Spacewalk Preps and Advanced Biomedical Research Begin Week
NASA Science ·
Spacewalk preparations kicked off the week aboard the International Space Station as two astronauts get ready to install a roll-out solar array at the end of October. Biomedical research, including portable biological sampling in microgravity and 3D cell printing, topped the science schedule for the Expedition 75 crew. The post Spacewalk Preps and Advanced Biomedical Research Begin Week appeared first on NASA Science .
Spacewalk preparations kicked off the week aboard the International Space Station as two astronauts get ready to install a roll-out solar array at the end of October. Biomedical research, including portable biological sampling in microgravity and 3D cell printing, topped the science schedule for the Expedition 75 crew.
Flight engineers Anil Menon of NASA and Joshua Kutryk of CSA (Canadian Space Agency) are gearing up for the first of two spacewalks to install roll-out solar arrays on the space station’s truss structure. The first spacewalk is scheduled for Oct. 29 when Menon will go on his fourth excursion and Kutryk will go on his first to install a roll-out solar array on the truss structure’s port side. The second spacewalk will take place on Nov. 5 when the duo will install the station’s eighth and final roll-out solar array on the truss structure’s starboard side.
NASA managers will discuss the upcoming spacewalks during a news conference from Johnson Space Center at 2 p.m. EDT on Tuesday, Oct. 20 . NASA will stream the event through a variety of platforms including YouTube .
Menon worked inside the Quest airlock on Monday and cleaned cooling loops in a pair of spacesuits that keep the suits thermally conditioned and astronauts comfortable during a spacewalk. Afterward, Kutryk filled the spacesuit tanks and liquid cooling and ventilation garments with clean water. The pair also joined NASA flight engineers Luke Delaney and Jessica Watkins and called down to mission controllers for a pre-spacewalk conference.
Delaney is working on a new experiment delivered recently aboard a SpaceX Dragon that seeks to demonstrate analyzing crew biological samples in space, rather than on Earth, for quicker health insights. Rather than depending on costly return missions and large laboratories, the study is exploring using portable, compact tools on the station to speed up medical testing possibly leading to personalized treatments in space.
Watkins began her shift in the Kibo laboratory module servicing delicate sample processing hardware and stowing its sample-containing fluid loops in a science freezer . Afterward, Watkins set up the BioFabrication Facility in the Columbus laboratory module to print blood vessels during the week made from the cells of patients with a rare genetic disorder that causes rapid aging. Observations in weightlessness may provide deeper insights into the cellular affliction possibly leading to advanced therapies for the accelerated aging disease.
The space station’s three cosmonauts from Roscosmos worked throughout Monday on physics, super intelligence, and inventory duties.
Station commander Pyotr Dubrov explored complex plasmas, or mixtures of ionized gas, neutral gas, and microscopic particles, that become highly charged, interact strongly with each other, and may create plasma crystals . Results may influence the design of future spacecraft and lead to new research methods.
Flight engineer Sergey Teteryatnikov studied using super intelligence tools that may boost crew efficiency aboard a spacecraft and transcribe crew reports for review by mission controllers on Earth. Flight engineer Anna Kikina organized food packs to ensure consumption before the expiration date then documented the location of hardware inside the Zarya module .
Learn more about station activities by following the space station blog , @space_station on X, as well as the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.
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The post Spacewalk Preps and Advanced Biomedical Research Begin Week appeared first on NASA Science .