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Soviet cosmonauts usually returned to Earth by landing on the ground, often in vast stretches of wilderness. They had to be prepared to survive until pickup, and even went armed to ensure their safety.
Current Russian cosmonauts return the same way. To prepare themselves for the rigors of landfall during winter, they train at a facility in Kazakhstan. Their training includes starting fires and building shelters during brutal weather. View several more pictures at the link.
Link | Photo: Yuri Garagain Cosmonaut Training Center
NASA has confirmed that Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins went through customs upon their return to Earth and the United States. They filled out the above form, declaring their travel itinerary and that they had brought back moon rocks, dust, and samples through the US border. They did not mention the whiskey smuggled inside Aldrin’s suitcase.
Link -via Geekosystem
The Juno spacecraft, after a planned launch in August, will travel to and then orbit the planet Jupiter. On board will be three LEGO minifigs representing the Roman god Jupiter, his wife Juno, and the astronomer Galileo Galilei. Jupiter is holding his traditional lightning bolt, Juno a magnifying glass to represent her search for truth, and Galileo holds a globe and telescope. Link -via DVICE | Photo: NASA
You have heard of space chimps, now it’s time for space CHIPS. Could the future of space exploration be to create tiny micro-machine sized space craft? Some researchers feel this will be the more economical form of space flight.
Miniaturization will inevitably mean limitation—less power, fewer instruments, and reduced ability to store and broadcast data. But dust-mote-size spacecraft could do things that no current space probe can do: coast without a parachute onto the plains of Mars or float for weeks in the soupy atmosphere of Titan. They could be mass-produced and launched by the thousands to form vast space-based networks of sensors. And if the probes could be made thin and lightweight enough, alternative forms of propulsion could eventually send them to distant worlds, without the need for rocket fuel.
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Now I’m not talking about whistling in a vacuum. It’s obvious that attempting to do so would fail. But even astronauts on spacewalks in protective suits can’t whistle. Why not? Former astronaut Dan Barry explained:
“You can’t whistle because the air pressure in the suit is only 4.3 [pounds per square inch], and normal atmospheric pressure is 14.7 psi, so there are not enough air molecules blowing by your lips to make a sound,” he said.[...]
Jeff Hoffman, a retired astronaut with three spacewalks (including a mission to repair the Hubble telescope) has traveled 21.5 million miles in space. He said the technicians who trained him on spacewalks had told him that he wouldn’t be able to whistle, but he says he tried anyway.
“I couldn’t get one note out,” he said.
Link -via First Things | Photo: NASA
It’s always interesting to me when people start bringing economics into such other worldly endeavors as space exploration. However financial gain will ultimately be the driving force to get us there.
Twenty trillion USD is the estimated market value of a relatively small metallic asteroid that was first calculated by John S. Lewis in his book Mining The Sky: Untold Riches from the Asteroids, Comets, and Planets. Lewis argued that “using presently available or readily foreseeable technologies, we can relieve Earth of its energy problem, make astronomical amounts of raw materials available, and raise the living standard of people worldwide.”
“Per Aspera Ad Astra” (through hardships to the stars), part four of The Sagan Series, is a promotion for NASA. Creator Reid Gower, is admired by NASA, but they have no funding for public relations whatsoever. Link
Japan’s Hinode x-ray telescope satellite captured this image of a January 4 eclipse. This satellite is primarily tasked with examining the Sun’s magnetic fields.
The 33-year old space probe Voyager I, now 17.4 billion miles from the Sun, has detected a major drop in the strength of solar wind in its location. This indicates that the probe is about to leave our solar system:
The event is a major milestone in Voyager 1′s passage through the heliosheath, the turbulent outer shell of the sun’s sphere of influence, and the spacecraft’s upcoming departure from our solar system.
“The solar wind has turned the corner,” said Ed Stone, Voyager project scientist based at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, Calif. “Voyager 1 is getting close to interstellar space.”
Our sun gives off a stream of charged particles that form a bubble known as the heliosphere around our solar system. The solar wind travels at supersonic speed until it crosses a shockwave called the termination shock. At this point, the solar wind dramatically slows down and heats up in the heliosheath.
Link via Popular Science | Image: NASA/JPL
The company SpaceX has been developing and launching rockets for a few years. But it was only today that the company launched its first commercial payload into orbit:
The launching was the first of three financed by NASA under its Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program, an initiative intended to encourage development of private-sector rockets to deliver cargo to the International Space Station after the space shuttle is retired next year.
SpaceX has a $1.6 billion Commercial Resupply Services contract with NASA to provide 12 cargo flights to the station for delivery of more than 44,000 pounds of equipment and supplies. The contract may be expanded to cover additional flights, boosting its value to some $3.1 billion.
Link via Geekosystem | Photo: SpaceX
The planned UNESCOSat mission — a UN-owned satellite that will conduct low-gravity experiments — will examine whether or not the Shewanella MR-1 bacterium can convert human feces into a fuel that can be used on long-range spaceflights:
The goal is, to put it bluntly, to see if Shewanella can convert astronaut feces into hydrogen for use in onboard fuel cells. “The bacteria generates hydrogen. If we give waste to bacteria, it converts to hydrogen that could be used in a fuel cell. We’re looking at how reliable the bacteria are,” explains Donald Platt, the Program Director for the Space Sciences and Space Systems Program at the Florida Institute of Technology. Shewanella’s viability will be determined based on its growth rate in space–figuring out, in other words, how different its life cycle is in space than it is on Earth.
Link | Image: Fast Company
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Astronauts can lose 1-2% of their skeletal mass for each month that they spend in very low gravity. After a several months, this loss can become a serious health problem. But a new MIT-designed outfit called the Gravity Loading Countermeasure Skinsuit may help counteract this problem:
With stirrups that loop around the feet, the elastic gravity skinsuit is purposely cut too short for the astronaut so that it stretches when put on—pulling the wearer’s shoulders towards the feet. In normal gravity conditions on Earth, a human’s legs bear more weight than the torso. Because the suit’s legs stretch more than the torso section, the wearer’s legs are subjected to a greater force—replicating gravity effects on Earth.
The prototype suit testing took place on parabolic flights that created brief periods of weightlessness. Results showed that the suit successfully imitated the pull of gravity on the torso and thighs, but it did not exert enough force on the lower legs. Researchers are now refining the suit’s design to address this; they also plan to test the suit to see how it performs when worn overnight.
Link | Photo: MIT/James Waldie
You may want to reconsider getting pregnant (or impregnating someone) while in space. Low or zero gravity may impair the development of healthy embryos:
Microgravity apparently tampers with stem cells, which all other cells originate from. Stem cells normally act as a repair system for the body by replenishing its tissues.[...]
After this experiment, the cells showed vast differences on the molecular level, with 64 percent of their proteins differing from those grown under normal gravity. Specifically, these microgravity-exposed cells generated more proteins that degrade bone and fewer proteins with antioxidant effects. Antioxidants protect against reactive oxidants that can damage DNA.
The blogger behind English Russia compiled high-resolution photos of displays inside the Moscow Aviation Institute. These include images of a proposed manned lunar lander.
Link via Fanboy | Photo: JRussus
Previously: Russians Tried to Beat Apollo 11 in the Race to the Moon by Crash Landing a Spacecraft
We’ve previously featured the neat videos of astronaut Don Pettit showing how a CD player becomes a gyroscope in space, adding Alka-Seltzer to a spherical drop of water, showing the Aurora Borealis from space, and drinking drops of tea with a pair of chopsticks. In this video, Pettit shows how it’s possible to sip a coffee in zero gravity from a specially-designed lidless cup.
via The Presurfer | Biography of Pettit
In 1970, during the Luna 17 mission, the Soviet space program landed the first ever remote-controlled vehicle on the moon. Lunokhod 1 spent eleven months taking pictures of the moon’s surface, and sent back about 20,000 images. It stopped communicating with the earth in 1971. Fast-forward 40 years, and read about how a new use has been found for Lunokhod 1 at the blog Starts With A Bang! Link
When humans explore other planets, there’s a possibility we may overlook something important. This animation was produced by Joe Bichard and Jack Cunningham. -via Laughing Squid
Japan’s space agency plans to launch the first deep space vehicle to be use solar sail propulsion:
“Ikaros is a ‘space yacht’ that gets propulsion from the pressure of sunlight particles bouncing off its sail,” Yuichi Tsuda, space systems expert at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), told journalists.
The flexible sails, which are thinner than a human hair, are also equipped with thin-film solar cells to generate electricity to create “a hybrid technology of electricity and pressure”, Tsuda said.
“Solar sails are the technology that realises space travel without fuel as long as we have sunlight. The availability of electricity would enable us to navigate farther and more effectively in the solar system.”
The Ikaros will be launched from Tanegashima space center on May 18. It cost $16 million to develop.
Link via Popular Science | Image: Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
Next month, the Russian made Dnepr rocket will carry a European satellite into orbit. It’s a very unique space vehicle. The rocket is an intercontinental ballistic missile launched from an underground silo. The first stage is a gunpowder charge:
Essentially, the rocket is packed inside a canister which is loaded into a silo.
At launch, a black powder charge underneath the vehicle produces rapidly expanding gases that pop the Dnepr up out of the ground like a champagne cork.
There is then this heart-stopping moment when the vehicle just hangs 20m above the ground before the first-stage motors kick in and the former war machine climbs skyward.
Link via Knirirr’s Wafflings | YouTube Video of a Dnepr Launch | Image: BBC
In the 50s and 60s, scientists were already thinking about what a space station in Earth orbit might need, what it might look like. Surprisingly, many of the concepts were not that far off from reality, including a design concept that was made back in 1869. This was an Earth-based research/fantasy concept called "BRICK MOON" which was designed to be a self-contained habitat that featured many of the same requirements of a space station. Pictured is MOL, just one of nine space station concepts in this article.
This is a concept depiction of a orbiting space station that the USAF (United States Air Force) was considering in the 1960s. The intent was that a two-person crew would spend a month aboard the station before being rotated out and brought back to Earth. The orbiting station was to be called “MOL”, the Manned Orbiting Laboratory.was on the mind of men decades ago, with some surprising similarities to today’s space platforms these visionaries seemed to predict the future. A future that they could not an have possibly understood or fathomed. Ultimately, we will need a new fleet of space shuttles to get there.”
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by thestickman.
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Photo: Vincent Fournier
A photography exhibit detailing the training of American astronauts, along with spacefarers from China and Russia, was recently on display at the London Art Fair. In addition to snazzy spacesuits and a mission control center that still looks like NASA’s old room, the participants (Like the one in the lower right of the photo above) are made to mobilize in a barren, Mars-like location at the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah.
Vincent Fournier’s Website, where you can see all of his work.
At New Scientist, Michael Marshall describes ten hypothetical technologies that could propel spacecraft at greater distances and higher speeds than ever before. These aren’t warp drives and hyperspace wormholes, but real science. One example is the ion thruster, which may be just a few years away from actuality:
Conventional rockets work by shooting gases out of their rear exhausts at high speeds, thus generating thrust. Ion thrusters use the same principle, but instead of blasting out hot gases, they shoot out a beam of electrically charged particles, or ions.
They provide quite a weak thrust, but crucially they use far less fuel than a rocket to get the same amount of thrust. Providing they can be made to keep working steadily for a long time, they could eventually accelerate a craft to high speeds.
They have already been used on several spacecraft, such as Japan’s Hayabusa probe and Europe’s SMART-1 lunar mission, and the technology has been improving steadily.
A particularly promising variant is the variable specific impulse magnetoplasma rocket (VASIMR). This works on a slightly different principle to other ion thrusters, which accelerate the ions using a strong electric field. Instead, VASIMR uses a radio-frequency generator, rather like the transmitters used to broadcast radio shows, to heat ions to 1 million °C.
Link via Gizmodo | Image: NASA
With an American and a Russian colleague, Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi launched into space today in a Soyuz spacecraft, bringing with him the first sushi ever taken into orbit:
“We had training in Japan and I trained (my space colleagues) to be sushi lovers, so I am going to make a couple of flavors of sushi,” Noguchi told a press conference ahead of Monday’s launch of the Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
“…Some sashimi, and raw fish and sushi and I will bring that up to the space station to share with my crew.”
According to NASA, normal fare on the space station includes staples like mushroom soup, macaroni and cheese, or chicken and rice.
On the Russian side, there is tinned perch, curds with nuts and beetroot soup (borscht) sucked through a straw from a plastic bag.
If you were going up, what food would you take with you?
Link via Popular Science | Photo: NASA
For over a century, space exploration enthusiasts have proposed building an elevator into low earth orbit using a very long cable stretching from the surface of the earth into space. Huge technical (particularly material) obstacles have prevented this dream from becoming a reality. But technology marches on, and some researchers have made progress:
Funded by NASA and the Spaceward Foundation, the yearly contest offers a $2 million first prize to any group whose machine can quickly climb a kilometer-long ribbon tethered to a helicopter, while receiving power remotely from the ground. On Tuesday, LaserMotive became the first team in competition history to qualify for the $900,000 second prize.The LaserMotive machine consists of a motor that pulls the device up the 2,953-foot-long ribbon, photovoltaic cells that power the motor, and a ground-based laser that provides the light for the cells. LaserMotive set a new record for the competition, and became the first team to ever reach the top of the ribbon. However, they had to settle for the $900,000 second prize, as securing the $2 million first prize requires not only reaching the top of the ribbon, but doing so at an average speed of 11 miles per hour. Sadly, the LaserMotive machine ran slightly slower than that mark.
Link | Image: NASA
Illustrator Bryan Christie specializes in transforming “complex ideas into compelling images”, especially scientific or technological ideas. One of his recent works is this chart of the human exploration of Mars, organized by country, date, type, and successfulness. Click the link for a larger view.
Link via Fast Company | Artist’s Website
The above image is a selection and compression of an enormous interactive map of the almost two hundred manned and unmanned exploratory missions in our solar system over the past fifty years. It was created by graphic designers Sean McNaughton and Samuel Velasco for National Geographic. Click on the link and use the box in the upper-right corner of the screen to choose what area you’d like to see, and zoom as needed.
Radar magazine has a gallery of thirteen consumer products that were originally developed by space exploration programs. Among them is the ear thermometer:
In an effort to identify newborn suns, NASA replaced standard mercury-filled thermometers with infrared-sensing cameras to detect tricky heat signatures. And now doctors use the same technology to take your temperature in your ear.
Link via The Corner
