Stopping space-caused head and eye strain impacts utilizing specialised medical {hardware} was the highest analysis theme aboard the Worldwide House Station on Wednesday. The Expedition 73 residents additionally continued unpacking a SpaceX Dragon cargo spacecraft and practiced an emergency drill aboard the orbital outpost.
Microgravity pulls a crew member’s physique fluids towards the pinnacle resulting in potential eye construction and imaginative and prescient adjustments. One widespread, simply seen symptom known as “puffy face” the place an astronaut’s face seems swollen and redder. Researchers are a novel thigh cuff worn on an astronaut’s leg which will counteract the headward fluid shifts lowering strain on the pinnacle and eyes.
Flight Engineer Kimiya Yui of JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Company) led the thigh cuff research on Wednesday testing the biomedical machine on NASA Flight engineer Mike Fincke. Yui additionally scanned Fincke’s legs with the Ultrasound 2 machine as electrodes on Fincke’s chest measured his cardiac exercise. Medical doctors on the bottom monitored gaining actual time insights into astronaut well being to learn to shield crews on longer length missions to the Moon, Mars, and past.
NASA Flight Engineers Jonny Kim and Zena Cardman spent their shift specializing in cargo operations contained in the SpaceX Dragon. The duo continued unpacking among the a number of tons of drugs together with human analysis experiments and life help {hardware}.
Dragon additionally delivered an exterior payload, a reboost equipment, or an impartial propellant system positioned within the spacecraft’s trunk that can use two Draco engines to display the flexibility to keep up the orbital outpost’s altitude. On Tuesday, robotics controllers on the bottom remotely commanded the Canadarm2 robotic arm to visually examine the brand new propellant {hardware} earlier than Dragon fires its Draco engines in September reboosting the station’s altitude.
All 4 astronauts additionally joined the orbiting lab’s three Roscosmos cosmonauts station Commander Sergey Ryzhikov and Flight Engineers Alexey Zubritsky and Oleg Platonov and practiced procedures for a simulated emergency. The septet reviewed the steps they might use on a pc pill in unlikely occasions similar to an ammonia leak, a depressurization, or a hearth. The crew additionally practiced emergency communication and coordination with mission controllers from all over the world.
Earlier than the emergency drill, Ryzhikov started his shift testing the efficiency of electronics {hardware} within the Zarya module earlier than jogging on the Zvezda service module’s treadmill for a health analysis. Zubritsky arrange multispectral imaging gear in a station window and photographed areas of western Africa. Platonov began his day downloading imagery of Central Asia captured mechanically in the course of the crew’s sleep shift. Afterward, he checked Roscosmos life help methods and picked up station air samples to research for hint contaminants similar to carbon dioxide and ammonia to make sure a secure breathable setting.
Study extra about station actions by following the area station weblog, @space_station on X, in addition to the ISS Facebook and ISS Instagram accounts.
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