Space to Ground: Power Moves: May 02, 2025

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. With the flurry of science taking place this week, there is no shortage of dynamic events aboard the space station. Space Botany kicked off this week of research, and the Expedition 73 crew prepared and completed a spacewalk to get ready for a new solar array and to relocate a communications antenna. 250 miles off the Earth the 93rd US spacewalk in support of station assembly, maintenance, and upgrades, took place on May 1st. NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers entered the vacuum of space to complete two tasks.

First, they work to install a Rollout Solar Array Modification Kit on the station's Port Truss structure. The International Space Station Rollout Solar Arrays, or IROSA, will boost power generation capabilities by 30% and will be installed on a future spacewalk. Then, they relocated an antenna that communicates with visiting vehicles. This was McClain's third spacewalk, and Ayers' first. Overall, this was the 275th spacewalk in space station program history.

The study of plants in space environments or Space Botany encompasses different investigations on cultivating plant life in microgravity, on other planets, and in space habitats. Aboard the space station, there are multiple Space Botany investigations that have taken place with one that was front and center this week. The APEX-12 investigation, known as the Advanced Plant Experiments in space-12, looks at different cell components that can help plants survive stressful environments in space influencing the viability of future space crops. In other words, APEX-12 studies telomeres, or the physical ends of chromosomes that affect plant health. Telomeres serve an important role as biological survivability in both plants and in humans.

This investigation could clarify the relationship between the space radiation environment and tor dynamics for future long-duration missions. For all of the activities taking place on the International Space Station, check out the blog by visiting blogs. nasa. gov/spacestation. That's Space to Ground.

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