.
25.01.2014
European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut of Italian nationality, Samantha Cristoforetti
.
Samantha Cristoforetti in Russland
.
.
.
Alexander Gerst und Samantha Cristoforetti in Russland
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
Samantha Cristoforetti bei NASA
.
.
.
.
Werkzeugkasten der Astronauten
.
Samantha Cristoforetti in Russland
.
TU-144
.
.
Samantha Cristoforetti bei ESA-Training
Alexander Gerst + Samantha Cristoforetti
Alexander Gerst + Samantha Cristoforetti
Samantha Cristoforetti bei NASA
.
.
Alexander Gerst
.
.
.
Samantha Cristoforetti
Quelle: ESA
.
Update: 12.04.2014
.
Vacuum chamber
ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti tests her custom-made Sokol spacesuit in a vacuum chamber. Samantha will wear this suit during the liftoff and landing for her six-month International Space Station mission set to start in November this year.
Quelle: ESA
.
Update: 31.10.2014
.
Samantha´s Start zur ISS rückt näher
ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti putting on her Sokol pressure suit at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre in Russia while preparing for her six-month Futura mission to the International Space Station.
The Sokol suit protects astronauts during launch and landing in the Soyuz space ferry. Simulations in a full-size Soyuz mockup are part of the final tests before flight.
Samantha will be launched with NASA astronaut Terry Wirts and Roscosmos cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov on 23 November at 20:59 GMT (21:59 CET; 24 November 02:59 local time) from Baikonur in Kazakhstan.
.
.
.
Quelle: ESA
.
Update: 14.11.2014
.
EUROPE´S 3D PRINTER SET FOR SPACE STATION
Funded by the Italian space agency ASI, the POP3D (Portable On-Board Printer) for 3D printing will reach orbit in 2015 as part of ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti’s Futura mission. The compact, cube-shaped printer measures 25 cm per side and weighs 5.5 kg in Earth gravity. It prints in biodegradable and harmless PLA plastic, using a heat-based process called ‘fused deposition modelling’. POP3D should take about half an hour to produce a single plastic part, which will subsequently be returned to the ground for detailed testing, including comparison to an otherwise identical part printed on the ground. The Italian Institute of Technology will assist with post-flight examinations.
.
Europe’s very first 3D printer in space is scheduled for installation aboard the ISS next year.
Designed and built in Italy, it will be put to the test as part as ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti’s Futura mission, and is set to reach orbit in the first half of next year. Samantha herself will be launched on her six-month Station assignment on 23 November.
“The POP3D Portable On-Board Printer is a small 3D printer that requires very limited power and crew involvement to operate,” explained Luca Enrietti of Altran, prime contractor for the compact printer.
The unit is a cube with 25 cm sides and prints with biodegradable and harmless plastic using a heat-based process.
.
ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti during a simulation inside the full-scale mockup of the Soyuz capsule, at the Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Centre, on 14 October 2014.
Samantha Cristoforetti is assigned to fly on the Soyuz TMA-15M spacecraft to the ISS, scheduled for November 2014 and as part of Expedition 42/43.
.
“Part of the challenge of designing a 3D printer for the Station was to ensure its operation does not affect the crew environment,” added Giorgio Musso of Thales Alenia Space Italy, principal investigator for the project.
Funded by Italy’s ASI space agency, POP3D should take about half an hour to produce a single plastic part, which will eventually be returned to Earth for detailed testing, including comparison with an otherwise identical part printed on the ground.
The project was presented during a workshop on 3D printing for space held at ESA’s technical centre in Noordwijk, the Netherlands.
More than 350 experts from across Europe came together to discuss the potential of 3D printing for space, both in orbit and in ground manufacturing.
“There is big potential all along the value chain, to save cost and mass,” noted Reinhard Schlitt, heading OHB’s Engineering Services.
“But right now the way parts are being produced in various different ways. As a satellite manufacturer, we need common standards in place so we can compare competing supplier parts on a like-for-like basis.
“Europe does have a lead in this technology – the latest laser machines are coming from here for export to the US and China – so we should build on that.”
Thales Alenia Space is taking a keen interest in terms of manufacturing, confirmed Florence Montredon, heading the company’s components group: “We’re looking in particular at applying it to complex secondary structures for satellites. This includes the design phase, where software places material as needed to help cut mass.”
Steffen Beyer, Head of Materials and Process Technology at Airbus Defence and Space added: “it is very promising for reducing costs particularly for complex structures and reducing lead time significantly. In the case of a complex injector of a rocket engine, we are able to take the total number of parts needed down from around 250 down to one or two; that represents a revolution in design and manufacturing.”
Quelle: ESA
.
Expedition 42/43 Crew in Front of Soyuz
JSC2014e092620 --- (12 November 2014) --- In the Integration Facility at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Expedition 42/43 crew members Terry Virts of NASA (left), Anton Shkaplerov of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos, center) and Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency (right) pose for pictures Nov. 12 in front of their Soyuz TMA-15M spacecraft during a "fit check" dress rehearsal. The trio will launch Nov. 24, Kazakh time, from Baikonur for a 5 ½ month mission on the International Space Station. Credit: NASA/Victor Ivanov
.
Expedition 42 crew members take a break from training at NASA's Johnson Space Center to pose for a crew portrait. Pictured on the front row are NASA astronauts Barry Wilmore (left), commander; and Terry Virts, flight engineer. Pictured from the left (back row) are Russian cosmonauts Elena Serova, Alexander Samoukutyaev and Anton Shkaplerov and European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, all flight engineers. Photo credit: NASA/Bill Stafford
Expedition 42 will begin in November 2014. The other half of the team is scheduled to launch in November 2014.
Soyuz 40
Crew: Barry Wilmore, Elena Serova, Alexander Samoukutyaev
Launch: Sept. 25, 2014, 4:25 p.m. EDT
Docking: Sept. 25, 2014, 10:11 p.m. EDT
Landing: March 2015
Soyuz 41
Crew: Anton Shkaplerov, Terry Virts, Samantha Cristoforetti
Launch: Nov. 23, 2014, 4:01 p.m. EST
Landing: May 2015
.
JSC2012-E-237644 (9 Nov. 2012) --- European Space Agency astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, Expedition 42/43 flight engineer, prepares for a spacewalk training session in the waters of the Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory (NBL) near NASA's Johnson Space Center. Cristoforetti is wearing a liquid cooling and ventilation garment that complements the Extravehicular Mobility Unit (EMU) spacesuit. A suit technician assisted Cristoforetti. Photo credit: NASA
Quelle: NASA
.
Update: 17.11.2014
.
The next trio to join Expedition 42 is in Kazakhstan counting down to a Nov. 23 launch aboard a Soyuz TMA-15M spacecraft. They are set for a near six-hour ride to the International Space Station where they will live and work until May 2015.
Quelle: NASA
.
Update: 18.11.2014
.
Newcomers to test modified Soyuz-MS manned spacecraft — source
Crew members of the next expedition to the International Space Station, have been approved without the consent of Russia’s rocket and space corporation Energia a source in the space industry said
.
Crew members of the next expedition to the International Space Station, aimed at testing modified Soyuz-MS manned spacecraft, have been approved without the consent of the prime developer, Russia’s rocket and space corporation Energia, a source in the space industry said on Monday.
“The head of (the Russian space agency) Roscosmos ordered to implement the decision by the intergovernmental commission to assign the crew, which the RSC Energia representative did not accept,” the source told TASS.
RSC Energia, the developer and manufacturer of Soyuz-MS spacecraft, suggested sending experienced cosmonauts, who had made several flights, to test their new equipment in 2015. But the crew had earlier been assigned and already started preparing for the mission, the source said. Russia's cosmonaut training center decided it was unnecessary to make changes, as it would mean the need to review the approved crew members for several years to come.
The decision by the intergovernmental commission assigning the crew was signed by the chief of the Yury Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, Yury Lonchakov, and the director of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Institute for Biomedical Problems, Igor Ushakov, the source said, adding that the opinion of the RSC Energia representative was not taken into account and he did not sign the document.
RSC Energia suggested that Russian cosmonaut Alexander Kaleri, who had made five spaceflights and led the first mission of the Soyuz TMA-M spacecraft, the previous modernized version of the ship, should be assigned instead of cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin, who had no experience. Pavel Vinogradov, who had flown into space three times, was proposed as a flight commander instead of Andrey Borisenko, who had been in space only once.
Quelle: TASS
.
Update: 19.11.2014
.
ESA Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti with the Sokol suit
ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti with the Sokol suit she will wear in the Soyuz spacecraft that will take her to the International Space Station on 23 November at 20:59 GMT (21:59 CET), together with Roscosmos commander Anton Shkaplerov and NASA astronaut Terry Virts.
Sokol suits, tailored to each astronaut, are worn in Soyuz as protection against air leaks. Once Samantha arrives at the Space Station on 24 November at 02:59 GMT (03:59 CET), the astronauts will store their suits for their return flight to Earth. Before launch, the suits are checked for leaks by inflating them to high pressure, as shown here.
.
.
.
At the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Expedition 42/43 crewmembers Terry Virts of NASA (top), Anton Shkaplerov of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos, center) and Samantha Cristoforetti of the European Space Agency (right) disembark from a Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center aircraft Nov. 11 after a flight from Star City, Russia to begin the final weeks of training for their launch to the International Space Station. The trio are preparing for their liftoff on the Soyuz TMA-15M spacecraft from Baikonur on Nov. 24, Kazakh time, for a five and a half month mission on the international outpost.
Quelle: ESA
.
Update: 20.11.2014
.
ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti talks about her six-month International Space Station mission provided by Italy’s ASI space agency . Samantha explains the story behind her mission name Futura, recounts the journey to becoming an astronaut and how her life has changed.
6654 Views