{"id":13714,"date":"2018-07-02T18:17:50","date_gmt":"2018-07-02T10:17:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/dragon-capsule-reaches-space-station-with-three-tons-of-cargo\/"},"modified":"2018-07-02T18:17:50","modified_gmt":"2018-07-02T10:17:50","slug":"dragon-capsule-reaches-space-station-with-three-tons-of-cargo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/dragon-capsule-reaches-space-station-with-three-tons-of-cargo\/","title":{"rendered":"Dragon capsule reaches space station with three tons of cargo"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_33202\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-33202\" style=\"width: 678px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-33202\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DhGsDYLXkAAa6KX-3-678x452.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"678\" height=\"452\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DhGsDYLXkAAa6KX-3-678x452.jpg 678w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DhGsDYLXkAAa6KX-3-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DhGsDYLXkAAa6KX-3-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/DhGsDYLXkAAa6KX-3.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 678px) 100vw, 678px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-33202\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The Dragon spacecraft approaches the International Space Station on Monday, soaring over the Nile River Delta in Egypt. Credit: NASA\/Ricky Arnold<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A commercial cargo carrier owned and operated by SpaceX pulled into port at the International Space Station on Monday, three days after launching from Cape Canaveral with a NASA Earth science instrument, a spare hand for the lab\u2019s Canadian robotic arm, and an AI-powered helper bot for the research lab\u2019s six-person crew.<\/p>\n<p>Completing a high-flying cargo delivery with a leisurely laser-guided final approach, the Dragon spacecraft arrived at the space station at 6:54 a.m. EDT (1054 GMT) Monday as the lab\u2019s robotic arm grasped the supply ship.<\/p>\n<p>The link-up occurred as the International Space Station and Dragon cargo freighter soared 256 miles (412 kilometers) over Quebec, both speeding around Earth at a velocity of 5 miles (8 kilometers) per second.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHouston, station, capture complete,\u201d radioed astronaut Ricky Arnold. \u201cGo for post-capture reconfiguration. Looking forward to some really exciting weeks ahead as we unload the science and get started on some great experiments.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ground controllers commanded the robotic arm to move the Dragon capsule to a berthing port on the station\u2019s Harmony module, where a series of latches and 16 bolts closed create a firm connection between the outpost and the visiting supply ship around three hours later.<\/p>\n<p>SpaceX\u2019s Dragon capsule joins a Cygnus commercial supply ship from NASA\u2019s other cargo transportation provider, Northrop Grumman, berthed at the nearby Unity module.<\/p>\n<p>The Dragon cargo freighter launched Friday from Cape Canaveral on top of a Falcon 9 rocket. Its arrival at the space station Monday marked the second visit of the same capsule to the orbiting research complex, following a cargo delivery mission in July and August of 2016.<\/p>\n<p>SpaceX refurbished the spacecraft\u2019s pressurized compartment and flew it again.<\/p>\n<p>SpaceX has a contract with NASA worth $3.04 billion for 20 resupply missions to the International Space Station. The mission that reached the research lab Monday was the 15th under that contract, including one flight that suffered a launch accident in June 2015.<\/p>\n<p>NASA has awarded SpaceX a follow-on contract for a minimum of six additional resupply missions beginning in 2020, and a $2.6 billion deal to complete development of an upgraded crew-rated version of the Dragon spacecraft, which could fly its first unpiloted demonstration mission to the space station later this year.<\/p>\n<p>SpaceX says it intends to fly the rest of its cargo missions under the first contract, which runs through early 2020, with reused Dragon capsules. After 2020, the company\u2019s resupply flights will fly aboard the same \u201cDragon 2\u201d vehicle design being developed for astronaut crews, replacing seats and cockpit controls with cargo accommodations.<\/p>\n<p>Astronauts planned to open hatches leading to the Dragon spacecraft Tuesday, then begin unpacking the ship\u2019s pressurized cabin.<\/p>\n<p>The mission delivered 5,946 pounds (2,697 kilograms) of equipment, experiments and provisions to the orbiting research laboratory. About 3,774 pounds (1,712 kilograms) of that tally were carried inside Dragon\u2019s internal cabin, including:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>2,718 pounds (1,233 kilograms) of scientific investigations<\/li>\n<li>452 pounds (205 kilograms) of crew supplies<\/li>\n<li>392 pounds (178 kilograms) of vehicle hardware<\/li>\n<li>139 pounds (63 kilograms) of spacewalk equipment<\/li>\n<li>46 pounds (21 kilograms) of computer resources<\/li>\n<li>27 pounds (12 kilograms) of Russian hardware<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The cargo loaded inside Dragon include mice to be examined by scientists upon return to Earth. Researchers will study the effects of microgravity on microorganisms in the animals\u2019 gastrointestinal tracts.<\/p>\n<p>There is also an experiment aboard the Dragon cargo capsule which will help scientists study how algae grows in space. Algae could provide basic nutrition and help absorb carbon dioxide on future space missions, and algae oils could reduce the adverse effects of cosmic radiation on humans.<\/p>\n<p>European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst, who launched earlier this month to begin a half-year on the space station, is also getting a talking assistant enabled by artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n<p>Known as CIMON \u2014 short for Crew Interactive Mobile Companion \u2014 the robot will help Gerst complete tasks, conduct experiments, and repair and upgrade components inside the space station.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_33203\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-33203\" style=\"width: 678px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-33203\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Cimon_sn_xl-678x381.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"678\" height=\"381\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Cimon_sn_xl-678x381.jpg 678w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Cimon_sn_xl-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Cimon_sn_xl-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/Cimon_sn_xl.jpg 1440w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 678px) 100vw, 678px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-33203\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">CIMON, the space station\u2019s new robotic assistant. Credit: DLR<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cCIMON a free-floating artificial intelligence, and when he will be activated, this is kind of a historical moment,\u201d said Christian Karrasch, CIMON\u2019s project lead at DLR, the German Aerospace Center. \u201cWe are very happy that CIMON will be the first artifical intelligence in space.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor us, this is a piece of the future of human spaceflight. If you go out to the moon or to Mars, you cannot take all (of) mankind and engineers with you, but with an artifical intelligence, you have, instantly, all the knowledge of mankind,\u201d Karrasch said.<\/p>\n<p>Developed in partnership between DLR, Airbus Defense and Space, and IBM, CIMON is a spherical device about the size of a medicine ball. The entire structure of CIMON, primarily metal and plastic, was 3D-printed, according to Airbus.<\/p>\n<p>Robots like CIMON could help space crews do their work more efficiently, improve safety, minimize crew stress, and help the public better understand spaceflight, according to project officials.<\/p>\n<p>CIMON\u2019s \u201cneural\u201d AI network and ability to learn, along with human-like characteristics such as a face and voice, will make it more of a companion than just an experiment to Gerst and other station crew members, officials said.<\/p>\n<p>The AI-enabled helper was paired with Gerst, a German-born astronaut, using voice samples before his flight. That means CIMON will best communicate with him, but officials said anyone could work with the robot.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf Alexander Gerst has certain questions to the experiment he\u2019s working on, CIMON has quite keep knowledge on that experiment, so he can really get inside the experiment, and he can ask questions that are beyond the procedure,\u201d said Philipp Schulien, an engineer on CIMON from Airbus.<\/p>\n<p>CIMON learns with the help of IBM Watson AI technology.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDuring the times when there is connectivity, all the communications go back through the cloud,\u201d said Bret Greenstein, IBM\u2019s global vice president of Watson and Internet of Things offerings. \u201cSo all the AI work is being processed at the cloud, actual language, all the training and the tailoring we did, happens in the cloud, which also means we can enhance it from the Earth anytime, and make it smarter constantly to help Alexander and the team to use it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kirk Shireman, NASA\u2019s space station program manager, said astronaut crews traveling deeper into the solar system will need to be more autonomous due to the communications delays inherent in such journeys.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can think of all of human knowledge, you might need to access parts of that,\u201d Shireman said. \u201cSo having AI, and having that knowledge base and the ability to tap into it in a way that\u2019s useful for the task that you\u2019re doing, is really critical for having humans farther and farther away from the planet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Several CubeSats were also carried inside Dragon\u2019s pressurized module for deployment outside the space station in the coming months. Three of the nanosatellites are part of the Biarri program, a partnership between defense authorities in the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada.<\/p>\n<p>Three CubeSats developed under the auspices of the Birds program, led by the Kyushu Institute of Technology in Japan, were also delivered to the space station Monday for later deployment. The Birds CubeSats inside Dragon were built by students in Bhutan, Malaysia and the Philippines.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_33204\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-33204\" style=\"width: 678px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-33204\" src=\"http:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/180517_birds-2-678x452.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"678\" height=\"452\" srcset=\"https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/180517_birds-2-678x452.jpg 678w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/180517_birds-2-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/180517_birds-2-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/spaceflightnow.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/180517_birds-2.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 678px) 100vw, 678px\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-33204\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Representatives from CubeSat teams in Bhutan, Malaysia and the Philippines pose with their nanosatellites before launch to the International Space Station. Credit: JAXA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In sum, the cargo mission will help enable 27 scientific experiments on the space station, according to David Brady, the International Space Station\u2019s assistant program scientist at NASA\u2019s Johnson Space Center in Houston.<\/p>\n<p>Fresh food, including crab, lobster and maple-smoked salmon, pouches of strong coffee from Death Wish Coffee, an iPad Air, and spacesuit gloves are also among the items stowed inside the Dragon spacecraft.<\/p>\n<p>The equipment launched to the space station inside the Dragon\u2019s trunk included a spare Canadian-built latching end effector for the research lab\u2019s robotic arm, plus a 1,213-pound (550-kilogram) instrument developed by NASA\u2019s Jet Propulsion Laboratory to be mounted outside the station\u2019s Japanese Kibo lab module to measure the temperature of plants from space.<\/p>\n<p>The spare latching end effector, or hand, for the robotic arm will be stored outside the space station, ready to replace one of the arm\u2019s two end effectors with the help of spacewalking astronauts, if needed.<\/p>\n<p>Astronauts replaced both hands of the robotic arm in a series of spacewalks late last year and earlier this year. Both latching end effectors showed signs of aging and wear-and-tear after nearly 17 years on the space station, and the replacements left the station without a spare hand for the arm, also known as Canadarm 2.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a critical system,\u201d said Ken Podwalski, the Canadian Space Agency\u2019s space station program manager. \u201cWe always want to be able to protect for a failure.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The robotic arm is vital for the space station to receive cargo deliveries by SpaceX\u2019s Dragon spacecraft, Northrop Grumman\u2019s Cygnus cargo carrier, and Japan\u2019s HTV supply ship. It is also used to move astronauts around the space station on spacewalks, and for transferring experiments and other equipment around the exterior of the nearly million-pound science outpost.<\/p>\n<p>Canadarm 2 is Canada\u2019s primary contribution to the space station. It uses the latching end effectors to inchworm between multiple host adapters outside space station module and on the station\u2019s truss backbone, and the arm\u2019s hands are capable of routing data, video and electrical power.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOverall, I would dare say that we\u2019ve gotten exceptional performance out of our space robotics, just because (we\u2019re) 17 years into the game for a system that was designed for a 10-year operational life \u2014 and 15 years on orbit \u2014 with the very few issues that we\u2019ve had,\u201d Podwalski said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think our biggest problems have really been about cameras. We\u2019ve changed a number of cameras. We\u2019ve got new cameras in the works, and those are actually very nice because we can actually change them out robotically,\u201d he said. \u201cSo that\u2019s a case where we\u2019re using our own robots to fix our own robots. It\u2019s kind of the ideal scenario.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Ecosystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment on Space Station, or ECOSTRESS, will measure heat energy coming off Earth\u2019s surface. The temperature measurements will tell scientists about the health of the plants, how much water they are using, and the resiliency of crops to extreme conditions like heat waves and droughts.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen a plant is so stressed that it turns brown, it\u2019s often too late for it to recover,\u201d said Simon Hook, ECOSTRESS principal investigator at JPL. \u201cBut measuring the temperature of the plant lets you see that a plant is stressed before it reaches that point.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Developed under a cost cap of $30 million, the ECOSTRESS instrument is a pathfinder for future missions, and it will collect data from its mounting fixture outside the space station for about one year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cECOSTRESS will allow us to monitor rapid changes in crop stress at the field level, enabling earlier and more accurate estimates of how yields will be impacted,\u201d said Martha Anderson, an ECOSTRESS science team member with the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Beltsville, Maryland. \u201cEven short-term moisture stress, if it occurs during a critical stage of crop growth, can significantly impact productivity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The thermal sensitivity of ECOSTRESS will also make it useful for detecting and studying hotspots, such as wildfires and volcanoes.<\/p>\n<p>The Dragon spacecraft will depart the space station Aug. 2 and return to a splashdown in the Pacific Ocean with nearly two tons of equipment, cargo and research specimens for analysis by engineers and scientists on the ground.<\/p>\n<p>The Dragon capsule will come back to Earth with one of Canadarm 2\u2019s old latching end effectors, which will be inspected and repaired by Canadian engineers for an eventual re-launch to the space station.<\/p>\n<p>After Monday\u2019s arrival of SpaceX\u2019s Dragon capsule, the space station crew will prepare for the launch and docking of a Russian Progress resupply and refueling freighter July 9. The Progress MS-09 spacecraft is set to blast off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 5:51 p.m. EDT (2151 GMT) next Monday.<\/p>\n<p>The Russian cargo carrier will attempt the shortest rendezvous ever tried at the space station, with docking scheduled less than four hours later at 8:39 p.m. EDT (0039 GMT on July 10).<\/p>\n<p>The Cygnus supply ship already at the space station is scheduled to conduct a short re-boost of the research lab\u2019s orbit July 12, the first time such a maneuver has been attempted by a U.S. commercial cargo vehicle. Three days later, on July 15, the Cygnus spacecraft is set to depart the space station loaded with trash for disposal during a destructive re-entry over the Pacific Ocean.<\/p>\n<p>But the Northrop Grumman-owned cargo craft will first climb into a higher orbit to release multiple commercial CubeSats carried in a deployer outside the vehicle.<\/p>\n<p><b><i>Email the author.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Follow Stephen Clark on Twitter: @StephenClark1.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Dragon spacecraft approaches the International Space Station on Monday, soaring over the Nile River Delta in Egypt. Credit: NASA\/Ricky Arnold A commercial cargo carrier owned and operated by SpaceX pulled into port at the International Space Station on Monday, three days after launching from Cape Canaveral with a NASA Earth science instrument, a spare [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1657,584,1838,880,2923,291,1914,1395],"class_list":["post-13714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-airbus-defense-and-space","tag-canada","tag-canadarm-2","tag-canadian-space-agency","tag-cimon","tag-commercial-space","tag-dlr","tag-dragon"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13714"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13714\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}