Space to Ground: On Top of It: April. 19, 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 nicholas page. This week we take a look at nasa’s ecostress investigation, expedition 71 crew members are participating in an experiment where they keep a close eye on each other, and we look ahead to the launch of a test flight. Researchers are using nasa’s ecosystem spacebourne thermal radiometer experiment on the international space station, or ecostress, to accurately measure the temperature of plants on earth. Data taken by ecostress through infrared measurements of the earth’s surface throughout daylight cycles can help answer some key questions about water stress in plants and how selected regions may respond to climate change. Researchers have found that photosynthesis in plants begins to fail at fourty-six point seven degrees celsius, or one hundred fourteen degrees farenheit.

Whether tropical vegetation leaf temperatures could reach this threshold is not known, but this result raises awareness of the need to mitigate climate change, especially in vital areas like rainforests. We move on to look at some engaging biomedical research that expedition 71 crew memebers are conducting in low earth orbit. In the columbus laboratory module, nasa flight engineer mike barratt took part in the cipher investigation, which aims to gain a broad view of the physiological and psychological changes astronauts’ experience during long-term spaceflight. The studies this week involved checking barratt’s eye function and blood pressure as well as using the ultrasound 2 device to scan his veins. And finally this week, we go to florida where work is in high gear for a milestone mission.

The boeing cst-100 starliner spacecraft that will carry two nasa astronauts to the international space station is in the final stages of preparation before its scheduled launch from space launch complex-41 at cape canaveral. On tuesday, the spacecraft was hoisted and integrated to the top of the atlas v rocket that will carry it to orbit next month. The mission will fly nasa astronauts butch wilmore and suni williams on a test flight to certify the vehicle for crewed rotation missions to the space station. We invite you to hear from both butch and suni for their thoughts about the upcoming mission on the latest episode of “houston, we have a podcast. ” as always, you can listen to the interview on apple podcasts, google podcasts, and soundcloud, or find it on the nasa johnson space center social media channels on facebook, instagram, or the x platform.

And that’s it space to ground for now, thank you so much for watching.

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