MSU SciFest 2020: Science In Spaaaaaace!

This talk was given for the virtual MSU Science Festival on May 27, 2020. Note that there are many gifs and videos in the presentation that won't render in this pdf.

Description:
Humans have had orbital space stations since the early 1970s to do science experiments in the microgravity of near-Earth space. As you read this, there are more than 200 experiments happening above our heads on the International Space Station and Tiangong-2! We learn how microgravity affect astronauts’ bodies, observe bright explosions from neutron stars in our galaxy, find that salmonella bacteria grow more robustly in space, look for evidence of dark matter with cosmic ray detectors, and literally watch paint dry in the vacuum of space. In this talk I’ll cover the different space stations throughout history and highlight the coolest space station science happening right now.

More information on MSU SciFest: https://sciencefestival.msu.edu/

Transcript

1. S C I E N C E
   I N
   S PA A A A A A C E
   D R . A B B I E S T E V E N S
   M S U S C I F E S T, M AY 2 0 2 0
   

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2. Image from NASA
   • First crewed orbital space station: Salyut 1 (1971)
   Image credit: V. Patsayev
   

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3. Image from NASA
   • First crewed orbital space station: Salyut 1 (1971)
   • Salyut missions 3*, 4, 5, 6 ,7 (1971-1986) Image credit: V. Patsayev
   Image credit:
   Soyuz T-13 crew
   

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4. Image from NASA
   • First crewed orbital space station: Salyut 1 (1971)
   • Salyut missions 3*, 4, 5, 6 ,7 (1971-1986)
   • Skylab (1973-1979)
   Image credit: V. Patsayev
   Image credit:
   Soyuz T-13 crew
   Image credit: NASA,
   Skylab-4 crew
   

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5. Image from NASA
   • First crewed orbital space station: Salyut 1 (1971)
   • Salyut missions 3*, 4, 5, 6 ,7 (1971-1986)
   • Skylab (1973-1979)
   • Mir (1986-2001)
   Image credit: V. Patsayev
   Image credit:
   Soyuz T-13 crew
   Image credit: NASA, STS-89 crew
   Image credit: NASA,
   Skylab-4 crew
   

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6. Image from NASA
   • First crewed orbital space station: Salyut 1 (1971)
   • Salyut missions 3*, 4, 5, 6 ,7 (1971-1986)
   • Skylab (1973-1979)
   • Mir (1986-2001)
   • International Space Station (1998-now)
   Image credit: V. Patsayev
   Image credit:
   Soyuz T-13 crew
   Image credit: NASA, STS-89 crew
   Image credit: NASA,
   Skylab-4 crew
   Image credit: NASA, STS-132 crew
   

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7. Image from NASA
   • First crewed orbital space station: Salyut 1 (1971)
   • Salyut missions 3*, 4, 5, 6 ,7 (1971-1986)
   • Skylab (1973-1979)
   • Mir (1986-2001)
   • International Space Station (1998-now)
   • Tiangong-1 (2011-2018)
   Image credit: V. Patsayev
   Image credit:
   Soyuz T-13 crew
   Image credit: NASA, STS-89 crew
   Image credit: NASA,
   Skylab-4 crew
   Image credit: NASA, STS-132 crew
   Image credit: unknown
   

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8. Image from NASA
   • First crewed orbital space station: Salyut 1 (1971)
   • Salyut missions 3*, 4, 5, 6 ,7 (1971-1986)
   • Skylab (1973-1979)
   • Mir (1986-2001)
   • International Space Station (1998-now)
   • Tiangong-1 (2011-2018)
   • Tiangong-2 (2016-now)
   Image credit: V. Patsayev
   Image credit:
   Soyuz T-13 crew
   Image credit: NASA,
   Skylab-4 crew
   Image credit: NASA, STS-89 crew
   Image credit: NASA, STS-132 crew
   Image credit: unknown
   Image credit:
   CASTC
   

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9. Low Earth Orbit
   250 miles up
   Image from
   Wikimedia Commons,
   Cmglee & Geo Swan
   

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10. Low Earth Orbit
    250 miles up
    Image from Google
    Maps, annotated by
    yours truly
    250 miles
    

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11. Microgravity (not “zero gravity”)
    Weightless, but not floating — constant freefall!
    The astronaut, space ship, and carrot are all falling together at
    the same speed.
    Image from NASA
    

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12. A S B I G A S A F O O T B A L L F I E L D
    Image from NASA
    

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13. Astronomy, physics, atmospheric and space science,
    technology, biology, chemistry, medicine, psychology
    Image from NASA
    

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14. Astronomy, physics, atmospheric and space science,
    technology, biology, chemistry, medicine, psychology
    212 experiments
    RIGHT NOW
    IN SPACE
    Image from NASA
    

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15. • Blood pressure, heart rate
    • Radiation exposure (it goes up, but trying out new
    radiation-blocking vests!)
    • Bone density (it goes down)
    • Brain fluid (it moves around)
    • Eyeball fluid (moves around, weird effects on optic
    nerve and eyeball shape; vision impairment?)
    • Hearing (gets worse?)
    • Circadian rhythms with ~16 sunrises/sets every 24 hours
    • Muscles 💪
    M E D I C I N E
    

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16. Astronaut Karen Nyberg
    M E D I C I N E
    Video from
    YouTube/NASA Johnson
    

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17. P H Y S I C S &
    C H E M I S T RY
    • Fluid dynamics (how liquids move)
    • What temperature does water boil at? What about
    other liquids?
    • Growing crystal structures
    • Burning things
    • Gecko-inspired robot adhesive
    • Can robots ‘hop’ or ‘flip’ from
    one point to another on ISS? Image from NASA-GRC
    Image by J. Schulman
    

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18. P H Y S I C S &
    C H E M I S T RY
    Astronaut Scott Kelly Video from
    YouTube/NASA Johnson
    

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19. A S T R O N O M Y
    • Cosmic ray telescopes (seeing exploding stars!)
    • Cosmic ray detectors looking for evidence of invisible
    “dark matter” (about 20% of mass in the universe!)
    • X-ray telescopes that observe neutron stars and black
    holes (and other stuff)
    • Using pulsars to navigate like solar-system-wide GPS
    • Testing fancy binoculars to
    fly on very little satellites
    (CubeSats)
    Image from NASA-GSFC
    NICER
    

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20. Video from YouTube/NASA Video
    A S T R O N O M Y
    

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21. • Salmonella is more robust when grown in space?
    • Growing plants and bacteria (grapevine stems, thale
    cress, e. coli, cotton)
    • Growing tasty plants for food (radishes, cabbage,
    lettuce, pak choi, mustard greens)
    • Why do herbs
    grown in space
    smell and taste
    differently?
    B I O L O G Y
    Astronaut
    Peggy
    Whitson
    Image from NASA
    

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22. AT M O S P H E R I C &
    S PA C E S C I E N C E
    • Aurorae observations
    • Upper-atmosphere lightning storms!
    • How do space dust grains grow in size?
    • Monitoring clouds, aerosols, pollutants, hazes, gas
    concentrations, storms, temperature, etc.
    Image from NASA-JSC
    

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23. AT M O S P H E R I C &
    S PA C E S C I E N C E
    Recorded by Astronaut Paolo Nespoli Video from
    YouTube/ESA
    

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24. F U RT H E R R E A D I N G
    • “An Astronaut’s Guide to Life on Earth” - Chris Hadfield
    • “Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery”
    - Scott Kelly
    • “Chasing Space” - Leland Melvin
    • “Packing for Mars” - Mary Roach
    • “Dark Side of the Earth (4/26/18)” - Radiolab (podcast)
    • YouTube: NASA Johnson, Canadian Space Agency, ESA
    

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