L’astronaute Kayla Barron pose pour un portrait devant l’habitat végétal avancé à l’intérieur du module de laboratoire Kibo de la station spatiale. Crédit : NASA
Les sept membres de l’équipage de l’expédition 66 ont jonglé mercredi avec diverses expériences scientifiques, notamment sur la physique spatiale et la recherche humaine. Quatre astronautes de la Station spatiale internationale ont également revu les procédures pour une paire de sorties dans l’espace qui doivent commencer dans moins de deux semaines.
Une nouvelle expérience sur la station spatiale utilise l’intelligence artificielle pour aider à traiter des verres complexes en microgravité. ;” data-gt-translate-attributes=”[{” attribute=””>NASA Flight Engineer Kayla Barron began setting up hardware for the Intelligent Glass Optics investigation in the Microgravity Science Glovebox today. The advanced physics study may provide insights into manufacturing systems for Earth and space including communications, aerospace, and medical diagnostics.
Barron also joined fellow flight engineers Raja Chari and Thomas Marshburn from NASA and Matthias Maurer from ESA (European Space Agency) to prepare for two upcoming spacewalks to continue modifying the orbiting lab’s power system. The quartet reviewed the tools and procedures that Barron and Chari will use on March 15 when they exit the U.S. Quest airlock to ready the station for its third roll-out solar array. The second excursion will be on March 23 with two astronauts yet to be named. NASA TV will begin its live spacewalk coverage at 7:50 a.m. EST on both days.
At the beginning of the day, Chari assisted Marshburn and Maurer as they collected their blood, saliva, and urine samples. The samples were stowed in a science freezer for later analysis as part of the long-running Repository investigation. That study looks at a bank of biological specimens collected from station astronauts over the years for insights into the physiological changes occurring in humans living in space.
NASA Flight Engineer Mark Vande Hei worked throughout the day inside the Kibo laboratory module on payload hardware that will soon be placed outside the station in the harsh environment of space. Vande Hei is also on track to surpass two NASA single spaceflight records this month. He will pass NASA astronaut Christina Koch’s mark of 328 days on March 3, then he will break NASA astronaut Scott Kelly’s record of 340 days on March 15. When Vande Hei returns to Earth on March 30, he will hold the NASA single spaceflight record having spent 355 days in space.
The orbiting lab’s two cosmonauts, Commander Anton Shkaplerov and Flight Engineer Pyotr Dubrov, replaced life support components in the station’s Russian segment.
