US ISS space lab in relative darkness during 'sleep time'

The US ISS space lab in relative darkness during 'sleep time' on the space station.

This image was posted on Twitter by the new guy, NASA astronaut Terry Virts.

Credit: NASA

ISS a space lab of 'unlimited' opportunity

International Space Station. Credits: ESA

It may be 350 kilometers (215 miles) above Earth and a place that only a privileged few will ever visit, but the International Space Station is crucial to advances in science, health and technology, experts say.

Earlier this month, NASA said the life of the $100 billion ISS would be extended by four years, or until at least 2024, allowing for more global research and scientific collaboration.

John Holdren, a senior White House adviser on science and technology, hailed the space station—mainly built with US money—as "a unique facility that offers enormous scientific and societal benefits.

"The Obama administration's decision to extend its life until at least 2024 will allow us to maximize its potential, deliver critical benefits to our nation and the world and maintain American leadership in space," he said.

The orbiting outpost, which was launched to fanfare in 1998, has more living space than a six-bedroom house and comes complete with Internet access, a gym, two bathrooms and a 360-degree bay window offering spectacular views of Earth.

Its entire structure is made up of various working and sleeping modules, and extends the length of a football field (about 100 meters or yards), making it four times bigger than the Russian space station Mir and about five times as large as the US Skylab.

The aging structure requires regular maintenance, which is done by astronauts who don spacesuits and venture outside the lab.

One such repair was completed Christmas Eve when two Americans stepped out to replace a failed ammonia pump that served to cool equipment at the ISS.

Julie Robinson, an ISS scientist at NASA, insisted that the space station, which has a mass of 924,739 pounds (420,000 kilograms) but is near-weightless in space, is worth the trouble and expense.

The ISS, which is maintained by a rotating crew of six astronauts and cosmonauts who have hailed from 14 countries, allows scientists to study the long-term effects of weightlessness on the human body, she said, while testing new space technologies that will be essential for missions to Mars.

"The goal of using the space station is to make discoveries that cannot be made anywhere else... and do research that is really focused on bringing benefits back to Earth by developing knowledge that can directly help bio-medical treatments, make new materials, have better Earth and climate observations," she told reporters.

ROSCOSMOS: Russia's Eneregia to build Oka-T-MKS Space Station

Russia's Energia Corp. space manufacturer has won an $11 million contract to design an orbital space laboratory, the national procurement agency says.

Energia was the only bidder when Russia's Federal Space Agency, Roscosmos announced a tender for the contract in mid-October 2012.

The proposed multipurpose Oka-T-MKS space lab will operate autonomously in orbit, periodically docking with the International Space Station for the ISS crew to service its scientific research equipment and conduct refueling and other operations.

Capable of carrying 1,800 pounds of equipment, the space lab will perform research in space materials study, plasma physics, biology and medicine.

Oka-T-MKS will be able to work autonomously for as long as 180 days between required dockings with the ISS, officials said.

The space lab was to have been ready for a 2015 launch but that has been put back by two to three years "due to the lack of concrete scientific research projects, as well as clients," Roscosmos deputy head Vitaly Davydov said.