Australian-led scientists have designed a new space habitat that might one day allow astronauts on the Moon or Mars to be 90 to 95 per cent self-sufficient. The development of such as system could save billions of dollars in shuttle trips to re-supply lunar or space colonies and brings closer the vision of a human habitat on Mars. The technology could also have applications on Earth to develop more sustainable farming techniques and improve recycling processes.

NASA aims to put a man on Mars by 2037, the administrator of the US space agency indicated Monday. This year marks the half-century of the space age ushered in by the October 1957 launch of the Sputnik-1 by the then Soviet Union, NASA administrator Michael Griffin noted. In 2057, the centenary of the space era, "we should be celebrating 20 years of man on Mars," Griffin told an international astronautics congress in this southern Indian city where he outlined NASA's future goals. The international space station being built in orbit and targeted for completion by 2010 would provide a "toehold in space" from where humanity can travel first to the moon and then to Mars, Griffin said.

A germ that causes food poisoning and other illnesses can be three times more dangerous in space than on the ground, an experiment has shown. The finding spells out tougher challenges for astronauts taking trips to the moon or Mars, as recent work also hints that the body's immune system weakens during extended stays in space. "Space flight alters cellular and physiological responses in astronauts including the immune response," said Cheryl Nickerson, a microbiologist at Arizona State University and leader of the experiment. "However, relatively little was known about microbial changes to infectious disease risk in response to space flight."

Ten gerbils took off from the Russian-run Baikonur space centre in Kazakhstan on Friday for a 12-day voyage to test the possible effects of a human mission to Mars, an official said Friday. A Foton-M spaceship with the rodents on board took off on a Soyuz rocket, mission official Anfisa Kazakova told AFP by telephone. The rocket is to include a cage with 10 rodents with the aim of studying the physiological and biological effects of long-term flights, she said.

In the 40 years that humans have been traveling into space, the suits they wear have changed very little. The bulky, gas-pressurized outfits give astronauts a bubble of protection, but their significant mass and the pressure itself severely limit mobility. Dava Newman, a professor of aeronautics and astronautics and engineering systems at MIT, wants to change that. Newman is working on a sleek, advanced suit designed to allow superior mobility when humans eventually reach Mars or return to the moon. Her spandex and nylon BioSuit is not your grandfather's spacesuit--think more Spiderman, less John Glenn. Traditional bulky spacesuits "do not afford the mobility and locomotion capability that astronauts need for partial gravity exploration missions. We really must design for greater mobility and enhanced human and robotic capability," Newman says.

A potential outward bound destination for astronauts: Phobos and Deimos - the two moons of Mars. NASA is stirring up the exploration pot by co-sponsoring in early November the first international conference on sending robots and humans to Phobos and Deimos. This global gathering of experts will meet at the NASA Ames Research Center in California. They’ll detail new ideas on probing Phobos and Deimos, as well as how to utilize the two moons as a gateway for exploring Mars itself. In the human exploration department, scientists and engineers are to delve into what an expeditionary crew might do on Phobos and Deimos - and how to use those mini-worlds to help in investigating the red planet. Also, what precursor robotic missions that might be needed will be addressed. By the way - Russia is already spearheading a multi-nation project to explore Phobos, dubbed the Phobos-Grunt mission, a sample return effort eyed for 2009.

Last week, the House Appropriations Subcommittee for Commerce, Justice, and Science recommended an increase of over $280 million above the requested level for NASA. However, within this budget markup, there is language that would prevent work on programs devoted to humans to Mars. According to a House Appropriations Committee press release, the markup language states that NASA cannot pursue “development or demonstration activity related exclusively to Human Exploration of Mars. NASA has too much on its plate already, and the President is welcome to include adequate funding for the Human Mars Initiative in a budget amendment or subsequent year funding requests." THIS ANTI-MARS LANGUAGE MUST BE REMOVED! Otherwise, the program may turn into MOON ONLY program. We can't let that happen.

ESA is preparing for future human exploration missions to Mars. We are currently looking for volunteers to take part in a 520-day simulated Mars mission. To go to Mars is still a dream and one of the last gigantic challenges. But one day some of us will be on precisely that journey to the Red Planet. A journey with no way out once the spaceship is on a direct path to Mars. These men and women will have to take care of themselves for almost two years during the roundtrip. Their survival is in their own hands, relying on the work of thousands of engineers and scientists back on Earth, who made such a mission possible. The crew will experience extreme isolation and confinement. They will lose sight of planet Earth. A radio contact will take 40 minutes to travel to us and then back to the space explorers. A human mission to Mars is a bold vision for the time beyond the International Space Station. However, preparations have already started today. They are geared and committed to one goal: to send humans on an exploration mission to Mars, individuals who will live and work together in a spaceship for over 500 days.

An experiment aimed at finding ways to help astronauts adapt to life on Mars could end up helping insomniacs on Earth, researchers said on Monday. They found that two 45-minute exposures to bright light in the evening could help people adjust to a longer, Martian-style day. During the experiment, they found a wider-than-expected variation in an internal system the human body uses to keep track of days and nights, and they believe their treatment might help people with certain disorders of this system. "The results have powerful implications for the treatment of circadian rhythm sleep disorders, including shift work disorder and advanced sleep phase disorder," said Dr. Charles Czeisler, chief of the Division of Sleep Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard medical school in Boston. The U.S. space agency NASA had asked Czeisler's lab to find ways to help astronauts adjust to life on Mars, where the days are about 24 hours and 39 minutes long, or 24.65 hours.

NASA has unveiled plans for crew and launch vehicles to return humans to the moon as the first steps toward building an outpost there and eventually traveling to Mars. NewsHour correspondent Tom Bearden takes a closer look at NASA's space vision.

In the year that BBC One’s 1970s era police show proved such a ratings hit it was perhaps appropriate that an entry nicknamed the "Life on Mars Garden" should win the Chelsea Flower Show. But the Chelsea judges still caused something of a stir when they favoured Sarah Eberle’s garden for an astronaut on Mars over Ulf Nordfjell’s near perfect celebration of the tercentenary of the Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus. Yet the judges, all professional designers themselves, clearly thought Miss Eberle’s garden was out of this world. Miss Eberle said she was "overwhelmed" to win her first best in show at Chelsea for "600 days with Bradstone," the Martian garden that has taken her eight years to research and build, with the help of the European Space Agency.

As the Earth fades into the rearview mirror, the astronauts who set out on the missions that NASA proposes to the moon and Mars will face new challenges to stay mentally and physically fit. Confinement on spacecraft and isolation from friends and family create psychological stress. Bones weaken without gravity and there is solar and cosmic radiation exposure. "The risks to human health on long-duration missions beyond Earth orbit, if not solved, represent the greatest challenge to human exploration of deep space," concludes Safe Passage: Astronaut Care for Exploration Missions, a study for the space agency by the National Academy of Sciences in 2001. Without the swift, fictional propulsion systems of Star Wars and Star Trek fame, a round-trip voyage to Mars will send astronauts packing for 2 years. A tour of duty at a lunar outpost would last six months. The trip durations lead to another worry: How does a faraway astronaut receive treatment for a medical emergency?

Spacecraft start out clean - as close to germ-free as humans can make them. But after years of use, unused spaces within the walls can become home to unwanted life forms. When NASA joined the Russian space program in its evaluation of the microbial activity aboard the Mir spacecraft, they made some interesting discoveries. NASA's plan was to obtain information that would be useful during long-duration missions. Mir had suffered several power outages during its fifteen years in low earth orbit; temperature and humidity had gone well beyond normal levels. In 1998, NASA astronauts were collecting samples from air and surfaces. Imagine their surprise when they opened an obscure service panel in Mir's Kvant-2 Module and discovered a free-floating mass of water.

Scientists from the University of Sheffield are developing an artificial `plastic blood´, which could act as a substitute for real blood in emergency situations. The `plastic blood´, which will be on display at the Science Museum this month, could have a huge impact on military applications. Because the artificial blood is made from a plastic, it is light to carry and easy to store. Doctors could store the substitute as a thick paste in a blood bag and then dissolve it in water just before giving it to patients – meaning it´s easier to transport than liquid blood. Donated blood has a relatively short shelf-life of 35 days, after which it must be thrown away. It also needs refrigeration, whereas the `plastic blood´ will be storable for many more days and is stable at room temperature.

How do you get rid of the body of a dead astronaut on a three-year mission to Mars and back? When should the plug be pulled on a critically ill astronaut who is using up precious oxygen and endangering the rest of the crew? Should NASA employ DNA testing to weed out astronauts who might get a disease on a long flight? With NASA planning to land on Mars 30 years from now, and with the recent discovery of the most "Earth-like" planet ever seen outside the solar system, the space agency has begun to ponder some of the thorny practical and ethical questions posed by deep space exploration. Some of these who-gets-thrown-from-the-lifeboat questions are outlined in a NASA document on crew health obtained by The Associated Press through a Freedom of Information Act request. NASA doctors and scientists, with help from outside bioethicists and medical experts, hope to answer many of these questions over the next several years.

The European Space Agency (ESA) will partner with Russian researchers to lock a crew of six people in metal tubes for a simulated trip to Mars. Known as Mars500, the simulated space mission will take place in an isolation facility in Russia, allowing organizers to study the difficulties presented by such a lengthy spaceflight. The participants, selected from a pool of volunteers, will attempt to re-create all elements of an actual mission, including launch, an outboard journey, a research trip to the planet’s surface, and the return trip—all of which will take 500 days. Locked inside the research station, the crew will have to deal with limitations such as a carefully portioned food supply, 20-minute delays in communication, and simulated emergencies, with the further possibility of real medical emergencies arising.

The world's first female astronaut Valentina Tereshkova, marking her 70th birthday on Tuesday, says she still dreams of flying to Mars -- even on a one-way ticket. In June 1963, 25-year-old Tereshkova spent 71 hours in orbit on board a Soviet Vostok spacecraft, earning a niche in the history books and scoring propaganda points for the Soviet Union in its Cold War space rivalry with the United States. The story of the peasant's daughter who became a household name thanks to communism's achievements made her a role model for young Soviet women. Her photograph smiling from a space suit became an icon. President Vladimir Putin, who invited Tereshkova to his residence near Moscow to mark her birthday, said her flight remained an inspiration for the resurgent Russia of today.

Burrowing inside an asteroid whose orbit carries it past both the Earth and Mars could protect astronauts from radiation on their way to the Red Planet. The idea is being investigated with funding from NASA. Outside the protective bubble of the Earth's magnetic field, charged particles from the Sun and from beyond our solar system in the form of cosmic rays pose a hazard to astronauts.

As NASA lays plans for travel to the moon and Mars, the agency is exploring propulsion systems, crew modules, and habitat structures. It has looked at the psychology of being cooped up with fellow astronauts for a years-long Mars mission, and studied how to maintain bone structure and muscle strength in microgravity. But a new study should force renewed attention on one of the most intractable dangers of space travel: radiation. The review, published Sept. 29 in Mars, the International Journal of Mars Science and Exploration, identified major radiation hazards that must be solved before the safe completion of a human Mars mission.

The House passed a bill that supports the president's plans to explore Mars and increase spending on research and encouraging science professionals to enter teaching. This bill passed after three days of debate that touched on everything from medical marijuana laws to the Pacific Northwest's salmon fishery. Along the way, House lawmakers endorsed the Supreme Court's ruling to permit evidence seized in violation of long-standing "knock and announce" rules and backed bilingual ballots for people whose native language is not English. The bill covers the annual budgets of the departments of Commerce, State and Justice, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

The survival of the human race depends on its ability to find new homes elsewhere in the universe because there's an increasing risk that a disaster will destroy the Earth, world-renowned scientist Stephen Hawking said Tuesday. The British astrophysicist told a news conference in Hong Kong that humans could have a permanent base on the moon in 20 years and a colony on Mars in the next 40 years. "We won't find anywhere as nice as Earth unless we go to another star system," added Hawking, who arrived to a rock star's welcome Monday. Tickets for his lecture planned for Wednesday were sold out. "It is important for the human race to spread out into space for the survival of the species," Hawking said. "Life on Earth is at the ever-increasing risk of being wiped out by a disaster, such as sudden global warming, nuclear war, a genetically engineered virus or other dangers we have not yet thought of."

Sound dies quickly in the cold, thin air of Mars. Researchers have modeled a sound wave traveling through the Martian atmosphere and report that it doesn't go far--even a lawn mower's roar dies after a hundred meters or so. The model presents an unusually detailed picture of how sound travels in an alien atmosphere and hints at what it would take to communicate on the Red Planet.

It's the moment every wannabe astronaut dreams of: landing on Mars. Just imagine making that momentous speech as you plant your flag in the red soil, the sun rising behind you over Olympus Mons. How breathtaking to see the Earth rise in the night sky, just a white dot among millions of others. But there's a flip side. By the time you make that speech, you will have been cooped up inside a metal box for six months. You'll not talk to your friends or family for another two years. You and your fellow inmates are bound to have survived some hair-raising, potentially fatal crises, and everyone's nerves will be in tatters.

Last December a second Italian-French crew took up residence in one of the most inhospitable places on Earth. They will stay there for over a year; nine months of this will be winter, with no visitors and no chance for an emergency rescue. The aim: to help the European Space Agency (ESA) with preparations for a human mission to Mars.

NASA issued a Request for Information Tuesday soliciting ideas on lunar exploration activities that could be pursued as part of the agency's long term exploration goals for the moon, Mars and beyond. Sponsored by NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, this request seeks input from individuals and organizations covering a broad range of disciplines, from lunar science activities, to operational activities and technology research efforts that could be done on the moon to assist in preparing for future human missions to Mars and beyond.

Human spaceflight to Mars could become a reality within the next 25 years, but not until some physiological problems are resolved, including an alarming loss of bone mass, fitness and muscle strength. Former astronaut James A. Pawelczyk, Ph.D. illuminated the issues in a keynote address today at the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) 10th-annual Health & Fitness Summit & Exposition in Orlando.

The top man at Russia's leading space firm has mooted an ambitious expansion of the country's space effort. President of Energia corporation Nikolai Sevastianov said manned missions to the Moon and Mars were on the cards by 2030. He said: "We can land on the Moon before 2015". His plan is to start mining the Moon for the 1m tons of potential fusion fuel helium-3 scientists say it has. They say this would be enough to power Earth for 1,000 years, and one experts estimates its value at $4bn per ton. This would easily offset the cost of mining it, Sevastianov said.

For the first time since 1972, the United States is planning to fly to the moon, but instead of a quick, Apollo-like visit, astronauts intend to build a permanent base and live there while they prepare what may be the most ambitious undertaking in history — putting human beings on Mars. NASA’s moon planners are closely following the spaceship initiative and, within six months, will outline what they need from the new vehicle to enable astronauts to explore the lunar surface.

Cosmonaut, Russian space engineer speak to Powhatan students. Russian cosmonaut Yury Usachev logged more than 670 days in space but even he has his limits. Speaking yesterday to several hundred students at Powhatan High School, Usachev shuddered at the thought of a possible manned mission to Mars and said he'd let the next generation of space pioneers sign up.

Do you even CARE what kind of disgusting bugs and bacteria live on your clothes and bedding? Do you? Well, The world first washing machine dryer with "air wash" function cares. The AQUA AWD-AQ1 from Sanyo disinfects and deodorizes your clothes without using water. It shoots ozone-filled air to whisk away odors and bacteria. It also recycles the water it uses for rinsing and disinfects it using the selfsame ozone. It even has special modes to fight against mode, add steam, and even wash without detergent. It will be out in March for $2200.

Engineers at the Los Alamos National Laboratory have developed a method of machining metals that uses ice-cold carbon dioxide to remove cuttings while cooling and lubricating the workpiece. Dubbed Snow-Machining, it could eliminate the need for oil-based and synthetic fluids currently used in the cutting and metal-parts cleaning industries. Experts at the University of Michigan estimate over 200 million gallons of metalworking oils are used annually in the U.S., and the amount of cutting fluid is at least several times that figure.

The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration plans to send six astronauts on a 500-day mission to Mars, according to its final draft report on the Mars exploration program. U.S. President George W. Bush promoted a new vision for NASA's space exploration in a speech he gave in January 2004. NASA is aiming to realize the mission before 2030. The human mission to Mars is planned to take 2-1/2 years for the round-trip and will comprise three sets of vehicles.

A few weeks before leaving for the Antarctic Concordia Station, the Italian-French crew that will spend over one year in one of the harshest, isolated environments on Earth, attended two days of preparatory training at ESA's Headquarters in Paris, France. During their stay at the research station the crew will participate in a number of ESA experiments – the outcome of which will help prepare for long-term missions to Mars.

The human body needs warmth and the areas in which we feel the cold first are naturally enough those which are at the extremities – hands and feet. The feet are particularly vulnerable in arctic climates as they are continually in contact with very cold surfaces. Accordingly, the advanced nanotech underfoot insulation offered by ToastyFeet insole liners from Polar Wrap. Most insulation requires loft but when you step on it, it gets compressed and loses its loft and therefore its insulating power. Aerogel doesn't require loft as it contains nanometer-sized pockets of air that can maintain thermal protection and shape even when you step on it. In partnership with NASA, this same flexible aerogel technology is being developed for next generation space suits but you can get it now and keep your feet toasty warm. We've written about numerous applications for aerogel technology including a translucent roofing system and about the origination of the world's lightest solid.

A few decades from now, space travelers living on Mars may think the Pilgrims had it easy. The pioneers who make the 80-million-mile, three-year journey to Mars and back will probably not have the just-add-water-and-heat packaged foods that are aboard the international space station, where the crew orbiting Earth will prepare a traditional Thanksgiving dinner today of turkey, mashed potatoes, corn, green beans and cherry-blueberry cobbler. NASA's Johnson Space Center is working on a project to send humans back to the moon, and from there to Mars.

Russia and China have agreed to launch in 2007 a 10-year space cooperation plan with a focus on joint development of major projects, such as a joint lunar exploration and landing on Mars, the Zhongguo Tongxun She news agency reported. The two sides agreed to “explore the possibility of cooperation in the moon and deep space exploration” as well as joint development of large space projects, according to the joint communique issued at the 10th regular meeting between Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao and his Russian counterpart Mikhail Fradkov last week.

NASA is set to unveil today details of its new space architecture, a "how-to" response to President George W. Bush's Moon, Mars and beyond vision speech made in January 2004. Bush called for putting astronauts back on the Moon by 2020 and sending humans to Mars thereafter. Last week SPACE.com and Space News reported that NASA will announce today plans to send four astronauts to Moon in 2018. On the list: A re-usable vehicle that's safer than the shuttle; technology for extracting fuel from the destination; and an airbag landing upon return to Earth. Plans were also detailed for sending robotic scouts first.

With the shuttle fleet grounded and the International Space Station staffed by a skeleton crew, NASA is set to unveil plans on Monday to take people and cargo to the moon. Even before the official announcement, there is criticism from Capitol Hill over the reported $100 billion cost of the lunar program, given U.S. government commitments to the Iraq war and the recovery from Hurricane Katrina.

NASA briefed senior White House officials Wednesday on its plan to spend $100 billion and the next 12 years building the spacecraft and rockets it needs to put humans back on the Moon by 2018. The U.S. space agency now expects to roll out its lunar exploration plan to key Congressional committees on Friday and to the broader public through a news conference on Monday, Washington sources tell SPACE.com.

Neil Armstrong said Tuesday that a human expedition to Mars won't happen for at least 20 years, but might be easier than the trip that made him the first person to step onto the moon in 1969. Armstrong said scientists must develop better onboard spacecraft technology and stronger shields to block space radiation before people can travel to Mars.

A new center that aims to be a cross between a museum and an amusement park may soon allow people to explore a Martian settlement without ever having to leave Earth. The Martian research and outreach center will be operated by Four Frontiers, a new Florida-based space commerce company whose main objective is the establishment of a permanent human settlement on Mars. “We see ourselves as the pioneers of the new space frontier,” said Four Frontiers’ CEO Mark Homnick. “We follow in the path made by the early explorers such as NASA and the ESA. We settle in the new land, we turn it into a home and add value.”

NASA soon will unveil detailed plans for sending astronauts back to the moon before the end of the next decade. And while an official announcement won't come until mid-September, here's a sneak preview based on an internal NASA-Department of Defense memo and a speech given last week by NASA Administrator Michael Griffin.

The Russian Federal Space Agency (Roskosmos) on Friday invited China's first spaceman, Yang Liwei, to make a space flight to the moon aboard the promising Russian Kliper shuttle, the Itar-Tass news agency reported. The invitation was offered by the head of Roskosmos, Anatoly Perminov, at a meeting in the day with the Chinese taikonaut. Taikonaut was coined to refer to Chinese astronauts, who are called cosmonauts in Russia.

NASA will soon make public its space exploration strategy of returning crews to the Moon and sending humans to distant Mars and other targets. But implementing such lofty goals is fraught with political correctness, as well as the need for heavy doses of technological suitability and cost-saving savvy.

Russia will start an experimental program for preparation for flights to Mars in 2006, said Anatoly Perminov, head of the Russian Space Agency Roscosmos. "The agency is not planning a manned flight to Mars until 2015, although we will start an experimental program at the Institute of Medical and Biological Research next year," he told the Voice of Russia state-controlled radio station. "An international six-men crew will conduct a simulated 500-day flight to Mars."

NASA has decided that its next launch vehicle for getting humans into space will be based on the space shuttle system, including its main engines, solid rocket boosters and external tank. There will be one big difference, though, instead of riding along the side of the new rocket, astronauts in the future will be riding on top on top of their next launcher -- above any debris that might fall off. Speaking to reporters via telephone July 29, NASA Administrator Mike Griffin said the agency's plans are the result of an intensive Exploration Systems Architecture Study he ordered in late April to plot NASA's return to the moon by 2020. That study will be publicly unveiled in "a few weeks," Griffin said.

As NASA turns its attention to preparing for human travel to the Moon and Mars, there are many hurdles to overcome. This fall, the NASA Exploration Systems Mission Directorate and NASA Quest will open the school year with a challenge to students, primarily in grades 5-8, to work with NASA scientists to design solutions to these obstacles. During October and November, students are invited to join NASA researchers Jennifer Heldmann, William J. Clancey and Chris McKay and other leading scientists as they embark on a Mars analog study at California's Lassen Volcanic National Park. By studying snowfields in the park, scientists hope to learn more about the development and use of technologies needed to help understand and explore the moon and Mars. They will also learn about polar ice caps and the possible life that could exist there.

Several Mars Foundation principals attended the NSS International Space Development Conference in Washington, DC this week. The attendees included Bruce Mackenzie, Joseph Palaia, Wayne White, Martha Adams, Mike Turner, and Gary Fisher. Presenting at the conference, we gave an overview of our current progress of Mars Settlement design and some of the results of our eight-month feasibility study. We are continuing our cutting-edge research efforts into permanent Mars settlement technologies & systems, and will be publishing our concepts over this summer in peer-reviewed scientific publications.

NASA's new administrator and Texas Republican Rep. Tom DeLay said Tuesday the space agency will have the necessary funding to implement President Bush's vision to send astronauts back to the moon and to Mars. "We have the money to do good things," said Michael Griffin, who has visited at least seven of NASA's centers since he was appointed in April. During a two-day visit at the home of human spaceflight, he spoke with astronauts, flight directors and other top administrators.

NASA trains astronauts on desolate Devon Island in the Arctic, Earth's closest environment to the red planet. Sarah Hampson finds wonder in the wild.

Take the cold tolerance of bacteria that thrive in arctic ice, add the ultraviolet resistance of tomato plants growing high in the Andes mountains, and combine with an ordinary plant. What do you get? A tough plant "pioneer" that can grow in Martian soil. Like customizing a car, NASA-funded scientists are designing plants that can survive the harsh conditions on Mars. These plants could provide oxygen, fresh food, and even medicine to astronauts while living off their waste. They would also improve morale as a lush, green connection to Earth in a barren and alien world.

At the beginning of 2001, with Mars Express (MEx) and Beagle 2 progressing well towards what everyone thought would be an epic journey to Mars, the European Space Agency (ESA) called together a group of 10 Experts in Space Exploration. A few lively meetings later these experts came up with their vision for Europe exploring the solar system during the 21st century.

Two teams of researchers are hoping their tiny devices will mean big leaps for future Mars-bound humans, allowing them to carry powerful computers and generate life support materials from the planet’s atmosphere. In one corner, NASA-funded scientists are tweaking microtechnology to produce compact systems that produce breathing oxygen or rocket propellant, vital components of any manned space mission. Meanwhile, two Purdue University researchers are adapting microchannel heat sinks – small copper plates lined with numerous grooves each three times the width of a human hair – with conventional refrigeration methods to build more efficient cooling systems.

Human missions to Mars will be much more difficult than missions to the moon. Round trip human missions to Mars will require about two years to complete, compared with the eight-day Apollo missions to the moon. Because humans will likely stay on Mars for much longer than they did on the moon, the development of the infrastructure required for a scientific outpost that can sustain humans for long periods of time is critical. Robert L. Ash, professor of aerospace engineering at Old Dominion University (ODU), will speak on "Challenges of Building a Human Outpost on Mars" at a colloquium at 2 p.m., Thursday, May 5, at NASA Langley's H.J.E. Reid Conference Center.

Future hunts for past or present life on Mars, hauling back to Earth samples of martian rock and soil, as well as setting the stage for a human voyage to the red planet is taking on a decidedly European look. European Space Agency (ESA) officials are taking steps to shift into high gear the building of the ExoMars robotic rover mission. The lander would be launched in 2011, likely onboard a Soyuz Fregat 2b booster from the Kourou spaceport in French Guiana.

When humans return to the Moon and travel to Mars, they'll have to be careful of what they inhale. In 1972, Apollo astronaut Harrison Schmitt sniffed the air in his Lunar Module, the Challenger. "[It] smells like gunpowder in here," he said. His commander Gene Cernan agreed. "Oh, it does, doesn't it?" The two astronauts had just returned from a long moonwalk around the Taurus-Littrow valley, near the Sea of Serenity. Dusty footprints marked their entry into the spaceship. That dust became airborne--and smelly. Later, Schmitt felt congested and complained of "lunar dust hay fever." His symptoms went away the next day; no harm done. He soon returned to Earth and the anecdote faded into history.

Mice forced to breathe hydrogen sulfide -- known best for its rotten egg smell -- go into a kind of suspended animation, U.S. researchers said on Thursday in a finding that may help save human lives. Although hydrogen sulfide gas is toxic in high doses, it may activate some of the mechanisms that cause other animals to go into hibernation, they wrote in this week's issue of the journal Science. "We are, in essence, temporarily converting mice from warm-blooded to cold-blooded creatures, which is exactly the same thing that happens naturally when mammals hibernate," said Mark Roth, who led the study, in a statement. "We think this may be a latent ability that all mammals have -- potentially even humans -- and we're just harnessing it and turning it on and off, inducing a state of hibernation on demand," said Roth, a biochemist.

NASA's new administrator, Michael Griffin, faced the press today for the first time since being confirmed by the Senate last week and vigorously defended the Bush administration's ambitious plan to send human beings to the moon and Mars. "We could probably go to Mars for what we spent on Apollo" in today's dollars, he said. "It is a journey, not a race," Griffin said. If the country put aside "a few billion a year," the Mars plan would be "very affordable."

Rather than hurried improvisation, saving the crew of Apollo 13 took years of preparation. "Houston, we've had a problem." Thirty-five years ago today, these words marked the start of a crisis that nearly killed three astronauts in outer space. In the four days that followed, the world was transfixed as the crew of Apollo 13—Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swigert—fought cold, fatigue, and uncertainty to bring their crippled spacecraft home. But the crew had an angel on their shoulders—in fact thousands of them—in the form of the flight controllers of NASA's mission control and supporting engineers scattered across the United States.

An in-depth critique of the space program and a prescription of the radical steps necessary to make the new Bush administration "Vision for Space Exploration" real written by Mars Society president Dr. Robert Zubrin has been published in the Spring 2005 edition of "The New Atlantis," the journal of the Ethics and Public Policy Center (EPPC). The Zubrin article, entitled "Getting Space Exploration Right," includes fierce and systematic criticism of former NASA administrator's non-destination driven approach of (not) implementing the president's new human space exploration policy. It also diagnoses the source of the many debacles of the O'Keefe administration, including the Hubble fiasco, the Orbital Space Plane and JIMO program failures, and the Columbia disaster. Finally, the article lays out the technical approach needed for successful implementation of a human Moon-Mars exploration program.

An international manned flight to Mars could be possible by 2030, the Russian Space Agency said on Monday. The agency head Anatoly Perminov was quoted by Itar-Tass news agency as saying a Mars mission will be preceded by manned flights to the Moon. “According to assessments by our experts, manned flights to the moon will resume by 2015-2020,” he said. “The construction of a permanent station on the moon or industrial development of it is possible.”

After decades of sending probes across the void of interplanetary space, officials are now reshaping how solar system exploration is accomplished. The renovation is due in large measure to the visionary Moon, Mars and beyond directive given to NASA by U.S. President George W. Bush just more than a year ago. While money and mandate are in a state of near-rendezvous, the melding of space science objectives with human exploration goals is still to be fully played out, as is the prospect of broader international collaboration. "The scientific exploration agenda NASA has been pursuing for the past decade or so is bearing enormous fruit, providing key early inputs to how NASA implements the vision," said James Garvin, NASA Chief Scientist in Washington, D.C. "Initial robotic steps in the vision implementation will inform and guide future decisions that will ultimately steer how human beings explore the Moon and Mars." <