The Expedition 58 crew set up a variety of combustion research hardware today to look at what happens to high temperatures, fuels and flames in space. The International Space Station also deployed the first set of CubeSats this year.
The Two-Phase Flow Experiment, sponsored by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, investigates the heat transfer caused by boiling liquids in space. Flight Engineer Anne McClain set up a specialized microscope to study the phenomena inside Japan’s Kibo lab module today. Results may inform future designs of high-performance thermal management and cooling systems on Earth and in space.
Flight Engineer David Saint-Jacques opened the Combustion Integrated Rack inside the U.S. Destiny lab module again today for more maintenance work. The Canadian astronaut replaced a control unit and a radiometer inside the fuel and flame research device.
The duo also monitored and photographed several CubeSats deployed into Earth orbit outside Kibo’s airlock today. The CubeSats are inexpensive tiny research satellites that will explore Earth’s ionosphere and study space communication techniques.
Commander Oleg Kononenko, the four-time space station resident from Roscosmos, started Thursday photographing the interior portion of the orbital lab’s Russian segment. The veteran cosmonaut then moved onto life support maintenance and explored ways students and educators can collaborate with space crews.