Astronauts Open ISS Station Room

Astronauts aboard the international space station readied for a second spacewalk Sunday, preparing to work on the outside of the new Harmony addition and inspect a couple areas of concern on the orbiting outpost. Spacewalkers Scott Parazynski and Daniel Tani also planned to detach a nearly 35,000-pound space station girder so it can be relocated later in the mission. Once the pair detaches the bolts and cables that hold the girder in place, astronauts inside the station plan to use a robotic arm to move the truss to a location where it can be temporarily parked. Installation is set for Tuesday during the mission's third spacewalk.

Once the girder has been detached, Parazynski is set to install spacewalking handrails and other equipment to the outside of Harmony, a school bus-sized chamber that was delivered by the shuttle Discovery and installed during the mission's first spacewalk. The crew entered the room for the first time on Saturday. Meanwhile, Tani is scheduled to inspect a rotary joint for the station's solar wings that is acting up and check for possible sharp edges on a rail for the robot arm.

NASA had to cut a spacewalk short during Endeavour's August mission after one of the astronauts noticed a quarter-inch-long rip in the thumb of his glove. Another glove was damaged during an earlier flight, and Mission Control said sharp edges on the rail may be to blame in both cases. Tani later plans to help Parazynski install a fixture on Harmony that will allow the station's robotic arm to move the compartment from its current temporary location to its permanent home. The space station's crew will relocate Harmony after Discovery leaves in another week.

The European Space Agency's science laboratory, named Columbus, will hook onto Harmony as early as December. The Japanese Space Agency's lab called Kibo or in English, Hope will latch onto Harmony early next year.

Harmony also will function as a nerve center, providing air, electricity and water for the space station. It was launched with racks of computer and electronic equipment pre-installed. All this gear had to be locked down for the jarring rocket ride to orbit, leaving the astronauts to undo more than 700 bolts to free up the equipment.

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NASA spaceship scouts out prime Mars landing options

NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter this week sent back high-resolution images of about 30 proposed landing sites for the Mars Science Laboratory, a mission launching in 2009 to deploy a long-distance rover carrying sophisticated science instruments on Mars.



The orbiter's high-resolution camera has taken more than 3,500 huge, sharp images released in black-and-white since it began science operations in November 2006. The images reveal features as small as a desk. The orbiter has sent back some 26 terabytes of data, equivalent to about 5,000 CD-ROMs. The camera carries 10 red filter detectors, two blue-green filter detectors and 10 infrared detectors.

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Self-sufficient space habitat designed

SYDNEY: Australian-led scientists have designed a new space habitat that might one day allow astronauts on the Moon or Mars to be 90 to 95 per cent self-sufficient.

The development of such as system could save billions of dollars in shuttle trips to re-supply lunar or space colonies and brings closer the vision of a human habitat on Mars.

The technology could also have applications on Earth to develop more sustainable farming techniques and improve recycling processes.

Luna Gaia

Some systems to recycle water and air have already been developed and rudimentary versions are presently used in the International Space Station (ISS). However, the proposed new lunar habitat "combines our existing knowledge" of physical, chemical and biological processes to provide an "overall picture of how a minibiosphere would work," said James Chartres aerospace engineer at the University of Adelaide in South Australia. He gave a talk detailing the design at the Australian Space Science Conference held in Sydney last month.

The project is in some ways similar to the failed Biosphere 2 experiment, built in Arizona, U.S., in the late 1980s. Over an area of 12,000 m², Biosphere housed a closed ecological system, incorporating a mini 'ocean' with coral reefs, as well as a grassland, desert, mangrove, rainforest and agricultural areas. Eight people survived in the habitat for two years, but a lack of food and low levels of oxygen hampered the experiment. Chartres detailed plans for a smaller, space-bound concept, dubbed Luna Gaia.

Devised by an international team of 30 space scientists, Luna Gaia would be a 'closed-loop' environment, meaning that almost all material within the system is recycled with very little need for input from outside sources. The current design caters for a team of 12 astronauts under isolation for up to three years.

Currently, recycling that occurs on the ISS is driven by chemical reactions. A big challenge to developing a totally integrated system is developing a biological recycling system said Chartres. He argues that for efficient recycling, microorganisms are required.

Crops in space

His team devised a new system that takes into account all details of living in an enclosed system in space, even down to the materials that supplies are packed in.

The Luna Gaia concept integrates technologies such as the Closed Equilibrated Biological Aquatic System (CEBAS), an enclosed aquarium designed by the German Aerospace Centre and the Micro-Ecological Life Support System Alternative (MELIiSSA) developed by the European Space Agency. MELIiSSA uses microbes to purify water, recycle carbon dioxide and derive edible material from waste products.

Algae – which generates oxygen from carbon dioxide via photosynthesis, and doesn't require pollinating – is the key to the proposed design.

The food required for astronauts would come from a mixture of tending small crops and from pre-packed supplies. Such crops would include peanuts, lettuce, tomatoes, carrots and wheat. In addition, certain types of algae, such as Spirulina or Chlorella would provide other vitamins, minerals and trace elements.

The diet would be largely vegetarian, said Chartres, but protein could potentially come from small-scale farming of fast-growing fish such tilapia.

A lunar base is unlikely to ever be 100 per cent self-sufficient, said Chartres, because no atmosphere is completely safe from leaks and it could not provide humans with all the nutrients that they need to survive.

Moreover, astronauts need the occasional break to the routine of standard food, so the odd "luxury item such as fruit salad, spices or chocolate," would ward off any doldrums, he said.

Significant hurdles

Pathogens introduced to the system by plants, as well as difficulties of pollination for crops still pose significant hurdles to the design. In addition, as much as 20 m² of plants would be required to feed a single astronaut.

The proposed system, is unlikely to be up and running any time soon. Chartres estimates it will be another 20 to 30 years before the funding for the set-up and the practicality of providing the space for plant growth in a spacecraft is realised.

Mark Kliss a bioengineer with the NASA Space Biosciences Division in Moffett Field, California, said he found the project interesting.

"Certain subsystems could be, and in some cases are currently being used on Earth to provide improved water reclamation techniques, better contamination control methods, superior solid waste management technologies, advanced crop productivity techniques, as well as application to carbon credit and green building technologies," said Kliss of the wider applications.

He added that any knowledge gained from attempts to develop and operate "relatively closed, regenerable life support systems" is useful because it helps us understand how to utilise limited resources as efficiently as possible.

"This is an issue that is not only important for future long duration human space missions, but for humans on Earth as well," he said

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