International Space Station. His aged yet masterful conducting shows the depth and power of music in our souls. In this emotional production, he conducts the Saito Kinen Orchestra which he co-founded in 1984 as an annual gathering of musicians from around the world. This performance was transmitted by JAXA (Japanese Space Agency) directly to the ISS, where astronaut Koichi Wakata represented humanity as the audience. This One Earth Mission conveys our shared home on this One Earth, a vision that drove Maestra Ozawa throughout his musical career. The dramatic fly-over shows Italy to dusk over the Red Sea.

** NASA Astronaut Nick Hague Talks with Kansas Aviation Museum – Thursday, December 5, 2024 – NASA Video

Aboard the International Space Station, Expedition 72 Flight Engineer Nick Hague of NASA discussed life and work aboard the orbital outpost during an in-flight interview Dec. 5 with the Kansas Aviation Museum in Wichita, Kansas. Hague is a Kansas native and is in the midst of a long-duration mission living and working aboard the microgravity laboratory to advance scientific knowledge and demonstrate new technologies for future human and robotic exploration flights as part of NASA’s Moon and Mars exploration approach, including lunar missions through NASA’s Artemis program.

=== Commercial space habitats

** NASA posts updates on several commercial habitat technology companies that have gotten support from the agency: NASA’s Commercial Partners Make Progress on Low Earth Orbit Projects | NASA – Nov.25.2024

NASA and its commercial partners continue to drive innovation in space exploration, achieving milestones that will ultimately benefit human spaceflight and commercial low Earth orbit efforts. These recent achievements from NASA’s industry partners include completed safety milestones, successful flight tests, and major technological advancements.

** Axiom Space

** Orbital Outpost X

Orbital Outpost X (OOX), previously called Space Villages, aims to

lead in the development of cost-effective, customizable space modular infrastructure, empowering diverse and sustainable growth.

— Negar Feher, Orbital Outpost X – SpaceNews on Youtube

In this episode of the SpaceNews Leading Women in Space series, correspondent Debra Werner speaks with Negar Feher, CEO, Orbital Outpost X.

Through this series SpaceNews is shining a spotlight on some of the extraordinary women at the helm of space programs and organizations. We’re delving into their backgrounds, discussing their accomplishments and highlighting their ongoing work at prime contractors, startups, government agencies, and federally funded research and development centers. We’re speaking with women in key leadership roles.

Time Markers –
00:06 – Welcome
00:41 – How would you describe Orbital Outpost X for those not familiar with the company?
02:23 – Why did you join the company? And why as CEO?
04:41 – Our commercial space stations part of the future that you see?
07:14 – What are the opportunities and challenges for your company?
10:22 – Why did you switch from working at Primes to startups?
13:03 – Do you have advice for people who may not fit the traditional stereotype looking to work in space?
21:06 – Final thoughts

See also:

** Sierra Space

— Tour an Inflatable Space Habitat! – Sierra Space Youtube

Join NOVA Education for a tour of a new generation of inflatable space habitats that are being designed to allow humans to live and work in space and eventually on Mars.

Featured in NOVA’s “Building Stuff” series, Sierra Space is an aerospace company working with NASA to create an inflatable space habitat called LIFE, Large Integrated Flexible Environment. In this virtual field trip, Sierra Space engineer and program manager Beth Licavoli will walk us through the production of the inflatable habitat, explain how they test the structure of the habitat, and give us a tour inside a fully inflated habitat.

— Using space stations for semiconductor production:

** VAST

** Starlab – Voyager Space

— Starlab Partners – Heritage in Manufacturing – Voyager Space on Vimeo

=== Chinese space habitats

** China’s Shenzhou-19 Crew Finishes Tasks During Over-Month-Long Flight on Space Station – CCTV Video News Agency

China’s Shenzhou-19 crew members have completed various tasks during their over-one-month stay aboard the orbiting Tiangong space station, including scientific research and experiments and space station maintenance work.

=== Lunar habitation

** The architecture of a Moon Village – Space Renaissance

The Off-world Anthropologic Space Infrastructure Settlement (OASIS) project systems engineering entails addressing the flow down of all mission/system-level requirements into every element and distributed system, orchestrating the overall design, and evaluating the efficacy of derived requirements implementation by testing, verification, and validation.
Key Considerations include:

Orchestrating Symbiosis: shared control between Humans, Robots, and Advanced Autonoma
In Situ Resource Utilization is learned science, engineering, and art
Integrated Interoperable Sustainable Systems that translate archology from principle to practice
Human Landing Systems (HLS) volume and performance metrology

The OASIS systems engineering considerations start with the launch and functional mass of everything that must be transported to the Moon. The payload volumetrics of the NASA HLS further constrain the maximum stowed volume. This resolves to a logistics train with handling requirements and allocatable mass and volume fractions for each manifested flight. The geopolitical considerations mandate that OASIS implement the letter and spirit of the Artemis Accords and maintain compliance with the 1967 Outer Space Treaty.

OASIS shall be scalable by expansion and replication to accommodate, at a minimum, a genetically viable human population (50+ people to combat inbreeding), implement a reasonable division of labor (50+ people to provide all the required skill sets), implement at least two-fault tolerant cross-training (3+ people for any skill set), and the capability to accommodate up to 500 people (to mitigate genetic drift).
Until shelter-in-place is assured, at least one Starship per 100 people must be on the lunar surface at a given time.

…

** Lunar Module Engineering: Designing for a Harsh Environment – apollo11space

Explore the engineering marvels that made the Apollo Lunar Module possible as it faced the extreme temperatures, vacuum, and dust of the moon’s surface. Learn about the innovative solutions developed for its lightweight structure, thermal control systems, landing gear, life support systems, and propulsion systems. Discover the challenges overcome and the lasting legacy of the LM on modern space exploration.

=== Other space habitat and settlement news and articles:

=== Earth views from ISS

** NASA astronaut and Expedition 72 Flight Engineer Matthew Dominick documented his ISS experience with an extensive portfolio of images and videos:  Matt Dominick’s X Account: A Visual Journey From Space | NASA – Dec.5.2024

Amid his daily astronaut duties, Dominick dedicated personal time to this endeavor, amassing nearly 500,000 captivating photos of Earth and snapshots of life aboard the International Space Station, while having traveled 99,708,603 total statue miles around our home planet. Through his lens(es), he invited us to experience the awe of space while highlighting the realities of life in orbit, fostering an authentic connection with those who engage with his work.

Building on this commitment to connect, Dominick participated in the first-ever live X Spaces event from space, marking a new way for NASA astronauts to connect personally with followers. He shared insider tips on astrophotography from orbit and discussed the challenges and joys of capturing stunning images in microgravity. Concluding the event, he vividly narrated his live experience floating into the Cupola at sunset while orbiting over Paris just days before the 2024 Summer Olympic Games.

Dominick’s journey as an astronaut unfolds in real-time on his X account. He has captured the arrivals and departures of various spacecraft, documented dynamic weather events, and even participated in Olympic festivities. His stunning timelapses and behind-the-scenes videos offer an intimate look at life aboard the space station, beautifully illustrating the intricate interplay between science and wonder.

A couple of examples of his posts on X:

** Space to Ground: Six Minutes of Serenity: Nov. 27, 2024 – NASA Johnson

Take some time during this holiday season and enjoy a few minutes of serenity as we offer a glimpse of the beauty of our home planet from the vantage point of the International Space Station.

** SpaceX Dragon and the Milky Way seen from ISS in stunning time-lapse – VideoFromSpace

See the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft and the Milky Way galaxy in this time-lapse view from the International Space Station. Full Story: https://www.space.com/space-explorati… 

** Live Video from the International Space Station (Official NASA Stream) – NASA

Watch live video from the International Space Station, including inside views when the crew aboard the space station is on duty. Views of Earth are also streamed from an external camera located outside of the space station. During periods of signal loss due to handover between communications satellites, a blue screen is displayed.

The space station orbits Earth about 250 miles (425 kilometers) above the surface. An international partnership of five space agencies from 15 countries operates the station, and it has been continuously occupied since November 2000. It’s a microgravity laboratory where science, research, and human innovation make way for new technologies and research breakthroughs not possible on Earth. More: https://go.nasa.gov/3CkVtC8

Did you know you can spot the station without a telescope? It looks like a fast-moving star, but you have to know when to look up. Sign up for text messages or email alerts to let you know when (and where) to spot the station and wave to the crew: https://spotthestation.nasa.gov

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ISS after undocking of STS-132

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Outpost in Orbit:
A Pictorial & Verbal History of the Space Station