NASA SCIENCE BFG FOR NG-16 CARGO MISSION TO ISS, Aug 2, 2021, virtual, 1:00 pm ET

NASA will hold a virtual briefing on August 2, 2021 at 1:00 pm ET to discuss some of the science experiments that will be sent to the International Space Station (ISS) on Northrop Grumman’s Cygnus spacecraft scheduled to launch to the ISS on August 10.  This is the 16th Cygnus mission, NG-16.

The briefing will air on NASA Live.  Participants are:

• Bryan Dansberry, program scientist for the International Space Station Program at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, will provide an overview of the research and technology aboard the Cygnus spacecraft.
• Michael Snyder, chief technology officer at Made in Space, who will discuss the Redwire Regolith Print study, which demonstrates 3D printing in space using a material simulating rock and soil found on the surfaces of planetary bodies, such as the Moon.
• Dr. Ngan F. Huang, assistant professor of cardiothoracic surgery at Stanford University and principal investigator of Cardinal Muscle, who will discuss this investigation to evaluate whether engineered human muscle cells cultured in microgravity are a valid model for studying muscle loss.
• Donnie McCaghren, project manager at NASA’s Marshall Spaceflight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, and Michael Salopek of Johnson, co-investigator, will talk about a new spacecraft carbon dioxide removal technology about how this demonstration could help future explorers on the Moon and Mars breathe more easily.
• Dr. Audrey Dussutour, director of research at the French National Center for Scientific Research (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, CNRS), slime mold specialist and principal investigator, who will discuss Blob, an ESA (European Space Agency) investigation, which will allow students to see how slime molds’ behavior is affected by microgravity.
• Nancy Hall, project manager of the Flow Boiling and Condensation Experiment (FBCE), and Issam Mudawar, director of the Purdue University Boiling and Two-Phase Flow Laboratory and principal investigator, will discuss the importance of this fluid physics technology for future missions to the Moon and Mars.
• Dr. Alexandre Martin, professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Kentucky and principal investigator of KREPE, and John Schmidt, mechanical engineering graduate student at the University of Kentucky. KREPE will test an affordable thermal protection system, also known as a heat shield, deploying when Cygnus re-enters the atmosphere at the conclusion of its mission.