Current Mission Control

NASA Co-Op Week 6: Sayonara Little Spacecraft

Mission control got so quiet you could hear the flight controllers sweat. Wait, wasn't the HTV supposed to be released?

Weeks ago HTV5, a Japanese cargo spacecraft, arrived at the International Space Station delivering fresh foods, experiments and other supplies. HTV5 was lovingly named Kounotori by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) meaning white stork. The arrival of these cargo ships are essential to ensure scientific exploration can continue on the Space Station. After the cargo ship is unloaded and reloaded with garbage. If you ever wondered how astronauts take out the trash...

Astronauts carefully fill up the empty cargo ship with garbage calling down to ground to double triple check if they can throw things out. At times it takes three astronauts strapping the trash bags to the inner walls of the cargo ship to finish the job. Why bother doing that, it is just trash?  By carefully calculating its trajectory, center of gravity and controlling its course the cargo ship plummets through Earth's atmosphere and burns up before hitting the surface. If the center of gravity was not constant the cargo ship we would lose control of the cargo ships trajectory. The cargo ship is released from the Space Station. Up until now the Canadarm2 has a hold of the cargo ship but then releases its grasp. Now you see the importance of HTV5's release, we don't want anyone getting hit by astronaut trash.

Flash forward to HTV5's release day I am sitting console with ISE (Integration Systems Engineer) console, the console that is in charge of visiting vehicles. Timing of the HTV5 release is key - it needs to occur when we have full communications, quickly as steps to release need to execute one after another, and ideally when the Space Station is illuminated by the sun for our monitoring. The countdown for the release began. The flight director focused our thoughts, "stop unnecessary chatter" the release sequence was about to begin. Flight controllers called "ADCO Go", "PLUTO Go", "ISE Go" and so on. Release protocol began but the Canadarm2 did not budge and the window for release was quickly closing.

"ROBO, you have 20 minutes to tell me what happened." instructed the flight director. In mission control there is no time to freeze up when an issue occurs but time to get to work and solve the problem. ROBO is in charge of the Canadarm2 operations. After determining a new release window, re-configuring Canadarm2 the HTV5 was successfully released! JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui worked controls on-board the international space station. Later on Twitter Kimiya remarked, "Sayonara Kounotori- kun. You are so beautiful I really miss you...".

WAYS TO GET INVOLVED Watch these silly astronauts float, eat and exercise on the Space Station.

Achievements this week at NASA.

Video from the HTV5 release.

Astronaut Kimiya speaks with his hometown about life on the Space Station.

I was in mission control when the discovery of water on Mars was announced! See what the NASA scientists have to say about Martian waters.

Start your career with NASA and tune into a Virtual Career Fair and hear about internship, fellowships and scholarships October 8th 12pm-3:30pmCT

Photos by NASA

Rocket at NASA Johnson Space Center's Rocket Park

NASA Intern Bonus Update

Recently my coach from FIRST Robotics past visited me and we toured Johnson Space Center (JSC). We got a look into Building Nine where astronauts train for their missions in mock vehicles. There were shuttle, international space station, Orion, rover, and robotic mocks. I was so glad my mentor could visit, FIRST Robotics is a huge reason why I am here!

For photo descriptions see captions. All taken by me at JSC.

Links:     FIRST Robotics       My old HS team Duluth East Daredevils

Space Walks & Garbage: NASA Co-Op #3 Week One

Space Garbage

Familiarized myself with the Inventory and Stowage Officer (ISO) team this week. They are a console position Mission Control that is in charge of managing the inventory and stowage of all US items on board the International Space Station (ISS). ISO prepares products for upcoming real-time operations and coordinates with other consoles regarding stowage plans. ISO is responsible for directing the crew to consolidate, relocate, audit, and unload a visiting vehicle. ISO as well as the Mission Control consoles’ mantra is to distill all information and procedures to make astronaut’s life easier. This is critical because astronauts have to navigate a lot of factors folks on ground don’t have to like; CO2 clustering around their face due to lack of gravity causing drowsiness, homesickness, isolation and general aggregations of communication challenges.

This week we focused on double checking the list of garbage that will burn up in Earth’s atmosphere in Japanese JAXA’s HTV6 cargo ship. Tediously we reviewed each item so nothing got thrown away that shouldn’t and items that would stink up the station were not missed.

Spacewalk

Conducted on the job training in Mission Control's support room called MPSR  (Multi-Purpose Support Room, pronounced "mipser") during the Friday the Thirteenth spacewalk. With an official Mission Control headset I followed along the astronauts tasks. Astronauts Shane Kimbrough and Thomas Pesquet spacewalked outside of ISS to update power systems. Upgrading power system of ISS was the overall goal of this month’s suite of Extra Vehicular Activities. Three 428lb Lithium-Ion batteries replaced nickel hydrogen batteries to store power for ISS during this spacewalk. Before the conclusion of the spacewalk engineers in mission control confirmed the batteries’ integration and initial power storage operations.

MPSRs usually use multi-view video with six images of ISS’ exterior and the crew to observe tasks being completed. They listen in on live loops to the Flight Director’s final calls, CAPCOM’s instructions and astronaut’s questions. If necessary MPSR operators can relay to their counterparts in front room Mission Control (FCR-1) information that can be filtered and relayed to Flight.

During the spacewalk there are many glove checks to check for leaks and anomalies. These gloves are impressively engineered to be thick enough to pressurize protect you from space yet gentle enough to allow you to feel space station through them. Astronauts could confirm with Mission Control that batteries were correctly mounted into place by describing drill rotations, torque and light sensor reading on the hand tool.

WAYS TO GET INVOLVED

Intern at NASA, year round, summer, spring or fall semesters.

Co-Op at NASA (Pathways Internship) and get sworn in as a Civil Servant.

Full-time employment at NASA opportunities!

This week's NASA achievements.

Everything about Mission Control from a Flight Director

Comfortably Inconclusive: NASA Co-Op #2 Week 10 & 11

This is the first internship I have completed without a definite finished product to hand over and it truly bothers me. Trials were performed with the small business made humidity sensor with three levels of humidity in order to gather different data points. From these trials a >10% difference between the humidity sensor and NASA known sensors was found. This was primarily because the sensors available to me were not calibrated so errors in the thermodynamic equations could propagate. In conclusion the trials were inconclusive. However, I left a trial rig that can be used with calibrated sensors and known humidity levels, explanation of equations used to gather data and ample documentation on how to run trials with my fluid system and data collection program. My exit presentation pictured above went really well, I was so glad the Director of Engineering Propulsion could attend my presentation!

Before my departure International Space Station astronauts gave a debrief on missions 46 and 47. British astronaut Tim Kopra and American astronaut Tim Peake narrated a video showing images from the missions and scientific experiments they performed. Kopra explained astronauts are experiments themselves and they draw blood, perform ultrasound and exercises to help advance medical science and understand how humans are affected by space travel.

I really enjoyed the multi-disipline challenges I faced this summer running trials on the humidity sensor. Right before I left my Dad and I caught Kate Rubins and Jeff Williams installing the Commercial Crew Docking Adapter outside of Space Station live! This fall I am back at the University of Minnesota Duluth (UMD) continuing my studies in electrical engineering and computer science. While at UMD I work in the career center editing resumes, giving presentations and writing career tip posts like this: https://umdcareers.wordpress.com/2016/08/17/internships-beyond-your-project/

In the spring I will return to Johnson to Co-Op in Mission Control's ISO (Inventory and Stowage Officer) group.

WAYS TO GET INVOLVED

See what NASA was up to this week.

Read about the astronauts on space station right now!

Apply for a NASA Co-Op

Apply for a NASA Internship

Guess what day it is?! Have to post this video every year: https://youtu.be/G_bOA3qrC-c Link to FIRST Robotics Kick Off webcast starting 9amCT with preshow and 9:30amCT with new game info: http://www.firstinspires.org/robotics/frc/2017-broadcast

Mars Dust into Thrust: NASA Co-Op #2 Week One

You would think pursuing a double major in electrical engineering and computer science would provide enough breadth to remain confident at a Co-Op... wrong. As I start my second Co-Op tour at NASA Johnson's Propulsion & Energy Conversion team I am finding that the more you learn the less you know. This summer I will be LabVIEW programming for In Situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) a system that turns Mars dust into fuel. ISRU is a rover payload that takes in mars atmosphere and soil and turns it into liquid methane and oxygen (fuel options). Other capabilities is getting O2 to breathe and excavating drinkable water. One of my projects is to control with a National Instruments compact cRIO an oxygen liquefier and a new water concentration sensor. The sensor I am testing uses spectroscopy to eliminate sensor erosion from corrosive Mars materials. These tasks are very chemical engineering heavy which require understanding a system and how to control it safely. I am excited to tackle this learning curve, understand more about Mars mission energy systems, and become more comfortable with chemical engineering concepts. WAYS TO GET INVOLVED Watch what NASA is up to: https://youtu.be/p_snvjghMJg Learn how to program with LabVIEW: https://youtu.be/IOkoyuikj5Q?list=PLdNp0fxltzmPvvK_yjX-XyYgfVW8WK4tu Read about our journey to Mars: http://www.nasa.gov/topics/journeytomars/index.html ISRU in more depth: https://youtu.be/M3HbD1S_H5U

Third spacecraft of NASA's New Frontiers Program trilogy, OSIRIS-REx, launches TODAY SEPTEMBER 8TH to collect asteroid samples. Coverage starts at 3:30pmCT with OSIRIS-REx's mission debrief. Launch at 6:05pmCT. OSIRIS-REx will travel to a near-Earth asteroid called Bennu & bring a small sample back to Earth for study. Is OSIRISREx the beginning of asteroid mining? Protecting Earth from asteroid collisions? Watch history unfold! www.ustream.tv/nasahdtv

NASA Co-Op Week 15: Precious Cargo

Six flags of countries who contributed to the International Space Station decorate the flight console. I return to Mission Control watching launch preparations from a new perspective - with Remote Interface Officer. Colloquially called RIO this team of international collaborators were originally dubbed Russian Integration Officer. The RIO flight controller communicated with the Russian team for launch and cargo capture system checks for the Cygnus rocket launch carried by an Atlas V rocket. Cygnus carries over 7,000 pounds of experiments, food and replacement parts to Space Station. cell cultures, bacteria, and microbe satellite experiments are on board the Cygnus rocket. We are calling this event a "Cyg"-nificant launch.

A team of  NASA flight controllers flip-flop working in the Russian Mission Control Center in Moscow and NASA's in Houston. For two months controllers visiting Moscow sit console for eight hours a day, six days a week, and on call 24/7.  By being available to assist with international troubleshooting, answering the right questions, and making right calls at the right time RIO has saved the space station hundreds of thousands of dollars. Ten years ago an hour of an astronaut's time in space was worth $100,000 so that cost has inflated even more now!

RIO introduced me to their mascot, a groundhog named Phil. One of the first Russian American collaborations took place on a Groundhog Day. Phil's collar is decorated with pins from various missions. The plush Ground Hog was hibernating under the console but has been kidnapped and escorted around the Red Square.

An odd anecdote I learned is that there is a survival hand gun stowed away on the Soyuz capsule. It is used if the Soyuz makes an emergency landing in an unexpected area and the astronauts need to defend themselves from bears or wolves. That's pretty hard core!

WAYS TO GET INVOLVED Watch the Cygnus cargo launch Dec 3rd 4:55pmCT: http://www.ustream.tv/NASAHDTV Accomplishments this week at NASA: https://youtu.be/t3_5ahJ0-Lw Apply for a NASA Internship & Scholarships NOW: https://intern.nasa.gov/ossi/web/public/main/ NASA Co-Op applications: http://nasajobs.nasa.gov/studentopps/employment/opportunities.htm NASA Community College Aerospace Scholars: http://nas.okstate.edu/ncas/ Join an aspirations in computing community: https://www.ncwit.org/programs-campaigns/aspirations-computing

Historic Mission Control

Flew humans to the Moon with less computing power than your smart phone.