By Richard Tew/Contributing Writer for The Post Newspaper
NASA has been busy this summer with the conclusion of the “CHAPEA” Mars simulator coming to a close, talks about decommissioning the Space Station and now prepping for the upcoming CREW-9 launch to the ISS.
The CHAPEA (Crew Health and Performance Exploration Analog) mission is intended to simulate living conditions on Mars and among other things, test how humans will interact with each other and their environment at some future point in time when humans be possibly live on the red planet.
According to NASA’s website, a four-person crew consisting of commander Kelly Haston, flight engineer Ross Brockwell, medical officer Nathan Jones and science officer Anca Selariu lived and worked in an isolated 1,700-square-foot, 3D-printed habitat for 378 days to “support human health and performance research to prepare for future missions to Mars.” All four mission members emerged from their simulated habitat in mid-July.
NASA’s insignia, affectionately called “The Meatball” turned 65-years-old last week.
The logo was designed by James Modarelli, on July 15, 1959. Its unique and conspicuous coloring is comprised of Pantone 185 (red) and Pantone 286 (blue).
Other big news this summer is the anticipated Crew-9 mission, targeted to launch in mid-August. An official release from NASA says NASA astronauts Zena Cardman, Nick Hague, Stephanie Wilson, and cosmonaut Alexsandr Gorbunov of Roscosmos will make the 8 minute trip to space before docking with the ISS.
“A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will launch the crew aboard a Dragon spacecraft from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on the company’s ninth crew rotation mission for NASA,” read the release.
Speaking of the International Space Station. It’s now been in orbit 25 years and is nearing the end of its service life which is expected to be in 2030.
Recently, NASA and SpaceX discussed how to decommission the ISS.
Previous plans for decommissioning included the option of disassembling the ISS in stages, boosting it to a higher orbit or either a random or controlled decent back to earth.
A decision was made to deorbit the ISS back to earth. The process will take some six months to happened as the ISS experiences “orbital decay” before making its final decent into the ocean. By the time that happens, NASA expects most of the ISS to burn up in the atmosphere leaving the remains ranging from microwave to sedan-sized fragments.
SpaceX was selected to build the “United States Deorbit Vehicle” (USDV) which will assist in bringing the ISS to its watery grave.
Learn more about all of NASA’s missions and projects at www.nasa.gov.
Photo: The International Space Station. NASA photo.
Richard Tew
Tew Academy of Irish Dance
