Most expensive government housing project in America Cost north of $ 100 billiontook 13 years to buildand was permanently Since 2000, but most of the time, no more than six people have lived there. This is because the residence in question is the International space station (ISS), a million pounds The orbital outpost with a larger imprint than a football field and the living volume of a six-bedroom house, turning on the land of 250 miles above. Over the past 25 years, astronauts on board have done the work of Yeoman in the station Six laboratory modules. But the ISS ages, and NASA and the other 14 partner countries which have built, maintained and exploiting, it plans to deorbit it by 2030, sending it to the atmosphere for a controlled splash in a distant ocean plot.
Before the ISS die, however, it will help to build its own replacement – the one that will be built and launched by the private sector, with the new modules built by Houston Axiomal spaceand the launch services and the dragon spaceship provided by Spacex. Over the past three years, Axiom has launched three private and paid teams of four astronauts at the ISS, preparatory at the start of the station's construction. On June 10, he plans to launch his fourth mission, directly nicknamed Axiom Mission 4 (AX -4) – a more milestone on the road to the first new module of the space station going in 2027.
“It is important for the United States to maintain a human presence in space, and that is why I think that the Axiom station is so important,” explains the former NASA astronaut and Axiom's human space flight director Peggy Whitson, who ordered Axiom Mission 2 (AX-2) and will order AX-4. “We have to get the [new] Operational station before the ISS is put out of service. This push for … expansion in space is important from the point of view of technology [and] From the point of view of space. »»
Fast but significant science
The mission of the AX -4 will be relatively short 14 days – a wink compared to the six months to a year in which the residents in the long -term resort remain on board. But as with previous AXIOM flights, none of which exceeded 18 days, the crew will perform a lot of solid sciences over time at altitude.
“This particular mission will include 60 studies and scientific activities representing 31 countries, notably the United States, India, Poland, Hungary, Saudi Arabia, Nigeria, the United Arab Emirates and Nations across Europe,” said Allen Flynt, head of the Axiom mission services, and mission services, During a press conference on May 20. “It will be the most research … conducted on an Axiom space mission aboard the international space station to date.”
Among the experiences to be carried out These will be studies on the effect of microgravity on the brain – the crucial information to have in the long -term missions of the Moon and Mars – as well as similar research on the way in which the heart and the muscles adapt to space. The research manifesto will also be studies on the coordination of eye handles, and even how to manage blood sugar in space, opening the door to future trips by astronauts with diabetes dependent on insulin. The most ambitious work, however, will perhaps involve testing various drugs to treat cancer – a job that can be considerably accelerated if it takes place in space.
“People always say,” Why are you going in space to look at cancer? ” “, Said Whitson. “Well, cancer cells proliferate more quickly [in microgravity]So in a very short time, you can give them a medication and see if it slows them down. If you turn them off, you can say effectively: “Hey, it's a very promising drug.” During AX-2, the crew specifically studied colorectal cancer. Triple negative breast cancer– an aggressive form of the disease – and should be able to complete the study even in a short time, they will be in the air.
Collaboration is the key
The mission will not only be science, but the creation of global partnerships which go beyond the international suite of experiences that the crew will carry out. The Axiom space may be an American company, but Whitson will be the only American on board when AX-4 rises. Join her will be crew members Shubhansa Shuklaof India; Sławosz uznański-wiśNewski from Poland; And Tibor Kapu from Hungary. The mission comes after a long wait for the three countries. A Hungarian has not been in space since 2009, during the payment of the space tourist Charles Simonyi I am traveled at the ISS aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. The last Indian citizen in space was Rakesh SharmaWho was aboard another Soyuz, who accosted with the Salyut 7 space station in Russia in 1984. For Poland, the wait was the longest of all, dating from 1978, when when Mirosław Hermaszewski Launched aboard a Soyuz.
“The private missions of astronauts are an excellent opportunity for our member states to steal more astronauts and to have more experiences aboard the international space station,” said Sergio Palumberri, Mission Director of the European Space Agency (ESA) – which includes Hungary and Poland – during the May 20 press conference. “ESA will carry out 17 scientific surveys and technological demonstrations.”
“It is more than a spatial mission for us,” said Orsolya Ferencz, ministerial commissioner of space research in Hungary. “This is a strategic national effort, an expression of Hungary's commitment to sovereignty in critical technological fields and to guarantee a place in the rapidly evolving spatial economy.”
The four new arrivals aboard the AX-4 will join an equally international crew of seven living on the ISS; They include three astronauts from the United States, three Cosmonauts from Russia and an astronaut from Japan – Takuya Onishi, who is currently commander of the station. During the trips of Axiom-4 to and from space, Whitson will be in charge of his crew of three people, but when they are on board the station, she will give in most of her authority to Onishi.
“I am responsible for my crew and our activities on the ISS, but the crew that is already there will be responsible for the station as a whole,” explains Whitson. “It would not be appropriate for a short -term person to take over.”
Build the next “ISS”
The 14-day AX-4 mission is being theft with an eye towards a more distant objective. This flight and the previous three were both clothing rehearsals for crews and for the control of the Axiom's mission on site, offering a critical experience in orbit and by managing soil activities. This patient practice will be used in 2027 when the first Axiom space station module is at altitude and the quays with the ISS. Over the next three years, Four additional modules will be sent and will moor with that already there, the new cluster serving as a grassy semi-autonomous space stadium of the largest existing. In 2030, shortly before the ISS was disoriented, the Axiom station disintegrates and will become its own floating laboratory.
The first module, known as payload, power supply and thermal module (PPTM), will be, like its name, will provide power, temperature control and storage space for the new station. After the PPTM will come a midfielder module, two habitat modules and a research and manufacturing module (RMF), where integrated science will be carried out. The RMF also includes a similar fertile speaker but much larger than the Dome of the ISS, offering a 360-degree view of the Earth below and the surrounding space.
“It's much larger than the dome,” says Whitson. “It will be an immersive experience, where you can put your whole body inside. It will be like making a space walk without having to put a space costume.”
Axiom does not exclude adding more modules still down, especially since the company attracts the private sector and government customers ready to pay to operate experiences and test the equipment in microgravity. The space community has been spoiled in the past 25 years, with a rotary body of international astronauts still at work, still in orbit, making their houses aboard the ISS. The station may not attract global excitement that Old Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions have done, but we will surely miss it when it is gone. The axiome space is ready to fill this void.
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