NASA’s SpaceX Crew-11 to Support Health Studies for Deep Space Travel

The crew of NASA’s SpaceX Crew-11 mission sit inside a Dragon training spacecraft at SpaceX in Hawthorne, California. Pictured from left: Roscosmos cosmonaut Oleg Platonov, NASA astronauts Mike Fincke and Zena 

Cardman, and JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Kimiya Yui (Credit: SpaceX).

NASA’s SpaceX Crew-11 mission is set to launch a four-person crew to the International Space Station later this summer. Some of the crew have volunteered to participate in a series of experiments to address health challenges astronauts may face on deep space missions during NASA’s Artemis campaign and future human expeditions to Mars.

The research during Crew-11 includes simulated lunar landings, tactics to safeguard vision, and other human physiology studies led by NASA’s Human Research Program.

Select crew members will participate in a series of simulated Moon landings, before, during, and after their flight. Using a handheld controller and multiple screens, the astronauts will fly through simulated scenarios created to resemble the lunar South Pole region that Artemis crews plan to visit. This experiment allows researchers to evaluate how different gravitational forces may disorient astronauts and affect their ability to pilot a spacecraft, like a lunar lander.

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Cosmological Distance Measurements

Measurements of the distance to extragalactic sources allow us to infer the major energy constituents of our Universe.

Two decades ago such measurements revealed that most of the energy in the Universe is in `dark energy’ — a discovery that has had immense implications for fundamental physics. 

Currently there is a 10% discrepancy in cosmic distances inferred with the two most accepted techniques, despite 1-2% errors claimed on both methods, with the model that is most successful at reconciling this discrepancy being an earlier era where something like dark energy was again important. 

Interpreting mild tensions can be challenging and ideally a much more precise measurement would be performed. Such a measurement could also lead to entirely new discoveries.  READ MORE...