The Expedition 43 crew will remain in space for six months. Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, engineer and second-in-command, will be in space for the longest duration of an Italian Space Agency astronaut, according to ESA live feed, and the seventh longest duration for the European Space Agency, according to the mission pamphlet. She is the first woman to be sent into space by the Italian Space Agency and the third for the European Space Agency. A total of 59 women have travelled to space.
Cristoforetti's projects will be focusing on nutrition, fitness, food and recycling in zero gravity. "Samantha will help open up space to children on Earth," according to the mission pamphlet.
While living in the orbiting laboratory, all of the crew continues experiments started by previous expedition crews. The survival skills of living organisms are tested both inside and outside the station, according to Cristoforetti's mission pamphlet. Growing plants without sunlight or with limited sunlight is explored.
The astro-scientists test how metals, plasma, fluids and magnets act in microgravity. Wireless communication is tested and the ISS acts as "the maritime equivalent of air traffic control," according to the mission pamphlet. The ISS identifies 22,000 ships a day.
Even the astronauts are test subjects. Bone density is checked with MRIs before and after the astronaut's time on the ISS; special cognition is monitored with brain scans; stem cell growth in microgravity is looked at. There is close watch on the affects of dust particles on the astronauts' lungs and the astronauts wear wrist watches that monitor circadian rhythms, which could be helpful information for shift workers on Earth.
More than 530 people have travelled to the International Space Station in the rocket housing the Soyuz capsule, weighing 680,000 pounds and measuring 62 feet. The ISS inhabitants will have 180 spacewalks under their belts when they return to their mother planet.
