With the arrival of a visiting crew nonetheless delayed, science and upkeep work on board the International Space Station continued to fill the Expedition 73 crew’s week, together with time for Earth observations and an interview for a podcast.
Orbital statement
Is it a inexperienced aurora with pink stripes, or a white aurora with inexperienced stripes? That, apparently, grew to become the query on the Worldwide House Station, not less than for Expedition 73 flight engineer and NASA astronaut Anne McClain.
“So, after I took this aurora , at first I believed that my settings weren’t appropriate as a result of the aurora appeared white. I believed possibly the ISO was off, or I picked the unsuitable lens. Seems, what I believed was white is definitely gentle pink, and this led me down a path of studying,” wrote McClain on Tuesday (June 17) in a social media update from orbit.
As McClain came upon, the colour of aurora relies on a number of various factors, together with the molecule hitting Earth’s atmosphere, the character of the influence itself, the density of the environment on the level the collision happens and the altitude of the influence.
“Inexperienced is the most typical aurora colour, and it happens when the electrons hit oxygen molecules between 60-150 miles [100-240 kilometers] altitude,” wrote McClain. “If the photo voltaic particles hit oxygen however at the next altitude, above 150 miles [240 kilometers], the resultant colour is crimson. This solely occurs beneath intense solar storm exercise due to the decrease density of atomic oxygen at larger altitudes.”
And as McClain found, the aurora she recorded “was very pink-hued!”
Science standing
Among the many analysis that was carried out aboard the area station this week was:
REALM — Expedition 73 flight engineer and NASA astronaut Jonny Kim put in tags across the area station as a part of the RFID-Enabled Autonomous Logistics Administration demonstration. REALM makes use of a free-flying robotic named Astrobee to trace tagged tools and cargo, probably making it faster and simpler for crew members to search out the gadgets they want after they want them.
Bio-Monitor — Kim additionally spent two days this week persevering with a take a look at with a Canadian-built vest that allows information assortment concerning the physiological standing of the wearer, together with coronary heart charge, blood strain, and physique temperature. Kim assessed the consolation of the equipment through the 48 hours he wore it.
Ring Sheared Drop — Fellow NASA astronaut and flight engineer Nichole Ayers continued her work from final week by altering out protein samples and including new take a look at cells to an experiment testing floor rigidity as a solution to include liquids and observe proteins with out the liquid making contact with the containers’ in any other case stable partitions.
Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritskiy, flight engineers with the Russian area company Roscosmos, used acoustic sensors affixed to their necks as a part of a respiratory examine based mostly on the sounds they make when exhaling.
Station maintaining
The crew additionally devoted time to sustaining the area station’s methods, together with:
Window inspections — Working contained in the U.S. Laboratory “Future,” McClain examined and photo-documented the situation of every of the module’s home windows. Later, she did the identical contained in the station’s Cupola, inspecting every of its seven home windows.
Expedition 73 commander Takuya Onishi additionally labored on home windows, however inside JAXA‘s (Japan Aerospace Exploration Company) Kibo module, together with the glass portholes within the Electrostatic Levitation Furnace, which is used to show suspended samples to excessive temperatures.
Cranks, handles and seals — Onishi spent a part of this week cleansing the seals on the hatches between every of the U.S. working section modules, in addition to eradicating grime and dirt from the handles on every hatch.
Conferences — Onishi, McClain, Ayers and Kim spoke with Joe Acaba, chief of NASA’s astronaut workplace, in addition to their expedition’s lead flight director to go over their upcoming activites and plans for the station.
Ryzhikov and Zubritskiy additionally searched the Zvezda service module for extra stowage area. Along with Kirill Peskov, the three Russian cosmonauts additionally labored on cleansing and caring for 2 Orlan spacesuits for use on future spacewalks.
Astronaut exercise
On Tuesday (June 17), Ayers took half in a podcast interview for the U.S. Air Pressure, Academy Affiliation of Graduates. A newly promoted lieutenant colonel within the Air Pressure, Ayers described seeing Earth for the primary time in area.
“It was probably the most superb issues I’ve ever seen,” she stated. “After which seeing Earth from the Cupola and the lab window right here, you do not see nation or state traces on Earth. It isn’t like every state has a special stable colour. There may be simply geography and simply terrain, so that you get to study the world over again when it comes to colours and textures and geography and water.”
Ayers stated she has come to see our planet as being “so fragile.”
“It has actually made me need to take higher care of this Earth and I after I get residence, I need to do issues just a bit bit higher and take that further step,” stated Ayers.
Waylaid guests
A second week glided by with out the anticipated and now delayed arrival of Axiom Space‘s fourth visiting crew.
Per the final replace from NASA on Thursday (June 19), a brand new focused launch date for the Ax-4 crew is anticipated “within the coming days.” NASA is taking the extra time to investigate a leak repair on the Russian aspect of the area station.
Axiom House’s Ax-4 commander Peggy Whitson, a retired NASA astronaut, stays able to launch with ISRO (Indian House Analysis Organisation) astronaut Shubhanshu Shukla, ESA (European Space Agency) venture astronaut Sławosz Uznański-Wiśniewski of Poland and Tibor Kapu of Hungary.
By the numbers
As of Friday (June 20), there are 7 folks aboard the International Space Station: commander Takuya Onishi of JAXA, Anne McClain, Nichole Ayers and Jonny Kim of NASA and Kirill Peskov, Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky of Roscosmos, all flight engineers.
There are two docked crew spacecraft: SpaceX‘s Dragon “Endurance” connected to the ahead port of the Concord module, and Roscosmos’ Soyuz MS-27 connected to the Earth-facing port of the Prichal node.
There are additionally two docked cargo spacecraft: Roscosmos’ Progess MS-29 (90P) connected to the space-facing port of the Poisk module and Progress MS-30 (91P) connected to the aft port of the Zvezda service module.
As of Friday, the area station has been constantly crewed for 24 years, 7 months and 19 days.