>>> Ignition sequence start.
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>> Got morning, welcome to
mission control Houston.
You are looking at the
international space station
flight control room.
And the specialists who are
monitoring systems on the
station and working with the
expedition 62 crew members as
they finish up their workweek.
And look forward to an off-duty
weekend.
Commander oleg Skripochka and
flight engineer Jessica Meir and
drew Morgan spent a good bit of
time this week unpacking the
dragon cargo ship that arrived
Monday morning filled with rue
supplies and materials to
support dozens of science
experience experiences both
inside and outside the station.
>> Welcome to space to ground.
I Kamka Los Angeles a new cargo
vehicle has arrived bringing
with it a variety of new science
experiments to be conducted on
board.
After its launch on March 6th
it rendezvoused bringing
two tons of cargo on Monday,
Jessica Meir and Andrew Morgan
used the Canadian robotic arm on
the space station to capture the
drag be cargo vehicle and
connect it.
Stowed away on CRS20 was many
new experiments for the crew to
perform including biological
research investigates studying
microgravity's impact on stem
cells intestinal diseases and
chemical reaction.
Dragon brought the first
research platform to be up
stalled on the station.
Named for the younger brother of
explorer Christopher columbus
this, external payload platform
was developed eye Germany's pair
bus and operated by the European
space Agency.
Providing power and data
transmission for up to 12 a pau
loads mounted outside the
orbiting land.
Also arriving on dragon are
several new MSCs, drew Morgan
took time this week to end
stalled them on to the transfer
Tray that is used to transport
the sample carriers through the
airlock outside in to space.
From there, the MSCs are
attach robotically to the
platform.
External platform that provides
the ability to test materials,
coatings and technologies or
other larger experiments in the
harsh environment of space.
Which is virtual impossible to
do collectively on earth.
Testing in low earth orbit
allows researchers to see how
technologies react to exposure
to the space he were
environment, including
ultraviolet and eye fighting
raise Craigs, charmed particles
and micro meteors.
Keep sending in your questions
using the #askNASA well see you
next week.
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>> Scientists who developed
those experiments spent years
getting them ready to fly.
And they are now poised to work
with the station crew members to
carry out the protocols.
In the next episode, of the new
NASA explorers series we look in
on this step in the process for
a previous team of scientists
when their experiment reached
the international space station
and the expedition crew members
opened the package.
>> Choose your loads, please.
[ Laughter ]
>> Cheers.
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>> That's pretty good.
>> Wow.
>> It's a salad think.
>> Yeah.
>> Good salad.
>> That was delicious.
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>> That was great.
>> Well, when you haven't had a
salad in six months, it's
delicious.
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>> Station on two.
>> An rack.
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>> Great, how is your view?
Document anything different?
>> No, the view looks great,
thank you.
>> Now that the experiment is
aboard the space station it's
time for the astronauts to get
to work.
Alain and Paris are back in have
and the nana racks testimony
team is back in Texas where they
will we are stormed a ground
controlled version of the
experiment being conducted by
the crew?
Space.
>> The crew members are using
the reader to read the plates
analyzing the plate and the
migration of fluids on the
plate.
We have our ground samples here,
these are identical to the ones
that are on the space station.
And what we will do is as the
crew members insert the plates
in to the plate reader on the
space station, we are also going
to insert the plates to the
ground unit we have behind me to
confirm that what we are seeing
in the effects that we do end up
seeing is effecting the space
environment compared to the
ground unit.
What the plate reader does it's
called a big fancy word and it
has a lamp in it that shines
white light and has a prism and
the white light shines the
grading and moves to orien Tate
separating the light in to a
wavelength you get to select
which wavelength you want to
shine through your sample.
We have six plates each play
takes four minutes, it's 30
minutes in.
Every time in between we'll
listen to the crew member and
then we'll hit the command here,
once it's done they take the
play out and put nut one in and
repeat for five more times.
>> So station on three, place
1003 is in the Tray.
>> Yes, it's reading the plate.
Got a little -- the plate is in
there, moves the plate this way
and the read head move this is
way.
You can hear that lamp that's in
that turns the lamp on.
It sounds like bad techno music.
>> My crew made was the first
one to start experiment and I
took over for him and said what
experiment is this, what are we
doing? and he looks at me I am
not sure so we called down to
the ground to mission control.
>> Part of this is we are
looking at a gel that can
release antibiotics on a slow
release to multiple sites, but I
don't know what happened to that
plate in the read this is
morning and what is going on.
>> We are being look for how the
gel migrates overtime which is
why we are scanning the plate
two times a day.
>> I look I can that answer,
that's very cool.
Thank you for find that go out.
>> In problem.
>> So this is 15 days.
Twice a day and they are
typically in the middle of the
night, which is in the morning
for the crew on space station.
And then usually sometime in the
late morning, early afternoon
here.
Kyle has been running the show.
Getting up every six hours,
eight hours, seven hours to do
this.
It's kind of fun in a way.
I get to play astronaut on the
ground.
That's always fun.
>> After 15 days of running the
experiment, the researchers have
a lot of valuable data about how
hydro gels behave in
microgravity.
To learn even more the samples
will come back to earth for
further analysis.
For the last leg of their
journey, the samples will return
to earth in the same dragon
capsule that gave them a ride to
microgravity.
After dragon splashes down in
the Pacific ocean, it's take
taupe the port of Long Beach,
where NASA will be ready to
retrieve the precious cargo.
>> Splash down for dragon was on
Sunday, I believe and so NASA
has a group called [ Inaudible ]
and cargo manifests and they go
out and pick up the payloads
from dragon and collect it to
people at L.A. or whoever needs
them and bring them here to
Johnson says center.
Now I am out front.
And I just picked up module 74,
which is our project.
And they hand it to me and I put
it in my cooler and then I drive
it over to our office where it's
going to sit until we fly up to
the office in Richmond, Virginia
to do the final phase of the
experiment, which is removing
the samples out of the reactor.
Really proud to take part in
this really interesting
experiment.
>> When we first got our gels
back it's already exciting,
these are what the astronauts
touch sewed we open them and
they have been to space and back
and how they are in our lab.
>> A few minutes ago, Kayla told
you about hardware for a couple
of experiments that are going to
use the exterior of the
international space station as
they are laboratory.
There is a big experiment
already out there on the
starboard truss that was
recently put back in service
after a series of space walks.
Getting it back to work,
searching for cosmic particles,
which originated billions of
light years away.
And which may hold the key to
the origin and composition of
the universe.
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>> Humans have observed many
wonders across the cosmos, yet
much of our universe is still
shrouded in mystery.
Among those mysteries, is the
formation of our universe.
Which should have resulted in a
balance of matter and its
corresponding counterpart
anti-matter.
Much of that matter is thought
to exist in the form of dark
matter which can't be directly
observed.
Much of the anti-matter can't be
fouled at all.
Studying fundamental particles
originating from sources up to
billions of light years away,
may hold the key to
understanding both the
composition and history of our
universe.
Welcome to the world of particle
physics.
Currently being explored for low
earth orbit by the alpha
magnetic spectrometer, installed
on the international space
station or I.S.S.
Planets, stars, interstellar
gas, ducts, what we are able to
observe across the universe,
comprises less than 5% of the
total content found throughout
the universe.
The other 95% is dark.
Dark matter as well as dark
energy.
Dark matter doesn't interact
with or produce light as far as
we know.
Taillight doesn't consist of
normal matter or matter that can
be observed directly.
So how do you improve
understanding of something that
can't be observed?
One way is to look for evidence
of its interactions.
Kurt Costello the I.S.S. program
chief scientist as Johnson space
center explains how the giant
magnet of AMSO2 is working to
help scientists test and modify
their theories.
Scientists are using AMSO2 to
look at cosmic Rays, charged
particles that travel near the
speed of light AMSO2 categorizes
each cosmic Ray looking at a
high energy range, to see
whether that stellar phenomenon
that we can measure can account
for all of the cosmic Rays we
are seeing.
But if you see something in the
Spectra that doesn't fit, then
this could be evidence of dark
matter interactions.
By studying cosmic Rays,
scientists are also able to
search for anti-matter.
The big bang their of the
universe's origin requires a
50/50 ratio of matter to
anti-matter.
But to date the amount of
anti-matter found doesn't come
close to matching the amount of
matter known to exist.
Costello says one of the goals
of the mission is to detect
anti-matter and see if there are
any large collections of it out
there somewhere.
When particles pass through the
strong magnetic field produced
by AMSO2 their paths bend,
anti-matter particles standout
because they are bent in the
opposite direction compared to
matter particle.
The instrument searches with' at
this matter with sensitivity
three-quarters greater that flew
in June the 1988 aboard the
space shuttle discovery.
This could support the discovery
of anti-matter pools that were
previously undetectable.
A key factor to to get the most
out of AMSO2 is time.
Orally expected to have a life
span of three years, the
instrument has continued to
perform in to its eighth year of
operation aboard the orbiting
laboratory.
In late 2019 and early 2020,
astronauts conducted a series of
space walks to replace AMSO2's
cooling pumps which were
failing.
Extend being the life of the
instrument will provide
scientists more time in their
quest to unveil some of the
universe's greatest mysteries.
For more on scientist I can
studies being done on and from
the space station go to
NASA.gov/ISS-science.
For more information about the
origins of the universe, visit
science.NASA.gov.
>> During those recent space
talks to get the alpha magnetic
spectrometer bank in operation,
astronauts Luca and drew Morgan
used of a special new tool
developed by college student
here in Houston in order to
complete some of their tasks.
Here say look at how the Artemis
generation is contributing to
NASA's mission right now.
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>> Subscribe for more space.
>> Along with a hands-on work
with science experiments and
space walks and visiting
vehicles, international space
station crew members used some
of their time for edge character
events in which they talk about
science, with students on earth.
As you may have just seen
Jessica Meir do a few minutes
ago.
Explaining stem topics to
students is an important part of
the station's education mission,
in this demonstration video,
randy demonstrates Newton's
second law of motion.
♪ Music Playing ♪
>> Hello, everyone, I am as it
as true now Randy living and
working aboard the international
space station, now, on the space
station, we live in a
microgravity environment.
Do you think the laws of physics
will hold up?
Come okay let's go find out.
♪ Music Playing ♪
>> The acceleration of an object
depends on the force act on the
object and the mass of the
object or S equals MssA.
>> Jolly good show, sir isaac.
>> I can we see once the force
of the thrust is greater than
the weight of the vehicle the
rocket begins to accelerate.
>> We'll start with something
small.
Something you might have at
home.
A little stick of chapstick.
We'll said and use our force and
bungee cord here.
We'll put on our bungee.
I'll pull it back.
And you can see how fast it
accelerates because there is
very little mass.
Next we'll try a little
spaceship.
Little more massive.
And you can feel that because as
you move it it, you can feel it
kind of the extra force that you
have to push with your hands, so
we'll put our spaceship on our
launcher here.
Same spot.
Notice it's flying a slot slower
than the chapstick did.
What whip seen is the same
amount of force on a smaller
less massive object means the
acceleration faster this is the
biggest most massive thing we
have let's see how the
acceleration is affected.
And here we go.
There you have it newt tonight's
second law of motion in action.
Thanks, everybody, for exploring
a little physics with me today.
Now I will send it back to earth
so you can start your
experiments, see you again real
soon.
>> Five weeks from now after
another Soyuz delivers three
more crew members to the
international space station
these three competition 62
members will head home and that
will wrap up Jessica matt Meir's
first space flight but not her
first mission in an extreme
environment.
She studied penguins in
Antarctica Kaminsky and mapped
caves in Italy two activities
That prepared her for the
ultimate extreme environment.
>> The thing that's always
driven and he can site immediate
is exploration in general.
I think I have always been
attracted to these extreme
environments, places where fewer
people have been, where
conditions are a little bit more
harsh, a little bit more rare
and really extreme in general.
I went to the Antarctic five
times four times was for my
Ph.d research and the work
that we were pursuing there is
looking it he diving physiology
of penguins, they use this
really big drill to create a
hole had the ice and you enter
the water through that hole in
the ice.
The first time you go diving
through the sea ice hole you
really never forget the feeling.
The water down there is a
constant negative 2 Celsius so
28 degrees Fahrenheit.
And you can see Rays of light
coming in from any crack or hole
anywhere around the area.
And that is where you start
realizing all of the color and
the beauty in the Antarctica is.
It's just an extraordinary
experience and the things that I
saw around water there is
definitely the most remarkable
and exceptional diving I have
ever had.
One of the things that we use
for training for space flight
for astronauts from all of our
partner agencies is training in
analogues, so if you try to
think what are useful training
platforms on the everything, how
do we replicate all of the
characteristics of a space
mission?
One of the analogues that the
European space agency developed
is called cave it's a technical
caving mission so the cave
training mission was in this
very extraordinary cave in
Sardinia.
You would sometimes be calling
through a hole when you see it
in the dips tans you don't think
there is anyway you can fit
through that.
One at a time we would take off
our packs and shimmy like a
snake through these tiny little
holes and then all of a sudden
you would come out in to this
room, this cathedral with a
hundred meter granite wall.
It was really just
extraordinary.
And then we would go on daily
excursions, doing scientific
experiments, exploring, mapping
the cave, so all really similar
things that we would do when we
finally get to the point of
exploring another planet, for
example, as astronauts and then
also emphasizing all of the
other skills that we use on the
international space station.
The other connection that's
really important to me is that
all of these environments
involved natural phenomenon on
our planet.
It all goes back it my interest
in biology, looking at this
remarkable diversity in the
animal kingdom with my previous
research exploring all of these
amazing landscapes and
ecosystems on our planet, and
then eventually when I have the
most extraordinary of any view
when I will be on the space
station in a couple of months
looking down and seeing this
magnificent planet earth and
seeing the beauty of our planet
and really understanding how
special it is and how fragile it
is and how important it is to
protect it, to take good care of
our home planet, to protect our
oceans to protect the land, to
be really a good steward in our
universe.
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>> I am Jessica Meir, I am a
scientist and a NASA astronaut.
♪ Music Playing ♪
>> There is a good chance that
once Jessica Meir returns to
earth next month she'll be able
to confirm her preflight believe
belief of what she might feel
about the planet earth when
looking down on it from orbit
her astronaut class make Nick
Hague who is only a few months
ahead of Meir in get to go the
space station is one of many who
report a change in their
perspective on a lot of things
after getting a wide-angle look
at the whole planet 250 miles
up.
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>> I think the first time I
really got to soak in the view
was in the cupola on the
station.
And to just sit there and think,
the colors jump at you.
The perspective jumps at you and
challenges you in multiple ways.
I think it evokes all of these
different sensations.
The largest emotion that I feel
out of it is I have felt this
connection.
All of humanity is here on this
globe, you realize just how
special the place we are is.
And you feel that connection,
and when you see the impacts
that we can have on the land, it
gave me this overwhelming sense
of stewardship.
And just wanting to try to, you
know, come back and take care of
the planet a little bit better
than I had before and help
convey the message that we are
on this place together.
And you know, we explore space
together but we also live here
on earth together.
And we need to work together to
make sure that the earth stays
as pristine as it can.
Third by third EVA out there I
can remember working on the
front of the space station so I
finished up that task and then
to catch my breath I just kind
of propped myself up on the
front of the station looking
forward and it was just the
earth arc the out in front of us
slowly gliding by and I felt
like, you know, I was just
riding the station through
space.
You know, it's stuff you think
about and see in the movies but
it's this overwhelming
experience that I can't believe
I am here doing this.
And that's earth below.
I can distinctly remember waking
up one morning, couldn't sleep
for whatever reason it was like
4:00 in the morning, I was like
hey, I am going down to the
cupola and drink my coffee.
Just stare at the stars and
there is just so many.
And the longer you stater more
you start with just the big
bright ones until your eyes
start to adjust to the dark and
then they open up a little bit
more and when your eyes open up
a little more you see all those
smaller little stars once they
open up enough then you can
start to see all of the cloudy
structure, you realize that the
depth of what is out there I can
only see the tip of the iceberg,
so it's definitely puts new your
place in terms of, you know, how
big am I, how big are we
collectively as humanity sitting
here on earth.
Being able to look at the earth
from that vantage point, and
simultaneously see myself as
part of something so small in
the great cosmos but also part
of something so large as the
earth is below made me realize
at a deeper level that I may be
one small individual that's part
of humanity here on earth, but I
can still have an impact and I
can have a large impact and
still be something very small.
That balance of perspective has
given me a sense of empowerment
that I hope that everybody can
share in this terms of you can
make a difference.
The earth is an amazing place,
it's unique.
When you look out to the depths
of space, you realize just the
vast ocean of darkness and we
are on this little island, and
we are on it together.
And we need to figure out how to
work together for the benefit of
everybody.
>> If you would like to get
another look at any of the
stories we showed you today, and
you probably do, check us out
you on tube and Facebook at
either of both of these
addresses when you get there
look around, you will find lots
of other things, very
interesting stuff about NASA and
America's human space flight
program.
And if you are going to be out
there on the internet anyway,
check out Houston we have a
Podcast.
He have Friday we talk with
people about their work in all
aspects of space exploration in
today's new episode Gary Jordan
talks with Chris the
commercialization service lead
in NASA's technology transfer
office, they discuss how stuff
developed not space program is
being made available out in the
world at large.
Go to NASA.gov/Podcasts for
today's episode where you will
also find you would after the
previous episodes and you'll
find all of the other NASA
Podcasts there, all of which you
can also listen to on apple
Podcast, google Podcast and
sound cloud.
This is mission control Houston.
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