Tag: Skin-B

Crew Catches Its Breath After Busy Week

Typhoon Noul Over Pacific
Photo of Typhoon Noul from NASA astronaut Terry Virts while the storm churns over the Pacific

The crew was scheduled for a half-duty day today to catch their breath following a week of heavy maintenance and in advance of activities to come.

NASA astronauts Terry Virts and Scott Kelly completed the work they’ve been doing this week on one of the station’s Carbon Dioxide Removal Assemblies (CDRA) by reconnecting power, data and fluid lines to the unit. Ground controllers then performed a series of checkouts before the unit was powered back on. The CDRA system works to remove carbon dioxide from the cabin air, allowing for an environmentally safe crew cabin.

ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti focused on a mix of experiment work including the Skin-B study and completing her runs with the Triplelux-A experiment. Skin-B is seeking to better understand the process of skin aging, which is greatly accelerated in microgravity, which could provide insight into the aging process of similar bodily tissues. Triplelux-A is investigating immune suppression in space.

The Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) reported the Progress 59 cargo craft reentered the Earth’s atmosphere at 10:04 p.m. EDT on Thursday over the Pacific Ocean. Full Update

 

Robotics, Skin Studies and Moon Imagery Kick Off Crew Week

NASA astronaut Terry Virts of Expedition 43 on the International Space Station checks the remote control Canadarm2 on Apr.26, 2015. The Canadarm2 is used to grapple arriving spacecraft and moving them to their docking ports.

Monday began a new week of science and maintenance work for the Expedition 43 crew.

NASA astronauts Terry Virts and Scott Kelly spent the day reviewing procedures and gathering equipment for an upcoming replacement activity with one of the station’s Carbon Dioxide Removal Assemblies (CDRA.) The CDRA system works to remove carbon dioxide from the cabin air, allowing for an environmentally safe crew cabin.

ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti participated in the Skin-B experiment which will improve our understanding of skin aging, which is greatly accelerated in space, while also providing insight into the aging process of other similar bodily tissues. She also took photos for the Moon imagery study.

Robotics controllers in Houston continued operations with the Robotic Refueling Mission-2 (RRM-2) payload. Using the Canadarm2 robotic arm,  to install the new task boards that will be used for the experiment. The objective of RRM-2 is to develop new technologies, tools and techniques that could eventually give satellite owners resources to diagnose problems on orbit and keep certain spacecraft instruments performing longer in space.