“After orbiting Earth 34 times to catch up to the International Space Station, the car-sized spacecraft carrying ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst, NASA astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor and Roscosmos commander Sergei Prokopyev, arrived at the Station two days after launch.
The German astronaut is a returning visitor to the International Space Station, the first of ESA’s 2009 class of astronauts to be sent into space for a second time. During the second part of his mission Alexander will take over as commander of the International Space Station, only the second time an ESA astronaut will take on this role so far.
The mission is called Horizons as a symbol for the unknown and what lies beyond – reflecting on ESA’s strategy to extend human and robotic exploration beyond Earth orbit. While in space, Alexander will work on over 50 European experiments, including testing ways of operating and working with robots to develop techniques required for further human and robotic exploration of our Solar System. “
“SpotMini autonomously navigates a specified route through an office and lab facility. Before the test, the robot is manually driven through the space so it can build a map of the space using visual data from cameras mounted on the front, back and sides of the robot. During the autonomous run, SpotMini uses data from the cameras to localize itself in the map and to detect and avoid obstacles. Once the operator presses ‘GO’ at the beginning of the video, the robot is on its own. Total walk time for this route is just over 6 minutes. “
“The Space Storm Hunter, also known as the Atmosphere-Space Interactions Monitor, completed its trip to space in a Dragon cargo vehicle in April 2018. This video shows the different stages of that voyage, from launch to installation on the International Space Station. The suite of instruments rode in the Dragon cargo vehicle that was launched on 2 April from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA.
After orbiting Earth for two days, Dragon positioned itself below the Station for capture. ESA astronaut Andreas Mogensen played a crucial role at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston as lead ‘capcom’ during Dragon’s rendezvous and berthing. Operators on Earth commanded the International Space Station’s 16-m long robotic arm to move the 314-kg facility from the Dragon spacecraft’s cargo hold to its place of operation on Europe’s Columbus laboratory on 13 April.
It is the first time that such a set of sensitive cameras, light sensors and X- and gamma-ray detectors will study the anatomy of luminous phenomena in Earth’s upper atmosphere and bursts of high-energy radiation. Data from this observatory will improve our understanding of the effect of thunderstorms on the atmosphere and contribute to more accurate climate models.”
Soyuz MS-09 is a Soyuz spaceflight planned for June 6, 2018. It will transport three members of the Expedition 56 crew to the International Space Station. The crew will consist of Sergey Prokopyev of Roscosmos, Alexander Gerst of ESA, and NASA’s Serena M. Auñón-Chancellor, both flight engineers.
“The swirling nature of hurricane clouds are a familiar sight in satellite imagery, but in order to better understand these storms, scientists need to look inside them. In 2014, NASA’s remotely piloted Global Hawk aircraft flew over Hurricane Edouard in the Atlantic Ocean to help better understand what makes hurricanes intensify. During the 24-hour flight, a sounder instrument measured the relative humidity of the storm from above, where the cloud cover was thin. Where clouds were too thick, including around the eye of the hurricane, the Global Hawk released dropsondes – foot-long sensors that dropped from the aircraft down through the storm to the ocean’s surface – sending back data on humidity, temperature and wind the whole way down. Warm, moist air helps to give hurricanes their strength, and near the eye, the red colors show high humidity powering the storm. Scientists use these and other data collected from these flights to better understand the environmental signals inside and outside of the hurricanes. They want to better understand the signals that lead to rapid intensification where wind speeds dramatically increase in a 24-hour period – vital information for anyone in the storm’s path.”
Credits Music: Who Done It? by Robert Leslie Bennett [ASCAP]
Credits Video: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Matthew Radcliff
“The ozone layer or ozone shield is a region of Earth’s stratosphere that absorbs most of the Sun’s ultraviolet radiation. It contains high concentrations of ozone (O3) in relation to other parts of the atmosphere, although still small in relation to other gases in the stratosphere. The ozone layer contains less than 10 parts per million of ozone, while the average ozone concentration in Earth’s atmosphere as a whole is about 0.3 parts per million. The ozone layer is mainly found in the lower portion of the stratosphere, from approximately 20 to 30 kilometers (12 to 19 mi) above Earth, although its thickness varies seasonally and geographically.
The ozone layer was discovered in 1913 by the French physicists Charles Fabry and Henri Buisson. Measurements of the sun showed that the radiation sent out from its surface and reaching the ground on Earth is usually consistent with the spectrum of a black body with a temperature in the range of 5,500–6,000 K (5,227 to 5,727 °C), except that there was no radiation below a wavelength of about 310 nm at the ultraviolet end of the spectrum. It was deduced that the missing radiation was being absorbed by something in the atmosphere. Eventually the spectrum of the missing radiation was matched to only one known chemical, ozone. Its properties were explored in detail by the British meteorologist G. M. B. Dobson, who developed a simple spectrophotometer (the Dobsonmeter) that could be used to measure stratospheric ozone from the ground. Between 1928 and 1958, Dobson established a worldwide network of ozone monitoring stations, which continue to operate to this day. The “Dobson unit”, a convenient measure of the amount of ozone overhead, is named in his honor.
The ozone layer absorbs 97 to 99 percent of the Sun’s medium-frequency ultraviolet light (from about 200 nm to 315 nm wavelength), which otherwise would potentially damage exposed life forms near the surface.
In 1976 atmospheric research revealed that the ozone layer was being depleted by chemicals released by industry, mainly chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). Concerns that increased UV radiation due to ozone depletion threatened life on Earth led to bans on the chemicals, and the latest evidence is that ozone depletion has slowed or stopped. “
Subscribe to blog posts using RSS
