China has launched its Tianwen-1 mission to Mars. A rocket holding an orbiter, lander and rover took flight from the country’s Hainan province yesterday, with hopes to deploy the rover on Mars’s surface by early next year. Source: https://phys.org/news/2020-07-space-wasnt-dangerous-bacteria-deadly.html…
Tag: microgravity
How will astronauts poop on the moon? New NASA challenge calls for innovative ideas.
In a new contest, NASA is calling on innovators from around the world to develop a new space toilet that would work not just in microgravity such as aboard the International Space Station, but also in lunar gravity aboard a future lunar lander. Source: https://www.livescience.com/nasa-moon-toilet-design-challenge.html
NASA developing a plan to fly personnel on suborbital spacecraft
For the first time in the agency’s history, NASA has initiated a new effort to enable NASA personnel to fly on future commercial suborbital spaceflights. NASA’s Flight Opportunities program has successfully worked with emerging commercial suborbital transportation systems to fly research payloads to space for short periods of microgravity time. In addition, the Flight Opportunities program recently released a call that…
The ISS Is Getting a New Toilet This Year
Later this year, the International Space Station will receive a new and improved toilet system designed to bridge the gap between current lavatorial space tech and what humans will need to make extended visits to, say, Mars, in comfort. Space.com reports: It has a fancier name, of course; officially, the commode is NASA’s Universal Waste Management System (UWMS). The launch is…
Scientists Trigger Hibernation In Mice, Could Astronauts Be Next?
“Scientists in Japan successfully triggered a hibernation-like state in mice by activating a specific group of brain cells,” reports UPI, which points out that entering a hibernation-like state “could help astronauts conserve food and water, as well as avoid the ill-effects of microgravity, on long journeys through space.”
The research, published this week in the journal Nature, suggests even animals that don’t…
Exotic, fifth state of matter created on the space station
Scientists have generated an exotic form of matter in the unique microgravity environment aboard the International Space Station and are using it to explore the quantum world, a new study finds. Source: https://www.livescience.com/fifth-state-of-matter-created-space-station.html
Scientists Have Made Bose-Einstein Condensates in Space for the First Time
On board the International Space Station since May 2018 is a mini-fridge-size facility called the Cold Atom Lab (CAL), capable of chilling atoms in a vacuum down to temperatures one ten billionth of a degree above absolute zero. It is, for all intents and purposes, one of the coldest spots in the known universe. And according to a new study published…
Long space flights can increase the volume of astronauts’ brains
Spending at least six months in microgravity can cause astronauts’ brain volumes to increase, causing pressure to build up in their heads and creating vision problems Source: https://www.newscientist.com/article/2240405-long-space-flights-can-increase-the-volume-of-astronauts-brains/?utm_campaign=RSS%7CNSNS&utm_source=NSNS&utm_medium=RSS&utm_content=home…
Rehearsal time for NASA’s asteroid sampling spacecraft
In August, a robotic spacecraft will make NASA’s first-ever attempt to descend to the surface of an asteroid, collect a sample, and ultimately bring it safely back to Earth. In order to achieve this challenging feat, the OSIRIS-REx mission team devised new techniques to operate in asteroid Bennu’s microgravity environment—but they still need experience flying the spacecraft in close proximity to…
Technique offers path for biomanufacturing medicines during space flights
An instrument currently aboard the International Space Station could grow E.coli bacteria in space, opening a new path to bio-manufacturing drugs during long term space flights. Research published today in Nature Microgravity used an Earth-bound simulator of the space station instrument to grow E.coli, demonstrating that it can be nurtured with methods that promise to be more suitable for space travel…