NASA Astronauts

NASA astronauts are installing a new dock on the ISS for visitor access

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NASA Astronauts will perform a 6.5-hour spacewalk outside the International Space Station (ISS) today, to install a new docking mechanism for greater visitor access.

The International Docking Adapter, or IDA, will end NASA’s reliance on the Russian Soyuz spacecraft to ferry astronauts to and from the ISS, and will receive future manned missions from Boeing and SpaceX in 2017 and 2018.

Launched to the ISS back in July by one of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rockets, the IDA is a large metal ring with a 160 cm diameter (63 inches).

It’s being ‘unboxed’ by the station’s Canadarm2 robot, and will then be connected to the port on the ISS’s Harmony model by NASA astronauts Jeff Williams and Kate Rubins from around 8:05am ET (10pm AEST) today.

You can see them checking out their spacesuits in the picture at the top of the page.

“[W]e’re very excited to get that milestone checked and get to the point where we can have crews launch from different places around Earth and servicing the station,” Kenny Todd, NASA space station operations manager at the Johnson Space Centre in Houston, told CBS News.

As Loren Grush reports for The Verge, this is not the first IDA to have been launched to the ISS, but it’s the only one that’s actually made it.

“This is the second IDA to be sent to space, though the first one never actually made it to orbit; it was destroyed when the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carrying it to the ISS disintegrated during launch in June 2015,” she reports.

Installing new IDAs on the ISS is a crucial part of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program – recently initiated by the space agency to ensure that private companies, like SpaceX and Boeing, can easily taxi cargo and crew to and from the ISS in the future.

And that’s super exciting, because if anything can establish once and for all that we’ve truly entered a new era of space exploration, it’s the fact that private companies are willing to fork over millions of dollars to get humans beyond the bounds of Earth’s orbit, and NASA is taking real steps to help them do it.

One of the most immediate benefits of having this new IDA installed is that it will allow more astronauts to be ferried to the ISS than ever before – something that will be a huge help to those conducting research and experiments onboard the facility.

“Along with giving NASA and partner astronauts independent access to the space station, the new commercial ferry ships will carry four crew members to the station per flight compared to the three-seat Soyuz,” William Harwood reports for CBC News.

“That will allow NASA to boost the station’s crew from six to seven, greatly expanding the time available for research,” he adds.

“If you look today at the way the increments play out, a lot of times we’ll be running a little short on crew time,” Todd told him. “That tends to be our pinch point sometimes, relative to some of the research we’re doing. So having an extra … crew member is going to be very important for us.”

Today’s spacewalk will be Jeff Williams’ fourth, and Kate Rubins’ first, and they will be assisted by Japanese astronaut Takuya Onishi, who will help from inside the ISS, and Tom Marshburn, a veteran spacewalker who will be communicating with them from mission control in Houston.

Menstruation Suppression In Outer Space: This Is How NASA Astronauts Handle Their Period

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at work
Menstrual suppression is preferred by some female astronauts on long hauls, yet it is available to earth-bound women as well.

American Astronaut Margaret Rhea Seddon logged three separate space flights between 1985 and 1993 for stretches of 7 days, 9 days, and 14 days. In an oral history, Seddon reveals that a lot of NASA scientists expressed concerns before her trips about menstruation. It was, she says, one of the unknowns of space.

“A lot of people predicted retrograde flow of menstrual blood, and it would get out in your abdomen, get peritonitis, and horrible things would happen,” Seddon said. “All the women were going, “I don’t think so.” But you couldn’t prove it or disprove it.”

After convincing the scientists to “consider it a non-problem,” the first female astronaut who had her period in space soon discovered it to be just like having your period on earth, Seddon says, adding that a second debate arose: How many feminine hygiene products get stored onboard the spacecraft?

Today, a likely answer is “none,” according to researchers at King’s College London and Baylor College of Medicine. Having explored the issue, they suggest menstrual suppression may be preferred by female astronauts on longer hauls or for extended visits to the International Space Station (ISS).

Orbital Concerns

In the novel Minus Time, Barbara Urie, a mother and astronaut, attempts to set a record for human space habitation.  “I imagine that my astronaut Barbara, who was very set on being part of a long-term mission, would have chosen to use some kind of menstruation suppression,” author Catherine Bush, tells Medical Daily. “She would likely have chosen something subdermal.”

Since November 2000, the ISS microgravity laboratory has been continuously occupied, hosting an international crew of six people. As they live and work, the crew orbits the Earth every 90 minutes, traveling at a speed of five miles per second. A total of 222 people from 18 countries have visited since 2000, and of those total visitors, 58 were women: 49 Americans (who ranged in age from 26 to 47), eight Soviets, and two Chinese, a NASA spokesperson reports.

“For the most recently chosen class of new astronaut candidates, 4 of the 8 are women,” Dr. Virginia Wotring, senior author and assistant professor at Baylor’s Center for Space Medicine, tells Medical Daily. She explains her menstruation in space study began when Dr. Polk, head of Space Medicine at Johnson Space Center, asked if certain oral contraceptives had a lower risk of blood clots than others. (Using oral contraceptives is linked to doubling the risk of clots.)

“We have now expanded on that question to evaluate the blood clot risk of other contraceptive and/or menses suppression therapies as well,” she says. Wotring and her co-author Dr. Varsha Jain note the practicalities of menstruating during pre-flight training or spaceflight can be challenging. For short duration missions, menstrual cycles can to be timed according to mission dates. Menstrual suppression may be preferable, though full amenities exist for astronauts choosing to menstruate in space.

Seddon recalls doing a “worst case” scenario evaluation, where she attempted to calculate the maximum number of tampons or pads necessary. “Because we didn’t know how it would be different up there…Most of the women said, ‘I would never, ever use that many.’”  According to Seddon, having to pack such an excessive number of feminine hygiene products meant less room to pack other items, including clothes.

Menstrual suppression, then, offers a packing advantage along with other benefits.

Feminine Endurance

“The waste disposal systems onboard the U.S. side of the International Space Station that reclaim water from urine were not designed to handle menstrual blood,” wrote Wotring and Jain. Plus, packaging of feminine hygiene products contributes to “upmass” (total payload carried into space), while also causing additional trash. With limited wash water and potential difficulties with changing a tampon in microgravity, the practicalities of menstrual hygiene during spaceflight might also be challenging.

During long-duration missions, then, some astronauts have taken the combined oral contraceptive (COC) pill to prevent menstrual flow. Yet, the authors predict a three-year exploration class mission would require approximately 1,100 pills, which would add considerable mass and disposal requirements for the flight.

Long-acting reversible contraceptives (LARCs), such as beneath-the-skin implants and IUDs, appear to be safe and reliable methods of suppression while also possessing a number of advantages for spaceflight, say Wotring and Jain.

A LARC would remove upmass, packaging, and waste issues. The device could be inserted prior to a mission with no replacement necessary during flight. In all likelihood, an astronaut using a LARC would be able to perform her tasks unhindered, though preflight testing might be necessary to see whether the implant might rub or catch on an extra-vehicular activity suit or specialist equipment. And, no reports suggest the high gravitational force loads which accompany launch and landing would damage a subdermal implant or shift the position of an IUD.

One issue requiring further study is the effect of hormone treatments on bone mineral density. Both men and women astronauts are known to lose bone at higher rates than on Earth. Previous studies indicate a temporary, higher than usual loss of bone mass density occurs with some contraception options, so further research is needed.

“If we want space missions to be fully human, and bring all of our best attributes as a species to the challenges of being in space, we need both men and women to ‘(hu)man’ these missions,” says Bush.

at work

Until the number of active female astronauts meets the number of participants required for a clinical study, the authors suggest using pharmacological data from spaceflights combined with ground-based studies to investigate potential effects of LARCs during spaceflight.

“LARCs might be appropriate for many women — on Earth and in austere environments like a military deployment,” says Wotring. “Since LARCs may be effective for long periods of time (3 years), they may be especially useful for women who find it difficult to access a clinic or pharmacy on a regular basis.” She adds LARCs are in common use in Europe and the United Kingdom, and women who are considering this option might discuss it with their doctors.

“We’re really hoping to call a little more attention to the wide spectrum contraceptive choicesavailable to all women, as well as to the notion of menses suppression as a potentially desirable side-effect,” Wotring says. Ultimately, she believes it’s a woman’s choice to suppress or not, no matter whether her explorations remain terrestrial or in wondrous space.

NASA astronauts to eat the first vegetables grown in space

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On August 11, five astronauts on the International Space Station became the first human beings to eat vegetables that were grown in space. The five dined on romaine lettuce grown onboard the space station as the latest phase in a NASA experiment being conducted in a lab named “Veggie.”

The cultivation and consumption of the lettuce is part of NASA’s Journey to Mars program, which aims to allow humans to reach an asteroid by 2025 and walk on the surface of Mars by 2030.

“Future spaceflight missions could involve four to six crew members living in a confined space for an extended period of time with limited communication,” said NASA’s Dr. Gioia Massa, payload scientist for the Veggie lab. “The further and longer humans go away from Earth the greater the need to be able to grow plants for food, atmosphere recycling and psychological benefits.”

Gardening in zero gravity

For the first vegetable grown in space, NASA scientists selected a hardy variety of red romaine lettuce. The seeds were delivered in April 2014 by SpaceX, a private company owned by billionaire Elon Musk that contracts with NASA for cargo runs to the space station. In the Veggie lab, astronaut Scott Kelly was responsible for growing the lettuce.

Kelly is also taking part in another experiment in which he lives on the space station for a year while his twin brother stays on Earth. Doctors will compare the changes in the two men’s bodies over that time.

The lettuce seeds were planted in rooting pillows containing both soil and fertilizer. They were watered with a special subsoil irrigation system because water cannot be poured in zero gravity. In October 2014, the first batch of lettuce was harvested and sent back to Earth for safety analysis.

When food scientists gave the all-clear, Kelly planted a second batch of lettuce. This batch was grown under red, blue and green lights. According to NASA, the green lights were needed to make the lettuce “look like edible food rather than weird purple plants”.

Thirty-three days later, Kelly harvested the lettuce using tongs. Before eating the food, the astronauts wiped it off with citric-acid based sanitizing wipes.

Staving off space insanity?

The ability to grow food in space is considered an essential component to enable longer space missions, let alone the establishment of any kind of longer-term human presence on the moon or other planets. After all, the packaged food that NASA supplies to astronauts only has a shelf life of two to three years. For a research station on Mars, that might be less than the time frame in which it is feasible to send costly resupply shuttles.

In addition, fresh food has health benefits that simply cannot be provided by packaged food. NASA Veggie scientist Ray Wheeler noted the high antioxidant content of fresh fruits and vegetables.

“Having fresh food like these available in space could have a positive impact on people’s moods and also could provide some protection against radiation in space,” Wheeler said.

The ability to grow food in space also provides the ability for “recreational gardening,” NASA said, as a way to improve astronauts’ mental health.

The emotional and psychological benefits are not secondary; being millions of miles away from home in the most hostile environment possible places enormous strain on the human mind.

The first two batches of lettuce are only the beginning for the Veggie lab, Massa said.

“We have upcoming experiments that will look at the impacts of light quality on crop yield, nutrition and flavor.”

The research might also benefit people down on Earth, she said. Findings from the studies could lead to new innovations in techniques for growing plants in urban settings, for example, or new water conservation technologies.

Learn more: http://www.naturalnews.com/050934_vegetables_International_Space_Station_astronauts.html#ixzz3k5nBvsqg

NASA Astronauts Will Breathe Easier With New Oxygen Recovery Systems

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For NASA’s long-duration human spaceflight missions, travelers will need to recycle as much breathable oxygen in their spacecraft environments, as possible. To turn that need into a reality, NASA is seeking proposals for lightweight, safe, efficient and reliable systems for regenerating oxygen on future human exploration missions.

ISS Air Revittilization System rack represents the state of the art in spacecraft oxygen recovery technology
The first of two phases of this new NASA solicitation will consist of a detailed design, development, fabrication, and testing of an advanced oxygen recovery technology. Under a two year Phase II contract, the proposer then will develop a prototype hardware system, capable of an oxygen recovery rate of at least 75 percent.
“Lengthy spaceflight missions in Earth’s orbit and beyond must have life support systems that are more self-sufficient and reliable,” said Michael Gazarik, associate administrator for Space Technology at NASA Headquarters in Washington. “The spacecraft life support system technologies for this proposal must significantly improve the rate of oxygen recovery while achieving high degrees reliability. NASA and its partners will need to develop new technologies to ‘close’ the atmosphere revitalization loop.”
In addition to improving the oxygen recovery rate, the new systems must reduce mass required or take up less space and reduce power consumption. NASA’s goal is to award technology development efforts that will increase the oxygen recovery rate to at least 75 percent without adversely impacting other design requirements.
The agency’s Game Changing Development Program will accept proposals from NASA centers, other government agencies, federally funded research and development centers, educational institutions, industry and nonprofit organizations. NASA expects to make approximately six Phase I awards, ranging in value up to $750,000.
The Advanced Oxygen Recovery for Spacecraft Life Support Systems Appendix is part of the Space Technology Mission Directorate Game Changing Development Program NASA Research Announcement, “Space Technology Research, Development, Demonstration, and Infusion 2014” for high priority technology areas of interest to NASA.