Astronauts Busy With Exercise Study, Satellite and Astronomy Work

ISS – Expedition 56 Mission patch.

August 24, 2018

Ongoing exercise research and gym maintenance took place aboard the International Space Station to ensure astronaut health and mission success. The Expedition 56 crew members also worked on autonomous satellite operations and botany and astronomy gear.

European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst has been participating in an exercise study all week developed by the German Aerospace Centre (DLR). He has been working out in a custom t-shirt with a specialized fabric for the SpaceTex-2 experiment that may improve an astronaut’s comfort and thermal relief while working out in space.

Image above: Expedition 56 Commander Drew Feustel is inside the Harmony module working on the Protein Crystal Growth-13 experiment which is seeking to fine-tune the research process in space and help public and private organizations deliver results and benefits sooner. Image Credit: NASA.

A treadmill is getting its twice-yearly checkup today in the Tranquility module. Flight Engineer Serena Auñón-Chancellor of NASA spent Friday morning checking the treadmill’s belt tension, greasing axles and replacing parts. Engineers on the ground will review its condition before the crew gets back on the treadmill for daily runs.

Commander Drew Feustel set up a pair of tiny internal satellites today, known as SPHERES, and tested the autonomous operation of the free-floating devices.  The SmoothNav experiment is researching using algorithms that spacecraft may use to operate and communicate with each other when conducting space-based tasks.

Image above: Happy Friday fellow Earthlings from the crew of Expedition 56! A.J. (Drew) Feustel, S. Auñón-Chancellor, Alexander Gerst, Oleg Artemyev, Sergey Prokopyev, Ricky Arnold. Image Credits: NASA/Ricky Arnold.

NASA astronaut Ricky Arnold worked on botany and astronomy gear inside the orbital lab. The former teacher reinstalled the Plant Habitat during the morning after some maintenance work on the Japan Kibo lab module’s EXPRESS rack.

In the afternoon, Arnold switched to the METEOR experiment installing new computer software and positioning a camera in the U.S. Destiny lab module’s Window Observational Research Facility. METEOR observes and takes spectral measurements of the chemical composition of meteors entering Earth’s atmosphere.

Related article:

Space Station Science Highlights: Week of August 20, 2018
https://orbiterchspacenews.blogspot.com/2018/08/space-station-science-highlights-week_24.html

Related links:

Expedition 56: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/expeditions/expedition56/index.html

SpaceTex-2: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7571

SPHERES: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=303

SmoothNav: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=7532

Plant Habitat: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Facility.html?#id=2036

METEOR: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/experiments/explorer/Investigation.html?#id=1174

European Space Agency (ESA): https://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Human_Spaceflight

German Aerospace Centre (DLR): https://www.dlr.de/dlr/en/

Spot the Station: https://spotthestation.nasa.gov/

Space Station Research and Technology: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/index.html

International Space Station (ISS): https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html

Images (mentioned), Text, Credits: NASA/Mark Garcia.

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