HUMANS IN SPACE
Starliner 1 Returns sans Crew: They started from a tropic port, aboard this new-built ship. Two passengers set sail that day on an eight-day tour. An eight-day tour! The spacecraft started running rough, its thrusters they did cough. If not for the courage of the fearless crew, Starliner would’ve been lost…
Starliner 1 was launched on June 5, 2024, to the ISS, carrying a crew of Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams. It suffered a series of thruster problems and helium leakage, and NASA did not care to risk the crew using Starliner 1 for their ride home. But it was blocking one of the ISS’s two docking ports, so Starliner 1 was returned successfully to Earth robotically at 10:01 PM MDT on September 6. Butch and Suni will enjoy free-fall conditions for another six months. For Aviation Week’s take on this story, see: https://aviationweek.com/defense/aircraft-propulsion/starliner-makes-safe-landing-new-mexico.
Aviation Week also issued a podcast on August 30 about Boeing and its Starliner Program woes. You can find it here: https://aviationweek.com/podcasts/check-6/podcast-nasas-starliner-saga.
NASA Astronaut Frank Rubio spent 371 days aboard the ISS recently. His experiences are the subject of the Houston, We Have a Podcast program, Episode 349, entitled “Surpassing a Year in Space.” Rubio was on ISS for 5,936 orbits, covering more than 157 million miles, before returning to Earth on September 27, 2023. Check it out at: https://www.nasa.gov/podcasts/houston-we-have-a-podcast/surpassing-a-year-in-space.
Tube, Sweet Tube: The lunar surface is a very hostile place, with extreme swings in temperature and no magnetic field to protect against high-energy charged particles from the Sun. Adequately shielding any habitat is a serious problem.
Unless nature has provided a ready-made solution.
Much of the lunar surface is basalt; there is no limestone or underground water or any of the things that make up most caves on Earth. But terrestrial basalt flows, especially large-scale ones, often “roof over” with congealed lava while the interior of the flow remains liquid. As the flow diminishes and the lava drains away, the conduits through which the lava flowed come tubular passages, lined with once-molten rock. Such lava tubes, if it were on the Moon, could hold a habitat in relative safety, but if only the tubes are actually there.
They are! It’s an old idea, first investigated over 40 years ago. But our photo coverage is much, much better than it was then, thanks to spacecraft like the Japanese Kaguya spacecraft or NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, and others.
Finding lava tubes on Earth can be easy, but not always. Geologists are at times helped by the fact that, for whatever reason, the roof of a given tube might collapse in places, revealing the presence of a tube and perhaps the path its flow followed. A new automated search routine for the surface image dataset collection has revealed hundreds of potential tube sites on the Moon.
For more on this exciting topic, see: https://science.nasa.gov/solar-system/new-evidence-adds-to-findings-hinting-at-network-of-caves-on-moon and https://www.nasa.gov/solar-system/lunar-pits-could-shelter-astronauts-reveal-details-of-how-man-in-the-moon-formed.
NASA Moonwalking in Arizona: Back in the day, Apollo astronauts trained in the Flagstaff area, among other places, for their sojourn on the Moon. That tradition is alive today; NASA Astronauts Kate Rubins and Andre Douglas recently performed four Moonwalk simulations to prepare for the Artimus III mission, due to launch in September, 2026. Find out more about it at: https://science.nasa.gov/missions/artemis/behind-the-scenes-of-a-nasa-moonwalk-in-the-arizona-desert.
New Insights into How Space Travel Affects the Human Body: “Space Medicine” has been a topic of research for decades, but a package of recent scientific papers summarizes our increased understanding of the issues relating to Space flight. “(A)s space flight becomes more commercialized and more people outside of just NASA's Astronauts pursue orbit, the need to understand the molecular level of humans in Space becomes more important in ensuring their health and safety.” For more information on this issue, see: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/06/240620194013.htm.
Find Out More About Science on the ISS: Check out “Upward,” the “Official Magazine of the ISS National Lab,” here: https://www.issnationallab.org. It’s put out by the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, in partnership with NASA. It has a lot of information about the ISS, including a really good education page.
Why Go to Space? See how NASA answers here: https://www.nasa.gov/humans-in-space/why-go-to-space.
Aviation Week Webinar: Momentous Times for the Space Industry: https://aviationweek.com/webinars/webinar-momentous-times-space-industry (no cost, but registration is required).
National Air and Space Museum On-line Exhibition on Human Spaceflight: Check out the UHC’s spaceflight artifacts at: https://airandspace.si.edu/exhibitions/human-spaceflight!
Have You Ever Wondered about Living in Space? There’s a lot to consider when planning any long-term mission, but especially so when you are going to be in a totally hostile, resource-less environment! A number of issues arise, among them: how your body responds to long-term free-fall; how you would eat in Space, or even grow some of your own food; and more. You can find out much more about these topics at: https://www.nasa.gov/humans-in-space/living-in-space.