As NASA's Boeing Starliner remains stuck in space, Astronaut Sunita Williams busies herself in new research

NASA astronauts, Sunita Williams and Butch Wilmore along with two other astronauts, who have been stuck in space for over a month, are busy carrying out experiments in space with all the free time they have at their disposal. According to a statement released by NASA, Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams are, “exploring ways to effectively water plants in the weightless environment.”
“The duo took turns throughout the day in the Harmony module testing how root models and plants of various sizes would absorb water in microgravity .The Plant Water Management study looks at techniques such as hydroponics and air circulation to nourish plants growing aboard spacecraft and space habitats”, said US space agency.
Harmony acts as an internal connecting passageway between international space labs and spacecraft. It creates an environment system that supports life on the station. Harmony provides air, electric power, water along with other essentials required by the astronauts. It also acts as a docking station for commercial crew vehicles.
In the previous press release, NASA had informed that the two astronauts were spending most of their time taking turns to test various ways to water plants growing in a soilless and weightless environment of microgravity. Sunita Williams had first set up a Plant Water Management hardware in the module and then recorded her attempts to test a variety of liquid flowing methods. “Following her work, Wilmore ran more tests using hydroponics and air circulation techniques to learn how to effectively nourish a variety of plants on spacecraft and space habitats," NASA said.
It was reported that Williams had then also "investigated using fluid physics such as surface tension to overcome the lack of gravity when watering and nourishing plants grown in space".
Along with this, the Butch Wilmore and Mike Barratt also participated in Vein scans, where they imaged each other’s body veins, using Ultrasound 2 device. This helped doctors on ground to monitor the process. The aim of this exercise was to understand how microgravity affects the human body post-exercise. This study was 90 minute long where Barratt used the ButterflyIQ Ultrasound device to scan Wilmore's body after his workout. Scientists are studying the impact on astronauts due to prolonged weightlessness to understand better the human body in space and ensure safety for further projects.
Sunita Williams and Butch Willmore are part of the crew that have been stranded in space in their Boeing Starliner spacecraft. Launched on June 5 this mission was meant to be over in 10 days. However, on June 6, while docked at the International Space Station, the spacecraft encountered helium leaks and thruster issues, leading to a change in the original plans. Issues with the spacecraft were apparent even before the launch as well. Since then they have been stuck. While the engineers are busy fixing the issue, scientists are participating in research. Only July25, NASA officials disclosed that the astronauts will stay in their capsules on International Space Centre since no new date of return has been set as of yet. We can only hope that they make their descent back to Earth safely.
Starliner is one of the two private spacecraft that sends astronauts to International Space Station along with SpaceX's Crew Dragon. Crew Dragon has been flying astronauts since May 2020 and is based on another of SpaceX's cargo dragon functional since 2012. Starliner, which is a relatively new spacecraft, had faced issues after its first spaceflight. The first unmanned spacecraft which was released in December 2019, never reached its destination and kept the spacecraft in the wrong orbit. However, in the next mission it did reach its destination. The 2022 mission also faced thruster issue during docking.
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