NASA and its international partners are set to receive scientific research samples and hardware as a SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft departs the International Space Station on Sunday, April 28 weather permitting.
The agency will provide coverage of undocking and departure beginning at 12:45 p.m. EDT on NASA+, NASA Television, the NASA app, YouTube, and the agency’s website.
NASA will not broadcast the splashdown, but updates will be posted on the agency’s space station blog.
Scientific hardware and samples returning to Earth include Flawless Space Fibers-1, which produced more than seven miles of optical fiber aboard the space station.
Other studies include GEARS (Genomic Enumeration of Antibiotic Resistance in Space), which surveys the space station for antibiotic-resistant organisms.
Also returning on Dragon is MISSE-18 (Materials International Space Station Experiment-18-NASA), which analyzes how exposure to space affects the performance and durability of specific materials and components.
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When a SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft leaves the International Space Station on Sunday, April 28, weather permitting, NASA and its international partners will receive scientific research hardware and samples.
From 12:45 p.m., the agency will cover the undocking and departure. M. EDT on the agency’s website, NASA+, NASA Television, NASA app, and YouTube. Discover the different ways to watch NASA TV online, such as social media.
At 1:05 p.m., Dragon will undock from the Harmony module’s zenith port on the station. me. after getting the order from SpaceX ground controllers in Hawthorne, California, and using its thrusters to move a safe distance away from the station.
Launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from NASA Kennedy’s Launch Complex 39A on March 21, the spacecraft reached the station on March 23 and brought with it over 6,000 pounds of research investigations, crew supplies, and station hardware.
The spaceship will crash into the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Florida after reentering Earth’s atmosphere. Although updates on the splashdown will be provided on NASA’s space station blog, the agency will not broadcast the event.
In addition to scientific experiments meant to benefit from the microgravity environment of the space station, Dragon will return to Earth with more than 4,100 pounds of cargo. Researchers can collect data with minimal sample exposure to Earth’s gravity thanks to splashing down off the coast of Florida, which facilitates quick transportation of the experiments to NASA’s Space Systems Processing Facility at Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
Flawless Space Fibers-1, which produced more than seven miles of optical fiber aboard the space station, is among the scientific hardware and samples that are being returned to Earth. After drawing more than half a mile of fiber in a single day—a record that surpassed the previous record of 82 feet for the longest fiber manufactured in space—the investigation tested new hardware and procedures for producing high-quality optical fibers in space.
GEARS (Genomic Enumeration of Antibiotic Resistance in Space) is another study that looks for antibiotic-resistant organisms on board the space station. Genetic analysis may be able to reveal how these bacteria adapt to space, which would help guide the development of safety protocols for astronauts on extended space missions in the future.
MISSE-18 (Materials International Space Station Experiment-18-NASA), which examines how space exposure impacts the functionality and robustness of particular materials and components, is also making a return trip on Dragon. Among the materials used in MISSE-18 are coatings, quantum .s, and a composite that simulates lunar regolith. The samples that were sent back home spent six months in the hostile environment of space.
Furthermore, immunological cell activation samples will be brought back to Earth for examination. The goal of the ESA (European Space Agency)-sponsored experiment is to determine whether immune and melanoma cells’ ability to incorporate magnetic nanoparticles into them is affected by microgravity. In this study, immune cells were engineered to contain nanovectors designed to deliver therapeutic agents precisely to the cells they target. The findings may be useful in the development of new treatments for disorders of the central nervous system and skin cancers like melanoma.
Hundreds of studies in the fields of biology and biotechnology, physical sciences, and Earth and space science are presently underway aboard the orbiting laboratory; these are only a few of them. Through NASA’s Artemis program, advancements in these fields will help maintain astronauts’ health during extended space missions and showcase technologies for upcoming robotic and human exploration beyond low Earth orbit to the Moon and Mars.
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