HOUSTON STATION ON SPACE TO GROUND.
WELCOME TO THE 400TH EPISODE OF SPACE TO GROUND, I’M LEAH CHESHIER MUSTACHIO.
TWO JAPANESE SPACEFLIGHT PARTICIPANTS ARRIVED AT THE ORBITING LABORATORY EARLIER THIS WEEK.
ON WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 8, THREE PEOPLE LAUNCHED TO THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION ABOARD THE
SOYUZ MS-20 SPACECRAFT. AND LIFTOFF! SPACEFLIGHT PARTICIPANTS YUSAKU MAEZAWA AND YOZO HIRANO WERE
LED BY COMMANDER AND ROSCOSMOS COSMONAUT ALEXANDER MISURKIN AS THE SPACECRAFT LAUNCHED AT 2:38 AM
EASTERN TIME AND DOCKED JUST OVER 6 HOURS LATER. THE TRIO JOINED THE 7 ASTRONAUTS AND COSMONAUTS
LIVING ABOARD THE SPACE STATION FOR A SCHEDULED 11 DAY MISSION BEFORE RETURNING TO EARTH.
THIS WEEK, NASA ANNOUNCED THE 10 NEWEST ASTRONAUT CANDIDATES OUT OF 12,000 APPLICANTS.
LET'S GIVE THEM A BIG ROUND OF APPLAUSE!
THE 2021 NASA ASTRONAUT CANDIDATES WERE ANNOUNCED ON MONDAY, DECEMBER 6. OVER THE NEXT TWO YEARS,
THESE ASTRONAUTS WILL TRAIN AT NASA’S JOHNSON SPACE CENTER IN DISCIPLINES LIKE
SPACE STATION SYSTEMS, RUSSIAN LANGUAGE, SPACEWALK TRAINING, T-38 FLYING AND MORE.
THESE CANDIDATES MAY SOMEDAY TRAVEL TO THE SPACE STATION, COMMERCIAL DESTINATIONS,
AND EVENTUALLY THE MOON WITH THE ARTEMIS PROGRAM
A NEW FACILITY IS FINDING ITS HOME ABOARD THE ORBITING LABORATORY THIS WEEK.
ON TUESDAY, INSTALLATION BEGAN OF THE FLOW BOILING AND CONDENSATION EXPERIMENT. THE GOAL OF THIS NEW
FACILITY IS TO COLLECT DATA ABOUT TWO-PHASE FLOW AND HEAT TRANSFER IN MICROGRAVITY. WE’LL NEED TO
GENERATE MORE POWER DURING LONGER SPACE MISSIONS, MEANING THE HEAT PRODUCED NEEDS TO BE DISAPPATED.
TWO-PHASE THERMAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS REDUCE THE SIZE AND WEIGHT OF THE SYSTEM AND MAKE
HEAT REMOVAL MORE EFFICIENT. THIS EXPERIMENT IS YET ANOTHER WAY THE WORK BEING DONE ON THE SPACE
STATION CONTINUES TO PREPARE US FOR FUTURE DESTINATIONS DEEPER INTO THE SOLAR SYSTEM.
THAT’S ALL FOR TODAY ON SPACE TO GROUND. WE’LL SEE YOU NEXT WEEK.