Detect harmful radiation, pilot a rover module, learn better sleep and body maintenance: Astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) are preparing for future missions even further afield — from the moon to, one day, Mars.
The arrival of four more astronauts to the ISS, due to blast off aboard a SpaceX rocket from Florida today, would open the door for new experiments aimed at priming humans for long-distance space travel.
“We’re trying out technologies for exploration,” said Remi Canton, director of CADMOS, the division of France’s National Center for Space Studies (CNES) undertaking 12 new experiments.
Whether it is humans revisiting the moon for the first time since 1972 or eventually traveling as far as the Red Planet, the challenges are overwhelming.
First, how can engineers ensure that astronauts and their equipment are protected from the flow of particles thrown out by solar storms and cosmic rays?
Crew members on the ISS get some protection from Earth’s magnetic shield. However, venture further into space and they become sitting ducks exposed to highly charged particles.
“It’s a really big problem for space exploration,” Canton said. “You need to make sure they haven’t received a lethal dose before they even set foot on Mars, or stay on the moon too long.”
Before scientists can devise ways of protecting their spacemen, they need to precisely measure what they are up against.
That is the objective of the Lumina experiment, which uses a device based on optical fibers dipped in phosphorus to measure the amount of radiation passing through it.
“When it irradiates, it darkens very quickly,” said Sylvain Girard, a researcher at the Hubert Curien laboratory and coordinator of the experiment.
By measuring the rate of darkening and comparing that to the intensity of light signal injected into one end of the apparatus, scientists can accurately deduce the dose of radiation received.
It would allow researchers to measure radiation in real time, with sufficient sensitivity to detect a sudden variation, such as that provided by a solar storm.
These unpredictable events propel a flow of highly charged and harmful particles into space.
“It’s like a wave, and it takes roughly an hour to swell before it reaches its maximal flow,” said Nicolas Balcon, a radiative environment engineer at CNES.
On a long space voyage, “if we detect a sudden increase, we could save the electronics, get an astronaut back inside the craft, or protect them within shelters that attenuate certain radiative forces,” he added.
To work for any length of time in the hazardous environment of space, future travelers to the moon further afield would also have to master telerobotics.
This would include piloting a rover on the moon’s surface from a station orbiting the satellite, Canton said.
The pilot experiment would look into how astronauts “use tactile and visual information at their disposal” to better design future cockpits, he said.
French astronaut Thomas Pesquet, once he makes it to the ISS, would wear a virtual-reality helmet combined with handheld devices “because dexterity and refined motor skills are really affected by weightlessness,” Canton said. “You can’t feel the weight of your arms or the forces they exert.”
Pesquet would have to train himself to handle a robotic arm tasked with capturing a virtual vehicle. The helmet would also be used for the Immersive Exercise experiment, which would plunge astronauts into a virtual environment as they pedal on CEVIS, the training bike ISS residents use to limit the muscle loss that comes with prolonged weightlessness.
The experiments do not end when astronauts end their day. They would wear a headband while sleeping to give researchers insight into the different phases of sleep “to understand how confinement and microgravity affect its quality,” Canton said.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese