Paris may be the City of Light, but the City of Sin is looking to give it a run for its money. This pair of shots was tumblr’d (tumbled?) and tweeted by Colonel Chris Hadfield, who’s currently up on the ISS. At night, the city looks like some pool of molten metal, scalding the desert’s surface, burning a hole straight to hell. And maybe that’s not too far from the truth. [Col. Chris Hadfield] More »
Being an astronaut is hard. Risk your life every day, work long hours, complete tasks lists with military precision, and having to poop in space. But it definitely has its perks, like the breathtaking view and throwing your fellow astronauts across a hatch. [Twitter] More »
There are two ways that you can go about building a blowup space capsule. One is to construct an enclosure that self-destructs at a moment’s notice to disappear any evidence of the night before. The other is to build an inflatable bounce house-like contraption. NASA has decided on the latter. Yep, the space agency has just inked a $17.8 million contract with a Las Vegas firm known as Bigelow Aerospace, which has been given the task to build an inflatable capsule that’ll serve as a bonus room for astronauts aboard the International Space Station. Known as the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module — or BEAM, if you’re looking to get somewhere in a hurry — the enclosure will measure 4 meters long and 3 meters wide, and will be transported to the ISS in a deflated state via the SpaceX Dragon capsule in 2015. Once attached to the aft port of the Tranquility node, astronauts will monitor the BEAM for two years to study conditions such as temperature and radiation levels.
As you’d hope, much of Bigelow’s efforts are dedicated to ensuring the safety of the BEAM’s occupants. To that end, it’s currently developing a Kevlar-like shielding that’s resistant to high-speed impacts from space debris and micrometeoroids. The hope is to prove the inflatable structure’s suitability for use in space tourism and research. Once the test period is complete, the BEAM will be jettisoned from the ISS, at which point it’ll burn up upon reentry into the atmosphere. For a peek at the installation process, be sure to hit up the source link.
Via: New Scientist
Source: NASA
In space, even the most mundane routines become elaborate tasks. Like cutting your nails: if you’re not careful, your fellow astronauts will have face full of clippings. Gross. Fortunately, Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield has taken time out to explain how the folks on the ISS cope. More »
Were you one of those lucky kids whose parents got you an inflatable castle for your birthday party, thus making all the other kids in the neighborhood jealous? You’re about to get one-upped. NASA has just signed a $17.8 million contract with Bigelow Airspace to built an inflatable, expandable module to plug into the International Space Station. Bigelow already has prototype habitats orbiting the globe and last year announced a partnership with SpaceX to launch its BA 330 (pictured above) sometime in 2015. Details of the ISS expansion are set to be announced this upcoming Wednesday, giving you just a few more days to gloat about any childhood bouncy-bounce exploits.
Source: Forbes
Everyone imagines what it would be like to live in the International Space Station for a few months, but many don’t take the noise level into consideration — we kind of assume that since it’s in space, things are a bit quieter, even with all of the machinery and gadgetry that surround the astronauts, but it’s actually quite the contrary.
Commander Chris Hadfield recorded 16 seconds of ambient noise aboard the ISS, and it sounds like a data center full of servers and cooling equipment — in other words, it’s not as quiet as you’d expect. Then again, it’s not too surprising since there’s a ton of equipment on board, like all sorts of machinery, computers, and testing equipment.
Hadfield notes that the quietest places in the ISS are the astronauts’ sleep stations (obviously), since they’re essentially “small insulated pods” that can close up to block out most noise. However, Hadfield also notes that the bathroom is the loudest place on the ISS, so if you really want your privacy and a quiet place to go to, don’t resort to the toilet.
Much of the noise comes from the fans and air pumps necessary to keep the astronauts breathing, so we don’t think many of the astronauts on the ISS complain about it. Hadfield says that the ISS is pressurized to sea level pressure, since the thicker air helps keep all the machinery cooler and “is more natural” for the astronauts.
ISS releases audio clip of ambient noise inside orbiting laboratory is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.
This is how it sounds inside the International Space Station as recorded by Commander Chris Hadfield inside the United States module of the ISS. [Soundcloud via Twitter] More »
Alt-week takes a look at the best science and alternative tech stories from the last seven days.
While some refer to it as a lonely planet, we prefer to think of it as unique. Where else can you find such diverse biology that dates back millions of years, that also has a space station hovering delicately above it. A planet where several millennia of human evolution gave birth to the comedy animated gif? Precisely. One of a kind. This is alt-week.
Her name was Nefertiti. Her species was Phidippus johnsoni. She was the first jumping spider to make it all the way to space and live to tell about it. After spending 100 days aboard the ISS, she successfully readjusted to life on earth where she enjoyed just five days of retirement at the National Museum of Natural History’s Insect Zoo. And sadly yesterday, she breathed her last. More »
She did it! A jumping spider named Nefertiti went all the way to space for 100 days, hung out on the ISS, and now the little spidernaut has re-entered our atmosphere. She has officially hung up her space suit and retired to a quiet life in the Insect Zoo at the National Museum of Natural History. More »
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
