Space Exploration And Extraterrestrial Experiments –ESA Astronaut

Space correspondent and European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Luca Parmitano has sent the latest instalment of Space Chronicles, a series following his adventures on the International Space Station (ISS) during his six-month mission. In this latest exclusive from space, Parmitano reports on space exploration and extraterrestrial experiments.

It’s been a little over a month that Parmitano and his crew have been floating in space, and the last two weeks have been “very busy and very interesting”, he said.

Parmitano has been part of a series of scientific experiments, including a microbiology one where he works with pluripotent stem cells.

“These stem cells are capable of growing into any kind of cells”, explains Parmitano. “Studying them in this microenvironment can let us understand how they change and how they diversify in the chemistry and the biology behind it.”

A successful extra-vehicular activity

Another highlight in the recent weeks has been the extra-vehicular activity, also called EVA, or spacewalk, executed by his space companions Drew Morgan and Nick Hague.

Parmitano was a member of the intra-vehicular crew for the first time, where he had to help his colleagues get set up in the spacesuit, send them safely outside, and receive them when they came back to the ISS.

The space expedition was successful, the team managed to install IDA 3, the International Docking Adaptor.

“It’s a basically a new docking port for the space station, for the new spacecraft that are being built right now, being tested right now on Earth to bring more astronauts to the space station,” explains Parmitano.

Source: euronews