NASA Wallops Island Virginia Antares rocket launch 2018: What’s aboard

Of course, there are the generations of rocket science allowing it to even leave the ground, but there is a lot more coming along for the ride. 

Scientists, engineers and officials held a news conference Tuesday to show some of the new science and technology that will be on board the Cygnus as it heads to the International Space Station later in the week.

The launch was originally set for Thursday at 4:49 a.m., but based on weather concerns, it’s been delayed until at least 4:23 a.m. Friday.

Liz Warren of the ISS National Laboratory said there are three main benefits to using the ISS for scientific research.

The first is that experiments can be subjected to microgravity (or the weak force of gravity found when in orbit). The second is that the ISS has an exposure facility, which subjects materials to much harsher conditions than they would face on Earth and gives a better indication of just how strong a material is. Finally, the ISS allows for Earth observation and remote sensing.

“The space station enables scientists to look at their research through a new lens,” Warren said. “It’s almost like additional discoveries or additional benefits that are for the benefit of all of us here on Earth.”

A wide variety of experiments and technologies will be aboard the Cygnus, which is attached to the rocket and carries the experiments and other materials.

One such new technology is a “refabricator,” a machine designed to combine a plastic recycling unit with a 3-D printer to allow astronauts on the ISS to reuse the plastic waste with which they’re surrounded.

“For every consumable, there has to be a spare, so if you could imagine the amount of spares that we need, it’s a very tremendous mass that has to be launched into space,” said Diane Risdon, In-Space Manufacturing Refabricator project lead at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center. “Not to mention the cost involved with that, because one pound of mass costs NASA thousands of dollars to get up to space.”

Risdon said those people on the ISS often complain about how much plastic ends up on the station, but the refabricator could turn the plastic into filament used to 3-D print needed parts that were effectively the same as anything sent up.

Risdon declined to say how much it cost to design the refabricator or how much money it would ultimately save, saying instead that the device was “priceless” in how it would improve efficiency.

Other experiments set to be on board include one that would allow scientists to study how muscular tissues from humans react to microgravity, research from the Michael J. Fox Foundation on a protein closely associated with the development of Parkinson’s disease and manufacturing of cost-effective membranes that separate carbon dioxide from other gases, which could one day be used to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

A notable experiment came from a team of high schoolers working with nonprofit Higher Orbits, a group dedicated to promoting STEM fields to students. The students are studying self-healing concrete in microgravity to try to better understand the specifics of how they work on Earth.

“One of the applications (of the self-healing concrete) is the creation of structures on other planets,” said Tarun Golla, one of the winning students. 

The research could also allow scientists to create self-healing vehicles both in space and on Earth.

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