Derek Richardson
November tenth, 2023
SpaceX’s CRS-29 Dragon launches atop a Falcon 9 towards the Worldwide House Station. Credit score: NASA
SpaceX’s autonomous CRS-29 cargo Dragon is on its solution to resupply the Worldwide House Station and its seven-person Expedition 70 crew.
Liftoff atop a Falcon 9 rocket occurred at 8:28 p.m. EST Nov. 9 (01:28 UTC Nov. 10) from Launch Advanced 39A at NASA’s Kennedy House Heart in Florida. That is the twenty ninth cargo Dragon mission for NASA by SpaceX beneath the Business Resupply Companies program.
The ILLUMA-T payload in a cleanroom at NASA’s Goddard House Flight Heart. Credit score: NASA
Aboard is a few 6,500 kilos (2,900 kilograms) of cargo sure for the orbiting laboratory. It’s set to dock with the ISS at round 5:20 a.m. EST (10:20 UTC) Nov. 11 following a 34-hour rendezvous profile. The spacecraft is predicted to dock with the ahead port of the Concord module the place it is going to stay for a couple of month.
The inbound cargo contains crew provides, experiments and know-how demonstrations, together with NASA’s ILLUMA-T, which stands for Integrated Laser Communications Relay Demonstration Low-Earth-Orbit User Modem and Amplifier Terminal.
In line with NASA, ILLUMA-T is {hardware} that the company is utilizing to check excessive knowledge fee laser communications from the ISS to Earth by way of the Laser Communications Relay Demonstration, or LCRD, which is a payload connected to a U.S. Division of Protection satellite tv for pc known as STPSat-6 that was launched in December of 2021.
LCRD transmits data to one of two ground stations, both Desk Mountain, California, or Haleakalā, Hawaii. When ILLUMA-T is put in on the outside of the house station, it is going to ship knowledge by way of infrared lasers to LCRD, which can then relay to one of many floor stations.
NASA at present depends on varied radio frequencies to transmit knowledge, one thing that has been completed because the starting of the house age. Laser communications enable for extra knowledge, photographs and video to be despatched throughout the identical transmission. Consider it just like the distinction between dial-up and broadband for the web.
Moreover, the {hardware} requires exact aiming in addition to minimal cloud protection, however can be lighter and makes use of much less energy. NASA plans additional demonstrations with this technology, together with one that can fly with the crewed Artemis 2 mission across the Moon in late 2024 or early 2025.
Video courtesy of SciNews
Derek Richardson
Derek Richardson has a level in mass media, with an emphasis in up to date journalism, from Washburn College in Topeka, Kansas. Whereas at Washburn, he was the managing editor of the scholar run newspaper, the Washburn Assessment. He additionally has a web site about human spaceflight known as Orbital Velocity. You could find him on twitter @TheSpaceWriter.
