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Finally Returning Home After Spending 340 Days In Space

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NASA Astronaut Scott Kelly prepares to return home.

NASA Astronaut Scott Kelly prepares to return home, after spending 340 days in space.

On Tuesday, March 1, US astronaut Scott Kelly is finally returning home, after spending 340 days in space. He traveled 144 million miles around the Earth. He performed 400 experiments. He posted 700 mesmerizing photos to Instagram.

Scott Joseph Kelly (born February 21, 1964) is an American astronaut, engineer and a retired U.S. Navy Captain. A veteran of three previous missions, Kelly was selected for this special year-long to the International Space Station, which began in March 2015.

Kelly commanded the International Space Station (ISS) on Expedition 26. Kelly’s identical twin brother, Mark Kelly, is a former astronaut. The Kelly brothers are the only siblings to have traveled in space.

Also, Kelly was featured on the cover of Time Magazine’s December 2014/January 2015 Issue and was included in one of Time’s Top 100 Most Influential People in the World for 2016. During the January 2015 State of the Union Address, President Obama recognized Kelly, who was in the audience, for his upcoming Year In Space mission.

Now, he returns to Earth after nearly a year in orbit aboard the ISS. High on his to-do list when he gets back: jumping into his pool and dining at a real table.

However, he stated that he could hold out another year in the “harsh environment” of space – where nothing ever feels normal – if he had to.

Yeah, I could go another 100 days. I could go another year if I had to. It would just depend on what I was doing and if it made sense, although I do look forward to getting home here next week.

Kelly assured reporters Thursday in a video news conference from orbit.

Going without running water for a year has made hygiene difficult, Kelly acknowledged: ‘It’s kind of like I’ve been in the woods camping for a year.’ But the hardest part of all, he said, is being separated from his loved ones, a situation that will pose even more of a challenge for astronauts sent to Mars.

Kelly took questions on Day 335 of what already is NASA’s longest single spaceflight. By the time Kelly checks out Tuesday and rides a Russian capsule to a landing in Kazakhstan, his mission will have lasted 340 days.

The world record for a single spaceflight is 438 days, set by a Russian cosmonaut in the 1990s. Even that will pale in comparison to a Mars expedition, expected to last two to three years round trip.

Scientists hope to learn much from Kelly’s mission to pave the way to Mars in two decades. They will also collect data from his Russian roommate for the year, Mikhail Kornienko.

On the other hand, Kelly will undergo a battery of medical and physical tests at the landing site. He will then be hustled home to Houston for more tests and weeks if not months of rehabilitation to recover from the punishing effects of an extended stay in zero gravity, including degraded vision and the loss of bone and muscle.

Awaiting his arrival in Houston will be his two daughters, his girlfriend, who works in public affairs at Johnson Space Center, and his identical twin, former astronaut Mark Kelly.

The brothers have submitted to similar medical tests for more than a year and will keep it up in the months ahead. NASA hopes the research on the genetically identical brothers will illuminate some of the more extreme effects of weightlessness on the body.

The Kellys talked often during the mission, more than they did before the flight, in fact. The 250-mile-high outpost has an Internet phone capable of calling anyone. Mission Control also arranges regular video conferences between astronauts and their families.

Scott Kelly said he was more anxious to return home following his last space station stint five years ago, which lasted 159 days. That was because of the assassination attempt two months earlier on his congresswoman sister-in-law, Gabrielle Giffords, Mark’s wife.

This time, Kelly said, he didn’t focus on the end of his mission but rather on each upcoming milestone: the arrival of supplies and crews, major experiments, spacewalks, maintenance tasks. Even so, he said, events from last summer or fall seem like forever ago.

On another note, the astronaut lightened things up recently by donning a gorilla suit – a gag gift from Mark – and cavorting through the station while the cameras rolled.

All in all, the next milestone in Scott’s journey is coming home, as he affirmed in the news conference. He ended the conference with a slow-motion backflip, undoubtedly one of the pluses of space.

Image Source: nasa.gov.

Lockheed Martin Proposing NASA Cargo Ship for ISS

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SpaceTo deliver food, supplies, science experiments, and other items to the International Space Station (ISS), Lockheed Martin has submitted a proposal to NASA for building a special cargo ship. The company is interested in using this as a gateway for more in-depth human exploration of space.

As part of the proposal, the aerospace company wants to create a new Jupiter spacecraft based on similar designs used for interplanetary space exploration that have already been built. Included in this would be the Exoliner, a module capable of carrying necessary cargo.

According to the proposal, the Jupiter craft would delivery cargo to ISS and then remain in orbit, giving it the ability to make connections with Exoliner containers launched to ISS sometime in the future.

The Jupiter craft would be solar powered and by housing power, as well as computer systems and avionics, small satellites for NASA and private companies could be launched as well.

For several weeks or months on the next mission, another Atlas V would launch with a different Exoliner containing supplies. While in orbit, the rocket’s second stage would be deployed by the container, followed by meeting up with a different container filled with old items and trash. With a robotic arm, the two containers would be swapped.

The full cargo would deploy from the second stage, connect with Jupiter, and then return to the space station. The trash filled container would connect with the second stage and return to Earth by crashing into the ocean.

In between cargo deliveries to ISS, this spacecraft could also be specially outfitted with instruments for conducting scientific observation of the Earth, making it multifunctional. Although the primary focus consists of getting ISS needed supplies, the spacecraft would become a deep space habitat for astronauts.

Although Lockheed Martin is a front runner, it is not the only defense contractor vying for the NASA contract. The commercial space industry has grown significantly and become extremely sophisticated, something evident in Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Oribital ATK hired by NASA for resupplying missions. Currently, these spacecraft deliver experiments and food to the space laboratory that orbits Earth.

The contract, which is potentially worth billions of dollars, will be awarded in June. Boeing also submitted a bid for the project, along with several smaller space companies that have demonstrated ability in serving NASA’s space missions.

NASA and Lockheed Martin complete Spacecraft Orion

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nasa-orion-spacecraft

Final Assembly and testing of the Orion spacecraft has duly been completed by NASA and Lockheed Martin. It will continue to reside within NASA’s Launch Abort System Facility at Kennedy Space Center until it is sent to launchpad 37 in November.

Lockheed Martin completed Orion in about two years when an empty shell of a spacecraft arrived at Kennedy Space Center. Now the fully assembled Orion stands at 72 feet.

In order to protect its crew from harsh climatic changes in environment during the time of launch and ascent, Ogive panels were installed in Orion. Fasteners were also mounted to secure the panels in place and were covered with a thermal protection coating.

Upon arriving at launchpad 37, Orion shall immediately be lifted 170 feet and mated to the Delta IV Heavy. Over the course of next few weeks the rocket and the spacecraft will undergo integration, powered up and finally be verified extensively for Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1) on December the 4th.

During its maiden test flight, Orion shall travel 3,600 miles beyond Earth and fifteen times further than the International Space Station. It will come back to Earth, the same day traveling at speeds of about 20,000 mph and splash into the Pacific. EFT-1 will provide engineers with data about systems critical to crew safety such as heat shield performance, separation events, avionics and software performance, attitude control and guidance, parachute deployment, and recovery operations to validate designs of the spacecraft before it begins carrying humans to new destinations in deep space.

NASA’s Recent Report Shows That Women Are More Preferred To Visit Mars Than Men

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Hawaii mission

NASA intends to send a group of six people to Mars for a long time period of six months. This Mars mission is planned to occur somewhere in the year 2030.

Six people among which there were three men and three women hid in a volcano of Hawaii for the Mission Mars. The basic purpose of this experiment was to replicate the life of Mars on that planet. The Hawaii volcano mission is known as Hawaii Space Exploration analog and Stimulation. Moreover, NASA has given it a short form of HI-SEA study.

NASA designed the particular experiment in order to physically and psychologically prepare astronauts for a really long mission.

The scientist filled the group with a particular amount of food, water and other basic necessitates. They lived the entire period of eight months with limited resources. Sadly, email was the only manner of communication for them. Unfortunately, every email sent by the members took nearly 30 minutes to reach its destination. It signified that on the whole they had to wait for approximately 1 hour to get the reply of an email.

Luckily, Experts permitted the group to take their cell phones along with them. However, the usage of cell phone was particularly restricted to the cases of emergency.

Finally, scientists presented the complete report of this experiment to NASA. The study unveiled a really astonishing thing related to the experiment.

The study demonstrated that the woman performed their duties and survived more easily than the man on the Hawaii Dome.

Karen Green was one of those six lucky people who took part in this simulate Mars mission.  She lived nearly four months in that dangerous 36 diameter volcano.

Recently, Green claimed that woman is a better option to send first on Mars as compared to the man. She stated several reasons to support her statement. She stated that the appetite of a man is more than an ordinary woman. Therefore, it was difficult for a man to maintain their weight.

All the members of the group worked out for the same time period without any gender discrimination. However, men burned 3,000 calories everyday while women burned 2,000.

Obviously, food and hunger play a vital role in the accomplishment of the study. The spacecraft can carry a limited amount of payload in which scientist have to load numerous other significant things with the food.

Russian Soyuz Arrives at International Space Station Even With Jammed Solar Array

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Soyuz

As per the official reports declared yet, Russian built Soyuz Capsule along with the 3 crew members have reached International Space Station safely late Thursday, in spite of the fact that a jammed solar array that failed to set up just 6 hours before its launch.

The Russian Soyuz (TMA-14M) spaceship reached on the station at10:11pm EDT, while the two spaceships navigated above the Pacific Ocean. The Soyuz took 3 crew members along, one is American astronaut, and the other 2 are Russian cosmonauts, including Elena Serova, who is believed to be the first ever female cosmonaut to reach at the International Space Station.

Certainly, the Russian Soyuz is the spaceship, having the capacity of 3-persons, made of a crew capsule, module and service module motorized by two wing-like solar arrays. At first, The Russian engineers were quite worried about the jammed solar array, which if not mended, will block the radiator and would probably increase the temperature of the Soyuz. Though, the NASA’s reported that, the crew members told all was okay.

Moreover, the Soyuz has sufficient power in order to land smoothly. One of the crew member told during landing, “Though, the solar array wasn’t functioning well, but the power is fine. We are eating, drinking and in a good spirits. All goes well as it needs to be.”

The landing of the Soyuz happened just hours after the launch of Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, where Serova and her crewmates (Barry “Butch” Wilmore and cosmonaut Alexander Samokutyaev) offer goodbye to Earth to begin a nearly six-month space mission.

On the other hand, Trio coupled three other space travelers already on board the station: astronaut Reid Wiseman of NASA; Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency; and Russian cosmonaut Maxim Suarev, who controls the station’s Expedition 41 crew.

“We have watched the live video of the launch and also captured the picture of the takeoff from space that was posted on Twitter,” Wiseman and his Expedition 41 crew members told.

NASA’s officials also broadcasted the radioed message of Wiseman’s through NASA’s Mission Control in Houston, “That’s feel like a good ride, though we are waiting to see them in orbit, and we will arrange the dinner for them too.”

 

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