It’s alive! Space station’s humanoid robot awake

NASA’s humanoid robot has finally awakened in space.

Ground controllers turned Robonaut on Monday for the first time since it was delivered to the International Space Station in February. The test involved sending power to all of Robonaut’s systems. The robot was not commanded to move; that will happen next week.

“Those electrons feel GOOD! One small step for man, one giant leap for tinman kind,” Robonaut posted in a Twitter update. (All right, so a Robonaut team member actually posted Monday’s tweets under AstroRobonaut.)

The four visible light cameras that serve as Robonaut’s eyes turned on in the gold-colored head, as did the infrared camera, located in the robot’s mouth and needed for depth perception. One of Robonaut’s tweets showed the view inside the American lab, Destiny.

“Sure wish I could move my head and look around,” Robonaut said in the tweet. Robonaut - the first humanoid robot in space - is being tested as a possible astronaut’s helper.

(via PhysOrg.com)

scienceetfiction:

Secured on a foot restraint device connected to the Canadian-built remote manipulator system arm aboard the Earth orbiting Atlantis, astronaut Jerry Ross, in Nov. 1985, participates (with astronaut Sherwood Spring, out of frame) in a STS-61B demonstration of future space station construction. 

info via NASA

(Source: mrcainessuits, via eirizu)

Roughly half an orbit of the ISS, from sunrise over Northern Europe to sunset south-east of Australia. The view is to the north of the station’s ground track. In the upper-left, is the tail of the Space Shuttle Discovery, which docked with the Space Station during the STS-131 mission. The animation begins with a view of snow-covered Norway and the Jutland Peninsula. Low clouds cover Central Europe.
The animation continues as the Station flies by Ukraine, eastern Russia, the Volga River, and then the Russian Steppes. South and east of the steppes, a dust storm comes into view over the Taklimakan Desert, followed shortly by the lake-studded Tibetan Plateau and the glaciers of the Himalayan Mountains. Smoke-shrouded lowlands hug the southern margin of the Himalaya. Smoke also covers much of South-east Asia, including the Irrawaddy Delta.

After the Space Station passes over the sapphire-blue South China Sea, the island of Borneo appears, followed by the open expanse of the Indian Ocean. A trio of coral reefs lies off the coast of Western Australia, which is studded with clouds. Australia’s arid interior is coloured myriad shades of red. As sunset nears, cloud shadows lengthen, highlighting their structure. Night falls as the Space Station crosses the terminator above the South Pacific.

First-Ever Photos of Space Shuttle Docked At Space Station

This is completely inspiring.

(via Popular Science)

Beautiful.

dreamingofbliss:

A Room with a View

The International Space Station is featured in this image photographed by an STS-134 crew member at an aft flight deck window of space shuttle Endeavour during rendezvous and docking operations.

(via likeaphysicist)

Ten years of the International Space Station

“10 years ago today [EDIT: Not quite today, sorry.], Expedition 1 Commander Bill Shepherd and Flight Engineers Sergei Krikalev and Yuri Gidzenko climbed aboard the International Space Station, marking the first of 3652 days of continuous occupation so far. I think that on that day a decade ago, we truly became a space-faring species.

Since that day, 200 men and women from more than a dozen nations have stayed aboard the station, living there, playing there, working there, and yes, even doing some science there.”

This movie was taken by Don Pettit on the International Space Station - it’s a time-lapse view of the Earth zooming by. You can see the northern lights glowing in the atmosphere, over illuminated cities. Gorgeous.

Spotted on Geographile

[Via: io9]

“For this transit of a maximum duration of 0.54s, the visibility band crossed Spain, southern France, Northern Italy, Austria etc. This band was 4.8 km wide but being placed at its edge implies that the transit duration becomes zero, so in practice I had to be placed less than 1 km from the center of the band. The choice of central Spain has been deduced from the study of weather forecast and detailed maps on Google-Earth.
ISS distance to observer: 391 km. Speed in orbit: 7.4km/s (26500 km/h or 16500 mph).”

fuckyeahphysics:

unknownskywalker:

Flying through the aurora at 28,000 kph

The view from inside the International Space Station as it heads toward the aurora at 28,000 km/h, as photographed by an Expedition 22 crew member Soichi Noguchi looking out of the newly installed ISS cupola.

(via Bad Astronomy)

Ever wonder what it’s really like to live in space?

“There are no proper floors nor ceilings, because there isn’t gravity like we know it on Earth, just the free-fall feeling of space. This lack of directional pull is the central design fact, and it affects everything, including you. It will take at least three days to learn to move properly, mastering gentle gliding to and from various handholds. You don’t want to zoom around circus-style, as the station has many hard, protruding metal surfaces. The place is also festooned with cables: sewer, electrical, electronic, and your new best friends—since they help you keep still—elastic bungee cords.”

Also: An email from someone currently on the ISS.