NASA to send a new toilet to Space Station

The US space agency NASA is set to test a new zero-gravity toilet to the International Space Station (ISS) before its probable use in a future mission to the Moon.

The $23m (195 crores BDT) toilet, which sucks waste from the body, will be sent to the ISS on a cargo ship.

According to NASA, the toilet's "vacuum system" was designed for the comfort of female astronauts, unlike previous models.

The toilet was supposed to be sent to the space station from Virginia by the rocket on Thursday afternoon. But three minutes before the launch, the mission was aborted due to a technical error. If the engineers can fix the errors, they will try again.

According to NASA, the Titanium Space Toilet will help in missions to more remote areas. The vacuum system is being used here to discharge body wastes in the zero gravity region.

The toilet uses a vacuum system to suck waste away from the body in a zero-gravity environment. For privacy, the toilet is located inside a cubicle - just like in a public bathroom on Earth.

It weighs 45kg (100lbs) and standing 28in (71cm) tall, the toilet is 65% smaller and 40% lighter than the one currently in use.

NASA project manager Melissa McKinley said the Universal Waste Management System (UWMS) toilet has been designed for a long time. The commode seat and urine funnel are more refined than before. Women astronauts will feel more comfortable.

In a video posted to Twitter, Nasa astronaut Jessica Meir described the toilet as a "vacuum system".

"So imagine you have a vacuum cleaner and you're sucking things down. You turn on a big fan, so that's pulling everything down inside the toilet," she said.She added that this toilet will process and recycle urine as drinking water for astronauts in a special way. Source:https://www.daily-bangladesh.com:

Read More........→December 29, 2020

Three-man US-Russian crew returns to Earth from ISS

An American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts touched down on the Kazakhstan steppe on Thursday, completing a 196-day mission that began with the first launch under lockdown conditions.

NASA astronaut Chris Cassidy and Russian cosmonauts Anatoly Ivanishin and Ivan Vagner landed around 150 kilometres (90 miles) southeast of the Kazakh city of Zhezkazgan at 0254 GMT, footage broadcast by the Russian space agency Roscosmos showed.

A NASA commentator citing communications from crews on the ground at the landing site said that the Soyuz descent module had landed in a vertical position and that the crew were working on getting the trio out of the craft.

The three-man crew had blasted off minus the unusual fanfare in April with around half the world's population living under national lockdowns imposed to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

The mission coincided with the arrival at the space station in May of the first astronauts to blast off from US soil for almost a decade.

The mission carried out by tycoon Elon Musk's SpaceX company as part of NASA's commercial Commercial Crew Program has helped fuel talk of a new "space race" between a number of countries.

Prior to returning from his third mission in space, former US Navy SEAL Cassidy, 50, tweeted a picture of blood samples that astronauts have to submit at various points in their mission, including just before undocking.

"What is the price of a return ride back to Earth?....8 tubes of blood!! The 7 shown in this picture were taken in the morning to be placed in our deep freezer, and the 8th will be drawn just prior to undock for ground processing soon after landing," Cassidy wrote.

First-time-flyer Vagner was a rare Roscosmos presence on the micro-blogging platform, where most NASA astronauts have a profile.

"Mama, I'm coming home," the 35-year-old tweeted on Wednesday.

Ivanishin is wrapping up his third mission, after NASA's Kathleen Rubins, with whom he launched to the ISS in 2016, arrived for a second stint aboard the station last week along with Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Sverchkov of Roscosmos.

The ISS, has been a rare example of cooperation between Moscow and Washington.Next month will mark the 20th anniversary of the orbital lab being permanently occupied by humans, but the station is expected to be decommissioned in the next decade due to structural fatigue. Source: https://www.daily-bangladesh.com/

Read More........→December 29, 2020

Nokia, NASA to install 4G on the Moon

Finnish multinational telecommunications, information technology, and consumer electronics company Nokia announced its expansion into a new market on Monday, winning a deal to install the first cellular network on the Moon.

The Finnish equipment manufacturer said it was selected by NASA to deploy an “ultra-compact, low-power, space-hardened” wireless 4G network on the lunar surface, as part of the US space agency’s plan to establish a long-term human presence on the Moon by 2030, according to a report by AFP.

The $14.1 million contracts, awarded to Nokia’s US subsidiary, is part of NASA’s Artemis program which aims to send the first woman, and next man, to the moon by 2024.

The astronauts will begin carrying out detailed experiments and explorations which the agency hopes will help it develop its first human mission to Mars.

Nokia’s network equipment will be installed remotely on the Moon’s surface using a lunar hopper built by Intuitive Machines in late 2022, Nokia said.

“The network will self-configure upon deployment,” Nokia said in a statement, adding that the wireless technology will allow for “vital command and control functions, remote control of lunar rovers, real-time navigation and streaming of high definition video.”

The 4G equipment can be updated to a super-fast 5G network in the future, Nokia said.

In all, NASA announced last week it would distribute $370 million to 14 companies to supply “Tipping Point” technologies for its mission, which include robotics and new methods of harvesting the resources required for living on the moon, such as oxygen and energy sources.

Among them, Elon Musk’s SpaceX received $53.2 million for a demonstration of the transferring of ten metric tons of liquid oxygen between tanks on a starship vehicle, NASA said.Source: AFP Source: https://www.daily-bangladesh.com

Read More........→December 29, 2020