Overwear the Underwear? Two months and No Complaints, Astronaut Says

July 26, 2009

Two months without changing his underwear and no complaints from his housemates, reports Japanese astronaut Koichi Wakata, who returns home this week after four months aboard the International Space Station.

Wakata has been wearing special undergarments dubbed “J-ware” designed for the Japanese space agency. The clothes are threaded with antibacterial and deodorizing materials.

"(For) two months I was wearing these underwear and there was no smell and nobody complained,” Wakata, speaking in Japanese, said through an interpreter during an inflight press conference Sunday.

“I think that new J-ware underwear is very good for myself and my colleagues,” he said.

Wakata is scheduled to return to Earth on Friday aboard shuttle Endeavour.

You can read more about J-ware here.

(Photo: Japan's Koichi Wakata aboard the station's Kibo laboratory. Credit: NASA) 

Is It Time to Invite China to the Space Party?

July 24, 2009

As the wise men and women appointed to present President Obama with some options for what to do with the country’s human space program barrel through their summer assignment, I’m wondering if there will be any serious consideration given to the elephant in the room.

I refer not to the retreating ranks of Republicans, but to what seems to be an obvious solution to a number of problems, first and foremost of which is defining a mission the space program can accomplish for our new president.

Shuttle launch postponed

June 12, 2009

Update 2:25 a.m. EDT Saturday

The launch team is working toward a potential Wednesday launch date for Endeavour, but that would entail delaying the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter flight. 

 “We had pretty much agreed ahead of time that we would not bump them off the range,” Mike Moses, NASA’s shuttle manager at Kennedy Space Center, told reporters early Saturday. “But nothing is a foregone decision.”

  

Station crew raises cups for recycled urine

May 20, 2009

A momentous day in space today. I refer not to the successful refurbishment of the Hubble Space Telescope or the impending homecoming of the shuttle Atlantis  crew. No, the event that had engineers, managers and even some guest astronauts gathering at Mission Control in Houston to participate in a live teleconference with the International Space Station crew was … (drum roll, please) the first vintage of recycled urine finally ready for consumption.

With smiles and drink bags, station commander Gennady Padalka and flight engineers Michael Barratt and Koichi Wakata toasted the team that made it all possible.

“It’s taken a lot of work and a lot of time and a lot of very smart people and there were a lot of problems to overcome and it’s come to this,” Barrett said, raising his drink bag. “This is the kind of technology that will get us to the moon, and further, and so we’re just really, really happy to be here drinking this today.”

The water purification system recycles astronauts’ urine and other wastewater so it can be used for drinking and cooking. It was delivered to the space station in November but shut down shortly thereafter. The next visiting space shuttle crew brought spare parts, but problems persisted.

Among those offering congratulations to the crew on Wednesday was former station commander Mike Fincke.

“Good job on repairing the (urine processor) and getting our first results through the system,” Fincke said.

"We are happy to have this water working through the system and we’re looking forward to working it through our systems and doing it all over again,” replied Barrett.

Wakata, the first Japanese astronaut to live on the station, added: “We’re so glad to be part of this big effort, the real teamwork that made it possible to drink this recycled water. I’m very honored."

Bottom’s up!

(Credit: Robert Pearlman, CollectSpace.com via NASA TV)

NASA Getting Face Time With Obama

May 07, 2009

Never mind that the Obama administration still hasn’t filled the top job at NASA. Acting administrator Chris Scolese said he’s been to see the president three times last month.

“I think that's an indication that NASA is something that this administration really cares about,” Scolese told reporters on Thursday at a press conference to unveil the agency’s 2010 spending plan.

It looks good from the outset, with a $2 billion boost from stimulus funds. But that tails off sharply in the out years, leaving the agency’s moon exploration initiative short more than $3 billion compared to what NASA projected in 2009.

The whole effort may be moot. Upstaging the budget  was the news that Obama wants a top-level independent review of the country’s human spaceflight program, which may not bode well for NASA’s shuttle replacement.

Norm Augustine, who headed a similar study nearly 20 years ago, was tapped to head the review committee, which is scheduled to report back by August.

Apparently everything is on the table, including extending NASA’s involvement in the International Space Station, which currently is funded through 2015, the Ares-Orion space transportation system being designed to replace the retiring space shuttles, and NASA’s plans to land astronauts on the moon.

"You can expect a new administration coming in wants to understand where we're at and is this the best way to go forward," Scolese said.  "Clearly if we're on the wrong path we should change. If you're asking me  do I think we're on the wrong path, no, I don't.”

Scolese said NASA will continue development of its Ares 1 rocket and Orion capsule during the review. However, contracts for initial work on the heavy lift Ares 5, needed for lunar transport, as well a lunar vehicle, will be put on hold pending the results of Augustine’s review, added Doug Cooke, who oversees the agency’s Exploration programs.

(Acting administrator Chris Scolese. Credit: NASA) 

NASA Treads (Lightly) on Comedian

April 14, 2009

The space station's new living quarters was named Tuesday night -- not for the Comedy Central comedian Stephen Colbert, who emerged as the top vote-getter after a (successful!) grass-roots campaign, nor for second runner-up "Serenity."

The agency decided upon "Tranquility," in a nod to the landing site of America's first manned mission to the moon and in total repudiation of the democratic process. ("Tranquility" came in eighth in NASA's "Name the Node" contest.") 

Colbert won a consolation prize of sorts.  In an uncharacteristically tuneful public relations pitch, NASA announced that the  station's new treadmill, which will be housed in Tranquility, will be known as the Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill, aka COLBERT. The comedian also was offered a pass to come watch the shuttle launch that will put his namesake into orbit. 

(Stephen Colbert, challenging NASA like no celebrity has done before. Credit: Comedy Central)

The Colbert Conundrum

April 11, 2009

NASA has decided on a name for the space station's new living quarters following a public relations campaign that took the agency into unchartered territory. Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert hijacked a NASA contest to name the node with televised appeals to fans to enter his name as a write-in candidate. When the votes were in, "Colbert" won by a landslide.

Whatever NASA has decided to do, it at least has developed a sense of humor about the situation. Former station flight engineer Sunita Williams is appearing on Colbert's show Tuesday night to break the news. 

Space Station in High-Def Video

March 26, 2009

The shuttle Discovery astronauts captured stunning video of the International Space Station, newly outfitted with its final set of glittering solar panel wings. The station finally looks like what's been depicted all these years. See for yourself:

International Space Thingamajig

March 10, 2009

Perhaps NASA's problem with the space station has been its name. It's hard to cozy up to something called "International Space Station." It's cumbersome to write, let alone say. 

So maybe there's something to a proposal put forth by Comedy Central's Stephen Colbert, who is doing something rarely done on national television -- plugging the space station. 'Course Stephen has an ulterior motive. He's encouraging people to participate in NASA's "Name the Module" contest, but he's got a specific name in mind: His.

The grassroots effort to name the node "Colbert" appears to working. About 115,000 people suggested the name, pretty impressive consider it's a write-in candidate. NASA has its own nominees -- Serenity, Legacy, Earthrise and Venture  -- names Colbert mocked as words for organic teas, not space stations.

NASA will take suggestions until March 20. I hope this won't be a spoiler for you, but democracy isn't going cut it in this election. 

NASA states it "reserves the right to ultimately select a name in accordance with the best interests of the agency, its needs and other considerations. Such name may not necessarily be one which is on the list of voted-on candidate names." 

Sorry Stephen! Thanks for the laugh.

NASA astronauts need to bone up for spaceflight

January 28, 2009

Doctors have known for some time that microgravity is hard on your bones. Astronauts on long-duration space missions typically take months to rebuild their bodies after returning to Earth. 

 A group of University of California researchers say the problem is even worse than originally believed. In a study released this week in the online journal Bone, scientists evaluated 14 astronauts who spent between four and six months aboard the International Space Station and found what they called an “alarming” rate of bone loss.

On average, the astronauts lost 14 percent of their hipbone strength. Three crewmembers returned home with their hipbones deteriorated 20 percent to 30 percent -- about what you’d expect to find in an older woman with osteoporosis. The study group included 13 men and one woman.

 For each month in orbit, the astronauts lost between .6 and 5 percent of their bone density. Previous studies pegged the bone loss at .4 and 1.8 percent per month.

 In a statement, lead researcher Joyce Keyak, a professor of orthopedic surgeon and biomedical engineering at UC-Irvine, said that if preventive measures aren’t taken, “some of our astronauts may be at increased risk for age-related fractures decades after their missions.”

 There’s about 10 million people in the United States with osteoporosis who surely can relate to that.