Expedition 41 Astronauts Welcomed Aboard Space Station

The new six-member Expedition 41 crew gathers in the Zvezda service module for a welcoming ceremony with family and friends in Baikonur, Kazakhstan.

Image Credit: NASA TV

NASA astronaut Butch Wilmore and Russian cosmonauts Alexander Samokutyaev and Elena Serova joined their Expedition 41 crewmates when the hatches between the Soyuz TMA-14M spacecraft and the International Space Station officially opened at 1:06 a.m. EDT.

Expedition 41 Commander Max Suraev of the Russian Federal Space Agency and Flight Engineers Reid Wiseman of NASA and Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency, who arrived at the station in May, welcomed the new crew members aboard their orbital home.

Shortly after docking with the International Space Station, the Soyuz TMA-14M spacecraft's port solar array deployed successfully.

Earlier, the solar array had failed to deploy when the Soyuz reached orbit.

The image of the spacecraft's approach, taken from the ISS, clearly shows only one solar array has been deployed.

NASA and Roscosmos officials have confirmed that the array poses no long term issue to either standard operations at the station for Expedition 41-42, or for the landing of Barry Wilmore, Alexander Samokutyaev and Elena Serova at the conclusion of their mission in March.

ESA’s “Georges Lemaître” ATV-5 docked at the ISS.

Credit: ESA

There are now five spacecraft docked to the station its maximum visiting vehicle capacity.

There are two Soyuz vehicles, one Progress 56 resupply ship, Europe’s “Georges Lemaître” ATV-5 and the SpaceX Dragon commercial space freighter which arrived Tuesday morning.

The new crew floated into their new home for a welcoming ceremony and congratulatory calls from family, friends and mission officials in Baikonur.

After the ceremony ended the new crew will underwent a mandatory safety orientation to familiarize themselves with escape paths and procedures and locations of safety gear.

MIT SPHERES: Spin Algorithm tested aboard the International Space Station

MIT researchers tested an algorithm that gauges the rotation of objects in zero gravity aboard the International Space Station. 

This video shows a Zero-G flight where a tracked object is spinning on its major, minor, and intermediate axes.

Objects in space tend to spin, and spin in a way that's totally different from the way they spin on earth.

Understanding how objects are spinning, where their centers of mass are, and how their mass is distributed is crucial to any number of actual or potential space missions, from cleaning up debris in the geosynchronous orbit favoured by communications satellites to landing a demolition crew on a comet.

In a forthcoming issue of the Journal of Field Robotics, MIT researchers will describe a new algorithm for gauging the rotation of objects in zero gravity using only visual information, and at the International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems this month, they will report the results of a set of experiments in which they tested the algorithm aboard the International Space Station.

On all but one measure, their algorithm was very accurate, even when it ran in real time on the microprocessor of a single, volleyball-size experimental satellite.

On the remaining measure, which indicates the distribution of the object's mass, the algorithm didn't fare quite as well when running in real time, although its estimate may still be adequate for many purposes, but it was much more accurate when it had slightly longer to run on a more powerful computer.

Space trash

"There are satellites that are basically dead, that are in the 'geostationary graveyard,' a few hundred kilometers from the normal geostationary orbit," says Alvar Saenz-Otero, a principal research scientist in MIT's Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

"With over 6,000 satellites operating in space right now, people are thinking about recycling. Can we get to that satellite, observe how it's spinning, and learn its dynamic behaviour so that we can dock to it?"

Moreover, "there's a lot of space trash these days," Saenz-Otero adds. "There are thousands of pieces of broken satellites in space."

"If you were to send a supermassive spacecraft up there, yes, you could collect all of those, but it would cost lots of money, but if you send a small spacecraft, and you try to dock to a small, tumbling thing, you also are going to start tumbling."

"So you need to observe that thing that you know nothing about so you can grab it and control it."

Joining Saenz-Otero on the paper are lead author Brent Tweddle, who was an MIT graduate student in aeronautics and astronautics when the work was done and is now at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory; his fellow grad student Tim Setterfield; AeroAstro Professor David Miller; and John Leonard, a professor of mechanical and ocean engineering.

The researchers tested their algorithm using two small satellites deployed to the space station through MIT's SPHERES project, which envisions that herds of coordinated satellites the size of volleyballs would assist human crews on future space missions.

One SPHERES satellite spun in place while another photographed it with a stereo camera.

Sprite Kicksat Mini satellites launch into orbit aboard SpaceX Falcon9 rocket

"Sprite" mini femtosatellites that are now in orbit. Credit: Zac Manchester

After years of planning and several last-minute delays, about 100 Cornell-developed mini femtosatellites demonstrating space flight at its simplest have launched into orbit and are now circling Earth.

With just a laptop, antenna and a few other basics, space flight enthusiasts can listen for signals sent by the cracker-sized "sprites" that launched April 18 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as part of NASA's CRS-3 mission.

Still inside their mothership craft, the sprites are scheduled to deploy on May 4 to become the smallest free-flying spacecraft.

Zac Manchester

The project is called KickSat and has been led by Zac Manchester '09, now a graduate student in aerospace engineering, since he was an undergraduate doing research with Mason Peck, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Cornell University.

Sprites are mini satellites stripped down to their most basic components: a microcontroller, transceiver and solar cells for power.

Manchester took the project to Kickstarter in 2011 to see if amateur space enthusiasts would help fund the venture.

More than 300 people sponsored KickSat and were allowed to transmit whatever signal they wanted from it – for example, their initials or a message to a loved one.

The KickSat housing is engraved with the sponsors' names.

The sprites are housed inside a 3U CubeSat, which is a small satellite frequently used in space research.

The 3U CubeSat is aboard a capsule that separates from the shuttle, which continues to the International Space Station.

The KickSat 3U CubeSat is second in line to deploy.

The big event – when the sprites leave the spacecraft and begin transmitting signals – will be the afternoon of May 4 (subject to change). Manchester has been updating his Kickstarter blog with mission information.

"After a beautiful launch at 3:25 this afternoon [April 18], KickSat was deployed in low Earth orbit. We at Cornell and several amateur radio operators around the world have made contact with the spacecraft, and it is alive and well. I can't thank all of you enough for your tremendous support over the past two years. Thank you for believing in KickSat!"

Kirobo: Japan's robo-astronaut aboard the ISS

This 2013 Kibo-Robot photo, taken on August 21, 2013, shows pint-sized android Kirobo speaking from inside the International Space Station (ISS). 

The robot is part of a study aimed at seeing how a non-human companion can provide emotional support for people isolated over long periods.

A pint-sized android has uttered the first robotic words in space, showcasing Japan's drive to combine cutting-edge technology with cuteness.

The wide-eyed and bootie-wearing "Kirobo"—roughly the size of a chihuahua—broadcast a message from inside the International Space Station, greeting citizens of Earth and paying cheeky tribute to Neil Armstrong.

"On August 21, 2013, a robot took one small step toward a brighter future for all," Kirobo said in a video that showed the humanoid creation drifting weightlessly on-board the ISS, as it moved its legs in the air.

The images made their global debut on Wednesday as part of Tokyo's bid for the 2020 Games during a presentation ahead of a meeting of the International Olympic Committee in Buenos Aires which will decide the host city.

"Good morning to everyone on Earth. This is Kirobo. I am the world's first talking robot astronaut. Nice to meet you," it said in Japanese.

The humanoid was created jointly by advertising firm Dentsu, the University of Tokyo, robot developer Robo Garage and Toyota.

The robot stands just 34 centimetres (13.4 inches) tall and weighs about one kilogram (2.2 pounds).

It left Earth on August 4 on a cargo-carrying rocket that was also delivering supplies to the ISS.

Kirobo is programmed to communicate in Japanese and keep records of its conversations with Koichi Wakata, the first Japanese astronaut to command the ISS.

The robot is part of a study aimed at seeing how a non-human companion can provide emotional support for people isolated over long periods.