Little Kirobo is pencilled in to enjoy a spell on the space station sometime after summer 2013.
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Mr. Marshburn has been on the space station since December and is set to return to Earth late Monday.
Three crew members, Cassidy and Russian cosmonauts Alexander Misurkin and Pavel Vinogradov, will remain on the space station when the others leave.
The problem is that the outside hatch on the space station points down and it points down 200 miles to the Earth.
He'll then spend over a week orbiting Earth on the space station.
The crew were welcomed by colleague Nicole Stott, who has spent nearly three months on the space station and will return to earth with Atlantis.
The initial challenge will focus on enabling Robonaut 2 to interact visually with different types of input devices the astronauts use on the Space Station.
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The orbiter was originally expected to fly in June, but technical problems with the new robotic arm on the space station forced NASA to postpone the mission.
Contestants will be tasked to work with different sets of imagery from NASA's lab on earth and on the Space Station, as well as in a simulator.
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The challenge seeks to design, develop, and produce an iPad application to enable astronauts living on the space station to easily and seamlessly track their nutritional intake.
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However, he did add that at least some of the return could take the form of equipment procured for use on the space station's European science laboratory, Columbus.
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The primary difference between the terrestrial-based instruments and AMS is that AMS' science instrument systems were miniaturized and ruggedized for launch on the space shuttle and operation on the space station.
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Almost all shuttle flights will now go to the international space station, and NASA is already examining using the existing cameras on the space station to take photos of the shuttle before it docks.
In a video interview with TopCoder, NASA astronaut Donald Petit, who lived on the space station for 13 months, explains some of the obstacles posed by life in space for such a tool.
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Because Hadfield's vocals and guitar were recorded on the space station (and mixed with supporting tracks by Emm Gryner, a Canadian musician who once sang backup for Bowie), some observers are calling it the first music video made in space.
"We were really happy to take part in delivering Expedition Three to orbit and they're having a great mission right now up there on the space station, " Horowitz told reporters after inspecting Discovery with fellow shuttle crewmembers Rick Sturckow, Dan Barry and Pat Forrester.
The Russian vehicle essentially took a shortcut that required precisely timed steering over the course of four orbits, putting three crew members (including one American astronaut) on the space station at 10:28pm ET -- just five hours and 45 minutes after takeoff from Kazakhstan.
The population on board the space station is to grow to six next spring.
In this way, things like rocket engines, satellites, Mars-exploring rovers, space suits, and water purifiers on the International Space Station become part of everyday life on Earth.
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Inflatable space habitats (as opposed to the hard aluminum-hulled canisters now in use on the International Space Station) may sound wild, but the technology is real.
It was flown and consumed on the International Space Station because if fulfilled all the nutritional and microgravity requirements for NASA astronauts.
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Tentative discussions have now begun between the partners on the International Space Station (ISS) about the possibility of doing some sort of isolation experiment in orbit.
The three crewmembers were in space for a total of 167 days, of which 165 were spent on the International Space Station.
Currently, no astronaut is in space for longer than six months on the International Space Station (ISS).
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Yi So-Yeon spent 11 days on the International Space Station, carrying out experiments for the government and industry.
It will then verify that the approach systems can acquire and lock on to the space station and can communicate effectively.
According to Space.com, the astronauts on board the International Space Station will be watching the game this year.
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"You'd like the radiation exposure to be lower, but it is what it is, " said Dr. Norm Thagard, the first American to fly on the Russian space station Mir, who had no role in the research.
And it will raise concern again among the partners on the International Space Station (ISS) that there may be systemic problems in the Russian launch sector.
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