Nanoracks small experiment host module for ISS

[Danderman]

http://ssep.ncesse.org/current-flight-opportunities/ssep-mission-1-to-the-international-space-station-iss/ssep-mission-1-to-iss-mini-laboratory-operation/

"This page provides all the information you need regarding the mini-laboratory used for experiments on SSEP Mission 1 to ISS—the NanoRacks Fluids Mixing Enclosure (FME), which NanoRacks has also dubbed a “MixStik”. Here you will find all the specifications for the mini-lab, a description of its straightforward operation, and all the constraints on your experimental design, including constraints due to the time it takes from submission of your experiment, to arrival and operation on ISS, to return to Earth."

The next mission to ISS for SSEP will use this system, to be launched on Soyuz 30. A follow-on is planned for Soyuz 32.

[Danderman]

Announcing Communities Participating in SSEP Mission 1 to ISS, and NEW Flight Opportunity, Mission 2 to ISS

92 Schools in 12 U.S. Communities Participating in Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP) Mission 1 to the International Space Station (ISS)

http://ssep.ncesse.org/2011/11/announcing-communities-participating-in-ssep-mission-1-to-iss-and-new-flight-opportunity-mission-2-to-iss/

For Immediate Release
November 15, 2011
Program Description Video Clip

Washington, D.C. – The National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE), in partnership with NanoRacks LLC, has selected 12 communities across the U.S. to participate in the third Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP) flight opportunity – SSEP Mission 1 to the International Space Station (ISS) – reflecting involvement by 92 elementary, middle and high schools. The Center and NanoRacks are also proud to announce the fourth SSEP flight opportunity, Mission 2 to ISS.

Launched in June 2010, SSEP immerses typically 300 students across a community in real scientific research of their own design, using a highly captivating spaceflight opportunity on ISS, America’s newest National Laboratory. The community-focused program is open to schools and school districts serving grade 5 through 12 students, 2- and 4-year colleges and universities, informal science education organizations, and internationally through the Center’s new Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Space Education.

Mirroring the proposal process for professional researchers, each participating community solicits proposals for a microgravity experiment from their students, with student teams vying for use of a real research mini-laboratory reserved to fly for their community. A suite of programs leverages the experience to engage the entire community, embracing a Learning Community Model for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education.

SSEP is a true STEM education program, with students proposing experiments over a wide range of biological and physical science disciplines, and designed to the technology and engineering constraints imposed by the mini-laboratory and flight operations to and from Earth orbit.

The SSEP Mission 1 communities are providing 41,200 students the opportunity to participate, and nearly 1,000 student team proposals are expected. The 12 communities are in California, Connecticut, Indiana, Iowa, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nebraska, Ohio, Texas, and the District of Columbia. Half of the communities participated in SSEP on the final two flights of the Space Shuttle. The Mission 1 experiment design competition takes place October through December 2011, with the 12 selected flight experiments scheduled to fly to ISS on Soyuz 30 in March 2012.

Mission 1 Communities:

1. San Marino, California
2. West Hills, California
3. Hartford, Connecticut
4. Washington, DC
5. Lake County, Indiana
6. Ida County, Iowa
7. Charles County, Maryland
8. Fitchburg, Massachusetts
9. Pleasanton and Norris, Nebraska
10. Cincinnati, Ohio
11. Houston, Texas
12. El Paso, Texas

About NanoRacks, LLC
NanoRacks LLC was formed in 2009 to provide quality hardware and services for the U.S. National Laboratory onboard the International Space Station. NanoRacks now has two research platforms onboard the U.S. National Laboratory that can house plug and play payloads using the Cube-Sat form factor. Our current signed customer pipeline of over 50 payloads, including domestic and international educational institutions, research organizations and government organizations, has propelled NanoRacks into a leadership position in understanding the emerging commercial market for low-earth orbit utilization. Visit us at http://www.nanoracks.com and @nanoracks

[Danderman]

The state’s highest-ranked public school district is now shooting for the stars, literally.

Students in the San Marino Unified School District are designing microgravity experiments and may have a chance to launch one of them into space next year aboard a Russian rocket bound for the International Space Station.

The district, which boasts the state’s best overall Academic Performance Index score, is the first in California invited to participate in a national competition that has previously sent student projects into space aboard the American shuttles Endeavour and Atlantis. The program is run by a Maryland-based nonprofit, the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education.

“I’ve been geeking out about this,” Wyeth Collo, chair of the science department at San Marino High School, said. “What we all want from our students is creativity, ingenuity, commitment and teamwork. This program has it all.”

Fifth- through 12th- graders in San Marino and seven districts in other states must form teams and submit experiment proposals by Nov. 28.

One experiment from each district will be chosen to launch on March 30 and return to Earth on May 15, allowing student teams to evaluate and report on their results, Jeff Goldstein, director of the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education, said.

“Science education is no longer about teaching the book of knowledge. This program allows students to wear the shoes of scientists,” Goldstein said.

The center’s Student Spaceflight Experiments Program contracts with NanoRacks LLC, a commercial space company that rents out standardized, locker-like slots carrying self-contained experiments on vehicles bound for the space station.

Past student microgravity experiments have tested the effects of zero gravity and space radiation on plant, microbe and crystal growth.

A typical payload involves two sealed test-tubes suspended in a liquid. During space travel or at the space station, astronauts break the tubes at prescribed times in order to mix components to student specifications, Goldstein explained.

The cost of participating in the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program is about $20,000, mostly to defray the expense of space travel, Goldstein said.

Considering the district’s tight budget, the San Marino High School PTA has been tasked with raising those funds, San Marino Board of Education President Chris Norgaard said.

[Danderman]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2011/11/21/nanoracks-is-making-space-science-affordable-for-everyone/

“We did something with this company that we never do – we invested more money in them than they paid us in fees.”

Those were the words of Hoyt Davidson, the Managing Partner of Near Earth, LLC. Near Earth is a boutique investment banking firm that specializes in bringing funding to firms looking to start commercial operations in outer space. It’s a tricky prospect because, as Davidson notes, “a lot of them are long on vision, but short on near term market opportunities.”

That’s not the case, Davidson assures me, of one of their latest clients, NanoRacks.

“They’re the exact opposite – they have a very attractive near term market opportunity,” he says. “They are fulfilling the vital role of having an intermediary between NASA and the ISS and the thousands of people who want to do research in outer space but don’t have the time, money, or expertise needed to clear a payload for orbit.”

This is the crucial point. Before NanoRacks, if a research team wanted research done on the space shuttle or aboard the International Space Station, they couldn’t just design the experiment. They also had to design the payload and develop the instruments, submit them to NASA, and go through an approval process. This put research out of the budget and expertise of researchers.

That’s where NanoRacks steps in. NanoRacks has developed a standardized payload system, already cleared by NASA. What’s more, they’ve developed standardized instruments that can be used for multiple scientific applications, and several of them are already in the U.S. National Lab aboard the International Space Station.

“It’s like a condo for science,” remarked Davidson. “All of these different experiments have the same instruments, and are just using them as needed.”

[Danderman]

http://www.lhj90631.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1682&Itemid=53

Sunday, 20 November 2011

The International Space Station (ISS) weighs more than one million pounds and is as big as a football field.   21 Whittier Christian students are designing an experiment to be carried out in a 4 inch by 4 inch by 8 inch sliver of it.

The students are testing how much ampicillin would be needed to kill E. coli bacteria in a near-zero-gravity environment. Their space experiment has many intricacies, the most complicated of which is the incredibly small size of the space they’re allotted. Assistant Principal Chris Sanita, AP Biology teacher Anne Mangahas-Obando, Physics teacher Brian Hart and a few professional engineers are mentoring the group.

The students teamed with Nanoracks—a company that grew out of the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education and Space For Everyone. Nanoracks rents “cube labs” on the Space Station— tiny, tightly controlled spaces for commercial and educational experiments. San Jose’s Valley Christian High became the first school in the U.S. to supply a cube lab experiment for students in its Applied Math, Science and Engineering Institute for 1-12 graders.

[Danderman]

http://www.yourhoustonnews.com/bellaire/news/johnston-parker-students-poised-to-venture-into-space-via-their/article_448f43e9-4ae4-5d09-a37e-4943f79bdfc1.html

Posted: Wednesday, December 14, 2011 12:18 pm | Updated: 11:40 am, Thu Dec 15, 2011.

From JOHNSTON MIDDLE SCHOOL

Houston, we have a student experiment going to space! Two HISD schools, Johnston Middle and Parker Elementary, compose one of only 12 communities nation-wide to be selected to participate in Mission One to the International Space Station through the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program.

One student experiment will be chosen from an anticipated field of over 400 completed scientific proposals from over 1,000 students. That experiment will fly to the ISS aboard a Soyuz rocket in spring 2012.

Students in grades 5-8 at both schools are being exposed to science as it relates to our nation’s quest to live in space and to understand micro-gravity’s effects on everything from bacteria to plant growth. They are actively researching in the classroom and going through the scientific process, working with their teachers to learn real science.

The Houston scientific community is getting on-board with researchers, scientists, biologists, physicists, geologists, and many others actively engaged with the student participants. Among them are: Gregory Vogt, Baylor College of Medicine, Robert Dempsey, Jess Tramaglini, and Keith Todd, NASA, Christopher Johns-Krull and Jeff Chancellor, Rice, Lawrence Pinsky and George Fox, UH, Alamelu Sundaresan, Terrell Gibson and Charles Glass, TSU, Ann Martin, geologist, Bruce Thornburgh, bio-medicine.

At the school level, students are being supported by teachers and administrators alike. All of whom are dedicated to providing support, instruction and guidance so students can be part of this once in a lifetime experience.

At the district level, board members Larry Marshall and Mike Lunceford both have dedicated time and effort into making this happen from day-one.

Houston, we have a team. Houston, we have a mission. Houston, we have something special going on.

This is truly an out-of-this world experience for these young students turned researchers and an amazing opportunity for the Houston community to prove that we really are the nation’s “Mission Control.” For more information about this opportunity, please visit

http://www.ssep.ncesse.org.

The Student Space Flight Experiments Program (http://ssep.ncesse.org) is undertaken by the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education (NCESSE; http://ncesse.org) in partnership with Nanoracks, LLC. This on-orbit educational research opportunity is enabled through NanoRacks, LLC, which is working in partnership with NASA under a Space Act Agreement as part of the utilization of the International Space Station as a National Laboratory.

[Danderman]

http://www.parabolicarc.com/2011/11/30/made-in-space-wins-nasa-contract-to-develop-iss-3d-printing-capability/

Made in Space, Inc. has been selected for a NASA Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) contract to develop in-space 3D manufacturing capability for the International Space Station. No terms have been released, but NASA says that SBIR agreements are typically funded for six months at amounts of up to $125,000.

The 3D system, called the Additive Manufacturing Facility, “will allow for immediate repair of essential components, upgrades of existing hardware, installation of new hardware that is manufactured, and the manufacturing capability to support commercial interests. Additive manufacturing is the process of building a part layer-by-layer, with an efficient use of the material. The process leads to a reduction in cost, mass, labor and production time,” according to Made in Space’s proposal.

On Tuesday, NASA announced that it had selected 360 SBIR proposals and 40 Small Business Technology Transfer applications for contract negotiations.

The Silicon Valley start-up is based at NASA Ames Research Park in California. It was a student project during the 2010 Singularity University summer session.

As part of this proposal, Made in Space, Inc., combined with the mission experience of Arkyd Astronautics, Inc. and NanoRacks, LLC, will develop an Additive Manufacturing Facility for the ISS that will enable on-board manufacturing capability. The crew would be able to utilize the AMF to perform station maintenance, build tools, and repair sections of the station in case of an emergency. The AMF will use an extrusion-based “3D printing” method, which Made in Space has already tested in zero-gravity with successful results (Summer 2011), and is scheduled to do sub-orbital testing in 2012 as part of NASA’s Flight Opportunities Program.

[Danderman]

[Danderman]

We Have Just Crossed the T-Minus 100 Day Milestone for Launch of Aquarius, the SSEP Mission 1 Payload to ISS

http://ssep.ncesse.org/2011/12/we-have-just-crossed-the-t-minus-100-day-milestone-for-launch-of-aquarius-the-ssep-mission-1-payload-to-iss/

UPDATE: All flight experiments for SSEP Mission 1 to ISS have now been selected, and NCESSE and NanoRacks are working hard to complete the final flight samples list (fluids and solids) to be flown by the student research teams. The list, due today to NanoRacks, will be forwarded to NASA Toxicology for formal Flight Safety Review. We are also working hard to secure all information for the formal announcement of the winning experiments here at the SSEP National Blog.

NCESSE and NanoRacks are reporting that all SSEP spaceflight operations are proceeding nominally, and we are go for launch to America’s National Laboratory in Low Earth Orbit. (See, We’ve been telling you this was all very real! Back to serious… )

[Danderman]

Team members from FPT University and FPT Technology Research Institute of Vietnam, showing off their F-1 CubeSat which will deployed via NanoRacks from the ISS in the middle of 2012.

[Danderman]

A Master's Thesis on Nanoracks that provides an excellent summary of the system, and how to build a Nanoracks module:

[Danderman]

Presentation by Jeffrey Manber about ISS as a platform for educational experiments:

[Danderman]

http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/614255main_010612_tl.pdf

ISS Form 24 for January 6 2012, showing NanoRacks Module 17 Experiment Training and Operations schedule.

[Space Pete]

From ISS On-Orbit Status Report for 06/01/2012.

FE-5 Andre Kuipers performed operations with the NanoRacks Smartphone Module-17 experiment, to check out how smartphones operate in space. Activities included first reviewed briefing material, next setting up the camcorder for documenting video of the operations and then performing imagery and life cycle tests on two smartphones. Smartphone-2 was left powered on. [ISS National Laboratory partner NanoRacks LLC has a collaboration with Odyssey & Apple which enabled Odyssey to send two iPhone 4's to ISS as part of the STS-135 mission on 7/8/11. These phones are like the ones found in stores, but with certain alterations to meet NASA flight certification standards. The iPhone 4 was selected for its mix of features, which include a three-axis gyro, an accelerometer, a high resolution camera and screen, and the means to manipulate the image. The smartphones use the same software as their Earth counterparts, and standard tools were used to develop a new app called “SpaceLab for iOS” which enables the planned research aboard the station (the app is also available for people to download to their own devices). The hope is to use the compact hardware in future research studies and to augment crew performance and productivity in operational activities. Currently there are four separate experiments that will run on the smartphones via “SpaceLab for iOS”: (1) Limb Tracker (a navigation experiment using photos of the Earth and image overlay manipulation to match the horizon to an arc to give an estimate of altitude and off-axis angles), (2) Sensor Calibration or Sensor Cal (using reference photos and the three-axis gyro and accelerometer for calibration to improve measurement accuracy, (3) State Acquisition or State Acq (also using photos, but this time to estimate spacecraft orbital parameters), and LFI/Lifecycle Flight Instrumentation (tracking the impact of radiation on the phones by monitoring radiation-induced single bit upsets, which are unintended changes in memory location values).]

[Robotbeat]

That's pretty cool, actually. I wonder if any smarphone-based cubesats have ever flown?

[Danderman]

Nanolabs Module 9 to be activated today by FE-6, per attached schedule:

http://www.nasa.gov/pdf/615154main_011112_tl.pdf

[Danderman]

http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/news/SSEP.html

"If you are looking for proof of the inspirational impact of the International Space Station, you need only speak to the educators of the children participating in the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program, or SSEP. This program provides 41,200 students from around the nation the opportunity to propose a microgravity experiment with the chance of having it performed on the orbiting laboratory.

"If these students were asked to write this much for an English paper, they would probably have a cow," said Amber Pinchback, assistant principal at Johnston Middle School in Houston, Texas. "But they were so into it and intrigued by the information that they just kept typing and kept writing and it was just wonderful to see the amount of work and rigor and thought that went into the project."

Participants include 92 schools in 12 communities from all over the nation, each flying one student-designed experiment, selected from the many proposed as part of SSEP's Mission 1 to the space station. Pinchback is part of a community effort in the space city of Houston, Texas, which includes Johnston Middle School -- a NASA Explorer School -- and Parker Elementary School. The program is open to students from 5th to 12th grade, colleges, and informal science education organizations, as well as internationally through the Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Space Education.

The program is undertaken by the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education, or NCESSE, in partnership with NanoRacks, LLC. It is an on-orbit educational research opportunity enabled through NanoRacks, LLC, working in partnership with NASA under a Space Act Agreement as part of the utilization of the space station as a National Laboratory. "

[Danderman]

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20120113/NEWS/301130130/2-CPS-schools-launch-space-experiments?odyssey=nav|head

On March 30, spider eggs and yeast from Cincinnati will launch into space aboard a Russian rocket to undergo zero-gravity experiments conceived by fifth- and sixth-grade students.

Students from two Cincinnati Public elementary schools, Quebec Heights and the Cincinnati Gifted Academy, won a national competition to have their science experiments flown up to the International Space Station

The two projects are among 15 student experiments nationwide to be selected for the program. Nearly 800 teams applied, including 20 local schools.

The opportunity is provided by the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program, a private sector education initiative focusing on science, engineering, technology and math curriculum. The contest is designed to create an opportunity to let kids unleash their scientific potential.

“Science is nothing more than organized curiosity and kids are born wired to explore,” said Jeff Goldstein, director of the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education, which organized the program. “We wanted to give students the ability to do real science in a way that would be truly out of this world, no pun intended.”

The space flight program was created in 2010 by Goldstein’s organization in partnership with NanoRacks, LLC, a company that provides the experiment containers and access to the International Space Station. This is the the third such contest and the first time any Ohio teams have won. Getting the experiment to space costs $20,000 per team. The costs for the first team were covered by community partners, including Procter & Gamble. The costs for the second were covered by the spaceflight program.

[Danderman]

http://nanoracks.com/about-us/our-beginnings/

A new web page with the early history of Nanoracks LLC.

[Danderman]

A web site containing minutes of a presentation by Jeff Manber about Nanoracks. The Q&A was captured:

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewsr.html?pid=39560


International Space Station National Laboratory Education Project (ISS-NLEP)
December 2, 2011
8:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.