Ever Wondered How Astronauts Get Into Their Spacesuits….?

October 11, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

photo credit: brownpau/Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

It turns out it’s even harder to get into a spacesuit than getting into a pair of skinny jeans after a few drinks.

NASA has released a video of astronaut Peggy Whitson putting on her spacesuit before an underwater training session. The video was filmed earlier this summer at the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. It’s fairly understandable that it’s a bit of a pain to put on when you appreciate the amount of equipment it has to hold. Essentially acting as a one-man spaceship, it has multiple layers of insulation, oxygen supplies, a power supply, communication equipment, and even an emergency propulsion system.

Source….www.iflscience.com

Natarajan

NASA Release Six Incredible Images From Their Chandra Archives….

October 11, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

photo credit: Chandra X-ray Observatory awaiting deployment from the Space Shuttle Columbia. NASA

In celebration of American Archive Month, NASA has released six mind-blowing images from the Chandra archive.

The Chandra X-ray Observatory was launched and deployed from Space Shuttle Columbia on July 23, 1999. Since then, it has collected data on thousands of cosmic objects such as pulsars, supernovae, interstellar gas clouds, and galaxies. NASA hopes that by releasing these images to the public and scientific community, it will inspire new perspectives and serve as inspiration for future exploration.

The images can take hours, and in some instances days, to capture. They are imaged using a combination of light waves, X-rays, and radio waves.

Below is W44, also known as G34.7-0.4, which is an expanding supernova remnant that is interacting with the dense cosmic material surrounding it.

^{Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Univ. of Georgia/R.Shelton & NASA/CXC/GSFC/R.Petre; Infrared: NASA/JPL-Caltech}

Next is SN 1987A, the brightest and nearest supernova to Earth in the last century. This image shows the result of the supernova explosion, which occurs when a star runs out of fuel and then hurls layers of itself out into space.

^{Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/PUS/E.Helder et al; Optical: NASA/STScI}

Below is Kesteven 79, another remnant of a supernova explosion. This one, however, occurred thousands of years ago.

^{Image credit: NASA/CXC/SAO/F.Seward et al, Optical: DSS}

Next is MS 0735.6+7421, a galaxy cluster where one of the most powerful eruptions ever observed by humanity was seen.

^{Image credit: NASA/CXC/Univ. of Waterloo/A.Vantyghem et al; Optical: NASA/STScI; Radio: NRAO/VLA}

Here, we see the galaxy cluster 3C295. The pink area is superheated gas and the yellow regions are individual galaxies. Galaxy clusters like this contain huge amounts of dark matter, which hold the hot gas (pink) and galaxies (yellow) together.

^{Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/Cambridge/S.Allen et al; Optical: NASA/STScI}

Last but not least is the “Guitar Nebula,” containing a pulsar officially called B2224+65. This pulsar is traveling at an extremely high speed of approximately 800 kilometers (500 miles) per second.

^{Image credit: X-ray: NASA/CXC/UMass/S.Johnson et al, Optical: NASA/STScI & Palomar Observatory 5-m Hale Telescope}

Check out NASA’s website for more details on each image.

Source….Tom Hale in http://www.iflscience.com and http://www.businessinsider.com.au

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Image of the day….

October 10, 2015Natarajan2 Comments

Morning Aurora From the Space Station

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly (@StationCDRKelly) captured this photograph of the green lights of the aurora from the International Space Station on Oct. 7, 2015. Sharing with his social media followers, Kelly wrote, “The daily morning dose of #aurora to help wake you up. #GoodMorning from @Space_Station! #YearInSpace”

Image Credit: NASA

Source….www.nasa.gov

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Here’s what it’s like to live in space….

October 8, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

A $US150-billion contraption floating 270 miles above Earth is one of the most impressive achievements of humankind.

It’s called the International Space Station (ISS), and a rotating astronaut crew has occupied it since 2000. The work of those astronauts has yielded some incredible scientific insights.

Astronaut is not a profession where you get to go home at the end of the day though. One ticket from Earth to the ISS costs about $US70 million, so normally each crew lives and works on the station for a six-month shift.

Right now NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko are in the middle of a year-long shift aboard the ISS. They will be the first humans to spend a consecutive year living in space.

But what is it like to actually live on the ISS?

The first step to living in space is getting there. All astronauts hitch a ride to the ISS on board a giant space shuttle that launches from Russia.

NASA

The shuttle takes astronauts all the way up to the ISS, which floats about 250 miles above the planet.

NASA

The station is a system of labs, living quarters, and control rooms, and it spans about the length of a football field. A rotating crew of six astronauts share the space.

NASA

The ISS is hurtling around the Earth at about 17,150 miles per hour. That extreme velocity puts the ISS in a constant free fall around the planet.

So everything on board experiences weightlessness, including the astronauts.

So they get around the station by floating. Which means sometimes it’s too hard to resist the temptation to strike a Superman pose.

NASA

Weightlessness causes a lot of weird problems though — the kind of problems we never experience here on Earth thanks to gravity.

NASA

For example, sweat doesn’t evaporate. Instead, it pools on astronauts’ bodies, so they are constantly toweling off sweat. You can see sweat droplets escape from this astronaut’s towel after he wipes his head.

If objects escape inside the ISS, they can float away, get lodged in equipment, and cause malfunctions.

For example, even small tasks like clipping your nails become a problem. Astronauts clip them near a vent, so that tiny pieces of nail don’t end up floating all over the station.

RAW Embed

Water is also difficult to manage. It likes to stick together in a big blob.

So washing and showering is a challenge. Astronauts squirt a few lines of water on their skin and hair and then use no-rinse soap and shampoo to clean themselves.

The station only gets resupplied every few months, so astronauts have to be mindful of their supplies. Luckily, over 90% of the water on board gets recycled and reused.

That includes everything from dirty wash water, water from astronauts’ breath, and yes, even urine is recycled. It’s all sent through this high-tech water filter on board.

YouTube/Canadian Space Agency

The water is perfectly safe to drink after it’s run through the filter (it’s actually cleaner than the water we drink on Earth), but many astronauts say they try not to think about it too much when they refill their water pouches.

YouTube/Canadian Space Agency

Getting back to that urine thing, ‘How do you go to the bathroom?’ is one of the most common questions astronauts get.

YouTube/ESA

If you’re going number one, it gets sucked into this tube through the yellow nozzle.

YouTube/ESA

Things are little more complicated when you need to go number two. There’s a tiny seat, a container for the waste, and a suction pump.

YouTube/ESA

Once you do your business and suction it away, you have to change out the ‘poop bag’ for the next person.

YouTube/ESA

Still, all the complications that come from weightlessness don’t get in the way of what astronauts are really there for. They spend most of their time working on various research projects and repairing the station.

NASA

Sometimes that even involves venturing out into the dangerous vacuum of space. Trips outside the station are called ‘spacewalks,’ and they take a lot of preparation and safety training.

NASA

One wrong move and an astronaut could just float off into the vacuum of space (like George Clooney in ‘Gravity’). They also have to watch for leaks in the spacesuits that protect them from the bitterly cold temperatures and radiation in space.

NASA

When they aren’t working, astronauts still have to stick to a pretty tight schedule. They have mandatory workouts so they don’t lose too much muscle mass in the weightless environment. (Since they don’t have to fight gravity, they get a lot less exercise while moving around.)

You can easily lift hundreds of pounds in a weightless environment, so astronauts have a cleverly designed machine for weight lifting.

After a good work out, you gonna eat. Space meals are stored in dehydrated packets. Once you add a little water, dinner is served.

And the menu isn’t half bad. Here’s an astronaut enjoying a milkshake.

NASA

After dinner it’s time for bed. The middle section of the station is where most of the crew sleeps. Labs and work spaces make up the rest of the structure, and the giant yellow panels collect sunlight to help power everything.

YouTube/Canadian Space Agency

Each astronaut has their own tiny room that includes a work space and a sleeping bag strapped to the wall. You can see on the screens that it appears astronaut Scott Kelly is chatting on Facebook.

NASA

Sleeping in space is hard to get used to since you don’t feel the sensation of lying down. Astronauts zip themselves into a sleeping bag every night so they don’t float around in their sleep.

And they have to keep careful track of their sleep schedule since days don’t pass the same on the ISS as they do on Earth. The station is whizzing around the planet so quickly that the crew sees about 16 sunrises and sunsets during a 24-hour Earth day.

NASA

When it’s time to return to Earth, a shuttle flies up to the station to pick up the astronauts. Then they parachute back down to Earth in a landing pod.

NASA

Astronauts are a little wobbly on their feet when they first land, but it doesn’t take long to readjust to a weighted environment.

NASA

Living on the ISS is no picnic, but it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity. Most astronauts say they wouldn’t trade the experience for anything.

NASA

Source…… KELLY DICKERSON….. http://www.businessinsider,com.au

Natarajan

How do the Astronauts Sleep in Space….

October 7, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

After months of intense training and a white-knuckled trip through the ozone layer at nine times the speed of a rifle bullet, you can bet that NASA astronauts need to bank some rest.

Space sailors log really long hours throughout their days on tasks that require intense concentration, which is why NASA schedules precisely 8.5 hours of sleep per 24 on deck.

How exactly does ‘nighttime’ play out in space?

Astronauts Pam Melroy, George Zamka, and European Space Agency’s Paolo Nespoli, sleep in their sleeping bags, which are secured on the middeck of the Space Shuttle Discovery while docked with the International Space Station.

The International Space Station (ISS) orbits the Earth at 17,150 miles per hour, clocking one lap around our planet every hour and a half. Doing the math, this means 16 sunsets every 24 hours — a new day every 90 minutes.

Fascinating, yes, but this unrelenting motion can create colossal jet lag and wreak havoc on an astronaut’s internal body clock.

Hence, Mission Control’s strict bedtime schedule and windows-shut policy.

(Though according to one report, snoozing astronauts still see streaks and bursts of bright color caused by high-energy cosmic rays bursting harmlessly onto their retinas.)

What time zone do they use?

To establish to a regular schedule in zero gravity, Mission Control keeps our diurnal astronauts on Greenwich Mean Time.

I’m guessing no cushy mattresses?

The crew members are provided sleep pods that look like padded broom closets. They have custom sleeping sacks fastened to a wall or the ceiling, lest they float about the cabin.

According to retired astronaut Marsha Ivins, who spent 42 days in space on five different missions, their sleeping bag has armholes that allow you to reach outside the bag to zip it up. You then settle yourself in by tightening the attached Velcro straps. If you don’t tuck your appendages into the bag, they’ll drift out in front of you.

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield offers this video tour of his very own sleep sack aboard the ISS. After showing off his astro-PJs you can watch him zip up and close the doors to his pod.

Pillows?

That’s a whole other issue. Though not everyone wants or needs one, Ivins says she did, to help her neck relax. She actually attached her head to a block of foam.

“You put the back of your head on [the ‘pillow’],” she says, “and then you Velcro the front of your head to it.”

What about parasomnias? Any chance of sleepwalking?

Actually there was one reported case of … drifting.

According to a British reporter, one Russian crew member apparently preferred to do without a sleep pod or sleeping bag. His fellow crewmembers, still awake after he turned in, saw him float by — presumably in the midst of sweet dreams. They watched him “bouncing off the walls, his course set by the air currents that gently pushed and pulled him.”

Do they end up getting their hard eight?

No. As hard as they try to get comfy, most astronauts don’t get enough rest. Many are routinely sleep deficient, logging just six hours of sleep every 24 hours.

However, some astronauts speculate that these short sleep sessions may be the result of the body’s feeling less fatigued in a microgravity environment. Less fatigue may equal less sleep need.

Do they report any weird dreams?

According to dream studies conducted aboard the Russian space shuttle Mir, astronauts experience significantly diminished REM sleep in space compared to us Earthlings. They are therefore continually monitored for any and all ill effects.

“Efforts are planned to understand more fully the spaceflight environment and the role that other factors may play in reducing or promoting sleep,” said Lauren Leveton, PhD, senior research scientist in NASA’s Behavioral Health and Performance Division.

Who wakes them up when it’s ‘morning’?

During the 30-year space shuttle program, which ended in 2011, it was a NASA tradition to have wake-up calls during the shuttle missions. Each “morning” at the scheduled wake-up time, ground operations broadcast a song into the space shuttle cabin. A wide range of musical styles were played, including rock, pop, western and classical.

Each song was selected for a particular astronaut. Sometimes the astronauts requested the tune; other times their families selected a song with special meaning.

Unfortunately, the wake-up service is not available on the ISS. There, the crew must use a regular alarm clock.

Source….www.businessinsider.com.au

Natarajan

5 Things you Need to know about India’s First Space Observatory…

September 29, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

This mission will study astronomical phenomena, puts India in select group of nations

Astrosat is compared to NASA’s Hubble telescope. Photograph: ISRO

The Indian Space Research Organisation on Monday successfully launched the Astrosat satellite. Through this launch, India has joined a select group of countries that have their own space observatory satellite.

Here are five things you need to know about Astrosat.

This is India’s first attempt at setting up an observatory in space, a place from where it can study cosmological phenomena.

The mission is aimed at obtaining data that will help in a better understanding of the universe. The mission is to study astronomical phenomena. Astrosat is carrying five payloads, including an ultraviolet imaging telescope.

Astrosat is generally described as India’s version of the Hubble telescope that NASA had put in space in 1990.

But experts say it is not right to call Astrosat India’s Hubble, as the NASA version is 10 times heavier than Astrosat and is said to cost $2.5 billion, while India’s satellite costs around Rs 180 crore.

Astrosat will put ISRO in a very exclusive club of nations that have space-based observatories. Only the United States, European Space Agency, Japan and Russia have such observatories in space..

For the third time an Indian rocket will be launching seven satellites in a single mission. In 2008, ISRO had launched 10 satellites in one go, including India’s Cartosate-2A satellite.

Source….www.rediff.com

Natarajan

Image of the Day…Nile at Night

September 26, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, recently past the halfway mark of his one-year mission to the International Space Station, photographed the Nile River during a nighttime flyover on Sept. 22, 2015. Kelly (@StationCDRKelly) wrote, “Day 179. The #Nile at night is a beautiful sight for these sore eyes. Good night from@space_station! #YearInSpace.”

Image Credit: NASA

Source……www.nasa.gov

It Was Mangalyaan’s First Birthday, and ISRO Celebrated It with a Mars Atlas….

September 25, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

To celebrate the completion of Mangalyaan’s first year in the orbit around Mars, ISRO has released a Mars Atlas which is a compilation of all the amazing pictures and data collected from the red planet so far.

The Mars Orbiter Mission spacecraft, which entered the Martian orbit on September 24, 2014, has completed one year of its life around the red planet.

Marking the first anniversary – the day on which India created history by successfully placing Mangalyaan in the orbit around Mars, the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) has released a commemorative Mars Atlas.

Source: isro.gov.in

“With the launch of Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM) on 5th November 2013, India has ushered a new era of planetary exploration of Mars and its environment,” says the introduction in the atlas.

It is a compilation of many spectacular images obtained by the Mars Colour Camera (MCC).

In this past year, all five payloads of MOM have collected a large set of data, and all of it is a part of this scientific atlas.

“The images from MCC have provided unique information about Mars at varying spatial resolutions. It has obtained Mars Global data showing clouds, dust in atmosphere and surface albedo variations, when acquired from apoapsis at around 72000 km. On the other hand high resolution images acquired from periapsis show details of various morphological features on the surface of Mars. Some of these images have been showcased in this atlas. The images have been categorized depending upon the Martian surface and atmospheric processes,” said the official ISRO release informing about the atlas.

The atlas has been released by the Space Applications Centre of ISRO in Ahmedabad. It provides a lot of information in vivid detail, explaining the different features of the red planet such as its craters, moons, volcanic features, tectonic features and more. And all of it is accompanied by Mars’s brilliant pictures.

The MOM spacecraft, which was designed, built and launched in just two years, has five scientific instruments to record five different aspects of the planet. These include the geology, morphology, atmospheric processes, surface temperature and atmospheric escape process.

While the Mars mission was initially planned for just six months, it is now expected to last longer. The ISRO chairman, AS Kiran Kumar, recently informed that the mission can last many years because they have not seen any failures so far, and about 35kg of fuel is still left in the spacecraft.

Happy first birthday in space, MOM!

You can download the atlas here.

Source…. Tanaya Singh ….www.the betterindia.com

Natarajan

Clear Skies Over the United States… A View from International Space Station

September 19, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

On Sept. 17, 2015, NASA astronaut Scott Kelly captured images and video from the International Space Station during an early morning flyover of the United States. Sharing with his social media followers, Kelly wrote, “Clear skies over much of the USA today. #GoodMorning from @Space_Station! #YearInSpace.”

Tuesday, Sept. 15 marked the midpoint of the one-year mission to the space station for Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko. The average International Space Station expedition lasts four to six months. Research enabled by the one-year mission will help scientists better understand how the human body reacts and adapts to long-duration spaceflight. This knowledge is critical as NASA looks toward human missions deeper into the solar system, including to and from Mars, which could last 500 days or longer.

Image Credit: NASA

Source…www.nasa.gov

Natarajan

Schoolboy arrested for bringing homemade clock to school, gets invite from Obama, Zuckerberg….

September 17, 2015NatarajanLeave a comment

US President Barack Obama on Wednesday invited a Muslim schoolboy to the White House after he was arrested and dragged off in handcuffs for bringing a homemade clock to class.

Obama congratulated 14-year-old Ahmed Mohamed on his skills and issued a presidential invitation, in what amounts to a pointed rebuke to school and police officials who precipitated his arrest.

“Cool clock, Ahmed. Want to bring it to the White House? We should inspire more kids like you to like science. It’s what makes America great,” the president tweeted.

The teen was led out of his Texas school after a teacher mistook his homemade digital clock for a bomb, prompting accusations of Islamophobia and an online backlash.

A photo of Ahmed standing in handcuffs while wearing a t-shirt with the US space agency NASA’s logo was retweeted thousands of times in a matter of hours and “#IStandWithAhmed” was the top trending hashtag on Twitter.

Along with Obama, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg also complimented the boy and invited him to the Facebook office.

“Having the skill and ambition to build something cool should lead to applause, not arrest. The future belongs to people like Ahmed. Ahmed, if you ever want to come by Facebook, I’d love to meet you. Keep building,” he said.

Source….www.ibnlive.com

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