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Business Standard
26-05-2025
- Science
- Business Standard
Sonic boom marks SpaceX Dragon's return to earth after ISS cargo mission
SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific off California's coast, marking the end of a successful cargo mission to the space station. The uncrewed capsule completed the 32nd commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station (ISS) for NASA. The spacecraft is designed for low gravity, carrying nearly 6,700 pounds of supplies. It had undocked from the space station's Harmony module on May 23 at 12.05 pm, ready to deliver its cargo back to Earth. SpaceX Dragon returned to Earth with a sonic boom Southern California's most regions felt the shaking from a brief sonic boom created as SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft re-entered Earth's atmosphere on Saturday night. SpaceX shared a post on X announcing that the spacecraft Dragon would return to Earth with a short sonic boom before landing in the Pacific region. The post reads, "Dragon is on track to reenter Earth's atmosphere and splash down off the southern coast of California near Oceanside at ~10:44 p.m. PT." Several people took to social media after they heard the boom sound on Saturday. Many people shared a video of the bright streak across the night sky as the Dragon's flight continued over the Golden State. Testing materials and advancing robotic tech in space The mission brought back valuable hardware from the MISSE-20 experiment. The test checked the endurance of different materials in the extreme environment of space. Exposed to ultraviolet radiation, atomic oxygen, and charged particles, items like solar sails, radiation shields, and reentry ceramics underwent rigorous testing. These insights will play a vital role in shaping the next generation of spacecraft materials. Another significant return was Astrobee-REACCH, a robotic test system equipped with gripping arms and sticky adhesive pads. These Astrobee robots successfully manipulated objects of various shapes in microgravity. Their capabilities could prove essential for future missions—clearing orbital debris, maintaining old satellites, and enhancing overall safety in space operations. Books, cameras, and clearer views of Earth Also aboard were books from the 'Story Time from Space' initiative, where astronauts read STEM-focused stories to children on Earth. While floating in orbit, they conducted science experiments alongside the readings. These videos and learning materials are now part of an educational resource library back on Earth. The mission also carried back data and hardware from OPTICA, a year-long demonstration project that tested cutting-edge space imaging technology. With its focus on high-resolution visuals and data compression techniques, OPTICA could significantly cut the costs of satellite communications and enhance disaster response systems using clearer, faster space-based imagery. From launchpad to learning: A mission timeline This Dragon capsule launched aboard a Falcon 9 rocket from NASA's Kennedy Space Center on April 21 and docked with the ISS a day later, on April 22. The ISS has now been continuously inhabited for over 24 years. It remains a vital platform for scientific research and commercial innovation in low Earth orbit. Each mission not only advances our understanding of space but also lays the groundwork for future exploration, including NASA's Artemis program and the eventual goal of reaching Mars.
Forbes
03-04-2025
- Science
- Forbes
Flying Astrobee Robots On ISS Augur Guardian Spacecraft Of The Future
Superstar ISS Commander Suni Williams helps test out an Astrobee free-flying robot, outfitted with ... More mechanical octopus tentacles to capture dead satellites and hyper-speed space debris, as she orbits the planet at 28,000 kilometers per hour. Free-flying Astrobee robots now being tested on the International Space Station could give rise to incredible guardian spacecraft that halo the ISS and protect it from super-speed shrapnel threatening the lives of all its astronauts. Three years after an exploding cloud of shards from a Russian anti-satellite missile - speeding toward the ISS at 28,000 kilometers per hour - sparked NASA to order the Station's astronauts to seek refuge inside their escape capsules, leading robotics experts are conducting experiments that could one day lead to a futuristic defense against similar threats. A constellation of ISS spacefarers, including just-returned Station Commander Suni Williams, have been overseeing tactical demos of the fantastical bots. In their current configuration - resembling aliens that are part machine and part sea creature - they almost appear to have taken flight from a Transformers film, and from the future into the present age. The three Astrobees - identical triplets - now aboard the orbital outpost started out their lives with a remarkably different mission, says Jonathan Barlow, who heads the Astrobee Project at the NASA Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, the American space agency's freewheeling fountainhead of invention and radical experimentation. Each Astrobee is outfitted with internal propellers to fly, along with three smartphone-class ARM processors and a suite of six imagers, including a high-resolution video camera and two leading-edge LIDAR time-of-flight sensors, that combined allow the airborne robot to map and navigate its surroundings. The International Space Station is a technological wonderland, and the globe's greatest platform to ... More test out next-generation space robots. Shown here is an artist's impression of the ISS. (Photo by NASA/) Initially, Barlow says, the highly autonomous Astrobees were designed as mobile cameramen that can glide across the Station and stop in mid-flight to film ISS astronauts, and as sophisticated platforms to host experiments devised by guest scientists across the outpost's allies. Each floating robot can be operated by NASA Ames ground controllers, or by the ISS astronauts via their laptops, who can program hours-long sorties for them to fly through, or tele-operate the droids move by move. Barlow, a vanguard aerospace research engineer who helped develop the Astrobees and their Robot Operating System-derived software, tells me in an interview that his Intelligent Robotics Group at NASA Ames has joined forces with a dynamic space-tech outfit to transform the flying machines as precursors to a future stage of missions: capturing satellites that have exhausted their propellant or even out-of-control space debris that increasingly threatens the high-traffic rings of low Earth orbit. Inventors at this partner outfit - Kall Morris Inc - told me they've outfitted the Astrobees with next-generation biomimicry technology to empower the robots to capture free-floating space objects. They have engineered a complete metamorphosis of the ISS bots, which have been armed with an array of octopus-like tentacles, fitted with gecko-inspired adhesive pads, that can ensnare even spinning nanosatellites. This hybrid astro-octopus, they say, can now capture space objects measuring up to 6.5 meters in diameter - the size of the Webb Space Telescope's mirror - adhere to it with gecko 'clingers,' and propel it into an alternate flightpath. Fantastical Astrobee flying robots, enhanced with an array of octopus-like tentacles, test out ... More capturing simulated satellites floating across the Space Station. Starting last summer, onetime test pilot Suni Williams helped guide these Astrobees through a series of fascinating maneuvers as they chased and deftly captured simulated CubeSats floating across the Kibo module of the Station - all as forerunner flights to hyper-tech debris removal sorties in times ahead. Barlow's team at NASA Ames, and his KMI partners, liaised in real-time with Williams, a former Space Shuttle astronaut, as she oversaw these demonstration flights 400 kilometers above the globe. So far, the enhanced Astrobees have already captured more than one hundred 'target spacecraft' inside the Space Station, and a new sequence of these chase-and-seizure demos is slated to start in early April, just weeks after the arrival of a new contingent of ISS astronauts, says Troy Morris, who heads the Michigan-based KMI. Even as its cutting-edge robotics tech is tested across the microgravity platform of the ISS, Morris tells me, his skunkworks lab is developing a new spacecraft, called Laelaps, that will be equipped with more powerful Space Octopus features to rendezvous with and take control of dead satellites and spent rocket stages that now crisscross and threaten low Earth orbit. The robots and orbital flyers being developed by KMI are at the forefront of a nascent campaign - stretching from North America to Europe to Asia - to begin clearing heavily traveled orbital lanes of the spacecraft and shrapnel that could threaten future human spaceflight, the ISS and the space stations set to be lofted by independent aerospace operators. The Laelaps now being perfected by Morris's group might one day be deployed like a celestial ring of protectors around the ISS, prepared to capture any debris - from missile fragments to castaway rockets - determined to be on a precise collision course with the Space Station. The immediate focus of his studio, Morris says, is on demonstrating autonomous docking with and relocation of orbiting satellites and spacecraft that have lost their ability to maneuver. A target CubeSat is captured by an Astrobee robot inside the Kibo module of the ISS Yet much more complicated, potentially live-saving missions are being mapped out for the future, he says: 'The concept of deploying a fleet of autonomous satellites to safeguard critical infrastructure - such as the ISS - against collision threats is compelling and something we are exploring conceptually.' In a series of captivating papers, Morris and co-founders of KMI have pinpointed 198 rocket bodies, launched from the U.S. since the start of the Space Age and now spinning around the planet at up to 2000 kilometers in altitude, that would make optimum targets when the American government begins funding active debris removal operations. 'The population of artificial objects in Earth orbit has increased steadily since humanity began utilizing the space environment decades ago,' Morris states in one study. 'Currently the U.S. Air Force tracks over 44,000 objects larger than 10 centimeters in Earth orbit.' 'Should these objects collide,' he adds, 'debris clouds would form, setting off a domino effect of more collisions' in a potential orbital doomsday called the 'Kessler Syndrome.' Meanwhile, as his robotic spacecraft advance their ability to intercept runaway space objects, Morris says, KMI could 'provide our protective services to the ISS, other stations, and the growing needs of all space operators.' Back on the International Space Station, the re-engineered Astrobees are set to whiz through a new series of aerial war games, tracking and overpowering their hovering prey. After collaborating with iconic NASA aeronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams on these zero-gravity exercises, Troy Morris says, his lab is set to team up with a new corps of ISS sojourners. Just-launched astronaut Anne McClain, who has extensive experience in drilling the Astrobees from an earlier trek to the space-lab, might be a strong candidate to lead the new round of tests with the revamped droids, Morris predicts. Back at NASA Ames, Jonathan Barlow muses that the future-tech progeny of the Astrobees might one day be deployed to shield human spacecraft, including the colossal International Space Station, from incoming threats moving at hyper-speeds. This next-generation potential to act as celestial sentinels, he says, 'certainly seems like a cool idea.' 'I think that something like that, you know, guardians outside of a space station could, yeah, could definitely happen.' Since being launched to the Station five years ago, Barlow says, the Astrobees have already spearheaded a spectrum of breakthroughs - including advances in human-robot interactions by connecting up with astronauts and aerospace wunderkinds of the future. The space-bots have generated circles of acolytes across American classrooms, Barlow adds, via boosters like MIT's Zero Robotics tournament, which challenges high school creatives to program Astrobees to race through a series of maneuvers with deftness and style. During the early rounds of these nationwide competitions, he says, these would-be operators of the robots code them to speed across a simulated ISS. Yet the world-watched ultimate round - the championship - he adds, 'is on ISS with real astronauts and real Astrobees.' Suni Williams lauds the tournament, and says she had a blast teaming up with students during the final Astrobee match on the Station. Iconic astronaut Suni Williams says she had a blast teaming up with young programmers competing to ... More maneuver the Astrobee robots across the ISS during the Zero Robotics championship staged by MIT During her first press conference back on terra firma this week, Williams suggested this orbital Olympics for aero-robots might also help NASA discover its astronauts, coders and inventors of the next generation. 'We did lots of experiments up there with kids and universities,' she said, 'and trying out new guidance and navigational control, and robots that were flying inside of the Space Station.' 'That is pretty awesome that you can really touch and talk to kids on the ground as you are doing experiments up there.' 'And they have their finger on the pulse of science experiments.' 'And they can understand that,' the superstar astronaut added, 'and think to themselves 'I can be part of this someday.''
Voice of America
26-01-2025
- Science
- Voice of America
Astronauts Stay Busy on International Space Station Awaiting Flight Home
Two American astronauts awaiting their return flight from the International Space Station (ISS) have stayed busy carrying out a series of scientific experiments. The U.S. space agency NASA has said the pair – Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams – will remain at the ISS until late March or early April. When they arrived at the orbiting laboratory in June 2024, the astronauts expected to stay in space for just one week. Their trip was a test flight of Boeing's Starliner spacecraft. While Starliner safely transported the two to the ISS, the spacecraft had several problems that persuaded NASA to send it back to Earth for further testing without the astronauts onboard. NASA's current plan calls for Wilmore and Williams to fly back on a SpaceX spacecraft in late March at the earliest. NASA has been using SpaceX's Crew Dragon to regularly carry astronauts and supplies to the ISS since 2020. The astronauts have been using their extended mission to carry out experiments. In addition, Williams stepped out of the space station earlier this month to complete a spacewalk. Another NASA astronaut, Nick Hague, joined Williams on the spacewalk on January 16, the agency said in a statement. The two repaired a piece of equipment that helps guide the movements of the ISS. The spacewalk also included work on an X-ray telescope, as well as maintenance activities for other ISS systems. NASA noted it was the fourth spacewalk for Hague and the eighth for Williams. The space agency said Williams was preparing for another spacewalk planned for January 30. Wilmore is expected to join Williams on that spacewalk, which NASA estimates will last about six-and-a-half hours. The two will be aiming to remove a radio antenna structure. They will also be 'searching for microbes' around the ISS for use in experiments. Here is a look at other experiments Wilmore and Williams have completed during their stay: New methods to grow food NASA said Wilmore and Williams have tested different methods for growing crops in space. Such methods could support humans who have longer stays in space in the future. One experiment is called the Plant Water Management investigation. NASA said this experiment 'uses the physical properties of fluids…to overcome the lack of gravity and provide hydration to plants.' The experiment aims to help NASA develop hydroponic systems to support future space missions. Another experiment examines a new way to grow vegetables, plants and flowers inside the ISS to provide nutrition and beauty. As part of this experiment, Wilmore installed a new light meter inside the ISS. The device is designed to measure available light and to help crew members improve growing operations. Robot assistants NASA also said that throughout the current mission, Williams had deployed and observed three free-flying robots called Astrobee. This robotic experiment seeks to examine how such robots could assist astronauts with daily duties and maintenance work. The agency said the square-shaped robots are designed to help scientists and engineers develop and test new robotic technologies for use in microgravity environments. The assistants are also designed to help astronauts with daily tasks 'and give ground controllers additional eyes and ears on the space station.' Williams tested the robots' ability to map the inside of the space station and Astrobee's flight abilities. Image captures from space NASA astronauts visiting the ISS have a long history of capturing images of Earth from space. And this is another activity Wilmore and Williams have carried out. The ISS gives astronauts a 'window to the world' as they orbit 400 kilometers above their home planet. During their mission, NASA said the two astronauts had 'captured hundreds of photographs of Earth, ranging from auroras, land, sea, orbital sunrises and sunsets, and more.' Radio connections with Earth Another space station tradition is for U.S. astronauts to connect with students and other interested individuals during their stay in space. They have virtual visits with people back on Earth who can ask the astronauts how it feels to live in space and can learn about NASA's experiments aboard the ISS. In early August, Williams used ham radio technology to connect with students from Banda Aceh, Indonesia. NASA explained that students get the chance to communicate with the astronauts when the ISS passes overhead. The students can ask about research on the ISS as well as the radio wave technology that makes the communication possible. I'm Bryan Lynn. Bryan Lynn wrote this story for VOA Learning English, based on reports from NASA and The Associated Press. Quiz - Astronauts Stay Busy on the International Space Station Awaiting Flight Home Start the Quiz to find out Start Quiz ___________________________________________________ Words in This Story antenna – n. a device used to send or receive communications signals hydration – n. the process of making the body take in water or other liquid hydroponic – adj. relating to or grown using a method of growing plants in water, sand or gravel install –v. to put a piece of equipment in place so that it can do what it is designed to do meter –n. any device either analog or digital that measures a value in the physical world maintenance – n. the work needed to keep something operating in good condition aurora – n. a natural appearance of colored lights in the sky virtual – adj. happening using digital communications and not taking place physically ham radio – n. an activity that sends and receive radio messages as a hobby
