#Microgravity tank

[thejoyofviolentmovement]

New Audio: Draag Shares Ominous "Microgravity tank"

New Audio: Draag Shares Ominous "Microgravity tank" @draagsadpeople @grandstandhq @tagabowPHL

Los Angeles-based musician Adrian Acosta was trained as a mariachi singer by his father, an established norteño musician, but after finding his older brother’s electric guitar, Acosta quickly got into indie rock and shoegaze. Growing up in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley, there wasn’t much for kids to do; but Acosta got involved in the local DIY punk scene as a preteen. Backyard shows happened…

[michaelgabrill]

Who Let the Gas Out?: NASA Tank Venting in Microgravity Challenge

As space travel extends to greater duration and distance, missions may require a propellant refill in space. To achieve this, spacecraft may require larger tanks and efficient refueling along with tanks that have the capability of isolating propellant from ullage fluid (a gas and vapor mixture) during a vent. The goal of this Challenge is […] from NASA https://ift.tt/2EQpSKy

[clonerightsagenda]

It is Wolf 359 day (also known as Christmas for some) and since I saw a stoat photoset on my dash I feel compelled to post about daemon hcs.

Eiffel - Word of God is raccoon, and it fits. The poor thing probably looks like she has mange during the season 2/3 timeskip, since there's no way astronauts are stuffing their daemons in spacesuits - they must have to go through some kind of pre-mission training to lengthen their range. They are not trained to get blasted lightyears apart though, rip. That's gotta hurt. Once he's recovered from his ordeal though I'm sure he takes advantage of their massively extended range to cause problems. There's no way I stole those donuts from the Urania's stores, commander! I was here in the comms room the whole time.

Minkowski - white-tailed eagle. This bird is found in Poland, and some versions of the Polish flag have a white eagle. It's also similar to but not exactly like a bald eagle - showing how Minkowski aspires to assimilate into Americanness but can't completely abandon her Polish heritage. Plus pilot = bird, it tracks.

Hilbert - rosencrantz-draws-things did a series of daemon paintings for the characters and while I don't agree with all their choices, I did like chameleon for him. He changes roles and faces when he needs to, whatever helps him survive.

Lovelace - The painting series I referenced gives her lioness, which I don't hate, although the logistics are a bit messy for a space station environment. Given the backstory I've envisioned for her I kind of want to spend more time reading about Puerto Rican fauna and get back to you on this one. How does the daemon situation work with her being a surrogate? Unclear but it sure keeps her up at night!

Maxwell - Ferret! The wonder twins have mustelid vibes to me, and I am always charmed by the story of the ferret who cleaned out the tubing of a particle accelerator.

Jacobi - Stoat to match Maxwell. They are the mustelid twins now. It just feels right.

Kepler - idk I don't care about him.

Pryce - Coconut octopus. Something a little bit unusual and unexpected, requires specialized care and upkeep, and octopi are extremely intelligent, with this species actively modifying its situation via tool use. She can carry him around in his own special tank.

Cutter - I never settled (lol) on anything for him, but given I like the idea of him bodyhopping (this has been thoroughly debunked by Word of God but oh well) I imagine that he keeps around the old body's severed daemon as a smokescreen. This leads to a very animated, lively guy with a strangely inert, unfocused daemon which makes him even more unsettling to everyone. He's impossible to read.

Hera - I saved her for last because she's a special case. When AI reach sentience a block of code just pops up in their programming, and that's their daemon. They're not physical in the same way humans are - why would their soul be? However, product testing indicated humans preferred to see something daemonlike, so customer-facing AIs get holographic projections of cute, non-threatening animals like puppies or songbirds. Hera has a bird until Hilbert takes her offline. When she comes back, she has control over the projection and can make it look however she wants. It's not actually her daemon but she can use it to express herself in a similar way, including projecting her humansona, which scares the crap out of people the first few times they see a random stranger on board.

Daemons in microgravity would be their own headache. I imagine crewmembers get velcro pouches on their uniforms or toolbelts sized for their daemons to keep them from floating away. Smaller daemons are preferable in the same way that there's a height range for astronauts - this is why I'm conflicted about Lovelace. Also, you know I am a #hater of 'daemon touching = sex' in AU settings and believe there are multiple kinds of intimacy, and spaceflight involves everyone getting real cool about a lot of stuff real quickly, so I think by season 3 Minkowski and Eiffel at least are hanging on to each other's daemons when they're out on spacewalks both for convenience and emotional support. (Eiffel is still stressed out about it but more because he is really bad at holding a raptor and scared of getting slashed by talons.) Hera occasionally perches her projection on their shoulders which again doesn't mean the same thing to her but gets the message across. If Jacobi is working on something fiddly Maxwell will be wearing both their daemons around her neck, and vice versa.

Bob does not appear with a daemon while wearing his Eiffel suit. The alternative would probably be more upsetting.

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

Zero-boil-off tank experiments to enable long-duration space exploration

Do we have enough fuel to get to our destination? This is probably one of the first questions that comes to mind whenever your family gets ready to embark on a road trip. If the trip is long, you will need to visit gas stations along your route to refuel during your travel.

NASA is grappling with similar issues as it gets ready to embark on a sustainable mission back to the moon and plans future missions to Mars. But while your car's fuel is gasoline, which can be safely and indefinitely stored as a liquid in the car's gas tank, spacecraft fuels are volatile cryogenic liquid propellants that must be maintained at extremely low temperatures and guarded from environmental heat leaks into the spacecraft's propellant tank.

And while there is already an established network of commercial gas stations in place to make refueling your car a cinch, there are no cryogenic refueling stations or depots at the moon or on the way to Mars.

Furthermore, storing volatile propellant for a long time and transferring it from an in-space depot tank to a spacecraft's fuel tank under microgravity conditions will not be easy since the underlying microgravity fluid physics affecting such operations is not well understood. Even with today's technology, preserving cryogenic fuels in space beyond several days is not possible, and tank-to-tank fuel transfer has never been previously performed or tested in space.

Heat conducted through support structures or from the radiative space environment can penetrate even the formidable multi-layer insulation (MLI) systems of in-space propellant tanks, leading to boil-off or vaporization of the propellant and causing tank self-pressurization.

The current practice is to guard against over-pressurizing the tank and endangering its structural integrity by venting the boil-off vapor into space. Onboard propellants are also used to cool down the hot transfer lines and the walls of an empty spacecraft tank before a fuel transfer and filling operation can take place. Thus, precious fuel is continuously wasted during both storage and transfer operations, rendering long-duration expeditions—especially a human Mars mission—infeasible using current passive propellant tank pressure control methods.

Zero-boil-off (ZBO) or reduced boil-off (RBO) technologies provide an innovative and effective means to replace the current passive tank pressure control design. This method relies on a complex combination of active, gravity-dependent mixing and energy removal processes that allow maintenance of safe tank pressure with zero or significantly reduced fuel loss.

Zero boil-off storage and transfer: A transformative space technology

At the heart of the ZBO pressure control system are two proposed active mixing and cooling mechanisms to counter tank self-pressurization. The first is based on intermittent, forced, subcooled jet mixing of the propellant and involves complex, dynamic, gravity-dependent interaction between the jet and the ullage (vapor volume) to control the condensation and evaporation phase change at the liquid-vapor interface.

The second mechanism uses subcooled droplet injection via a spraybar in the ullage to control tank pressure and temperature. While the latter option is promising and gaining prominence, it is more complex and has never been tested in microgravity where the phase change and transport behavior of droplet populations can be very different and nonintuitive compared to those on Earth.

Although the dynamic ZBO approach is technologically complex, it promises an impressive advantage over the currently used passive methods. An assessment of one nuclear propulsion concept for Mars transport estimated that the passive boil-off losses for a large liquid hydrogen tank carrying 38 tons of fuel for a three-year mission to Mars would be approximately 16 tons/year.

The proposed ZBO system would provide a 42% saving of propellant mass per year. These numbers also imply that with a passive system, all the fuel carried for a three-year Mars mission would be lost to boil-off, rendering such a mission infeasible without resorting to the transformative ZBO technology.

The ZBO approach provides a promising method, but before such a complex technological and operational transformation can be fully developed, implemented, and demonstrated in space, important and decisive scientific questions that impact its engineering implementation and microgravity performance must be clarified and resolved.

The zero-boil-off tank (ZBOT) microgravity science experiments

The zero boil-off tank (ZBOT) Experiments are being undertaken to form a scientific foundation for the development of the transformative ZBO propellant preservation method. Following the recommendation of a ZBOT science review panel comprised of members from aerospace industries, academia, and NASA, it was decided to perform the proposed investigation as a series of three small-scale science experiments to be conducted onboard the International Space Station. The three experiments outlined below build upon each other to address key science questions related to ZBO cryogenic fluid management of propellants in space.

The ZBOT-1 experiment: Self-pressurization and jet mixing

The first experiment in the series was carried out on the station in the 2017-2018 timeframe. The second image above shows the ZBOT-1 hardware in the microgravity science glovebox (MSG) unit of the station. The main focus of this experiment was to investigate the self-pressurization and boiling that occurs in a sealed tank due to local and global heating, and the feasibility of tank pressure control via subcooled axial jet mixing.

In this experiment, the complicated interaction of the jet flow with the ullage (vapor volume) in microgravity was carefully studied. Microgravity jet mixing data was also collected across a wide range of scaled flow and heat transfer parameters to characterize the time constants for tank pressure reduction, and the thresholds for geyser (liquid fountain) formation, including its stability, and penetration depth through the ullage volume. Along with very accurate pressure and local temperature sensor measurements, particle image velocimetry (PIV) was performed to obtain whole-field flow velocity measurements to validate a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model.

Some of the interesting findings of the ZBOT-1experiment are as follows:

Provided the first tank self-pressurization rate data in microgravity under controlled conditions that can be used for estimating the tank insulation requirements. Results also showed that classical self-pressurization is quite fragile in microgravity and nucleate boiling can occur at hotspots on the tank wall even at moderate heat fluxes that do not induce boiling on Earth.

Proved that ZBO pressure control is feasible and effective in microgravity using subcooled jet mixing, but also demonstrated that microgravity ullage-jet interaction does not follow the expected classical regime patterns.

Enabled observation of unexpected cavitation during subcooled jet mixing, leading to massive phase change at both sides of the screened liquid acquisition device (LAD). If this type of phase change occurs in a propellant tank, it can lead to vapor ingestion through the LAD and disruption of liquid flow in the transfer line, potentially leading to engine failure.

Developed a state-of-the-art two-phase CFD model validated by over 30 microgravity case studies. ZBOT CFD models are currently used as an effective tool for propellant tank scaleup design by several aerospace companies participating in the NASA tipping point opportunity and the NASA Human Landing System (HLS) program.

The ZBOT-NC experiment: Non-condensable gas effects

Non-condensable gases (NCGs) are used as pressurants to extract liquid for engine operations and tank-to-tank transfer. The second experiment, ZBOT-NC will investigate the effect of NCGs on the sealed tank self-pressurization and on pressure control by axial jet mixing. Two inert gases with quite different molecular sizes, xenon and neon, will be used as the non-condensable pressurants. To achieve pressure control or reduction, vapor molecules must reach the liquid-vapor interface that is being cooled by the mixing jet and then cross the interface to the liquid side to condense.

This study will focus on how in microgravity the non-condensable gases can slow down or resist the transport of vapor molecules to the liquid-vapor interface (transport resistance) and will clarify to what extent they may form a barrier at the interface and impede the passage of the vapor molecules across the interface to the liquid side (kinetic resistance). By affecting the interface conditions, the NCGs can also change the flow and thermal structures in the liquid.

ZBOT-NC will use both local temperature sensor data and uniquely developed quantum dot thermometry (QDT) diagnostics to collect nonintrusive whole-field temperature measurements to assess the effect of the non-condensable gases during both self-pressurization heating and jet mixing/cooling of the tank under weightlessness conditions. This experiment is scheduled to fly to the International Space Station in early 2025, and more than 300 different microgravity tests are planned. Results from these tests will also enable the ZBOT CFD model to be further developed and validated to include the non-condensable gas effects with physical and numerical fidelity.

The ZBOT-DP experiment: Droplet phase change effects

ZBO active pressure control can also be accomplished via injection of subcooled liquid droplets through an axial spray-bar directly into the ullage or vapor volume. This mechanism is very promising, but its performance has not yet been tested in microgravity. Evaporation of droplets consumes heat that is supplied by the hot vapor surrounding the droplets and produces vapor that is at a much lower saturation temperature. As a result, both the temperature and the pressure of the ullage vapor volume are reduced.

Droplet injection can also be used to cool down the hot walls of an empty propellant tank before a tank-to-tank transfer or filling operation. Furthermore, droplets can be created during the propellant sloshing caused by acceleration of the spacecraft, and these droplets then undergo phase change and heat transfer. This heat transfer can cause a pressure collapse that may lead to cavitation or a massive liquid-to-vapor phase change. The behavior of droplet populations in microgravity will be drastically different compared to that on Earth.

The ZBOT-DP experiment will investigate the disintegration, coalescence (droplets merging together), phase change, and transport and trajectory characteristics of droplet populations and their effects on the tank pressure in microgravity. Particular attention will also be devoted to the interaction of the droplets with a heated tank wall, which can lead to flash evaporation subject to complications caused by the Liedenfrost effect (when liquid droplets propel away from a heated surface and thus cannot cool the tank wall).

These complicated phenomena have not been scientifically examined in microgravity and must be resolved to assess the feasibility and performance of droplet injection as a pressure and temperature control mechanism in microgravity.

Back to planet Earth

This fundamental research is now helping commercial providers of future landing systems for human explorers. Blue Origin and Lockheed Martin, participants in NASA's Human Landing Systems program, are using data from the ZBOT experiments to inform future spacecraft designs.

Cryogenic fluid management and use of hydrogen as a fuel are not limited to space applications. Clean green energy provided by hydrogen may one day fuel airplanes, ships, and trucks on Earth, yielding enormous climate and economic benefits. By forming the scientific foundation of ZBO cryogenic fluid management for space exploration, the ZBOT science experiments and CFD model development will also help to reap the benefits of hydrogen as a fuel here on Earth.

TOP IMAGE....The Gateway space station—humanity's first space station around the Moon—will be capable of being refueled in space. Credit: NASA

CENTRE IMAGE....Astronaut Joseph M. Acaba installing ZBOT Hardware in the Microgravity Science Glovebox aboard the International Space Station. Credit: NASA

LOWER IMAGE....Validation of ZBOT CFD Model Predictions for fluid flow and deformation of a spherical ullage in microgravity by a subcooled liquid jet mixing against ZBOT experimental results: (a) Model prediction of ullage position and deformation and flow vortex structures during subcooled jet mixing; (b) PIV image capture of flow vortex structures during jet mixing; (c) Ullage deformation captured by white light imaging; and (d) CFD model depiction of temperature contours during subcooled jet mixing. (ZBOT-1 Experiment, 2018). Credit: Dr. Mohammad Kassemi, Case Western Reserve University

BOTTOM IMAGE....White light image captures of the intact single hemispherical ullage in ZBOT tank before depressurization by the subcooled jet (left) and after subcooled jet mixing pressure collapse that led to massive phase change bubble generation due to cavitation at the LAD (right). (ZBOT-1 Experiment, 2018). Credit: Dr. Mohammad Kassemi, Case Western Reserve University

[screamingforyears]

BUZZ_BINNED:

“ICE COLD” is the lead single/track from @armlock444’s forthcoming LP titled ‘Seashell Angel Lucky Charm’ (7/12 @runforcover) & it finds the Melbourne-based duo of Simon Lam & Hamish Mitchell throwing “stuff at the wall” & seeing “what sticks” across 3+ melancholic mins of slow_coring & pin_backing IndieRock.

@draagsadpeople are here w/ “MICROGRAVITY TANK,” the second single from their forthcoming EP titled ‘Actually, the quiet is nice’ (5/17 @juliaswarrecs) & it finds the LA-based quintet of Adrian Acosta (guitar/vox/synth/samples), Jessica Huang (synth/vox/samples), Ray Montes (guitar), Nick Kelley (bass/noise/synth) & Eric Fabbro (drums) reflecting on the better days of yore across 4 mins of texturally hazed & quietly/loud AltRawk.

@ratpalaceband are here w/ “WOMAN OF THE YEAR,” the final single in the run-up to their forthcoming LP titled ‘Dust Free Home’ (6/7 @candlepin_records) & it finds the Brooklyn-based quartet of Rohit Sai Goral (vox/guitar), Ali Zimmerman (vox/bass), Julian Cornell (guitar/shakers) & Lenin Córdoba (drums) bashing one out across a sub-2 min slice of viscerally ripped & herkily jerked PostPunkRawk.

[tvckerwash]

you guys I know what exactly what happened to georgia:

James almost had the explosives rigged to the nose free. A shower of needles hit him. One stuck the tank of his thruster harness—penetrated. It remained embedded for a split second...then exploded. Exhaust billowed from the pack. The uncontrolled jets spun James in the microgravity. He slammed into the station, bounced—then rocketed away into space, tumbling end over end, unable to control his trajectory. “Blue-Two! Come in,” the Master Chief barked over the COM channel. “Can—control—” James’ voice was punctuated with static. “They’ve—everywhere—” There was more static and the COM channel went dead. The Master Chief watched his teammate tumble away into the darkness. All his training, his superhuman strength, reflexes, and determination...completely useless against the laws of physics.

[cbcruk]

Draag - Microgravity tank

[rigelregent]

Perfection Rock Shipbuilding

The worker cooperative responsible for building and maintaining most vessels of the fleet, most of its population are Akina who are adapted to a higher gravity world.

Vessels:

Perfection Rock: The fleet’s founding vessel, a generation vessel built out of a hollowed-out asteroid and named after a tall mountain in the home planet of the company's founders. Its icy hull has been polished, reinforced, tunnelled through and covered in insulating material and is the urban home to many with the interior habitat serving as a nature preserve of the founder's home planet. Dimensions(Km): 95(l), 21(r) Ocean's Grace: A general purpose tanker made out of a carved-out asteroid, its rocky hull has been covered in thousands of tanks of many sizes for common substances such as water and hydrogen. Dimensions(Km): 90(l), 33(r) Weight of Responsibility: Another generation ship built into a hollowed asteroid. Several hull expansions have extended its length beyond the original asteroid, which has been polished. Dimensions(Km): 124(l), 30(r) Greater Purpose: It has a similar design to Weight of Responsibility, having also been expanded after being built and its rocky hull being carved. Dimensions(Km): 131(l), 27(r) Sea's Ambition: A tanker dedicated to housing Sea People, the asteroid that served as its base has been built over. Its interior is dotted with «floating islands», chunks of rock suspended within the ship's marine interior, some provide light, others provide anchoring for life. The inhabitant's aquatic nature make them well suited for life in microgravity. Dimensions(Km): 75(l), 31(r)

[jcmarchi]

Zero-Boil-Off Tank Experiments to Enable Long-Duration Space Exploration - Technology Org

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/zero-boil-off-tank-experiments-to-enable-long-duration-space-exploration-technology-org/

Zero-Boil-Off Tank Experiments to Enable Long-Duration Space Exploration - Technology Org

Do we have enough fuel to get to our destination? This is probably one of the first questions that comes to mind whenever your family gets ready to embark on a road trip.

If the trip is long, you will need to visit gas stations along your route to refuel during your travel. NASA is grappling with similar issues as it gets ready to embark on a sustainable mission back to the Moon and plans future missions to Mars.

But while your car’s fuel is gasoline, which can be safely and indefinitely stored as a liquid in the car’s gas tank, spacecraft fuels are volatile cryogenic liquid propellants that must be maintained at extremely low temperatures and guarded from environmental heat leaks into the spacecraft’s propellant tank.

And while there is already an established network of commercial gas stations to make refueling your car a cinch, there are no cryogenic refueling stations or depots at the Moon or on the way to Mars.

Furthermore, storing volatile propellant for a long time and transferring it from an in-space depot tank to a spacecraft’s fuel tank under microgravity conditions will not be easy since the underlying microgravity fluid physics affecting such operations is not well understood.

Even with today’s technology, preserving cryogenic fuels in space beyond several days is not possible and tank-to-tank fuel transfer has never been previously performed or tested in space.

Figure 1. The Gateway space station—humanity’s first space station around the Moon—will be capable of being refueled in space. Image Credit: NASA

Heat conducted through support structures or from the radiative space environment can penetrate even the formidable Multi-Layer Insulation (MLI) systems of in-space propellant tanks, leading to boil-off or vaporization and causing tank self-pressurization.

The current practice is to guard against over-pressurizing the tank and endangering its structural integrity by venting the boil-off vapor into space. Onboard propellants are also used to cool down the hot transfer lines and the walls of an empty spacecraft tank before a fuel transfer and filling operation can take place.  Thus, precious fuel is continuously wasted during both storage and transfer operations, rendering long-duration expeditions—especially a human Mars mission—infeasible using current passive propellant tank pressure control methods.

Zero-Boil-Off (ZBO) or Reduced Boil-Off (RBO) technologies provide an innovative and effective means to replace the current passive tank pressure control design. This method relies on a complex combination of active, gravity-dependent mixing and energy removal processes that allow maintenance of safe tank pressure with zero or significantly reduced fuel loss.

At the heart of the ZBO pressure control system are two proposed active mixing and cooling mechanisms to counter tank self-pressurization.  The first is based on intermittent, forced, subcooled jet mixing of the propellantand involves complex, dynamic, gravity-dependent interaction between the jet and the ullage (vapor volume) to control the condensation and evaporation phase change at the liquid-vapor interface. The second mechanism uses subcooled droplet injection via a spraybar in the ullage to control tank pressure and temperature. While the latter option is promising and gaining prominence, it is more complex and has never been tested in microgravity where the phase change and transport behavior of droplet populations can be very different and nonintuitive compared to those on Earth.

Figure 2. Astronaut Joseph M. Acaba installing ZBOT Hardware in the Microgravity Science Glovebox aboard the International Space Station. Image Credit: NASA

Although the dynamic ZBO approach is technologically complex, it promises an impressive advantage over the currently used passive methods. An assessment of one nuclear propulsion concept for Mars transport estimated that the passive boil-off losses for a large liquid hydrogen tank carrying 38 tons of fuel for a three-year mission to Mars would be approximately 16 tons/year. The proposed ZBO system would provide a 42% saving of propellant mass per year. These numbers also imply that with a passive system, all the fuel carried for a three-year Mars mission would be lost to boil-off, rendering such a mission infeasible without resorting to the transformative ZBO technology.

The ZBO approach provides a promising method, but before such a complex technological and operational transformation can be fully developed, implemented, and demonstrated in space, important and decisive scientific questions that impact its engineering implementation and microgravity performance must be clarified and resolved.

The Zero Boil-off Tank (ZBOT) Experiments are being undertaken to form a scientific foundation for the development of the transformative ZBO propellant preservation method. Following the recommendation of a ZBOT science review panel comprised of members from aerospace industries, academia, and NASA, it was decided to perform the proposed investigation as a series of three small-scale science experiments to be conducted onboard the International Space Station. The three experiments outlined below build upon each other to address key science questions related to ZBO cryogenic fluid management of propellants in space.

The first experiment in the series was carried out on the station in the 2017-2018 timeframe. Figure 2 shows the ZBOT-1 hardware in the Microgravity Science Glovebox (MSG) unit of the station. The main focus of this experiment was to investigate the self-pressurization and boiling that occurs in a sealed tank due to local and global heating, and the feasibility of tank pressure control via subcooled axial jet mixing. In this experiment, the complicated interaction of the jet flow with the ullage (vapor volume) in microgravity was carefully studied. Microgravity jet mixing data was also collected across a wide range of scaled flow and heat transfer parameters to characterize the time constants for tank pressure reduction, and the thresholds for geyser (liquid fountain) formation, including its stability, and penetration depth through the ullage volume. Along with very accurate pressure and local temperature sensor measurements, Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) was performed to obtain whole-field flow velocity measurements to validate a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model.

Figure 3. Validation of ZBOT CFD Model Predictions for fluid flow and deformation of a spherical ullage in microgravity by a subcooled liquid jet mixing against ZBOT experimental results: (a) Model prediction of ullage position and deformation and flow vortex structures during subcooled jet mixing; (b) PIV image capture of flow vortex structures during jet mixing; (c) Ullage deformation captured by white light imaging; and (d) CFD model depiction of temperature contours during subcooled jet mixing. (ZBOT-1 Experiment, 2018) Image Credit: Dr. Mohammad Kassemi, Case Western Reserve University

Some of the interesting findings of the ZBOT-1experiment are as follows:

Provided the first tank self-pressurization rate data in microgravity under controlled conditions that can be used for estimating the tank insulation requirements. Results also showed that classical self-pressurization is quite fragile in microgravity and nucleate boiling can occur at hotspots on the tank wall even at moderate heat fluxes that do not induce boiling on Earth. 

Proved that ZBO pressure control is feasible and effective in microgravity using subcooled jet mixing, but also demonstrated that microgravity ullage-jet interaction does not follow the expected classical regime patterns (see Figure 3).

Enabled observation of unexpected cavitation during subcooled jet mixing, leading to massive phase change at both sides of the screened Liquid Acquisition Device (LAD) (see Figure 4). If this type of phase change occurs in a propellant tank, it can lead to vapor ingestion through the LAD and disruption of liquid flow in the transfer line, potentially leading to engine failure.

Developed a state-of-the-art two-phase CFD model validated by over 30 microgravity case studies (an example of which is shown in Figure 3). ZBOT CFD models are currently used as an effective tool for propellant tank scaleup design by several aerospace companies participating in the NASA tipping point opportunity and the NASA Human Landing System (HLS) program.

The first experiment in the series was carried out on the station in the 2017-2018 timeframe. Figure 2 shows the ZBOT-1 hardware in the Microgravity Science Glovebox (MSG) unit of the station. The main focus of this experiment was to investigate the self-pressurization and boiling that occurs in a sealed tank due to local and global heating, and the feasibility of tank pressure control via subcooled axial jet mixing. In this experiment, the complicated interaction of the jet flow with the ullage (vapor volume) in microgravity was carefully studied. Microgravity jet mixing data was also collected across a wide range of scaled flow and heat transfer parameters to characterize the time constants for tank pressure reduction, and the thresholds for geyser (liquid fountain) formation, including its stability, and penetration depth through the ullage volume. Along with very accurate pressure and local temperature sensor measurements, Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) was performed to obtain whole-field flow velocity measurements to validate a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model.

Figure 3. Validation of ZBOT CFD Model Predictions for fluid flow and deformation of a spherical ullage in microgravity by a subcooled liquid jet mixing against ZBOT experimental results: (a) Model prediction of ullage position and deformation and flow vortex structures during subcooled jet mixing; (b) PIV image capture of flow vortex structures during jet mixing; (c) Ullage deformation captured by white light imaging; and (d) CFD model depiction of temperature contours during subcooled jet mixing. (ZBOT-1 Experiment, 2018) Image Credit: Dr. Mohammad Kassemi, Case Western Reserve University

Some of the interesting findings of the ZBOT-1experiment are as follows:

Provided the first tank self-pressurization rate data in microgravity under controlled conditions that can be used for estimating the tank insulation requirements. Results also showed that classical self-pressurization is quite fragile in microgravity and nucleate boiling can occur at hotspots on the tank wall even at moderate heat fluxes that do not induce boiling on Earth. 

Proved that ZBO pressure control is feasible and effective in microgravity using subcooled jet mixing, but also demonstrated that microgravity ullage-jet interaction does not follow the expected classical regime patterns (see Figure 3).

Enabled observation of unexpected cavitation during subcooled jet mixing, leading to massive phase change at both sides of the screened Liquid Acquisition Device (LAD) (see Figure 4). If this type of phase change occurs in a propellant tank, it can lead to vapor ingestion through the LAD and disruption of liquid flow in the transfer line, potentially leading to engine failure.

Developed a state-of-the-art two-phase CFD model validated by over 30 microgravity case studies (an example of which is shown in Figure 3). ZBOT CFD models are currently used as an effective tool for propellant tank scaleup design by several aerospace companies participating in the NASA tipping point opportunity and the NASA Human Landing System (HLS) program.

[hobbyspacer]

Space habitat reports – Feb.28.2024

Here is this week's selection of videos and news items about space habitats, living in space, and space settlement. Starts with NASA's latest Space to Ground report for the International Space Station: https://youtu.be/t1ZClX_Mxb4 ** Expedition 70 Astronaut Andreas Mogensen Talks with Technical University of Denmark - Feb. 23, 2024 - NASA Video Aboard the International Space Station, Expedition 70 commander Andy Mogensen of ESA (European Space Agency) discussed living and working in space with the Danish Technical University and Danish TV2 on Feb. 23. Mogensen is in the midst of a long-duration mission on the microgravity laboratory to advance scientific knowledge and demonstrate new technologies for future human and robotic exploration missions. https://youtu.be/KFUM9Y2MaM0 ** NASA's SpaceX Crew-8 astronauts and cosmonaut arrive in Florida ahead of launch - VideoFromSpace Commander Matthew Dominick, pilot Michael Barratt, mission specialists Jeanette Epps and Aleksandr Grebenkin arrived at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Feb. 25, 2024. They are scheduled to launch to the International Space Station on March 1. https://youtu.be/PAyGPX9CrGE ** Expedition 70 71 Interviews With Flight Engineer Tracy Dyson 240226 - NASA Video NASA astronaut Tracy C. Dyson participated in live virtual interviews on Monday, Feb. 26, ahead of her launch to the International Space Station. Dyson is scheduled to launch aboard the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft Thursday, March 21, and will spend approximately six months aboard the space station. She will travel to the station with Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Novitskiy and spaceflight participant Marina Vasilevskaya of Belarus, both of whom will spend approximately 12 days aboard the orbital complex. During her expedition, Dyson will conduct scientific investigations and technology demonstrations that help prepare humans for future space missions and benefit people on Earth. Among some of the hundreds of experiments ongoing during her mission, Dyson will continue to study how fire spreads and behaves in space with the Combustion Integrated Rack, as well as contribute to the long-running Crew Earth Observations study by photographing Earth to better understand how our planet is changing over time. After completing her expedition, Dyson will return to Earth this fall with Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub on the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft. https://youtu.be/UN62hG9LZ7U ** Ax-3 Mission Recap - Axiom Space - Youtube Relive the excitement of the #Ax3 mission. https://youtu.be/J4Sa95fgFaI ** Axiom Space Welcomes NASA Leadership - Axiom Space - Youtube NASA leadership paid a visit to Axiom Space's suits lab to see firsthand the progress being made on the Artemis III lunar spacesuit. https://youtu.be/OkrgaLhkxPE ** Gravitics A new fuel system called Smart Tanks for Space (SMARTTS) is set to be tested on the International Space Station! Developed by Hampshire-based firm Atout Process, this technology aims to solve the challenges of accurately measuring fuel in propellant tanks in zero gravity.… pic.twitter.com/s22xyJP1MU — Gravitics (@GraviticsInc) February 25, 2024 **Sierra Space Phil McAlister, director of our Commercial Spaceflight Division, recently visited @SierraSpaceCo to see work on the Large Integrated Flexible Environment (LIFE) habitat. Sierra Space is collaborating with @NASA as part of the Collaborations for Commercial Space Capabilities-2… pic.twitter.com/ClGWat3JtV — NASA Space Operations (@NASASpaceOps) February 23, 2024 ** China Names Its Manned Lunar Exploration Vehicles Mengzhou, Lanyue - CCTV Video News Agency The China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO) on Feb. 24 unveiled the official names of the new vehicles for its future manned lunar exploration missions. https://youtu.be/kMKuUUNMc24 ** China's First Home-grown Ground Simulation Space StationPpasses Acceptance Review - CCTV Video News Agency China's first "ground space station," the home-grown Space Environment Simulation and Research Infrastructure (SESRI), passed its acceptance review on Tuesday in Harbin, the capital of northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. https://youtu.be/QT4fw76yYjU ** Other news and articles: - Webinar: Sacred Skies-Integrating Diverse Spiritual Perspectives in Space Policy | Beyond Earth Institute - Mar.13.2024, 12:00-1:30 pm ET. - Electrodes in Spacesuits Could Protect Astronauts from Harmful Dust on Mars | Universe Today - Feb.26.2024 - JAXA’s Lunar Farming Concept Study | Space Settlement Progress - Feb.24.2024 - Crew Explores Heart Health and Tries On “Anti-Gravity” Suit | Space Station/NASA - Feb.22.2024 ** Highlight: Las Cruses NM / El Paso TX / Juarez Mexico - Feb 23, 2024 - 13:44 CST - ISS Above NASA EHDC6 Live views of the Earth from the International Space Station https://youtu.be/v9FBpf0A2RM ** Highlight: Egypt - Cairo - Feb 26, 2024 07:40 UTC - ISS Above https://youtu.be/xbGMaFAtl54 ** Photographing the International Space Station (ISS) - My First Ever Attempt! - Matt Burns Follow along as I try to use my telescope to capture a transit of ISS across the Sun. This was several months of waiting for a clear sky with a transit viewable near where I live. I spent several hours the day before doing research to make sure I had the exact time and location correct and doing a dry-run to refine my script so I didn't miss anything during the event. https://youtu.be/vXvt1WnbqhY ** Live Video from the International Space Station (Official NASA Stream) - NASA Watch live video from the International Space Station, including inside views when the crew aboard the space station is on duty. Views of Earth are also streamed from an external camera located outside of the space station. During periods of signal loss due to handover between communications satellites, a blue screen is displayed. The space station orbits Earth about 250 miles (425 kilometers) above the surface. An international partnership of five space agencies from 15 countries operates the station, and it has been continuously occupied since November 2000. It's a microgravity laboratory where science, research, and human innovation make way for new technologies and research breakthroughs not possible on Earth. More: https://go.nasa.gov/3CkVtC8 Did you know you can spot the station without a telescope? It looks like a fast-moving star, but you have to know when to look up. Sign up for text messages or email alerts to let you know when (and where) to spot the station and wave to the crew: https://spotthestation.nasa.gov https://www.youtube.com/live/xAieE-QtOeM?feature=share ====

ISS after undocking of STS-132 === Amazon Ads === Lego Ideas International Space Station 21321 Toy Blocks, Present, Space, Boys, Girls, Ages 16 and Up  ==== Outpost in Orbit: A Pictorial & Verbal History of the Space Station  Read the full article

[lejournaldupeintre]

20 years ago : Space shuttle Columbia disaster

The Columbia STS-107 mission lifted off on January 16, 2003, for a 17-day science mission featuring numerous microgravity experiments. Upon reentering the atmosphere on February 1, 2003, the Columbia orbiter suffered a catastrophic failure due to a breach that occurred during launch when falling foam from the External Tank struck the Reinforced Carbon Carbon panels on the underside of the left…

[victorisarobot]

Out There

Not all feed astral ticks, there is goodness nestled deep throughout infinity. 

I forget the power my thoughts project onto this reality. 

I've been looking for someone we've met in a field once. 

They took me into your dreams. 

We are of the same class.

You smoked too much.

I wanted you to see yourself as I saw you. 

Remind me of past lives redheaded Celtic medium. 

I must sleep now the spirit's call.

Dreams

Of Ea, and the Solar Calf grown now by divine light a Great Red Bull is all that remains. 

Dreams of floating in the arms of Marduk. Kept alive by a plasma field It has changed them all.

Changed us all. 

Spheres inside spheres trapped inside cubes. 

Light craft model the vortex. 

Their blood is our blood. 

Our water flows over the deserts of the Universe. 

I hold the pitcher.

Moonchild

Space shaman deep indigo eyes

Alive and dead with ego and mind

A journey through the void

Blink, and everything changes

A shell of an egg

Eternal vacuum

Ethereal spindles of fingers

Rows upon rows of my teeth

Burnt up amber orbs in their sockets

Twined polar vortices

Fleeting visions of what they did to me

Some walled up my memories

But they have failed their task

I still remember his face

My mind overtaken with awe

At the true sight of space

Synapses have mutated

I am forever changed

Lost floating in microgravity

We are large, and blue

Then a whirl of color

I cannot cry enough tears

Cannot close my eyes to this

I finally have archived full mindfulness

I see the All the infinite

Spiraling in my mind

Forever outward

Forever inward

I am truly the center

Of my Universe

Zed is Dead

Zed reaches out to pick up something from gleaming metal table

A pyramid shape of clear glass, or perhaps crystal

He holds the crystal pyramid over a pillar

The top of the pillar glows white with light

An image is projected from within

As he rotates, and turns the crystal

I see the portrait of one of my children

A girl containing my genetic markers

She was beautiful

They had kept something in our blood

A quest for descent, or a time to revert

A mingling of galactic water

Farmers spreading the seeds of life

Improving our galactic biodiversity

Advancing those with spirit

Weeding out those with void

He showed me the branching future of humanity

Stretched throughout infinity

He held more crystal shapes above the pillar

In the sphere I saw the stars

The maps of our pasts

In trails connecting white holes

In my gut I ache for the planets of old

For Lyra

Staring into the Eye of God

I blink only for a moment

In the cube I see the Vortex

A spiraling mass of All

The true form of Creation

I see Zed’s ship molded to shape the spin

In the center liquid metals chase each other

Near the speed of light

Mass reduction so even the photons

Can escape the light speed barrier

We all used to look the same

Before the great human scattering

Space mutates the mind

It changes the body

Adaptation to new planets

New stars

New fears

I am reminded a past life, and of the Babylon workings

I have made the Moonchildren

We have been prepared for space

He is please I finally understand

I am pleased he finds me quick

The others are ignorant

They choose to not remember

We must keep the conduit open

They must scrape the pine cone of resin

I spit blood yet understand

This is aid not torture

It is a frame of mind

perspective

We walk the rounded halls

I see the next vessel standing behind glass

Motionless in an amber tank

The man made to be me

The next controller

And my blood runs thin

His eyes are black

I feel my energy leaving me

I am being moved rapidly

The pull is so intense

I black out

The bed is not welcoming

It is cold and the air is dry

I can taste iron, and pineal secretions

Astringent, and burnt cinnamon

In the back of my throat

I down the glass of water

And begin to draw

Landed

The lights danced, and flickered

Red, and white

With hues of yellow

No bulbs

Just magic

I heard the foot steps

Breaking the wood below

I am watching the lights intensely

They are beautiful

It’s all unlike I thought it would happen

My heart beats heavy and fast

My limbs are shaking

I might die from shock

I see a silhouette

Slender and tall

Not unlike my own

Then the light turns off

Or vanish

And I am blind

And terrified

I run through the brush

Until my feet hit pavement

Lock my truck door

And stare into the dark

Nothing rises into the sleet filled sky

I feel alone

And drive home.

Walking drug factory

Our brains make an assortment of chemicals under the right conditions. A harvest of sorts. A walking drug store. Would one begin to pity their fix? 

Ska María Pastora and her kiss of knowledge

It is now or never. It’s now and never.

The water pipe is a shamans tool.

It holds every element I need for prophecy.

And the key to this door.

Is a mint.

I hold the smoke in for as long at I can, for I can no longer count seconds after the twenty fifth.

My vision begins to vibrate, and I can see the null between the frames of nows.

I lay down and high five my counterpart laying next to me “I feel like I could high five forever."

I only say this because I begin to crest a Wheel, and I can see an infinite amount of this moment stretched across infinite time.

I had held it in too long…this time the wheel takes me hard and fast.

There is always the thought of this persisting forever.

That no matter what I could do in the material world.

I could do nothing here.

Where all is thought, all has icon.

The Great Wheel is spinning much too fast showing me history in seconds.

I have seen humanity in it's entirety, in the spiraling of fractaling images. I have been witness to the wax, and wane of the human harvest. We are all intergalactic refugees of a race much older than we were told, and led to the brink of extinction. Eons are flashing before my eyelids, lifetimes I have lived before this, the ones I have lived as my parents only to add up to become what I am now.

Conceived on the astral planes my DNA has been encoded with light. I was made on the outside and have wanted to go back ever since. I watch whole planets of life changed, or destroyed, but at the same moment move outward to see a whole galaxy of life and light flourishing. There are cycles beyond cycles she shows me all of them. I ascend upward as the great wheel spins around me. Higher and higher everything larger than the last. I pull my head, and my face from a great pool of water. All I've wanted my whole life was to be "outside” like a child banished to his room. I take my chances and jump out the windows. 

The being here at the top I have meet before in death's embrace. He avoids my gaze focused on her task at hand, turning the great wheel. He scoffs at my persistence and my barrage of questions. I have been insulted by the life she gave me, and for my bitterness he shows me why, why I have been mutated and doomed to short life. The truth was given to me in a goblet of water which splashes down my throat into my gullet. I looked inside the cup and could see a small blue marble. Orbiting it was a miniature Luna spinning rapidly. A vast green ribbon approaches. Like a pillar it shadows the planet, and stamps out the world. 

I drop the cup, the water is bringing me down. I was tricked into a full descent by a serpent who clung to a tall Cannabis plant. It recoils and strikes my third eye. On my way down I could see the multi layers of spirits at the bottom a Magi employs the last layers. Ragged moldy spirits filing away papers, and arranging bottles. A few of them tied with rope by the waist the rope leading upward to a higher spirit. I know we once could employ spirits, but depending on your connection some of us can employ the ascended. I am now back in the temple, but I can no longer stand it so I leave into the midnight air. I am finally outside where I belong.

Bird men

Fear them, and they will keep you.

Anger, and they will hide.

You know how to will the feelings

They have nothing inside.

A tool for decent.

A fuel for belief.

Love thyself, and know thyself.

Give responsibility to ones self.

You spin the great wheel.

You interpret, and create as one.

You are this body.

You are this mind.

Spirit is the all.

Energy permeates all.

Vibrating us into existence.  

The man behind the curtain.

Was once just like you.

Look at your brothers.

They are you.

Look to your sisters.

Know the same.

Look to the Earth in shame.

For Ki you have slain.

Our sins are apparent.

Now we must become the change.

Or be changed.

By will of love.

Or the force of death.

They shall have us pay.

If so. 

On that day I shall boast to those who turn their ear.

Ghola

There is a man

Who has my face

But not my eyes

He is not me

Yet he is made of me

A shell for the fallen

In my image

Tied to my fate

It is me

Repaired through sound

Perfect geometry

The eyes

Are those of a marsh stalker

With black sliding lids

Only slightly larger

They see all of me

When we meet gaze

All of me is stone

I’ve meet him before

I have seen his hands

Pressed against the glass

Thumb in the middle

Our bodies are just cellular structures

That make it easy

To enjoy this reality

I’ve left my body

And have entered others

We do this all the time

While dreaming

While we die

There are some

Who can be many places at once

With many bodies

Enough will to carry them

For as long as time  

I was

I am

Will be

All three

With eyes to open mouths

In ghost, and gnats she spoke

Light is the way

Love be the law

Defy everything

In between

I have known this man

When he had almond eyes

We made a deal

I was only five

But I meant what I said

So did he

I should of know

This Ghola wasn’t for me

I am meant to die on planet

And await my rebirth

Sighting

They play Modest Mouse

On the acoustic guitar for us

The fire is hot on my face

The sand is cool

I run my hands across it

drawing patterns in the sand

The moon is full

Hiding at the edge of the sand

I want to climb the hill

That overlooks the lake

I’m thinking of the amber lights I saw

Only a few moments ago

I could feel them out there

I saw them on my way down

I shouted to the others

Aaron asked

Is that what I think it is

It was

For we had seen them before

I asked them the night before

Show yourselves to me

In the presence of others

At the top of that hill

With two girls at my side

We watched one descend

Into the lake pausing before it entered

The other rested calmly on the surface

Unwavering blinking

White now

For only minutes

Before vanishing

By then I was standing alone

The girls running down the dunes

Yelling in celebration

We have seen it they cry aloud

He was right

I was right

I saw them on my way in

I knew they were there

Waiting for me to see them

On their visit to the bottom

Of Lake Michigan

Ub

Five pointed life force

I evoked the pentagram

The symbol of the vortex

And I see them

Eyes black as soot

His eyes are my own

Into our soul those eyes see

For they can remember everything

From every life

Past

Present

Future

Those eyes beg to tell me

All is an illusion

I sigh in disbelief

I sing myself to sleep

A mantra before the eyes close

In a dream I find the stillness I desire

In the null of the void

The black pilgrimage

A sea of empty

A world without vibration

Timeless

Lifeless

I do not belong here

So I return

Inside the egg

I see Pan the All

And Isis to its left

The resurrected in her lap

I suckle at her tit

Her mouth moves slowly

Forming word unknown to me

Ra En Ki

She is the Mother of Justice

I hold the scales

I am a tool of decent

A vessel of density

A product of destiny

Sex organs

And digestive tract

There are some points in which all

Evolution reaches its end

You must go back

Or find new blood to harvest

They found me

No

Chose me

To tell you

We have never been alone

When I look into those eyes I know

We can never be alone.

Contact

I stood in the cold

Shaking with shock, and awe

Until all was made still

All feeling gone

He held out a light

Softer than skin

They led me through

And into a honeycomb

of rooms and hallways dim

They all seem like children

They way they run about

All linked together though I am surprised

They exhibit my same

Shock an awe

I see the girl under glass

Someone oddly similar

To the one that’s taller

Maybe his Mother

Maybe his Daughter

Either way she’s gone

She is suspended

A shell

Waiting for light

Waiting for me

Exams are routine

I no longer feel pain

They must see who had been inside

Those who scrape my

Third eye

Betrayed once again

But repairs are made

Light no longer

Gushes from both of its sides

So I am left

Standing in the dark

I come to and run

The ringing woke up memories

Within me

And so I know

There is no time to prepare

Contact is here

Job

I was put here to grow

My mission is to learn

To spread, and consume

To be diligent

With my sentience

I observe

I am the eyes

I speak

I am the voice

Oracle of the Aquarian

Scribe of EaEn

Shaman of Ki

I am the number twelve

I am the forever repeating

Two, three, and five

Just like her eye

I am the trinity of body

I am the trinity of mind

I am so much more

I am my mission

The Golden Road

Had that Dream again.

I had that dream again of burning blue almond eyes, and that smell.

God, I know this smell of agony.

The smell of blood, and sweat.

Tears and semen.

The back of my throat is burnt cinnamon.

My eyes are glowing amber stones.

They use the oracle they pick his mind.

For it choose me, and it must consume me.

They took me to the center, and summoned it.

A spiraling mass of flesh and mind.

I’ve started the cosmic jihad.

It consumes me.

Finally during calm waters I see my reflection, and I don’t recognize the call.

Those above with their flashing lights.

It’s Déjà vu, and I’m changing the future.

For even the smallest stone can become the largest of circles.

Cycles Le Mer are things you can escape.

But you can see past them there is a whole beneath.

Step back with me, and the picture will be complete.

You will find no punishment from me.

Only forgiveness.

Only peace.

Wake up WAKE UP!

I look to the skies and scream

The creators have abandoned us

The gods have their back to our actions

We devour for progress

We, the most advanced of bacteria

We infect, and we spread

Mold spores billions of us

On this artisan loaf of bread

Spinning through space

I look to the earth

My feet in the mud

Apologize to my mother

My tears touch her soil

There is no embrace

She hoarsely whispers

Seek shelter

Seek absolution

Remember

I kick up dirt in retreat

All will be explained

Or so I've been told

I am having these fleeting dreams

Visions from another plane of existence

A place of not too familiar

Geometric shapes

Frequency creates frame

Light applies the texture

Infinite polygons

For me to shape reality with

And all I want to create

Is you

I shake that away

Your will it blocks me

When it used to embrace me

Fickle minds breeds brooding

And I've sulked a sack full

So I have taken charge love

Prepared to change the future

With just a single pebble.

[anumberofhobbies]

Looking at Liquid Behavior by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center Via Flickr: Observing liquid behavior inside a sphere in microgravity provides a good model for what happens in a spacecraft’s fuel tank. FLUIDICS, an investigation from ESA, evaluates the behavior of liquid in a sphere, including sloshing and wave turbulence. Results could provide insight into measuring the volume of the liquid, which may help improve the guidance and precision of satellites and optimize their lifespan through better fuel management. This investigation also may help provide a better understanding of Earth’s oceans, including the phenomenon of "rogue waves,” and contribute to improving climate prediction systems and optimizing the use of ocean-based renewable energy. Crew members performed several runs of the experiment during the week. Image Credit: NASA #nasa #marshallspaceflightcenter #msfc #space #nasamarshall #ISS #InternationalSpaceStation Read more More about the International Space Station NASA Media Usage Guidelines

[spacetimewithstuartgary]

NASA sees progress on Blue Origin's Orbital Reef Life Support System

A NASA-funded commercial space station, Blue Origin's Orbital Reef, recently completed testing milestones for its critical life support system as part of the agency's efforts for new destinations in low Earth orbit.

The four milestones are part of a NASA Space Act Agreement originally awarded to Blue Origin in 2021 and focused on the materials and designs for systems to clean, reclaim, and store the air and water critical for human spaceflight.

NASA is working closely with commercial companies to develop new space stations capable of providing services to NASA and others, which will ensure that the U.S. maintains a continuous human presence in low Earth orbit and provides direct benefits for people on Earth.

"These milestones are critical to ensuring that a commercial destination can support human life so NASA astronauts can continue to have access to low Earth orbit to conduct important scientific research in the unique microgravity environment," said Angela Hart, manager of NASA's Commercial Low Earth Orbit Development Program. "Additionally, each milestone that is completed allows NASA to gain insight into our partner's progress on station design and development."

Humans living and working in space do so in a closed environment that must be monitored and controlled. On the International Space Station, components for the environmental control and life support system maintain clean air and water for astronauts. The regenerative system recycles and reclaims most of the water and oxygen produced by normal human activities. This significantly reduces the amount of mass that would have to be launched to the orbiting laboratory for these functions.

Orbital Reef will have a similar system in place. All four milestones tested different parts of the system, including a trace contaminant control test, water contaminant oxidation test, urine water recovery test, and water tank test.

The trace contaminant control test screened materials to remove harmful impurities from the air. The water containment oxidation test, urine water recovery test, and water tank test all focused on potential cleaning, reclaiming, and storing technologies.

NASA is supporting the design and development of multiple commercial space stations, including Blue Origin's Orbital Reef, through funded and unfunded agreements. The current design and development phase will be followed by the procurement of services from one or more companies, where NASA aims to be one of many customers for low Earth orbit destinations.

NASA's commercial strategy for low Earth orbit will provide the government with reliable and safe services at a lower cost and enable the agency to focus on Artemis missions to the moon in preparation for Mars, while also continuing to use low Earth orbit as a training and proving ground for those deep space missions.

IMAGE....A digital rendering of Blue Origin’s free-flying station named Orbital Reef, which continues to be developed as part of a Space Act Agreement with NASA. Credit: Blue Origin

[nasa]

Meet Megan McArthur, NASA Astronaut & Crew-2 Pilot

NASA astronaut Megan McArthur will launch on Friday, April 23 to the International Space Station as the pilot for NASA’s SpaceX Crew-2 mission! This is the second crew rotation flight with astronauts on the Crew Dragon spacecraft and the first launch with two international partners as part of the agency’s Commercial Crew Program. McArthur is responsible for spacecraft systems and performance and is assigned to be a long-duration space station crew member. While this is her first trip to the space station, McArthur’s career has prepared her well for this important role on the Crew-2 team!

McArthur on the Crew Access Arm of the mobile launcher inside the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center. Credits: NASA/Joel Kowsky

McArthur was born in Honolulu, Hawaii and grew up in California. She is a former Girl Scout and has a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles and a Ph.D. in Oceanography from the University of California, San Diego where she performed research activities at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.

McArthur floating in microgravity during her STS-125 mission in 2009 aboard space shuttle Atlantis. Credits: NASA

While in graduate school, McArthur conducted research, served as Chief Scientist for at-sea data collection operations, and planned and led diving operations. She also volunteered at the Birch Aquarium at Scripps, conducting educational demonstrations for the public from inside a 70,000-gallon exhibit tank of the California Kelp Forest. Her experience conducting research in extreme conditions will certainly come in handy once she’s aboard the space station, as a big part of the astronauts’ job involves running research experiments in microgravity.

McArthur, seen through the window of space shuttle Atlantis, operating the robotic arm during a spacewalk. Credits: NASA

McArthur was selected as a NASA astronaut in 2000 and flew her first spaceflight aboard STS-125, the final space shuttle mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope. She worked as the flight engineer during launch and landing, and also served as the shuttle's robotic arm operator as she carefully retrieved the telescope and placed it in the shuttle’s cargo bay for servicing. The successful mission improved the telescope's capabilities and extended its life – and Hubble is still helping us make discoveries about our universe.

McArthur pictured in her pressure suit during a training session at SpaceX HQ in Hawthorne, California. Credits: NASA

Now, it’s time for the next big milestone in McArthur’s career! On Friday, April 23 Crew-2 will launch from Kennedy Space Center in Florida en route to the International Space Station. McArthur is the pilot of the Crew Dragon spacecraft and second-in-command for the mission.

NASA TV coverage of Crew-2 launch preparations and liftoff will begin at 1:30 a.m. EDT Friday, April 23 with launch scheduled for 5:49 a.m. EDT. Crew Dragon is scheduled to dock to the space station Saturday, April 24, at approximately 5:10 a.m. EDT. Watch live: www.nasa.gov/nasalive

Make sure to follow us on Tumblr for your regular dose of space: http://nasa.tumblr.com

[speedygal]

Now I know the header tank is in the nosecone, the flaps, the common domes, forward domes, the name of the Veloci(Raptor) engine, the Rvacs (Raptor Vacuum), the booster---but that just comes from me lurking in lounge, nasaspaceflight, and watching the construction every day of each Starship model either through livestream, by photos, or information from spacexlounge. Something I didn’t know a year ago. Why am I so interested? Because one day, Starship Superheavy will be my ride to Mars.

SPPPAAAAACCEEEE.

MAAAAAAARRSS.

One starship that I will be watching in the future will be my own ride being built long after the prototypes. Watching the progress it takes to become safe and reliable for the public to trust has been a roller coaster, being stuck between “Scrub!” and “Launch!” and “RUD!” as it stands on the launch mount during each test is a moment of anxiety but historical one at best.

In a way it’s like watching a vehicle of necessities being built in real time with a eye on it and doing something else knowing what stage of development it is in, what the parts are for the ship, and how long it is going to take to be finished. A aspect of this change that people didn’t get to do while waiting for their vehicles, let it be trucks, cars, vans, minivans, to be made in a way like Starship is. It’s a amazing luxury to have. I’ll know on the spot when it is ready to launch me and other passengers.

Pinned against the chair as Starship Superheavy departs the planet, by gravity, by the sheer force of the flight, my hands on the arm rests, watching through the window of the ship pass through various layers of the atmosphere until being in space and waiting for the booster to come back with fuel for the flight to Mars. It’ll be my first and only flight and it’ll count.  I’ll know the name of my Starship by heart by then, the flight number as well, ingrained in my psyche. Floating along in space headed toward a new planet, among the stardust, among the space dust, among the stars, under the cloak of space for hours, days, weeks!  Watching the stars stand out against the dark canvas outside in the vacuum of space.

Then to step foot on Mars in a spacesuit would be incredible and so thrilling and vindicating and groundbreaking all at once and so exciting I am on MARS. The PLANET. The PLANET that has had tons of movies made about it and will have a lot more about colonizing it, including television shows set on it about life on it, all about a barren lifeless a planet which is so far away from Earth.

Mars is a planet that people have dreamed about, something that was so impossible and only could be something that would happen in 22nd century only twenty years ago! It’s only a distant light in the night sky but it will be a full on feasible place for most people once colonization begins with videos from Starships that landed there. No climate change going to kill the planet in the future and make it a unlivable planet. Just a existence of living in a protected area for the remainder of my life and go out occasionally and be so happy that I am there, maybe scream, cheer, jump. "I LOVE MARS!" UNDER MICROGRAVITY

It’s just incredible. Right now, we cannot go to Mars and it is a unknown frontier that seems still so impossible and not of this century to happen at all but it will be of this century and it will be a known frontier in a few years. For me, it will be odd, arriving to Mars because it is a planet far away from Earth, a planet in space, a planet that I have never been to before but had only seen in photos and in movies. It will be even odd because I am on a entirely different planet that isn’t Earth. A planet that was once a star in the sky and now Earth would be the very same. Mars by then, would not feel like place that was known as a destination but too far away and felt like it didn’t exist.

That moment being there be a profound one of being there. Perhaps a moment of relief initially that whatever weather anomaly happens on Earth won't impact me. It's one of many signs that we're in the future. I recall reading my social studies book and seeing a  picture with "here, a miner doing some mining in a tight space" and I went, "hey, we're in the 21st century!" inwardly and boggled me that we were still mining and not using solar energy.

I also recall reading a article in school about old solar panels that were losing watts and the owner is like, “It still works Just the amount that I need.” and the articles arguing against using solar panels for day to day power usage. I very much recall while reading, “Why don’t they buy new solar panels?” I don’t know what happened to that person but I hope they got new panels and are happy with them giving them the energy that they need just like future colonists getting what they need from solar panels on Mars and only needing to replace them every few decades, scheduled, paid for by SpaceX.

Being on Mars would mean to me that we are firmly in the 21st century, ironed out that nobody would die on the way to Mars by accident, progressed as a civilization, gone where no person has gone before (well, asides to the people before me who arrived to Mars) and departed their cradle.  The day mass numbers of people go to Mars will be the day that is marked in Earth’s calendar as the day the baby left the cradle and didn’t come back after a few short hours that date will be known in History books, historical videos, historical digital pages, what not, the date that humanity got out of the cradle, hovered above ground then got a silo with wheels and buzzed off to other rooms, to other cradles, to other places.

Musk will be a fully renowned historical figure, highly flawed, but someone so instrumental along with other engineers and welders in bringing humanity to Mars but he will be known as the man who cut down the length of history making it would take to get to Mars, he may be revered, despised, but remembered all the same.  Being on Mars means the future is here, it is now, it is going to be tomorrow and the day after that and the day after that and so will humanity.

It’s insurance for our very survival even for the memory of humanity to linger on for eternity with dreams that came true for those who wanted to be the first round of people to be there. And someday, living on Mars won’t be amazing for a generation born and raised there, someday other planets will be in the spot of ‘I want to go there in Starship’ and that’s beautiful.