The experiments at the station will be conducted by the second Israeli in space, Eitan Stiva, who is expected to take off for the mission next year
Three experiments designed and built at the Technion will be launched to the International Space Station. The experiments, which will be launched subject to the approval of NASA and Axiom Space, will be conducted by Eitan Stiva, the second Israeli in space, who is expected to take off to the station next year, as part of the 'sky' mission of the Ramon Foundation and the Israel Space Agency at the Ministry of Science and Technology. The announcement of the winning projects was made today at the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation by Eitan Stiva with the participation of Ran Levana, CEO of the Ramon Foundation and head of the 'Sky' mission, Inbal Kreis, head of the scientific and technological committee and director of innovation at the Missile and Space Systems Division of the Aerospace Industry, Shi-Lee Spiegelman , Director General of the Ministry of Science and Technology, researchers, scientists and entrepreneurs from all over the country.
Speaking at the event on behalf of the representatives of the selected projects, Prof. Moran Berkovich from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the Technion said: "An adrenaline rush - there are no other words to describe what this mission did and is doing to the space community in Israel. This is an extraordinary opportunity by any measure. The schedule is crazy, the challenges are enormous, but we will succeed; This is our DNA in Israel and we are good at it. I thank all the partners - the Ramon Foundation, the Israel Space Agency at the Ministry of Science and Technology and the scientific committee of the 'Rakia' project. Special thanks to Eitan Stiva for his choice not to be satisfied with personal experience but to dedicate this wonderful journey to science, on which he is taking us all."
Stiva, who is going to be the second Israeli in space, is expected to stay on the space station for about 200 hours. Its flight is planned for the beginning of 2022 as part of AX1, an initiative of the Axiom Space company which is the first private mission to the International Space Station. The international team, led by veteran American-Spanish astronaut and Axiom Space Vice President Michael Lopez Alegria. The Israeli part of the mission is called 'Rakia' and it was conducted under the management of the Ramon Foundation, of which Stiva is one of the founders, and the Israel Space Agency in the Ministry of Science and Technology. The main goal: using the infrastructure of the space station to carry out experiments planned in Israel.
The experiments chosen by the Ramon Foundation are multidisciplinary experiments that come from diverse worlds of content and are expected to lead to technological, scientific and medical breakthroughs that will affect humanity's life on Earth and life outside of it. After a long and rigorous screening process, the Ramon Foundation and the Ministry of Science and Technology announced today the selected projects, including three experiments from the Technion:
Production of optical components in space
The research group of Prof. Moran Berkovich from the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering plans to demonstrate for the first time the creation of optical components in space. The experiment, called FLUTE (Fluidic Telescope Experiment), was designed and built by Dr. Valery Fromkin, Mor Algrisi and Omar Luria under the direction of Prof. Berkovic and in collaboration with a group at the NASA AMES Research Center led by Dr. Edward Belban ( Balaban). The experiment will examine the ability to utilize the microgravity conditions in space to produce high-quality lenses by shaping liquids into a desired shape and then hardening them - a new concept that the group describes in a new article (May 3, 2021) in the journal Flow. The success of the experiment on the space station will pave the way for the production of advanced optical components in space, including the creation of extremely large space telescopes, since the use of liquids will make it possible to overcome the limitation that exists today - when the size of the telescope depends on the size of the launcher with which the telescope is placed in space.
Prof. Ehud Bacher and Prof. Shlomit Terem from the Faculty of Physics TheThey developed an innovative system for detecting gamma rays. Placing the system on the space station will help detect this radiation, which comes from high-energy explosions in distant galaxies. The accepted assumption is that the short bursts of gamma rays come from the merger of two neutron stars - an event that also produces gravitational waves. However, to date only one event has been detected according to these two sources, so there is room to improve the detection capabilities of the gamma radiation detector. The detector developed by the Technion researchers is based on hundreds of small crystals arranged in a unique pattern and absorbing the gamma radiation. Based on the relative signal received by each crystal, it is possible to reconstruct the position of the eruption in the sky with high accuracy. According to the researchers, "The ability to detect the direction down to a few degrees is the innovation of our instrument, which will allow us and astronomers all over the world to point their telescopes at the event, study the eruption and tie it to other events such as gravitational waves."
Propulsion module for tiny satellites
Dr. Yigal Kronhaus from the Faculty of Aeronautics and Space Engineering Developed a propulsion module for tiny satellites that enables maneuverability in space. The propulsion module is based on electric arc motor technology with a screw feed system (ISF-VAT) developed over the past six years at the Asher Institute for Space Research at the Technion and commercialized by Space Plasmatics. The expected experiment on the space station is the first demonstration in space of this engine. It will be conducted outside the station inside Alpha Space's MISSE facility and will include running the engine for 24 hours. The data collected will include video images of the engine trail as well as power and temperature measurements. At the end of the experiment, the propulsion module will be returned to Earth for testing in the laboratory.
Among the experiments Stiva will perform in space are two additional experiments related to the Technion: one - the production of cultured meat in space using the technology of the Elef Farms company, which was established based on the research of Prof. Shulamit Levenberg from the Faculty of Biomedical Engineering; And the other, an experiment by the Oncohost company, which was established based on the research of Prof. Yuval Shaked from the Rapaport Faculty of Medicine and develops personalized treatments for cancer.
The scientific and technological committee of the Ramon Foundation, which selected the experiments, was led by Technion graduate Inbal Kreis, who completed a bachelor's degree in the Wolfson Faculty of Chemical Engineering at the Technion and a master's degree in business administration at Tel Aviv University. Over the years, Kreis served in many senior positions, including the director of the "Hats 3" project and the director of innovation in the missile and space systems division of the aerospace industry. She won the technological entrepreneurship award from the International Air and Space Conference (2010) and the "Arrow 3" project led by her won the Israel Security Award (2017). Kreis was also named Woman of the Year by Globes Magazine (2012) and Woman of the Year by IsraelDefense Magazine (2016).
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