International Space Station, ~415-km LEO: Expedition 74 crew continue science research in the orbiting laboratory, much of it concerned with the human body’s reaction to weightlessness. Roscosmos Cosmonauts Kud-Sverchkov and Mikaev wore VR goggles to test sense of balance / orientation; Astronauts Adenot of ESA and Hathaway of NASA continue to familiarize themselves with living and working in the ISS, including use of exercise gear and safety equipment, and medical procedures such as processing blood samples and doing ultrasound scans. NASA and ESA astronauts precisely positioned 4 cameras to record exercise sessions, enabling muscle and bone analysis. Cosmonaut Fedyaev set up a physics experiment using molecular beams to measure semiconductor growth and installed Earth observation gear that uses a variety of wavelengths. NASA Astronauts Williams and Meir along with Adenot used UV light and measured its inhibition of microbial growth within the station. All 7 continue ongoing housekeeping, including trash collection, vacuuming up dust and wiping down surfaces with disinfectant, and monitoring the Elektron oxygen generator for proper operation.

Tiangong Space Station, ~390-km LEO: Shenzhou-21 crew uses an aeroponic cultivation system that vaporizes water into a fine mist, significantly improving the efficiency of water usage, and has an LED light array enhancing energy usage, allowing them to grow tomatoes as China Spring Festival travel season continues through March 13. Future plans for the Tiangong Space Garden include trial plantings of wheat, carrots and medicinal plants. An unexpected but welcome side-effect of the Space Garden is a psychological boost. Taikonaut Zhang Lu said, “To see such a vibrant splash of green in the vastness of space is incredibly healing.”

Lunar Enterprise News: Data scientist Chandra Tungathurthi of India now produces Digital Elevation Modeling (DEM) images of the Moon surface at 30 cm resolution, using data from the camera on the Chandrayaan-2 lunar orbiter (highest-resolution of any at the Moon) and combining it with open-source software from NASA and US Geological Survey to produce DEM images of landing sites of Chandrayaan-3 (Shiv Shakti), IM-2 Athena and Japan’s SLIM. DEM produces slope maps and identifies safe landing zones, among other benefits.

 Near-Earth Objects Close Approaches – Mon Mar 2: Aten Asteroid 2011 EH17 (0.040 AU); Tue Mar 3: Apollo Asteroid 2026 CD1 (0.016 AU); Tue Mar 3: Apollo Asteroid 2026 CX4 (0.019 AU); Fri Mar 6: Aten Asteroid 2021 ER (0.016 AU)