International Space Station update: Astronauts' activity schedule

In this photo posted to Twitter by Flight Engineer Reid Wiseman, he and ESA Flight Engineer Alexander Gerst (right) pose for a picture with spacesuits in the International Space Station's Quest airlock.

Image Credit: NASA

Reid Wiseman and Alexander Gerst spent much of the afternoon in the Quest airlock to configure tools and equipment for a pair of U.S. spacewalks set for October.

Wiseman and Gerst are slated to suit up for the first Expedition 41 spacewalk on Oct. 7, while newly-arrived astronaut Barry Wilmore will join Wiseman for the Oct. 15 excursion.

Among the tasks scheduled for the spacewalks will be the transfer of a previously uninstalled pump module from its temporary stowage location to the External Stowage Platform-2 and the replacement of a failed sequential shunt unit designed to regulate current from one of the station’s solar arrays.

A Russian spacewalk on Oct. 21 is also on the schedule.

Throughout the day, Wiseman participated in the Pro K study, as nutritionists monitor how dietary changes may affect the loss of bone density that occurs during long-duration spaceflight.

Wiseman has been following a prescribed diet and testing his urine samples to provide data for the researchers.

On Sunday, Wiseman and Gerst will once again review the procedures for grappling Dragon and conduct a final Canadarm2 robotics training session with the Robotics Onboard Trainer.

Over the weekend, all three crew members also will take care of weekly housekeeping chores and continue their daily 2.5-hour exercise sessions to stay fit.

MIT Spacesuits: A streamlined second skin

The MIT BioSuit, a skintight spacesuit that offers improved mobility and reduced mass compared to modern gas-pressurized spacesuits. Credit: Jose-Luis Olivares/MIT

For future astronauts, the process of suiting up may go something like this: Instead of climbing into a conventional, bulky, gas-pressurized suit, an astronaut may don a lightweight, stretchy garment, lined with tiny, musclelike coils.

She would then plug in to a spacecraft's power supply, triggering the coils to contract and essentially shrink-wrap the garment around her body.

The skintight, pressurized suit would not only support the astronaut, but would give her much more freedom to move during planetary exploration.

To take the suit off, she would only have to apply modest force, returning the suit to its looser form.



Now MIT researchers are one step closer to engineering such an active, "second-skin" spacesuit: Dava Newman, a professor of aeronautics and astronautics and engineering systems at MIT, and her colleagues have engineered active compression garments that incorporate small, springlike coils that contract in response to heat.

The coils are made from a shape-memory alloy (SMA), a type of material that "remembers" an engineered shape and, when bent or deformed, can spring back to this shape when heated.

Dava Newman

The team incorporated the coils in a tourniquet-like cuff, and applied a current to generate heat. At a certain trigger temperature, the coils contract to their "remembered" form, such as a fully coiled spring, tightening the cuff in the process.

In subsequent tests, the group found that the pressure produced by the coils equaled that required to fully support an astronaut in space.

Several actuators aligned into a 3-D-printed cartridge structure, paired with passive fabric to form an active tourniquet, and mounted on a rigid object approximating a human limb. 

Credit: Jose-Luis Olivares/MIT

"With conventional spacesuits, you're essentially in a balloon of gas that's providing you with the necessary one-third of an atmosphere [of pressure,] to keep you alive in the vacuum of space," says Newman, who has worked for the past decade to design a form-fitting, flexible spacesuit of the future.

"We want to achieve that same pressurisation, but through mechanical counterpressure, applying the pressure directly to the skin, thus avoiding the gas pressure altogether."

"We combine passive elastics with active materials. … Ultimately, the big advantage is mobility, and a very lightweight suit for planetary exploration."

The coil design was conceived by Bradley Holschuh, a postdoc in Newman's lab. Holschuh and Newman, along with graduate student Edward Obropta, detail the design in the journal IEEE/ASME: Transactions on Mechatronics.

More information: "Low Spring Index NiTi Coil Actuators for Use in Active Compression Garments." Holschuh, B Obropta, E. ; Newman, D. Mechatronics, IEEE/ASME Trans, Volume: PP Issue:99, DOI: 10.1109/TMECH.2014.2328519

Spacewalk Training at the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory

In this image taken on Nov. 7, 2012, NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman and European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst (partially obscured), both Expedition 40/41 flight engineers, attired in training versions of their Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) spacesuits, are submerged in the waters of the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) near NASA's Johnson Space Center.

Image Credit: NASA

Divers (out of frame) are in the water to assist Wiseman and Gerst in their rehearsal, which is intended to help prepare them for work on the exterior of the International Space Station.

Astronaut Alexander Gerst

Wiseman, Gerst and Maxim Suraev of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) will launch to the space station aboard a Soyuz spacecraft on May 28, 2014, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. They are scheduled to return to Earth in November, 2014.

Bonhams NYC Auction: Spacesuits And Moon Notes Among The Stars

Two top lots in the sale are from Apollo 11, the first spaceflight to put men on the moon. 

An Apollo 11 mission badge (lot 210) flown with the craft into lunar orbit, and signed by the most famous space crew in history - Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Buzz Aldrin - is estimated at $40,000-60,000.

Bonhams Space History sale on April 8 will feature nearly 300 fascinating artifacts related to decades of international space exploration, including genuine spacesuits, critical flight items from the famed Apollo 11 mission, lunar-flown American flags, rare photographs and astronauts' personal effects.

Two top lots in the sale are from Apollo 11, the first spaceflight to put men on the moon.

An Apollo 11 mission badge (lot 210) flown with the craft into lunar orbit, and signed by the most famous space crew in history - Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins, and Buzz Aldrin - is estimated at $40,000-60,000.

Also from Apollo 11, and estimated at $35,000-45,000, is a checklist sheet (lot 212) with notes made by Buzz Aldrin while on the moon.

Both sides of the sheet contain critical data that enabled Armstrong and Aldrin to return to earth. It is one of the most extensive sets of notations ever made on the lunar surface.

One of the more fascinating pieces in the sale is a spacesuit from the United States' first manned flight program, Project Mercury (lot 56) (est. $8,000-12,000).

Conducted between 1959 and 1963, Project Mercury aimed to put a human being into orbit around the earth.

Bonhams offer a beautiful example of a Phase 2 suit, made circa 1960, featuring the iconic silver coloring and an early "widow's peak" helmet.

In addition to the iconic Project Mercury suit, Bonhams offer a Russian Strizh spacesuit, (lot 58) designed to protect cosmonauts from ejection at altitudes up to 30 kilometers and speeds up to Mach 3 (est. $15,000-20,000).

This rare example is one of only 27 created for test and training purposes between 1981-1991, many of which were damaged or destroyed.

A NASA A6L prototype spacesuit (lot 57) will also be offered (est. $8,000-12,000).

Lunar-flown American flags are certain to attract attention. Highlights include a silk American flag (lot 211) carried to the moon by Buzz Aldrin on the Apollo 11 mission (est. $20,000-30,000), as well as a stars and stripes carried by Fred Haise (lot 249) on the infamous Apollo 13 mission (est. $15,000-20,000).

Haise intended to take the flag to the lunar surface, but the landing was scrubbed when an oxygen tank exploded causing a major electrical outage in the command and service modules.

Awe inspiring photographs and important signed portraits can be found throughout the sale. A NASA photograph of the lunar surface signed by all 12 moonwalkers is an extraordinarily rare offering (est. $8,000-12,000).

Showing an Earth rise in the distance, the image was taken as the Apollo 16 command module orbited the moon.

A Lunar Orbiter V panorama of the crater Copernicus (lot 178) is also available (est. $5,000-8,000).

The 32 large silver gelatin prints are the most comprehensive view of the crater to date.

Technology aficionados will appreciate the remarkable models and equipment available in the sale.

A motion picture ring sight (lot 139) used on the moon during Apollo 15 will be available (est. $20,000-30,000).

A Mir space station control panel (lot 28) (est. $4,000-6,000), a five foot-tall Vostok space rocket model (lot 22) (est. $10,000-15,000) and a Saturn IB rocket model (lot 97)  made by the Marshall Space Flight Center, showing the genius of Wernher von Braun and his team (est. $10,000-15,000).

Astronauts' personal effects are bound to capture the imagination of bidders.

Charles Conrad's stowage strap (lot 241) from Apollo 12 is truly out of this world, having been embedded with lunar dust transferred from the astronauts' hands while inside their lunar module (est. $25,000-35,000).

A cast of Buzz Aldrin's moon boot (lot 240), number two of three made by Chicago artist Jo Mead, embodies both the spirit of 1960's Pop Art and period's fascination with the cosmos (est. $20,000-30,000).

Equally striking is the Cosmonaut Survival Machete (Lot 65), of the same design carried by all Russian Soyuz flights to assist the cosmonaut crew after a remote unscheduled landing (est. $500-700).

The Space History sale will take place April 8 at Bonhams New York. The sale will preview at Bonhams April 4-8.

The complete catalogue is available here

ISS Astronauts preparations for next EVA

NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy (left) and European Space Agency astronaut Luca Parmitano, both Expedition 36 flight engineers, attired in their Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) spacesuits, participate in a “dry run” in the International Space Station’s Quest airlock in preparation for the first of two sessions of extravehicular (EVA) scheduled for July 9 and July 16. NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg, flight engineer, assists Cassidy and Parmitano.