Category Archives: Living in Space

ISS cooling pump malfunctions. Troubleshooting underway

The International Space Station  has a cooling problem today. Here is an update from NASA:

Update on Space Station Cooling System

Earlier Wednesday, the pump module on one of the space station’s two external cooling loops automatically shut down when it reached pre-set temperature limits. These loops circulate ammonia outside the station to keep both internal and external equipment cool. The flight control teams worked to get the cooling loop back up and running, and they suspect a flow control valve actually inside the pump itself might not be functioning correctly.

At no time was the crew or the station itself in any danger, but the ground teams did work to move certain electrical systems over to the second loop. Some non-critical systems have been powered down inside the Harmony node, the Kibo laboratory and the Columbus laboratory while the teams work to figure out what caused the valve to not function correctly and how to fix it. The crew is safe and preparing to begin a normal sleep shift while experts on the ground collect more data and consider what troubleshooting activities may be necessary.

Update Dec.12.13: A report on the cooling loop problem:

A gallery of “jaw-dropping” space station time-lapse videos

Over the past couple of years I’ve shown here a number of the time-lapse videos of imagery of the earth as seen from the International Space Station. Here is a big collection of such videos, accompanied by lots of adjectives struggling mightily to describe what is displayed: The Best, Most Stunning, Jaw-Dropping Space Station Time-Lapses of All Time, Ever – Rebecca J. Rosen/The Atlantic.

An example of those time-lapse videos:

View from the ISS at Night from Knate Myers on Vimeo.

Chris Hadfield – interview and radio game playing [Update]

Yet another interview with astronaut and space singing sensation Chris Hadfield about life in space: Chris Hadfield Space Oddity: Interview with author of An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth – Slate.com

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Hadfield also participated in the NPR program Wait Wait…Don’t Tell Me! on Saturday: Astronaut Chris Hadfield Plays Not My Job – NPR

Update: The Australian version of the 60 Minutes news magazine program has a segment about Hadfield : Space Oddity (Video)

 

A Cosmic Dancer on the Mir space station

The Art in Space section at HobbySpace describes various art related works and projects that were done in space or at least in weightlessness.  These include The Cosmic Dancer Project described on artist Arthur Woods‘ site about artworks that were taken to the Mir space station in the 1990s.

Ths article describes some of the background to the Mir project and includes a video of the Cosmic Dancer sculpture on Mir: The Mir Space Station: An Unlikely Place for a Beautiful Art Exhibit – Universe Today