The
Soyuz TMA 16M spacecraft approaches the International Space Station
after launching from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on March 27
carrying NASA astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonauts Mikhail
Kornienko and Gennady Padalka of the Russian Federal Space Agency
(Roscosmos).
Image Credit: NASA
NASA astronaut Terry Virts and ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti installed components of the Robotic Refueling Mission Phase 2 (RRM-Phase 2) onto the slide table in the Japanese Experiment Module (JEM) airlock. This investigation, scheduled for deployment in April, demonstrates how robots in space could perform tasks including refurbishing older satellites currently in orbit that were not designed to be serviced. The joint effort between NASA and the Canadian Space Agency uses the station as a test bed for robotic satellite-servicing capabilities and could extend the lives of hundreds of satellites in orbit.
A capability to fix and relocate "ailing" satellites could help NASA manage the growing amount of orbital debris that threatens all spacecraft. Refueling and repairing satellites in space would extend the lifetimes, allowing owners to avoid launching costly replacements. Engineers could adapt some robotic technology to fuel spacecraft robotically while still on the ground.
Cristoforetti prepared the Kubik module for the ESA's Stem Cell Differentiation (SCD) investigation. Kubik is a small controlled-temperature incubator or cooler with removable inserts designed for self-contained, automatic microgravity experiments such as those using seeds, cells, and small animals. The SCD investigation aims to understand how human mesenchymal stem cells -- important to repairing bone when it comes to maintaining bone mass -- respond to prolonged exposure to microgravity.
The SCD hardware arrived with the rest of the Expedition 43 crew on March 27 and will soon be installed in the Kubik. Once the Kubik is powered on, the experiment will begin automatically. Investigators want to find possible methods to decrease the impact microgravity has on bone density. Discoveries from this study could provide ways to help people who suffer from bone loss on Earth.
Virts replaced a manifold bottle in the Combustion Integrated Rack for the FLEX-2 Binary-Droplet Arrays test, scheduled to complete operations in the coming week. This investigation burns small droplets of fuel to study the spherical characteristics of burning fuel droplets in space. Researchers are examining how the interactions of droplets in a fuel spray affect soot formation, flame extinction, burning rate, flame shape, size and color with the goal of building more efficient engines that produce less pollution. Understanding these processes could lead to the production of a safer spacecraft as well as increased fuel efficiency for engines using liquid fuel on Earth.