HUMANS IN SPACE
HUMANS IN SPACE NEWS
Space Debris Follow-Ups: The previous Item of the Week, about Arthur C. Clarke and Geosynchronous Orbits, had a section about the growing danger of Space Debris. Famed Space author, Leonard David, has a new space.com piece on the debris topic that may be of interest to you. See: https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/space-debris-led-to-an-orbital-emergency-in-2025-will-anything-change.
I ran across another orbital debris-related piece, this one in the Cardinal News, in Virginia. It’s by Jack Kennedy (not the senator from Louisiana), whose background includes graduation from the University of North Dakota’s Space Studies program, a former employer of mine. His piece is entitled, “The next Nobel: Why the U.S. must lead space diplomacy.” You can find it here: https://cardinalnews.org/2025/09/03/the-next-nobel-why-the-u-s-must-lead-space-diplomacy.
A similar interesting piece, by Tanner Stening, can be found on the Northeast Global News page, here: https://news.northeastern.edu/2025/03/11/space-leadership-united-states.
HUMANS IN SPACE FYI
Lockheed Martin’s Inflatable Lunar Habitat Passes Burst Test: “The race to the Moon is on, and Lockheed Martin is confident that its inflatable habitat technology can help fast-track sustainable human operations, from Earth orbit to the lunar surface and beyond.
“Although the concept of inflatable structures in space is not new—as demonstrated by the human-rated Bigelow Expandable Activity Module that has been operating on the International Space Station since 2016—Lockheed Martin is developing an advanced in-house design that it says will provide higher performance, greater safety margins and faster build times than its competitors.
“To validate this, the company is conducting an intense test campaign of its softgoods technology, the culmination of which is expected to be an in-space demonstration in orbit—or on the lunar surface—around the end of the decade. The most dramatic of these tests involves deliberately overinflating the units until they burst under pressure, and Aviation Week was invited to witness the latest in the series.
“This test, the fifth burst evaluation conducted in the campaign, took place on a former Titan rocket test stand built deep into a ravine behind Lockheed Martin Space’s Waterton Canyon facility in Colorado. Securely anchored to a reinforced concrete platform and protected from sunlight by a large awning to maintain a balanced temperature, the test unit was a barrel-shape structure with a fully inflated diameter of about 10.8 ft.”
The test habitat did not burst until internal pressure reached 224 PSI, almost 15 times the design requirement. For more information, see: https://aviationweek.com/space/space-exploration/lockheed-martins-lunar-inflatable-habitat-passes-key-burst-test.
More Moon Ice? The presence of ground ice in permanently-shaded zones near the lunar south pole has been known for some time. A variety of recent missions have been mounted to find out more about how much and where any deposits of water might be. But the areas where such water might be found were few and small, mostly south-facing walls of deep craters near the pole. However, new measurements made by the Chandrayaan 3 lander, put on the Moon by the India Space Research Organisation in August, 2023, suggest that surfaces that are slightly sloped away from the Sun, even at higher latitudes, might be cold enough to serve as water traps. If correct, this would add a lot of surface area underlain by ground ice. For more, see: https://skyandtelescope.org/astronomy-news/moons-water-ice-might-be-more-accessible-than-we-thought.
Find Out More About Science on the ISS: Check out “Upward,” the “Official Magazine of the ISS National Lab,” here: https://www.issnationallab.org. It’s put out by the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, in partnership with NASA. It has a lot of information about the ISS, including a really good education page.
Why Go to Space? See how NASA answers here: https://www.nasa.gov/humans-in-space/why-go-to-space.
National Air and Space Museum On-line Exhibition on Human Spaceflight: Check out the UHC’s spaceflight artifacts at: https://airandspace.si.edu/exhibitions/human-spaceflight!
Have You Ever Wondered about Living in Space? There’s a lot to consider when planning any long-term mission, but especially so when you are going to be in a totally hostile, resource-less environment! A number of issues arise, among them: how your body responds to long-term free-fall; how you would eat in Space, or even grow some of your own food; and more. You can find out much more about these topics at: https://www.nasa.gov/humans-in-space/living-in-space.
HUMANS IN SPACE LINKS AND OTHER INFORMATION
See the latest from NASA at: https://www.nasa.gov/topics/humans-in-space
See NASA’s Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate’s website: https://www.nasa.gov/exploration-systems-development-mission-directorate.
See NASA’s Space Operations Mission Directorate’s website: https://www.nasa.gov/directorates/space-operations.
Pre-Apollo, from NASM: https://airandspace.si.edu/exhibitions/apollo-to-the-moon/online/early-steps/humans-in-space.cfm
Who’s in Space NOW? See: https://www.worldspaceflight.com/bios/currentlyinspace.php
Space Travel’s Effect on the Human Body: https://www.nasa.gov/hrp/bodyinspace and https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/what-happens-human-body-space-180958259
From Arizona State University: https://askanearthspacescientist.asu.edu/explore/humans-in-space ATTENTION TEACHERS: Be sure to check out the “Teacher’s Toolbox” on this website.