NASA delivers CREAM-y load to ISS to improve cosmic ray detection

Hitching a ride on SpaceX's 12th commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station is NASA's latest tech for studying the origins of cosmic rays, the high-energy particles that bombard Earth from deep space. Victor Hess, an Austrian physicist, is credited with discovering cosmic rays during a balloon flight in …

[Solarflare]

I thought perhaps NASA was putting ice cream in space 'for science'. I'm disappointed now :(

[Anonymous Coward]

They already have – you can try it at Cape Canaveral! It's not bad.

[I ain't Spartacus]

That space icecream is horrible.

Surely they must have improved it by now?

I remember trying it first when I was at school (in the mid-80s). Because a mate had been to Florida on holiday. And I got given some last year - and it seemed to be exactly the same weird texture and taste.

Clearly what we need is a MrWhippySat. Come on Musk, get your finger out! Falcon Heavy can wait another year...

[cray74]

That space icecream is horrible.

Then I'll say the same thing I told my father: if you don't like space ice cream, give it to me, don't throw it away. I love that stuff.

Surely they must have improved it by now?

Nope. Still the same old desiccated brick of crumbling, foamed carbohydrates and fats. It was received with disgust by my father at the 2012 Atlantis roll out, and with joy by me.

[samzeman]

Scientists and Acyonyms

NASA are always pulling stuff like this, though ISS-CREAM is a new high point for them. Other notable examples are:

JUICE (JUpiter ICy moons Explorer),

OSIRIS-REx (Origins-Spectral Interpretation-Resource Identification-Security-Regolith Explorer, my personal favourite),

GRACE (Gravity Recovery And Climate Experiment),

TWINS (Two Wide-Angle Imaging Neutral-Atom Spectrometers. Love how it's actually two things and the acronym is twins),

BARREL (Balloon Array for RBSP Relativistic Electron Losses)

8)

[Mark 85]

Re: Scientists and Acyonyms

I do believe there is a hidden department in the US Government and that is the Bureau of Acronyms. They supply not only NASA but Defense and Congress and any other government office with these.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Scientists and Acyonyms

The Bureau of Acronyms wishes you would mention them by their preferred name, BOA.

[John Robson]

Re: Scientists and Acyonyms

They prefer BOB - backronyms...

[kuiash]

Can't get tired of watching stage 1 nailing that landing! Watched it with the children at tea time yesterday. They're only young but understood when they saw me clapping and heard all the Space X folks whooping n' cheering.

[Robert Helpmann??]

Can't get tired of watching stage 1 nailing that landing!

Just wait until the Falcon Heavy gets going properly. You will hopefully get to multiply that feeling by three very soon. Otherwise, see icon.

[imanidiot]

This particular stage 1 landing seems to have been a rather smooth one too. No noticeable bounce or drift when hitting the ground. Just a soft smooth decent and landing.

[phuzz]

Depending on how young your kids are, rockets landing again after launch will be normal for them. They've also never known a world where there wasn't at least a few people in space all the time.

[Pascal Monett]

90 billion cosmic ray events in 6.25 years

By my calculations, that makes for almost 463 cosmic rays per second.

I had no idea there were that many !

[Nimby]

Isn't it ironic, don't you think?

Love NASA ... but I'm getting sick of all of their stupid and senseless acronyms.