Here is the latest episode in NASA’s Space to Ground weekly report on activities related to the International Space Station:
** Expedition 68 SpaceX Dragon CRS-27 Cargo Ship Space Station Docking – March 16, 2023 – NASA Video
Loaded with scientific experiments and supplies, the unpiloted SpaceX CRS-27 cargo ship automatically docked to the International Space Station’s forward port of the Harmony module March 16. The SpaceX resupply craft launched from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida March 14 with several tons of experiments and hardware on board and will remain on orbit for a month-long visit.
** Homecoming | Down to Earth – S2:E8 – NASA Johnson
In the final episode featuring astronaut Victor Glover and his daughter, Corinne, they discuss the excitement of returning to Earth from an extended mission on the International Space Station.
** China Wants to Expand its Space Station – Dongfang Hour
A 4th Space Station module? In this episode, we uncover China’s plans to expand the Tiangong Space Station, combining the past and current statements from space industry officials, hints in space station animations, and known characteristics of the current space station models.
Currently, live views from the ISS are streaming from an external camera mounted on the ISS module called Node 2. Node 2 is located on the forward part of the ISS. The camera is looking forward at an angle so that the International Docking Adapter 2 (IDA2) is visible. If the Node 2 camera is not available due to operational considerations for a longer period of time, a continuous loop of recorded HDEV imagery will be displayed. The loop will have “Previously Recorded” on the image to distinguish it from the live stream from the Node 2 camera. After HDEV stopped sending any data on July 18, 2019, it was declared, on August 22, 2019, to have reached its end of life. Thank You to all who shared in experiencing and using the HDEV views of Earth from the ISS to make HDEV so much more than a Technology Demonstration Payload!
1. Tuesday, Mar. 14, 2023; 7 pm PST (9 pm CST, 10 pm EST): We welcome back Richard Easton as the Vanguard rocket, as Richard said, has become Medicare eligible.
3. Friday, Mar.17, 2023; 9:30-11 am PST (11:30 am-1 pm CST, 12:30-2 pm EST): We welcome back Dr. Chris Impey on his new work. Chris is at the University of Arizona in Tucson.
4. Sunday, Mar.19, 2023; 12-1:30 pm PST (2-3:30 pm CST, 3-4:30 pm EST): We welcome back Chris Carberry of Explore Mars to talk about their annual major Mars event.
…the memory of Space Show guest and friend, Dr. Bill Rowe. We talked about Space Show costs, possible deletion of the toll free line, our call in 702 number experiment, naysayers, space development and settlement, bank failure and startup space ventures or capital hungry space ventures.
** Friday, Mar.10.2023 – Fabian Alefeld discussed “space manufacturing, additive manufacturing (3D printing), materials, advances, uses and much more“.
** Tuesday, Mar.7.2023 – Dr. Alan Hale gave a “comprehensive discussion on comets, discovering comets, sky surveys, comet mythology, and more“.
Here is the latest episode in NASA’s Space to Ground weekly report on activities related to the International Space Station:
** NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5: A Scientific Mission – NASA
From growing tomatoes to studying cosmic rays to observing quantum mechanics, the four crew members of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 mission contributed to more than 100 scientific investigations and technology demonstrations during their five months aboard the International Space Station. These experiments help prepare humans for future space exploration missions while bringing benefits for humanity back to Earth.
Learn more about the science of Crew-5 as our astronauts get ready to head home: https://go.nasa.gov/3T2gbgw
** Expedition 68 NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 Space Station Farewell Remarks – March 8, 2023 – NASA Video
NASA astronauts Frank Rubio, Nicole Mann, Josh Cassada, Stephen Bowen, and Woody Hoburg, as well as JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Koichi Wakata, UAE (United Arab Emirates) astronaut Sultan Alneyadi, and Roscosmos cosmonauts Andrey Fedyaev, Sergey Prokopyev, Dimitri Petelin, and Anna Kikina gave remarks on March 8 aboard the International Space Station in anticipation of the upcoming departure of the Crew-5 mission. Mann, Cassada, Wakata, and Kikina, crew members of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5, are headed home wrapping up their long-duration mission on the orbital outpost.
** NASA’s SpaceX Crew-5 Flight Day 3 Highlights – NASA Video
Aboard the International Space Station, NASA astronauts Josh Cassada and Nicole Mann, JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Koichi Wakata, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anna Kikina began their journey back to Earth on Saturday, March 11. SpaceX Crew Dragon Endurance closed its hatches and autonomously undocked shortly after at 2:05 a.m. EST. NASA and SpaceX are targeting 9:19 p.m. EST Saturday for a splashdown that will wrap up a nearly six-month science 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.
** Students from the Caribbean and Central America Speak to the International Space Station – NASA Johnson
During this event, students from the Caribbean and Central America had the opportunity to speak with Astronaut Josh Cassada to learn about natural disaster research and monitoring, as seen from the unique perspective of the International Space Station. More than 400 questions were submitted by schools in the region. The selected questions were related to climate change and monitoring hazard events such as hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, and coastal erosion.
Learn more about the Amateur Radio on the International Space Station (ARISS) program at https://www.ariss.org/.
** UAE VP calls space station to talk to SpaceX Crew-6 astronaut Sultan AlNeyadi – VideoFromSpace
His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum from the United Arab Emirates called the International Space Station to talk to UAE astronaut Sultan AlNeyadi. AlNeyadi recently arrived at the orbital laboratory as part of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-6 mission. Full Story: https://www.space.com/united-arab-emi…
** SpaceX CRS-27 mission to space station – Science payloads explained – VideoFromSpace
Learn what science payloads are being shipped aboard Cargo Dragon to the International Space Station on the SpaceX CRS-27 mission. See the CRS-26 launch: https://www.space.com/spacex-launch-c…
Researchers from Stanford University are launching a new series of tissue chip investigations to the space station to evaluate heart cells and test new therapeutics for improving the quality of life of patients on Earth and beyond. Learn more about this investigation!
** China’s Two-photon Microscope Captures Cell Images of Astronauts in Orbit – CCTV Video News Agency
The Chinese astronauts aboard the Shenzhou-15 have successfully obtained the three-dimensional structural images of their skin cells with the country’s self-developed two-photon microscope, a recent video released by the China Manned Space Agency showed.
** 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
This artist’s impression shows the planet-forming disc around the star V883 Orionis. In the outermost part of the disc water is frozen out as ice and therefore can’t be easily detected. An outburst of energy from the star heats the inner disc to a temperature where water is gaseous, enabling astronomers to detect it. The inset image shows the two kinds of water molecules studied in this disc: normal water, with one oxygen atom and two hydrogen atoms, and a heavier version where one hydrogen atom is replaced with deuterium, a heavy isotope of hydrogen.
Using the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA), astronomers have detected gaseous water in the planet-forming disc around the star V883 Orionis. This water carries a chemical signature that explains the journey of water from star-forming gas clouds to planets, and supports the idea that water on Earth is even older than our Sun.
“We can now trace the origins of water in our Solar System to before the formation of the Sun,”
says John J. Tobin, an astronomer at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory, USA and lead author of the study published today in Nature.
This discovery was made by studying the composition of water in V883 Orionis, a planet-forming disc about 1300 light-years away from Earth. When a cloud of gas and dust collapses it forms a star at its centre. Around the star, material from the cloud also forms a disc. Over the course of a few million years, the matter in the disc clumps together to form comets, asteroids, and eventually planets. Tobin and his team used ALMA, in which the European Southern Observatory (ESO) is a partner, to measure chemical signatures of the water and its path from the star-forming cloud to planets.
Water usually consists of one oxygen atom and two hydrogen atoms. Tobin’s team studied a slightly heavier version of water where one of the hydrogen atoms is replaced with deuterium — a heavy isotope of hydrogen. Because simple and heavy water form under different conditions, their ratio can be used to trace when and where the water was formed. For instance, this ratio in some Solar System comets has been shown to be similar to that in water on Earth, suggesting that comets might have delivered water to Earth.
ALMA images of the disc around the star V883 Orionis, showing the spatial distribution of water (left, orange), dust (middle, green) and carbon monoxide (blue, right). Because water freezes out at higher temperatures than carbon monoxide, it can only be detected in gaseous form closer to the star. The apparent gap in the the water and carbon monoxide images is actually due to the bright emission of the dust, which attenuates the emission of the gas.
The journey of water from clouds to young stars, and then later from comets to planets has previously been observed, but until now the link between the young stars and comets was missing.
“V883 Orionis is the missing link in this case,” says Tobin. “The composition of the water in the disc is very similar to that of comets in our own Solar System. This is confirmation of the idea that the water in planetary systems formed billions of years ago, before the Sun, in interstellar space, and has been inherited by both comets and Earth, relatively unchanged.”
But observing the water turned out to be tricky.
“Most of the water in planet-forming discs is frozen out as ice, so it’s usually hidden from our view,”
says co-author Margot Leemker, a PhD student at Leiden Observatory in the Netherlands. Gaseous water can be detected thanks to the radiation emitted by molecules as they spin and vibrate, but this is more complicated when the water is frozen, where the motion of molecules is more constrained. Gaseous water can be found towards the centre of the discs, close to the star, where it’s warmer. However, these close-in regions are hidden by the dust disc itself, and are also too small to be imaged with our telescopes.
This diagram illustrates how a cloud of gas collapses to form a star with a disc around it, out of which a planetary system will eventually form.
Fortunately, the V883 Orionis disc was shown in a recent study to be unusually hot. A dramatic outburst of energy from the star heats the disc,
“up to a temperature where water is no longer in the form of ice, but gas, enabling us to detect it,”
says Tobin.
The team used ALMA, an array of radio telescopes in northern Chile, to observe the gaseous water in V883 Orionis. Thanks to its sensitivity and ability to discern small details they were able to both detect the water and determine its composition, as well as map its distribution within the disc. From the observations, they found this disc contains at least 1200 times the amount of water in all Earth’s oceans.
In the future, they hope to use ESO’s upcoming Extremely Large Telescope and its first-generation instrument METIS. This mid-infrared instrument will be able to resolve the gas-phase of water in these types of discs, strengthening the link of water’s path all the way from star-forming clouds to solar systems.
”This will give us a much more complete view of the ice and gas in planet-forming discs,”
2. Tuesday, Mar. 7, 2023; 7 pm PST (9 pm CST, 10 pm EST): Dr. Alan Hale returns regarding comments, astronomy and much more. Alan co-discovered the Hale-Bopp comet.
3. Hotel Mars – Wednesday, Mar. 8, 2023; 1:00 pm PST (3:00 pm CST, 4:00 pm EST): TBD. Check the Upcoming Show Menu at www.thespaceshow.com for updates on scheduling.
4. Friday, Mar.10, 2023; 9:30-11 am PST (11:30 am-1 pm CST, 12:30-2 pm EST): We welcome Fabian Alefeld on the economics of space and the tech fueling it. Fabian is with Additive Minds and hosts the EOS podcast.
5. Sunday, Mar.12, 2023; 12-1:30 pm PST (2-3:30 pm CST, 3-4:30 pm EST): Open Lines program. Call and let us know what is on your mind. Call 866-687-7223
Some recent shows:
** Sunday, Mar.6.2023 – Dr. Ajay Kothari discussed “his perspective on the need for all of us to be in space, engage in commerce, science, all of it“.
** Tuesday, Feb.28.2023 – Dr. Namrata Goswami provided a “detailed look at China and their comprehensive quest for power including space power, America’s response and leadership concerns, lunar development and return, technology, AI, robotics, 3 D printing and much more“.
the Russian space station plans for 2027. In addition, we talked about U.S. commercial stations, the use of LEO and competition in LEO, Russia’s focus on a polar orbit and why for its station, the commercial station science park model, government subsidies and what that might do to support or hinder commercial station growth and commerce.
[e]volution of commercial launch and satellite industry, transformational changes, volume to orbit, mass, fairing size makes a difference, commercial space stations, BLEO commercial applications in cislunar, space hotel economics and more.
