Experiments with worms and artificial retinas will be sent to space on Feb. 20 aboard a Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft, according to a NASA announcement.
The freighter is scheduled to take off from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia no earlier than 12:36 a.m. EST (1736 GMT) if all goes to plan. Due to quarantine protocols related to the new coronavirus pandemic, only a limited number of US media are allowed to enter the scene.
Cygnus will launch to the International Space Station aboard an Antares rocket and arrive at the orbit lab two days later, NASA said.
Video: Watch the launch of Northrop Grumman’s NG-14 freighter!
Some of the research studies onboard Cygnus include an experiment to study muscle strength in worms, an experiment on how microgravity can aid in the production of artificial retina, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s SpaceBorne Computer-2 experiment.
SpaceBorne Computer-2 “aims to demonstrate that current Earth-based data processing of experimental data from space stations can be performed in orbit”, NASA said in the same statement. In general, processing data in space can reduce the amount of data sent to the ground, freeing up communication channels for other tasks.
Cargo ships also carry essential spacefly items, including fresh food, replacement equipment, or other items that the crew may need to keep in space for months. After a few months, the crew fills departing Cygnus cargo ships with debris, which will burn when the spacecraft returns to the atmosphere.
When the last Cygnus spacecraft left the space station in January, it conducted a super-fast 5G communications experiment along with the latest iteration in a series of science experiments examining the behavior of fire in space called Saffire-V. NASA plans to use these fire studies to improve astronauts’ safety on future missions, especially those in deep space.
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