Two long-running NASA missions are providing new details about ocean bearing moons of Jupiter and Saturn – further heightening scientific interest in these and other “ocean worlds” in our solar system and beyond. The details – discussed during an April 13 NASA science briefing – include the announcement by the Cassini mission that a key ingredient for life has been found in the ocean on Saturn’s moon Enceladus. Meanwhile, researchers using the Hubble Space Telescope observed a probable plume erupting from the surface of Jupiter’s moon Europa, at the same location where Hubble saw evidence of a plume in 2014. Researchers say this could be circumstantial evidence of water erupting from the moon’s interior. Hubble’s monitoring of plume activity on Europa and Cassini’s long-term investigation of Enceladus are laying the groundwork for NASA’s Europa Clipper mission, which is being planned for launch in the 2020s. Also, Expedition 50 Returns Home Safely, Next Space Station Crew at Launch Site, Student Launch Event, Groundbreaking for New Lab, and Yuri’s Night, First Space Shuttle Mission Celebrated!
Tag: Expedition 50
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Space Station Crew Members Walk in Space with an Eye to the Future
Expedition 50 Commander Shane Kimbrough of NASA and Flight Engineer Thomas Pesquet of the European Space Agency conducted a spacewalk outside the International Space Station March 24 to disconnect cables and electrical connections on Pressurized Mating Adapter-3 (PMA-3), lubricate the latching end effector on the Canadarm2 robotic arm and replace a computer relay box on the station’s truss. PMA-3 will be robotically relocated March 30 by ground controllers from the port side of the Tranquility module to the space-facing side of the Harmony module for the future installation of a second International Docking Adapter that will accommodate the arrivals of commercial crew vehicles. The spacewalk is the first of three planned in a two-week period for station crewmembers that will see PMA-3 reconnected to its new location on Harmony and an avionics box replaced that routes electricity and data to station experiments.
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Thomas Pesquet – EVA preparations
Thomas Pesquet from France has been onboard the International space Station since 19 November 2016. He is about to take part in his first Extra-Vehicular Activity (EVA, or spacewalk), performing maintenance outside the Space Station to upgrade its batteries to newer lithium-ion versions. Intensive preparations for this procedure took place in the months leading up to launch, with classroom sessions at NASA’s Johnson Space Centre in conjunction with underwater training in NASA’s Neutral Buoyancy Lab.
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Thomas Pesquet’s space food
ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet gives a tour of the International Space Station’s kitchen and the special food will share with his crewmates in space.
Astronauts get so-called “bonus food” for special occasions such as Christmas and New Year’s dinner. Thomas’ bonus food was prepared by ESA and France’s space agency CNES together with French chefs Thierry Marx and Alain Ducasse.
Connect with Thomas Pesquet on social media:
http://thomaspesquet.esa.int