The BioTube-Magnetophoretically Induced Curvature in Roots (Biotube-MICRO) experiment, similar to an experiment lost in the Columbia accident, will get a flight opportunity to the International Space Station (ISS). BioTube-MICRO investigates how the gravity sensing systems in organisms and plants operate. It provides insight into how plants grow, how plants detect and respond to gravity, and how the gravity sensing system [...]
Articles written by: Maria Fischer
3D Printing Takes on the Final Frontier: Food
Imagine one day being able printing your own dishes, like in a Star Trek movie. This is the dream of many astronauts. Currently, astronauts have a limited variety of vacuum-sealed or canned foods which they eat repeatedly and quickly gets monotonous; however, 3D food printing may radically change astronauts’ selection of food. In the future astronauts will have the opportunity for [...]
NASA to Investigate Blurred Vision in Space
This spring NASA will start an investigation into a range of vision issues that are suffered by some humans during long-duration space flights. Approximately 20 percent of astronauts serving aboard the International Space Station have reported blurry vision during their expedition length mission. During the post-mission physical rehabilitation back on Earth, the vision problems typically disappear. “This was a process [...]
ESAIL Propels Spacecraft with Wire Tether Array
The electronic solar sail (ESAIL) is a technology that utilizes the solar wind to provide propulsion to a spacecraft. Not to be confused with the more commonly studied solar light sail, ESAIL captures momentum from the solar wind by means of an electric field generated by a web of long wire tethers. Invented by Dr. Pekka Janhusen at the Finnish [...]
Mothership and her Hedgehogs: New Concept for Exploring Phobos
Exploring the low gravity environment of small celestial objects has always posed a challenge to researchers. Now, a collaboration among engineers at Stanford, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has developed a new concept. The idea was designed with exploration of the Martian moon Phobos in mind, and uses an autonomous robotic system named the Phobos [...]
VEGGIE to Provide Salad for Astronauts
U.S. astronauts working and living aboard the International Space Station might soon have their own fresh vegetables grown in space. A newly developed vegetable production system, called VEGGIE, is planned to be delivered aboard NASA’s third Commercial Resupply Services mission with the SpaceX’s Dragon capsule in 2013. For the astronauts living 200 miles above Earth’s surface, it would mean having [...]
Space Tourism, Just a Balloon Ride Away
As the Spanish team Zero2infinity shows, space tourism is more than just rocket science. On November 12 the start up company Zero2infinity successfully tested a balloon that should be able to carry passengers to an altitude of 36 kilometers by 2014. During these balloon flights the space tourists could experience the near space environment with a breathtaking view of the [...]
Roscosmos Selects Second Female Cosmonaut Trainee
Russia’s cosmonaut recruitment drive has selected eight new cosmonaut trainees, including one female prospect. Anna Kikina, 28, a native of Novosibirskin in western Siberia, is now the second active female candidate in Russia, joining Yelena Serova. She is the only recruit of the eight for whom going into space was not a childhood dream and one of three women who [...]
Russian Space Industry Confronting Graft Investigation
The Russian space industry is embroiled in another corruption scandal as senior officials at Russian Space Systems, the primary constructor of GLONASS and contractor to Roscosmos, are accused of the embezzlement of 6.5 billion rubles (160M Euro). According to Russian media, senior Roscosmos officials had explicit instructions on how to siphon money from the GLONASS project back to top officials. The [...]
Cool Flames Aboard ISS
In the weightless environment of space, fire burns differently because the convective forces are not present. Flames burn in a sphere, at lower temperature, and require less oxygen compared to those in the gravity of Earth. The Flame Extinguishment Experiment-2 (FLEX-2) is a continuation of the FLEX program, which studies the special burning characteristics of fireballs on board the International [...]
