Russian cosmonauts to experiment with propeller-driven drone on ISS

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 & 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.

(SPUTNIK)