♪ Music Playing ♪
>> Ignition sequence starts.
♪ Music Playing ♪
>> Good morning, and welcome to
this peek inside the
international space station
flight control room at NASA's
Johnson space center.
This is where there is always a
team of specialists on duty,
monitoring the performance of
the space station systems and
working with the expedition crew
members as they move through a
daily agenda of science,
research, and space station
maintenance.
Expedition 66 commander Anton
Shkaplerov and his American
Russian and German crewmates are
comfortably in between cargo
ship operations and space walks
rights now.
They spent this week focusing on
science experience in the
station's laboratory modules.
>> Welcome to space to ground.
The seven members of expedition
66 kept a busy pace of science
through January and February is
looking to be just as packed.
European space station astronaut
Mattias Maurer printed from a
bio printer.
It's a subcategory of 3D
printing which uses biological
cells and molecules to prints
tissue structures, the first aid
demonstrates a portable hand
told to bio printer that uses a
patient's own skin cells to
create a tissue patch to cover a
wound and accelerate healing
process.
On Mars this could help address
changes in wounds healing that
can occur in space.
Extracting an individual's cells
before a mission may enable a
more need response to injury.
What else is a buzz aboard the
station?
The science continue with a "B"
Astro "B" that is the mark
Vande Hei performed a series of
tests for the investigation.
Rome uses the space station's as
grow bee robots to observe and
understand how target tumble and
uses information to plan ways to
safely reach them.
Astro bee, NASA's free-flying
robotic system is designed help
astronauts they spend on routine
duties leaving them for focus
more on things that only humans
can do.
To hear more about Astro bee
catch had week's Houston we've
Podcast the spheres in as grow
bee operations lead at NASA's
Ames research center will talk
about what's a buzz with the
flying robots in space.
>> And finally, outside the
station, more science was
deployed.
A pair of small satellites
called cubesats were deployed
outside the Japanese laboratory
module.
This release included the light
one cubesat which focuses on the
detection of terrestrial gamma
Ray flashes coming from the
earth's atmosphere.
Another cubesat developed by the
Georgia institute of technology
has deployable solar panels and
dough playable UHF radio
Santana.
The costs of these increase
access to space and he can pants
low earth orbit research.
To following these experiments
and for the latest updates,
follow along with us on twitter
at ISS research.
That's space to ground, thank
you for watching, we'll see you
next week.
♪ Music Playing ♪
>>> Each group of astronauts and
cosmonauts that completes a
long-during action mission to
the international space station
spends time on a unique subset
of the kinds of experiments that
expedition 66 worked on this
week, the astronauts who rode to
space on the crew two spaceship
came back to earth recently with
their own legacy of work on
hundreds of experiments.
Here is a look at just some of
their accomplishments during 199
days in space.
♪ Music Playing ♪
>> And liftoff.
God speed to crew two.
>> The screw go for ingress and
you can see he is the first to
ingress on to the international
space station.
>> We are so ready to get to
work, there is a lot of great
science and we are just excited
to learn and get started.
♪ Music Playing ♪
>> The experiment that is
picking utmost of my time right
now is called say less trail
immunity and it's a really
interesting experiment that
involves looking at immune
pathways and I have an expert
that's looking over my shoulder
via camera and she can talk with
me kind of step by step as we go
through the process.
>> That looks good, Megan.
>> All right, thank you very
much.
I am sure I'll be talking to you
again tomorrow.
>> Yes, you will.
>> Recently I have been working
on a really interesting
experiment called the blob.
It's that crazy motocenter being
that has no-brainer but can
learn and can actually search
food and it's so amazing.
It's pretty contain odd the
space station.
Don't worry about it, it's very
tiny.
We are working on all kinds of
endeavors like this and every
day, you know, brings its lots
of discoveries on the space
station that's very excited.
>> We are tracking a full and
good deploy of that solar array,
so well done both of you.
>> It is beautiful.
>> We are in a season now
actually of doing cargo OPS.
We have two spacecraft attached
to us, they brought us cargo and
now we are packing them back up
to get them ready for departure.
>> Aboard the international
space station we do help out
some of the involvement of
medicine.
Without gravity, you get larger
chunks of pure protein
Christless.
>> What we are looking for today
are needle like structures,
perfect, there they are.
>> This is a fantastic view that
we have.
We can seat thin layer of
atmosphere protecting all of you
done on earth, just taking care
of our planet has kind of been a
change mentally maybe from
seeing it from this perspective.
♪ Music Playing ♪
>> We are growing some chili
peppers in the plant habitat
here in the Japanese experiment
module.
It's one of the more complicated
that have been grown in space
and so they do take a little
longer to come to fruition.
So we are really hoping that we
get to try some peppers before
the end of our mission.
Over the years of the capability
of the land have, panted and
grown along with interest in
doing this research in lower
earth orbit.
It's remarkable.
We are at the peak of that we
have seen a little by of
everything.
We have done human immune system
research.
So lots of research in to
medication formation.
Fluid research, combustion
research.
Even robotics research.
This huge range of different
things that we have gotten to
touch during our mission and the
way science works, as you know,
is this is the building block
for stuff to come the results
from these experiments will come
out in the years to come, but
they will also be the foundation
of experiments that are designed
in the following year and so all
of the research is going to be
stuff that we get to say, oh, we
had a little part of that. We
got our hands on a little bit of
that which is a pretty neat
feeling.
♪ Music Playing ♪
>> The international space
station orbits 250 miles above
the earth and the vast diversity
of plant and animal life that
exists here, bringing some of
those species in to the
weightless environment has
allowed scientists to study them
in ways they can't in 1G.
And that has led to discoveries
about how humans can better
survive in space as well as on
the home Plan he had.
>> The international space
station orbits earth in the
whole planetary vastness of
space.
It's a cornucopia of species
bringing the interior to life.
And with it a plethora the
scientific models contributing
to humans.
And learning how to survive in
space but thrive both on earth
and beyond the edge of our
planet.
♪ Music Playing ♪
>> Animals that fly in the air,
animals that swim, squirts, and
floating water.
Animals that creep, crawl, walk
and run on land, all are being
studied to learn how they react
and adapt to microgravity
conditions.
Since many share similar cells,
tissues and other organic
structures to humans, each is
studied for what they can reveal
to help astronauts withstand the
rigors of Long-range space
travel.
Some physicals, the tardigrade
or water bear is well known to
possess Genes that withstand
extreme temperatures dehydration
and radiation.
What can we learn from these
creep that's might help keep
astronauts safe never extreme
environments.
Astronauts exercise two hours a
day and closely monitor their
diet.
The loss of muscle mass that
occurs in space is still a
serious obstacle that
researchers are working to
overcome.
As such, round worms were
exposed to a microscopic
obstacle course to study their
unusual muscle strength.
Zebra fish have helped
researchers develop count are
measures for muscle weakness.
Another fish, the Japanese, has
helped improve our understanding
of the mechanic niches behind
organ tissue changes.
And, of course, one of the most
common space travelers, the row
different was found to be active
in space than their earth bound
counterparts and experiments,
why?
This matters to scientists who
are studying the effects of
microgravity on bone mass,
Jennifer Buckley is the deputy
chief scientists for the
international space station
program research office at
NASA's Johnson space center.
She explains how studying
multigenerational organisms can
have big impacts on our
understanding of both animal and
plant biology in space.
Multiplies so quickly fruit
plies we can observe several
generations in one.
We can trace the organism from
inception, to birth to old age.
Under genetic changes from one
generation to another are easy
to track.
Regarding plants, Buckley says,
plants develop differently in
microgravity.
They don't know which way is
down anymore.
They no longer have a gravity
signal for their root structure.
We and their RNA to see how it's
diving directions and signals
and how it differs are from the
way plants behave on earth, many
types of plants are grown on the
station from, flowering plants
to leafy greens to vegetables.
What We he learn could influence
our approach to growing
different plant types in the
future.
Practical benefits for those on
earth have come from studying
all of these various forms of
life in space.
Traditional fertilizer can't be
used to plants in space as they
are not grown with traditional
soil.
As a result, NASA scientists
working closely with the private
sector, developed a fertilizer
that would release its nutrients
over a specific amount of time.
The process proved to be not
only successful in space, it can
also be used on earth in
vertical farms and urban plant
factories.
Life in space is not new.
The study of numerous species
going back over several decades
gives you a view of how life can
exist and thrive in the harsh
environment of space, Buckley
concludes we'll conduct hundreds
of experiments during each
six-month expedition, we want to
study a broad diversity of
organisms that will help us
travel beyond low earth orbit.
While also giving us insights
that will improve life on earth.
For more information about the
multitude of life aboard the
space station, go to
WWW.NASA.gov/ISS-science.
To discover more about the space
on, around and on our planet, go
to science.NASA.gov.
>> Along with hands on work on
science experiments,
international space station crew
members spend some of their time
in education events in which
they talk about science with
students on earth.
Discussing their mission.
And sharing the value of
learning about science,
technology, engineering and
math.
In this demonstration video,
astronaut randy bresnik
demonstrates Newton's second law
of motion.
♪ Music Playing ♪
>> Hello, everyone, I am as fro
nah Randy bresnik, 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 on, let's go find out.
♪ Music Playing ♪
>> Deacceleration of an object
depends on the net force act on
this object and the mass of the
object or S equal MA.
>> Jolly good show, sir Isaac.
>> Here we see once the force of
the thrust is greater than the
weight of the vehicle the Rocket
begins to accelerate.
>> Let's start with something
small.
Something you might have at
home.
A stick of chapstick.
We'll go ahead and use our force
being our bungee cord here.
We'll put on our bungee and pull
it back, and you can see how
fast it accelerates because
there is very little mass, next
we'll try a little spaceship.
A little more massive and you
can feel that because as you
move it you can feel the extra
force that you have to push with
your hand we'll put our
spaceship on the launch right
here.
Same spot.
Notice it's flying a lot slower
than that chapstick did.
What we are seeing is the same
amount of force on a smaller,
less massive object, means it
travels faster.
This is the biggest most massive
thing we have.
So let's see how the
acceleration is affected.
Pull back the same amount on the
force.
And here we go.
>> There you have it, Newton's
second law of motion in action.
Thanks, everybody, for exploring
a little fits ice with me today
now I'll send you back to earth
so you can explore your
experiments.
See you real soon.
♪ Music Playing ♪
>> Okay, time for a space
riddle.
What has three eyes and swivels?
If you guessed Ray Don, you are
right.
If you don't know raven is, stay
with us.
For this tech on deck episode as
NASA's exploration and some
NBA-space services project
division at the Goddard space
flight center explains the
technology demonstration payload
on the international space
station that's helping NASA
engineers develop an auto pilot
for spacecraft that may be used
in future exploration missions.
>> Did you know there is a
three-a eyed raven currently
punch on the international space
station not an actual bird but
rather a technology payload
helping NASA develop a relative
navigation system or auto pie
flight a spacecraft.
Launch today station in 2017
aboard a SpaceX dragon on the
company's 10th commercial
resupply services mission for
NASA, installed on the outside
of ISS by station dexter robot.
Raven is he equipped with three
disteams camera vision systems,
visible, intra red and lidar.
Combined with NASA-developed
software algorithms this
rotating module's technology
Kings a roving eye on arriving
spacecraft.
♪ Music Playing ♪
>> Raven's head containing its
three eyes or cameras, is always
on the swivel, which is made
possible by its integral gimple.
>> Rave sen on on-orbit test bed
that was built to mature
technologies relates today
relative navigation centers and
algorithms.
Raven was launch today the
international space station
aboard a SpaceX dragon capsule
in February, 2017.
And it's been operational on the
space station since that time.
So using three different censors
on raven, that are on a movable
gimble platform, raven can track
the incoming visiting vehicle to
station, all the way from very,
very far away all the way up to
where they dock with the space
station.
So basically, at any different
time, raven can tell you where
the incoming visiting vehicle is
in space relative to the space
station and what attitude or
pointing direction it is.
>> Raven sends the data it
collects from tracking and
observing incoming spacecraft to
its processor or brain called
space cube.
This information then tells
raven how it needs to move to
continue to track the spacecraft
engage relative distance and
position.
NASA engineers have taken what
they have learned from multiple
raven observations over the
years to adjust and fine-tune
the relative navigation system
as needed.
So it's ready for the upcoming
on-orbit servicing, assembly and
manufacturing one mission, which
will robotically fuel a
satellite among other things.
>> Rave sen a censor system that
can image an object, process
those images on board in real
time with advanced algorithms
and calculate the poles of the
object relative to itself.
>> These factors come together
to create something like
spacecraft auto pilot.
Much like a self-driving car can
maintain cruise controlled based
on speed of the vehicle it
follows, two free-flying
spacecraft will be able to dock
with one another use this is
technology.
This operation is similar to the
autonomous docking of visiting
spacecraft to station, raven's
unique application is necessary
for dock two at salutes with the
challenges of each moving and
rotating in every direction
during a rendezvous and docking
phase.
>> Using that information to
then guide the first spacecraft
to autonomously rendezvous with
and dock with the second
spacecraft.
That means finding in space,
aligning with it appropriately
and bringing the two vehicles
together without smashing them
in to and destroying each other.
All without human intervention.
>> This capability is the kind
of thing that you need for
docking a spacecraft that were
not originally designed to be
docked with and serviced which
happens to be A vast majority of
them.
That's why raven's time on
station is critical for the
future of on-orbit service,
assembly and manufacturing.
The one mission will use raven
Al relative navigation
capability to autonomously,
meaning no humans involved,
rendezvous and dock with the
satellite and robotic lie fuel
it.
This will be the first time in
history a spacecraft not
originally designed to be
service will be refueled as a
means to extend its operational
life.
Rave sen also important for
future exploration missions.
>> Raven's technologies can be
applied to future NASA missions
because if humans wants to make
a foot print in the solar system
beyond low earth orbit, which is
where the international space
station is Located, we are going
to have to rely on some form of
autonomous docking technologies
in the future.
Whether it be in Ann unmanned
cargo vehicle, meeting up in
orbit around the moon, refueling
tanker locating in geo sink rah
news earth orbit or a return
vehicle arriving on Mars in
advance of the current landing.
All of these will require the
technology that we are
developing with rave glen using
its three eyes raven is looking
to the moon, Mars, and beyond.
>> Relying on high Roy robust
autonomous systems becomes more
crucial the further you move
away from earth as the
communications time increases
drastically.
Once you move past lower earth
orbit it's impossible for humans
on earth to do these highly
complex maneuvers in real time
it's more efficient to allow
computers to perform these
sequences autonomously without
human intervention.
>> Although raven has
successfully conclude the its
main mission objective it
remains on station, meanwhile
its team on the ground is using
what they have learned to
develop more, never before seen
technologies that will enable
future space exploration.
>> The international space
station is not the only NASA
mission that's creating benefits
for those of us stuck on the
planet.
Now right nor fashion missions
measuring water in the soil and
the impact it has on the water
levels it contributes to
agricultural production on the
ground our colleagues from NASA
Goddard space flight center have
a look at what NASA those do
with irrigation for agriculture
and therefore the creation of
snacks.
>> Welcome to snack time.
[ dog barking ]
>> Okay.
Welcome to snack time with NASA
a your health Kathleen and this
is my dog and we both really
love cheese this past year at
home we have all learned to
appreciate the little things in
life and, again, one of those
things for us is a nice big
cheese board.
So today I am going to show you
how I like to prepare my own and
where NASA actually sits on the
board.
Many people don't know that NASA
helps grow food.
We'll highlight some of the
foods they help grow from space.
When you think of dairy you
might think of freeze dried ice
cream for astronauts.
But the connection is diaper.
Why a cracker and keys board?
When we are talking about food
it all comes down to water,
corn, soy, alfalfa all needs
water to grow whether it's being
fed to humans are dairy cows
when farmers are better prepared
for water short nibble advance
they can make more sustainable
decisions like what crops to
grow, how to irrigate them and
where and what to feed their
livestock so here to Pep explain
the connection between space and
place is Matt NASA hydro spheric
scientist.
How is it going?
>> Hey, Kathleen, how are you
thanks for having me.
>> I am good, thanks for being
here.
While I attempt to cube some
cheese, can you kneel what NASA
those do with irrigation for
agriculture?
>> Absolutely.
Agriculture requires a nice wet
soil for growing crops.
And in order to know how well
the crops will grow the farmers
need to have a better idea of
how much water there is in is
the in the soil we have come up
with better ways for monitoring
soil wet france space.
One of the ways we do this is we
use a NASA satellite called
snap, which is an acronym.
It actually measures the wetness
in the stop of the soil.
Worldwide.
Every day.
And this information is vital
for understanding how much water
is available for the plants, how
much water is needed for
irrigating the crops, and so
it's usual for farmers and land
managers and others, it's also
useful for monitoring drought.
Another mission that NASA has is
called Grace, which is another
acronym and Grace is incredible
because it uses measurements of
earth's gravity field to
understand the amount of water
on and in the land surface, so
we can measure things like the
amount of water in the
underground aquifers, deep
underground.
This is vitally important
because ground water is one of
the main sources of water for
agriculture, it's also a source
of water for people who have
wells in their backyard like I
do, so when I turn the faucet on
that's ground water coming out.
And, in fact, about half of the
produce that we eat, we have
ground water to thank for that
because it's used for that much
irrigation, this includes things
like the wheat in your crackers,
soy, fruits and individual
tables on your platter, et
cetera.
So all of these things NASA is
doing are really contributing to
our understanding of the water
available guilt that's critical
for irrigating all of these
crops.
>> Interesting.
And a good reminder that this
cheese board needs dressing up.
So I have edamame and what I
believe to be the most
underrated part of a cheese
board which is carrots and
olives.
>> Those are pretty water
intensive crops.
And grown in the central valley
where proper water management is
critical.
I see you have grape this is
too.
Speaking of grapes, NASA has an
ongoing project with the U.S.
department of agriculture and
vintners in California called
grape X where we are using data
from land sat satellites along
with multiple other space and
ground-based observation sources
and advanced computer models to
help schedule irrigation for
these vineyards and therefore
preserve the precious resource
water is really precious in
California.
Where there is an ongoing
drought right now.
As well as most of the American
west.
We use data to monitor drought
this helps farmers and ranchers
and other interested in
agriculture to better prepare
for drought and better plan how
to mitigate the effects of
drought.
Drought is going to become even
more important in the future we
believe with climate change,
it's likely that some parts of
the world droughts are going to
become more frequent and more
intense and it's possible that
the dry parts of the world will
get drier, wet parts of the
world will get wetter.
That's where NASA comes in, we
are helping with not only the
current monitoring of drought
but the forecasting of near
current drought and predictions
of how the planet will change in
the future and how it will
affect our water resources.
>> Well, Matt, it looks like my
cheese board is done, what do
you think?
>> I think it looks delicious I
can't wait to start my own
lunch.
Thanks so much for having me,
Kathleen.
>> Thank you for joining me and
thank you everyone for watching
I hope you learned a lot I know
I did.
I hope this episode wasn't too
cheesy for you.
>> Okay, good.
>> If you want another look at
any of the stories with showed
you today.
Go on over to Youtube and
Facebook at those addresses
right there.
You'll find them all there,
along with lots of other
features on a wide variety of
NASA topics.
If you are looking for good
conversation about human space
flight, check out Houston we
have a Podcast.
Our weekly show about all
aspects of human space flight
and NASA's missions and
exploration, today Gary Jordan
zeros in on the details of the
Astro bee experiment on the
international space station, and
its predecessor experiment
spheres to learn how scientists
are developing autonomous robots
to assist human astronauts on
the space missions of the
future.
Go to NASA.gov/Podcasts for this
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