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
2. Image from NASA • First crewed orbital space station: Salyut 1 (1971) Image credit: V. Patsayev
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
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
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
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
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
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
9. Low Earth Orbit 250 miles up Image from Wikimedia Commons, Cmglee & Geo Swan
10. Low Earth Orbit 250 miles up Image from Google Maps, annotated by yours truly 250 miles
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
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
13. Astronomy, physics, atmospheric and space science, technology, biology, chemistry, medicine, psychology Image from NASA
14. Astronomy, physics, atmospheric and space science, technology, biology, chemistry, medicine, psychology 212 experiments RIGHT NOW IN SPACE Image from NASA
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
16. Astronaut Karen Nyberg M E D I C I N E Video from YouTube/NASA Johnson
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
18. P H Y S I C S & C H E M I S T RY Astronaut Scott Kelly Video from YouTube/NASA Johnson
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
20. Video from YouTube/NASA Video A S T R O N O M Y
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
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
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
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