NASA : NASA Seeks to Evolve Space Station for New Commercial Opportunities

Space Freighter Redocks after Tests, Set for Tuesday Reboost

Steve Swanson works outside the space station to replace a failed backup computer during an April 23rd spacewalk.

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The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft was photographed outside the space station during the April 23rd spacewalk.

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The ISS Progress 53 space freighter redocked to the Zvezda service module at 8:13 a.m. EDT Friday after two days of tests of its upgraded Kurs automated rendezvous system.The Expedition 39 crew now focuses its attention on a reboost to raise the International Space Station’s orbit.

The hatches to the Russian cargo craft were opened a few hours after the redocking and will remain open until the resupply vehicle is prepared for a final undocking June 9 and its deorbit to burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean.

Meanwhile, the Progress 53 will fire its thrusters Tuesday for an orbital adjustment that will put the space station at the correct altitude for the May 13 undocking of the Soyuz TMA-11M that will bring back to Earth Soyuz Commander Mikhail Tyurin of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), Expedition 39 Commander Koichi Wakata of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and NASA Flight Engineer Rick Mastracchio after almost six months in space.

Waiting to replace the homebound trio and continue six-person station operations are Expedition 40/41 crew members Max Suraev of Roscosmos, Reid Wiseman of NASA and Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency. They are scheduled to liftoff May 28, U.S. time, inside the Soyuz TMA-13M for a six-hour, four-orbit trip to the International Space Station’s Rassvet module.

Back inside the orbital laboratory, the current crew is wrapping up the week with life science experiments. The station residents also are continuing their daily maintenance tasks and exercise regimen.

Wakata was back at work with Japan’s newest study, the Hybrid Training experiment, an investigation into alternative exercise methods on the space station and future long-term missions beyond low-Earth orbit on smaller spacecraft. The exercise research uses the contraction produced by applying electrical stimulation to the opposite muscle, which will in turn resist the voluntary contraction of the active muscle.

› Read more about Hybrid Training

Another life science experiment, the Micro-7 study, studies non-dividing cells that make up the majority of the human body. NASA astronaut Steve Swanson worked Friday in Europe’s Columbus laboratory on the new investigation which observes how microgravity affects the genetic expression and shape of these cells.

› Read more about Micro-7

Tyurin and cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev worked inside the Russian segment of the orbital laboratory Friday. The trio conducted the daily complement of maintenance and science.

NASA Seeks to Evolve Space Station for New Commercial Opportunities

 

As part of NASA's continuing effort to open low-Earth orbit to commercial space opportunities, the agency is seeking feedback on ways it can help create greater access to and use of the International Space Station for research and commercial activities.

Through a Request for Information (RFI), NASA is soliciting ideas from companies interested in using the space station and the low-Earth orbit environment in innovative ways that will develop a strong commercial market and assist the agency in achieving its exploration goals.

The expanding U.S. commercial space industry has been able to create self-sustaining economic opportunities in low-Earth orbit, enabled by NASA's commitment to reducing and removing barriers to a commercially-driven U.S. market. This has allowed the agency to sharpen its focus on deep space exploration.

NASA announced Jan. 9 that it intends to extend the country's commitment to the International Space Station to at least 2024. This extension provides opportunities, some already under implementation, to broaden private market access to the unique microgravity environment aboard the space station.

"Now is an exciting time for space research and developing exploration capabilities," said William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for Human Exploration and Operations at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "After 10 years of continuous habitation in low-Earth orbit, we know microgravity provides data unattainable on Earth. We are already seeing benefits in pharmaceuticals, medical robotics and materials sciences. This RFI will help identify how to open this one-of-a-kind orbital laboratory to the private sector in better and more practical ways -- ultimately, helping to pave the way for private microgravity research facilities of the future."

Responses to the RFI should detail ideas that could further efforts to:
-- create a private system in low-Earth orbit,
-- develop crew transportation to enable commercial activities aboard the station beyond NASA requirements,
-- break down access-, programmatic- and business-related barriers to realizing these objectives,
-- address NASA capabilities or expertise that would help facilitate transitioning to a more commercially-driven presence, or
-- identify capabilities and resources NASA could purchase from the commercial sector to allow NASA research activities to continue beyond the life of the space station.

Responses also may provide recommendations on how private research, and other activities, could be performed on the space station to foster future commercial value or demand for access to low-Earth orbit and further NASA's exploration mission.

Responses should be no more than 20 pages and are due by June 30. The complete RFI is available at:

http://go.nasa.gov/1lot8fm

The International Space Station is a convergence of science, technology and human innovation that demonstrates new technologies and makes research breakthroughs not possible on Earth. The space station has had crew members continuously on board since November 2000. In that time, more than 200 people and a variety of international and commercial spacecraft have visited it. The space station remains the springboard to NASA's next great leap in human spaceflight exploration, including missions to an asteroid and Mars.

For more information about the International Space Station, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

 

NASA

Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui

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