Russian cosmonauts will carry out an experiment on controlling a drone driven by a propeller on board the International Space Station, Alexander Bloshenko, a science advisor to the Roscosmos's chief, told Sputnik on Wednesday.

"The experiment has been introduced into the program", Bloshenko said. During experiments with the propeller-driven drone, it is first planned to work out the design of its body and propulsion system. Based on results received, a second drone will be developed, designed to work in outer space. Tests with the drones are planned to last until 2023.

Russian cosmonauts will be also growing duckweed on board the International Space Station, according to Roscosmos.

"Continuing previous biological research, we will have, for example, the duckweed experiment. We will grow duckweed, see how weightlessness and other factors of space flight affect it. We will constantly take pictures of it, record the changes and then send the results to Earth", Alexei Ovchinin, Russian cosmonaut, said in an interview published earlier by Russia's Gagarin Research and Test Cosmonaut Training Center.

Duckweed is a flowering aquatic plant that floats on the surface of still or slow-moving bodies of water.

Earlier in March, the Soyuz MS-12 spacecraft has successfully docked to the International Space Station, bringing a new crew to the orbital outpost. The current ISS crew comprises Russian cosmonaut and Commander Oleg Kononenko, Russian cosmonaut Alexey Ovchinin, Canadian astronaut David Saint-Jacques and US astronauts: Anne McClain, Nick Hague and Christina Koch.

Source: RIA Novosti

Related Links
Roscosmos
UAV News - Suppliers and Technology

Tweet

Thanks for being here; We need your help. The SpaceDaily news network continues to grow but revenues have never been harder to maintain. With the rise of Ad Blockers, and Facebook - our traditional revenue sources via quality network advertising continues to decline. And unlike so many other news sites, we don't have a paywall - with those annoying usernames and passwords. Our news coverage takes time and effort to publish 365 days a year. If you find our news sites informative and useful then please consider becoming a regular supporter or for now make a one off contribution.
SpaceDaily Contributor $5 Billed Once credit card or paypal		SpaceDaily Monthly Supporter $5 Billed Monthly paypal only

General Atomics awarded $19.7M for French MQ-9 Reaper support
Washington (UPI) Mar 25, 2019
General Atomics has been awarded an $8.9 million contract to produce and integrate weapons on the French Air Force's MQ-9 Block 1 aircraft. The foreign military sale comes under an undefinitized contract action for the production and integration of the kits for the remotely piloted aircraft, the U.S. Air Force announced Friday. The Reaper is the ninth in the series of remotely piloted aircraft system. The first one was the MQ-1 Predator. Crusing at a speed of around 230 mph, the R ... read more