This Week in Space with Miles O'Brian

"Neil Armstrong speaks out against Obama plan and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk fires back, Atlantis returns home home - perhaps permanently, Delta 4 and Ariane 5 rockets fly, black holes merge with a bang, and news from Mars' North Pole."

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Space Shuttle Atlantis (STS-132) on its way to the International Space Station

Space Shuttle Atlantis (STS-132) launched today on its final flight carrying a crew of six veteran astronauts to the International Space Station. The crew consists of Ken Ham (Commander), Dominic Antonelli (Pilot), Garrett Reisman (MS1/EVA1), Michael Good (MS2/Flight Engineer/EVA3), Stephen Bowen (MS3/EVA2), and Piers Sellers (MS4/Loadmaster/Lead Robotics Officer). Launched this morning from Pad 39A, Atlantis reached an orbital insertion altitude of 122 nautical miles (226km) at an orbital inclination of 51.6 degrees. It will rendezvous with the ISS at an altitude of 190 nautical miles (350km). The mission is scheduled for 12 days with a landing at the Cape on May 26, 2010.

STS-132 is also designated as ISS assembly flight ULF4. The primary payload is the Russian built Rassvet Mini Research Module (MRM 1). The MRM-1 will contain an airlock and radiation heat exchanger, a spare elbow part for the European Robotic Arm (ERA) and a portable work platform for science hardware for performing experiments. The volume for cargo and science hardware storage on MRM 1 is 5 cubic meters.

Rassvet Mini-Research Module

Photo: NASA

STS-132 is also carrying the Integrated Cargo Carrier-Vertical Light Deployable (ICC-VLD) pallet holding a Ku-band Space to Ground Antenna (SGANT), SGANT boom assembly, Enhanced Orbital replacement Unit (ORU) Temporary Platform (EOTP) for the Canadian Dextre robotic arm extension, Video and Power Grapple fixtures (PVGF) and six new battery ORUs.

Integrated Cargo Carrier-Vertical Light Deployable Pallet

Photo: NASA

This will be the 163rd American spaceflight and the 132nd shuttle mission since STS-1. It will be the 32nd flight for Atlantis (and also its last flight).

Mars Desert Research Station Mission-88 Crew Journalist David Levine's GoogleTech Talk

Here is another great talk and presentation from award winning science fiction writer, my friend, and fellow crew member David Levine on our mission to the Mars Desert Research Station in January 2010. We were all part of an international crew that comprised mission 88. The crew consisted of Dr. Stephen Wheeler (Commander), myself (Executive Officer and Chief Engineer), Bianca Nowak (Health & Safety Officer), Diego Urbina (Chief Biologist), Paul McCall (Chief Astromomer) and David Levine (Crew Journalist).

It was an incredible mission, blessed with awesome weather, science, engineering, and adventure. Oh what fun we had!

Mars500 Simulation: My friend Diego Urbina has been selected as one of the ESA astronauts

The European Space Agency (ESA) has selected my friend and MDRS Crew-88 colleague Diego Urbina as one of two European crew members for the Mars500 simulation. Diego is 26 years old, has both Italian and Colombian citizenship and has a wide range of experiences working in the space field. He was an Attitude and Control Systems engineer for the Aramis nanosatellite at the Polytechnico di Torini, an operations and astronaut training intern at ESA’s Neutral Buoyancy Facility in Cologne, was a member of the Image Reversal in Space (IRIS) experiment that eventually flew aboard the International Space Station (ISS) and most recently was Crew Biologist for Crew-88 at the Mars Desert Research Station. Diego has a BS and an MS in Electronics Engineering from the Polytechnico di Torino, in Turin Italy and an MS in Space Studies from the International Space University, in Strasbourg, France.

The second ESA crew member is Romain Charles. He is 31 years old and is a Quality Manager for Sotira, a company producing composite panels. His previous experience includes Quality Engineering roles within the company for McLaren, Aston Martin and Tesla Motors. Romain is a citizen of France and resides in Saint Malo, France. He has a MS in Engineering from the French Institute of Advanced Mechanics.

Congratulations Diego and Romain on your selection to the “prime crew” for the Mars500 simulation!

ESA Candidates
Photo: ESA

In addition to Diego and Romain, the Mars500 crew will consist of two Russians and one Chinese to be announced shortly. The crew is expected to begin the 520 day simulation next month (June).

The Simulation Chamber at the IBMP
Photo: ESA

The Mars500 is a joint experiment between the Institute of Biomedical Problems (IBMP) and the European Space Agency and is a 520 day simulated mission to Mars. The sealed mockup includes an interplanetary spaceship, a Mars lander and a martian landscape to simulate extra-vehicular and surface simulations. The facility is housed in Russia’s Institute of Biomedical Problems in Moscow. The entire complex is approximately 550 cubic meters and consists of several habitation modules. The crew will live and work like ISS astronauts in that they will follow a seven day work week with two days off (except when special and emergency situations are simulated) and will conduct scientific experiments, maintenance and a daily routine of exercise. The food and supplies for the entire 520 day simulation will be stored within the chamber and the crew will have to manage their consumptions throughout the mission. Communications will only be via email and will have a forty minute delay, as on a real Mars mission. During Mars surface operations the crew will be divided into two groups of three people each. Once the first group exits to the Martian surface, the hatch between the Martian simulation module and the rest of the facility will be closed by the second group and only be opened again when the Mars surface stay simulation has ended. 

Diego training on a modified Orlan Spacesuit
Photo: ESA

The purpose of the Mars500 simulation is to gather data, knowledge and experience to help prepare one day for a real mission to Mars. The study will help determine key psychological and physiological effects of being in such an enclosed environment for such an extended period of time. Best wishes Diego and Romain for a very successful mission.

The Russian and European candidates during survival training

Photo: IBMP/Oleg Voloshin

This Week In Space with Miles O'Brien

"Counting down to the last scheduled launch of shuttle Atlantis, a space robot race between the U.S. and Japan, plans to bring a piece of Mars to Earth, and attack of the Zombie Sat!"

Spaceflightnow.com