Space to Ground: Business Trip: Sept. 27, 2024

NASA's Space to Ground is your weekly update on what's happening aboard the International Space Station.

What is said in the film

Welcome to Space to Ground, I'm Nilufar Ramji. In total, she has spent over a year working away from home, doing research, conducting experiments, and occasionally…performing spacewalks. And this week, NASA astronaut Tracy Dyson returned home from her third business trip to the International Space Station. Dyson, alongside Roscosmos cosmonauts Nikolai Chub and Oleg Kononenko, undocked from the International Space Station’s Prichal module aboard the Soyuz MS-25 spacecraft on Monday, September 23. The trio returned to Earth with a parachute-assisted landing safely arrived on the steppe of Kazakhstan, southeast of the town of Dzhezkazgan.

Spanning 184 days in space, Dyson’s mission included 2,944 orbits of the Earth and a journey of 78 million miles. Dyson spent her third spaceflight aboard the station as an Expedition 70 and 71 flight engineer, and departs with Kononenko, completing his fifth flight into space and accruing a record 1,111 days in orbit, and Chub, who completed his first spaceflight. Over Dyson’s six month stay in space, she conducted multiple science experiments and technology demonstrations to support the advancement of humanity here on Earth and our ultimate goal of a presence on the Moon and Mars. Let’s take a dive into the Dyson’s science in space. Operating the Bio-Fabrication facility, Dyson supported 3D prints of cardiovascular tissue samples.

In the unique microgravity environment, the ink used for 3D printing doesn’t settle like it does here on Earth. Findings from this investigation could lead to 3D printing organs such as hearts for patients on transplant lists. Another investigation Dyson supported is called Gaucho Lung which studies fluid transport within gel-coated tubes. The goal is to learn more about how the mucus that covers the respiratory system affects how drugs are delivered to the lungs. This form of treatment is essential in treating newborns with underdeveloped lungs experiencing respiratory distress syndrome.

Results could support development of new strategies for administering respiratory treatments and for preventing the contamination of tubing used for liquid flows in health care and the food industry. And finally this week, we want to turn your attention to the heavens, and a celestial event that NASA astronaut Don Pettit captured. Seeing a comet from orbit provides such a unique vantage point. Pettit saw comet C2023-A3 rising through the atmospheric edge heading toward the sun. Pettit plans to take more photographs of the comet in the coming days to see how the tail structure evolves, and if the comet’s tail brightens.

You can follow along on Pettit’s comet captures by following him on X @astro_pettit. And for updates of all the dynamic activities taking place, including updates on the upcoming launch of the SpaceX Crew-9 mission to the Space Station, head over to: blogs. nasa. gov/spacestation. That’s Space to Ground, thanks for watching.

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