#station crew

[stationarcadia]

Shhh... what’s this? A small teaser line from ep 17? Don’t tell the producers...

IMAGE ID: Screenshot of text in Courier New. It reads: [DOOR OPENS] Lyssel. That's a worm! Z. No, that's Kass.

[stationarcadia]

Station “Employees”

It’s recap time! Here’s what we know about Kass’s coworkers. 

Lyssel (they/them)

Mentioned in episode one and two, both times in connection to either fixing or exporting music off of Kass’s “Synth-Tech X”.  Jo (she/he)

Jo is also mentioned in both episodes! In episode one, Kass mentions that Jo didn’t let her sing, saying that “singing doesn’t count as music”. In episode two, Kass says that Jo made her a broadcasting schedule, because she “loves doing paperwork” and has a lot of lists and schedules. 

Z. (she/her)

Pronounced “Zed”. Z is mentioned briefly at the end of episode two. When Kass is trying desperately to find some sort of silver lining, they remark that the Empire can’t be all that bad, because Z is from The Empire and is “pretty cheery”. 

[spaceexp]

Medical and Life Science Work as Station Crew Swap Approaches

ISS - Expedition 41 Mission patch. November 5, 2014

Image above: In the grasp of the Japanese robotic arm, the CubeSat deployer is about to release a pair of NanoRacks CubeSat miniature satellites. The Planet Labs Dove satellites that were carried to the International Space Station aboard the Orbital Sciences Cygnus commercial cargo craft are being deployed between Aug. 19 and Aug. 25. The station’s Kibo laboratory is at top right. A blue and white part of Earth and the blackness of space provide the backdrop for the scene. Image Credit: NASA TV. NASA astronaut Barry Wilmore worked throughout Tuesday inside Japan’s Kibo laboratory to remove a Cubesat deployer from the laboratory’s airlock. The deployer experienced problems in August, when some of the mini satellites did not deploy as expected and later deployed spontaneously. Wilmore’s Expedition 41/42 crewmates Elena Serova and Alexander Samokutyaev worked throughout the day on maintenance and a variety of Russian physical and medical science experiments. Read more about the NanoRacks CubeSat Deployer: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/1350.html The homebound Expedition 40/41 trio, consisting of Soyuz Commander Max Suraev and Flight Engineers Alexander Gerst and Reid Wiseman, is counting down to its Nov. 9 departure inside the Soyuz TMA-13M spacecraft. They are packing gear to be returned home while they continue science and maintenance on the U.S. side of the International Space Station.

Image above: European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst talks with members of the German Parliament and German space officials gathered in Berlin. Image Credit: NASA TV. Back on Earth, the new Expedition 42/43 crew is getting ready for its launch to the space station from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Nov. 23. Soyuz Commander Anton Shkaplerov will be joined by NASA astronaut Terry Virts and European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti aboard a Soyuz TMA-15M spacecraft to begin a 5-1/2 month mission aboard the orbital laboratory. Read more about Expedition 41: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition41/index.html Read more about Expedition 42: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition42/index.html For more information about the International Space Station (ISS), visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html Images (mentioned), Text, Credit: NASA. Cheers, Orbiter.ch Full article

[spaceexp]

Station Crew Checks Out Spacesuits, Conducts Research

Washington DC (SPX) Oct 06, 2014 The six-person Expedition 41 crew of the International Space Station was hard at work Wednesday supporting research with down-to-Earth benefits and gearing up for a series of spacewalks to maintain the orbiting laboratory. Commander Max Suraev and his team of five flight engineers began the day at 2 a.m. EDT, with some time for morning hygiene, breakfast and an inspection of the station. A Full article

[spaceexp]

Station Crew Wraps Up Week of Spacewalk Preps With Research

ISS - Expedition 41 Mission patch. October 3, 2014 The six-person Expedition 41 crew of the International Space Station conducted a range of scientific experiments Friday to benefit life here on Earth, closing out a busy workweek primarily focused on gearing up for a series of spacewalks. Flight Engineer Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency worked with an experiment that’s looking for a way to repurpose a diabetes treatment drug into a cancer fighter. The Drug Metabolism experiment studies yeast cells to understand how drugs act on tumors to see if metaformin, a drug commonly used to treat type 2 diabetes, can serve as an anti-cancer drug. The German astronaut retrieved samples from the Commercial Generic Bioprocessing Apparatus and injected the test drugs into them.

Image above: European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst, Expedition 41 flight engineer, is pictured in the Quest airlock of the International Space Station. Image Credit: NASA. Gerst also transferred a seedling culture dish into the Cell Biology Experiment Facility for incubation. The Plant Gravity Sensing experiment is examining the cellular and molecular mechanisms that enable plants to sense gravity. The researchers behind this study hypothesize that the gravity sensitivity of plants here on Earth can be modified to make crops more resistant to the destructive forces of nature, thus maintaining yields even in areas struck by flooding or high winds. Meanwhile in the Japanese Kibo laboratory, Flight Engineer Barry Wilmore of NASA performed some maintenance on the Aquatic Habitat currently housing a school of fish popularly known as zebra danios for the Zebrafish Muscle study. The goal of this experiment is to determine whether zebrafish muscles weaken in microgravity similarly to human muscles and, if so, isolate the cause. Results from the Zebrafish Muscle investigation may help identify molecular changes involved in the deterioration of muscles exposed to microgravity, which could provide benefits to patients confined to bed and astronauts on long-duration space missions. Flight Engineer Reid Wiseman checked in on several experiments taking place aboard the orbiting laboratory. The NASA astronaut first placed test canisters from the Biological Research in Canisters-19 (BRIC-19) experiment into the Minus Eighty-degree Laboratory Freezer for ISS, or MELFI. This experiment is taking a look at the development in microgravity of Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings, commonly referred to as Mouse-ear cress. Wiseman then transferred test samples for the Micro-8 experiment, which is investigating the Candida albicans yeast in order to help scientists better understand and control the infectious nature of this opportunistic pathogen. After a marathon week of preparations for a pair of upcoming U.S. spacewalks, the three astronauts also had some welcome off-duty time Friday.

Station robotic arm

Image above: ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst took this image of the International Space Station’s robotic arm and the Dragon commercial supply spacecraft during his six-month Blue Dot mission. Image Credits: ESA/NASA. During the first Expedition 41 spacewalk slated to begin around 8:10 a.m. Tuesday, Wiseman and Gerst will exit out the Quest airlock for a six-and-a-half hour excursion to transfer a degraded pump module to its long-term home on the External Stowage Platform-2. The two spacewalkers also will install the Mobile Transporter Relay Assembly that provides backup power options to the Mobile Transporter railcar system, which moves the Mobile Servicing System’s Canadarm2 and Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator to worksites along the station’s truss.

Alexander testing spacesuit

Image above: ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst testing his spacesuit on the International Space Station in preparation for 7 October 2014 when he will venture into open space with NASA astronaut Reid Wiseman on a seven-hour spacewalk. Image Credits: ESA/NASA. Wilmore, who will be inside the cupola to provide robotic support for the first spacewalk, will join Wiseman on Oct. 15 for another excursion outside the station. Wiseman and Wilmore will venture out to the station’s starboard truss to replace a voltage regulator, known as a sequential shunt unit, which failed back in May. On the Russian side of the complex, Commander Max Suraev performed routine maintenance on the life-support system in the Zvezda service module. He later stowed trash and unneeded items in the ISS Progress 56 cargo craft, which is set to undock from the Pirs docking compartment on Oct. 27 to make way for the next Russian space freighter – ISS Progress 57 – launching on Oct. 29. Flight Engineer Alexander Samokutyaev, who joined Suraev to replace a Payload Interface Monitoring Unit, also conducted a session with the Cardiovector health experiment, which takes a look at the adaptation of the heart to long-duration spaceflight. Flight Engineer Elena Serova meanwhile manually mixed test samples within the bioreactor of the Kaskad cell cultivation experiment. Later she photographed and deployed new samples for the Calcium experiment, which examines the causes of the loss of bone density that occurs in a weightless environment. For this study, Russian researchers are looking at the solubility of calcium phosphates and bone samples in water in space. Over the weekend, the station’s astronauts and cosmonauts will take care of weekly housekeeping chores as they wipe down surfaces and vacuum dust. They also will continue their daily 2.5-hour workouts to stay fit and to prevent the loss of muscle mass and bone density that occurs in microgravity. The station's crew conducted scientific experiments Friday, closing out a busy week focused on gearing up for a series of spacewalks. Related links: Drug Metabolism experiment: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/1072.html Plant Gravity Sensing experiment: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/1011.html Zebrafish Muscle investigation: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/65.html Biological Research in Canisters-19 (BRIC-19) experiment: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/1082.html Micro-8 experiment: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/micro_8/ For more information about the International Space Station (ISS), visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA / ESA. Cheers, Orbiter.ch Full article

[spaceexp]

Station Crew Conducts Biological Research, Assembles Hardware for Spacewalk

ISS - Expedition 41 Mission patch. October 2, 2014 The six-person Expedition 41 crew of the International Space Station focused their attention Thursday on biological research and preparations for the first of three spacewalks planned for October, while the ground team worked to bring a newly installed weather monitoring instrument up to speed. Late Wednesday, the International Space Station-Rapid Scatterometer, or ISS-RapidScat installed on the exterior of the Columbus module was activated by payload controllers at the Marshall Space Flight Center. The radar antenna of the device, which is designed to monitor ocean winds from the station’s vantage point, began spinning as planned, but the payload controllers decided to place the system in safe mode when they noted higher than expected temperatures in the instrument’s electronics. The antenna continues to spin normally while the ground team analyzes the data and learns how to manage the temperature.

Animation above: A video camera on the International Space Station captured this view of the the ISS-Rapid Scatterometer, or RapidScat, on Wednesday. Animation Credit: NASA. ISS-RapidScat was among the nearly two-and-a-half tons of cargo delivered to the station by the SpaceX Dragon resupply craft Sept. 23. Robotics officers at Houston’s Mission Control Center remotely commanded the Canadarm2 robotic arm to remove ISS-RapidScat from Dragon’s trunk and attach it to its adapter on the station’s Columbus laboratory on Tuesday. Meanwhile, Flight Engineers Reid Wiseman and Alexander Gerst spent much of Thursday assembling hardware and reviewing procedures for a spacewalk scheduled to begin on Tuesday around 8:10 a.m. EDT. During the six-and-a-half-hour excursion, Wiseman and Gerst will transfer a degraded pump module from its temporary stowage location to its long-term home on the External Stowage Platform-2. The two spacewalkers also will install the Mobile Transporter Relay Assembly (MTRA) that provides backup power options to the Mobile Transporter railcar system, which moves the Mobile Servicing System’s Canadarm2 and Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator to worksites along the station’s truss.

Image above: Inside the International Space Station's Quest airlock, Flight Engineer Reid Wiseman works on the spacesuit that Flight Engineer Alexander Gerst will wear during Tuesday's spacewalk. Image Credit: NASA TV. Flight Engineer Barry Wilmore, who will be at the controls of Canadarm2 inside the station cupola to provide support for Tuesday’s spacewalk, joined his astronaut crewmates for a review of the robotic operations. Wilmore will be joining Wiseman on the second Expedition 41 spacewalk set for Oct. 15, to replace a voltage regulator that failed back in May. And on Oct. 22, Commander Max Suraev and Flight Engineer Alexander Samokutyaev will conduct the first Russian spacewalk of Expedition 41. Wilmore performed some maintenance on the Aquatic Habitat currently housing a school of fish popularly known as zebra danios for the Zebrafish Muscle study. The goal of this experiment is to determine whether zebrafish muscles weaken in microgravity similarly to human muscles and, if so, isolate the cause. Results from the Zebrafish Muscle investigation may help identify molecular changes involved in the deterioration of muscles exposed to microgravity and could provide benefits to patients on extended bed rest and astronauts on long-duration missions in space.

Image above: One of the Expedition 41 crew members aboard the International Space Station, flying at an altitude of 222 nautical miles above a point in the Atlantic Ocean several hundred miles off the coast of Africa near the Tropic of Cancer, photographed this eye-catching panorama of the night sky on Sept. 27. Image Credit: NASA. Gerst participated in a periodic fitness evaluation as he worked out on the station’s exercise bike – the Cycle Ergometer with Vibration Isolation and Stabilization. Wilmore assisted his German crewmate by initiating blood pressure and electrocardiogram measurements to help the flight surgeons benchmark the crew’s cardiovascular and musculoskeletal health. Gerst also donned monitors to track his body’s core temperature over a 36-hour period for the Circadian Rhythms study. Because the station orbits the Earth every 92 minutes and experiences 16 sunrises and sunsets every day, the astronauts do not have the same day/night cues that people have on Earth. Results from this investigation will provide insights into the adaptations of the human autonomic nervous system in space and will help optimize crew schedules and workplace illumination. Wiseman activated a botanical study known as Biological Research in Canisters-19, or BRIC-19. This experiment is taking a look at the development in microgravity of Arabidopsis thaliana seedlings, commonly referred to as Mouse-ear cress. The seedlings will be preserved and returned to Earth for genetic analysis and comparison with a control set of seedlings germinated in normal gravity. On the Russian side of the complex, Flight Engineer Elena Serova participated in the Cardiovector experiment, which takes a look at the adaptation of the heart to long-duration spaceflight. Samokutyaev meanwhile performed the Virtual study, a Russian investigation into the human body’s sensory adaptations to weightlessness. Commander Suraev spent part of his day transferring water from the Progress 56 cargo ship attached to the Pirs docking compartment. Progress 56, which is set to depart in late October, delivered nearly three tons of supplies when it docked to the station on July 23. Related links: International Space Station-Rapid Scatterometer, or ISS-RapidScat: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/iss-rapidscat/ Zebrafish Muscle study: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/65.html Circadian Rhythms study: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/892.html Biological Research in Canisters-19, or BRIC-19: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/1082.html For more information about the International Space Station (ISS), visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html Images (mentioned), Animation (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA. Greetings, Orbiter.ch Full article

[spaceexp]

Newly Expanded Station Crew Tackles Research, Spacewalk Preps

ISS - Expedition 41 Mission patch. September 29, 2014 The International Space Station’s Expedition 41 crew, which doubled the number of humans in space when three new crew members arrived last week, began its first full workweek as a six-person crew Monday with biological research and preparations for a pair of U.S. spacewalks. Flight Engineers Barry Wilmore, Alexander Samokutyaev and Elena Serova joined their Expedition 41 crewmates on the station early Friday following a six-hour, four-orbit trek aboard their Soyuz TMA-14M spacecraft from the launch site at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Wilmore, Samokutyaev and Serova are slated to spend 5 ½ months aboard the station. Commander Max Suraev and Flight Engineers Reid Wiseman and Alexander Gerst, who arrived on May 28, will return to Earth in November. Read more about launch and docking of new station trio: http://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.ch/2014/09/expedition-41-welcomes-new-trio-aboard.html Shortly after the usual 2 a.m. EDT reveille, the entire crew conducted body mass measurements, inspected their orbital home and participated in a daily planning conference with the flight control teams around the world to review the day’s activities.

Image above: Flight Engineer Reid Wiseman posted this Twitter photo showing Flight Engineers Barry Wilmore (left) and Alexander Gerst at work in the Kibo laboratory of the International Space Station. Image Credit: NASA. For Wiseman, Gerst and Wilmore, most of those activities were centered primarily on gearing up for their upcoming spacewalks. During an Oct. 7 excursion outside the station, Wiseman and Gerst will transfer a previously uninstalled pump module from its temporary stowage location to the External Stowage Platform-2. The two spacewalkers also will install the Mobile Transporter Relay Assembly that adds the capability to provide “keep-alive” power to the Mobile Servicing System when the Mobile Transporter is moving between worksites. Wiseman and Gerst spent some time reviewing the procedures for that spacewalk and later participated in a conference call with spacewalk specialists on the ground. Wilmore meanwhile began “scrubbing” the cooling loops of the U.S. spacesuits, including the Liquid Cooling and Ventilation Garment that he will wear under his own spacesuit when he joins Wiseman for the second Expedition 41 spacewalk on Oct. 15. Wiseman completed the spacesuit water recharge in the afternoon. Gerst also checked in on the Zebrafish Muscle study as he assessed the water condition inside the Aquatic Habitat, which is housing a school of spacefaring fish popularly known in the aquarium trade as zebra danios. The goal of the study is to determine whether zebrafish muscles weaken in microgravity similarly to human muscles and, if so, isolate the cause. Results from the Zebrafish Muscle investigation may help identify molecular changes involved in the deterioration of muscles exposed to microgravity. The findings could potentially benefit patients on extended bed rest or with limited mobility. In addition, this information would aid researchers in developing countermeasures for muscle weakness in astronauts living in microgravity during extended missions. On the Russian side of the complex, Serova transferred test samples from the Kaskad cell cultivation experiment, while Samokutyaev performed a study of hardware designed to provide aseptic conditions for biotechnological experiments. Meanwhile, Commander Suraev stowed trash and unneeded items for disposal inside the Progress 56 cargo ship currently attached to the Pirs docking compartment. The Russian space freighter, which delivered nearly three tons of cargo when it docked to the station’s Pirs docking compartment on July 23, will undock from the station in late October for a destructive re-entry over the Pacific Ocean.

Image above: Flight Engineer Reid Wiseman tweeted this photo of the International Space Station's Canadarm2 and the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator preparing to remove external cargo from the SpaceX Dragon resupply vehicle. Image Credit: NASA. All six crew members teamed up in the afternoon for a review of their roles and responsibilities during an emergency aboard the station. As the newest crew members, Wilmore, Samokutyaev and Serova also had an hour set aside on their own to learn the ropes of their orbiting home. While the crew worked inside the station, the robotics officer at Houston’s Mission Control Center maneuvered the Canadarm2 robotic arm and its Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator to the trunk of the recently arrived SpaceX Dragon cargo ship attached to the Earth-facing port of the Harmony node. There the arm was commanded to grapple and extract an adapter mechanism from Dragon’s trunk and install it to a bracket on the front of the Columbus module. On Tuesday, the ISS-Rapid Scatterometer, or RapidScat, will be removed robotically from the trunk for installation on the adapter device. Designed to monitor ocean winds from the station’s vantage point, RapidScat is a space-based scatterometer that uses radar pulses reflected from the ocean's surface from different angles to calculate surface wind speed and direction. This information will be useful for weather forecasting and hurricane monitoring. Related links: Zebrafish Muscle study: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/65.html ISS-Rapid Scatterometer, or RapidScat: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/1067.html For more information about the International Space Station (ISS), visit: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html Images (mentioned), Video, Text, Credits: NASA. Cheers, Orbiter.ch Full article