Experiments with artificial worms and retinas will be sent into space on February 20 aboard a Northrop Grumman Cygnus spacecraft, according to an NASA announcement.
The cargo ship is scheduled to take off before 12:36 pm EST (1736 GMT) from NASA’s Wallops flight facility in Virginia, if all goes according to plan. Only a limited number of U.S. media can go to the site due to the quarantine protocols associated with the new coronavirus pandemic.
Cygnus will be launched at the International Space Station aboard an Antares rocket and will arrive at the orbital laboratory two days later, according to NASA.
Video: Watch the launch of the Northrop Grumman cargo ship NG-14!
Some of the investigations on board the Cygnus include an experiment to study muscle strength in worms, an experiment on how microgravity can aid in the production of artificial retina and the SpaceBorne Computer-2 experiment by Hewlett Packard Enterprise.
SpaceBorne Computer-2 “aims to demonstrate that the current processing of Earth-based data from space station experimental data can be performed in orbit,” NASA said in the same statement. In general, data processing in space can reduce the amount of data sent to the ground, freeing up communication channels for other tasks.
Cargo ships also carry essential items for spaceflyers, including fresh food, equipment replacements or other items that crews may need to live in space for months on end. After a few months, the crew fills Cygnus cargo ships with garbage, which will burn when the spacecraft enters the atmosphere again.
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When the last Cygnus spacecraft left the space station in January, it carried a high-speed 5G communication experiment along with the last iteration in a series of scientific experiments that investigate the behavior of fire in space, called Saffire-V. NASA plans to use these fire studies to improve the safety of astronauts on future missions, especially those in deep space.
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