Eu:CROPIS (Euglena and Combined Regenerative Organic-Food Production in Space) is a German life science satellite developed by the DLR to investigate the growing of plants in different levels of gravity on Mars and the Moon.The 250 kg lightweight greenhouse satellite is designed to rotate around its longitudinal axis while orbiting at an altitude of roughly 600 km. In doing so, it will replicate lunar gravity, which is 0.16 times the gravity on Earth, or the gravity on Mars, which is 0.38 times the gravity on Earth depending on the rotational speed. The Eu:CROPIS mission will operate two greenhouse environments. The first of the two greenhouses will operate under lunar conditions for the first six months, while the second greenhouse will operate in a Martian environment for the following six months.
The Eu:CROPIS spacecraft is scheduled for a rideshare launch on a Spaceflight SHERPA vehicle in 2017.
Why is it taking so long to develop a spinning spacecraft? I am starting to doubt that i will see any mars landing in my lifetime
Quote from: morten44 on 08/13/2016 07:12 pmWhy is it taking so long to develop a spinning spacecraft? I am starting to doubt that i will see any mars landing in my lifetimeBecause you don't need a spinning spacecraft to have a Mars landing. In fact, if you tried to do a spinning spacecraft, it'd take longer to get to a Mars landing.
Quote from: Robotbeat on 08/13/2016 07:43 pmQuote from: morten44 on 08/13/2016 07:12 pmWhy is it taking so long to develop a spinning spacecraft? I am starting to doubt that i will see any mars landing in my lifetimeBecause you don't need a spinning spacecraft to have a Mars landing. In fact, if you tried to do a spinning spacecraft, it'd take longer to get to a Mars landing.There are all sorts of articles about the negative effects of zero gravity in the news. I was lead to believe that we either had to have artificial gravity or drastically improve propulsion. Anyway, there doesn't seem to be any proposals by politicians to increase the nasa budget in order to prepare for a mars landing. If it were only slightly increased that would be better than nothing.
Quote from: morten44 on 08/13/2016 07:50 pmQuote from: Robotbeat on 08/13/2016 07:43 pmQuote from: morten44 on 08/13/2016 07:12 pmWhy is it taking so long to develop a spinning spacecraft? I am starting to doubt that i will see any mars landing in my lifetimeBecause you don't need a spinning spacecraft to have a Mars landing. In fact, if you tried to do a spinning spacecraft, it'd take longer to get to a Mars landing.There are all sorts of articles about the negative effects of zero gravity in the news. I was lead to believe that we either had to have artificial gravity or drastically improve propulsion. Anyway, there doesn't seem to be any proposals by politicians to increase the nasa budget in order to prepare for a mars landing. If it were only slightly increased that would be better than nothing.The negative effects are low enough that we can do surface missions to Mars without artificial gravity.No improvements to propulsion /per se/ are required, but the ability to refuel, especially on the surface of Mars, would help tremendously in doing the mission quick enough and cheap enough to be able to be done in our lifespan.You may be interested to know that SpaceX is planning a crewed mission to the surface of Mars in 9 years, and they're talking the steps necessary to accomplish that ambitious goal.The main things that are needed are entry, descent, and landing technology and refueling.
Quote from: Robotbeat on 08/13/2016 07:43 pmQuote from: morten44 on 08/13/2016 07:12 pmWhy is it taking so long to develop a spinning spacecraft? I am starting to doubt that i will see any mars landing in my lifetimeBecause you don't need a spinning spacecraft to have a Mars landing. In fact, if you tried to do a spinning spacecraft, it'd take longer to get to a Mars landing.It's true you don't need spin gravity to achieve Mars landing, so don't do it for your first Mars landing. Or your first 10 for that matter. I've never met a spin gravity proponent that suggested we delay Mars landing until we have the problem licked (all else being equal). I think most spin gravity advocates are only suggesting this research should be done in parallel, such that when your astronauts graduate from guinea pig status, we have options to make the ride more comfortable, and stop requiring Mars astronauts to push the limits of human capacity. If it turns out the costs of doing it without spin gravity are too great, then we'll be ready.This thread is about non-HSF AG applications though, so let's try and stick to the topic.
Eu:CROPIS (Euglena and Combined Regenerative Organic-Food Production in Space) is a biological life support mission scheduled for launch in 2017 on-board a Falcon 9 rocket. The spin stabilized satellite will be operated under different levels of acceleration to investigate the growth of tomatoes under simulated Mars and Moon gravity. It comprises two pressurized greenhouses, which are rotated around the spacecraft longitudinal axis, a radiation detector and a secondary payload from NASA AMES research center. Each greenhouse compartment will be operated for 6 months at different rotational speed in order to simulate different gravitational forces. Special care has to be taken in the design and the operations of Eu:CROPIS because biological processes may not be disturbed during spacecraft anomalies, and stable thermal conditions and lighting cycles must be assured.The 250 kg satellite is built by the DLR Institute for Space Systems and will be operated by the German Space Operations Center (GSOC) – another DLR institution. This allows an exceptionally close cooperation between the operations team and the spacecraft manufacturer. Decisions can be made together on whether a technical solution is to be implemented within the space segment or the ground segment. This approach minimizes the overall mission costs and maximizes the scientific output. Operational benefits arise from the on-board data handling, which permits the re-use of existing mission planning systems and minimizes adjustments to the mission control and data system. Additionally, an experimental but more powerful downlink mode may be used operationally after successful checkout, which could reduce the downlink time and related costs.
Presenting... the DEployable Spin Gravity Array. Folded form is tall and narrow, deployed form is a wide torus.I thought you guys might be interested to see the 3D print.
The nice thing about euthanising with N2 is that mammals have no receptors for the gas (which normally comprises 80% of the atmosphere), so by swapping the 20% oxygen out for N2, the animals go to sleep without any distress which may otherwise affect results. You can then flood the chamber with LN2 afterwards. I'm agnostic as to whether this would produce better samples - I'm not assuming a huge number of returned capsules in any case.
Sorry to quote something from this far back, but I've must of missed it.My dad had pulmonary edema. He was unable to sleep for weeks because his body kept waking him up as the oxygen levels in his blood dropped. I still have vivid memories of the terror in his face as he was trying to get enough air into his lungs. So YMMV on pure N2 euthanising without any distress.