NASA Science and Cargo Launches Northrop Grumman Refueling Mission to Space Station

The Northrop Grumman Cygnus space freighter sits on top of an Antares rocket at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Credit: NASA / Terry Zaperach

A Northrop Grumman Cygnus refueling spacecraft is en route to the International Space Station with more than 8,200 pounds of science and cargo surveys after launching at 6:01 p.m. EDT Tuesday from Nasa‘s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. At 8:46 p.m., the spacecraft’s solar panels successfully deployed to collect sunlight to power Cygnus on its journey to the station.

In this black-and-white infrared image, a Northrop Grumman Antares rocket carrying a Cygnus refueling spacecraft is launched from Pad-0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Tuesday, August 10, 2021, at the Wallops Flight Facility in NASA in Virginia. Northrop Grumman’s 16th cargo resupply mission with NASA will provide nearly 8,200 science and research books, crew supplies and vehicle equipment to the International Space Station and its crew. Credit: NASA / Joel Kowsky

Cygnus is expected to arrive at the space station around 6:10 a.m. on Thursday, August 12. NASA Television, the NASA app and the agency’s website will provide live coverage of the spacecraft’s approach and arrival starting at 4:45 a.m.

NASA astronaut Megan McArthur will use the space station’s robotics Canadarm2 to capture Cygnus upon arrival, while ESA (European Space Agency) astronaut Thomas Pesquet monitors telemetry during the rendezvous, capture and the installation on the port facing the Earth of the Unity module.

This is Northrop Grumman’s 16th cargo flight to the space station and the fifth under its Commercial Resupply Services 2 contract with NASA. Cygnus was launched on an Antares 230+ rocket from Pad 0A at the Virginia Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Wallops.

The supply flight will support dozens of new and existing investigations. Scientific research Cygnus delivers to the space station includes:

From dust to the house

Using the resources available on the Moon and March building structures and habitats could reduce the amount of material future explorers must bring from Earth, dramatically reducing the mass and cost of launch. The Redwire Regolith Print (RRP) study demonstrates 3D printing on the space station using material simulating regolith, or loose rock and soil, found on the surface of planetary bodies such as the Moon. The results could help determine the feasibility of using regolith as a raw material and 3D printing as a technique for on-demand construction of habitats and other structures in future space exploration missions.

Maintain muscles

As people age and become more sedentary on Earth, they gradually lose muscle mass, a condition called sarcopenia. Identifying drugs to treat this disease is difficult as it develops over decades. Cardinal Muscle is testing whether microgravity can be used as a research tool to understand and prevent sarcopenia. The study, funded by the National Science Foundation in conjunction with the ISS US National Laboratory, seeks to determine whether a tissue platform designed in microgravity forms the characteristic muscle tubes found in muscle tissue. Such a platform could provide a way to quickly assess potential drugs before clinical trials.

Remove the heat from space travel

Longer space missions will need to generate more energy, producing more heat that must be dissipated. The transition from current single-phase heat transfer systems to two-phase thermal management systems reduces the size and weight of the system and allows for more efficient heat removal. Because more thermal energy is exchanged through vaporization and condensation, a two-phase system can remove more heat for the same amount of weight as current single-phase systems. The Flow Boiling and Condensation Experiment (FBCE) aims to develop a data collection facility on two-phase flow and microgravity heat transfer. Comparisons of microgravity and terrestrial gravity data are needed to validate numerical simulation tools for the design of thermal management systems.

Fresh starters

The Kentucky Re-Entry Probe Experiment (KREPE) demonstrates an affordable thermal protection system (TPS) to protect spacecraft and their contents when re-entering Earth’s atmosphere. Making these systems efficient remains one of the greatest challenges in space exploration, but the unique environment of entry into the atmosphere makes it difficult to accurately reproduce conditions in ground simulations. TPS designers rely on digital models that often lack flight validation. This survey provides an inexpensive way to compare these models to actual flight data and validate possible designs. Before flying the technology to the space station, the researchers performed a high-altitude balloon test to validate the performance of electronics and communications.

Eliminate carbon dioxide

Four Bed CO2 Scrubber demonstrates technology to remove carbon dioxide from a spaceship. Based on the current system and lessons learned from its nearly 20 years of operation, the four-bed CO2 scrubber features mechanical improvements and an improved, more durable absorbent material that reduces erosion and dust formation. Absorption beds remove water vapor and carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, returning water vapor to the cabin and either venting carbon dioxide overboard or diverting it to a system that uses it to produce water. This technology could improve the reliability and performance of carbon dioxide removal systems in future spacecraft, thereby helping to maintain the health of crews and ensure mission success. It has potential applications on Earth in closed environments that require the removal of carbon dioxide to protect workers and equipment.

Mold in microgravity

An ESA investigation, Blob, allows students aged 10 to 18 to study natural viscous mold, Polycephalic physarum, who is capable of basic learning and adaptation. Although it is just a cell without a brain, Blob can move, feed, organize, and even impart knowledge to other slimy molds. Students replicate the experiments conducted by ESA astronaut Thomas Pesquet to see how the behavior of the Blob is affected by microgravity. Using time-lapse video of space, students can compare the speed, shape, and growth of slimy molds in space and on the ground. The French space agency Center National d’Etudes Spatiales and the National Center for Scientific Research coordinate Blob.

These are just a few of the hundreds of investigations currently being conducted aboard the orbiting laboratory in the fields of biology and biotechnology, physical sciences, and earth and space sciences. Advances in these areas will help keep astronauts healthy during long-duration space travel and demonstrate technologies for future human and robotic exploration missions as part of the approach to exploring the Moon and Earth. NASA Mars, including lunar missions through NASA’s Artemis program.

Cygnus will also provide a new mounting bracket that astronauts attach to the port side of the station’s spine beam during a spacewalk slated for late August. The mounting bracket will allow the installation of one of the next pairs of new solar panels at a later date.

The Cygnus spacecraft will remain at the space station until November before disposing of several thousand pounds of trash on its destructive re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere.