ignition sequence start good morning
you're looking at Mission Control
Houston and the members of the orbit 2
team of flight controllers who are
keeping tabs on the systems of the
International Space Station and working
with the crew members as the five
astronauts and cosmonauts wrap up their
first full week on orbit together
commander Chris Cassidy and his American
and Russian crewmates have been focused
on integrating the newest crew members
into daily life on the station that
includes
getting them acquainted with some of the
science experiments that are underway
like one focused on improving our
understanding of how and why hurricanes
get stronger under certain conditions
welcome to space to ground I'm Sandra
Jones this week a science investigation
is underway that could improve our
understanding of hurricane
intensification and the latest Space
Station crew members have been busy
adjusting to life back in space not all
science experiments aboard the
International Space Station require
heavy crew involvement thanks to
increasing automation and coordination
with ground teams the European Space
Agency's atmosphere space interactions
monitor is one such example this Earth
Observation facility studies severe
thunderstorms and their role in Earth's
atmosphere and climate using upper
atmospheric lightning this lightning
also known as transient luminous events
or terrestrial gamma-ray flashes occur
well above the altitudes of normal
lightning and storm clouds and include
phenomena with names like red sprites
blue Jets and elves the Space Station's
low Earth orbit provides an ideal
platform for measuring upper atmospheric
lightning by studying upper atmospheric
lightning we can improve our knowledge
of the effects of dust storms pollutants
from cities forest fires volcano a cloud
formation and electrification as well as
our understanding of hurricane intense
vacation and the relation to I wall
lightning activity this insight could be
especially beneficial back on earth as
June 1st marked the official beginning
of Atlantic hurricane season and
tropical activity is already underway
NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug
Hurley the latest Space Station
inhabitants have been busy adjusting
back to life in space following their
historic launch on May 30th aboard the
SpaceX crew Dragon vehicle they took a
few moments to reflect on their new
normal aboard the orbiting outpost it's
going pretty well we've just gone over
our first week in space this trip and
been very busy we even got to work a
little bit on Saturday fixing our
treadmill so all-in-all it's been great
it's great to spend time with Chris he's
a great crew mate and of course Bob and
I are just trying to get our space legs
and hopefully we can contribute to the
science and we're doing a lot of
transfer with the HTV vehicle up here
and then we're getting ready for some
EVs at the end of the month so a lot
going on right now this week's question
comes from Michael who wants to know if
you can see the International Space
Station without the use of a telescope
while Michael the space station is the
third brightest object in the sky and is
easy to spot if you know when to look up
visible to the naked eye it looks like a
fast-moving plane you can check to see
when the space station is flying over
unix by heading to the spot the station
website keep sending in your questions
using the hashtag ask NASA we'll see you
next week
[Music]
the arrival at the International Space
Station of the first crewmembers to fly
on a commercial space vehicle is a step
into a new era of human spaceflight
and it'll help extend the continuous
human presence in space that began when
bill Shepard uriga xenca an SEC a
curriculum arrived at this space station
almost 20 years ago through the support
of scientific research and the testing
of a new fleet of vehicles we are
gaining the knowledge that is vital to
our future in space the International
Space Station the football-field-sized
million pound laboratory flying around
planet Earth at 17,500 miles per hour
it's our home in low-earth orbit and the
bridge to exploring the far reaches of
our solar system a place to learn what
it takes to live to work to thrive in
space thanks to space agencies
representing more than a dozen countries
around the world it went from the
drawing board to liftoff when the first
piece flew into space in 1998 that
kicked off over a decade of construction
hauling the station to orbit piece by
piece on NASA's Space Shuttle and
Russian rockets and after the first crew
arrived in November 2000 we started an
unbroken streak of humans living and
working in space building on the legacy
of past outposts like Skylab and Mir the
International Space Station became the
training ground for humanity's next
great journeys learning how to live in
space for extreme periods of time
building and perfecting the technologies
necessary to travel to our neighbors in
the solar system it gave us a place
right on our doorstep to prepare for the
next giant leap into the unknown and
thanks to the station a new era in outer
space is unfolding what was once the
domain of only nations and governments
is now populated by a growing space
fleet from American industry private
spacecraft to fly cargo and crew members
new habitats and technologies for future
space missions and an open door for
companies research institutions and even
students around the world to do research
in space that have never had the
opportunity before all laying the
foundation for a robust economy in space
there have been thousands of experiments
hundreds of spacewalks endless hours of
challenges and successes all done by
humans hailing from countries around the
globe the International Space Station is
what we can achieve as a planet when we
come together to do the things that are
hard and the work isn't slowing down
because we're ready for the next giant
leap because we're ready to go farther
because what we do and learn along the
way is for the benefit of all of
humankind
you
part of the science mission of the
International Space Station is to take
advantage of the weightless environment
in low-earth orbit
to do research on technologies that can
benefit future exploration orb life on
Earth or maybe both for example the
station is home to the reef fabricator a
3d printer that can make things and then
recycle them in 3d print new things with
the same plastic the N space refabricate
er presented by science at NASA
while 3d printers are technology that
many people are familiar with there's
one 250 miles above us on the
International Space Station or ISS
that's unlike anything currently found
on earth it's known as the refabricate
er a hybrid 3d printer that can recycle
it's hard polymer plastic numerous times
to make new items about the size of a
dorm room refrigerator the device is
controlled by operators on earth who
oversee its manufacturing via video
cameras Niki Werkheiser NASA's n space
manufacturing manager at Marshall Space
Flight Center in Huntsville Alabama says
recyclers on earth grind plastic pellets
to create their products but that
grinding creates material shear which
prevents you from reusing that plastic
again it's no longer strong enough for
this technology demonstration the
company tethers unlimited developed a
novel recycling process that doesn't
require grinding and that allows us to
recycle the plastic multiple times
the ability to reuse the plastic over
and over again is essential for
long-term space exploration where kaiser
says we can replace a lot of the things
we need when we're orbiting above earth
we just have them delivered on a
resupply mission but when you're in deep
space you don't have that option you
have to have the ability to make all the
parts you might need and without having
a large stockpile of extra materials the
refabricate er can even recycle plastic
items not normally associated with
earthbound 3d printers for instance
almost all of the materials that are
delivered to the station are packed
using foam or plastic bags both can be
loaded into the refabricate ER to
deliver items such as a plastic syringe
an eating utensil or a custom-made
wrench that ability limits the amount of
backup materials you need to take with
you on a long range expedition after all
in space space is at a premium
the refabricate errs technology
demonstration will be composed of two
phases during each phase the refabricate
er will perform seven cycles of
recycling and printing parts while
onboard the ISS all of the items printed
by the refabricate er will eventually be
sent back to Earth for testing and
analysis to determine the effects of
repeated recycling on the material
properties of the plastic were Kaiser
Notes
I'm very excited about this technology
both in space and back on earth I can
envision a day where you go to the
grocery store and drop your water
bottles and plastic bags into a
refabricate er and then select your new
phone case or a kitchen gadget or the
raw filament that you can use in your 3d
printer at home for more science from
the international space station go to
WWE gov slash ISS - science for more
information about how the promise of
future exploration is transforming
today's technology
visit science.nasa.gov International
Space Station crew members are the test
subjects in some of the onboard research
as scientists study how being in space
affects the human body and that includes
studying how the crew members establish
a routine for sleep which is a key to
their being able to function to the best
of their ability in this demonstration
video astronaut ricky arnold talks about
some of the problems with sleep in space
and he shows us how the astronauts
overcome them hi my name is Ricky Arnold
on the International Space Station we
get asked a lot how do we sleep in space
and it's a great question because we all
know how important a good night's sleep
is if you're not getting a good night's
sleep you can count on reduce cognitive
function poorer reaction times it may be
just being a little grumpy and up here
in space just like on earth those are
things we all want to avoid so we go
around the earth about every 90 minutes
which means we get 16 sunrises and
sunsets a day so how we sleep is a
really good question because the sun's
always getting ready to come up or it's
getting ready to set we use those cues
on earth to let us know when it's time
to begin our day and when it's time to
end our day ricky is talking about
circadian rhythm it's the body's natural
regulator for sleep and wake cycles
based on a 24-hour schedule those 16
sunrises and sunsets he mentioned can
cost circadian misalignment and sleep
deficiencies during long-duration
spaceflight the hazards of lost sleep
can range from poor attention at schools
to on-the-job errors to long-term sleep
loss even chronic disease sleep is super
important hey Ricky what are you doing
on the space station to get some sleep
well here in space we kind of have to do
it artificially so we have these nice
crew quarters it's about the size of a
refrigerator it's very quiet the space
station can be a little noisy but it's
very quiet here and we can control light
with a light switch if we are just
middle of the day we have our lights the
light like you're seeing right now which
is this kind of standard lighting get
close to the end of the evening you want
to dim the light a little bit kind of
for the end of the evening or if you're
gonna be up late you need to keep awake
we have a really bright light setting
the other thing we have is off you see
how dark it got another challenge
sleeping on the International Space
Station sleeping in microgravity is
really nice because you can just float
and stretch out and it's really
comfortable the problem is but the air
currents in the International Space
Station you can very well float into a
piece of hardware and hit your head or
worse yet even break something so we got
our sleeping bag here just almost like a
sleeping bag on earth but as you can see
we have bungee cords that help hold us
up against the wall so I almost sleep
standing up and also I do have a pillow
it's just a bag full of clothes but I
actually keep it up on the top of my
head because I'm a little tall on the
crew quarters I tend to hit my head on
the ceiling when I'm sleeping so I got
my sleeping bag here I got my bungee
cords to hold the end and then when it's
time to go to bed it's quite easy just
unzip the sleeping bag climb on under
the bungee cord
[Music]
climb into the sleeping bag make sure
you're nice and secure zip yourself up
plan on getting a good night's sleep so
I have good reaction times my cognitive
ability is what it should be and that
I'm not grumpy in the morning so with
that I'm all set good night from the ISS
[Music]
the scientists who developed the
experiments being done on the
International Space Station spent years
getting them ready to fly and then
worked with the station crew members to
explain how they will help execute the
science protocols in the next episode of
the new NASA explorers series we look in
on this step in the process for one team
of scientists when their experiment
reached the station and the expedition
crew members opened the package
[Music]
jaesi that was delicious
[Music]
I'm still stationed Archies interaction
with you to friend interact right how's
your view do you want to 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 two are back in Virginia and the
NanoRacks team is back in Texas where
they will perform a ground control
version of the experiment being
conducted by the crew in space the crew
members are using the NanoRacks plate
reader to read the plates they're
analyzing that what's in the plate and
the migration of fluids between the two
chambers that are on the plates and so
we have our ground samples here these
are identical to the ones that are on
the space station and what we're gonna
do is as the crew members inserts the
plates into the plate reader on the
space station we're also going to insert
the plates into the ground unit we have
behind me and that's just to confirm
that what we're seeing any effects that
we do end up seeing is effective of the
space environment compared to the ground
unit in summary what the plate reader
does is it's called a big fancy word as
a spectrophotometer and it's got to be
lamp in it that shines white light and
then it's got a prism or braiding and
the white light shines on the grating
and then it moves to orientate which to
kind of separate the light into a
wavelength and you get to select which
wavelength you want to shine through
your samples we have six plates each
place takes about four minutes just
about 30 minutes each and every time in
between we'll be listening for the crew
member to say that they inserted the
plate then we'll hit the command here
once the run is done the crew member
will come over and take the plate out
but then you played in and it will
repeat for five more times so fake smile
please
plate one zero zero three is in the tray
the plates it's in there use the plate
this way and then they're read heads
this way that's kind of a lamp that's in
there that turns the lamp on I was like
bad techno music my crewmate actually
was the first one to start this
experiment and I took over for him and
said hey what what experiment is this
what are we doing and he looks at me he
says I'm not sure so we called down to
the ground to Mission Control how the
drug migrates through the gel over time
which is why I'm scanning the plates two
times a day for this two-week run I like
that answer
that's very cool thank you for finding
that out so this is 15 days it's twice a
day and they're typically in the middle
of the night which is the morning for
for the crew on Space Station and then
usually sometime in the in the late
morning early afternoon here but Kyle's
been running the show he's been getting
up every six hours eight out of seven
hours to do this it's kind of fun in a
way I get to play astronaut on the
ground so that's always fun after 15
days of running the experiment the
researchers have a lot of valuable data
about how hydrogels 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 taken to the Port of
Long Beach where NASA will be ready to
retrieve the precious cargo
splashdown for Dragon was on Sunday I
believe and so nASA has a group called
cold stowage and cargo manifests and
they go out and pick up the payloads
from Dragon and then they distribute it
to people at LA or whoever needs them
there and then they bring them also here
to J at Johnson Space Center and so now
I'm an out front Coldstone ffice and I
just picked up module 784 which is our
temp antigen project making it to me and
I put it in my cooler and then I Drive
it over to our office where it's gonna
sit until we fly up to the management
office in Richmond Virginia to do the
final phase of the experiment which is
removing the samples out of the reactor
microplace we're really proud to take
part in this really really interesting
experiment when we first got our gels
back it was already exciting space never
loses its cool and so we had these place
right oh my god these are what the
astronauts touched and so we opened up
and they've been to space in back and
now they're in our lab
[Music]
in all of the work being done inside and
outside the vehicle the International
Space Station is helping us know what it
will take to make successful journeys
out into the solar system one day to
Mars and other destinations here are a
few more examples of how the station is
building the missions of the future so
you want to go to Mars
how does NASA's International Space
Station help us extend human presence
into deep space in the future when
astronauts land on Mars it will be
thanks to some important lessons that we
learned on the International Space
Station rewind
[Music]
240 miles above the earth the
International Space Station is where we
currently live and work in space here's
what we've learned so far
first there's taking care of our
astronauts prolonged weightlessness can
lead to muscle and bone loss vision
changes balance and coordination loss
thanks to the space station
countermeasures are being developed to
keep astronauts healthy for
long-duration missions then there's the
equipment space craft communication
water recycling air and power production
are all being test-driven on the
international space station what we
learn about operating and maintaining
our gear in the harshness of space will
pave the way for future missions into
our solar system and that's how the
space station is helping us extend human
presence into deep space for more
information visit this nasa website
[Music]
the opportunity to spend six or so
months on the International Space
Station as men and women from around the
world have been doing without
interruption for more than 19 years now
has led to the development of new
technologies for space exploration
groundbreaking scientific discoveries
and an experience of cooperation among
nations while fostering the
commercialization of space and
spaceflight but even more than that it
has caused many of those astronauts to
experience a shift in their worldview
NASA's Karen Nyberg is one of them
[Music]
my first flight was two weeks and a lot
had to get done I distinctly remember
the point when I stopped and thought I
did it I'm here my goal was to be an
astronaut and now I'm in space I
remember seeing the beauty of Earth but
I don't remember any more profound
thoughts about it at that point I think
it was when I got into my long-duration
flight and spent a little more time that
I really just started to take it in a
little bit more
the entire experience is actually very
surreal first you launched on a rocket
you're pulling G's as you're going out
of that misspell your looking at the
earth for the first time you're floating
your everything is different and it just
is all just such a different experience
that it almost doesn't seem real
in fact when I did my space shuttle
flight for two weeks in 2008 when I got
back
you could have convinced me I never went
probably a third more pictures this
experience is so unusual and so
different than anything you've ever done
in your life that it's hard to grasp at
all and I was very excited then when I
got assigned to a long-duration because
I thought it's going to burn in my
memory and all that and it was the same
thing I came back and that my memories
were there but it almost didn't seem
real
[Music]
looking at the earth one first time you
just noticed the vibrancy of it it's so
bright pictures don't do it justice it's
equivalent to me of backpacking out the
mountains where you're trekking along
and then you come to a clearing and
you're overlooking some valley and the
Sun is setting and it is you know you're
like how could this get any prettier and
you take a picture and then you go back
and look at the pictures later and you
never have that feeling again it never
brings about the feeling that it did and
same with watching a beautiful sunset or
sunrise I have not seen a picture that
gives me the same feeling that I felt
[Music]
it started to make me understand that
everything is connected what is
happening in the ocean over here can
affect what is happening on land over
here it's just all one
being and it's all interconnected and so
I think we tend to live in our bubble of
our world that's here and it's hard to
think about other people on the other
side of the world and be empathetic
toward them really because you don't
know them and you don't know their
situations and I found the scene earth
really changing that perspective for me
and then listening to a news story in
the morning and flying over that
particular part of the world in the
afternoon it really affected me
and then just realizing
it's Holland often we think home
right now home is Houston Texas
childhood home is Minnesota but home is
earth
[Music]
if you'd like another look at the
stories we feature today check us out on
YouTube and Facebook B addresses are
right there be sure to look around take
a peek the other cool stuff you'll find
there about NASA and America's human
spaceflight program now if you're
interested in good conversation about
human spaceflight and space exploration
check out Houston we have a podcast
where we talk to folks about their work
in all aspects of space exploration we
post new episodes every Friday today
Gary Jordan talks with two Canadian
television producers and storytellers
about their work to capture life on the
International Space Station in virtual
reality that you and I may soon get to
experience ourselves go to nasa.gov
slash podcasts for this week's episode
it's also where you'll find all our
previous episodes plus the full library
of all the NASA podcasts all of which
you can listen to an apple podcasts
google podcasts and SoundCloud
[Music]