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ISS: Imagery from 2019

Mar 2, 2020

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ISS: Sample Imagery

ISS: Imagery from 2019

 

• December 22, 2019: An astronaut aboard the ISS focused a long camera lens on the Sun’s reflection point while orbiting over southern coastal Brazil. That reflection (known as sunglint) highlights three major rivers: Rio Paraná, Rio Tietê, and Rio Paranapanema.

- For scale, the Atlantic Ocean near the port city of Santos is about 600 kilometers (400 miles) from the Paraná River. The sea surface also reflects sunlight, as does the smoke pall across the top of the image. The smoke came from fires that were burning further north in Brazil and Paraguay.

- Such views looking toward the sunglint point show the water bodies in stark detail. But the contrast with dark land surfaces causes such a loss of detail that the entire metropolitan area of São Paulo, with its 30 million inhabitants, is mostly obscured.

- The Rio Tietê flows right through the metro region from headwaters north of São Paulo. This river provides half of the region’s urban water supply. All of these rivers are heavily controlled by strings of reservoirs that retain water flow for use by the major cities and to generate hydroelectric power. The reservoirs all appear as the brightest, widest points along the river courses.

Figure 1: The astronaut photograph ISS060-E-44562 was acquired on August 25, 2019, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 50 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 60 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by M. Justin Wilkinson)
Figure 1: The astronaut photograph ISS060-E-44562 was acquired on August 25, 2019, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 50 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 60 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by M. Justin Wilkinson)

• December 20, 2019: ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano shares a message with everyone back on Earth as he and his crew prepare to celebrate Christmas on board the International Space Station. 1)

Figure 2: Mission Beyond: Luca’s Christmas message (video credit: ESA)

- Though Beyond is Luca’s second mission to the Space Station, 2019 will be the first time he spends Christmas in orbit. In this message Luca reflects on the things he will miss, including his family and all the lights, colors, food and smells that go along with the holiday season.

- As Luca reflects on Christmas on Earth, he also reflects on the next step in space exploration and the importance of preserving our home planet for future generations.

- Luca is the third European and first Italian commander of the International Space Station. He was launched for his second mission from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on 20 July 2019 and will return to Earth in February 2020.

- While in orbit, Luca is supporting more than 50 European experiments across a broad range of disciplines. This vital research in microgravity helps us progress medicine and technology on Earth while preparing us to explore even farther in space.

• December 19, 2019: The Space Station has grown to the size of a football field and space agencies are looking to extend its lifetime until 2030. European-built computers have quietly been keeping this orbital outpost on track and in the right position, running in the background since 2000. 2)

Figure 3: Space station office. The setup in the Russian Zvezda module on the ISS shortly before the docking of Europe's Automated Transfer Vehicle Georges Lemaître (ATV-5). ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst took this picture during his six-month Blue Dot mission running experiments and maintaining the world's weightless research center in space. He Tweeted the image with the text "My office"(image credit: ESA/NASA)
Figure 3: Space station office. The setup in the Russian Zvezda module on the ISS shortly before the docking of Europe's Automated Transfer Vehicle Georges Lemaître (ATV-5). ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst took this picture during his six-month Blue Dot mission running experiments and maintaining the world's weightless research center in space. He Tweeted the image with the text "My office"(image credit: ESA/NASA)

- The Data Management System (DMS) computers in the Russian Zvezda module were built over 20 years ago by what is now Airbus. Two fault-tolerant computers collect data and provide navigation, communications and operations for the Russian segment.

- These are required for International Space Station operations, and a sudden breakdown could lead to catastrophic consequences. To ensure continuity three units work in parallel with two active and one standby to take over if one fails. A fourth computer is kept as spare that is used as soon as one of the computers in active duty has problems.

Figure 4: The ISS adjusted its orbit to create the right conditions to welcome Luca’s Soyuz and the cargo vehicle and later this month the Progress MS-12 supply spacecraft. The Russian Zvezda module fired its engines for 34 seconds in the middle of the night on 2 July 2019, raising the orbit to 436 km above Earth (image credit: ESA)
Figure 4: The ISS adjusted its orbit to create the right conditions to welcome Luca’s Soyuz and the cargo vehicle and later this month the Progress MS-12 supply spacecraft. The Russian Zvezda module fired its engines for 34 seconds in the middle of the night on 2 July 2019, raising the orbit to 436 km above Earth (image credit: ESA)

Mission-Critical Upgrade

- More fault-tolerant computers were built for a Russian module soon to be launched to the International Space Station, the Multipurpose Laboratory Module. The new computers exhausted the spare parts kept aside for ground repairs and production of new computers.

- After years of operations, engineers noticed that most of the failures on ground and on-orbit computers occurred in memory modules on one the printed circuit boards of the computers. Each time, a failed computer was removed, returned to ground for repairs and then re-launched, with a long turn-around and impact on logistics. In addition it soon became clear that this approach was not sustainable due to the lack of parts.

- Following extensive technical discussions and testing on Earth, engineers proved that a new printed circuit board, with the same form and function but built using modern and available components, could be the solution.

- Teams in Russia and Europe considered upgrading the computer boards directly by an astronaut on the Space Station in weightlessness – the equivalent of open heart surgery on Earth! This was no easy task to demonstrate, considering the computers were not designed for maintenance on orbit and the units were closed with small screws, sometimes even glued in place.

- Much like preparing for a spacewalk, engineers and Russian cosmonauts practiced and demonstrated the process on Earth to ensure the operations were feasible and could be performed in space without risk.

- Convinced that this approach would work new computer boards were ordered in 2015 and sent to the Space Station in 2018.

Figure 5: Photo of the DMC (Data Management Computers) in the Russian Module Zvezda (image credit: ESA)
Figure 5: Photo of the DMC (Data Management Computers) in the Russian Module Zvezda (image credit: ESA)

Space Transplant

- Waiting for the new mainboards to reach the Space Station, a failed computer was kept on-orbit. When the new parts and trained astronauts arrived teams decided to use a failed unit as a test case.

- In January 2019 the older board was replaced with the new stock. At that time cosmonauts confirmed that the computer had survived the operation but were not yet certain that it was fully fit. Crew time in space is scarce and the teams planned to wait for the next failure before installing the computer that had undergone a heart transplant and fully check it. Last month one of the old computers had problems and so it was removed and replaced with the new unit.

- All is now confirmed to be working properly, with great satisfaction to the personnel at RSC-Energia, Airbus and ESA. This solution requires less costly transport to Earth orbit as only the boards need to be swapped instead of the whole units – the repair time is now reduced from six months to a few days.

Future Missions

- This kind of behind-the-scenes work is the type that does not get much attention unless something goes wrong, but the new approach is needed as humans explore farther into our Solar System, starting on the Gateway, where supplies from Earth are not readily available.

- Maintenance on the International Space Station demonstrates the experience and design knowledge needed to support future missions while ensuring more sustainable operations – a win-win situation.

Figure 6: When Earth is so far away, it helps to have friends nearby. The usual six-astronaut crew of the ISS welcomed three more and a cargo vehicle September 2019, making for a full house on the orbital outpost. The arrival of NASA astronaut Jessica Meir, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka and the first United Arab Emirates (UAE) astronaut Hazza Al Mansouri on 25 September was followed by the Japanese HTV-8 space freighter the next day, bringing over four tonnes of supplies and fresh science. - With nine people on board, the Space Station was even busier and nosier than usual, including at mealtimes. This image was taken of the team gathered for a celebratory dinner in the Russian Zvezda module, the food preparation area of the Space Station. - Astronauts try to maintain a routine that includes social time to unwind and build camaraderie. This is especially important in a multicultural environment. A total of 239 people from 19 countries have visited the space home, and as of Luca’s current mission Beyond, there are 4 nationalities on board (image credit: NASA) 3)
Figure 6: When Earth is so far away, it helps to have friends nearby. The usual six-astronaut crew of the ISS welcomed three more and a cargo vehicle September 2019, making for a full house on the orbital outpost. The arrival of NASA astronaut Jessica Meir, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka and the first United Arab Emirates (UAE) astronaut Hazza Al Mansouri on 25 September was followed by the Japanese HTV-8 space freighter the next day, bringing over four tonnes of supplies and fresh science. - With nine people on board, the Space Station was even busier and nosier than usual, including at mealtimes. This image was taken of the team gathered for a celebratory dinner in the Russian Zvezda module, the food preparation area of the Space Station. - Astronauts try to maintain a routine that includes social time to unwind and build camaraderie. This is especially important in a multicultural environment. A total of 239 people from 19 countries have visited the space home, and as of Luca’s current mission Beyond, there are 4 nationalities on board (image credit: NASA) 3)

• December 12, 2019: ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano on-screen during a live call from the International Space Station at the the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP 25 in Madrid, Spain, 11 December 2019. 4)

- Astronauts have long described the profound experience of seeing Earth from orbit. Against the vastness of space, the beauty of our home planet is clearer than ever – but so is the need to protect it.

Figure 7: ISS Commander discusses climate with the U.N. COP25 Conference. Aboard the International Space Station, Expedition 61 Commander Luca Parmitano of ESA (European Space Agency) discussed his view of the Earth from orbit and climate issues during an in-flight question-and-answer session Dec. 11 with attendees of the United Nations COP25 climate conference in Madrid, Spain. Parmitano is in the midst of a long duration mission on the station, heading for a return to Earth next February to complete a flight of more than 200 days in space (video credit: NASA)

Figure 8: Luca talking climate change at COP25. From fires in the Amazon and Hurricane Dorian to disappearing atolls and shrinking sea ice, Luca has captured evidence of Earth’s fragility and our impact as humans. He shared that view once again with world leaders at the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP 25 as they take the next crucial steps for our planet (image credit: ESA)
Figure 8: Luca talking climate change at COP25. From fires in the Amazon and Hurricane Dorian to disappearing atolls and shrinking sea ice, Luca has captured evidence of Earth’s fragility and our impact as humans. He shared that view once again with world leaders at the United Nations Climate Change Conference COP 25 as they take the next crucial steps for our planet (image credit: ESA)

• December 10, 2019: In October the International Space Station was even more busy than usual with nine astronauts living and working in humankind’s outpost in Earth orbit. With three more astronauts, the Station’s life support systems worked overtime to provide enough air and water recycling for the crew, and ESA’s new Advanced Closed Loop System (ACLS) stepped in to help scrub the extra carbon dioxide in the air. 5)

- The Station is designed to house six astronauts but regularly receives additional visitors for brief periods of time. The extra humans need extra food, water and oxygen, but also create extra waste such as carbon dioxide exhaled from the lungs which puts extra strain on the Station’s life support systems.

- In October 2018, ESA launched a new regenerative life support system made by Airbus in Friedrichshafen, Germany. The ACLS is capable of recycling carbon dioxide. Three major steps in the recycling process are currently being tested and worked on in order.

- One element of the system takes water and separates it into oxygen and hydrogen. A second part captures carbon dioxide from the air and keeps carbon dioxide within acceptable levels using a unique amine process developed by ESA. The recycling step takes place in a ‘Sabatier reactor’. Hydrogen and carbon dioxide react with steam and pass over a catalyst to form water and methane.

- The water is condensed to be recycled into oxygen and hydrogen while the methane is vented into space, together with excess carbon dioxide. The element that captures and concentrates carbon dioxide in the three-step system was used extensively when ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano and his six crewmates were joined by three additional astronauts for a few days (see Figure 43), boosting existing carbon dioxide scrubbing systems.

- Though regulating carbon dioxide is only one feature of the ACLS, testing on the Space Station has proven its ability to control CO2 concentrations. The technology used in ACLS is especially suitable for operation at low carbon dioxide levels. This is a major goal for long duration missions in order to increase crew health and comfort.

- “We are very happy to have contributed to Space Station life support operations, especially in such a critical area as the air astronauts breathe,” says Johannes Witt, project manager at ESA, “it is an amazing feeling for the team to consider that the work we invested over years into ACLS is now helping to produce clean air for astronauts in space.”

Figure 9: ESA's ACLS recycles carbon dioxide on the Space Station into oxygen. For years oxygen on the Space Station was extracted from water that is brought from Earth, a costly and limiting drawback. The new system recycles half of the carbon dioxide thereby saving about 400 l of water that needs to be launched to the International Space Station each year. The facility is a Space Station-standard 2-m tall rack. Although the system is made to demonstrate the new technology, it will be part of the Space Station’s life support system and produce oxygen for three astronauts, and operated for at least 1 year over 2 years to demonstrate its performance and reliability (image credit: ESA)
Figure 9: ESA's ACLS recycles carbon dioxide on the Space Station into oxygen. For years oxygen on the Space Station was extracted from water that is brought from Earth, a costly and limiting drawback. The new system recycles half of the carbon dioxide thereby saving about 400 l of water that needs to be launched to the International Space Station each year. The facility is a Space Station-standard 2-m tall rack. Although the system is made to demonstrate the new technology, it will be part of the Space Station’s life support system and produce oxygen for three astronauts, and operated for at least 1 year over 2 years to demonstrate its performance and reliability (image credit: ESA)

- The system will continue to be tested step-by-step, as some teething problems encountered along the way mean that it is not yet fully operational. “We knew that designing and testing a life-support system that is the size of a single bed would be a challenge,” explains Johannes. “Systems with fluids and gases behave differently in microgravity. Air bubbles and particles in the condensate which is used by ACLS posed a much bigger challenge than expected. This is exactly why we developed and are testing the life support system close to home on the International Space Station where problems can be solved relatively easily. Farther away from Earth you need high reliability because repairs are much more difficult.”

- The European technology behind the ACLS will be hugely beneficial in exploring farther beyond our planet and engineers, astronauts and ground control are rigorously working on getting the system fully operational.

- New parts and filters arrived by cargo ferry and the team is optimistic that the system will be fully operational by early 2020.

Figure 10: ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst after installing ESA's next-generation life support rack ACLS on the ISS in October 2018. Alexander commented on the image: "Science fiction, just without “fiction” (image credit: ESA/NASA) 6)
Figure 10: ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst after installing ESA's next-generation life support rack ACLS on the ISS in October 2018. Alexander commented on the image: "Science fiction, just without “fiction” (image credit: ESA/NASA) 6)

• December 8, 2019: This photograph of Lake Oahe, South Dakota, was taken by an astronaut looking down from the International Space Station (ISS). The lake stands behind the Oahe Dam, and the Missouri River flows downstream to the southeast. The extensive rectangular fields around the river and lake are a visual reminder that agriculture is the main economic engine of the state. 7)

- Lake Oahe is the fourth largest man-made reservoir in North America, extending from Pierre, South Dakota, to Bismarck, North Dakota (a distance of approximately 230 miles/370 kilometers). Since the lake is a storage reservoir, the water volume changes frequently, especially during droughts. Lake Oahe is used for many purposes, including irrigation, hydroelectric power generation, and recreation.

- The dam and lake is one of several reservoir systems built on the Missouri River. The main stem Missouri is the longest river in North America, flowing from the Rocky Mountains in Montana to its confluence with the Mississippi River near St. Louis. Along its length, the river feeds reservoirs in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and along the Nebraska-South Dakota border.

Figure 11: This astronaut photograph ISS060-E-553 was acquired on June 25, 2019, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 116 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 60 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Laura Phoebus)
Figure 11: This astronaut photograph ISS060-E-553 was acquired on June 25, 2019, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 116 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 60 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Laura Phoebus)

• December 6, 2019: Crew members conducted a variety of investigations aboard the International Space Station during the week of Dec. 2, including research into wearable health sensors and using DNA to understand how humans, plants and microbes adapt to living in space. On Monday, Luca Parmitano of ESA (European Space Agency) and NASA’s Andrew Morgan completed their third in a series of spacewalks to repair the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-02). The crew also prepared to welcome the 19th SpaceX Commercial Resupply Services (CRS-19) carrying supplies and new scientific experiments, which launched Dec. 5. 8)

Figure 12: The crew shared a special Thanksgiving meal aboard the space station, a break from what can be a repetitive, limited menu (left to right, Christina Koch, Alexander Skvortsov, Jessica Meir, Oleg Skripochka, Andrew Morgan, Luca Parmitano). The ongoing Food Acceptability investigation examines changes in the appeal of food that can occur during long-duration missions (image credit: NASA)
Figure 12: The crew shared a special Thanksgiving meal aboard the space station, a break from what can be a repetitive, limited menu (left to right, Christina Koch, Alexander Skvortsov, Jessica Meir, Oleg Skripochka, Andrew Morgan, Luca Parmitano). The ongoing Food Acceptability investigation examines changes in the appeal of food that can occur during long-duration missions (image credit: NASA)

- The space station, now in its 20th year of continuous human presence, conducts research critical to future missions such as Artemis, NASA’s program to go forward to the Moon and on to Mars.

- Here are details on some of the scientific investigations taking place on the orbiting lab:

Smart Shirts

- To monitor their health and conduct health-related experiments aboard the space station, astronauts use a variety of medical devices. These devices can be bulky and invasive and their use often is disruptive and time-consuming. The Canadian Space Agency developed the Bio-Monitor, a device that uses wearable sensors to monitor and record heart rate, respiration rate, skin temperature and other parameters during an astronaut's daily routine. The smart vest can unobtrusively collect data for up to 48 hours and send it to the ground. Crew members updated software and conducted checks of the Bio-Monitor in preparation for additional testing.

Swabbing and Sequencing

- Biomolecule Extraction and Sequencing Technology (BEST) tests the use of DNA sequencing to observe microbial responses to spaceflight, which can improve our understanding of how humans, plants and microbes adapt to living in space. BEST uses a process that does not require cultivation of organisms prior to processing and can identify microbes aboard the space station not detected by current culture-based methods. The crew collected samples via swabbing at specific locations and stored them in the Minus Eighty-Degree Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI) for later return to Earth for processing. Crew members also removed frozen liquid cultures from MELFI for incubation on the space station, after which they will sequence part of the cultures and store other parts for return to Earth for DNA and RNA sequencing.

No More Boring Menus

- Food Acceptability examines how the appeal of food to astronauts changes during long-duration missions. “Menu fatigue” from repeatedly consuming a limited choice of foods may contribute to the loss of body mass often experienced by crew members, potentially affecting astronaut health, especially as mission length increases. Crew members completed questionnaires evaluating each food and beverage in one meal for overall acceptability. Astronauts complete questionnaires at regular intervals and various times of day for a total of 26 times during their mission.

Other Investigations

- The ISS Experience creates virtual reality videos from footage taken by astronauts of different aspects of crew life, execution of science and the international partnerships involved on the space station.

- The BioFabrication Facility (BFF) tests a technology to print organ-like tissues in microgravity as a step toward manufacturing human organs in space using refined biological 3D printing techniques.

- Fluid Shifts measures how much fluid shifts from the lower to the upper body and in or out of cells and blood vessels in microgravity in an effort to determine how these shifts affect fluid pressure in the head and eye and related effects on vision.

- The Food Physiology experiment is designed to characterize the key effects of an enhanced spaceflight diet on immune function, the gut microbiome and nutritional status indicators.

- Standard Measures captures an ongoing, optimized set of measures from crew members to characterize how their bodies adapt to living in space. Researchers use these measures to create a data repository for high-level monitoring of the effectiveness of countermeasures and better interpretation of health and performance outcomes.

• November 29, 2019: A network of farms and ranches surrounds the cities and small towns near the Nebraska–Iowa border. An astronaut onboard the International Space Station (ISS) took this photograph highlighting Nebraska’s two most populous cities: Omaha and Lincoln. The grid-like pattern that spreads across the encompassing flatlands is typical of the Great Plains region and of Nebraska in particular, where 91 percent of the total land area is covered by farms and ranches. 9)

- The rectangular grid is a result of the Public Land Survey System, which dates back to the early days of the United States. Land in the region was divided into townships and sections by north-south and east-west lines. Each section was one square mile, except where some geomorphic features (like rivers) interrupted the landscape.

- One such interruption is the Platte River confluence with the Missouri River. This meeting point, just 10 miles (16 kilometers) south of Omaha, is part of the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail. The two rivers have played a vital role in the development of Omaha as an agricultural center in the Midwest.

- Similar to farms in neighboring Kansas, the fields around Omaha are primarily irrigated by water from the High Plains Aquifer—also known as the Ogallala—with additional water withdrawn from other local aquifers. West of Omaha, the Ogallala interacts with the Platte River, which recharges the aquifer as part of the hydrologic cycle.

Figure 13: The astronaut photograph ISS060-E-35401 was acquired on August 13, 2019, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 50 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 60 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Alex Stoken)
Figure 13: The astronaut photograph ISS060-E-35401 was acquired on August 13, 2019, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 50 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 60 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Alex Stoken)

• November 29, 2019: Andrew Morgan of NASA and Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency completed their second spacewalk to repair the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer on 22 November 2019. 10)

 

 

Figure 14: The work clears the way for Parmitano and Morgan's next spacewalk in the repair series on Monday, 2 December. They've been practicing the skills needed to bypass the old thermal control system by attaching a new one and connecting to those now sliced steel tubes. A fourth spacewalk will focus on leak checks and installing insulation on the AMS to keep it running for years to come (video credit: NASA/ESA)

- As millions of Americans enjoyed turkey and dressing this week on Earth, the space station crew enjoyed their own thanksgiving feast aboard the station.

- ”We've got vegetables of course. Green beans and potatoes, and of course, smoked Turkey in a pouch.”

- ”Cornbread dressing. This will be great, we can maybe stuff it inside the turkey just to make it like a real stuffing.”

- ”I want to know who's going to crave the turkey once it comes out of the pouch.”

- ”And of course jellied cranberry sauce in a can. So, I can just like you get at home, and of course it's got to stay in the shape of the can after you open it up.”

- Astronauts could one day remotely control Moon and Mars rovers from orbit.

- Luca Parmitano conducted an ESA experiment known as Analog-1, to see if on-orbit crews, scientists on the ground and new technology can work together to guide a rover on a simulated lunar mission. This project investigates how effectively an astronaut on the ISS can operate a rover on a Moon-like terrain on Earth. The rover is tasked with collecting rock and soil samples, then remotely investigating the samples.

- Analog-1 is the final step in ESA's ongoing METERON (Multi-purpose End-To-End Robotics Operations Network) project, which is an initiative to develop and test robotics, communications and operations innovations that astronauts can use to explore the solar system.

• November 28, 2019: The AMS-02 (Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer-02) is a cosmic ray detector that is helping scientists understand more about the origins of our Universe. To continue delivering groundbreaking science, its cooling system must be upgraded. However, it was never designed to be maintained in orbit making the spacewalking series particularly complex. 11)

- Spacewalks are time-consuming to prepare, and can occupy many hours of an astronaut’s week in space. Despite this, much of the science on the International Space Station continues unattended, controlled by operators on Earth. Planners also find creative ways to fit experiment runs into a crewmember’s busy schedule.

Figure 15: ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano and NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan are helped into their American EMU (Extravehicular Mobility Unit) spacesuits by NASA astronaut Christina Koch and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka ahead of the second spacewalk to service AMS-02 (image credit: ESA/NASA)
Figure 15: ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano and NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan are helped into their American EMU (Extravehicular Mobility Unit) spacesuits by NASA astronaut Christina Koch and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka ahead of the second spacewalk to service AMS-02 (image credit: ESA/NASA)

• November 27, 2019: The deserts of Utah offer many textbook examples of geologic exposures. Accented by dramatic shadows, this photograph shows canyons and prominent topography around Comb Ridge, as observed by an astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS). The town of Bluff, Utah, is one of the few human footprints on this southwestern U.S. landscape. 12)

- Comb Ridge (Tséyíkáán in Navajo) is a large example of a geologic formation known as a monocline. This type of structure occurs when previously flat rock layers fold downward in one direction and then flatten out away from the bend. This escarpment trends in the north-south direction for almost 80 miles (130 kilometers) from Utah’s Abajo Mountains to Kayenta, Arizona. The Sun’s position at mid-morning (local time) caused the jagged edges of the ridge to cast shadows that accentuate topography and add depth to the photo.

- A mountain-building event known as the Laramide orogeny lifted up this area between 40 and 70 million years ago. Subsequent rivers and streams associated with Comb Wash helped erode away the lifted layers of rock, creating a steep relief along the western edge of the sandstone cliffs. Sharp-crested ridges formed by tilted rock layers and differential erosion are sometimes referred to as “hogbacks” by geologists due to the spine-like appearance of the outcrop. The hogback of Comb Ridge is composed of Navajo Sandstone, which stands in vivid contrast to the darker surrounding rock formations.

Figure 16: The astronaut photograph ISS060-E-38053 was acquired on August 20, 2019, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using an 800 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 60 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Andrew Britton)
Figure 16: The astronaut photograph ISS060-E-38053 was acquired on August 20, 2019, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using an 800 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 60 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Andrew Britton)

• November 21, 2019: ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano took command of a rover in the Netherlands on Monday (18 Nov.)and expertly drove it over an obstacle course to collect a rock from a sampling site– all while circling our planet at 28,800 km/h on the International Space Station. 13)

Figure 17: Operating a rover from space – Analog-1. This test was the first in a series to prove the technology ESA has developed to operate rovers from afar. Called Analog-1 the test could hardly have gone any better. Given one hour of precious astronaut time, Luca ticked all the boxes for the exam in less than half an hour. - Robots can be fitted for special tasks and go places where no humans can go, but nothing beats our quick and adaptive thinking and the human touch. The Analog-1 rover is equipped with force feedback so astronauts can feel what the robot feels and adjust grip accordingly on a joystick that allows for six degrees of motion. - ESA’s exploration strategy foresees astronauts controlling robots from orbit around the Moon or Mars or from inside a planetary base (video credit: ESA)

- “We are developing systems for astronauts to work hand-in-hand with robots, to achieve much more than they could on their own” says ESA’s project manager Kjetil Wormnes, “a rover on Mars would have taken weeks to do the same work Luca and the Analog-1 rover did in half an hour.”

- Robots can be fitted for special tasks and go places where no humans can go, but nothing beats our quick and adaptive thinking and the human touch. The Analog-1 rover is equipped with force feedback so astronauts can feel what the robot feels and adjust grip accordingly on a joystick that allows for six degrees of motion.

- “Even on the Moon preparing an astronaut for a sortie takes hours just to get into a suit and prepare the airlock,” adds Jessica Grenouilleau, Meteron project lead at ESA’s Exploration Systems Group “by giving astronauts the possibility to control the robots nearby in the safety and comfort of their base or orbital spacecraft, much more can be achieved. This first test indicates an excellent adaptation between the crew and the robotic system, making this combination better at a wide range of tasks.”

Figure 18: Sample collection gripper on the Analog-1 Interact rover (image credit: ESA)
Figure 18: Sample collection gripper on the Analog-1 Interact rover (image credit: ESA)

Full Analog

- Coming Monday (25 Nov.) will see all elements of the overarching Meteron project be put to the test. Luca will drive the robot to three sites in the hangar in the Netherlands and decide in collaboration with a science team based at the European Astronaut Center in Cologne, Germany, which rocks to pick up and keep for later analysis.

- This experiment is as authentic as possible using the International Space Station as a stand-in for a lunar gateway and the hangar made to resemble a lunar landscape. Whereas the first “proficiency run” was used to test the systems and Luca had to follow a determined path, next week he will be more free to explore to meet the objectives set up by the science team at the European Astronaut Center.

- The same science software designed for guiding the ExoMars rover mission on the Red Planet will be used that allows the science team to indicate sites of interest as well as overlay dangerous areas that are beyond the limits of the rover’s capabilities.

• November 19, 2019: The first spacewalk to service the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) could not have gone better. Lead spacewalker ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano is imaged here hitching a ride on the International Space Station’s 16-meter long robotic arm to kick off the first of four ventures to service the particle physics detector on 15 November. 14)

- While all spacewalks are a carefully planned and detailed affair, the four spacewalks for AMS are exceptionally difficult as the bus-sized dark matter detector was never designed to be maintained in space. But after three successful years of delivering ground breaking science, the decision was made to extend its lifetime.

- The cooling pumps for AMS-02 need maintenance and without them it will no longer be able to collect data on the cosmic rays that are bombarding our planet. The first question spacewalk designers had to answer whether this was even possible.

- The first spacewalk proved it was not only possible, but thanks to the planning and trained that began as early as 2017, Luca and his spacewalking partner Andrew Morgan could achieve more than scheduled – setting them in good stead for the next phase.

- The spacewalk began, as they all do, with “pre-breathing” for up to two hours. Similar to scuba divers, astronauts can suffer from the ‘bends’: quickly changing pressure can turn the nitrogen in human bodies into bubbles with serious symptoms. To avoid this, astronauts breathe pure oxygen to purge their bodies of nitrogen.

- Luca and NASA astronaut Drew Morgan left the depressurized Quest airlock at 13:10 CET (12:10 GMT), with Luca grabbing the ride to AMS on the robotic arm controlled by NASA astronaut Jessica Meir while Drew ferried handrails and equipment by hand to the worksite.

- The main task of this spacewalk was to remove the debris shield covering AMS, with an estimated three hours portioned for this task. Luca and Drew managed to jettison the debris shield to burn up safely in Earth’s atmosphere well ahead of schedule.

- Luca and Drew also installed three handrails in the vicinity of AMS to prepare for the next spacewalks and removed zip ties on the AMS’ vertical support strut.

- Amazingly, the duo were still well ahead of the six hours planned for the main task of removing the debris shield.

- When time permits, mission control give spacewalkers some “get ahead” tasks. Although there were no get-ahead tasks planned for this spacewalk the duo was so far ahead of schedule that mission control agreed they continue work originally planned for the second AMS spacewalk. Luca removed the screws from a carbon-fibre cover under the insulation and passed the cover to Drew to jettison once again.

- The pair cleaned up, took some photos of their killer views, gathered tools, and made their way back to the airlock, clocking in 6 hours and 39 minutes for this promising start to AMS maintenance.

Figure 19: Luca Parmitano and NASA astronaut Drew Morgan left the depressurized Quest airlock at 13:10 CET (12:10 GMT), with Luca grabbing the ride to AMS on the robotic arm (Canadarm2) controlled by NASA astronaut Jessica Meir while Drew ferried handrails and equipment by hand to the worksite (image credit: ESA/NASA)
Figure 19: Luca Parmitano and NASA astronaut Drew Morgan left the depressurized Quest airlock at 13:10 CET (12:10 GMT), with Luca grabbing the ride to AMS on the robotic arm (Canadarm2) controlled by NASA astronaut Jessica Meir while Drew ferried handrails and equipment by hand to the worksite (image credit: ESA/NASA)
Figure 20: NASA astronauts (from left ) Jessica Meir and Christina Koch are at the robotics workstation controlling the Canadarm2 robotic arm to support the first spacewalk to repair the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS). Astronauts Luca Parmitano of ESA (European Space Agency) and Andrew Morgan of NASA worked six hours and 39 minutes in the vacuum of space during the first of at least four planned AMS repair spacewalks (image credit: NASA) 15)
Figure 20: NASA astronauts (from left ) Jessica Meir and Christina Koch are at the robotics workstation controlling the Canadarm2 robotic arm to support the first spacewalk to repair the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS). Astronauts Luca Parmitano of ESA (European Space Agency) and Andrew Morgan of NASA worked six hours and 39 minutes in the vacuum of space during the first of at least four planned AMS repair spacewalks (image credit: NASA) 15)
Figure 21: NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan waves as he is photographed (Nov. 15, 2019) seemingly camouflaged among the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (lower left) and other International Space Station hardware during the first spacewalk to repair the cosmic particle detector (image credit: NASA) 16)
Figure 21: NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan waves as he is photographed (Nov. 15, 2019) seemingly camouflaged among the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (lower left) and other International Space Station hardware during the first spacewalk to repair the cosmic particle detector (image credit: NASA) 16)

• November 17, 2019: Both of these photos of Madagascar were taken from the ISS (International Space Station) by astronauts using handheld digital cameras. The photo of Figure 22 was taken using a 10 mm lens, sometimes called a fisheye lens. The photo of Figure 23 was captured using a 58 mm lens, making this field of view slightly more zoomed in than what a human eye sees. For comparison, a smartphone camera usually has a field of view equivalent to a 24 to 30 mm lens on a Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR) camera. 17)

- Smaller lens sizes are helpful when astronauts want to photograph broad geographic regions on Earth. The first photo captures the entire island of Madagascar as viewed while looking down through the round center window in the ISS Cupola. The optical design of the small lens size causes Madagascar to appear distorted in comparison to a geometrically corrected map view. Spacecraft parts, including a docked Russian Soyuz capsule and the ISS solar panels, appear around the photo perimeter.

- The photo of Figure 23 was taken using a 58 mm lens while the ISS was above a point on Earth’s surface about 580 km (360 miles) south-southwest of Madagascar. From its southernmost tip to its northern coasts, Madagascar stretches 1,500 km (~1,000 miles). When viewed from the ISS altitude of 360 km (225 miles) above Earth’s surface, the horizon is a bit more than 2,300 km (1,400 miles) away.

- The whole island is captured in both photos; however, the northern end of Madagascar is indistinguishable in the 58 mm shot due to cloud cover and the highly oblique viewing angle. Since the fisheye lens has a much wider field of view and was used when ISS was directly over the island (indicated by the spacecraft nadir label on the image), all of Madagascar was captured in a single but more visibly distorted shot.

Figure 22: Different lens sizes and camera angles provide wildly different views of Madagascar. The astronaut photograph ISS053-E-202989 was acquired on 6 November 2017, with a Nikon D4 digital camera using a 10 mm lens. Both images were provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. This image was taken by members of the Expedition 53 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Andrea Meado)
Figure 22: Different lens sizes and camera angles provide wildly different views of Madagascar. The astronaut photograph ISS053-E-202989 was acquired on 6 November 2017, with a Nikon D4 digital camera using a 10 mm lens. Both images were provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. This image was taken by members of the Expedition 53 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Andrea Meado)
Figure 23: The astronaut photograph ISS059-E-46155 was acquired on 6 May 2019 with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 58 mm lens. Both images were provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. This image was taken by members of the Expedition 59 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Andrea Meado)
Figure 23: The astronaut photograph ISS059-E-46155 was acquired on 6 May 2019 with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 58 mm lens. Both images were provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. This image was taken by members of the Expedition 59 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Andrea Meado)

• November 13, 2019: Looking down from the International Space Station on the Italian coastline through a powerful (1150 millimeter) zoom lens, an astronaut shot this detailed photograph of the city of Taranto. It is Italy’s major southern port and naval base. These facilities face into the outer bay, locally known as the Mar Grande, where ships are anchored. The Cheradi Islands form a small archipelago that encircles the Mar Grande. 18)

- From docks on the north side of Mar Grande, the city exports petroleum and steel products from a nearby industrial zone. The naval yards lie on the east side. The old town, dating from Roman times, occupies the tip of the promontory that separates Taranto’s outer bay from the inner bay, Mar Piccolo.

- A wider view from 2014 shows Taranto’s location in the northern angle of the Gulf of Taranto.

Figure 24: Italy’s major southern port and naval base has a history dating back to Roman times. This astronaut photograph ISS052-E-8449 was acquired on June 25, 2017, with a Nikon D4 digital camera using an 1150 millimeter lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 52 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Justin Wilkinson)
Figure 24: Italy’s major southern port and naval base has a history dating back to Roman times. This astronaut photograph ISS052-E-8449 was acquired on June 25, 2017, with a Nikon D4 digital camera using an 1150 millimeter lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 52 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Justin Wilkinson)

• November 12, 2019: Four spacewalks in the coming weeks means a lot of preparation work. ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano is gearing up the first in a series of historic EVAs (Extra Vehicular Activities) taking place 15 November. 19)

- The spacewalks are to service the AMS-2 (Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer), a dark matter hunter that is providing researchers with data on cosmic ray particles well beyond its three-year mission.

- Installed outside the International Space Station in 2011, the instrument has recorded over 140 billion particles to date along with their mass, velocity, and charge and direction of travel. This data is helping scientists track down and understand the sources of dark matter, an invisible energy that makes up roughly 90% of the universe.

- As expected, the harsh environment of space began to wear down the facility. One by one, the cooling pumps keeping a vital detector at a constant temperature began to fail, affecting the data collection. — Plans for spacewalks to upgrade the pumps have been in the making for years to keep the science going.

- Never intended to be serviced in orbit, the AMS maintenance will be complex.

- For starters, AMS-02 has over 300,000 data channels. There are also no handrails or foot restraints installed around the instrument to access the cooling system that needs maintenance. New tools are also needed, as astronauts have never cut and reconnected fluid lines in a bulky spacesuit before.

- Luca trained well in advance for these spacewalks at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, USA. New tools and procedures were extensively tested, with a lot of know-how drawn from the last series of complex spacewalks to extend the life of a valuable space instrument, the Hubble Space telescope.

- Now that the latest Cygnus cargo supply mission has brought the final tools needed, Luca and NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan are ready to go.

- Luca will play a leading role as EV-1, wearing a white spacesuit with red stripes while Andrew wears the white spacesuit with no stripes. It is the first time a European astronaut has held the lead position.

- The pair will be supported by NASA astronauts Christina Koch and Jessica Meir who will operate the Canadarm2 robotic arm from inside the Station. This will help position the astronauts around their hard-to-reach work site, located on top of the Station’s S3 Truss structure between a pair of solar arrays and radiators.

- The entire spacewalk is expected to take around six hours and it will set the scene for at least three more.

Figure 25: Luca is preparing for his EVA (Extra Vehicular Activity) on 15 November. He is pictured here creating tape flags that will be used to mark tubes during the spacewalks (image credit: ESA/NASA)
Figure 25: Luca is preparing for his EVA (Extra Vehicular Activity) on 15 November. He is pictured here creating tape flags that will be used to mark tubes during the spacewalks (image credit: ESA/NASA)

• November 6, 2019: A thin veil of dust blows across the low-lying region south of the Parapeti and Guapay (Grande) Rivers in southern Bolivia. An astronaut shot this photograph as strong winds blew parallel to the Andean foothills over a dried riverbed, creating streaks of airborne sediment. While the dust obscures much of the land below, blocky plots of deforestation and agricultural development are visible along the rivers through the haze. 20)

- The winter season in the Bolivian lowlands—May to October,—is often hot and dry. With little to no rainfall, the rivers dry up and become vulnerable to aeolian processes such as wind erosion and transport of sediments as dust plumes. Strong winds can keep the sediment aloft for long periods of time, leading to transport and deposition further to the south.

- The Andean foothills act as a barrier, preventing the airborne dust from traveling west. However, there is little need for it on the other side of the mountains. To the west of the area in this image, the large salt flats of Bolivia provide material for far greater dust storms.

Figure 26: The astronaut photograph ISS056-E-156989 was acquired on August 23, 2018, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 122 millimeter lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 56 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Sara Schmidt and Andrea Meado)
Figure 26: The astronaut photograph ISS056-E-156989 was acquired on August 23, 2018, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 122 millimeter lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 56 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Sara Schmidt and Andrea Meado)

• October 27, 2019: This photograph of the Alaskan Peninsula, shot by an astronaut from the International Space Station (ISS), offers an oblique view of the Katmai National Park. Many of the mountains are active volcanoes—part of the Aleutian Range—and several are topped by glaciers. 21)

- Just northwest of the coastal mountain range lies the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes, a river valley that was buried by an eruption of Novarupta volcano in 1912. It was the largest volcanic eruption of the 20th Century.

- Large quantities of hot ash and pumice were ejected during the eruption. The rain of hot debris buried the snow and glacial streams, immediately flashing them into steam. Those volcanic deposits remained hot for years afterwards and often converted subsequent precipitation and surface stream flows into steam—hence the name Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes. During the same eruption, the summit of Mount Katmai collapsed, forming a deep caldera that has filled with water as a crater lake.

- Katmai National Park has multiple sediment-rich rivers that deliver freshwater to the ocean. These rivers and streams provide avenues for anadromous fish species, especially salmon, to migrate and spawn upstream in the park. The abundance of fish is important for some of Katmai’s other residents: bald eagles and brown bears.

Figure 27: The astronaut photograph ISS060-E-33914 was acquired on August 11, 2019, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 500 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 60 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Laura Phoebus)
Figure 27: The astronaut photograph ISS060-E-33914 was acquired on August 11, 2019, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 500 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 60 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Laura Phoebus)

• October 24, 2019: As the Sun sets in Chicago, the city begins to bustle with nightlife—and it’s not just from partying humans. Cats, coyotes, possums, raccoons, rats, and skunks all come out of their urban homes to hunt, mate, and roam the city. But a recent study shows that these behaviors can be altered by artificial lighting—street lamps, flood lights, and illumination around homes and businesses. 22)

Figure 28: NASA Earth Observatory image by Joshua Stevens, using data courtesy of Schirmer, A. E., et al. (2019). The astronaut photograph ISS037-E-8303 was acquired on October 9, 2013, with a Nikon D3S digital camera using a 50 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 37 crew. The image has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast, and lens artifacts have been removed (image credit: Story by Kasha Patel)
Figure 28: NASA Earth Observatory image by Joshua Stevens, using data courtesy of Schirmer, A. E., et al. (2019). The astronaut photograph ISS037-E-8303 was acquired on October 9, 2013, with a Nikon D3S digital camera using a 50 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 37 crew. The image has been cropped and enhanced to improve contrast, and lens artifacts have been removed (image credit: Story by Kasha Patel)

- The study, led by researchers from Northeastern Illinois University, showed that the city’s nocturnal animals roamed less and were less active as nighttime light levels increased. Researchers started seeing significant changes in animal behavior in areas with lighting as dim as 6 lux, a unit of measurement that describes the amount of light falling on the surface. For reference, 6 lux is slightly dimmer than Earth’s surface at twilight; typical kitchen lighting is around 500 lux.

- “If larger nocturnal animals are less active around the city at night, their movement patterns can be altered temporally and spatially,” said Aaron Schirmer, lead author of the paper and a biology professor at Northeastern Illinois University. “That would have the potential to affect the food web in ways that we might not fully understand yet.”

Figure 29: January 19, 2008 - October 9, 2013. Using this information, the team mapped where electric light pollution in Chicago is likely to have the largest effect on wildlife. This image shows the green spaces in Chicago and whether they are above or below light levels of 6 lux. Land cover data come from the Chicago Metropolitan Agency of Planning. To determine the lux levels, the researchers used the photos from the ISS, measuring the value of each pixel to determine which areas were above and below 6 lux.
Figure 29: January 19, 2008 - October 9, 2013. Using this information, the team mapped where electric light pollution in Chicago is likely to have the largest effect on wildlife. This image shows the green spaces in Chicago and whether they are above or below light levels of 6 lux. Land cover data come from the Chicago Metropolitan Agency of Planning. To determine the lux levels, the researchers used the photos from the ISS, measuring the value of each pixel to determine which areas were above and below 6 lux.

- While other research has shown a significant increase in artificial lighting around natural and semi-natural ecosystems, Schirmer and colleagues sought to measure the actual effects on animal behavior through a series of lab and field observations. First, the team mapped light pollution across the Chicago metropolitan area. They traveled around the city measuring light intensity in various areas using handheld light meters. Then they combined and calibrated the ground measurements with photographs shot from the International Space Station (ISS) by astronauts. The image of Figure 28 shows a photo of Chicago shot from ISS on October 9, 2013.

- Once the researchers measured the range of light levels in the city, they recreated the conditions in a series of lab experiments with mice. By slowly increasing the light exposure to correspond to the common nighttime light levels found in Chicago, they found that locomotor activity (in this case, a mouse running on a wheel) decreased as light levels increased. The light levels in the tests ranged from less than 0.01 lux (a quarter Moon) to 121 lux (a very cloudy day).

- The team then took the collected data and ran an analysis to learn when animal behavior started to change. After running statistical models, researchers consistently observed behavior changes starting at 6 lux—brighter than a full Moon (0.108 lux) and dimmer than a twilight glow (10.8 lux). “As far as nighttime lights go, 6 lux is still fairly bright,” Schirmer said. “I would expect some animals would have behavior changes even below that threshold.”

- Schirmer and colleagues compared their lab results with observations of wildlife around the city. They used camera trap data from the Lincoln Park Zoo, which has collected more than 1 million photos of Chicago-area wildlife over the past decade. As with the lab mice, the opossums, raccoons, skunks, and other animals of the city showed a decrease in movement when exposed to high levels of city light. Nocturnal species demonstrated 19.6 percent more activity in darker locations than in brighter areas. Again, the researchers observed behavioral changes starting in areas approaching 6 lux.

- Using this information, the team mapped where electric light pollution in Chicago is likely to have the largest effect on wildlife. Figure 29 shows the green spaces in Chicago and whether they are above or below light levels of 6 lux. Land cover data come from the Chicago Metropolitan Agency of Planning. To determine the lux levels, the researchers used the photos from the ISS, measuring the value of each pixel to determine which areas were above and below 6 lux.

- The researchers found that about 36 percent of the green space around Chicago is regularly above 6 lux (shown on the map, Figure 29, in purple). That reduction in nighttime darkness could significantly affect wildlife behavior. Schirmer also noted that city lights affect even the larger green areas, subdividing them into darker and brighter sections and shrinking the size of suitable habitats for animals.

- “We want this study to raise awareness of the impact of electric light pollution on wildlife,” said Schirmer. “From an urban planning perspective, it is important to think about ways in which nighttime light impacts animals and to find creative solutions that work for people and the wildlife.”

• October 23, 2019: This composite image was made from more than 400 photos taken as the International Space Station traveled from Namibia toward the Red Sea. 23)

- The image of Figure 30 of star trails was compiled from time-lapse photography taken by NASA astronaut Christina Koch while onboard the International Space Station (ISS). This composite image was made from more than 400 individual photos taken over a span of about 11 minutes as the ISS traveled from Namibia toward the Red Sea.

- The image includes many natural and artificial lights that an astronaut may see during an orbit at night. On the ground, stationary features like cities appear as pale yellow-white dotted streaks; with each dot marking another frame captured. Many of the thinner dotted lines with darker orange hues are fires burning across Angola and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

- Looking northward, thunderstorms cover much of central Africa. Bright white lightning flashes are captured in many of the compiled frames. Lightning stretches as far at the eye can see, clearly outlining Earth’s limb. Above the horizon there is a faint green-yellow tracing of the upper atmosphere known as airglow.

- Perhaps the most striking features of this image are the star trails encircling the background around a point in the upper left corner of the image. “This point is essentially normal (perpendicular) to the ISS orbital plane, directly out of the port side of the vehicle based on the spacecraft silhouettes,” said Matthew Osvog of NASA Johnson Space Center’s ISS Flight Operations Pointing console.

- This means the stars close to this perpendicular vector (near the upper left) appear stationary during the short duration of the time-lapse sequence, while stars with increasing angular distance (further away from the normal vector) trace out large circles as the ISS rotates in inertial space and while orbiting the Earth. As seen in this composite image, the star trails eventually get large enough to dip behind Earth’s limb. A few satellites are crossing in front of the star trails, traveling along different orbits.

Figure 30: The astronaut photographs ISS060-E-5207 to 5658 were acquired on July 5, 2019, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 28 mm lens and are provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The images were taken by a member of the Expedition 60 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Andrea Meado)
Figure 30: The astronaut photographs ISS060-E-5207 to 5658 were acquired on July 5, 2019, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 28 mm lens and are provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The images were taken by a member of the Expedition 60 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Andrea Meado)

• October 18, 2019: At 2:55 p.m. EDT, Expedition 61 Flight Engineers Christina Koch and Jessica Meir of NASA concluded their spacewalk, the first with only women. During the 7-hour, 17-minute spacewalk, the two NASA astronauts completed the replacement a failed power charging component, also known as a battery charge-discharge unit (BCDU). The BCDU regulates the charge to the batteries that collect and distribute solar power to the orbiting lab’s systems. Mission control activated the newly installed BCDU and reported it is operating properly. 24)

- The astronauts were also able to accomplish some get-ahead tasks including installation of a stanchion on the Columbus module for support of a new external ESA (European Space Agency) payload platform called Bartolomeo scheduled for launch to the station in 2020.

- Commander Luca Parmitano of ESA and NASA Flight Engineer Andrew Morgan assisted the spacewalkers. Parmitano operated the Canadarm2 robotics arm and Morgan provided airlock and spacesuit support.

- It was the eighth spacewalk outside the station this year. Space station crew members have now conducted 221 spacewalks in support of assembly and maintenance of the orbiting laboratory. Spacewalkers have spent a total of 57 days, 20 hours, and 29 minutes working outside the station.

- It was the first spacewalk for Meir and the fourth for Koch, who now has spent a total of 27 hours and 48 minutes spacewalking. It is the first spaceflight for both women, who were selected in the 2013 astronaut class that had equal numbers of women and men. Koch arrived to the orbiting laboratory in March 2019 and will remain in space for an extended duration mission of 11 months to provide researchers the opportunity to observe effects of long-duration spaceflight on a woman to prepare for human missions to the Moon and Mars.

- Meir became the 15th woman to spacewalk, and the 14th U.S. woman. It was the 43rd spacewalk to include a woman. Women have been performing spacewalks since 1984, when Russian cosmonaut Svetlana Savitskaya spacewalked in July and NASA astronaut Kathryn Sullivan spacewalked in October.

- The faulty BCDU is due to return to Earth on the next SpaceX Dragon resupply ship for inspection. Station managers will reschedule the three battery replacement spacewalks for a future date. In the meantime, the five planned spacewalks to repair a cosmic particle detector, the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer, are still on the calendar for November and December.

Figure 31: NASA spacewalkers Christina Koch (foreground, suit with red stripe) and Jessica Meir (suit with no stripes) replaced a failed BCDU (Battery Charge-Discharge Unit) with a new one during a 7-hour, 17-minute spacewalk (image credit: NASA TV)
Figure 31: NASA spacewalkers Christina Koch (foreground, suit with red stripe) and Jessica Meir (suit with no stripes) replaced a failed BCDU (Battery Charge-Discharge Unit) with a new one during a 7-hour, 17-minute spacewalk (image credit: NASA TV)

• October 14, 2019: For eight days the International Space Station operated at full capacity with nine astronauts. With the extra set of hands in space the science teams on Earth got busy scheduling the astronauts’ days to get the most research time out of their time in orbit. 25)

- United Arab Emirates astronaut Hazzaa Al Mansoori completed a number of experiments for European researchers, adding more data to the pool of results. Just a day after arriving, Hazzaa set up the Fluidics experiment that consists of two transparent spheres containing liquid that can mimic satellite fuel tanks as well as help researchers understand ocean currents.

Figure 32: Sloshing fluids. Have you ever tried walking while carrying a full cup of water? Your steps invariably cause the water to slosh about, making spills hard to avoid. Now imagine a satellite turning – the fuel inside will slosh, affecting the satellite’s stability (image credit: CNES–E. Grimault, 2016)
Figure 32: Sloshing fluids. Have you ever tried walking while carrying a full cup of water? Your steps invariably cause the water to slosh about, making spills hard to avoid. Now imagine a satellite turning – the fuel inside will slosh, affecting the satellite’s stability (image credit: CNES–E. Grimault, 2016)

- Hazzaa conducted his second and last session of the Time experiment on 3 October. Time flies, the expression goes, but what happens to time when you are flying at 28,800 km/h around Earth? Hazzaa wore a virtual reality headset to avoid distraction and followed onscreen instructions to test his reaction speed and estimation of time. Tasks included guessing how long a blue square remained on the screen, pressing a button for a set number of seconds and pressing stop after estimating the passing of a minute.

Figure 33: Screenshot from the virtual reality headset used for the Time experiment on the International Space Station. Since perceptions of time and space are believed to share the same neural processes, and research on depth perception in weightlessness has shown that astronauts often underestimate distance, scientists speculate that for astronauts time also flies in space. The Time experiment on the International Space Station investigates the claim that time subjectively speeds up in microgravity. Astronauts gauge how long a visual target appears on a laptop screen and their reaction times to these prompts recorded to process speed and attention. Scientists are not only collecting data on the neurological mechanisms at work here. The relativity of time, after all, implies that it is all in your head. As much as we can objectively measure and plot time, how individual humans perceive it is not just neurological but also psychological (image credit: CNES/CADMOS)
Figure 33: Screenshot from the virtual reality headset used for the Time experiment on the International Space Station. Since perceptions of time and space are believed to share the same neural processes, and research on depth perception in weightlessness has shown that astronauts often underestimate distance, scientists speculate that for astronauts time also flies in space. The Time experiment on the International Space Station investigates the claim that time subjectively speeds up in microgravity. Astronauts gauge how long a visual target appears on a laptop screen and their reaction times to these prompts recorded to process speed and attention. Scientists are not only collecting data on the neurological mechanisms at work here. The relativity of time, after all, implies that it is all in your head. As much as we can objectively measure and plot time, how individual humans perceive it is not just neurological but also psychological (image credit: CNES/CADMOS)

- Time probably flew for Hazzaa who has already returned to Earth alongside NASA astronaut Nick Hague and Russian commander Alexei Ovchinin in Soyuz MS-12.

EveryWear is Everywhere

- The astronaut app EveryWear was developed for Thomas Pesquet’s Proxima mission in 2016, and it is now a useful aid for recording all kinds of scientific data. On 2 October, ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano and NASA astronaut Drew Morgan wrapped up their third and last session of the Acoustic Diagnostics experiment. The session needed to be scheduled on their 80th day in space. Similar to the Time experiment but with sound, the astronauts wore headphones and answered questions on what they heard using the EveryWear app. The experiment will assess how hearing is affected in weightlessness as well as measure background noise on the International Space Station.

• October 13, 2019: An astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) focused a long lens on a brightly colored group of fields in the Kursk region of Russia, not far north of the Ukrainian border. Kursk lies at the heart of Russia’s “Black Belt” agricultural region, so-named for its rich black soils. 26)

- The bright fields result from the flowers of a ripening crop of rapeseed (also known as oilseed rape), a crop cultivated for its oil-rich seeds. (Brilliant rapeseed flowers have captured astronaut attention before, as in this shot of the Paris region.)

- The jagged boundaries of the fields are forested stream courses that remain unplowed in order to prevent soil erosion. Two small towns stand nearby: Kotelnikovo, to the west of the fields (north is to the right), and Malye Kryuki, to the east, near a dark-toned reservoir. For a sense of scale, the yellow fields extend for nearly 8 kilometers from left to right in the image.

- Photographs of Earth taken from the ISS with commercial, off-the-shelf digital cameras do not currently include geolocation information that can be used to precisely determine the geographic locations of features in an image. This photograph was one of the more difficult to locate by a ground-based analyst because it was taken with a long lens (which magnifies the view, but therefore shows a small area on the ground), and because the nadir point of the spacecraft was more than 300 kilometers to the southeast.

Figure 34: Yellow flowers brighten the landscape of southwestern Russia. The astronaut photograph ISS052-E-10195 was acquired on June 28, 2017, with a Nikon D4 digital camera using a 1150 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 52 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Justin Wilkinson)
Figure 34: Yellow flowers brighten the landscape of southwestern Russia. The astronaut photograph ISS052-E-10195 was acquired on June 28, 2017, with a Nikon D4 digital camera using a 1150 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 52 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Justin Wilkinson)

• October 10, 2019: European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Luca Parmitano is preparing to step out into space for his first spacewalk of the Beyond mission. 27)

- Scheduled for 25 October, he will work with NASA astronaut Jessica Meir to replace nickel hydrogen batteries with newer lithium ion batteries and install battery adapter plates on the Space Station’s Port-6 truss structure.

- This is a process fellow ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet knows well, having replaced batteries on another power channel during his Proxima mission. We asked him to tell us more about the task and how the crew will prepare.

The Lead-Up

- Known to the crew as an EVA (Extravehicular Activity), each spacewalk is planned up to a year in advance.

- On Station, preparation begins around two weeks ahead, with a set of procedures called the “Road to EVA”.

- “Preparing for a spacewalk will make up 2-3 hours of your schedule every day during this time,” Thomas explains. “The crew often carry out prep in their personal time as well.”

The Big Day

- Live coverage of Luca and Jessica’s spacewalk starts on NASA TV at 10:30 GMT (12:30 CEST), but the crew will begin their preparation around 6:00. And there is to be no showering, shaving, or applying deodorant for at least a day in advance, as any remnants of these products could mix with the pure oxygen inside the suit and pose a fire risk.

- Astronauts wear a liquid cooling garment underneath their spacesuit. This is connected to the water system that keeps them cool, or warm, by circulating water around their body. They also don a medical monitor and put a dosimeter in their pocket to measure radiation before entering the hatch.

- Thomas describes the process inside the airlock as “like scuba diving in reverse”, as astronauts breathe in a controlled way to rid their blood of nitrogen and adjust to lower pressure.

- A third crew member, known as the Intravehicular (IV) crew member, is also isolated in the airlock, before it goes to vacuum. This person helps the astronauts with their oxygen masks and into their spacesuits, while making sure everything is checked, tethered and ready for a safe and successful sortie.

- It is a role Luca will play in the two spacewalks before his, on 15 and 21 October.

Figure 35: Astronauts assist spacewalkers in the Quest airlock. NASA astronauts Andrew Morgan (left) and Christina Koch (right) are suited up in U.S. spacesuits before beginning a seven hour and one minute spacewalk to upgrade the station's large nickel-hydrogen batteries with newer, more powerful lithium-ion batteries. In the center, NASA Flight Engineer Jessica Meir and Commander Luca Parmitano of ESA assist the spacewalking duo (image credit: NASA)
Figure 35: Astronauts assist spacewalkers in the Quest airlock. NASA astronauts Andrew Morgan (left) and Christina Koch (right) are suited up in U.S. spacesuits before beginning a seven hour and one minute spacewalk to upgrade the station's large nickel-hydrogen batteries with newer, more powerful lithium-ion batteries. In the center, NASA Flight Engineer Jessica Meir and Commander Luca Parmitano of ESA assist the spacewalking duo (image credit: NASA)

Out in Space

- Before exiting the airlock, Thomas says, extreme focus is the overriding feeling.

- “Everybody’s watching, so many people have been involved in the preparation, and the risks are so much higher when you’re outside the Space Station,” he explains. “The only thing you can’t really prepare for are the day/night cycles.

- “During the night, you only have your helmet light, so you can’t really see anything except what you’re working on. And because you’re working in all body orientations, it’s easy to get disoriented. But you know you can always follow your tether back towards the hatch.”

- After exiting the airlock, Thomas says one astronaut will prepare the worksite while the other breaks torque on the pre-positioned adapter plates. Each astronaut will then work to install the adapter plates, needed to replace two older batteries with one new one.

- The spacewalk on 25 October is the one of five scheduled for October. Even more are expected in November as Luca ventures out again with the complex task of repairing and enhancing dark matter hunter AMS-02 – a structure never designed to be maintained in orbit.

Figure 36: The EMU (Extravehicular Mobility Unit) spacesuit. Learn about the components of the EMU spacesuit (image credit: ESA)
Figure 36: The EMU (Extravehicular Mobility Unit) spacesuit. Learn about the components of the EMU spacesuit (image credit: ESA)

• October 9, 2019: For an astronaut looking out of the International Space Station windows, city lights are brighter than the stars. To tackle light pollution citizen scientists are urged to help map out the problem on their smartphones by identifying images of cities taken from space. 28)

- Astronaut pictures are the highest-resolution, color images of night available from orbit. “The International Space Station is the best observation point humankind has for monitoring Earth at night,” says Kevin Gaston, project leader of the Lost at Night project that raises awareness of light pollution.

- There are half a million high-resolution pictures of Earth at night in NASA’s Astronaut Photography of Earth archives. Most images in the archive are uncatalogued and do not have a location assigned to them.

- Lost at Night uses the power of citizen science to match images and identify the location of the astronauts’ photographs online.

- This helps the study of light pollution and how it affects life on our planet.

- Artificial light has a broad range of impacts on the biological clock of both nocturnal and diurnal species. Light changes lead to knock-on effects that can impact whole ecosystems, from plant flowering times to migration disruptions for birds and turtles. Bright nights affect people’s sleep and can negatively impact health.

- More astronaut pictures and more clues from Earth’s inhabitants will help researchers better evaluate these effects over time and encourage actions to optimize street lighting.

The Human Gaze

- Human eyes can help shine a light on the huge catalog.

- “While computer algorithms have trouble distinguishing between stars, the Moon and cities, people are more reliable when it comes to recognizing patterns and analyzing complex images,” says Alejandro Sánchez de Miguel, a research fellow at the UK’s University of Exeter and lead investigator of the project.

- Over 30,000 images had their location pinpointed on by volunteers, but more help is wanted to complete the puzzle.

- “We don’t know which direction the astronauts pointed the camera from the Station. We only know the time it was taken and the area of Earth they were flying over,” explains Alejandro.

- The website invites you to identify cities lit up at night within a range of a 1000 km.

Figure 37: The Iberian Peninsula at night, showing Spain and Portugal. Madrid is the bright spot just above the center (image credit: NASA)
Figure 37: The Iberian Peninsula at night, showing Spain and Portugal. Madrid is the bright spot just above the center (image credit: NASA)

- “Forget about playing Candy Crush in idle times. This is a great opportunity to learn about geography, the distribution of human activity and how your home town looks like from space,” adds Alejandro.

- There are many scientific projects associated with images taken from the International Space Station.

- Astronauts take these pictures in their free time from the Space Station’s Cupola, a seven-window observation module.

- “European astronauts are talented photographers, but it is not only about sharing beautiful pictures. Their contribution is key to scientifically demonstrate the true extent and impact of light pollution,” points out Lucía García, project manager of the precursor Cities at Night project.

Figure 38: SA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti on the International Space Station 3 February 2015 during her Futura mission. Samantha is living and working on the Station as part of the Expedition 42 crew (image credit: ESA7NASA)
Figure 38: SA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti on the International Space Station 3 February 2015 during her Futura mission. Samantha is living and working on the Station as part of the Expedition 42 crew (image credit: ESA7NASA)

Bright Intelligence

- Users are presented an image from an unknown city and they must try to find the best match by comparing it with several options.

- Because humans make mistakes too, this initiative needs inputs from five people per image to bring the margin of error down. From there, artificial intelligence takes over.

- The objective is to identify 90,000 images – enough to train artificial intelligence to automatically recognize a collection of pixels and locate images.

Figure 39: Lost at Night interface. To tackle light pollution citizen scientists are urged to help map out the problem on their smartphones by identifying images of cities taken from space. Lost at Night uses the power of citizen science to match images and identify the location of the astronauts’ photographs online. Users are presented an image from an unknown city and they must try to find the best match by comparing it with several options. This helps the study of light pollution and how it affects life on our planet (image credit: Lost at Night)
Figure 39: Lost at Night interface. To tackle light pollution citizen scientists are urged to help map out the problem on their smartphones by identifying images of cities taken from space. Lost at Night uses the power of citizen science to match images and identify the location of the astronauts’ photographs online. Users are presented an image from an unknown city and they must try to find the best match by comparing it with several options. This helps the study of light pollution and how it affects life on our planet (image credit: Lost at Night)

• October 8, 2019: This day (Tuesday) was packed with more spacewalk preparations along with ongoing microgravity research aboard the International Space Station. The six-member Expedition 61 crew also conducted emergency response training and cargo transfers from a Japanese cargo craft. 29)

- NASA astronauts Andrew Morgan and Christina Koch are going out on their second spacewalk together Friday at 7:50 a.m. EDT. The duo today reviewed spacewalk procedures and set up the tools they will use to continue upgrading the station’s large nickel-hydrogen batteries with newer, more powerful lithium-ion batteries.

- Commander Luca Parmitano serviced U.S. spacesuit components and practiced Canadarm2 robotics maneuvers to support Friday’s excursion. NASA TV coverage begins its live coverage of October’s second spacewalk at 6:30 a.m.

- Morgan had a few moments set aside Tuesday to swap batteries inside Astrobee, the free-flying robotic assistant being tested aboard the orbiting lab. Afterward, he joined NASA Flight Engineer Jessica Meir inside Japan’s HTV-8 resupply ship to continue unpacking crew supplies and station hardware.

- Koch switched to space gardening after spacewalk reviews and watered plants in the Columbus laboratory module. She and Meir finally wrapped up the workday with some light maintenance work in the station’s environmental health system.

- All six crewmembers, including cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Skripochka, reviewed emergency roles and responsibilities after lunch today. The crew familiarized itself with safety gear, communication protocols, escape paths and evacuation procedures.

Figure 40: Expedition 61 Commander Luca Parmitano of ESA (European Space Agency) assists NASA astronauts Andrew Morgan (left) and Christina Koch (right) in their U.S. spacesuits (image credit: NASA)
Figure 40: Expedition 61 Commander Luca Parmitano of ESA (European Space Agency) assists NASA astronauts Andrew Morgan (left) and Christina Koch (right) in their U.S. spacesuits (image credit: NASA)

• October 6, 2019: Lightning struck the Kaibab Plateau in Arizona along the northern rim of the Grand Canyon on July 12, 2019, starting a wildfire (the Castle Fire) that would eventually burn more than 19,000 acres. As it was still burning almost a month later, an astronaut onboard the International Space Station shot this photograph of smoke-filled canyons in the region. 30)

- During morning and evening hours, dense smoke often settles in low-lying areas and becomes trapped due to temperature inversions—when a layer within the lower atmosphere acts as a lid and prevents vertical mixing of the air. Steep canyon walls act as a horizontal blockade, concentrating the smoke within the deepest parts of the canyon and increasing the strength of the inversion. As the day progresses and temperatures rise, the air will usually begin to mix and the smoke will no longer be confined to the canyon.

- As this image shows, without vertical mixing, the smoke from Lookout Canyon travels throughout the extensive system of side canyons, spreading the smoke to different areas near the ground, rather than dispersing upward.

Figure 41: This astronaut photograph ISS060-E-38049 was acquired on August 20, 2019, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using an 800 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 60 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Sara Schmidt)
Figure 41: This astronaut photograph ISS060-E-38049 was acquired on August 20, 2019, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using an 800 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 60 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Sara Schmidt)

• October 3, 2019: NASA astronaut Nick Hague returned to Earth from the International Space Station on Thursday, alongside Soyuz commander Alexey Ovchinin of the Russian space agency Roscosmos and visiting astronaut Hazzaa Ali Almansoori from the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The crew landed safely at 6:59 a.m. EDT in Kazakhstan. 31)

- Hague and Ovchinin launched March 14, along with fellow NASA astronaut Christina Koch. Six hours later, they began their 203-day mission on the station, orbiting Earth 3,248 times and traveling 86.1 million miles.

- Koch remains aboard the orbiting laboratory for an extended mission that will provide researchers the opportunity to observe effects of long-duration spaceflight on a woman, in preparation for human missions to the Moon and Mars. She is expected to return to Earth in February 2020, almost a year after her launch.

Figure 42: NASA astronaut Nick Hague, Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin and visiting astronaut from United Arab Emirates (UAE) Hazzaa Ali Almansoori returned to Earth from the International Space Station at 6:59 am in Kazakhstan (image credit: NASA)
Figure 42: NASA astronaut Nick Hague, Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin and visiting astronaut from United Arab Emirates (UAE) Hazzaa Ali Almansoori returned to Earth from the International Space Station at 6:59 am in Kazakhstan (image credit: NASA)

- For Almansoori, this landing completed an eight-day stay on the station that covered 128 orbits of Earth and a journey of 3.1 million miles since launching Sept. 25 with NASA astronaut Jessica Meir and Oleg Skripochka of Roscosmos. Almansoori made history as he became the first person from the UAE to fly in space.

- After postlanding medical checks, Hague will return to Houston, and Ovchinin and Almansoori will return to Star City, Russia.

- The Expedition 60 crew contributed to hundreds of experiments in biology, biotechnology, physical science and Earth science, including investigations into devices that mimic the structure and function of human organs, free-flying robots, and an instrument to measure Earth’s distribution of carbon dioxide.

- Hague conducted three spacewalks during his mission, totaling 19 hours and 56 minutes. Ovchinin conducted one spacewalk lasting 6 hours and 1 minute.

- Hague’s first two spacewalks in March continued the overall upgrade of the station’s power system with newer, more powerful lithium-ion batteries on one pair of the station’s solar arrays. During his third spacewalk, he and NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan successfully installed the second of two international docking adapters that Boeing CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX Crew Dragon commercial crew spacecraft will use to connect to the space station.

- Hague completes his second flight in space totaling 203 days, while Ovchinin has now spent 375 days during three flights. Hague and Ovchinin flew together on an abbreviated mission in October 2018, cut short by a technical problem that triggered an ascent abort minutes after launch and a safe landing back on Earth.

- When the Soyuz MS-12 spacecraft with Hague, Ovchinin and Almansoori undocked at 3:37 a.m. Oct. 3, Expedition 61 officially began aboard the station, with NASA astronauts Koch, Meir and Morgan, cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Skripochka of Roscosmos as flight engineers, and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Luca Parmitano as the station’s commander.

• October 1, 2019: When Earth is so far away, it helps to have friends nearby. The usual six-astronaut crew of the International Space Station welcomed three more and a cargo vehicle last week, making for a full house on the orbital outpost. 32)

Figure 43: The arrival of NASA astronaut Jessica Meir, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka and the first United Arab Emirates (UAE) astronaut Hazza Al Mansouri on Friday (27 September) was followed by the Japanese HTV-8 space freighter the next day, bringing over four tons of supplies and fresh science (image credit: ESA).
Figure 43: The arrival of NASA astronaut Jessica Meir, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka and the first United Arab Emirates (UAE) astronaut Hazza Al Mansouri on Friday (27 September) was followed by the Japanese HTV-8 space freighter the next day, bringing over four tons of supplies and fresh science (image credit: ESA).

- With nine people now on board, the Space Station is even busier and nosier than usual, including at mealtimes. ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano tweeted this image of the team gathered for a celebratory dinner in the Russian Zvezda module, the food preparation area of the Space Station. He captioned it: “Celebrating three birthdays in one week (me, and Nick Hague and Alexei Ovchinin), wearing the t-shirts of our ‘space band’: ‘Kryk Chayky’- ‘The cry of the seagull.’”

- The seagulls, like shared mealtimes, are one way the crew cope with the oddities of life in space. From isolation and disturbed day-night rhythms to the hums and buzzes of the Space Station, living in space can be stressful. Astronauts try to maintain a routine that includes social time to unwind and build camaraderie.

- This is especially important in a multicultural environment. A total of 239 people from 19 countries have visited the space home, and as of Luca’s current mission Beyond, there are 4 nationalities on board.

- Luca is preparing to take over command of the Space Station, when current commander cosmonaut Alexei Ovchinin, NASA astronaut Nick Hague and UAE astronaut Hazza Al Mansouri return to Earth in the early hours of 3 October.

- In the meantime, it is not all fun and band practice for the crew. They are hard at work on science experiments and, perhaps more importantly this week, station maintenance. Read more about the experiments and chores in the biweekly roundup.

• September 30, 2019: Three newcomers and two spacecraft make a full house in space. The population of the International Space Station rose to nine last week while European science focused on bone loss, time perception and routine maintenance. 33)

- ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano welcomed aboard NASA astronaut Jessica Meir, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka and the first United Arab Emirates (UAE) astronaut Hazza Al Mansouri. Following their arrival on the Soyuz spacecraft, Japan’s HTV-8 space freighter docked to the Station with over four tonnes of supplies and new science experiments.

- A total of 239 people from 19 countries have visited the space home, where living quarters are now even noisier than usual as humming fans and the creaking of the Station’s shell join with the sounds of nine busy astronauts on board.

Bone Loss

- All astronauts lose up to 1% of their bone mass each month in space, a similar rate of decrease to that experienced by people with osteoporosis on Earth. This disease results in loss of calcium and a more brittle bone structure.

- Studying what happens during long spaceflights offers a good insight into the process of osteoporosis and helps develop methods to combat it. The Early Detection of Osteoporosis in Space experiment looks at changes in bone structure before and after flight.

- Cosmonaut Aleksander Skvortsov is 53 years old and this is his third long stay on the Space Station. Halfway through his mission, he took blood samples for scientists to study how his skeleton is coping when its supporting function is cancelled out by microgravity.

Figure 44: NutrISS experiment. Getting meals right is an aspect of mission design, so the Nutrition Monitoring for the International Space Station (NutrISS) experiment is tracking Luca’s energy balance. - Using the EveryWear astronaut app and a ‘bioelectric impedance’ device to measure his bodily conductivity, Luca has been tracking his fat to mass ratio. The science teams on Earth hope that a carefully-tailored high-protein diet could limit the typical microgravity-driven loss of bone and muscle. EveryWear is an iPad-based application that collects physiology and medical data from astronauts on the International Space Station. It is connected to wearable biomedical sensors that record exercise, heart rate and sleep quality. Its main use is as a food diary. The astronaut simply scans the barcode of the food with the built-in tablet camera, classify it as breakfast, lunch dinner or snack, and add how water was consumed (image credit: ESA/NASA)
Figure 44: NutrISS experiment. Getting meals right is an aspect of mission design, so the Nutrition Monitoring for the International Space Station (NutrISS) experiment is tracking Luca’s energy balance. - Using the EveryWear astronaut app and a ‘bioelectric impedance’ device to measure his bodily conductivity, Luca has been tracking his fat to mass ratio. The science teams on Earth hope that a carefully-tailored high-protein diet could limit the typical microgravity-driven loss of bone and muscle. EveryWear is an iPad-based application that collects physiology and medical data from astronauts on the International Space Station. It is connected to wearable biomedical sensors that record exercise, heart rate and sleep quality. Its main use is as a food diary. The astronaut simply scans the barcode of the food with the built-in tablet camera, classify it as breakfast, lunch dinner or snack, and add how water was consumed (image credit: ESA/NASA)

- Researchers behind the Nutrition Monitoring for the International Space Station (NutrISS) experiment believe that a carefully-tailored high-protein diet could limit microgravity-induced bone and muscle loss in astronauts.

- For the third time during his mission Beyond, Luca tracked his fat to mass ratio with a bio-impedance device and logged the meals consumed during the week using the EveryWear astronaut app. Expert nutritionists use the data to monitor and provide advice to keep him healthy.

• September 30, 2019: Scientific studies recently conducted aboard the International Space Station included testing algorithms to control free-flying satellites, evaluating the flow of amyloids in microgravity and more. On Sept. 25, the Expedition 60 crew welcomed members of Expedition 61 including NASA astronaut Jessica Meir and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Skripochka, along with a ROSCOSMOS spaceflight participant from the United Arab Emirates, Hazzaa Ali Almansoori. In addition, the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) H-IIB rocket launched Sept. 24 for a four-day trip to bring supplies and science investigations to the station. 34)

- The space station provides a platform for long-duration research on the human body in microgravity and for testing technologies for traveling farther into deep space, which supports Artemis, NASA’s plans to go forward to the Moon and on to Mars.

Figure 45: NASA astronaut Nick Hague works on the Ring Sheared Drop investigation in the Microgravity Sciences Glovebox as NASA astronaut Christina Koch observes. Ring Sheared Drop examines the formation and flow of amyloids in microgravity (image credit: NASA)
Figure 45: NASA astronaut Nick Hague works on the Ring Sheared Drop investigation in the Microgravity Sciences Glovebox as NASA astronaut Christina Koch observes. Ring Sheared Drop examines the formation and flow of amyloids in microgravity (image credit: NASA)

Figure 46: Space to Ground: New Arrivals: 09/27/2019 (video credit: NASA Johnson)

• September 29, 2019: This photograph (Figure 47), taken by an astronaut on the International Space Station, offers a detailed view of parallel, linear dunes in Australia’s Simpson Desert. The dunes have formed as a result of wind erosion and sand deposition taking place over thousands of years. Some of the dunes stretch more than 100 km in length. 35)

- Lake Eyre—also known as Kati Thanda–Lake Eyre—is Australia’s largest salt lake. Some of it is visible in the right corner of the image, along with other playa lakes that stand out from the rippled landscape. Playas are flat, shallow lake beds that occur in arid and semi-arid climate zones. The dry lake beds are lighter in color due to a thin layer of salt deposits that reflect more light.

- The Kati Thanda-Lake Eyre basin spans parts of South Australia, Northern Territory, Queensland, and New South Wales. It is part of one of the world’s largest internally draining river systems, which means that the rivers in the photo do not drain into the ocean. In this photo, Lake Eyre has a higher volume of water than usual due to flooding that occurred earlier in the year.

Figure 47: The astronaut photograph ISS059-E-67912 was acquired on 19 May 2019, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 210 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 59 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Laura Phoebus)
Figure 47: The astronaut photograph ISS059-E-67912 was acquired on 19 May 2019, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 210 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 59 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Laura Phoebus)

• September 27, 2019: Luca was launched to the International Space Station for his second mission, Beyond, on 20 July 2019. He will spend six months living and working on the orbital outpost where he will support more than 50 European experiments and more than 200 international experiments in space. 36)

Figure 48: ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano and the rest of the International Space Station crew celebrated European Day of Languages (26 September) with the following message: "Six friends, three different languages: and all speak at least two of those. Today, we celebrate the ability to speak other languages and the European linguistic diversity, a rich heritage of our history." (image credit: ESA/NASA)
Figure 48: ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano and the rest of the International Space Station crew celebrated European Day of Languages (26 September) with the following message: "Six friends, three different languages: and all speak at least two of those. Today, we celebrate the ability to speak other languages and the European linguistic diversity, a rich heritage of our history." (image credit: ESA/NASA)

• September 25, 2019: ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano is set to become the third European and first Italian commander of the International Space Station, following an official change of command ceremony on Wednesday 2 October 2019. 37)

- He will take over from departing Russian cosmonaut Alexei Ovchinin. This marks the start of Expedition 61 and the second part of Luca’s second space mission known as Beyond.

- Live coverage of the change of command ceremony is scheduled for 15:20-15:40 CEST (13:20-13:40 GMT) 2 October and will be shown on NASA TV.

Europe in Command

- The full title of Luca’s new role is International Space Station crew commander. While overall command of the Station lies with ground-based flight directors unless there is an emergency on board, the role of crew commander is vital to mission success.

- ESA astronaut and current head of ESA’s Astronaut Center (EAC) in Cologne, Germany, Frank De Winne was the first European appointed to the commanding role. This was during his OasISS mission in 2009. He was followed by ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst in 2018, who held the role during the second part of his Horizons mission.

- Frank says the International Space Station crew commander holds responsibility for crew morale and wellbeing. It is up to them to ensure crew members are able to perform the tasks required of them during their time in space.

- He is confident Luca will do an excellent job and believes the appointment of two European commanders in quick succession says a lot about Europe’s position as a trusted partner.

- “People can rely on us, and they do rely on us,” Frank explains. “Not only in terms of the hardware that we provide to the Space Station and now the service module for Orion, but also in the area of crew operations.

- “I think that is a very good result of the investment European member states have made.”

- Luca has also expressed his pride in the appointment, saying “I am honored that the Space Station program chose me for this role, and at the same time I am humbled by the task.

- “Being the commander of the most trained and proficient people on and off Earth can be daunting. I see myself as a facilitator, my goal will be to put everybody in the condition to perform to the best of their capability. Ultimately, though, I am responsible for the safety of the crew and the Station, and for overall mission success.”

Figure 49: Official portrait of ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano for his second mission to the International Space Station, called Beyond (image credit: ESA–A. Conigli)
Figure 49: Official portrait of ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano for his second mission to the International Space Station, called Beyond (image credit: ESA–A. Conigli)

- Luca takes over command at a particularly busy time for Station operations.

- A number of spacewalks are scheduled for November to extend the life of the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS-02) – a state-of-the-art cosmic-ray detector designed to examine fundamental properties of dark matter, antimatter and missing matter and the origin of the Universe.

- Later in November, Luca is also expected to remotely control a robot on Earth to collect geological samples under the direction of scientists as part of an experiment called Analog-1.

- Luca is currently scheduled to remain on Station as Space Station commander until February 2020 when he will return to Earth with Alexander and Christina.

• September 25, 2019: An astronaut took this photograph on a clear spring 2019 day while looking north toward mainland Alaska. At the time, the International Space Station (ISS) was located approximately 430 kilometers (270 miles) southeast of the Alaska Peninsula. 38)

- Clear views of Alaska from the ISS are uncommon due to frequent cloud cover and the limits of the ISS orbit trajectory. The spacecraft flies between 51.6° North and South, so regions near the Arctic Circle (66.5°N), are difficult to photograph and often beyond an astronaut’s field of view.

- This oblique photograph offers a wide view toward the Seward Peninsula. The Bering Strait is visible with the easternmost reaches of Russia on the other side of the narrow waterway. Pack ice is floating through the strait toward the Bering Sea. The snow cover in this spring season photo highlights braided rivers, lakes, and the Ahklun Mountains.

- Astronauts on some space shuttle missions had more direct views of Alaska for photography, such as this photo from mission STS042 of 1992 that offers a different perspective on the Ahklun Mountains.

Figure 50: The astronaut photograph ISS059-E-36413 was acquired on April 27, 2019, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 95 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 59 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Andrea Meado)
Figure 50: The astronaut photograph ISS059-E-36413 was acquired on April 27, 2019, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 95 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 59 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Andrea Meado)

• September 16, 2019: There is plenty of science on the boil at the International Space Station – including an experiment literally designed to expand our knowledge of the boiling process. 39)

Figure 51: ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano shares a light dinner with his Expedition 60 crewmates on the International Space Station. Luca posted this image to social media during his Beyond mission with the caption: Among friends for a light dinner ... so light that everything flies (image credit: ESA7NASA)
Figure 51: ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano shares a light dinner with his Expedition 60 crewmates on the International Space Station. Luca posted this image to social media during his Beyond mission with the caption: Among friends for a light dinner ... so light that everything flies (image credit: ESA7NASA)

Figure 52: ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano is this year’s ambassador of the European Astro Pi Challenge. In this video, he welcomes students to the challenge and gives an overview of the project (video credit: ESA)

- The European Astro Pi Challenge is a school project run by ESA in collaboration with the Raspberry Pi Foundation. It gives young people the opportunity to write code that runs on mini-computers on board the International Space Station. This year, Luca is the European Astro Pi challenge ambassador and on 12 September he launched the challenge with a video outlining the details and calling for submissions.

• September 15, 2019: This circular cloud formation caught the eye of an astronaut while orbiting over the South Pacific Ocean. Traveling near the southernmost reaches of its orbit, the International Space Station (ISS) was more than 3,200 km east of New Zealand and more than 4,400 km west of South America. 40)

- The striking colors within the cloud formation are a result of the local sunrise. When the Sun is at a low angle (relative to the atmosphere and ISS), sunlight passes through a thicker slice of the atmosphere. This can enhance the red end of the visible color spectrum, leading to the pink hues visible at the center of the image.

- When photos are taken close to the day-night line (also known as the terminator), the sunlight can cast shadows that accentuate contrasting cloud heights and make the sense of circular motion more distinct to the eye. This photo was taken while the astronaut was looking back toward the night hemisphere, so the clouds become less defined as they fade into the terminator.

- The astronaut who took this photograph sent a message from the ISS to ask if this specific cloud formation had been a named tropical cyclone. However, the weather system was short-lived.

Figure 53: Low Sun angles enhance certain wavelengths of light, painting the atmosphere over a distant patch of ocean. This astronaut photograph ISS059-E-11742 was acquired on April 4, 2019, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 50 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 59 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, Caption by Sara Schmidt)
Figure 53: Low Sun angles enhance certain wavelengths of light, painting the atmosphere over a distant patch of ocean. This astronaut photograph ISS059-E-11742 was acquired on April 4, 2019, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 50 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 59 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, Caption by Sara Schmidt)

• September 11, 2019: This photograph, taken by an astronaut onboard the International Space Station, captures a short section of coastline on the west coast of Baja California, Mexico. Small developed areas are interspersed among sections of farmland in a valley bounded by minor mountain ranges. The city of Ensenada, a major port and tourist destination, lies just beyond the bottom left corner of the image. 41)

- The fishing industry is an integral part of the economy for this region. Pacific Bluefin tuna is one of the important species locally. A series of fish farming pens also appear along the east side of the peninsula. (The inset image offers a zoomed look at one of the aquaculture facilities.)

- Punta Banda Peninsula reaches out to form the southern limit of Todos Santos Bay (All Saints Bay). The temperate conditions that make this region productive for fishing also provide attractive conditions for Pacific gray whales as they migrate south from their feeding grounds to give birth in the protected bays and estuaries of Baja California.

- The lagoon (image center) and the bay coastline have been affected by erosion in recent years due to a combination of natural processes, a reduced sediment supply to the bay and, increasingly, urban growth and increased tourism.

Figure 54: The astronaut photograph ISS059-E-36214 was acquired on April 27, 2019, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using an 800 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 59 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Laura Phoebus)
Figure 54: The astronaut photograph ISS059-E-36214 was acquired on April 27, 2019, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using an 800 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 59 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Laura Phoebus)

• September 4, 2019: Visit Seattle and you might hear a local declare “the mountain is out!” The phrase refers to Mount Rainier, situated 60 miles (95 km) south-southeast of the city. On a clear day, the majestic volcano dominates the horizon. It is an iconic backdrop of the Puget Sound region. 42)

- But the Pacific Northwest is also known for its cloudy days and rain. That’s why people in the region notice when the “mountain is out.” An astronaut noticed, too, snapping this photograph from aboard the International Space Station (ISS) on a clear day in July 2018.

- Mount Rainier is the tallest mountain in the Cascade Range, standing 14,410 feet (4,392 m) above sea level. Viewed from the side, its highest point might appear to be Point Success, Liberty Gap, or the crater rim. The nadir view, however, gives a clear view of Columbia Crest—a small mound of snow north of the crater rim, and the mountain’s true highest point.

- The nadir perspective also provides a clear view of the volcano’s crater. Black rocks ring the snow- and ice-filled crater, which measures more than 300 m across. This clearly defined crater is ringed by a second, less distinct crater.

- With 25 named glaciers flowing down its flanks and patches of perennial snow, the mountain stays white year-round. In some areas, ice is forced around huge, long walls of rock known as “cleavers”; one of the most prominent is Gibraltar Rock. Scientists have documented the gradual loss of the mountain’s perennial ice, which lost almost 2 percent of its area between 2009 and 2015.

- Not all changes are gradual. Just two days before this photograph was acquired, an icefall on Ingraham Glacier sent blocks of ice and rubble careening down 300 meters along a popular climbing route. The event, large enough to be detected on seismographs, occurred at night and no climbers were injured.

- The modern mountain is the result of about half a million years of growth amid periods of volcanic activity. Cascade Range volcanoes, including Mount Rainier, are the result of oceanic crust sinking below North America, causing the release of water and melted rock. During the past 2600 years the mountain has erupted about a dozen times, the largest of which occurred about 2200 years ago. Small summit explosions were last reported in 1894, but have not been confirmed.

Figure 55: The astronaut photograph ISS056-E-85160 was acquired on July 8, 2018, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using an 160 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 56 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, story by Kathryn Hansen)
Figure 55: The astronaut photograph ISS056-E-85160 was acquired on July 8, 2018, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using an 160 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 56 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, story by Kathryn Hansen)

• September 2, 2019: Hurricane Dorian Seen From Aboard the Space Station. 43)

Figure 56: NASA astronaut Christian Koch snapped this image of Hurricane Dorian as the International Space Station during a flyover on Monday, September 2, 2019 (image credit: NASA)
Figure 56: NASA astronaut Christian Koch snapped this image of Hurricane Dorian as the International Space Station during a flyover on Monday, September 2, 2019 (image credit: NASA)

• September 1, 2019: An astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) focused a long lens on the Zambezi River where it flows over Africa’s dramatic Victoria Falls. The falls were given their modern name in 1855 by the European explorer David Livingstone, who named them after Queen Victoria. Long before colonial times, however, the falls were called Mosi-oa-Thunya—Tswana for “The Smoke that Thunders.” 44)

- In this oblique, south-looking photograph, the falls appear as a thin white line near the image center. The river valley changes dramatically at the falls. The partial reflection of the Sun off the water (sunglint) shows that the river above the falls (right half of the image) is a sheet of water up to 2 kilometers (1.25 miles) wide. In the left half of the image, the river appears as a narrow line. This is where the river flows in a zigzagging canyon that it has cut more than 100 meters down into the rock. The canyon walls cast dark shadows that makes the canyon look more prominent from space compared to the wide, placid waters above the falls.

- Although not the highest or longest falls in the world, Victoria Falls is the world’s largest sheet of falling water. Several prior positions of the falls also appear in this space view. A photo shot during the space shuttle years shows the line of spray produced by the falls.

- The Zambezi River forms the international boundary between Zambia and Zimbabwe. The tourist towns of Livingstone and Victoria Falls stand out due to their urban grid structures and road networks.

Figure 57: The astronaut photograph ISS056-E-100602 was acquired on July 30, 2018, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using an 800 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 56 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by M. Justin Wilkinson)
Figure 57: The astronaut photograph ISS056-E-100602 was acquired on July 30, 2018, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using an 800 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 56 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by M. Justin Wilkinson)

• August 27, 2019: An astronaut onboard the International Space Station took this photo of sunglint reflecting off Turkmenbashi Gulf, an inlet on the southeastern edge of the Caspian Sea. The complex glint patterns are due to waves, winds, the presence of oils or surfactants, and the presence of boats and drilling platforms—all of which alter the roughness of the water surface. 45)

- Just beyond the narrow passage into Turkmenbashi Gulf, dozens of offshore drilling operations dot the sea surface. The Caspian Sea is a large oil-producing region, and these drilling platforms are located over a natural gas field. Though these platforms are barely visible from space, the passing waves and sunglint create a traceable line, making the structures easier to locate from above. Wakes from boats also create linear streaks as they head to and from towns and petroleum storage.

- A bright, hook-shaped streak appears in the sunglint near the drilling platforms. This could possibly be an oil slick or bilge water discharge from a ship. The streak has been reworked by waves, so the source cannot be determined from this photo.

Figure 58: The astronaut photograph ISS059-E-99045 was acquired on June 10, 2019, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 140 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 59 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Andrea Meado)
Figure 58: The astronaut photograph ISS059-E-99045 was acquired on June 10, 2019, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 140 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 59 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Andrea Meado)

• August 27, 2019: As relief agencies turn to satellite data to help assess the scale, astronauts too are helping to provide context from the International Space Station. 46)

- The Amazon basin is home to millions of plants and animals and many indigenous people. It also produces around 20% of Earth’s oxygen, for which it is sometimes referred to as ‘the lungs of the world’. The Amazon rainforest covers large parts of Brazil, as well as parts of Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay and Argentina, all of which have been affected.

- While fires rage in the rainforest, strong winds have carried smoke plumes thousands of kilometers across land and sea, causing a black out in São Paulo, Brazil, some 2500 km away. Data from CAMS (Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring System) shows that smoke has even travelled as far as the Atlantic coast.

- Fires are common during the dry season, which runs from July to October. But this year is unlike any other.

- Copernicus Sentinel-3 data has helped to detect almost 4000 fires in August 2019 alone, compared to only 1110 fires in the same period last year.

- This year’s unprecedented blazes are four times the normal amount and are likely due to legal and illegal deforestation for agricultural purposes.

- Rising global temperatures are also thought to make the region more susceptible to fire.

- he fires have sparked an international crisis, with many grappling with what a burning Amazon means for local plant, animal, and indigenous populations, not to mention our planet’s future.

Figure 59: The Amazon rainforest is burning. ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano took this image, among a series, from his vantage point 400 km above Earth on 24 August 2019. He tweeted the images, captioning them: “The smoke, visible for thousands of kilometers, of tens of human-caused fires in the Amazon forest.”(image credit: ESA/NASA–L. Parmitano)
Figure 59: The Amazon rainforest is burning. ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano took this image, among a series, from his vantage point 400 km above Earth on 24 August 2019. He tweeted the images, captioning them: “The smoke, visible for thousands of kilometers, of tens of human-caused fires in the Amazon forest.”(image credit: ESA/NASA–L. Parmitano)

• August 21, 2019: NASA astronauts Nick Hague and Andrew Morgan concluded today’s spacewalk at 2:59 p.m. EDT. During the six-hour and 32-minute spacewalk, the two astronauts successfully installed the second of two IDAs (International Docking Adapters). 47)

- The IDAs will be used for the future arrivals of Boeing CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX Crew Dragon commercial crew spacecraft. NASA’s commercial crew partnership with Boeing and SpaceX will restore launches of American astronauts from American soil on American rockets and maximize the time U.S. crews can dedicate to scientific research and technological advances aboard the orbiting laboratory to enable the agency’s ambitious goals for the Artemis lunar exploration program and future missions to the Moon and Mars. Regular human space transportation to the space station is a critical step to opening the space station for commercial business to enable the growth of the U.S. commercial space sector and the development of a robust low-Earth orbit economy.

- The spacewalkers also completed additional routing for the station’s wireless internet.

- The US Segment of the ISS has two docking ports, called PMAs (Pressurized Mating Adapters), which are tunnels that convert US Segment CBM (Common Berthing Mechanism) berthing ports into APAS (Androgynous Peripheral Attachment System) docking ports. 48)

- APAS was the docking system used by the now-retired Space Shuttles and is a Russian-designed system that NASA decided to adopt for ease of compatibility between the Shuttle and the Russian Mir space station, and joint Russia-NASA ISS.

- APAS consists of a capture ring which extends from the arriving vehicle, which impacts an APAS port on the ISS to provide initial capture of the two vehicles. The capture ring then retracts to pull the two docking collars together, whereupon the “hard mate” docking process is completed.

- However, APAS has a design disadvantage in that the system requires a large impact force to be applied in order for the capture ring on the arriving vehicle to latch onto the APAS port on the ISS.

- As such, a Boeing-designed system known as the Soft Impact Mating Attenuation Concept (SIMAC) is part of the IDAs. The plan was always to attach two IDAs on the ISS, one for each of the station’s PMAs. They are ring-like structures with an APAS port on one end to connect to the PMAs, and a SIMAC port on the other end to connect to future crew vehicles.

- Effectively, the installation of the IDAs converts Pressurized Mating Adapter-2 and 3 (PMA-2 and PMA-3) docking ports into the newer International Docking System Standard (IDSS) style.

Figure 60: Spacewalkers Nick Hague (top) and Andrew Morgan install the International Docking Adapter (IDA-3) to the Pressurized Mating Adapter on top of the station’s Harmony module (image credit: NASA TV)
Figure 60: Spacewalkers Nick Hague (top) and Andrew Morgan install the International Docking Adapter (IDA-3) to the Pressurized Mating Adapter on top of the station’s Harmony module (image credit: NASA TV)

- IDA-2 is currently the only IDA attached to the ISS. IDA-2 was originally planned to take up IDA-3’s planned position on PMA-3. IDA-1 was destroyed by the anomaly that caused the launch failure of SpaceX’s seventh CRS resupply mission on 28 June 2015.

- IDA-2 then launched as planned on SpaceX CRS-9 on 18 July 2016, although instead of being placed on PMA-3 like originally planned, it was installed onto PMA-2 where IDA-1 was originally planned to be installed.

- This was the docking port for the first Dragon 2 to launch to the ISS, during Dragon 2’s DM-1 mission. However, NASA requires two IDAs, allowing a port of call for both Dragon 2 and Boeing’s Starliner.

- The latter is expected to conduct its first mission to the ISS in around October, an uncrewed mission called OFT-1 (Orbital Flight Test -1). This will be followed by the Crew Flight Test -1 (CFT-1) mission with a crew. SpaceX is also aiming to launch its first crewed mission on the DM-2 flight, potentially by the end of the year.

- Meanwhile, the Cargo version of the Dream Chaser spacecraft won’t be using an IDA port. Although it is capable of docking, the decision was made to use the berthing approach for its upcoming cargo runs.

- IDA-3 started construction soon after the destruction of CRS-7 to replace the destroyed IDA-1 and was built mostly out of spare parts left over from the construction of IDA-1 and 2 to lower construction time as much as possible.IDA-3 has a mass of 534 kg before launch. The docking adapter is ~1.1 m tall and 1.6 m wide.

- Following its safe arrival at the ISS, IDA-3 was pre-positioned just in front of its installation site on the forward side of PMA-3 by the ground controllers using the Dextre robot ahead of the EVA. Dextre extracted from the trunk of the CRS-18 Dragon spacecraft on which it was launched last month.

- The robotic team positioned IDA-3 over PMA-3’s APAS docking collar, with alignment guides on both the PMA and IDA aiding the process.

 • August 20, 2019: An astronaut onboard the ISS shot this photograph of the southwestern coast of South Africa. The Cape of Good Hope is located at the southern tip of the Cape Peninsula, which is also home to Cape Town, the legislative capital of South Africa. 49)

Figure 61: The astronaut photograph ISS059-E-78303 was acquired on May 28, 2019, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 340 millimeter lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 59 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Sarah Deitrick)
Figure 61: The astronaut photograph ISS059-E-78303 was acquired on May 28, 2019, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 340 millimeter lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 59 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Sarah Deitrick)

- The Cape was originally named the Cape of Storms in the 1480s by the Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias. It was later renamed to Good Hope to attract more people to the Cape Sea Route that passed the southern coast of Africa. The Cape eventually became a significant port and waypoint point for sailors traveling from Europe to Asia. However, the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 provided a much shorter route from the Mediterranean Sea to the Indian Ocean, making the long trip around Africa inefficient.

- The waters near the Cape, where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet, can be treacherous for ships. The warm Agulhas current from the east runs into the cold Benguela current from the northwest. Dangerous waves from these currents have caused many shipwrecks. According to folklore, these shipwrecks led to the legend of the Flying Dutchman, a ghost ship doomed to sail the oceans forever after being lost in a severe storm near the Cape.

- Offshore, the transverse and longitudinal wind patterns on False Bay are caused by the strong winds blowing along the South African coast. The winds will blow in different directions depending on the time of year: During the summer (September to March), the winds will blow in from the southeast; in winter (May to September) they blow from the northwest. The winter winds tend to bring in moisture, cold fronts, and stormy weather from the Atlantic. Summer winds are known to locals as the “Cape Doctor” because they often blow pollution away from the region and help mix oxygen up into the shallow waters of the bay, sustaining small fish and crabs.

• August 20, 2019: ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano slides the smallest miners in the universe into the Kubik experiment container on the International Space Station. 50)

- For the next three weeks, three different species of bacteria will unleash themselves on basalt slides in the Kubik centrifuge that simulates Earth and martian gravity as well as in microgravity.

- Run by a research team from the University of Edinburgh in the UK, the BioRock experiment is testing how altered states of gravity affect biofilm formation – or the growth of microbes on rocks.

- Microbes are able to weather down a rock from which they can extract ions. This natural process enables biomining, where useful metals are extracted from rock ores.

- Already a common practice on Earth, biomining will eventually take place on the Moon, Mars and asteroids as we expand our understanding and exploration of the Solar System.

- The bacteria arrived at the Space Station on the latest Dragon resupply mission in a dehydrated, dormant state.

- The organisms are given ‘food’ to restore cell growth and left to grow on basalt at 20°C.

- After three weeks, the samples will be preserved and stored at 4°C while they await their return to Earth.

- Researchers will map out how altered states of gravity affect the rock and microbes as a whole, as well as which microbe is the best candidate for mining in space. It is hoped these results will shine light on extraterrestrial biomining technologies and life-support systems involving microbes for longer duration spaceflight.

- Biomining in space can also increase the efficiency of the process on Earth and could even reduce our reliance on precious Earth resources.

- In addition to installing the little creatures, Luca is busy with a host of other experiments during his six-month mission, called Beyond.

Figure 62: Luca installs the BioRock (image credit: ESA)
Figure 62: Luca installs the BioRock (image credit: ESA)

• August 19, 2019: NASA recently doubled the rate at which data from the ISS (International Space Station) returns to Earth, paving the way for similar future upgrades on Gateway, NASA’s upcoming outpost in lunar orbit, and other exploration missions. This new data rate will enable the space station to send back more science data faster than ever before. 51)

- NASA’s missions, both near and far, rely on quick and effective communications to relay critical mission data to control centers and scientists here on Earth. The station now supports a 600 Mbit/s connection, doubling the amount of data that the station can transmit and receive at a time.

- “NASA’s communications networks play a pivotal role in every NASA mission, enabling data from human spaceflight, space and Earth science research missions and technological demonstrations to reach Earth for the benefit of humanity,” said George Morrow, the acting center director of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. “This increase in data rate capability for the ISS underlines our commitment to provide high-quality operational services for NASA exploration missions today and in the future.”

- The space station’s unique environment allows astronauts to conduct research that would not otherwise be possible on Earth. These experiments and technology demonstrations are increasingly reliant on high data rates between the station and researchers on Earth. The work on the orbiting laboratory provides knowledge in human research, experience in long-duration spaceflight, and capabilities for technology demonstrations that may enable future missions. With the data rate increase, the station can now accommodate new experiments and technology demonstrations that require higher resolution or more detailed data than was previously possible.

- The space station communicates with Earth through radio frequency signals using the TDRS (Tracking and Data Relay Satellites) system and ground-based antennas called the Space Network. The TDRS are placed in GEO, over various strategic locations so that they can relay data to the ground from LEO satellites. Landlines then send the signal to various NASA centers, and their computer systems turn the radio signal back into readable data. To send data back, the process repeats in the other direction. This happens with less than a one-second delay in communication.

- “This project demonstrated that advanced radio frequency waveforms can be used efficiently to increase data rates and improve performance for high-rate communication services,” said Risha George, the upgrade project lead for the Space Network. “Operational use of these advanced waveforms proves that they can also be used for future missions, such as on the Gateway, a small spaceship that will orbit the Moon and provide a stepping stone to human exploration on Mars.”

- Several components in this global communications system were upgraded to support the increased data rate, including a new digital ground architecture for the Space Network. Technicians updated the space station’s software-based modem, improved data processors at various NASA centers, and enhanced routers, interfaces and other equipment and software at the ground stations. The circuits and bandwidth of the terrestrial data lines between the various Earth-based components were also upgraded. The team then performed extensive testing to ensure the upgrades worked correctly. All of this was done while still providing real-time support to the more than 40 missions the network regularly supports.

- “Partnerships like this are crucial to our continued success as an agency,” said Penny Roberts, the upgrade project lead for the space station. “Our continued partnership will transition us to 600 Mbit/s, and who knows where else we will go together.”

• August 14, 2019: ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano made space (and music) history on 13 August when he broadcast the first DJ music set from orbit, performing to an audience of over 3000 people as part of the BigCityBeats WORLD CLUB DOME Cruise Edition. 52)

- Making time for this broadcast during his non-operational activities, Luca also explained the goal of his Beyond mission and demonstrated life on board the Station to the audience in Ibiza. All these activities were key to widening awareness of ESA to a young European audience and bringing the focus on space in an inspirational and accessible setting.

- Luca’s set was followed by that of his mentor, German DJ Le Shuuk. Luca had taken time out of his busy pre-flight training schedule earlier this year to work with Le Shuuk and receive a briefing on how to mix tracks. Le Shuuk prepared a personal playlist for Luca to take with him to the Station, and provided specialist DJ software that was uploaded to the astronaut’s tablets in space.

- The ‘first DJ in space’ story can trace its origins back to 2018, when Frankfurt-based events company, BigCityBeats, contacted ESA’s newly formed Partnerships Unit. They requested the assistance of an ESA astronaut for a ‘zero g’ parabolic flight that they had chartered from French company Novespace (which also operates the joint ESA/CNES/DLR parabolic flights).

Figure 63: ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano made space (and music) history on 13 August 2019 when he broadcast the first DJ music set from orbit, performing to an audience of over 3000 people as part of the BigCityBeats WORLD CLUB DOME Cruise Edition. The results of his work were beamed to the main stage on board the cruise ship Norwegian Pearl moored at the Spanish island of Ibiza. His set of around 12 minutes was played as part of the regular program of DJs at the festival. This was the first time that a DJ set has been played from the International Space Station and, indeed, from space (image credit: World Club Dome/ESA)
Figure 63: ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano made space (and music) history on 13 August 2019 when he broadcast the first DJ music set from orbit, performing to an audience of over 3000 people as part of the BigCityBeats WORLD CLUB DOME Cruise Edition. The results of his work were beamed to the main stage on board the cruise ship Norwegian Pearl moored at the Spanish island of Ibiza. His set of around 12 minutes was played as part of the regular program of DJs at the festival. This was the first time that a DJ set has been played from the International Space Station and, indeed, from space (image credit: World Club Dome/ESA)

- Under the banner of the World Club Dome, this cooperation resulted in a ‘zero-g’ dance party, combining a fascination of science with the joy and fun of dance music in a first-of-its-kind flight in Europe. ESA astronauts Pedro Duque and Jean-Francois Clervoy joined the ‘weightless’ flight and provided background training and safety tips to the DJs and party-goers.

- This was followed by another parabolic flight in March of this year to promote the WORLD CLUB DOME Space Edition, a three-day event in Frankfurt in June where the main stage was dominated with a 28 m high Ariane 5 rocket and featured special guests ESA astronauts André Kuipers and Matthias Maurer.

Figure 64: DJ Luca's target audience: the Norwegian Pearl, moored in Ibiza (image credit: World Club Dome/ESA)
Figure 64: DJ Luca's target audience: the Norwegian Pearl, moored in Ibiza (image credit: World Club Dome/ESA)

- Bernd Breiter, CEO of BigCityBeats GmbH, said, “I had goosebumps and tears in my eyes when I saw Luca raising the WORLD CLUB DOME flag on the Space Station. When the first music started to play during the broadcast from space, I cannot even begin to describe my feelings in that moment. This has been my dream for many years to create the first club in space and, on a much broader scale, to connect science and music, which I hope will inspire generations to come.”

• August 11, 2019: A glorious winter morning view greeted astronauts as they passed over the rugged peaks of Peru’s Cordillera Blanca, snow-capped peaks cast long shadows over the valleys. 53)

- The highest mountains in Peru are visible, including Huascarán, which soars 6,768 meters (22,204 feet) above sea level. The peaks have been eroded by glaciers into steep curving ridges—known as cirques. With over 700 glaciers, the Cordillera Blanca holds much of the land ice in Peru.

- Light fog filled the valleys as the Sun rose. High overnight relative humidity, low surface winds (visualized here), and the morning temperature inversion caused the fog in the lower altitudes. The major mining city of Huaraz is barely visible under the fog cover, but the light color of the Pierina Mine, an open pit gold mine, stands out from the darker land surrounding it.

Figure 65: This astronaut photograph ISS059-E-64089 was acquired on May 18, 2019, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 240 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 59 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Sara Schmidt)
Figure 65: This astronaut photograph ISS059-E-64089 was acquired on May 18, 2019, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 240 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 59 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Sara Schmidt)

• August 6, 2019: The International Space Station regularly transits the Sun but often along a very narrow ground path, which makes it hard to record. Once you lock down the best viewing location on Earth, timing is a critical factor: transits of the Sun last only half a second. 54)

- Using a DSLR camera attached to a 150/750 telescope recording in full HD at 30 frames per second, Javier was able to capture the 0.8 seconds it took for the Station to pass. The image is made up of those stacked frames.

- An astronomy fan from a young age, Javier’s passion has grown with him. He takes photographs of any near-Earth event, because “who says that daytime astronomy is boring?”

- Meanwhile, on the International Space Station the six-astronaut crew is busy carrying out science experiments, maintain the Station and getting their daily dose of exercise.

- Summer is less noticeable in the controlled environment of the Station, but the atmosphere is pleasant. ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano is finding time to sneak in selfies while working with friends.

Figure 66: Like most people this season, the International Space Station is chasing some Sun. Amateur astrophotographer Javier Manteca captured this transit of the Sun on 2 August, at 17:10 CEST from Fuenlabrada in Spain (image credit: Javier Manteca)
Figure 66: Like most people this season, the International Space Station is chasing some Sun. Amateur astrophotographer Javier Manteca captured this transit of the Sun on 2 August, at 17:10 CEST from Fuenlabrada in Spain (image credit: Javier Manteca)

• August 5, 2019: Over two weeks have flown by since ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano was launched to the International Space Station for his second six-month stay in orbit. His arrival, alongside NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan and Roscosmos Soyuz commander Alexander Skvortsov, boosted the Station’s population to six and the crew has been busy ever since – performing a wide range of science in space. 55)

- With the start of Luca’s Beyond mission on 21 July, and the capture of SpaceX’s Dragon 18 cargo vehicle on 27 July, came a host of new European experiments. We begin with a couple you may recognize from Alexander Gerst’s Horizons mission as Luca re-adapts to his orbital workplace.

- When you lift a cup of coffee, you are moving it against gravity. The amount of force you use to lift that cup or move any other object is something you learn as a child but, in the weightlessness of space, it is something astronauts must relearn.

- The GRIP experiment studies how the central nervous system controls movements and the forces astronauts use to manipulate objects with their hands. After setting the experiment up in Europe’s Columbus laboratory on 28 July, both Luca and Andrew performed their first Grip sessions last week.

- Luca will take part in three GRIP sessions while on the International Space Station. He already performed two sessions on Earth and he will perform another three following his return. During each session, Luca will hold an object equipped with measuring instruments between his right thumb and index finger and carry out a variety of movements.

- The results will help researchers understand potential hazards for astronauts as they move between different gravitational environments and improve the design of haptic interfaces used during deep space missions.

- GRASP (Gravitational References for Sensimotor Performance) is another one you may remember from Alexander’s Horizons mission. Here researchers seek to better understand how the central nervous system integrates information from different senses, such as sight, sound and touch, to coordinate hand movements and determine what role gravity plays. Both Luca and Andrew also performed their first in-space GRASP sessions at the end of last week, wearing virtual reality headsets as they carried out a range of tasks.

- The results of GRASP will be helpful in guiding astronauts during spacewalks and developing the most effective ways of controlling robots remotely from space. But they will also help us better treat disorders relating to vertigo, dizziness, balance and spatial orientation on Earth and could help surgeons and other professionals who need to tele-operate equipment.

Figure 67: ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano performs a European experiment called GRIP that studies astronauts' perception of mass and movement and how they interface with the human body and change in microgravity (image credit: ESA/NASA)
Figure 67: ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano performs a European experiment called GRIP that studies astronauts' perception of mass and movement and how they interface with the human body and change in microgravity (image credit: ESA/NASA)

New Experiments

- The first new experiment Luca set-up as part of his second mission was NutrISS. Developed by Kaiser Italia for the Italian space agency ASI and ESA, this experiment will periodically assess any changes in Luca’s body weight, fat mass, and fat-free mass during spaceflight, juxtapose this with his diet and better equip medical teams to provide advice for maintaining good health in orbit.

- Luca will use an app called Everywear to record the results of each measurement session and log his nutritional intake for five consecutive days. Everywear is like the space version of MyFitnessPal and allows astronauts to track their intake by scanning barcodes on the food they eat. The information Luca enters into Everywear will be accessible to his medical team who will look at it in relation to his measurements and provide dietary recommendations.

- As well as NutrISS, Luca also set-up Biorock by retrieving experiment containers from the Minus Eighty-Degree Laboratory Freezer for ISS (MELFI) and installing them in the small temperature-controlled Kubik incubators. The University of Edinburgh experiment will continue to run in Kubik, unleashing a microbe on a basalt rock and assessing the biofilm that forms over the rock as the organism grows. Observing the rock-microbe system in space will help researchers understand the potential for biomining on other planetary bodies like asteroids, where new resources could be unearthed.

Looking Ahead

- There is plenty planned for the crew in the weeks to come, but one highlight is the installation of Rubi (Reference mUltiscale Boiling Investigation). Developed and built by Airbus for ESA, Rubi experiment addresses the fundamentals of the boiling of fluids and will be installed by Luca in the Columbus module this Friday 9 August. It is similar to an experiment recently conducted during ESA's 71st Parabolic flight campaign to investigate boiling process in altered states of gravity.

- Rubi’s core element is a cell filled with fluid, which can be heated and cooled using electrical voltage. The boiling process will be triggered on a metal-coated glass heater using a laser, while high-resolution cameras record the formation and growth of vapor bubbles in both the visible and infrared spectrum. Findings from this experiment could help the production of more efficient and environmentally friendly household appliances (stoves, radiators) and heat exchangers for industrial manufacturing processes.

• August 4, 2019: An astronaut onboard the International Space Station took this photograph of the St. Louis metropolitan area. The photograph contrasts the agriculturally dominated regions of western Illinois and the more densely urbanized areas of eastern Missouri. St. Louis lies on the west bank of the Mississippi River, which also forms the border between the two states. At the time of this photo, some flooding was visible along the river. 56)

- Initially founded in the 1760s as a fur-trading outpost, St. Louis grew up to become a major port on the Mississippi River. Throughout the 1800s and 1900s, the evolution of transportation and infrastructure led to the suburbanization of the city. Roads, railways, and a mighty river meet in this longtime trading hub of the central United States.

- Public transportation, railroads, and advanced road networks developed as the population increased, which allowed for the gradual migration of people from the city center into the outer reaches of the greater St. Louis area. The urban pattern in the image includes a series of small-scale grids that follow the lines of the major railways and highways in the region. The network of roadways radiates out from the urban core and connects smaller towns.

Figure 68: The astronaut photograph ISS060-E-556 was acquired on June 25, 2019, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 290 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 60 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Laura Phoebus)
Figure 68: The astronaut photograph ISS060-E-556 was acquired on June 25, 2019, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 290 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 60 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Laura Phoebus)

• July 30, 2019: NASA is validating modern crew health technologies aboard the International Space Station before sending astronauts on a series of Artemis expeditions to orbit and land on the Moon, beginning in 2024. One of the most important conditions associated with crew health during spaceflight is air quality. Trace gas contaminants in the crew environment can have effects ranging from immediate discomfort to long-term health conditions. 57)

- Currently, atmosphere quality aboard the space station is assessed by periodic sampling and ground-based analysis using sophisticated instruments. Since samples cannot be returned to Earth during future exploration missions, a complement of smaller and more reliable instruments such as SAM (Spacecraft Atmosphere Monitor) becomes essential to monitor the crew environment.

- “Monitoring the spacecraft cabin atmosphere and maintaining safe air quality is important to protecting astronaut health,” said Jitendra Joshi, senior technical advisor at NASA Headquarters. “SAM has the ability to immediately detect trace contaminants that pose potential threats to crewmembers’ well-being, which is critical for future human spaceflight missions, especially missions to the Moon and Mars, when we won’t have the benefit of sending samples back to Earth.”

Meet SAM

- This type of analysis typically requires the use of a GCMS (Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer) instrument which separates, identifies and quantifies complex mixtures of chemicals. SAM is one of the smallest autonomous GCMS instruments ever built. GCMS is considered the “gold standard” in substance identification because of its ability to detect and positively identify the presence of trace amounts of a particular substance and allows for a much finer degree of substance identification.

- The current version of SAM will continuously monitor the major components found in air — oxygen, carbon dioxide, nitrogen and methane, and humidity levels in realtime. The next version of SAM is being developed to measure the full complement of atmospheric including trace gases.

- SAM’s compact design allows for it to perform instrument science operations inside the space station’s EXPRESS (EXpedite the PRocessing of Experiments to Space Stations) Racks. EXPRESS Racks are multipurpose payload rack systems that store and support research. SAM’s size also allows it to be easily deployed throughout the various nodes of the space station to monitor different astronaut environments and activities, such as exercise and sleep.

Figure 69: NASA's SAM (Spacecraft Atmosphere Monitor), which flew as payload aboard the SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft, SpaceX CRS-18, that launched on 25 July from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida (image credit: NASA)
Figure 69: NASA's SAM (Spacecraft Atmosphere Monitor), which flew as payload aboard the SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft, SpaceX CRS-18, that launched on 25 July from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida (image credit: NASA)

- While on station, information concerning SAM’s technical performance as well as health and operational status, will constantly be routed through the Huntsville Operations Support Center (HOSC) at Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama. The HOSC will then route the data to the operation team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab’s (JPL) Earth Science Mission Operations Center.

- While the SAM is fully autonomous and does not require data processing for issuing reports concerning air quality elements, JPL scientists will have the ability to closely analyze the data for anomalies and other unexpected findings.

- SAM was developed by JPL with support from NASA’s Advanced Exploration Systems (AES) division within the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate in Washington. SAM is a technology demonstration and is slated to begin work aboard the space station on July 30.

- NASA’s human lunar exploration plans are based on a two-phase approach: the first is focused on speed – landing on the Moon within five years, while the second will establish a sustained human presence on and around the Moon by 2028. The agency will use what we learn on the Moon to prepare for the next giant leap – sending astronauts to Mars.

• July 28, 2019: The International Space Station was crossing over the equator when an astronaut looked east and took this photograph just after sunrise. The strip of land outlined by morning sunglint is the northern peninsula of the Indonesian island of Sulawesi. The darker areas in the lower portion of the photo mark the edge of the day-night line, also known as the terminator. 58)

- Indonesia sits in a notoriously cloudy region of the globe. In the image foreground, clouds cast long shadows as the Sun’s rays strike at a low angle. Toward the horizon, clouds cast shorter shadows where the Sun is already higher in the sky.

- Scientists who work with astronaut photos are well-practiced at identifying places on Earth through the perspective of an astronaut looking out from the ISS. However, consistently cloudy regions are more difficult to recognize. Sunglint helps by highlighting coastlines that are often obscured by clouds and aerosols. Yet those same clouds may have been exactly what inspired the astronaut to capture this scene.

Figure 70: This astronaut photograph ISS059-E-67875 was acquired on May 19, 2019, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 58 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 59 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Andrea Meado)
Figure 70: This astronaut photograph ISS059-E-67875 was acquired on May 19, 2019, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 58 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 59 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Andrea Meado)

• July 21, 2019: These two images of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, taken from different directions, give a sense of the astronaut flight experience. 59)

- Using short camera lenses to obtain wide fields of view, an astronaut on the International Space Station (ISS) focused on the intricate coastline of Nova Scotia in eastern Canada. These two images of this peninsula, taken from different directions, give a sense of the astronaut flight experience. From an orbital perspective, the same feature on Earth’s surface can look very different in just a minute or two.

- The two images also appear at slightly different scales due to the astronaut changing the focal lengths of the lens. The glint image is taken with a longer lens (50 mm), making the Nova Scotia peninsula seem bigger and closer than it does in the later image (35 mm). This is despite the fact that the first image was taken from 600 km distance and the second from about 350 km away (relative to the orbital position of the ISS).

- With the different play of light, a ghostly reflection of what may be an ISS solar array is visible at lower right in the second image (Figure 72).

Figure 71: This photograph, observed on 7 May 2019, shows Nova Scotia to the east of the space station, contrasted against the brilliance of the Sun reflecting off of the Atlantic Ocean. “Sunglint” images like this can highlight fine coastline details: Nova Scotia’s shoreline, northern arms of the Bay of Fundy, and the outline of Prince Edward Island (image credit: Astronaut photographs ISS059-E-59135 and ISS059-E-52689 were acquired on 7 May 2019, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using 50 mm and 35 mm lenses (respectively) and are provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The images were taken by a member of the Expedition 59 crew. Caption by M. Justin Wilkinson and Susan Runco)
Figure 71: This photograph, observed on 7 May 2019, shows Nova Scotia to the east of the space station, contrasted against the brilliance of the Sun reflecting off of the Atlantic Ocean. “Sunglint” images like this can highlight fine coastline details: Nova Scotia’s shoreline, northern arms of the Bay of Fundy, and the outline of Prince Edward Island (image credit: Astronaut photographs ISS059-E-59135 and ISS059-E-52689 were acquired on 7 May 2019, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using 50 mm and 35 mm lenses (respectively) and are provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The images were taken by a member of the Expedition 59 crew. Caption by M. Justin Wilkinson and Susan Runco)
Figure 72: Taken 2 minutes and 18 seconds later, the second view is not only reversed—north to the right instead of the left and the Atlantic in the foreground—but the Sun is behind the camera and there is more color contrast. Land surfaces are brighter than the sea surface, which appears in a generally uniform color. The rounded southern end of Nova Scotia is prominent, having been almost lost to view in the first image. Coastline detail is much reduced. The warm tone of sediment at the head of the Bay of Fundy has become visible, and a hint of snow is visible at the northern end of the peninsula (image credit: Astronaut photographs ISS059-E-59135 and ISS059-E-52689 were acquired on 7 May 2019, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using 50 mm and 35 mm lenses (respectively) and are provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The images were taken by a member of the Expedition 59 crew. Caption by M. Justin Wilkinson and Susan Runco)
Figure 72: Taken 2 minutes and 18 seconds later, the second view is not only reversed—north to the right instead of the left and the Atlantic in the foreground—but the Sun is behind the camera and there is more color contrast. Land surfaces are brighter than the sea surface, which appears in a generally uniform color. The rounded southern end of Nova Scotia is prominent, having been almost lost to view in the first image. Coastline detail is much reduced. The warm tone of sediment at the head of the Bay of Fundy has become visible, and a hint of snow is visible at the northern end of the peninsula (image credit: Astronaut photographs ISS059-E-59135 and ISS059-E-52689 were acquired on 7 May 2019, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using 50 mm and 35 mm lenses (respectively) and are provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The images were taken by a member of the Expedition 59 crew. Caption by M. Justin Wilkinson and Susan Runco)

• July 20, 2019: Fifty years to the day that astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stepped on the Moon in a giant leap for humanity, NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan and two fellow crew members arrived Saturday for their mission aboard the International Space Station, where humans have lived and worked continuously for more than 18 years. 60)

- The Soyuz MS-13 spacecraft carrying Morgan, Luca Parmitano of ESA (European Space Agency) and Alexander Skvortsov of the Russian space agency Roscosmos launched at 12:28 p.m. EDT July 20 (16:28:21 UTC, 9:28 p.m. Kazakhstan time) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Their spacecraft docked to the station’s Zvezda service module at 6:48 p.m., after a four-orbit, six-hour flight, and they are scheduled to open hatches and be welcomed aboard the orbiting laboratory at approximately 8:50 p.m.

Figure 73: The Soyuz MS-13 carrying Expedition 60 Soyuz Commander Alexander Skvortsov of Roscosmos, flight engineer Drew Morgan of NASA, and flight engineer Luca Parmitano of ESA (European Space Agency), launches at 12:28 p.m. EDT (9:28 p.m. Baikonur time) Saturday, July 20, 2019, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan (image credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky)
Figure 73: The Soyuz MS-13 carrying Expedition 60 Soyuz Commander Alexander Skvortsov of Roscosmos, flight engineer Drew Morgan of NASA, and flight engineer Luca Parmitano of ESA (European Space Agency), launches at 12:28 p.m. EDT (9:28 p.m. Baikonur time) Saturday, July 20, 2019, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan (image credit: NASA/Joel Kowsky)

- Their arrival restores the station's crew complement to six. They join NASA astronauts Nick Hague, Christina Koch and Expedition 60 Commander Alexey Ovchinin of Roscosmos.

- The Expedition 60 crew will spend more than six months conducting about 250 science investigations in fields such as biology, Earth science, human research, physical sciences, and technology development. Work on the unique microgravity laboratory advances scientific knowledge and demonstrates new technologies, making research breakthroughs that will enable long-duration human and robotic exploration of the Moon and Mars.

- One of those key technology developments will be the arrival and installation of the second docking port for commercial crew spacecraft – SpaceX’s Crew Dragon and Boeing’s Starliner. International Docking Adapter-3 (IDA-3) is set to launch to the station on SpaceX Dragon’s 18th commercial resupply services mission at 6:24 p.m. Wednesday, July 24. Coverage of the SpaceX launch will air on NASA Television and the agency’s website beginning at 6 p.m.

- Once the docking port arrives, flight controllers in Houston will use the Canadarm2 robotic arm to extract it from Dragon’s cargo hold and position it over Pressurized Mating Adapter-3, on the space-facing side of the station’s Harmony module. Hague and Morgan are scheduled to conduct a spacewalk no earlier than mid-August to install the docking port, connect power and data cables, and install a new high-definition camera as part of ongoing upgrades to the station’s external camera system.

- Highlights of upcoming investigations the crew will facilitate on the orbiting laboratory in the unique microgravity environment include the growth of moss aboard the station, a platform to attempt successful printing of biological tissues and bio-mining in space.

- Parmitano and Skvortsov are scheduled to remain aboard the station with Koch until February 2020, leaving Morgan on station for an extended stay. Hague and Ovchinin are set to return to Earth on Oct. 3.

- A global endeavor, more than 230 people from 18 countries have visited the International Space Station, which has hosted more than 2,500 research investigations from researchers in 106 countries.

• July 17, 2019: On 20 July 2019 (Saturday) astronaut Luca Parmitano, NASA astronaut Drew Morgan and Roscosmos commander Alexander Skvortsov will be launched to the International Space Station from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. 61)

- The four-orbit, six-hour journey to the International Space Station in the Soyuz MS-13 spacecraft will be the second spaceflight for Luca, the third for Alexander and the first for Drew.

- It marks the start of Luca’s 'Beyond mission' and, once the trio has been welcomed aboard by current crew members Alexy Ochivin of Roscosmos and Nick Hague and Christina Koch of NASA, the beginning of Expedition 60.

Figure 74: In the Integration Building at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Expedition 60 crewmembers Drew Morgan of NASA (left), Alexander Skvortsov of Roscosmos (center) and Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency (right) pose for a selfie in front of the first stage engines of their Soyuz booster on 16 July as part of pre-launch preparations (image credit: GCTC, A. Shelepin)
Figure 74: In the Integration Building at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Expedition 60 crewmembers Drew Morgan of NASA (left), Alexander Skvortsov of Roscosmos (center) and Luca Parmitano of the European Space Agency (right) pose for a selfie in front of the first stage engines of their Soyuz booster on 16 July as part of pre-launch preparations (image credit: GCTC, A. Shelepin)

• July 16, 2019: An astronaut onboard the International Space Station (ISS) captured this oblique photograph of Florida, on the southeastern coast of the United States. The image highlights the state’s many lakes, as well as the shallow, light-toned waters of the Florida Keys. 62)

- Most of Florida’s land surface overlies thick carbonate deposits (typically limestone) that have been shaped into the Floridan aquifer system. This aquifer developed over time through the dissolution of carbonate rocks by surface water or groundwater, creating a karst landscape. Most of the state today is capped with sand and clay deposits that prevent carbonates from being exposed at the surface. However, these deposits are thin to nonexistent in a few areas, allowing a higher rate of carbonate dissolution to take place. This process results in sinkholes that fill with ground water, creating a chain of lakes.

- Just off the southern coast of the state, the Florida Keys extend southwest into the Gulf of Mexico. This chain of islands is composed of fossilized remnants of ancient coral reefs and sandbars. Before the 19th century, most people avoided the Keys because of the dangers from reefs and pirates. In the 1800s, the islands became major trading centers between the Gulf and Atlantic coasts. This positive attention and new commerce helped develop the area into one of Florida’s most popular tourist destinations.

- Along Florida’s Atlantic coast, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and NASA’s Kennedy Space Center have been the sites for all American-launched manned spaceflights, including the launch of Apollo 11 on July 16, 1969. Much of the ISS was also carried into space on space shuttle flights from Cape Canaveral.

Figure 75: This astronaut photograph ISS058-E-28096 was acquired on March 7, 2019, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 20 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 58 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Sarah Deitrick)
Figure 75: This astronaut photograph ISS058-E-28096 was acquired on March 7, 2019, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 20 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 58 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Sarah Deitrick)

• July 10, 2019: While orbiting over the Gulf of Mexico in April 2019, an astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) looked northward to take this highly oblique photo of the Mississippi River delta. The Mississippi River watershed is one of the largest in the world, consisting of more than a hundred tributaries, including the Red, Ohio, and Missouri Rivers. 63)

- The Mississippi watershed extends from the Appalachians to the Rocky Mountains and contributes to about 40 percent of the drainage in the continental United States. It drains water and sediment from 31 U.S. states, delivering both to the Gulf of Mexico via the Atchafalaya and Mississippi River deltas. Longshore currents carry much of those sediments west from the deltas and deposit it along Gulf Coast beaches. A large pulse of sediment, likely the result of widespread flooding during 2019, is visible along the western Louisiana coastline.

- The light-toned land on either side of the river distinguishes its alluvial floodplain. Because rivers provide a transportation system and a reliable source of water, people often seek out floodplains for building cities and industries and for developing farms. Along the entire length of the Mississippi River, agricultural land use is extensive. Excess nitrogen and phosphorus from agriculture runs off into the river drainage systems and eventually enters the Gulf of Mexico. Local and regional flooding can increase stream flow and erosion rates, intensifying this process.

- Each summer, hypoxic (low oxygen) “dead zones” can threaten aquatic life in the Gulf of Mexico. These dead zones can be caused by nutrient pollution; by limited mixing between water layers due to density and temperature differences; and by a drastic increase in algae blooms—all of which deplete oxygen levels in the water. Sessile (fixed in place) organisms like corals, shellfish, and aquatic plants are unable to escape these dead zones and will often die, harming local food webs and the fishing industries that depend upon them.

Figure 76: Astronaut photograph ISS059-E-36323 was acquired on April 26, 2019, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 50 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 59 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Sara Schmidt)
Figure 76: Astronaut photograph ISS059-E-36323 was acquired on April 26, 2019, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 50 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 59 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Sara Schmidt)

• July 5, 2019: The next crew to liftoff to the International Space Station arrived at the Baikonur Cosmodrome launch site on the U.S. Independence Day awaiting a historic July 20 liftoff. 64)

Figure 77: Expedition 60 crewmembers (from left) Drew Morgan, Alexander Skvortsov and Luca Parmitano affix a crew insignia sticker to the hull of the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center aircraft as they flew to their training base in Kazakhstan July 4 (image credit: NASA, Roskosmos)
Figure 77: Expedition 60 crewmembers (from left) Drew Morgan, Alexander Skvortsov and Luca Parmitano affix a crew insignia sticker to the hull of the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center aircraft as they flew to their training base in Kazakhstan July 4 (image credit: NASA, Roskosmos)

- The new Expedition 60 crewmates Andrew Morgan, Luca Parmitano and Alexander Skvortsov are in final mission preparations in Kazakhstan. The trio arrived July 4 counting down to a July 20 launch to the orbiting lab 50 years to the date NASA landed humans on the Moon for the first time.

- Morgan is going to space for the first time and will meet his fellow Class of 2013 NASA astronaut members, Christina Koch and Nick Hague, who have been at the station since March. Parmitano is on his second mission. Skvortsov, who is leading the mission aboard the Soyuz MS-13 spacecraft, is making his third visit to the space station.

- Back aboard the station, the three orbiting Expedition 60 crewmembers continued science and maintenance duties. Koch sampled the station’s life support system for microbes while Hague serviced a specialized science furnace. Ovchinin checked on Russian station systems and monitored a radiation exposure study.

• July 03, 2019: The third edition of NASA’s “International Space Station Benefits for Humanity” book now is available. The new edition fills more than 200 pages with the many benefits of conducting research on the orbiting microgravity laboratory and includes new assessments of the economic value - as well as greater detail about the scientific value - of the International Space Station. 65)

- The station has maintained a continuous human presence in space since Nov. 2, 2000, and is the only laboratory that allows scientists to manipulate every variable - including gravity. In the more than 18 years of crewed operation, thousands of researchers on the ground in more than 100 countries have conducted more than 2,500 experiments in microgravity, and that number continues to grow. This book provides examples of research accomplishments in areas of economic development of space, innovative technology, human health, Earth observations and disaster response, and global education.

- “This edition tells stories about the amazing accomplishments aboard the space station, which serves as a unique engine to drive scientific discovery,” said Kirt Costello, acting chief scientist for the space station at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. “As interest in using the laboratory continues to increase, many researchers new to space have come on board, and we've added many new facilities. These all greatly increase the science we can accomplish and the rate at which that science translates to additional research and applications.”

- The book is a product of the International Space Station Program Science Forum, made up of senior science representatives across the international partnership, which includes the Canadian Space Agency, ESA (European Space Agency), the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, the Russian space agency ROSCOSMOS, the Italian Space Agency, and NASA. The International Space Station United States On-orbit Segment also is designated as a U.S. National Laboratory, whose mission is to enable scientific opportunity aboard the orbiting outpost to benefit life on Earth.

- These International Space Station partners have distinct agency goals for research, but each shares the goal of working together to extend the resulting knowledge for the betterment of humanity. In the book, the members of the International Space Station Program Science Forum provide their unique perspectives about the benefits of research and technology development, market innovation, and the ongoing support of a sustainable space-based economy.

- “It’s a very exciting time for microgravity research,” said Costello. “Research on the space station feeds our future space exploration goals and makes our world a better place.”

• July 02, 2019: This photograph, taken by an astronaut on the International Space Station, highlights the distinctive patterns etched into the forests surrounding the town of Roseburg, Oregon. Roseburg is located west of the Cascade Range, bordering the western edge of the Umpqua National Forest. Western Oregon is dominated by evergreen forests, specifically the Douglas-fir, Oregon’s state tree. Most of these forests are managed by either the federal government or private landowners, mostly for timber production. 66)

Figure 78: This astronaut photograph ISS059-E-36598 was acquired on April 28, 2019, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 95 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 59 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Laura Phoebus)
Figure 78: This astronaut photograph ISS059-E-36598 was acquired on April 28, 2019, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 95 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 59 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Laura Phoebus)

- The checkerboard pattern is the result of the land use history of parcels previously owned by the Oregon and California (O&C) Railroad from the 1860s to the 1930s. The O&C lands were originally granted every other square mile and interspersed with privately owned land, within 20 to 30 miles (32 to 48 km) of each side of a proposed railroad line.

- Since 1946, the O&C lands have been administered by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the U.S. Forest Service. Most of these federal lands are now forested and appear dark green. The brown patches adjacent to them are privately owned lands with more intensive timber harvesting.

- The sizes and shapes of the cleared land conforms to the topography of the area or are cut to adhere to stream and wetland buffers, wildlife habitats, or logging roads. Oregon limits clear-cuts to 120 acres (49 hectares), and the adjacent patches under the same ownership cannot be cleared until the reseeded trees in the original harvest site are well established. The state follows reforestation rules put in place to ensure a sustainable cycle of harvesting.

• June 25, 2019: NASA astronaut Anne McClain and two of her Expedition 59 crewmates returned to Earth from the International Space Station Monday, landing safely in Kazakhstan at 10:47 p.m. EDT (8:47 a.m. Tuesday, June 25, local time) after months of science and four spacewalks aboard the microgravity laboratory. 67)

- McClain, Expedition 59/Soyuz Commander Oleg Kononenko of the Russian space agency Roscosmos and David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency launched Dec. 3, 2018. They arrived at the space station just six hours later to begin their 204-day mission, during which they orbited Earth 3,264 times traveling 86,430,555 miles.

- After post-landing medical checks, McClain and Saint-Jacques will return to Houston and Kononenko to Star City, Russia.

- The Expedition 59 crew contributed to hundreds of experiments in biology, biotechnology, physical science and Earth science, including investigations into small devices that replicate the structure and function of human organs, editing DNA in space for the first time and recycling 3D-printed material.

- McClain, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army and native of Spokane, Washington, conducted two spacewalks totaling 13 hours and 8 minutes on her mission into space.

- Saint-Jacques, also on his first space mission and only the sixth Canadian astronaut to perform a spacewalk, joined McClain on her second outing, which totaled 6 hours and 29 minutes. Kononenko, on his fourth mission, conducted two spacewalks totaling 13 hours and 46 minutes, bringing his career total to 32 hours and 13 minutes spread over five spacewalks.

- When their Soyuz MS-11 spacecraft undocked at 7:25 p.m., Expedition 60 began aboard the station officially, with Nick Hague and Christina Koch of NASA as flight engineers, and Alexey Ovchinin of Roscosmos as the station’s commander.

- The next residents to arrive at the space station – Andrew Morgan of NASA, Luca Parmitano of ESA (European Space Agency) and Alexander Skvortsov of Roscosmos – will launch aboard Soyuz MS-13 on July 20, from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and join Expedition 60 after a six-hour flight.

Figure 79: NASA astronaut Anne McClain is assisted out of the Soyuz MS-11 that returned her and crewmates Oleg Kononenko of the Russian space agency Roscosmos and David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency back to Earth on June 24, 2019, landing in a remote area near Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, after 204 days aboard the International Space Station (image credit: NASA)
Figure 79: NASA astronaut Anne McClain is assisted out of the Soyuz MS-11 that returned her and crewmates Oleg Kononenko of the Russian space agency Roscosmos and David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency back to Earth on June 24, 2019, landing in a remote area near Zhezkazgan, Kazakhstan, after 204 days aboard the International Space Station (image credit: NASA)

• June 18, 2019: Biomedicine and physics topped the research schedule aboard the International Space Station today. The Expedition 59 crew also checked out U.S. spacesuits while preparing a Russian crew ship for return to Earth next week. 68)

- NASA is preparing for human missions to the Moon, Mars and beyond. The astronauts aboard the orbiting lab are helping scientists keep crews healthy and engineers design safer, more advanced spacecraft.

- Astronauts Anne McClain and David Saint-Jacques started Tuesday morning collecting blood, urine and body swab samples for the Standard Measures study. They stowed the samples in a science freezer for later analysis to help doctors understand how humans respond to microgravity.

- The Genes In Space-6 (GIS-6) experiment had another run today inside Europe’s Columbus laboratory module. Christina Koch of NASA set up the Biomolecule Sequencer to sequence DNA samples during the morning. The DNA research seeks to understand how space radiation mutates DNA and assesses the molecular level repair process.

- She and Saint-Jacques also took turns resizing U.S. spacesuits and swapping out components. Mission managers are planning more spacewalks later this year for battery and science hardware maintenance.

- Flight Engineer Nick Hague spent most of Tuesday running the Capillary Structures study to observe how fluid and gas mixtures behave inside structures designed for microgravity. Today’s operations demonstrated fluid flows with potential applications for advanced life support systems in space.

- Commander Oleg Kononenko continues inventorying gear and trash for packing inside the Soyuz MS-11 spacecraft. He will complete a 204-day mission with McClain and Saint-Jacques when they parachute to a landing in Kazakhstan on June 24 scheduled for 10:48 p.m. EDT (June 25 8:48 a.m. Kazakh time).

Figure 80: NASA astronaut Christina Koch works on the Capillary Structures experiment studying how to manage fluid and gas mixtures for more reliable life support systems in space (image credit: NASA)
Figure 80: NASA astronaut Christina Koch works on the Capillary Structures experiment studying how to manage fluid and gas mixtures for more reliable life support systems in space (image credit: NASA)

• June 18, 2019: Using a short lens to give a wide view, an astronaut on the International Space Station (ISS) focused on at least a dozen thin lines stretching across the North Pacific Ocean near the Aleutian Islands. The thin lines were first interpreted to be contrails, but a former Naval oceanographer (now an ISS payload scientist) in the NASA’s Earth Science and Remote Sensing (ESRS) office recognized them as ship tracks. A solar panel of the ISS cuts into the top right of the photograph. 69)

- Ship tracks generally form under stable, fairly calm atmospheric conditions where there is a temperature inversion (warm air above the layer of cooler air). Particles emitted from the smoke stacks of ships are carried up into the atmosphere and act as cloud condensation nuclei in the low-level clouds. Water molecules cling to these particles and make smaller and denser cloud droplets within stable marine-layer air masses. The cloud lines trace out the curved trajectories of ships. This is a well-known phenomenon to scientists and weather forecasters who study the atmosphere and aerosols.

- Under light wind conditions, ship tracks can remain visible for many hours. The same cloud patterns and ship tracks were also visible that day in imagery from the MODIS instrument on NASA’s Terra satellite.

Figure 81: This astronaut photograph ISS059-E-36734 was acquired on April 28, 2019, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 24 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 59 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by M. Justin Wilkinson)
Figure 81: This astronaut photograph ISS059-E-36734 was acquired on April 28, 2019, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 24 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 59 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by M. Justin Wilkinson)

• June 14, 2019: Everyone is used to living with smarter devices. But imagine living in a smart city where everything from public transport to city lamps are efficient and sustainable. This seemingly simple image of northern Italy from Earth orbit is one of the ways space is paving the way for cities to get smarter. 70)

- Doorbells, refrigerators and toothbrushes are everyday devices that are now controllable, customizable and designed to make your life run more efficiently by collecting and relaying data using telecommunications satellites. Other space technology is helping to collect valuable data that can result in larger scale changes for cities. Take one of humankind’s greatest achievement in space so far, the International Space Station.

- Astronauts routinely snap photos of Earth from the orbital outpost, and not just for the likes and retweets. Photographs like this one of northern Italy, taken by ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano during his 2013 mission, provide vital data about city efficiency and sustainability.

- Researchers have devised a method to assess the environmental impact of artificial light on humans, animals, and the surrounding environment using one of the few sources of publicly-accessible night images of Earth in color: pictures taken by the astronauts from the International Space Station.

- City lights are disruptive not only for the lives of nocturnal animals, who suffer from disorientation and behavioral and physiological changes, but also for people. An excess of artificial light before bedtime reduces melatonin production, a hormone linked to sleep. This suppression can lead to negative effects on our health, including breast and prostate cancer. In addition, streetlights account for a large chunk of a country’s energy consumption. As the world grapples with climate change and cleaner sources of energy, how that energy is put to use is a bright topic.

- Cities at Night is an online platform that invites citizens to flip through the half a million photographs of Earth at night taken so far by astronauts from the Space Station to identify cities. The end result of Cities at Night will be map of Earth that is accessible to anyone. Researchers want to use the map to locate energy inefficiencies in urban cities to urge dimming of the lights. A case in point is the city of Milan. The city replaced their orange sodium lamps with white LEDs. Comparisons of Milan from night as seen from space before and after the change has shown that the white light is worse for the local environment.

- The data retrieved from these images is vital to drawing risk maps for artificial lighting that can help guide city officials in these types of decisions. And that’s just smart.

- More than half the world’s population live in cities. Space plays an important role in urban innovation, improving the quality of life of millions – and potentially billions – of people. This week, we take a look at what ESA is doing to benefit city dwellers. Join the conversation online by following the hashtag #SmartCities.

Figure 82: Northern Italy at night. The two big bright spots in the image are Turin at left and Milan at right (image credit: ESA, NASA)
Figure 82: Northern Italy at night. The two big bright spots in the image are Turin at left and Milan at right (image credit: ESA, NASA)

• June 11, 2019: An astronaut onboard the International Space Station (ISS) captured this downward-looking (nadir) photograph of the Amistad Reservoir, which is on the border of Mexico and Texas. The reservoir is located just west of the city of Del Rio. It was created in 1969 with the completion of the Amistad Dam, built at the confluence of the Rio Grande and Devils River in order to store water and prevent local flooding. 71)

Figure 83: The astronaut photograph ISS059-E-35758 was acquired on April 25, 2019, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 116 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 59 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Sarah Deitrick)
Figure 83: The astronaut photograph ISS059-E-35758 was acquired on April 25, 2019, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 116 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 59 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Sarah Deitrick)

- The lake and river levels regularly fluctuate due to rainfall or drought. When water depth is at the conservation pool level, Amistad is the second largest lake in Texas. However, the last time the reservoir hit conservation pool level was in 2011. The area is currently abnormally dry (according to the U.S. Drought Monitor), and the reservoir level is 32 feet below the 2011 level (data as of June 4, 2019.)

- The U.S. portion of the reservoir and surrounding land is known as the Amistad National Recreation Area, and it is home to a unique combination of flora and fauna. There are three major plant communities in the area—Tamaulipan Shrubland, Chihuahuan Desert, and Edwards Plateau—as well as two major climate zones (temperate and tropical), making for significant biodiversity in the park. The area is also a waypoint for seasonal migrations of animals and insects, with the most significant being Monarch butterflies. Thousands of Monarchs pass through the area each October on their way to the mountains of central Mexico.

• June 11, 2019: In the age of social media, no new experience goes undocumented. On Earth, we fill our camera rolls with weekends away, social events and time spent with family and friends. But just imagine how many photos you might take if you lived and worked in space. 72)

- With its incredible outlook on Earth below, the Cupola is a favorite spot for astronauts onboard the International Space Station. And, with just two weeks before they return to Earth on 24 June, astronauts Anne McClain and David Saint-Jacques and cosmonaut Oleg Kononeko will be taking every opportunity to capture that great view.

Figure 84: NASA astronaut Anne McClain in the Cupola module of the International Space Station takes a break while practising Canadarm2 robotics and Cygnus spacecraft capture techniques, 16 April 2019 (image credit: NASA)
Figure 84: NASA astronaut Anne McClain in the Cupola module of the International Space Station takes a break while practising Canadarm2 robotics and Cygnus spacecraft capture techniques, 16 April 2019 (image credit: NASA)

- While the images are breathtaking, what you might not realize is their value in looking after the planet we call home. What is more, you can get involved right here on Earth through citizen mapping project Cities at Night. This European project aims to build the first-ever real color map of Earth at night by calling on everyday citizens to help classify, locate and georeference pictures taken by astronauts and more than 17,000 citizens have contributed to date.

- For now, it is time to shine a spotlight on the past two weeks in space.

Learning from Lights

- City lights are not only disruptive for the lives of nocturnal animals, who suffer from disorientation and behavioral and physiological changes, but also for people. An excess of artificial light before bedtime reduces melatonin production, a hormone linked to sleep. This suppression can lead to negative effects on our health, including breast and prostate cancer. Streetlights also account for a large chunk of a country’s energy consumption.

Figure 85: ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst took this photo from the International Space Station during his Horizons mission and commented: "We need this project for sustainable peace on our home continent and beyond. So we better not take it for granted." - Horizons lasted six months in space during which Alexander conducted over 60 European experiments, became the second ever European commander of the International Space Station, welcomed six resupply vehicles, installed the first commercial facility for research in the Columbus laboratory, delivered an important message on climate change for leaders at the COP24 climate change conference, captured real-time footage of a Soyuz launch abort and much, much more.- Horizons was Alexander’s second mission to the International Space Station – the first was Blue Dot in 2014 (image credit: ESA/NASA)
Figure 85: ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst took this photo from the International Space Station during his Horizons mission and commented: "We need this project for sustainable peace on our home continent and beyond. So we better not take it for granted." - Horizons lasted six months in space during which Alexander conducted over 60 European experiments, became the second ever European commander of the International Space Station, welcomed six resupply vehicles, installed the first commercial facility for research in the Columbus laboratory, delivered an important message on climate change for leaders at the COP24 climate change conference, captured real-time footage of a Soyuz launch abort and much, much more.- Horizons was Alexander’s second mission to the International Space Station – the first was Blue Dot in 2014 (image credit: ESA/NASA)

- Aside from a few composite images from ESA’s Rosetta satellite, photos of Earth at night taken by astronauts onboard the International Space Station are the only color images of their kind freely available for public use. NASA has a public database with over 1.3 million color photographs taken by astronauts since 2003 and researchers are now using these nocturnal images to assess the environmental impact of artificial light using a mathematical technique called synthetic photometry.

- Synthetic photometry enables researchers to identify light sources in night-time images captured by astronauts under different light conditions and camera settings. The results give precise information about how the color and brightness of street lamps can suppress melatonin production or obstruct the vision of the stars.

Eye in the Sky

- Continuing the theme of Earth observation, ASIM (Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor) operations are also ongoing this month. You may recall commissioning activities for ASIM concluded 18 June 2018. That means the facility is now about to enter the second year of a two-year operational period.

- Located on external payload platform of Europe’s Columbus module, ASIM aids the study of severe thunderstorms and their role in Earth’s atmosphere and climate. The ASIM platform consists of two instruments: the Modular Multi-Spectral Imaging Array (MMIA) and the Modular X and Gamma Ray Sensor (MXGS). It measures the region of the atmosphere within and above severe thunderstorms including high-altitude electrical discharges in the stratosphere and mesosphere, intracloud lightning in the troposphere, gravity waves, and creation of high-altitude clouds. It is operated from the ground and is already producing exciting results.

Figure 86: Lightning illuminates the area it strikes on Earth but the flash can be seen from space, too. This image was taken from 400 km above Earth in 2012 by an astronaut on the International Space Station travelling at 28,800 km/h. At these distances a camera flash is pointless to take night-time images of Earth, but our planet moves by so quickly images can end up being blurred. - ESA’s Nightpod camera aid compensates for the motion of the Station, allowing for crystal-clear night images such as these. The target stays firmly centered in the frame, so the final image is in focus. Astronauts can set up the device to take ultra-sharp images automatically using off-the-shelf cameras (image credit: ESA/NASA)
Figure 86: Lightning illuminates the area it strikes on Earth but the flash can be seen from space, too. This image was taken from 400 km above Earth in 2012 by an astronaut on the International Space Station travelling at 28,800 km/h. At these distances a camera flash is pointless to take night-time images of Earth, but our planet moves by so quickly images can end up being blurred. - ESA’s Nightpod camera aid compensates for the motion of the Station, allowing for crystal-clear night images such as these. The target stays firmly centered in the frame, so the final image is in focus. Astronauts can set up the device to take ultra-sharp images automatically using off-the-shelf cameras (image credit: ESA/NASA)

Figure 87: A short video timelapse of this sequence is provided showing the thunderstorm passing underneath the International Space Station (video credit: ESA/NASA)

Flood, Fluids and Antioxidants

- Summing up two weeks of science on the Space Station is a tricky task and it would be impossible to cover every activity every time. But there are at least three more European experiments that deserve a mention in this edition.

Figure 88: ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet works on the Fluidics experiment inside the Space Station's European Columbus laboratory. - Posting on social media, Thomas wrote: "The spheres for the Fluidics experiment. One liquid is to help get every drop of fuel out of satellite fuel-tanks, the other liquid is to understand surface turbulence in liquids. By looking at surface turbulence without gravity interfering researchers can single out what influences behavior that forms ripples. This could help us better understand ocean currents and wave formation on Earth"(image credit: ESA/NASA)
Figure 88: ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet works on the Fluidics experiment inside the Space Station's European Columbus laboratory. - Posting on social media, Thomas wrote: "The spheres for the Fluidics experiment. One liquid is to help get every drop of fuel out of satellite fuel-tanks, the other liquid is to understand surface turbulence in liquids. By looking at surface turbulence without gravity interfering researchers can single out what influences behavior that forms ripples. This could help us better understand ocean currents and wave formation on Earth"(image credit: ESA/NASA)

- Early this month NASA astronaut Christina Koch performed multiple runs of French experiment Fluidics, designed to better understand how fluids behave in weightlessness. The objectives of these sessions were to power on and test the Fluidics system after an anomaly encountered during a previous session and to observe the behavior of fluids in two new tanks where different wave breaker systems were inserted.

- The algae selected for this experiment, chlorella vulgaris, is single-celled, spherical and can be cultivated in pumped loops to produce oxygen and edible biomass from carbon dioxide and water. It requires regular nutrients to support its growth, as well as exposure to light.

- Understanding the underlying physics of how liquids move in space will not only improve fuel economy for spacecraft, but also enhance our understanding of Earth’s ocean currents and our climate as a whole.

Figure 89: PhotoBioreactor on Space Station. If we are to travel farther for longer, it will also be important to generate our own sustainable supplies of food and oxygen in space. The German Aerospace Center DLR experiment PhotoBioreactor on the International Space Station includes algae to convert carbon dioxide to breathable oxygen and edible algae in space. - The algae selected for this experiment, chlorella vulgaris, is single-celled, spherical and can be cultivated in pumped loops to produce oxygen and edible biomass from carbon dioxide and water. It requires regular nutrients to support its growth, as well as exposure to light (image credit: NASA)
Figure 89: PhotoBioreactor on Space Station. If we are to travel farther for longer, it will also be important to generate our own sustainable supplies of food and oxygen in space. The German Aerospace Center DLR experiment PhotoBioreactor on the International Space Station includes algae to convert carbon dioxide to breathable oxygen and edible algae in space. - The algae selected for this experiment, chlorella vulgaris, is single-celled, spherical and can be cultivated in pumped loops to produce oxygen and edible biomass from carbon dioxide and water. It requires regular nutrients to support its growth, as well as exposure to light (image credit: NASA)

- Another recent highlight was the transfer of Nano Antioxidant containers to SpaceX’s Dragon CRS-17 spacecraft that returned to Earth on 3 June. Through this experiment, researchers are looking for novel ways to stimulate cells in the battle against muscle loss, heart failure, diabetes or Parkinson’s disease. Going down to the genetic level, scientists hope to find a tailored solution that will stop the detrimental effects of long stays in Earth orbit and in deep space. Read more about that here.

Looking Ahead

- As ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano continues his pre-mission training on Earth, Anne, David and Oleg are preparing to return. But whether astronauts are about to be launched or recently returned, science is high on the agenda. Find out more about baseline data collection on Alexander Gerst’s mission blog.

 

• June 11, 2019: As your dog drags you around the block for his morning walk, you’re probably not thinking about the wonders of the neighborhood sidewalk. But that concrete is pretty great. Next to water, it’s the most widely used material on Earth. In the future, concrete may be equally useful off the planet — when humans construct a permanent base on the moon. They’ll need sturdy stuff that can weather bombardments from solar radiation and meteorites. No one wants a crack in their moon base! 73)

Figure 90: Experiments have taken place aboard the International Space Station to study cement based concrete in microgravity (video credit: Science@NASA)

- The key to making ‘out-of-this-world’ concrete may be to study it ... out of this world. Two experiments have taken place aboard the International Space Station (ISS) to do just that. The Microgravity Investigation of Cement Solidification (MICS) and Multi-use Variable-g Processing Facility (MVP Cell-05). Researchers from Pennsylvania State University and NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center are analyzing the studies’ results.

- Concrete is a mixture of sand, gravel, and rocks ‘glued’ together by cement paste made of water and cement powder. And it’s not as mundane as it looks. Under the surface, it’s quite complex. What goes on there is key to its strength and durability. Yet scientists still don’t understand all the details of concrete’s chemistry and microscopic structure. Processing methods aren’t ‘cast in stone’; there’s plenty of room for improvement.

- Aleksandra Radlinska, Principal Investigator for both experiments, says, “Our experiments are focused on the cement paste that holds the concrete mixture together. We want to know what grows inside cement-based concrete when there is no gravity driven phenomenon, such as sedimentation.”

- It all begins when water is added to the cement. To put it very simply, the cement’s molecular structure changes when the cement grains dissolve. Radlinska explains, “As the ‘old’ molecules dissolve, calcium silicate hydrate and calcium hydroxide start to crystallize.”

- Myriads of these tiny crystals form all through the mixture, interlocking with one another and with the other concrete ingredients, such as gravel. The ISS experiments are researching how this all plays out in space.

- Radlinska says, “It could change the distribution of the crystalline microstructure, and ultimately the material properties.”

- The ratio of the water/cement powder is critical to making the concrete components combine effectively and determining the strength and durability of the final concrete. Will this ratio need to be different on the moon, where gravity is about 1/6th of Earth’s? That’s the kind of question the experiments will shed light on.

- For the MICS experiment, astronauts added water to a series of packets containing dry cement powder, then added alcohol to some of the packets to stop the hydration process at specified times. For MVP Cell-05, astronauts also hydrated dry cement, but for this experiment they used a centrifuge on-board the ISS to simulate gravity at a number of strengths, including lunar gravity and Martian gravity. For both experiments, the samples were returned to Earth for analysis.

- “We’re already seeing and documenting unexpected results,” says Marshall’s Richard Grugel, co-Principal Investigator for MVP Cell-05. Radlinska adds, “What we find could lead to improvements in concrete both in space and on Earth. Since cement is used extensively around the world, even a small improvement could have a tremendous impact.”

- We might even end up with better sidewalks for walking our dogs.

 

• June 7, 2019: NASA is opening the International Space Station for commercial business so U.S. industry innovation and ingenuity can accelerate a thriving commercial economy in low-Earth orbit. 74)

- This move comes as NASA focuses full speed ahead on its goal of landing the first woman and next man on the Moon by 2024, where American companies also will play an essential role in establishing a sustainable presence.

- NASA officials, including the agency’s Chief Financial Officer Jeff DeWit, will discuss details of the five-part near-term plan in a news conference at 10 a.m. EDT today. The news conference will air live on NASA Television and the agency’s website.

Figure 91: During a June 7 news conference at Nasdaq in New York City, NASA announced that the International Space Station is now open for commercial business. A new policy provides the opportunity for up to two short-duration private astronaut missions to the space station beginning as early as 2020, if the market supports it. The policy also, for the first time, includes prices for use of U.S. government resources to pursue commercial and marketing activities aboard the station. The agency’s goal is to foster a robust ecosystem in low-Earth orbit through which it can purchase services as one of many customers. This will allow NASA to focus resources on its Artemis missions to land the first woman and next man on the Moon by 2024 (video credit: NASA, Published on 7 June 2019)

- NASA will continue research and testing in low-Earth orbit to inform its lunar exploration plans, while also working with the private sector to test technologies, train astronauts and strengthen the burgeoning space economy. Providing expanded opportunities at the International Space Station to manufacture, market and promote commercial products and services will help catalyze and expand space exploration markets for many businesses.

- The agency’s ultimate goal in low-Earth orbit is to partner with industry to achieve a strong ecosystem in which NASA is one of many customers purchasing services and capabilities at lower cost.

- NASA’s plan addresses both the supply-side and demand-side for a new economy, enabling use of government resources for commercial activities, creating the opportunity for private astronaut missions to the space station, enabling commercial destinations in low-Earth orbit, identifying and pursuing activities that foster new and emerging markets, and quantifying NASA’s long-term demand for activities in low-Earth orbit.

Figure 92: The International Space Station photographed by Expedition 56 crew members from a Soyuz spacecraft after undocking, Oct. 4, 2018 (image credit: NASA)
Figure 92: The International Space Station photographed by Expedition 56 crew members from a Soyuz spacecraft after undocking, Oct. 4, 2018 (image credit: NASA)

Commercial Activities Onboard

- More than 50 companies already are conducting commercial research and development on the space station via the International Space Station U.S. National Laboratory, and their results are yielding great promise. In addition, NASA has worked with 11 different companies to install 14 commercial facilities on the station that support research and development projects for NASA and the ISS National Lab.

- This effort is intended to broaden the scope of commercial activity on the space station beyond the ISS National Lab mandate, which is limited to research and development. A new NASA directive will enable commercial manufacturing and production and allow both NASA and private astronauts to conduct new commercial activities aboard the orbiting laboratory. The directive also sets prices for industry use of U.S. government resources on the space station for commercial and marketing activities.

- Pricing released Friday (7 June) is specific to commercial and marketing activities enabled by the new directive, reflects a representative cost to NASA, and is designed to encourage the emergence of new markets. As NASA learns how these new markets respond, the agency will reassess the pricing and amount of available resources approximately every six months and make adjustments as necessary.

- To qualify, commercial and marketing activities must either:

a) require the unique microgravity environment to enable manufacturing, production or development of a commercial application;

b) have a connection to NASA’s mission; or

c) support the development of a sustainable low-Earth orbit economy.

- NASA’s directive enabling commercial and marketing activities aboard the space station addresses manufacturing, production, transportation, and marketing of commercial resources and goods, including products intended for commercial sale on Earth. NASA astronauts will be able to conduct coordinated, scheduled and reimbursable commercial and marketing activities consistent with government ethics requirements aboard the station.

- To ensure a competitive market, NASA initially is making available five percent of the agency’s annual allocation of crew resources and cargo capability, including 90 hours of crew time and 175 kg of cargo launch capability, but will limit the amount provided to any one company.

Private Astronaut Missions

- NASA also is enabling private astronaut missions of up to 30 days on the International Space Station to perform duties that fall into the approved commercial and marketing activities outlined in the directive released Friday, with the first mission as early as 2020. A new NASA Research Announcement focus area issued today outlines the path for those future private astronaut missions.

- If supported by the market, the agency can accommodate up to two short-duration private astronaut missions per year to the International Space Station. These missions will be privately funded, dedicated commercial spaceflights. Private astronaut missions will use a U.S. spacecraft developed under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.

- The commercial entity developing the mission will determine crew composition for each mission and ensure private astronauts meet NASA’s medical standards and the training and certification procedures for International Space Station crew members. Market studies identified private astronaut missions to low-Earth orbit as a key element to demonstrate demand and reduce risk for future commercial destinations in low-Earth orbit.

Commercial Destinations in Low-Earth Orbit

- In the long-term, NASA’s goal is to become one of many customers purchasing services from independent, commercial and free-flying habitable destinations in low-Earth orbit. A robust low-Earth orbit economy will need multiple commercial destinations, and NASA is partnering with industry to pursue dual paths to that objective that either go through the space station or directly to a free-flying destination.

- As a first step, NASA is making one space station port and utilities available for industry to attach a commercial module to support commercial activities, and today is releasing a synopsis as Appendix I in NASA’s Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships (NextSTEP) 2 Broad Agency Announcement (BAA). NASA expects to release the solicitation June 14, with awards made by the end of the fiscal year. The forward port of the station’s Harmony module will be available to industry for a finite period of time.

- NASA will follow up with a synopsis for NextSTEP 2 Appendix K in July to partner with industry in the development of future free-flying commercial stations in low-Earth orbit.

Stimulate Sustainable Demand

- NASA continues to seek and pursue opportunities to stimulate sustainable commercial demand in low-Earth orbit and, to that end, has added two new focus areas to the NASA Research Announcement soliciting proposals for commercial concepts. these focus areas include in-space manufacturing, regenerative medicine, bioengineering, and other fields that may lead to a scalable, financially self-sustaining demand for low-Earth orbit capabilities.

- In addition, NASA is seeking targeted studies to better understand real and perceived barriers of potential new market entrants and to address broad ideas which could help stimulate demand. Successful proposals will define the path to broadly foster market growth, provide data-driven rationale to support the defined path, and lead to recommendations on which NASA, industry or other organizations could act. More details are available in the synopsis for NextSTEP 2 BAA Appendix J. NASA expects to release the solicitation for Appendix J on June 14 with awards made by the end of the fiscal year.

- NASA also is working to increase the research and development community’s understanding of the potential value of microgravity research and the path to conducting research in low-Earth orbit by coordinating across the microgravity community to lower barriers to entry and refinement of research via drop towers, parabolic, and suborbital flights.

Quantify NASA’s Long-term Demand

- NASA is providing a forecast of its minimum long-term, low-Earth orbit requirements, representing the type and amount of services that NASA intends to purchase when those services become commercially available. The goal is to reduce uncertainty for commercial destination providers about NASA as a customer, and to help them make decisions about which NASA requirements they are interested in fulfilling.

- NASA also is providing details and estimated quantities for NASA crew accommodation, human research, biological and physical science research, technology demonstrations, and hosted science instruments. In addition, NASA intends to continue purchasing services for a national laboratory capability in low-Earth orbit. For example, NASA’s strategy research in the areas of space biology, physical sciences, and fundamental physics is driven by recommendations from the National Academy of Sciences (NAS). Fundamental research and applied exploration research are not mutually exclusive, and advances in one area often enable advancements in the other. NASA’s Space Life and Physical Sciences Research Applications division has identified the highest research priorities for long-term use of low-Earth orbit: in life sciences, the priorities are studies of plants, model organisms, and of the microbiome of the built environment; and in physical sciences, the priorities are studies into combustion and phase change-associated energy transfer.

- To improve the agency’s five-part plan and its effectiveness, NASA is seeking feedback from industry and others through a request for information, with responses due by July 3.

- For more than 18 years, humans have lived and worked aboard the International Space Station, conducting thousands of experiments in areas such as human research, biology, and physical science, as well as advanced technology development. Many of these experiments, conducted via the ISS National Lab, have been research and development with commercial objectives. New opportunities are needed to move beyond research and development, and the station will play an essential role in enabling those opportunities for new commercial markets needed to build a sustainable ecosystem in low-Earth orbit.

- Learn more about opportunities for commercial activities aboard the International Space Station: https://www.nasa.gov/leo-economy/low-earth-orbit-economy

 

• June 4, 2019: An astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) aimed a camera towards the Rocky Mountains to capture this image of Flathead Lake. The lake we see today on the western edge of Flathead National Forest is a remnant of Glacial Lake Missoula. 75)

- For hundreds to thousands of years, the Salish, Kootenai, and Pend d’Oreille tribes have hunted, foraged, and fished on land now included within the Flathead Indian Reservation. Today cherry orchards line Flathead Lake and they are irrigated by water from the basin. These orchards, along with others in surrounding cities, contribute to an annual sweet cherry production of 4 million pounds.

- Native and migratory birds like the bald eagle, the Canada goose, terns, and sandhill cranes use the islands, shorelines, and surrounding uplands of Flathead Lake as overwintering and breeding grounds. Wild Horse Island, the largest in the lake, was reportedly once used by the Kootenai tribe to hide horses in order to protect them from enemies.

Figure 93: Flathead is located within a depression known as the Rocky Mountain Trench, and it is one of the largest freshwater lakes west of the Mississippi River in the continental United States. The lighter-toned parts of the lake are due to the inflow of sediment from seasonal snow melt. The meandering Flathead River, which flows south into the lake, has created multiple sloughs (also known as oxbows) along its course (image credit: Astronaut photograph ISS059-E-36857 was acquired on April 29, 2019, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 240 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 59 crew)
Figure 93: Flathead is located within a depression known as the Rocky Mountain Trench, and it is one of the largest freshwater lakes west of the Mississippi River in the continental United States. The lighter-toned parts of the lake are due to the inflow of sediment from seasonal snow melt. The meandering Flathead River, which flows south into the lake, has created multiple sloughs (also known as oxbows) along its course (image credit: Astronaut photograph ISS059-E-36857 was acquired on April 29, 2019, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 240 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 59 crew)

• May 16, 2019: An astronaut onboard the International Space Station took this photograph of Luzon, the largest island in the Philippines. The Republic of the Philippines is comprised of thousands of islands. Most of the country’s population (about 100 million people) live on just eleven of those islands, with more than half living on Luzon. 76)

- Mountain ranges and valleys trend north-south across the island. (Note that north is to the lower left in this photo.) The Cordillera Central is Luzon’s tallest and longest range, with broad river valleys on either side.

- Mount Pinatubo is one of many volcanoes making up the Zambales Volcanic Range in western Luzon. Lahars from Pinatubo’s famous 1991 eruption extend down in a pinwheel-like pattern from the volcano’s peak. Subduction zones located on either side of the Philippine island chain put large populations of people at risk from earthquakes and volcanic hazards. The islands are also battered by typhoons nearly every year.

- In the photo of Figure 94, smoke is blowing west (to the right in this view) off the Cordillera Central. Thermal anomalies detected by the Suomi NPP satellite indicate the presence of fires nearby. According to government sources, most of the fires in the Cordillera can be attributed to slash-and-burn farming, as well as other human causes.

Figure 94: The astronaut photograph ISS058-E-13490 was acquired on February 14, 2019, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 24 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 58 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Andrea Meado)
Figure 94: The astronaut photograph ISS058-E-13490 was acquired on February 14, 2019, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 24 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 58 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Andrea Meado)

• April 23, 2019: An astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) took this oblique photograph that shows most of the West African country of Guinea-Bissau, along with neighboring Guinea (lower right), The Gambia and Senegal (top left), and the southern part of Mauritania. 77)

- From ISS altitude, astronauts can see different climate zones in a single view. This scene stretches from the green forest vegetation and wet climates of the Atlantic coast to the almost vegetation-less landscapes of the Sahara Desert. Guinea-Bissau has approximately 60 percent forest cover, in contrast to Mauritania, which has less than 1 percent forest cover.

- The image (Figure 95) shows several physiographic details of Guinea-Bissau. The islands of the Bijagos Archipelago and estuaries of the coastline stand out. The Bijago Islands provide refuge for sea turtles and certain migratory bird species. The Rio Corubal enters the sea and deposits a muddy load of sediment in the waters near the capital city of Bissau. Haze across the center of the image is smoke from agricultural burning or wildfires.

- Languages make a complex mosaic in the region. Colonial-era languages are important, with Portuguese in Guinea-Bissau, French in Guinea and Senegal, and English in The Gambia. According to the Addis Herald, several native African languages are spoken in Guinea-Bissau, with Bijagó restricted to the Bijagos Islands. By contrast, the Fulani language and its relatives are spoken from Guinea-Bissau to villages as far east as the Sudan.

Figure 95: The astronaut photograph ISS058-E-10724 was acquired on February 6, 2019, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 50 millimeter lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 58 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by M. Justin Wilkinson)
Figure 95: The astronaut photograph ISS058-E-10724 was acquired on February 6, 2019, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 50 millimeter lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 58 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by M. Justin Wilkinson)

• April 14, 2019: While orbiting over South America, an astronaut on the International Space Station shot this photograph of the Atacama Desert and the numerous salt flats in the Andes Mountains along the border of Chile and Bolivia. The centerpiece is the Salar de Uyuni, the largest salt flat on Earth. It regularly captures the attention of astronauts due to its high contrast against the brown landscape. 78)

- Salar de Uyuni and its smaller neighbor, Salar de Coipasa, have darker tones along their edges in this image. These dried lake beds are typically bright white in color, but rainfall can bring an influx of dark volcanic sediments. The region experienced rainfall in early February 2019, which caused temporary discoloration of the salars. By the time this image was taken in March 2019, the flats had started to shift back to their lighter colors.

- Nearby, the much smaller Laguna Colorada displays bright hues thanks to algae that thrive in the salty water. To the west and northwest of the lake, some of the white dots are snow-capped volcanoes and mountains.

- The salars receive less than 200 mm of rainfall per year. In contrast, the cloud-covered parts of Bolivia (north of the salars) see more than 1,750 mm of rain annually. The Andes Mountains create a rain shadow effect along the coast of northern Chile and western Bolivia, as air masses carrying moisture from the east drop most of their water before cooling and moving up over the mountains.

- Along the coast, the Atacama Desert is one of the driest places on Earth, sometimes going years without rainfall. NASA uses the Atacama Desert to test rovers and other instruments because the area is a good analogue for future astrobiological exploration of Mars.

Figure 96: The astronaut photograph ISS059-E-517 was acquired on 17 March 2019, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 24 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 59 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Andrea Meado)
Figure 96: The astronaut photograph ISS059-E-517 was acquired on 17 March 2019, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 24 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 59 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Andrea Meado)

• April 8, 2019: Expedition 59 Flight Engineers Anne McClain of NASA and David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency concluded their spacewalk at 2 p.m. EDT. During the six-and-a-half-hour spacewalk, the two astronauts successfully established a redundant path of power to the Canadian-built robotic arm, known as Canadarm2, and installed cables to provide for more expansive wireless communications coverage outside the orbital complex, as well as for enhanced hardwired computer network capability. The duo also relocated an adapter plate from the first spacewalk in preparation for future battery upgrade operations. 79)

Figure 97: Astronauts Anne McClain (left) and David Saint-Jacques work outside the International Space Station during their spacewalk on April 8, 2019 (image credit: NASA)
Figure 97: Astronauts Anne McClain (left) and David Saint-Jacques work outside the International Space Station during their spacewalk on April 8, 2019 (image credit: NASA)

- This was the third spacewalk in just under a month on the space station. The first two spacewalks installed powerful lithium-ion batteries for one pair of the station’s solar arrays. On March 22, the first spacewalk was completed by McClain and fellow NASA astronaut Nick Hague. On March 28, the second spacewalk was completed by Hague and NASA astronaut Christina Koch.

- David Saint-Jacques became the first Canadian Expedition astronaut to walk in space and the fourth Canadian astronaut to spacewalk overall.

• April 2, 2019: In December 2018, an astronaut on the International Space Station (ISS) took this highly oblique photograph of snow on the eastern Tien Shan and Taklimakan Desert in Central Asia. The Tien Shan (or Tian Shan) is one of the longest continuous mountain ranges in the world, stretching across 1,500 miles (2,500 km) in northwest China, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan. 80)

- The Tien Shan Mountains, sometimes called Central Asia’s Water Tower, provide essential fresh water to the area. Since the Taklimakan Desert is a low-lying basin enclosed by mountain ranges on three sides, a rain shadow keeps the region extremely dry for most of the year.

- The Tien Shan hold many of Asia’s major glaciers. In the spring and summer, the melting of ice and snow replenishes local rivers and transports eroded sediment to valleys. Alluvial fans deposit sediment perpendicular to the surrounding mountain ranges that get reworked, eroded, and transported farther by wind.

- The Taklimakan is dominated by sand dunes with easily mobilized sediments. Winds in this region are capable of producing large dust storms. In this image, snow extends from peaks and valleys of the Tien Shan to the lower desert floor of the Taklimakan Desert. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instruments on NASA’s Terra and Aqua satellites also offer a more quantitative view of snow cover in the region on the same day. Blankets of snow are visible on the desert through dusty haze, which obscures Bosten Lake.

Figure 98: This astronaut photograph ISS057-E-111453 was acquired on December 5, 2018, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 65 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 57 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Andrea Meado)
Figure 98: This astronaut photograph ISS057-E-111453 was acquired on December 5, 2018, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 65 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 57 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Andrea Meado)

• April 2, 2019: Parkinson’s disease affects more than 5 million people on Earth. Research on the International Space Station could provide insight into this chronic neurodegenerative disease and help scientists find ways to treat and prevent it. 81)

Figure 99: In this video, NASA astronaut Serena Auñon-Chancellor narrates as ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Alexander Gerst uses a microscope to examine and photograph the LRRK2 crystals (video credit: NASA/JSC, Published on 2 April 2019)

- The investigation, Crystallization of LRRK2 Under Microgravity Conditions-2 (CASIS PCG 16), grows protein crystals of Leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2) on the space station. A kinase is an enzyme that adds phosphate groups to other molecules as part of the body’s metabolic processes. People with Parkinson’s disease experience increased function of LLRK2, and genetic studies link mutations in the LRRK2 gene to an increased risk of developing Parkinson’s disease. Medications that inhibit LRRK2 are in development, but without knowing the precise structure of this enzyme, such work is like making a key without knowing the shape of the keyhole it must fit.

- Growing LRRK2 crystals on Earth is difficult and does not produce samples with high enough quality for researchers to determine the protein’s shape and structure –the keyhole. Protein crystals grow larger and more uniformly in space, though. Scientists can analyze the larger space-grown crystals to get a better idea of how the disease works and develop drugs – or keys – that target the condition more effectively and with fewer side effects.

- This investigation builds on a previous experiment, CASIS PCG 7. For CASIS PCG 16, the crew used larger sample wells, filled the wells during flight, and monitored the LRRK2 crystals as they grew. In this video, NASA astronaut Serena Auñon-Chancellor narrates as European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Alexander Gerst uses a microscope to examine and photograph the LRRK2 crystals. Gerst interacted in real time with investigators on the ground, including scientists at the Michael J. Fox Foundation, Goethe University Frankfurt in Germany, and University of California San Diego in La Jolla, California.

- This space station research may bring those working to treat and prevent Parkinson’s disease one step closer to finding the right key.

• April 1, 2019: Look again at that Space Station. That’s there. That’s home for a crew of six astronauts. That’s us too. On it every human being lives out their lives, performs science and maintains the spacecraft with the support of a whole team on Earth. 82)

Figure 100: This image of the ISS was taken on 4 October 2018 by Expedition 55 crew as the Soyuz spacecraft started the journey back to Earth. In order to get the best view, the Soyuz diverted its initial descent parameters (image credit: Roscosmos/NASA)
Figure 100: This image of the ISS was taken on 4 October 2018 by Expedition 55 crew as the Soyuz spacecraft started the journey back to Earth. In order to get the best view, the Soyuz diverted its initial descent parameters (image credit: Roscosmos/NASA)

- This week ESA is highlighting the role of the European teams that make a space mission possible - from preparations to launch, from continuous research to testing new equipment.

- Two EVAs (Extra-Vehicular Activity) took place just one week apart, on 22 and 29 March, shortly after the arrival of three new astronauts to arrive at the Space Station. The full crew of six worked together to upgrade the International Space Station’s power storage capacity.

- ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet was the European link to the first spacewalk to replace old nickel-hydrogen batteries with newer, more powerful lithium-ion batteries.

- On Station, Thomas says preparation begins around two weeks ahead, with a set of procedures called the “Road to EVA”.

- “Preparing for a spacewalk will take up two to three hours of your schedule every day. Many people have been involved in the preparation, and the risks are so much higher when you are outside the Space Station,” he explains.

Figure 101: NASA astronaut Christina Koch, in the center of the image, assists fellow astronauts Nick Hague and Anne McClain in their spacesuits shortly before they begin the first spacewalk of their careers. Hague and McClain worked outside, in the vacuum of space, for six hours and 39 minutes on March 22, 2019, to upgrade the International Space Station's power storage capacity (image credit: NASA) 83)
Figure 101: NASA astronaut Christina Koch, in the center of the image, assists fellow astronauts Nick Hague and Anne McClain in their spacesuits shortly before they begin the first spacewalk of their careers. Hague and McClain worked outside, in the vacuum of space, for six hours and 39 minutes on March 22, 2019, to upgrade the International Space Station's power storage capacity (image credit: NASA) 83)

• March 29, 2019: Expedition 59 Flight Engineers Nick Hague and Christina Koch of NASA concluded their spacewalk at 2:27 p.m. EDT. During the six hour and 45-minute spacewalk, the two NASA astronauts successfully connected three newer, more powerful lithium-ion batteries to replace the previous six nickel-hydrogen batteries that provide power for one channel on one pair of the station’s solar arrays. The new batteries provide an improved and more efficient power capacity for operations. 84)

Figure 102: Spacewalker Nick Hague works to upgrade the International Space Station‘s power storage capacity during today’s six hour and 45-minute spacewalk (image credit: NASA TV)
Figure 102: Spacewalker Nick Hague works to upgrade the International Space Station‘s power storage capacity during today’s six hour and 45-minute spacewalk (image credit: NASA TV)

- The astronauts also did work to enable robotic specialists to remove one of the three new lithium ion batteries connected during last Friday’s spacewalk that is not charging properly and replace it with the two older nickel hydrogen batteries. The swap will restore a full power supply to that solar array power channel.

- In addition, the astronauts completed several tasks to prepare the worksite for future spacewalkers who will complete similar operations to upgrade the batteries for the set of solar arrays at the end of the port side of the station’s backbone structure known as the truss. Hague inspected the worksite interfaces for a portable foot restraint a spacewalker uses to anchor themselves during the battery upgrade work while Koch installed fabric handrails to help future spacewalkers move across the worksite.

- This was the second spacewalk for Hague, who now has spent a total of 13 hours and 24 minutes spacewalking. It was the first spacewalk for Koch, who became the 14th female spacewalker.

- Anne McClain and David Saint-Jacques of the Canadian Space Agency are scheduled to conduct another spacewalk April 8 to establish a redundant path of power to the Canadian-built robotic arm, known as Canadarm2, and install cables to provide for more expansive wireless communications coverage outside the orbital complex, as well as for enhanced hardwired computer network capability.

• March 25, 2019: An astronaut aboard the ISS focused a long lens on what may be a unique pattern on Earth for its size and repetitiveness. This series of adjacent agricultural fields is divided into square plots 4.4 kilometers wide, and each square has a “pinwheel” of triangular fields that radiate from a center point. 85)

- The square plots are part of a major resettlement project in Bolivia. The project was intended to help people from the Andes Mountains make a living through agriculture in the forested lowlands—the Tierras Bajas east of the Andes and northeast of the capital city, Santa Cruz de la Sierra.

- Four such square plots occupy the middle of the image within the surrounding older patchwork pattern of linear fields. Small settlements occupy the center of each square. One of Bolivia’s main highways angles across a square through this settlement. The straight highway contrasts with the highly sinuous course of an ancient river nearby. Other ancient channels appear along the right side of the image.

- Geologists now know that all of these channels are remnants of the Rio Grande, a large river that drains out of the Andes. Over thousands of years this river has deposited the sediment that makes the very large flat plain ideal for agriculture. The river also provides access to near-surface water and allows easy transport in all directions.

Figure 103: This astronaut photograph ISS056-E-94529 was acquired on July 10, 2018, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using an 800 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 56 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by M. Justin Wilkinson)
Figure 103: This astronaut photograph ISS056-E-94529 was acquired on July 10, 2018, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using an 800 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 56 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by M. Justin Wilkinson)

• March 15, 2019: Three crew members have arrived safely at the International Space Station, following a successful launch and docking of their Soyuz MS-12 spacecraft Thursday, 14 March 2019. 86)

- The Soyuz spacecraft carrying Nick Hague and Christina Koch of NASA and Alexey Ovchinin of the Russian space agency Roscosmos launched at 3:14 p.m. EDT (12:14 a.m. Friday Baikonur time) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. Hague, Koch and Ovchinin docked to the space station’s Rassvet module at 9:01 p.m. after a four-orbit, six-hour journey, and are scheduled to open the hatch and be welcomed aboard the orbiting laboratory at approximately 11:10 p.m. Their mission, Expedition 59, officially began at the time of docking.

Figure 104: This image compilation shows the Soyuz spacecraft carrying astronauts Nick Hague and Christina Koch of NASA and cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin of the Russian space agency Roscosmos at a distance of 70, 15 and less than two meters from the International Space Station, where it docked at 9:01 p.m. EST on 14 March 2019 (image credit: NASA Television)
Figure 104: This image compilation shows the Soyuz spacecraft carrying astronauts Nick Hague and Christina Koch of NASA and cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin of the Russian space agency Roscosmos at a distance of 70, 15 and less than two meters from the International Space Station, where it docked at 9:01 p.m. EST on 14 March 2019 (image credit: NASA Television)
Figure 105: Expedition 59 crew members Anne McClain, Oleg Kononenko, and David Saint-Jacques welcome their new crew members, Nick Hague, Christina Koch, and Alexey Ovchinin, who arrived to the International Space Station on 14 March 2019 (image credit: NASA TV)
Figure 105: Expedition 59 crew members Anne McClain, Oleg Kononenko, and David Saint-Jacques welcome their new crew members, Nick Hague, Christina Koch, and Alexey Ovchinin, who arrived to the International Space Station on 14 March 2019 (image credit: NASA TV)

- The trio’s arrival returns the orbiting laboratory’s population to six, including three NASA astronauts. McClain, Saint-Jacques and Kononenko are scheduled to remain aboard the station until June, while Hague, Koch and Ovchinin are set to return to Earth early this fall. 87)

- McClain, Saint-Jacques, Hague and Koch also are all scheduled for the first spacewalks of their careers to continue upgrades to the orbital laboratory. McClain and Hague are scheduled to begin work to upgrade the power system March 22, and McClain and Koch will complete the upgrades to two station power channels during a March 29 spacewalk. This will be the first-ever spacewalk with all-female spacewalkers. Hague and Saint-Jacques will install hardware for a future science platform during an April 8 spacewalk.

- Three resupply spacecraft – a Russian Progress, Northrop Grumman Cygnus and SpaceX Dragon – are scheduled to arrive with additional supplies for the crew and various science investigations. The crew also is scheduled to be onboard during test flights of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, which will return human spaceflight launches for space station missions to U.S. soil.

- For more than 18 years, humans have lived and worked continuously aboard the station, advancing scientific knowledge and demonstrating new technologies, making research breakthroughs not possible on Earth that will enable long-duration human and robotic exploration into deep space, including the Moon and Mars. A global endeavor, 236 people from 18 countries have visited the unique microgravity laboratory that has hosted more than 2,500 investigations from researchers in 106 countries. Investigations conducted on the International Space Station impact the daily lives of people on Earth and prepare the way for humans to venture farther into space.

• March 10, 2019: On a bright winter’s day, an astronaut aboard the International Space Station (ISS) focused a camera on the Grand Canyon and surrounding snowy landscapes in northern Arizona, many of which are federally protected lands. The Grand Canyon was declared a national park 100 years ago on February 26, 1919. 88)

- The photograph (Figure 106) shows the ragged, steep-sided canyon walls and its numerous side canyons that contrast with the flat surrounding plains. From viewpoints on the South Rim, the thin line of the Colorado River lies more than 1525 meters (5,000 feet) below.

- The Grand Canyon is one of the best-known natural wonders on Earth, but astronauts see very different patterns compared with the iconic ground-based views. Astronauts quickly learn that different land surface colors frequently indicate high and low parts of the scenery below them. In this photo, bright snow indicates high, cold plateaus, such as those within several Native American Indian reservations and the Vermillion Cliffs National Monument. Snow that fell at warmer, lower elevations—inside the Grand Canyon or in the parts of the nearby desert—melted quickly or did not reach the ground.

- Dense greens are another feature that help astronauts understand the landscapes they see from space. In the desert southwest of North America, higher elevations get more rain and snow. Thus the high Kaibab Plateau is wet enough for forests to thrive, while the main colors of the low country are browns and tans of rocks and desert soils.

- Astronauts also get some sense of topography from shadows and sunlight. This image was taken from an orbital vantage point over Las Vegas, nearly 400 kilometers (240 miles) to the west. The view is oblique enough to give a slightly three-dimensional view, especially from shadows like those cast by the Grand Canyon cliffs and the narrow canyons around the Colorado River.

- The same snow-covered and snow-free features can be recognized in this more vertical view shot the following day. This summertime view shows the area without snow.

Figure 106: The astronaut photograph ISS058-E-1605 was acquired on December 29, 2018, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 116 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 58 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by M. Justin Wilkinson)
Figure 106: The astronaut photograph ISS058-E-1605 was acquired on December 29, 2018, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 116 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 58 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by M. Justin Wilkinson)

• March 3, 2019: An astronaut onboard the International Space Station captured this oblique photograph while looking southwest across the Congo River Basin. Located along the equator, the area is one of the cloudiest places on Earth. Low-altitude cumulus clouds, sometimes called popcorn clouds, trace the landscape over dense rainforests in this shot. 89)

- Note, however, that the skies above the Congo River and its many tributaries are noticeably free of clouds. The river can be up to 5 kilometers (3 miles) wide in many places—enough to deter cloud formation. Warm, humid air rises from the forest and cools as it rises, resulting in the development of clouds. But the river waters—and the air above them—are cooler, so there is less moisture rising into the air. Similar cloud patterns are common in the Amazon Rainforest.

- Toward the horizon, larger storm clouds are forming along the ITCZ (Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone). The ITCZ is a broad region of low atmospheric pressure that encircles the Earth near the equator. The ITCZ and its thunderstorms follow the seasonal position of the Sun, such that large storms appear south of the equator during Southern Hemisphere summer (when this image was taken).

Figure 107: The astronaut photograph ISS057-E-58903 was acquired on 5 November 2018, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 116 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 57 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Andrea Meado)
Figure 107: The astronaut photograph ISS057-E-58903 was acquired on 5 November 2018, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 116 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 57 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Andrea Meado)

• February 27, 2019: Humankind's most distant outpost was recently captured crossing the face of our enormous and gleaming Sun. The fleeting transit of the International Space Station was over in the blink of an eye, but Ian Griffin, Director at the Otago Museum of New Zealand, made sure he was in the right place to capture it. 90)

- “A transit was predicted about 130 km from my home in Dunedin on New Zealand's South Island. So, I packed my telescope into my car and drove for approximately 2 hours”, explains Ian.

- “On Thursday 31 January, at 11:07 NZDT, the International Space Station crossed the Sun in less time than a human heart beats once, and I was there to witness it".

- The Space Station, slightly larger in size than a football field, orbits Earth every 92 minutes. It is one of the most remarkable endeavors our species has ever embarked upon, yet it pales in comparison to the size and power of our star. This remarkable spectacle serves as a much needed reminder that the people and technology we send into space can be affected by solar activity, and the changing environment.

- One of the largest geomagnetic storms on record, the Carrington event of 1859, was caused as a fast coronal mass ejection associated with an enormous solar flare struck Earth’s magnetosphere. The impact created auroras as far north as Queensland, Australia, and as far south as the Caribbean.

- Telegraph systems across Europe and North America failed, with reports of some operators receiving electric shocks and telegraph pylons sending out sparks.

- Today, a storm of this magnitude would create far greater disruption, as we become ever-more dependent on infrastructure in space and on Earth that is vulnerable to the outbursts of the Sun.

- As part of ESA’s Space Safety & Security activities, the Space Weather Office is working to minimize the potential damage and disruption these events can cause. The future Lagrange mission will keep a constant eye on the Sun, sending timely warnings via the Space Weather Service Network to operators and controllers of vital infrastructure, giving them time to take protective measures.

- This early warning system will also be of great importance to astronauts and future explorers to the Moon and Mars, who, vulnerable to the radiation emitted during these extreme events will need time to get to safety.

Figure 108: The International Space Station captured transiting the Sun – a remarkable reminder that our Sun's moodswings affect people and technology in space (image credit: Ian Griffin)
Figure 108: The International Space Station captured transiting the Sun – a remarkable reminder that our Sun's moodswings affect people and technology in space (image credit: Ian Griffin)

• February 26, 2019: Einstein predicted that time slows down the faster you travel and the time-dilation hypothesis has since been proven by flying atomic clocks on aircraft. 91)

- The three fastest human beings at the moment are NASA astronaut Anne McClain, Canadian Space Agency astronaut David Saint-Jacques (pictured) and Roscosmos astronaut Oleg Kononenko who are orbiting Earth on the International Space Station at a speed of around 28,800 km/h.

- They are travelling so fast that they will return home to Earth after their six-month spaceflight 0.007 seconds younger than if they had stayed with their feet on the ground.

- But how do astronauts perceive time in space? Space Station crew report that time seems to speed up in microgravity so European researchers are trying to find out more by immersing astronauts in virtual reality and testing their reaction times.

- A virtual reality headset is used to block external visual cues that could influence the results. The experiment focuses on how astronauts estimate time duration as well as their reaction times. They are asked gauge how long a visual target appears on screen. Their reaction times to these prompts are recorded to process speed and attention.

- The astronauts run the experiment before flight, on the International Space Station and again when they land to compare results. ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst was the first test subject to take part in this experiment in 2018. Anne and David did a session in February in ESA’s Columbus laboratory.

- Understanding how time is perceived in space is important as astronauts are often required to conduct precision work where timing is everything. This research in microgravity will help reveal clues as to what helps keep our brains ticking the seconds accurately.

Figure 109: Human and robotic exploration image of the week. An astronaut during a timing test in the ISS (image credit: NASA)
Figure 109: Human and robotic exploration image of the week. An astronaut during a timing test in the ISS (image credit: NASA)

• February 24, 2019: An astronaut aboard the International Space Station shot this photograph of historical lava flows near Puako and Waikoloa Villages on the island of Hawai’i. The villages (population 800 and 6,000, respectively) are underlain by lavas erupted from radial vents on the northwestern side of Mauna Loa volcano. 92)

- An eruption in 1859 produced an ‘a‘ā lava flow that destroyed a village south of Waikoloa and entered the ocean. The eruption lasted for about a year and also produced pāhoehoe flows that entered the ocean near Ohiki Bay and Pueo Bay.

Figure 110: This astronaut photograph ISS056-E-5107 was acquired on June 4, 2018, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 1600 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 56 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Sarah Deitrick)
Figure 110: This astronaut photograph ISS056-E-5107 was acquired on June 4, 2018, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 1600 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 56 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Sarah Deitrick)

- The island of Hawai’i is divided into nine hazard risk zones, each based on the proximity to volcanic summits and rift zones, frequency and area of lava coverage, and topography. Zone 1 represents the greatest hazard risk, but Waikoloa and Puako stand in a relatively less hazardous zone 3 due to the greater distances from the summit and rift zones of Mauna Loa. Along with volcanic eruptions and lava flows, the region is also affected by earthquakes. The epicenter of the 6.7 magnitude Kiholo Bay earthquake in 2006 was located just 21 km offshore of Puako.

- The Waikoloa region is also known for its thriving aquaculture. Located near Waikoloa Beach are the Anchialine Ponds. Native to the state of Hawaii, these natural ponds form in inland lava depressions connect to the groundwater table near the shore. They contain brackish water but no visible connection to the ocean. These pools range from small lava cracks to large fishing ponds and are home to multiple species of rare invertebrates, many of which are endemic to the Hawaiian Islands.

- Waikoloa Beach is also known for the Ala Mamalahoa (King’s) Trail, part of the 175-mile long Ala Kahakai National Historic Trail that runs along the coastline of Hawai’i. The Ala Mahamaloa predates western contact with the island (1778). It was rebuilt and paved with stone in 1840. One of the main attractions of this trail are the ancient petroglyphs, which show the closest thing to a written language that the ancient Hawaiians used.

• February 18, 2019: An astronaut shot this oblique photograph of the Missouri Plateau, where the Rocky Mountains meet the Great Plains of central-northwest United States (Figure 111). Across the scene, six national forests and grasslands stand at higher elevations in Montana, Wyoming, and South Dakota. Toward the horizon, the Missouri River is faintly visible snaking across North Dakota. 93)

- The Missouri Plateau is a gently sloping region that rises above the flatter plains. The lighter brown areas of land in the photo are deeply cut by braided rivers, and the land is often utilized for livestock pastures and farming.

- The western part of the plateau avoided glacial erosion during the most recent ice age. This prevented the Missouri Plateau from being flattened like the North Dakota plains beyond the Missouri River.

- The Black Hills of South Dakota stand out in stark contrast to the surrounding plains. Some of the rocks in those hills are 2.5 billion years old. A combination of Laramide tectonics (65 million years ago) and the erosion of younger sedimentary rock layers created and exposed the Black Hills.

Figure 111: This astronaut photograph ISS057-E-55414 was acquired on October 19, 2018, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 68 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 57 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Andrea Meado)
Figure 111: This astronaut photograph ISS057-E-55414 was acquired on October 19, 2018, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 68 mm lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 57 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Andrea Meado)

• February 17, 2019: An astronaut aboard the International Space Station took this photograph of Cologne, Germany. With more than one million people, it is the fourth most populous city in Germany. The city is the cultural, historic, and economic capital of the Rhineland, a vital inland port, and the busiest rail junction in Germany. 94)

Figure 112: Astronaut photograph ISS057-E-51223 was acquired on October 13, 2018, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 1600 millimeter lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 57 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Sarah Deitrick)
Figure 112: Astronaut photograph ISS057-E-51223 was acquired on October 13, 2018, with a Nikon D5 digital camera using a 1600 millimeter lens and is provided by the ISS Crew Earth Observations Facility and the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, Johnson Space Center. The image was taken by a member of the Expedition 57 crew (image credit: NASA Earth Observatory, caption by Sarah Deitrick)

- The Inner City of Cologne has a semicircular shape formed by a defensive wall that was built in medieval times to protect approximately 40,000 residents. This wall was demolished in the 1880s and replaced by a chain of semicircular roads called the Ringstrassen, which allowed development to spread beyond the confines of the old town. However, the Inner City is still the focal point for shopping, commerce, and historic buildings—including the Cologne Cathedral, the largest Gothic church in northern Europe and the seat of the Archbishop of Cologne.

- Due to the city’s location at the intersection of the Rhine River and one of the major trade routes between Eastern and Western Europe, Cologne became commercially important. Today it is a vital inland port and the busiest rail junction in Germany. The city is the cultural, historic, and economic capital of the Rhineland and is home to more than 30 museums and hundreds of galleries, ranging from contemporary graphics and sculpture to Roman archeological sites.

- As one of the most heavily bombed cities in Germany during World War II, Cologne was almost destroyed. However, post-war efforts successfully rebuilt many historic buildings, which resulted in a distinct cityscape with a mixture of historic and 1950s modern-style buildings. The Cologne Cathedral was hit 14 times by aerial bombs during the war; despite being badly damaged, it remained standing in the flattened city. It was quickly rebuilt after the war and in 1996 was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Cathedral is now Germany’s most visited landmark, attracting 20,000 people per day.

• February 15, 2019: When astronauts take photographs of our planet while orbiting 400 km above our heads, they are doing much more than just taking pretty pictures. They are looking after the health of our planet and, ultimately, us too. 95)

- Techniques used by astrophotographers looking at the stars and space exploration come together to measure the environmental impact of artificial lights at night.

- The only night images of Earth in color that are freely available to the public are pictures taken by the astronauts from the International Space Station, and a few color composites made by ESA’s Rosetta satellite. NASA has a public database with over 1.3 million color photographs taken by astronauts since 2003.

Figure 113: A series of night-time photos were taken by ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli (VITA mission) to create this time-lapse of Earth as seen from the International Space Station flying over Earth from Spain to Russia. Note: In the video, south is at the top of the image (video credit: ESA/NASA, released: 13 December 2017) 96)

- Now researchers are looking at these nocturnal images in a different light. A team of scientists came up with a method to classify outdoor lighting using color diagrams and calibration techniques. The resulting spectral information, such as color temperature, is a useful tool to assess the environmental impact of artificial light. 97)

- We hope to take photography from the Space Station to a new level,” says Alejandro Sánchez de Miguel, a research fellow at the UK’s University of Exeter and lead investigator of the Cities at night project that raises awareness of light pollution.

- Human vision from space: City lights are disruptive not only for the lives of nocturnal animals, who suffer from disorientation and behavioral and physiological changes, but also for people. An excess of artificial light before bedtime reduces melatonin production, a hormone linked to sleep. This suppression can lead to negative effects on our health, including breast and prostate cancer.

- In addition, streetlights account for a large chunk of a country’s energy consumption.

- “This is not only about being able to see the stars,” says Alejandro. “All living creatures on our planet, including us humans, suffer from artificial nighttime lighting. And only the humans living off planet Earth can help us.”

- Scientists use synthetic photometry to analyze the images, a mathematical technique that can help identify light sources under different light conditions and camera settings. The results give precise information about how color and brightness of street lamps can suppress melatonin production or obstruct the vision of the stars.

- Citizen science: Milan is a perfect case study for this research. This Italian city replaced its orange sodium lamps with white LED lamps. The study proves that the whiter light sources are worse for the local environment.

- “We provide a basis for creating risk maps of artificial lightning. Governments could use this information to reduce light pollution,” says Alejandro.

Figure 114: Milan, before and after: The Italian city of Milan replaced its orange sodium lamps with white led lamps in 2015. These nighttime images from the International Space Station show the city before and after the conversion (image credit: ESA/NASA/A. Sánchez de Miguel et al. 2019)
Figure 114: Milan, before and after: The Italian city of Milan replaced its orange sodium lamps with white led lamps in 2015. These nighttime images from the International Space Station show the city before and after the conversion (image credit: ESA/NASA/A. Sánchez de Miguel et al. 2019)

• February 10, 2019: Taken through a window on the International Space Station with the EarthKAM camera, this photograph (Figure 115) shows the boundary between a light-toned dune field and dark hills in the very arid interior of Yemen. This remote region occupies the southern part of the vast Arabian desert, and lies inland from the southern end of the Red Sea (to the west). Only one settlement appears in this image—Deerat Al Hwelah—at the mouth of a valley. 98)

- The dark, convoluted landscapes are exposures of ancient Precambrian rocks (more than 540 million years old). Several rivers—almost always dry in the Arabian Desert—lead out of the hills via the light-toned valleys. On the few occasions when they flow, the rivers transport sediment (eroded from the hills) into the low dune country. Here, dominant winds from the northeast blow the sediments back toward the hills in the form of long, linear dunes. Southeasterly winds from the Gulf of Aden (out of the image, lower left) combine with the dominant winds to generate the broad curve of the dune alignments.

- The low country is light-toned because the hardest minerals carried from the hills are generally light-colored silicates (minerals rich in silicon). Darker-colored minerals found in the Precambrian rocks tend to weather and erode more easily to smaller particles, so they are more easily carried away by winds. However, some of the darker minerals appear to be accumulating along the crests of the dunes (image right).

- The river in the large valley at the bottom of the photo bifurcates into two channels. The larger course washes sediment slightly west, where winds blow some of it into dunes and ultimately back up the Deerat Valley.

Figure 115: This EarthKAM photograph 152231 was acquired on October 31, 2017, with a Nikon D2Xs digital camera using a 50 mm lens. The photo in this article has been enhanced to improve contrast. It is provided by the Sally Ride EarthKAM@Space Camp on the International Space Station. [image credit: The caption is provided by the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, NASA Johnson Space Center. EarthKAM (Earth Knowledge Acquired by Middle school students) is a NASA educational outreach program that enables students, teachers, and the public to learn about Earth from the unique perspective of space. During Sally Ride EarthKAM missions, middle school students around the world request images of specific locations on Earth. Caption by M. Justin Wilkinson]
Figure 115: This EarthKAM photograph 152231 was acquired on October 31, 2017, with a Nikon D2Xs digital camera using a 50 mm lens. The photo in this article has been enhanced to improve contrast. It is provided by the Sally Ride EarthKAM@Space Camp on the International Space Station. [image credit: The caption is provided by the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, NASA Johnson Space Center. EarthKAM (Earth Knowledge Acquired by Middle school students) is a NASA educational outreach program that enables students, teachers, and the public to learn about Earth from the unique perspective of space. During Sally Ride EarthKAM missions, middle school students around the world request images of specific locations on Earth. Caption by M. Justin Wilkinson]

• February 04, 2019: Though all ESA astronauts are back on Earth, European science on the International Space Station is ongoing. Explore a few experiments underway right now in celebration of science at ESA. 99)

- Every ESA astronaut who flies to the International Space Station begins their training at the European Astronaut Center in Cologne, Germany. Here, they learn the intricacies of ESA’s space laboratory Columbus.

- Many European experiments that run on the International Space Station when ESA astronauts are not present – such as those in the commercial ICE Cubes facility – require minimal manual input. Others, like Time Perception in Microgravity continue with current International Space Station crew members.

- With the undocking of two visiting vehicles and packing the NG-10 Cygnus for departure, January was a busy month for the crew of Expedition 58 NASA astronaut Anne McClain, Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques and cosmonaut Oleg Kononeko. They also began upgrading an ESA facility that allows ground-based control of and telemetric data retrieval from miniaturized laboratories inside Columbus.

Figure 116: Expedition 58 crew members gather inside the Zvezda service module onboard the International Space Station for a crew portrait. From left are, NASA astronaut Anne McClain, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko and Canadian Space Agency astronaut David Saint-Jacques (image credit: NASA)
Figure 116: Expedition 58 crew members gather inside the Zvezda service module onboard the International Space Station for a crew portrait. From left are, NASA astronaut Anne McClain, Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko and Canadian Space Agency astronaut David Saint-Jacques (image credit: NASA)
Figure 117: Kubik on Space Station: A miniaturized laboratory inside the orbital laboratory that is ESA’s Columbus module, this 40 cm cube has been one of its quiet scientific triumphs. Kubik – from the Russian for cube – has been working aboard the International Space Station since before Columbus’ arrival in February 2008 (image credit: NASA)
Figure 117: Kubik on Space Station: A miniaturized laboratory inside the orbital laboratory that is ESA’s Columbus module, this 40 cm cube has been one of its quiet scientific triumphs. Kubik – from the Russian for cube – has been working aboard the International Space Station since before Columbus’ arrival in February 2008 (image credit: NASA)

- Because many biological systems are partially gravity-dependent, ‘removing’ the effects of gravity enables researchers to gain a broader understanding of how these systems work. Samples previously studied using Kubik facilities include: bacteria, fungi, white blood cells and stem cells from human bone marrow and umbilical cords, plant seedlings, and even swimming tadpoles. Upgrades will see this research continue into its second decade, offering even greater opportunities to examine life in space.

Legend to 'Kubik on Space Station' — Little Labs of Life Science

“Kubik hosts a wide range of life science experiments in weightlessness with minimal crew involvement,” explains Jutta Krause of ESA of the payload development team. “Research teams prepare their experiments and make use of existing or custom-built ‘experiment units’, which are each about the size of a box of pocket tissues.

“Once slotted into Kubik by an astronaut, they are automatically activated through internal electrical connections, running autonomously on a programmed timeline until they are finally retrieved for return to Earth.

“At the center of the temperature-controlled Kubik is a centrifuge to simulate gravity, so double experiments can be run with one unit in microgravity plus an Earth-gravity control or intermediate gravity level – giving researchers insight into whether any results they observe might be related to weightlessness or some other environmental factor, such as space radiation.”

The challenge for researchers is to miniaturize their experiments to fit within the confines of these compact units, adds team member Janine Liedtke: “We aim to refurbish experiment units as much as possible, so in some cases teams can adapt a previously flown unit, or else we can tailor new units to their needs.

“Why fly biological samples in weightlessness? Because we know many biological systems are partially gravity-dependent, so by ‘taking away’ gravity researchers can gain broader insight into how they work.

“To give an idea, Kubik has over the years hosted samples of bacteria, fungi, human white blood cells and stem cells from bone marrow and umbilical cords, plant seedlings, and swimming tadpoles. A pending payload is designed to examine how microbial biofilms interact with rock surfaces across different gravity levels, from weightlessness to Mars and Earth gravity.”

Experiment times are limited because the samples are biological – part of the work is carefully planning the mission scenario. Even the hours needed for the ascent and descent of the experiment unit to and from Columbus are carefully accounted for, to ensure that they are back again within a couple of weeks of launch, depending on the sensitivity of the samples.

“We’ve been using the Soyuz, and now the SpaceX Dragon,” adds Jutta. “Typically, when one vehicle goes up another one comes down. This ensures that experiments can be up- and downloaded rapidly.

“A fixative is often added to an experiment at its conclusion, so researchers get to examine it as it was in microgravity. Additionally, units can be refrigerated during their return trip.”

Twelve experiments from ESA and national space agencies have so far been run in Kubik, with ESA planning seven more by the end of this decade. The facility is due to be upgraded with new electronics, to offer more features and keep it fully operational into its second decade.

- The crew also exchanged the sample chamber of European multi-user facility Electromagnetic Levitator (EML) to activate new material science experiments, and Anne donned the Circadian Rhythms hardware to begin a 36-hour recording session.

- Led by principal investigator Hanns-Christian Gunga of Charité University Clinic’s Center For Space Medicine (Berlin), Circadian Rhythms investigates the role of synchronized circadian rhythms, or the “biological clock”.

- Researchers hypothesize that a non-24-hour cycle of light and dark affects crew members’ natural rhythms. The investigation also addresses the effects of reduced physical activity, microgravity and an artificially controlled environment, as changes in body composition and body temperature can affect crew members’ circadian rhythms as well.

- Data is collected using a “double sensor” placed on an astronaut’s forehead and chest. This takes continuous core temperature measurements for extended periods before, during and after flight. These measurements are co-related with crew members’ pre and post-flight melatonin levels.

- Initial results show core body temperature does elevate gradually during long-duration spaceflight. It also rises faster and higher during physical exercise on the Station than it does on the ground. Understanding this and other effects of spaceflight on circadian rhythms will aid the design of future space missions and provide a unique comparison for sleep disorders, autonomic nervous system disorders, and shift work-related disorders on Earth.

Figure 118: NASA astronaut and Expedition 58 flight engineer Anne McClain pictured inside the vestibule between the Harmony module and the Destiny laboratory module. She is wearing a sensor on her forehead that is collecting data for the Circadian Rhythms experiment researching how an astronaut's “biological clock” changes during long-duration spaceflight (image credit: NASA)
Figure 118: NASA astronaut and Expedition 58 flight engineer Anne McClain pictured inside the vestibule between the Harmony module and the Destiny laboratory module. She is wearing a sensor on her forehead that is collecting data for the Circadian Rhythms experiment researching how an astronaut's “biological clock” changes during long-duration spaceflight (image credit: NASA)

- Looking ahead: While all this science is happening in space, ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano continues to train on the ground for his upcoming Beyond mission.

- Luca recently participated in ground-based sessions for two European experiments that look at how humans judge force and manipulate objects in weightlessness, GRIP and GRASP, and learnt more about an experiment to validate the behavior of fluids under microgravity, known as Fluidics.

Figure 119: ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano (right) training with NASA astronaut and fellow crew member Andrew Morgan for his upcoming mission to the International Space Station. Luca is scheduled to fly (image credit: ESA)
Figure 119: ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano (right) training with NASA astronaut and fellow crew member Andrew Morgan for his upcoming mission to the International Space Station. Luca is scheduled to fly (image credit: ESA)

• January 28, 2019: Last week, Expedition 58 crew members continued conducting science aboard the International Space Station along with packing the NG-10 Cygnus resupply vehicle for its departure from the station. Upon undocking, Cygnus will boost to an altitude and inclination ideal for satellite deployment and release small satellites from the SlingShot small satellite deployment system. The cargo craft will then begin its descent toward Earth for a fiery but safe demise over the Pacific Ocean. 100)

- The unique SlingShot deployers can accommodates any CubeSat format (3U, 6U, 12U, 27U and greater, rail, tab) and can be customized to accommodate larger satellites with thicknesses less than 200 mm.

- Upon successful installation of the SlingShot system into Cygnus, the vehicle unberths and navigates to an altitude of 450 – 500 km to deploy the satellites. This altitude and the 51.6º inclination are ideal for many satellite customers due to the satellite orbit lifespan, launch reliability, and price.

- The SlingShot system can also host fix-mounted payloads using Cygnus as a massive satellite bus for power, attitude control and communication for missions exceeding six months.

• January 15, 2019: Today astronauts use computer simulations to help prepare for life on the International Space Station, practising spacewalks and operating equipment in microgravity – all while never leaving the ground. 101)

- ESA astronaut Luca Parmitano is hard at work preparing for his Beyond mission. In the image of Figure 120, Luca is navigating through a computer-generated environment to learn the route he might take outside the Space Station on a spacewalk, helping him to take decisions and act more quickly during the actual spacewalk. The training facility is part of Virtual Reality Laboratory at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, USA.

- Luca is also getting reacquainted – Luca flew to the Space Station in 2013 – with safety procedures, robotic operations and learning about the experiments he will conduct in the orbital outpost.

- He will be launched for his six-month stay aboard the International Space Station in July as part of Expedition 60/61, alongside NASA astronaut Andrew Morgan and Roscosmos cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov.

- Luca will serve as Space Station commander during the second half of his mission. This will be the third time a European astronaut has held this leadership role, but the first time by an Italian astronaut.

- How does Luca plan to take on this exciting yet challenging responsibility? “I see myself as a facilitator. My goal will be to put everybody in the condition to perform to the best of their capability,” he says.

Figure 120: Usually associated with video games, virtual reality is an immersive technology that simulates physical presence and interaction. International cooperation in human spaceflight does not only take place on the Space Station but begins well before, during training. Astronauts prepare not only at NASA’s Johnson Space Center but also at Star City near Moscow, and of course at the European Astronaut Center in Cologne, Germany (image credit: NASA)

Figure 120: Usually associated with video games, virtual reality is an immersive technology that simulates physical presence and interaction. International cooperation in human spaceflight does not only take place on the Space Station but begins well before, during training. Astronauts prepare not only at NASA’s Johnson Space Center but also at Star City near Moscow, and of course at the European Astronaut Center in Cologne, Germany (image credit: NASA)


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52) ”The first DJ in Space,” ESA 14 August 2019, URL: http://www.esa.int/About_Us/Art_Culture_in_Space/The_first_DJ_in_space

53) ”A Misty Morning in the Mountains,” NASA Earth Observatory, 11 August 2019, URL: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/145443/a-misty-morning-in-the-mountains?src=eoa-iotd

54) ”ISS transiting the Sun,” ESA, 6 August 2019, URL: http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2019/08/ISS_transiting_the_Sun

55) ”Two weeks of science and Beyond,” ESA, 5 August 2019, URL: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/Two_weeks_of_science_and_Beyond

56) ”The St. Louis Hub,” NASA Earth Observatory, Image of the Day for 4 August 2019, URL: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/145389/the-st-louis-hub

57) Denise Hill, ”NASA's Spacecraft Atmosphere Monitor Goes to Work Aboard the International Space Station,” NASA Feature, 30 July 2019, URL: https://www.nasa.gov/feature
/nasas-spacecraft-atmosphere-monitor-goes-to-work-aboard-the-international-space-station

58) ”Cloudy Sulawesi,” NASA Earth Observatory, Image of the Day for 28 July 2019, URL: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/145363/cloudy-sulawesi?src=eoa-iotd

59) ”Same Islands, Two Views,” NASA Earth Observatory, Image of the Day for 21 July 21 2019, URL: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/145346/same-islands-two-views

60) ”NASA Astronaut Andrew Morgan, Crewmates Arrive at Space Station on 50th Anniversary of Moon Landing,” NASA Press Release 19-059, 20 July 2019, URL: https://www.nasa.gov/press-release
/nasa-astronaut-andrew-morgan-crewmates-arrive-at-space-station-on-50th-anniversary-of

61) ”Beyond live,” ESA, 17 July 2019, URL: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/Beyond_launch_watch_live

62) ”Florida’s Rocks and Rocketeers,” NASA Earth Observatory, Image of the Day for 16 July 2019, URL: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/145308/floridas-rocks-and-rocketeers

63) ”Long View of the Mississippi River Delta- The river drains water and sediment from 31 U.S. states, delivering both to the Gulf of Mexico via the Atchafalaya and Mississippi River deltas,” NASA Earth Observatory, 10 July 2019, URL: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images
/145286/long-view-of-the-mississippi-river-delta?src=eoa-iotd

64) Mark Garcia, ”New Crew in Final Preps Before Historic July 20 Launch,” NASA, 5 July 2019, URL: https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/2019/07/05/new-crew-in-final-preps-before-historic-july-20-launch/

65) ”Counting the Many Ways the Space Station Benefits Humankind,” NASA, 03 July 2019, URL: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/b4h-3rd-ed-book

66) ”Roseburg, Oregon,” NASA Earth Observatory, 02 July 2019, URL: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/145246/roseburg-oregon?src=eoa-iotd

67) Joshua Finch, Gary Jordan, ”NASA Astronaut Anne McClain, Crewmates Return from Space Station Mission,” NASA Release 19-048, 25 June 2019, URL: https://www.nasa.gov/press-release
/nasa-astronaut-anne-mcclain-crewmates-return-from-space-station-mission

68) Mark Garcia, ”Biomedicine and Physics Research During Crew Departure Preps Today,” NASA Space Station, 18 June 2019, URL: https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/2019/06/18
/biomedicine-and-physics-research-during-crew-departure-preps-today/

69) ”Ship Tracks, Aleutian Islands,” NASA Earth Observatory, 18 June 2019, URL: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/145177/ship-tracks-aleutian-islands?src=eoa-iotd

70) ”Northern Italy at night,” ESA, week of 10-14 June 2019, URL: http://www.esa.int/Highlights/Week_In_Images_10_14_June_2019

71) ”Amistad Reservoir,” NASA Earth Observatory, 11 June 2019, URL: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/145148/amistad-reservoir?src=eoa-iotd

72) ”Science from the Space Station,” ESA, 11 June 2019, URL: http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration
/International_Space_Station/Science_from_the_Space_Station

73) ”Cementing Our Place in Space,” NASA Science, 11 June 2019, URL: https://science.nasa.gov
/science-news/news-articles/cementing-our-place-in-space

74) Stephanie Schierholz, Gary Jordan, ”NASA Opens International Space Station to New Commercial Opportunities, Private Astronauts,” NASA Release 19-044, 7 June 2019, URL: https://www.nasa.gov
/press-release/nasa-opens-international-space-station-to-new-commercial-opportunities-private

75) ”Flathead Lake, Montana,” NASA Earth Observatory, 4 June 2019, URL: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/145122/flathead-lake-montana?src=eoa-iotd

76) A Wide View of Luzon,” NASA Earth Observatory, 16 May 2019, URL: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/145035/a-wide-view-of-luzon

77) ”Guinea-Bissau, the Sahel, and the Sahara Desert,” NASA Earth Observatory, 23 April 2019, URL: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images
/144858/guinea-bissau-the-sahel-and-the-sahara-desert?src=eoa-iotd

78) ”Salt Flats, Mountains, and Moisture,” NASA Earth Observatory, 14 April 2019, URL: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/144826/salt-flats-mountains-and-moisture

79) Mark Garcia, ”U.S. and Canadian Astronauts Wrap Up Power Upgrades Spacewalk,” NASA, 8 April 2019, URL: https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/2019/04/08/u-s-and-canadian-astronauts-wrap-up-power-upgrades-spacewalk/

80) ”Snow and Sand in Central Asia,” NASA Earth Observatory, 2 April 2019, URL: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/144757/snow-and-sand-in-central-asia?src=eoa-iotd

81) ”Designing a Key to Unlock Parkinson’s Disease,” NASA Space Station Research, 1 April 2019, URL: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/parkinsons-research

82) ”It takes a team,” ESA, 1 April 2019, URL: http://m.esa.int/Our_Activities/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/It_takes_a_team

83) ”NASA Updates Spacewalk Assignments, Announces Final Preview Briefing,” NASA Media Advisory M19-021, 25 March 2019, URL: https://www.nasa.gov/press-release
/nasa-updates-spacewalk-assignments-announces-final-preview-briefing

84) Mark Garcia, ”NASA Astronauts Complete 215th Spacewalk at Station,” NASA, 29 March 2019, URL: https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/2019/03/29
/nasa-astronauts-complete-215th-spacewalk-at-station/

85) ”Pinwheel Squares in Bolivia,” NASA Earth Observatory, 25 March 2019, URL: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/144717/pinwheel-squares-in-bolivia

86) Kathryn Hambleton, Gary Jordan, ”NASA Astronauts Hague, Koch Arrive Safely at Space Station,” NASA Press Release 19-018, 15 March 2019, URL: https://www.nasa.gov/press-release
/nasa-astronauts-hague-koch-arrive-safely-at-space-station

87) ”Expedition 59 Welcomes Three New Crew Members,” NASA, 14 March 2019, URL: https://web.archive.org/web/20220511112319/https://blogs.nasa.gov/spacestation/2019/03/14/expedition-59-welcomes-three-new-crew-members/

88) ”Grand Canyon Under Snow,” NASA, Earth Observatory, Image of the day for 10 March 2019, URL: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/144648/grand-canyon-under-snow

89) ”Cloudy Congo River Basin,” NASA Earth Observatory, 3 March 2019, URL: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/144608/cloudy-congo-river-basin

90) ”Crossing our Sun,” Operations image of the week, ESA, 27 February 2019, URL: http://m.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2019/02/Crossing_our_Sun

91) ”Timing is everything,” ESA, 26 February 2019, URL: http://m.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2019/02/Timing_is_everything

92) ”Waikoloa, Hawai’i,” NASA Earth Observatory, Image of the day for 24 February 2019, URL: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/144583/waikoloa-hawaii

93) ”Missouri Plateau,” NASA Earth Observatory, Image of the day for 18 February 2019, URL: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/144468/missouri-plateau

94) ”Cologne, Germany,” NASA Earth Observatory, Image of the day for 17 February 2019, URL: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/144465/cologne-germany

95) ”Astronaut photography benefiting the planet,” ESA, human and robotic exploration, 15 February 2019, URL: https://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration
/Astronaut_photography_benefiting_the_planet

96) ”VITA mission “Timelapse a Day” edition – From Spain to Russia,” URL:https://dlmultimedia.esa.int/download/public/videos/2017/12/028/1712_028_AR_EN.mp4

97) Alejandro Sánchez de Miguel, Christopher C. M. Kyba, Martin Aubé, Jaime Zamorano, Nicolas Cardiel, Carlos Tapia, Jon Bennie, Kevin J. Gaston, ”Color remote sensing of the impact of artificial light at night (I): The potential of the International Space Station and other DSLR-based platforms,” Remote Sensing of Environment, Volume 224, April 2019, Pages 92-103, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2019.01.035, Available online 11 February 2019, URL: http://tinyurl.com/yxh4b6vs

98) ”Ancient Rocks, Modern Dunes,” NASA Earth Observatory, Image of the day for 10 February 2019, URL: https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/144537/ancient-rocks-modern-dunes

99) ”Spotlight on Space Station science,” ESA, 04 February 2019, URL: http://m.esa.int/Our_Activities/Human_and_Robotic_Exploration/Spotlight_on_Space_Station_science

100) ”Space Station Highlights: Week of January 21, 2019,” NASA, 28 January 2019, URL: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/SSSH_21jan19

101) ”Spatial senses,” ESA, Week in images, 18 January 2019, URL: http://m.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2019/01/Spatial_senses
 


The information compiled and edited in this article was provided by Herbert J. Kramer from his documentation of: ”Observation of the Earth and Its Environment: Survey of Missions and Sensors” (Springer Verlag) as well as many other sources after the publication of the 4th edition in 2002. - Comments and corrections to this article are always welcome for further updates (eoportal@symbios.space).