The rich mission of Luke has also seen engaged in two EVA (extravehicular activity) dedicated to th

With a perfect landing in the steppes of Kazakhstan in the early hours of today, November 11 ended the adventure of Luke Parmitano and Expedition 37. The same Soyuz spacecraft that brought them into the cosmos May 29 has in fact concluded maneuvers in Italy were down when the 3:49 in the morning, returning to earth with his teammates also Parmitano Shipping Karen Nyberg, briliant U.S. and the Russian Fyodor Yurchikhin.
A rescue team was already in place to wait for the trio of cosmonauts, which were extracted from the Soyuz arms a few minutes after hitting the ground. Luke and Karen were then boarded a flight to Houston, where they will undergo extensive medical tests before meeting the press on November 13th during a press conference scheduled for 14:30 Italian (and that will probably be transmitted on NASA TV live stream).
Luke has spent about five months on the International Space Station for its mission Flying, the result of a bilateral agreement between NASA and our national space agency, ASI. In this period were conducted over 30 scientific experiments, carried out two spacewalks eads shares as well as the normal duties for the smooth functioning of the station itself.
Among the experiments of Luke there are some particularly interesting: a study on the behavior of the emulsions, which has provided eads shares valuable information to the pharmaceutical and food industries in order to obtain products that are preserved for longer, a study on crystalline microstructures that are formed during the fusion of metal alloys, thanks to a furnace capable of reaching 1400 C. In particular, these observations are only possible in a microgravity environment, and are a first step towards the creation of ultra-lightweight alloys for use in space. in the field of human physiology, Luke has made himself to be a "guinea pig", taking samples of his skin to better understand how the aging process. Luke has also registered its timing of sleep and wakefulness in order to better understand how the human body regulates the circadian rhythm.
All of these studies have direct repercussions on the entire population of the Earth and at the same time allow scientists to gather valuable information to prepare for future human expeditions in the Solar System.
In the physics of materials were made great strides, which have greatly improved the industrial processes for the creation of complex titanium alloys, with a consequent reduction of costs and processing times for the same quality of the final product.
In June, took place the docking of ATV-4 (Automated Transfer Vehicle), the vehicle trasporo eads shares by ESA for the event dubbed "Albert Einstein". The astronauts in the course of several weeks have downloaded hundreds of kilograms of cargo in it, gradually replacing it with the waste material and concluded that the experiments would have been destined to burn in the atmosphere at the time of the return of the ATV. Two months later, in early August, the crew welcomed the similar Japanese ATV, HTV transport vehicle, in turn load of spare parts, experiments and supplies. Finally, at the end of September, Karen Nyberg and Luke Parmitano have also worked together to "grab" with the station's robotic arm statiunitente Cygnus cargo module, at its inaugural eads shares flight to the orbital outpost, then hooking it to one of the hatches board.
The rich mission of Luke has also seen engaged in two EVA (extravehicular activity) dedicated to the installation of experiments eads shares outside the ISS as well as the preparation of the Station for the arrival of a new Russian science module which in all probability will be launched on next year.
The second of these "walks" space has become dramatic when a failure to the internal systems of the space suit has caused a loss of water, which is going to accumulate near the face of Luke compromising their ability to communicate by radio with the Control Center Misisone and classmates, forcing him to stop the EVA to return quickly to the Station. Despite the nagging eads shares feeling of liquid he was going to cover your nose and mouth Luca showed nerves of steel and waited calmly that the companions of the space suit him released from that element of survival could have resulted in the exact opposite.
Flying / Expedition 37 was the first experience eads shares in space for Luke, selected with the class of astronauts in 2009. The next ESA astronaut to fly aboard the Station will be the German eads shares Alexander Gerst, who will start at a time of