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☆ NASA’s $3.5 billion plan to redesign its aging spacesuits
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Magdalena Petrova | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

NASA has been using the current spacesuits on the International Space Station for decades and they are showing their age. "The spacesuits that are being used now in the International Space Station by NASA are suits that were really designed in the '70s. Now the agency is turning to two commercial companies: Axiom Space and Collins Aerospace, a subsidiary of Raytheon Technologies , to build and maintain its new generation of spacesuits. Under the Exploration Extravehicular Activity Services Contract, or xEVAS, NASA is providing Collins and Axiom, along with a number of their industry partners, with up to $3.5 billion through 2034. NASA hopes to use this new suit on the International Space Station by 2026.

☆ Russian Spacewalk Is Canceled Due to Coolant Leak
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Yan Zhuang | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Russian specialists are working to “evaluate the fluid and potential impacts to the integrity of the Soyuz spacecraft,” NASA said. The Soyuz arrived at the ISS in September, bringing Mr. Prokopyev, Mr. Petelin and the American astronaut Frank Rubio. It is scheduled to return the three to Earth in March and also serves as a “lifeboat” for the space station in the case of an emergency. Mr. Prokopyev and Mr. Petelin were planning to use Wednesday’s spacewalk to relocate a radiator from one module to another on the space station. The Russian space agency, Roscosmos, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

☆ Unexplained leak from docked Soyuz spacecraft cancels Russian ISS spacewalk
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( Steve Gorman | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Dec 14 (Reuters) - A routine spacewalk by two Russian cosmonauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) was called off as it was about to begin after flight controllers noticed a stream of particles spewing from a docked Soyuz spacecraft, a NASA webcast showed. NASA said none of the seven members of the current International Space Station (ISS) crew - three Russian cosmonauts, three U.S. NASA astronauts and a Japanese astronaut - were thought to be in any danger. The spacewalk planned for Wednesday was postponed once before, in late November, because of faulty cooling pumps in the cosmonauts' spacesuits, Navias said. The spacewalk was to be the 12th this year at the ISS and the 257th in the history of the 20-year-old platform. Spacewalks are typically done for space station assembly, maintenance and upgrades, according to NASA.

☆ Astronauts explain why nobody has visited the moon in 50 years — and the reasons are depressing
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-14 | by ( Dave Mosher | Hilary Brueck | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +15 min

The last time a person visited the moon was in December 1972, during NASA's Apollo 17 mission. But those stays during the Apollo program didn't establish a lasting human presence on the moon. Researchers and entrepreneurs have long pushed for the creation of a crewed base on the moon — a lunar space station. But many astronauts and other experts suggest the biggest impediments to making new crewed moon missions a reality are banal and somewhat depressing. During NASA's Apollo program, 12 people landed on the moon.

The Rashid Rover was built by Dubai’s Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC), in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), and is being delivered by the HAKUTO-R lander, engineered by Japanese lunar exploration company ispace. The Rashid Rover, named after the late Sheikh Rashid Al Saeed, the former ruler of Dubai, will analyze the plasma on the lunar surface and conduct experiments to understand more about lunar dust. The Rashid Rover was built at Dubai's Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre. Mohammed bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC)The rover will be entirely solar-powered and equipped with four cameras, including a microscopic and thermal one. Al Marzooqi hopes that the lunar surface mission will be a stepping stone to Mars.

☆ NASA Mars Ingenuity helicopter broke its own record
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —More than a year and a half after its first flight on Mars, the Ingenuity helicopter has set a new record. “Ingenuity’s success has led to NASA’s decision to take two Ingenuity class helicopters on the Mars Sample Retrieval Lander scheduled for later in this decade,” wrote Bob Balaram, Ingenuity chief engineer emeritus, in a NASA blog update. A more capable Mars Science Helicopter with the ability to carry almost 5 kg of science payloads is also in early conceptual and design stages.”Mars sample collectionMeanwhile, the Perseverance rover continues to collect intriguing samples from Mars. The cache will be collected by future missions during the Mars Sample Return campaign and returned to Earth in the 2030s. The Perseverance rover recently used a specialized drill bit to collect its first samples of broken rock and dust.

☆ This 37-year-old NASA engineer is designing a spacesuit for women on the side: ‘It’s not just cool, it’s necessary’
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Morgan Smith | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +4 min

Growing up, Sabrina Thompson dreamed of becoming an artist or fashion designer — she just never imagined she would be designing clothes for space. Thompson, 37, is an aerospace engineer for NASA as well as the CEO and founder of the streetwear brand Girl in Space Club. For the better part of this year, Thompson has been designing and researching how to develop a stylish, pressurized suit for female astronauts. She joined NASA in 2010 and has been working with the organization for the past 12 years designing orbit trajectories for space missions. "Spacesuits have never been designed with women in mind," Thompson points out, despite the fact that women have been instrumental in designing space suits for astronauts.

☆ SpaceX capsule splashes down, returning 4 astronauts from Space Station
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-14 | by ( Steve Gorman | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Oct 14 (Reuters) - The fourth long-duration astronaut team launched by SpaceX to the International Space Station (ISS) safely returned to Earth on Friday, splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean off Florida after nearly six months of research aboard the orbital outpost. The SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule dubbed Freedom, carrying three U.S. NASA astronauts and an Italian crewmate from the European Space Agency, parachuted into the sea at the conclusion of a five-hour autonomous flight home from the ISS. Camera shots from inside the crew compartment showed the four strapped in their seats, garbed in helmeted white-and-black spacesuits. Applause from the SpaceX flight control center in suburban Los Angeles was heard over the webcast. During their 170 days aboard the space station, the crew orbited Earth 2,720 times - about once every 90 minutes - to log some 72 million miles (116 million km) in space, according to NASA.

☆ Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop must stop making bogus claims about its $66 'vaginal eggs' because of a legal settlement. Here's the real science.
▼ + stars: | 2018-09-05 | by ( Hilary Brueck | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +8 min

A "vaginal egg" will not balance your hormones, regulate your menstrual cycle, or help with bladder control. On Tuesday, Goop settled a lawsuit brought by the Santa Clara District Attorney’s office and others that alleged the company's claims about its "vaginal eggs" were hogwash. Candace Lowry/YoutubeThe statement added: "Goop provides a forum for practitioners to present their views and experiences with various products like the jade egg. I need to start my jade egg practice," she said with a laugh. Jen Gunter, a California-based obstetrician and gynecologist, wrote a widely cited blog post in 2017 about why Goop's vaginal jade eggs are a bad idea.

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