NASA ISS EVAs: Repair P6 Truss Radiator and Microbe-III Experiment

Commander Suni Williams and Flight Engineer Aki Hoshide configure spacewalk equipment in the Quest airlock. 

Credit: NASA TV

The Expedition 33 crew members living and working aboard the International Space Station made preparations for an upcoming spacewalk and worked with a variety of science experiments Wednesday.

Commander Suni Williams and Flight Engineer Aki Hoshide reviewed procedures with flight control teams and prepared equipment in the Quest airlock for an upcoming spacewalk.

During the EVA, Williams and Hoshide will venture out of the Quest airlock on to the exterior of the station to repair an ammonia leak in the P6 truss radiator.

Hoshide worked with the Microbe-III experiment, which monitors the abundance and diversity of fungi and bacteria in the Kibo module.

The results will be used to produce a microbiologically safe environment which is essential for a long-time stay in space.

› Read more about Microbe-III

DLR Mars InSight: HP3-Experiment uses German Drill technology - YouTube

After the successful landing of the Mars Science Laboratory rover Curiosity by NASA has approved a further landing mission on Mars.

The InSight mission will be ready in 2016 and will arrive after a six-month flight to Mars. With InSight there should be a number of geophysical experiments to take a look at the interior of the Red Planet, including the German Aerospace Center (DLR) developed experiment HP3, which will penetrate several meters into the Martian soil.

This experiment make heat flow measurements make and investigate the thermo-mechanical properties of the Martian soil. InSight is a mnemonic for 'Interior Exploration using Seismic investigations, geodesy and heat transport'.

The mission name shows that this mission is primarily focussed on geophysical experiments which are conducted on and under the surface of Mars, for example, by measuring the velocity of seismic waves or the flow of heat.

The aim of the mission is to understand the structure and condition of the core and cladding, and the thermal evolution of Mars.

The InSight HP3 experiment was developed at DLR. HP3 "Heat Flow and Physical Property Package".

For more information: s.dlr.de/vmu5

Science off the Sphere: Fun with Antibubbles - YouTube

International Space Station astronaut Don Pettit constructs “anti-bubbles” –  a series of thick-rimmed bubbles inside other bubbles, all of which center themselves, in a kind of Russian nesting doll fashion.

Also see Pettit’s astounding explanation of physics in space and how the aurora borealis works, using knitting needles and water droplets.

NASA Kibo: Japanese Experiment Module

Image to right: Kibo's Pressurised Module, shown here at its manufacturing facility in Nagoya, Japan, is 11.2 meters (36.7 feet) long. Photo courtesy of JAXA.

The Japanese Experiment Module, or JEM, called Kibo -- which means "hope" in Japanese -- is Japan's first human space facility and enhances the unique research capabilities of the International Space Station.

Kibo Experiments in Kibo focus on space medicine, biology, Earth observations, material production, biotechnology and communications research.

Kibo experiments and systems are operated from the Mission Control Room at the Space Station Operations Facility, or SSOF, at Tsukuba Space Center in Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan, just north of Tokyo.

Kibo consists of six components: two research facilities -- the Pressurized Module and Exposed Facility; a Logistics Module attached to each of them; a Remote Manipulator System; and an Inter-Orbit Communication System unit.

Kibo also has a scientific airlock through which experiments are transferred and exposed to the external environment of space. The various components of JEM will be assembled in space over the course of three Space Shuttle missions. The missions are designated assembly flights 1J, 1J/A and 2J/A.

NASA ESA Mission: MISSE-8

This may look like a NASA version of the game Connect Four, but in fact it's a scientific experiment.

Photographed during a spacewalk as part of the current Atlantis shuttle mission, the Materials on International Space Station Experiment 8 (MISSE-8) consists of a series of circular test beds containing solar cells, computing devices and new and experimental materials.

Some of these modules, NASA hopes, may have applications on future spacecraft.

The panel is attached to the outside of the space station, exposing the objects to the rigours of space, which include radiation, micrometeorites and extreme temperatures.

MISSE-8 is expected to return to Earth in early 2013.

'Mars in a Bottle' Tortures Bacteria

It's hard to believe that nearly 35 years ago we conducted the first -- and so far last -- experiments to find life on Mars.

In 1976, two NASA Viking landers scooped up some orange Martian soil and attempted to incubate any native microorganisms that might be present. The results were ambiguous as best, and have been hotly debated ever since.

The Viking experiments were criticized as being too premature because in the 1970s we didn't know very much about the Martian environment or its geological history. In fact, the Viking experiments may have actually killed exotic native life say some astrobiologists (Viking's view of Mars is pictured below). We didn’t even know about the existence of extremophiles on Earth back then -- tough microbes that adapt to hostile conditions that would normally kill us.

Before we send another biology experiment to Mars, says a team of researchers at the University of Padova, Italy, let's build our own Martian environment in a lab and see what Earth life forms might survive. Call it a "goldfish bowl" for seeing if life can live on the edge.

Finding a life form able to survive in homemade Martian conditions may have a double payoff says the team, lead by Giuseppe Galletta. It might expand our understanding of the limits of environments where life can survive.

The experiments would also define the limits for how easy or hard it would be to accidentally contaminate Mars with Earth bugs.

The small Martian environment simulators they built (pictured top), called LISA and mini-LISA (Laboratorio Italiano Simulazione Ambienti), make an attempt at duplicating Martian surface conditions.

Inside the mini-Mars habitats, temperature ranges from a maximum of near-freezing in the tropical Martian summer to –200 degrees Fahrenheit (-130°C) in the harsh polar winter. Air pressure is kept at an anemic fraction of a percent of Earth's surface pressure. The bottled atmosphere is 95 percent carbon dioxide with trace elements. Searing ultraviolet (UV) light floods the habitat.

What's handy is there are no time limits on the experiments. The mini-Mars world is refueled with liquid nitrogen weekly to keep it chilly.

The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer - AMS-02

The AMS-02 experiment is a state-of-the-art particle physics detector being constructed, tested and operated by an international team composed of 56 institutes from 16 countries and organized under United States Department of Energy (DOE) sponsorship.

The JSC project office oversees and directs the overall payload integration activities and ensures that the payload is safe and ready for launch on the Space Shuttle and deployment onto the ISS.

The AMS Experiment will use the unique environment of space to advance knowledge of the universe and lead to the understanding of the universe’s origin.

The Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer - AMS-02 Homepage

Welcome back Endeavour

Endeavour kicked up dust as it touches down on Runway 15 at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida to complete the 16-day, 6.5-million mile journey on the STS-127 mission to the International Space Station.

Endeavour landed on orbit 248. Main gear touchdown was at 10:48:08 a.m. EDT. Nose gear touchdown was at 10:48:21 a.m. and wheels stop was at 10:49:13 a.m.

Endeavour delivered the Japanese Experiment Module's Exposed Facility and the Experiment Logistics Module-Exposed Section to the International Space Station (ISS).

The mission was the 29th flight to the station, the 23rd flight of Endeavour and the 127th in the Space Shuttle Program, as well as the 71st landing at Kennedy.

Image Credit: NASA/Kim Shiflett