Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti and cosmonaut Elena Serova started Wednesday conducting a test run of basketball-sized satellites, known as SPHERES, which float inside the International Space Station. After checking the nitrogen pressure of science freezers in the afternoon, Cristoforetti joined Commander Barry Wilmore for a robotics training session ahead of the fifth SpaceX Dragon mission scheduled for launch Friday at 1:22 p.m. EST.
Read more about SPHERES
Read more about the SpaceX CRS-5 mission
Wilmore began his morning with some 3D printing work before moving on to the Advanced Colloids Experiment Microscopy-3 fluids study. NASA astronaut Terry Virts set up the Destiny lab’s Microgravity Science Glovebox installing hardware for an experiment that will study the risk of infectious disease on long-term space missions.
Read more about the ACE-M-3 study
Read more about the Micro-5 infectious disease study
Cosmonauts Alexander Samokutyaev and Anton Shkaplerov were back at work inside the Zarya cargo module installing overlay sheets on interior panels. The duo split up in the afternoon for a variety of science and routine maintenance tasks in the station’s Russian segment.
So, what’s actually being made on the 3D printer up there? Curious to see how it’s being employed.
Keep up the good work guys!
I keep hearing about “overlay sheets” being installed, but I don’t remember reading about the purpose of them. What are they and why are they being installed?