NASA And SpaceX Send Four Astronauts Into Space

Posted on by Dianne Lawrence

With 24 hours of delay due to the threatening weather , the Falcon 9 rocket put into orbit this Friday, April 23, four astronauts – Shane Kimbrough, Megan McArthur, Thomas Pesquet and Akihiko Hoshide. The veterans’ release provided a spectacular show off the coast of Florida in the United States. The trip, which lasted exactly one day, was sponsored by SpaceX, an American space transport services company founded by billionaire Elon Musk.

“It’s very intense,” he said as he watched the Falcon 9 rocket take off with astronauts. “It’s extremely intense to watch all of this. I haven’t been able to sleep well so far. But luckily we have a great team. I’m very, very proud of the incredible work that we’ve done in partnership with the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). It’s hard to believe we’re here doing this. Frankly, it feels like a dream”.

The Falcon 9 Rocket Voyage

According to a report published by CBS News, the Falcon 9 launch went smoothly. The docking at the space station, that is, at the final destination, also went smoothly – and on schedule, at 5:10 am on Saturday, 04/24. “Hello Earth! It’s great to be back in space,” McArthur said in a downlink video taken outside Earth orbit. “The ride was amazing, the ride was smooth, it couldn’t have been better. We hope you enjoyed the show.”

At the end of the day, while the astronauts were getting ready for bed, Sarah Gilles, responsible for communication with the professionals, contacted the crew to advise of a possible collision between the capsule and space debris. As a preventive measure, Gilles asked the astronauts to put on the suits.

The astronauts promptly followed the instruction. Fortunately, the debris passed through the capsule without causing any incident. Since NASA stopped using the Russian Soyuz spacecraft exclusively , this is the third launch of the Falcon 9 rocket. The capsule was launched for the first time in May of last year, carrying Douglas Hurley and Robert Behnken on board. The second release was made in November.

Improvements

As reported by the CBS News report, the first launch of the Falcon 9 rocket was carried out so that the technical team could later make some improvements. The launched capsule, upon return, was reinforced to withstand any outside influences. In the meantime, the spacecraft system was also upgraded, new parachutes were installed, and a new heat shield was attached. The quick fixes show how new releases can be made without investing large amounts of money.

“This is really important. A reusable rocket is a revolution in the midst of the space race,” Musk revealed. “This is really what we need. If we continue like this, the trend is to reduce costs more and more”. “We founded SpaceX two decades ago, and it is only now that I feel that full reuse of a space rocket could be feasible. I wasn’t sure when we started investing in the sector, but now I have it”.

Although the Falcon 9 was reused in three launches, the rocket base, released during the second stage of the voyage, was not recovered. SpaceX’s technical team is currently working to create a base that can be leveraged after launches. The company believes the technology will be ready in the coming years. “The future is bright,” said Musk. “I think we are at the beginning of a new era.”

The veterans, once docked, were greeted by astronauts Shannon Walker, Michael Hopkins, Victor Glover, Soichi Noguchi, Oleg Novitskiy, Pyotr Dubrov and Mark Vande Hei. Now, the space station has a total of seven astronauts. The team is expected to return to Earth in mid-October, after carrying out a series of space projects that have been proposed by NASA and SpaceX.

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What Happens In The Air When You Flush A Public Restroom?

Posted on by Dianne Lawrence

The world is made up of many that we cannot see with the naked eye. For example, particles that are in the air and that we can’t see, but that can cause a lot of problems for us. As this new research revealed, showing the large amounts of tiny aerosol particles that can be released from a toilet flush. And these droplets have a great potential to be carriers of bacteria and diseases.

Scientists know that pathogens lurk in standing water, urine, feces and vomit. Everything that is often found in public restrooms. And some computer models had already shown that the simple act of wiping your hands could send germs a few feet away.

In this new study, the researchers suggest that among the unpleasant things that can be spread are Ebola, the norovirus virus, which is a food poisoning, and even COVID-19 itself. In the study they tested the spread of aerosolized particles from public toilet flushing.

Study

To do this, the researchers set up a particle counter that was placed at different heights next to a toilet and a urinal in a public toilet. And ambient aerosol levels were measured before and after the experiments.

“After about three hours of testing involving over 100 discharges, we found a substantial increase in aerosol levels measured in the ambient environment with the total number of droplets generated in each discharge test ranging up to tens of thousands,” said Siddhartha Verma, professor of mechanical engineering from Florida Atlantic University.

These aerosols rose up to 109 centimeters above the toilets, and up to 69 centimeters above the urinals during the experiments. And they hovered in the air for up to 20 seconds. All these numbers were in agreement with what had been seen previously.

Air

The researchers said there was a 69.5% increase in particles between 0.3 and 5 micrometers in size, and a 209% increase in particles between 0.5 and 1 micrometer. A 50% increase in particles between one and three micrometers in size after washing was also seen.

There are several factors influencing this amount of aerosols produced by the discharge from the vessel. For example, the water pressure in the toilet, the design of the basin and the power of the flush itself. Researchers say that leaving the toilet lid closed can help, if not much. That’s because aerosols can still escape through the openings.

“Both the toilet and the urinal generated large amounts of droplets smaller than three micrometers in size, which pose a significant risk of transmission if they contain infectious microorganisms. Due to their small size, these droplets can be suspended for a long time”, explained Verma.

And in the pandemic time we are living in, there is a particular cause for concern. Since public restrooms are often small, poorly ventilated and crowded with people. All of this is a combination that is already known to create an increased risk of coronavirus transmission. In theory the risk of getting contaminated in a public restroom exists.

And researchers in that study say improved ventilation could help.

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