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June 05, 2008
Facing Mars at the Ontario Science Centre
Freshdaily
Previewing the new exhibit, Facing Mars, at the Ontario Science Centre last week afforded me the double excitement of returning to the Science Centre and being able to go to Mars. Seriously, I was giddy.
I've always been fascinated with all things space. In fact, my earliest memory was waking up in the hospital when I was three with a plastic toy space shuttle on my bed. Plus, the timing couldn't be better, because NASA had another hole-in-one shot to Mars last week and Canada's meteorological station is now reporting daily from the red planet.
June 04, 2008
Could NASA's Astronaut Suits for Mars Be Designed by MIT and the Motorcycle Fashionistas at Dainese?
Popular Mechanics
Dainese may be known for its luxe motorcycle helmets and leathers, but the Italian company recently displayed two pieces of decidedly futuristic apparel at the 2008 Legend of the Motorcycle Concours d'Elegance.
In anticipation of NASA's down-the-road Mars landing missions, Dainese has teamed up with MIT for an ambitious project that intends to pressurize an astronaut's body without the usual bubble of air that creates bulky spacesuits. We've seen the suit concept before, but bringing on these bike gurus is just cool—and smart.
Ditching the old-school “Moon Man” image, Dainese's futuristic space duds feature a fitted design strung with intertwining black-and-gold filaments. It may look like a sleek bodysuit by Armani, but the filaments actually serve a crucial purpose: They run along Lines of Non Extension (LoNEs) on the human body, which according to chairman Lino Dainese “remain stationary even when we move. If these points are united,” he explains, “the same pressure is established throughout the body.”
June 03, 2008
Mars500 – European candidates selected
Last week, 32 talented candidates gathered at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne, Germany, with the hope of becoming part of a unique study that will act as a platform for human exploration of the Solar System. The study, called Mars500, is a ground-based simulation of a mission to Mars and back.
Two of the candidates, together with four Russian volunteers, will be sealed in an isolation chamber for a total of 105 days starting in October. This is followed by the full isolation period with another two European candidates, which lasts for 520 days starting early in 2009.
June 02, 2008
Mars on the brain? Red Planet pioneers to face cosmic mind trip
If Dr. Robert Zubrin could take a trip to Mars, he would be sure to pack a bread maker in his suitcase. Not just because bread is a pretty reliable expeditionary food, but because the act of cooking, according to Zubrin, seems to help people get along with each other, especially when they are in slightly dire, less than luxurious and more than stressful circumstances. And Zubrin would know, too. He has, after all, led almost a half-dozen mock Mars missions on barren Arctic ice fields and scorching Utah deserts with volunteer teams made up of students, scientists, journalists and anyone else willing to wear fake spacesuits and live in tiny tin-can-like habitation modules for days on end. The simulated expeditions were made, in part, to research ways to live and work on the Red Planet. But they also revealed something else: what personality types might best be suited to make the 35 million-mile journey and who would be better off watching from Mission Control. "Some of these crews have worked out very well," said Zubrin, president of the Mars Society, a 7,000-member multinational group determined to reach what it calls the New World. "Others were at each other's throats."
May 29, 2008
Next stop: Mars
COSMOS
What will it take to plant booted feet on Martian soil? And what will it take to keep them there indefinitely? We set our sights on the Red Planet.
The dream of visiting Mars is as old as the fantasies of sci-fi authors Edgar Rice Burroughs and Ray Bradbury, but it took a giant step forward in January 2004, when U.S. President George W. Bush announced America's intention of returning to the Moon, and using that as a springboard to the Red Planet.
The proposed U.S. program – still in its early design stages – kicks off with a series of robotic missions to the Moon, followed by more manned lunar missions around 2020. It also involves a new spaceship, called Orion, based on a combination of technology derived from the space shuttles and the venerable Saturn V – the booster used 38 years ago to launch Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins on their historic voyage to the Moon.
That's the Moon taken care of, but it's yet to be determined when the U.S. program is due to crank it up a notch and set its sights on Mars.
May 28, 2008
One-Way Flight to Mars? A Soldier Volunteers
The idea, to say the least, was provocative. Back in March Nancy Atkinson wrote a piece for Universe Today about a retired NASA engineer named Jim McLane, who suggested a way to jump-start human settlement of Mars: go before we're sure how to get back. "When we eliminate the need to launch off Mars, we remove the mission’s most daunting obstacle," McLane told her. He said it would not be a suicide mission, but that risks are necessary when you do great things. "I don’t think there would be any shortage of people willing to volunteer for the mission. Lindbergh was someone who was willing to risk everything because it was worth it. I don’t think it will be hard to find another Lindbergh to go to Mars."
May 09, 2008
Demron lightweight, lead-free radiation-proof suit
gizmag
Radiation Shield Technologies has been granted a new patent for Demron, the protective garment that shields users from alpha and beta radiation, gamma rays, x-rays, and other nuclear emissions. The flexible, cool, and lightweight suit provides all the protection of a lead apron with a new level of comfort, and without any dermal or inhalation risks. Its malleability, thinness, and effectiveness allow it to be used for full-body nuclear, biological, and nuclear-biological chemical suits, tactical anti-nuclear vests, and high-energy suppression blankets. Several governments have ordered suits for use in emergencies that involve radiation, and scientists have even earmarked it for use in future missions to Mars.
April 25, 2008
Afghanistan Heroes Offer to Colonize Moon, Mars and Beyond
LiveScience.com
SFC William H. Ruth of the U.S. Army 101st Airborne Division stationed somewhere in Afghanistan wrote in response to SPACE.com Senior Editor Tariq Malik’s story Monday about Prof. Stephen Hawking’s belief in extraterrestrial life and he has a suggestion for NASA:
“Please forward this to the proper channels. I have read Stephen Hawking’s latest remarks on space travel and the importance of it to human survival. The problem is, NASA is going about it all the wrong way.
Here is an idea: Send battle-hardened, strong-minded soldiers and marines on the long trips into space. We are conditioned to live with the bare minimal (of) life’s necessities and are trained to be prepared for … the worst conditions that any environment could throw at us.
Hell, me and my men will go, set up a colony somewhere and await colonists to arrive.
Me and most of my men are on our 3rd or 4th deployment into a combat area. We are scouts, reconnaissance specialists. We go before everyone else and spend time living off the land. Sounds just like the type of men needed for a long colonization journey.
April 06, 2008
One-Way Trip to Mars
For now, NASA openly says the prospect of sending astronauts to Mars is out of the question -- too complicated and expensive.
But a retired NASA engineer named James C. McLane III says a Mars mission is doable, and would unify the world as never before.
Just a couple of details: McLane would send only one astronaut. And it would be a one-way flight.
February 14, 2008
New motor may let ships fuel on Mars
The Baltimore Sun
NASA is considering proposals submitted last month from a handful of companies for a spacecraft propulsion system that could refuel on Mars and other planets. Some of the companies that submitted bids include Alliant Techsystems Inc. and Northrop Grumman Corp., which both employ hundreds of people in Maryland. The designs center on an engine fueled by a mix of liquid oxygen and liquid methane, the components of which are found naturally on Mars. The propellants, which NASA dubs "LOX/methane," are nontoxic and safer than those that power the space shuttle. And astronauts would not have to carry heavy fuel for the return trip but could fill up at an outpost in deep space. "If we go to Mars at some point, it will be a method of living off the land," said Mark D. Klem, project manager for NASA's Propulsion and Cryogenic Advanced Development project, which seeks out technologies that could be developed for future NASA missions.
November 10, 2007
Robot Surgeons From Baghdad to Mars Are Closer Than You Think
Popular Mechanics
If a robot surgeon is treating you, your life is in danger. That’s not due to any machine-borne malice, but because current research into autonomous surgery is focused on battlefield casualties barely clinging to life and astronauts injured on distant planets. To demonstrate how that research is progressing, Silicon Valley-based SRI International and the University of Cincinnati held a series of tests this past September that sound like a cross between a PR stunt and a B-movie: human doctors squaring off against a robotic surgeon aboard a nose-diving DC-9 aircraft.
During periods of zero gravity and sustained acceleration of 1.8 g’s, a robot made incisions and applied sutures on simulated tissue, while a human surgeon did the same.
Conference to Discuss Exploration of the two Moons of Mars
Mars Institute
The Mars Institute is co-convening this week a unique scientific meeting titled "First International Conference on the Exploration of Phobos and Deimos: The Science, Robotic Reconnaissance, and Human Exploration of the Two Moons of Mars." The conference is being held at NASAÕs Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California.
The meeting is bringing together scientists, engineers, space exploration professionals, and students from around the world to discuss over three intense days (5-7 Nov 2007) the exploration of Mars's two mysterious satellites and how their exploration relates to that of the Moon, Mars, small bodies, and the solar system beyond.
October 28, 2007
Skintight, Lightweight Spacesuit a Perfect Fit for Mars?
Popular Mechanics
Until recently, astronauts rarely worried about what to wear—a standard gas-pressurized spacesuit was the only choice. But navigating Mars in a bulky 300-pound setup would be like doing gymnastics in a suit of armor. “They’re not going there to sit in the habitat,” says Dava Newman, a professor of astronautics at MIT. “They’ll have to work five to seven days a week.”
Newman has designed an alternative with enough flexibility to get the job done. Partially inspired by giraffe anatomy—the tall beasts use tight leg skin to help regulate blood pressure—the BioSuit relies on mechanical counterpressure instead of gas pressure. Every suit must be tailored to squeeze its owner.
Newman estimates the BioSuit is 10 years from completion, but already the multiple layers can offer 25 to 30 kilopascals of pressure in the legs, enough to counter the thin atmospheres of other planets. And they’re safer than the old “gasbag” suits—a small hole can be patched on the fly. While we wait for a Mars mission, MIT hopes to put the BioSuit to work on Earth, helping physical therapy patients exercise.
October 10, 2007
Self-sufficient space habitat designed
Cosmos
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.
September 25, 2007
NASA aims to put man on Mars by 2037
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.
September 24, 2007
Space Makes Bacteria More Dangerous
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."
September 17, 2007
Mice and men: space gerbils blaze trail for humans to Mars
Mars Daily
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.
July 17, 2007
One giant leap for space fashion: MIT team designs sleek, skintight spacesuit
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
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.
July 16, 2007
NASA Ponders Human Mission to Moons of Mars
Live Science
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.
June 23, 2007
Mars Is Under Attack! It Is Time For The Mars Society To Mobilize To Save Human Missions To Mars!
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.
June 19, 2007
ESA seeks candidates for simulated 'Missions to Mars' in 2008/2009
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.
June 04, 2007
Mars experiment might help Earthling insomniacs
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.
June 01, 2007
NASA Develops Plans for Moon-Mars Mission
PBS
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.
May 30, 2007
'Life on Mars' garden wins Chelsea
The Daily Telegraph
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.
May 23, 2007
Moon, Mars trips will pose physical, mental health risks
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?
May 22, 2007
Unwanted Life Forms Abound in Sick Spacecraft
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.
May 14, 2007
Sheffield scientists develop artificial blood
The University of Sheffield
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.
May 01, 2007
NASA rethinking death in mission to Mars
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.
April 03, 2007
Europe to Join 500-Day Mock Mission to Mars
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.
March 07, 2007
First woman in space dreams of flying to Mars
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.
October 24, 2006
Hitch hike to Mars inside an asteroid
New Scientist
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.
How Safe is Travel to Mars?
RedOrbit
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.
June 30, 2006
House OKs Funding for 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.
June 14, 2006
Hawking Says Humans Must Colonize Space
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."
June 12, 2006
On Mars, No One Can Hear You Scream
ScienceNOW
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.
May 22, 2006
Mars mission poses extreme psychological puzzle
Star Telegram
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.
May 01, 2006
Europeans psych themselves up for a trip to Mars
Astrobiology Magazine
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.
April 12, 2006
NASA Solicits Ideas for Exploration of the Moon, Mars, and Beyond
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.
Trip to Mars Will Challenge Bones, Muscles: Former Astronaut calls for More NASA Research on Exercise in Space
American College of Sports Medicine
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.
Russian bear plots Mars mission
The Register
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.
April 04, 2006
U.S. missions to moon, Mars still on radar
The Washington Post
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.
March 31, 2006
Mars mission seen as possible
Richmond Times-Dispatch
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.
February 03, 2006
Wash Your Clothes With Air
Gizmodo
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.
January 25, 2006
Machining with dry ice, on Mars
Machine Design
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.
January 01, 2006
Manned U.S. mission to Mars by 2030 eyed
The Yomiuri Shimbun
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.
December 22, 2005
Mission to Mars via Antarctica
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.
December 21, 2005
Underfoot insulation using nanotech
gizmag
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.
November 25, 2005
Mars mission plans more homespun than high tech
The Miami Herald
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.
November 08, 2005
Russia, China to Jointly Explore Moon and Mars
MosNews
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.
September 19, 2005
Moon-to-Mars Plans Emerge: New Agenda or Apollo Retread?
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.
September 18, 2005
NASA to offer $100 billion moon program
News.com
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.
September 15, 2005
NASA to Unveil Plans to Send 4 Astronauts to Moon in 2018
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.
September 12, 2005
Armstrong: Mars trip will be easier
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.
September 09, 2005
New Company Launches With Aim of Colonizing 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.
Coming soon: Moon, Mars mission specifics
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.
August 23, 2005
Russia Invites China's 1st Spaceman To Moon Flight
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.
August 18, 2005
Mars Backers Say Action on Human Missions Must Start Now
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.
August 04, 2005
Russia plans flight to Mars and development of space tourism
RIA Novosti
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."
August 03, 2005
The Future of NASA's Human Spaceflight: Shuttle-Derived Technology Takes the Lead
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.
July 24, 2005
NASA Quest challenges students to study Mars on Earth
Spaceflight Now
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.
July 03, 2005
Mars Foundation Presents Settlement Concepts at ISDC
Mars Homestead Project
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.
June 01, 2005
Funding for Moon, Mars Projects Promised
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.
May 23, 2005
Yes, there is life on Mars, if you keep walking
The Observer
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.
May 20, 2005
Designer Plants On Mars
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.
May 17, 2005
Towards a manned mission to Mars
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.
May 11, 2005
Micromachines to Produce Propellant and Air on Mars
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 planets 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.
May 05, 2005
Building a Human Outpost on Mars Offers Challenges
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.
April 27, 2005
Europes ExoMars Rover: Steering A Course Toward Humans On Mars
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.
April 26, 2005
Don't Breathe the [Mars]dust
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.
April 22, 2005
Forced Hibernation Could Save Human Lives
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.
April 19, 2005
New NASA chief backs plans to land humans on Mars
The Seattle Times
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."
April 18, 2005
Apollo 13, We Have a Solution
IEEE Spectrum
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 13Jim Lovell, Fred Haise, and Jack Swigertfought cold, fatigue, and uncertainty to bring their crippled spacecraft home. But the crew had an angel on their shouldersin fact thousands of themin the form of the flight controllers of NASA's mission control and supporting engineers scattered across the United States.
Washington DC Think Tank Publishes Zubrin Analysis of Space Program
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.
April 12, 2005
Russia Promises International Manned Flight to Mars by 2030
MosNews
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.
April 10, 2005
Space Exploration Overhaul: Next Five Years 'Critical'
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."
April 06, 2005
Next Stop, MARS
The Scientist
This past year President Bush announced a plan for space exploration that includes preparing for a human mission to Mars. Although the initiative is new, detailed plans for sending people to Mars have existed for decades. In the 1950's, Werner Von Braun outlined a comprehensive plan for Mars travel. At Apollo 11's launch in 1969, Vice President Spiro Agnew proposed Mars as the next goal for NASA. In 1989, President George H.W. Bush called for an extensive program of Moon and Mars explorations. And in the 1990's, author and engineer Robert Zubrin offered a simple and direct plan for Mars exploration. But reaching Mars within a reasonable time-frame will require more than plans; it will require vision: NASA must distinguish the problems that require new and imaginative research from those that can be solved using existing knowledge.
Students and young professionals from Europe and Canada design planetary habitats
The MoonMars Habitat Student Design Workshop is underway at ESA/ESTEC working in the inspiring setting of the Erasmus User Centre, the 30 participants have until the end of the week to study, discuss and design a Moon, Mars or other planetary habitat. The 30 students selected come from 13 different countries and a broad range of background, including engineering, space science, architecture, ergonomics, medicine and psychology.
April 01, 2005
Wanted: North Dakota students to design Mars space suit
Grand Forks Herald
SpaceShipOne to Cassini-Huygens, there has been a lot of recent buzz in the media about all things cosmic. Students at North Dakota's public and tribal colleges and universities, who wonder just how they could be a part of the future of space science, recently were invited to participate in the development of a Martian Space Suit with each of their home schools. Since that invitation, Turtle Mountain Community College has joined UND as a participant in the program, which is based at UND. The invitation to other schools remains open. "We need students with the enthusiasm and interest for human space flight," said Pablo DeLeon from UND's Department of Space Studies.
March 25, 2005
Air2Water Dolphin Water out of Thin Air!
TreeHugger
This ones got both the whiz-bang and why-didnt-I-think-of-that factors. Plug it in, and water comes out. Thats it. No lines to connect, no bottles to stick on top (spilling water all over the floor in the process). So where does the water come from? Somebody had the clever idea of combining a dehumidifier with a water purifier, so that instead of throwing out the pan of water sucked from the air, you can drink it.
March 24, 2005
Aurora: Mars mission options. Press briefing in London
Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council
On Friday 8 April, media representatives wishing to know more about ESA's Aurora programme and its future development are invited to a press briefing in London to share with European space scientists the results of an international workshop to be held in Birmingham on 6 and 7 April. The ESA Aurora exploration programme, currently in its preparatory phase, features robotic exploration of Mars as a first step to deepen scientific knowledge of the Martian environment and address technological challenges.
March 22, 2005
Rock dust grows extra-big vegetables (and might save us from global warming)
The Independent
For years scientists have been warning of an apocalyptic future facing the world. With the prospect of an earth made infertile from over-production and mass reliance on chemicals, coupled with an atmosphere polluted by greenhouse gases there seems little to celebrate. But belief is growing that an answer to some of the earth's problems are not only at hand, but under our feet. Specialists have just met in Perth to discuss the secrets of rock dust, a quarrying by-product that is at the heart of government-sponsored scientific trials and which, it is claimed, could revitalise barren soil and reverse climate change.
March 20, 2005
En route to Mars, the Moon
NASA has a new Vision for Space Exploration: in the decades ahead, humans will land on Mars and explore the red planet. Brief visits will lead to longer stays and, maybe one day, to colonies. First, though, we're returning to the Moon. Why the Moon before Mars? "The Moon is a natural first step," explains Philip Metzger, a physicist at NASA Kennedy Space Center. "It's nearby. We can practice living, working and doing science there before taking longer and riskier trips to Mars."
March 16, 2005
Mars Colonies Coming Soon?
National Geographic News
As rovers and orbiters continue to scour Mars for more signs of water and the potential for extraterrestrial life, space scientists and enthusiasts are champing at the bit to put humans on the red planet. "There's no question we'll ultimately go there. It's a matter of when, not if," said Lynn Rothschild, an astrobiologist at the NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California. Robert Zubrin is the president of the Mars Society, a Colorado-based organization that promotes human exploration and settlement of the red planet. He said the technology exists to put humans on Mars within a decade. "We are much closer to being able to send humans to Mars today than we were to being able to send men to the moon in 1961, when [United States President John F. Kennedy] started the Apollo program," Zubrin said.
March 12, 2005
NASA Mars Program Under Scrutiny
NASAs Mars program could undergo major alternation, driven by budgetary and technical issues, as well as science goals. Weve been getting inputs, advice, actions itemsfrom the road mapping teams, said Doug McCuistion, Mars Exploration Program Director at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. Nothing is finalized at this point. There have been no final decisions made or, frankly, any interim decisions made as yet.
March 11, 2005
NASA juggles work force as it shifts focus to Mars
About one of every seven NASA workers nationwide will be transferred or paid to leave in the next 1 1/2 years as the space agency focuses on President Bush's moon-Mars exploration plan, officials said Thursday. However, many of those who depart likely will be replaced by new workers with skills more closely aligned with the new, deep space mission. NASA employs about 18,900 government workers.
March 05, 2005
Flying To Mars From Moscow
RIA Novosti
While talking to journalists about Russia's view on manned projects in deep space, Anatoly Perminov, the director of the Federal Space Agency, said at a recent space summit in Montreal that nothing would be possible without all the interested parties conducting joint work on flying to planets first from Earth, then the ISS and finally the Moon. While speaking about the Russian space industry's plans to send a manned expedition to Mars in an exclusive RIA Novosti interview, Mr. Perminov highlighted a unique Russian experiment, Mars-500. This experiment will involve specialists and scientists, both direct participants and observers, who will try to create the conditions of a space journey lasting nearly two years here on Earth.
Non-Landing Flight To Mars Possible By 2014
RIA Novosti
Given sufficient funding, Russian cosmonautics can by 2014 manage an orbital flight to Mars without landing. Physician cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov, who set a record in the duration of space flight, said so at the press conference on the publication of the book World Manned Cosmonautics. To him, in 2018-2020 Russian cosmonautics will be ready to perform a Martian mission with landing. "But only if there is sufficient financing and cooperation with other countries of Europe", the cosmonaut said.
March 02, 2005
First Habitat Design Workshop: Call for applicants
In April, 30 students from across Europe will take part in the Habitat Design Workshop to be held in the Erasmus User Centre at ESAs European Space Research and Technology Centre in the Netherlands. Their aim: to find novel and innovative ways of sustaining human life in space. ESAs Directorate of Human Spaceflight, Microgravity and Exploration, responsible for the Aurora Exploration Programme, and the Science Directorate invite graduates and post-graduates to participate in this exciting nine-day programme of activities, organised by the Moon-Mars Working Group in cooperation with ESA.
February 13, 2005
Does Mars need women? Russians say no
Are women up to the job of exploring Mars? This week, the director of Russias top space medical institute told students that only men should be allowed on the first mission to the Red Planet, because women are too weak to endure the flight's rigors. His comments once again exposed the internal contradictions of a country that put the first woman into space while having the reputation of being the last European bastion of male chauvinism.
February 11, 2005
Lessons of slavery can take U.S. to Mars
The Journal Gazette
America can make it to Mars some day, but not until it understands how Africans survived the journey from their homeland into slavery in the United States, writer and poet Nikki Giovanni told her audience at IPFW on Wednesday. She spoke about how great black Americans are and how amazing it is that the people who were brought over to become slaves survived their journey and started anew. The only people on Earth who have ever been in an unknown space and unknown place and maintained their sanity were the captured Africans, Giovanni told a packed Walb Ballroom.
Planetary Society Invites Congress on Martian Journey
The Planetary Society
The Planetary Society will present Mars: A New World for Humankind to members of Congress in Washington, DC on Thursday February 10, 2005. Steven Squyres, principal investigator for the Mars Exploration Rovers, and Bill Nye the Science Guy, Vice President of The Planetary Society, will make the presentation with Louis Friedman, the Societys Executive Director, moderating the program. New visions for robotic and human space flight merge at Mars, said riedman. Politicians rightly ask about the value of space exploration; this presentation of results from Mars exploration will demonstrate that value and, hopefully, help implement the vision.
February 09, 2005
Russia to Present New Kliper Space Shuttle at Le Bourget Air Show
MosNews
New Russian space shuttle called Kliper will be exhibited at the Le Bourget Air Show in June, 2005. Kliper made by the Russian corporation Energia may be used for flights to the International Space Station and also to the Moon, the head of the Russian Space Agency, Anatoly Perminov, was quoted by ITAR-TASS news agency as saying. It also can land at common airdromes, he said.
Director James Cameron Works with NASA on Future Mars Mission
The maker of legendary movies "Titanic," "Aliens" and "The Terminator" is no longer limiting his zest for extracurricular exploration to the depths of the ocean. Nowadays, James Cameron is spending more of his "spare" time involved in NASA's bid to send human explorers deeper into the solar system.
February 08, 2005
NASA Haughton-Mars Project -- Summertime on a 'Planet' Close to Home
The NASA Haughton-Mars Project (HMP) is an international field research project centered on the scientific study of a very special island in the Canadian High Arctic, Nunavut Territory. Devon Island is the worlds largest uninhabited desert island. It is cold, dry, desolate and contains an amazing feature -- a 24-kilometer wide impact crater that is 23 million years old. All of this means that Devon Island is a very good environment for scientists studying what it would take to conduct a manned mission on Mars.
February 07, 2005
UK moves forward on Aurora
The Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council
A team of leading UK space scientists and industrialists have been appointed by the Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council (PPARC) to help shape the European Space Agency's (ESA) Aurora Programme of space exploration. Under the Chair of Dr Mark Sims, University of Leicester, the Aurora Advisory Committee (AurAC) will co-ordinate and define the case for UK participation in Aurora, taking account of UK expertise, science priorities, technology developments and potential spin-off applications.
PPARC sets up Mars committee
The Register
PPARC has appointed a board of space experts to oversee the UK's participation in the European Space Agency's Aurora programme. The Aurora Advisory Committee (AurAC) will be headed by Dr. Mark Sims from the University of Leicester, last seen as project manager on the Beagle 2 mission. He will be joined by the Open University's Professor Colin Pillinger, and Dr Sarah Dunkin, vice president of the Royal Astronomical Society, among others.
Biomedical Device Maker Teams with NASA to Develop Nano-Sized Biothermal Battery
Medical Product Manufacturing News
Biophan Technologies Inc. recently announced an agreement between its TE-Bio subsidiary and NASA for the joint development of high-density, nanoengineered thermoelectric materials for use with implantable medical devices. Currently, implantable electromedical devices have to be replaced every few years due to short battery life. Biophans aim is to develop a thermoelectric power system based on temperature differentials in the human body. By deriving power from the heat produced by the body, says Biophan CEO Michael Weiner, we can extend the life of these devices.
February 04, 2005
Games Join Space Race
Wired
If NASA is ever able to put a man on the moon again, or on Mars, it's very likely that the agency will owe a bit of thanks to a small Maryland video-game developer. In recent months, Vision Videogames has been putting the finishing touches on SpaceStationSim, a game timed for publication when the next space shuttle launches, supposedly this spring. As its title suggests, the game lets players pretend they're astronauts on the International Space Station in a 3-D, simulated environment. But pure fantasy this is not. In fact, Vision Videogames designed the game using technical specifications from NASA as part of a Space Act agreement. And now the company is under contract to play a crucial role in the development of the crew exploration vehicles, or CEVs, that could someday prowl around the moon or Mars.
January 28, 2005
NASA Hosts Lunar and Martian Exploration Workshop
NASA's future exploration of the Moon, Mars and beyond will involve utilizing natural resources at the many destinations. To gain a better understanding of the properties and behaviors of lunar and martian environments, NASA's Kennedy Space Center is hosting the "Granular Materials in Lunar and Martian Exploration" workshop Feb. 2 and 3, 2005 at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.
Sickening Solar Flares
Science
The biggest solar proton storm in 15 years erupted last week. NASA researchers discuss what it might have done to someone on the Moon.
January 26, 2005
High-Tech Spacesuits Eyed for Extreme Exploration
Future explorers on the Moon and Mars could be outfitted in lightweight, high-tech spacesuits that offer far more flexibility than the bulky suits that have been used for spacewalks in the 1960s. Research is under way at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on a Bio-Suit System that incorporates a suit designed to augment a persons biological skin by providing mechanical counter-pressure. The epidermis of such a second skin could be applied in spray-on fashion in the form of an organic, biodegradable layer.
January 25, 2005
Strategies for Martian exploration
The Space Review
There has been no shortage of ideas of how to send humans to Mars. From the Battlestar Galactica spacecraft of NASAs Space Exploration Initiative 15 years ago to Robert Zubrins Mars Direct concept to high-speed alternatives powered by Franklin Chang-Diazs VASIMR engine, there have been plenty of proposals for mounting manned expeditions to the Red Planet, with varying flight times, crew sizes, and, of course, costs. Far less has been said, however, about what exactly humans will do once on the surface.
January 20, 2005
Chinese Duet to orbit Earth this autumn
China Daily
Two Chinese astronauts may be orbiting Earth as early as September, this time spending five days aloft in the nation's second manned venture into outerspace, China's space agency chief confirmed Thursday. Sun Laiyan, who heads the China National Space Administration, also said the country expects to expand exchanges with the United States in space science and applications to further tap co-operative potential.
January 07, 2005
Are astronauts obsolete?
No way, says Steve Squyres, the top scientist for the Mars rover missions. You might think Squyres would feel a bit of sympathy with the sentiment expressed in "The Matrix" by Agent Smith, the movie's virtual-reality villain: "Never send a human to do a machine's job." After all, Squyres serves as the principal investigator for the wildly successful robotic Mars adventure, which has lasted a year as of today. But in a recent interview, the Cornell University astronomer said that human exploration has to be a central part of our effort to figure out what's going on in the universe.
January 06, 2005
Women To Participate In Imitation Of A Flight To Mars
RIA Novosti
Women will participate in a ground-based imitation of a flight to Mars "500 days," announced head of the Federal Space Agency (Roskosmos) Anatoly Perminov, sharing the plans of his agency for the next year. "The imitation is going to be more attractive than any of the currently popular reality shows. Six people, men and women, will participate in the experiment that will last for a year and a half. I will tell you about the details of the experiment at the end of January," he said.
January 04, 2005
Russia flies to Mars in 2014, USA's Martian mission slated for 2030
The time, when humans will fly to Mars and land on the mysterious red planet, is drawing near. Russia and the USA are the two countries that traditionally compete in the filed of space exploration. Russia's approach to the goal consists of three aspects. Russia plans to use its rich experience of manned flights - the development, assemblage and exploitation of space complexes. Scientists also plan to develop breaking technologies for this purpose and make the project feasible under problematic conditions of the Russian economy.
December 21, 2004
ESAs Exploration Programme 'Aurora' gets further boost
The countries participating in the Preparatory European Space Exploration Programme Aurora have recently confirmed and increased their contributions. This preparatory phase has attracted additional contributions for the period 2005-2006. Sweden has now joined the programme. The subscribed envelope has nearly tripled, from the original 14.3m to around 41.5m currently.
December 17, 2004
Superconducting Magnetic Bubble May Protect Astronauts From Radiation
Former astronaut Jeffery Hoffman is proposing a hybrid system to protect future astronauts; on long voyages through the solar system they will be exposed to lethal doses of radiation from cosmic rays. He has recieved funding from NASA through NIAC (NASA Institute for Advanced Concepts) to research the idea of a superconducting magnetic radiation shielding system to supplement (or replace) traditional passive shielding. The idea of using a magnetic field to shield a craft from radiation is not new; as Dr. Hoffman points out "the Earth has been doing it for billions of years!" Using magnetic shielding was proposed in the late 1960's, but not pursued after plans for further space exporation were scrapped.
December 09, 2004
Russian call for Mars volunteers
Russian scientists are selecting volunteers to be locked in a capsule for 500 days to test plans for a trip to Mars. The mock mission is designed to simulate the tough conditions of a space trip to the Red Planet. A team of six men will be physically cut off from the outside world to test equipment intended to make them self-sufficient for long periods.
Purdue method to help engineers design systems for Mars, moon missions
Purdue University
Purdue University researchers, in the culmination of a four-year NASA-funded project, have created a method that will enable engineers to design more efficient systems for heating, cooling and other applications in spacecraft for missions to Mars and the moon.
Space Cooking: Feeding Astronauts on Mars-bound Missions
While NASA engineers toil away with spacecraft designs to determine how humans will explore the moon and Mars, other researchers are developing devices to help future astronauts feed their hunger. Future long-duration space crews may need up to 40 different food processing machines to turn crops such as wheat and tomatoes into edible foods like bread and cereals, NASA officials estimated.
December 03, 2004
Robotic Tomato Harvester Ready For Space
Astronauts on space missions are busy -- too busy to tend the hydroponic gardens that will keep them alive on long trips to distant worlds, or on the surface of the Moon or Mars. Using a $100,000 NASA grant, Peter Ling of the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center has created a robotic tomato harvester to keep astronauts on task. NASA understands that long-term space missions depend on some form of farming as a matter of survivial. Plant cultivation not only yields foodstuffs and organic material, but also helps make air breathable and can provide water filtration.
BUs Fraser heads research committee steering NASAs moon and Mars missions
Boston University
Sending astronauts once again to the moon and one day to Mars will require another giant leap for NASA. But the space agency took one of its first steps toward that objective recently with the help of a report from a committee chaired by Donald Fraser, director of the BU Photonics Center. The National Research Council (NRC) committee was commissioned by NASA to assess the relative merits of four possible systems integration approaches being proposed for Project Constellation, the program to build the crew exploration vehicle (CEV) and related exploration systems necessary to fulfill President George Bushs ambitious vision for space travel
December 02, 2004
Expedition to a desert Mars
The Mars Society has begun a new series of simulated Red Planet expeditions at its Mars Desert Research Station in Utah, following up on past rounds of research. "Expedition Alpha" moved in to the space-outfitted habitat this week and is already sending back dispatches. Over the next two weeks, the nine crew members will test tools and techniques that could be used someday during a human mission to Mars then make way for Expedition Beta.
December 01, 2004
Cavity fighter approved for human testing
A biotech company has won approval to conduct human trials of a dental treatment that uses genetically modified bacteria to prevent cavities for a lifetime, after resolving regulators safety concerns. Oragenics Inc. said Tuesday that trials of the product, known as Replacement Therapy, would get underway early next year. The companys shares surged 20 percent on the news.
Next-generation Russian spaceship unveiled
Russian space officials on Tuesday unveiled a full-scale high-fidelity mockup of the spacecraft they hope will replace the veteran Soyuz space capsule. Descriptions of the Kliper (for "clipper ship") vehicle have been widely circulated in the space community but todays presentation in Moscow was the most detailed yet. The Energia Rocket and Space Corporation, the organization that has built all of Russians human space vehicles for the past half century, hosted the media event at its headquarters in Korolyov, a Moscow suburb. Deputy General Designer Valeriy Ryumin, himself a former cosmonaut, called the craft a spaceship of the future and boasted that neither the United States nor Europe have anything of the kind.
Fly Higher, Fly Lighter: 'Ballute' Technology Aimed at Moon Missions
NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate is on the lookout for new concepts for its Vision for Space Exploration -- the White House-backed Moon, Mars and beyond agenda. And on November 16th, NASA selected a concept from Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation for inflatable thin-film ballutes for return from the Moon. Not only Moon-to-Earth traffic could benefit by using the ballute/aerocapture technique. So too could missions to Mars, as well as future probes to Titan, the largest moon of Saturn, and other distant destinations.
November 30, 2004
The Lame Duck that Soared
Tech Central Station
When the history of this lame duck Congress is written, historians may make little notes about the dustup over intelligence reform. However, their long memories are likely to record that, by funding the President's space initiative, this was a lame duck that soared. The $16.2 billion that Congress authorized for NASA, a five percent increase in its budget, made it official that mankind is headed outwards again -- to the moon, to Mars, and beyond. The House also passed a revised commercial space bill, which just a short time ago, was pronounced deader than Tom Daschle's political career.
Researchers Build Mars Simulator To Put Interplanetary Greenhouses To The Test
University of Florida
Ray Bucklin can remember when "Mars jars" were sprouting up in laboratories around the country. In the years after the Viking probes landed on the surface of Mars, many scientists spent their spare time building bottle-like devices that replicated the thin air or the surface of the Red Planet and using them to see whether plants could survive under Martian conditions. Now Bucklin and his graduate students at the UF's Institute of Food and Agricultural Science (UF/IFAS) have put together a Mars jar to beat them all a room-sized chamber in which the researchers can test models of greenhouses that could one day be built on the Red Planet.
November 26, 2004
Expedition Alpha Launches
Expedition Alpha launches Mars Society Canada's field research training program. ExAlpha will be the 30th Crew at the Mars Desert Research Station, and the first of the 4th Field Season at the Utah site. This two-week mission will run from November 27th to December 12th, 2004. The ExAlpha crew hopes to set a new standard for high science-return missions at MDRS.
November 25, 2004
Artificial Gravity: A New Spin on an Old Idea
Keeping an astronaut crew in tip-top shape during lengthy treks to and from distant Mars may demand portable gravity. Theres need for long-duration space travelers to counter such debilitating effects as muscle atrophy, bone loss, cardiovascular deconditioning and balance disorders -- effects seen in humans as they cope with stints in microgravity. Over the decades, artificial gravity research has been an on-again, off-again proposition. But in the last few years, and propelled by NASAs new Moon, Mars and beyond exploration mandate, artificial gravity studies are now being developed, this time with a new spin.
November 23, 2004
NASA moves ahead on Bush's plan to return to moon, Mars
Knight Ridder Newspapers
With a green light from Congress, NASA is moving swiftly to carry out President Bush's ambitious plan to return robots and humans to the moon and eventually to Mars. The United States is also seeking foreign partners for the hugely expensive project, hoping to save money and avoid wasteful duplication. Space officials from 17 countries, including China, Russia, Japan and much of Europe, participated in a planning workshop in Washington last week. Representatives from each nation said they intend to participate in at least the planning phase.
November 19, 2004
Magnetic Bubble Could Protect Astronauts on Long Trips
Universe Today
Its the year 2027 and NASAs Vision for Space Exploration is progressing right on schedule. The first interplanetary spacecraft with humans aboard is on course for Mars. However, halfway into the trip, a gigantic solar flare erupts, spewing lethal radioactive protons directly at the spacecraft. But, not to worry. Research by former astronaut Jeffrey Hoffman and a group of MIT colleagues back in the year 2004 ensured that this vehicle has a state-of-the-art superconducting magnetic shielding system that protects the human occupants from any deadly solar emissions.
China considers NASA exploration
China and 15 other countries have joined NASA officials this week to consider how they might cooperate with U.S. plans for human exploration of the moon and Mars. The three-day Washington workshop was the first in a series of meetings sponsored by the U.S. space agency, NASA's Michael O'Brien said on Thursday, the last day of the gathering. "It was somewhat precedent-setting for this particular meeting to have the Chinese there in attendance," O'Brien said in a telephone news conference. China has its own space program and is not among the countries participating in the International Space Station.
November 15, 2004
NASA To Test Laser Communications With Mars Spacecraft
Work is underway to establish the first interplanetary laser communication link. The $300 million NASA experiment, if successful, will connect robotic spacecraft at Mars with scientists back on Earth via a beam of light traveling some 300 million kilometers. For scientists eager to download bandwidth-intensive imagery and other data collected by planetary orbiters, probes and landers, the laser communications would offer a dramatic breakthrough in the amounts of information spacecraft can reliably transmit back to Earth.
November 12, 2004
NASA Advances Water Recycling for Space Travel and Earth Use
Would Columbus have reached the New World if his ships could not carry enough water for their crews? Would Lewis and Clark have made it to the Pacific if they had no fresh water along the way? The answer is probably no, because water is just as precious to explorers as it is to everyone on Earth. Water is one of the most crucial provisions astronauts need to live and work in space, whether orbiting Earth, working at a lunar base or traveling to Mars. That's why NASA is following several different but complementary avenues at four agency centers to develop dependable ways of recycling water.
November 11, 2004
Space Race 2: Half-Price Rockets
The hubbub over a $10 million prize for a pair of private manned spaceflights is over, with a quiet electronic transfer of funds into the bank account of Mojave Aerospace Adventures, a check-and-trophy presentation ceremony last weekend in St. Louis, and a glitzy gala marking the official and successful end of the X Prize. Now, the real work begins.
Mars answers spur questions
Rocky Mountain News
Five spacecraft are circling Mars and creeping across its ruddy surface, looking for traces of long-gone waters and signs that the cold, arid planet may once have been hospitable to life. The robotic martian invasion - three orbiters and two six-wheeled rovers - has already uncovered strong evidence that water once flowed on Mars and is now locked in subsurface ice. But big questions about water on Mars remain. When did it flow? How long did it last? How much was there? Where did it come from? Where did it go? Perhaps the most tantalizing question: Were there long-lived watery environments where microbial life could have gained a foothold?
November 09, 2004
Scientific Paper Submitted from Space Focuses on Ultrasound Tests
A scientific manuscript submitted by International Space Station (ISS) astronauts while in space was published today. The research findings show minimally trained operators using remote guidance can perform ultrasound in space. The results of the shoulder ultrasound exams done in space for the first time will advance the care of space travelers on long-duration missions and may find additional uses helping treat medical emergencies on Earth. The article is available today in the on-line version of Radiology and will appear in print in the February 2005 issue.
November 08, 2004
Exclusive: Rules Set for $50 Million 'Americas Space Prize'
Space News
Anyone who wants to follow in the shoes of Burt Rutan and win the next big space prize will have to build a spacecraft capable of taking a crew of no fewer than five people to an altitude of 400 kilometers and complete two orbits of the Earth at that altitude. Then they have to repeat that accomplishment within 60 days. While the first flight must demonstrate only the ability to carry five crew members, the winner will have to take at least five people up on the second flight. And one more thing. They have to do it by Jan. 10, 2010.
November 02, 2004
Astronaut makes voting history
With a quick computer key stroke, space station astronaut Leroy Chiao became the first American to vote for president from space, casting an encrypted ballot via e-mail and urging fellow countrymen to go to the polls Tuesday. "It was just a small thing for me, but it is important symbolically to show that every vote does count," Chiao said from the international space station a few hours after the polls opened 225 miles below.
November 01, 2004
China plans to send 2 men to space in 2005
Xinhuanet
China's second manned space flight will be conducted by two astronauts over five days in 2005. "Shenzhou-VI will be blasted into space sometime next year," said Zuo Saichun, a spokesperson of the China Aerospace Science and Technology (CAST). "The spacecraft will make new breakthroughs in China's manned space technology." Their capsule is designed to be capable of orbiting for a whole week, the spokesperson said.
October 29, 2004
Travelling to Mars and hibernating like a brown bear
Manned missions beyond the Moon are no longer wild dreams. For example, the objective of ESA's Aurora programme, after exploring Mars with robotic missions, is to send astronauts to the red planet. Engineers are already considering the space systems that will be required, from the spacecraft and propulsion systems to the life support systems, for journeys that will last 6-9 months.
New Spaceship And Launch Vehicle The Foundation Of Russian Space Program
RIA Novosti
Russia's position as a leading space power is not only based on the number of successful space flights, but also on its ability to make long-term plans in this field, which is impossible without the continued development of new technology. Today, this is seen in the beginning of test flights and the continued development of new launch vehicles and spaceships. This is the main component of the national space program for the next decades. An example of this is Samara-based Progress Space Center's Soyuz-2-Rus rocket, which will have its first test flight on October 29, as well as the Kliper shuttle spacecraft which was included in Russia's 2005-2025 Federal Space Program.
October 27, 2004
Mars travel expert to speak
Wartburg College
Internationally- renowned astronautical engineer Dr. Robert Zubrin will speak as part of the convocation series at 11:30 a.m. Nov. 2 in Neumann Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public. He will present his book, The Case for Mars: The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must (Simon and Schuster, 1996), and he plans to highlight the research and plan for enacting humankinds habitation and settlement of Mars. His 16 years of experience has led him to confidently affirm humans will be able to send people to Mars within 10 years. We are more prepared today to send humans to Mars than we were to send men to the moon, Zubrin said. We could be on Mars in eight years.
October 26, 2004
Paving the way for pioneers
EurekAlert!
As American space exploration fulfills promises for a new era of long-term moon colonization and a mission to Mars, the research of Florida Institute of Technology space physicist Ming Zhang will become more important to the lives of each and every astronaut. While his research on cosmic radiation has its roots in pure science, the practical applications of what he has learned about space weather are matters of life and death. With more than $1 million in NASA funding, Zhang is researching cosmic and energetic solar radiation, seeking how the two space weather components affect human beings, both as space travelers and as the end-user of satellite technology.
October 24, 2004
Blinding Flashes
Gazing out of their space capsules, Apollo astronauts witnessed sights that humans had never before seen. They saw the breathtaking view of the Earth's bright blue disc against the inky black of space. They saw the far side of the Moon. They also saw strange flashes of light inside their eyeballs! Since then, astronauts aboard Skylab, the Shuttle, Mir, and the International Space Station have all reported seeing these flashes. No need to call Agents Mulder and Scully of The X Files, though: what the astronauts are experiencing is space radiation zipping through their eyes like subatomic bullets. When a "bullet" strikes the retina, it triggers a false signal that the brain interprets as a flash of light.
October 21, 2004
NASA administrator: Mars mission an investment in research
Orlando Business Journal
The announced manned mission to Mars is not simply a flight of fancy, but an important investment in research, NASA's administrator said Thursday. In a wide-ranging session at the weeklong Gartner Symposium/ITxpo at the Walt Disney World Dolphin, Sean O'Keefe also said throughout human history, there has been the desire to explore the unknown, to understand what we don't know and then build on what we learn from the experience.
October 20, 2004
Plasma beam for 90-day Mars visit
Advocates of a propulsion idea for spacecraft claim that it would enable a 90-day round trip to Mars.
Using current technology, it would take astronauts about 2.5 years to travel to Mars, conduct their mission and return to Earth, US scientists estimate. It would use a space station to fire a beam of magnetised particles at a solar sail mounted on a spacecraft.
October 18, 2004
Russia invites U.S. to join Moon and Mars mission project
Interfax
Russia has called on the United States and other space exploring countries to share in the Kosmoport project in which the Energiya launching complex in Baikonur would be used to send flights to Mars and the Moon.
Gourmet cooking on the way to Mars
Technologies from space provide new solutions for food handling on Earth. In exchange travellers in space will get gourmet menus from Earth to cheer them up during long space missions. At the International Food Exhibition SIAL in Paris this week, ESA presents an exchange of ideas between food and space, including recipes for travellers to Mars.
October 14, 2004
Mars in reach for campers from region
Amarillo Globe News
Although he isn't quite through with high school, Nathan Lynch is pretty sure that, if he had to, he could get to Mars.
And after six months of homework from NASA and a week at High School Aerospace Scholars program, that's not just empty bragging.
"I think with all the information we had, it looked like if we'd have had the technology, we could have done it that day," said Lynch, a White Deer High School senior. "It was amazing to see that 40 high school students could come together and put a mission together to Mars."
October 12, 2004
A Sleepy Science: Will Humans Hibernate Their Way Through Space?
In the future, bedtime for astronauts may be more than a few evening hours of regular shuteye. It may help them reach other planets, though admittedly they would have to sleep for quite a long time.
European researchers, however, are on the case, conducting hibernation experiments that will hopefully help them understand whether humans could ever sleep through the multiple years it would take for a spaceflight to the outer planets or beyond.
Race doesn't reflect NASA, exploration
CentreDaily.com
For all its prominence in Florida, America's space program is barely on the radar of the two presidential candidates on the campaign trail.
President Bush laid out an ambitious new agenda for NASA during a speech at the agency's Washington headquarters in January, but has referred to his "vision for space exploration" only rarely, and in passing, since.
Symposium on "Beamed Energy Propulsion"
Albany Times Union
What the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute professor and several other researchers are working on is something called "beamed energy propulsion," using laser beams to propel spacecraft without the big, fire-belching engines rocket ships are associated with today.
As a result, they would be lighter, cheaper and more accessible to the average person who wants to take a jaunt into space.
October 11, 2004
Volunteers Needed For MDRS Crews: Hard Work, No Pay, Eternal Glory
Call for Volunteers: The Mars Society is requesting volunteers to participate as members of the crew of the Mars Desert Research Station in southern Utah during extended simulations of human Mars exploration operations. The upcoming Mars Desert Research Station field season will begin in December 2004 and run through April 2005. The Mars Society will be issuing an additional call for volunteers for the summer 2005 field season of the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station (FMARS) on Devon Island later. However those volunteering for MDRS at this time may also volunteer for FMARS 2005. FMARS crew selection is highly competitive, and prior experience at MDRS, while not strictly required, is considered to be an important credential for FMARS selection. In 2004, for example, 6 out of 7 FMARS crew members had prior MDRS experience. Submission deadline for the first round of MDRS selections is October 31, 2004. Applications submitted after that date will be considered for openings as they become available.
Concept Centaur
Segway
Concept Centaur combines proprietary dynamic stabilization technology with advanced propulsion and suspension systems, and an intuitive user interface to create a unique four-wheel device that is easily controllable on two or four wheels. Its full suspension and aggressive rider positioning provide an exhilarating ride for one or two people while maintaining control over a variety of terrain. Its rugged performance, zero emissions, and quiet operation make it a good low-impact way to explore the world. Its power and versatility make it suitable for a variety of indoor and outdoor recreational and commercial applications.
Russia Plans 500-Day Mock Mars Mission
Russian space researchers will lock six men in a metal tube for more than year in an effort to mimic the stresses and challenges of a manned mission to Mars. The 500 Days experiment, under development by the Russian Institute of Medical and Biological Problems, will isolate human volunteers in a mock space station module for -- as its namesake suggests -- a complete 500 days to study how a long mission to Mars might affect its human crew. "Obviously, we're very interested in the results," NASA spokeswoman Dolores Beasley said of the long-duration study during a telephone interview. "It is a high priority for us."
October 08, 2004
NASA's New Astronauts Meet The Press
Fresh from flight training and their first head-over-heels sample of weightlessness, NASA's astronaut candidates are available to meet with the news media Thursday in Houston at 3 p.m. EDT. The class includes three educator astronauts, three military pilots, a Navy SEAL, an astrophysicist, two physicians, and an engineer. Also training with the 11-member astronaut candidate class are three Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronauts.
Drug may keep astronauts' bones strong
Nature
A drug that prevents bone loss could permit astronauts to make long journeys in space, according to results from a study of spinal injury patients. Drugs such as zoledronate could certainly play a key role in long space missions, says Colin McGuckin, a stem-cell scientist at Kingston University, UK, who is working with NASA to develop a way to use cell transplants to limit an astronaut's bone loss.
"It's six months to Mars, a year doing experiments on the surface and then six months back. Over that time, bone loss is going to be a major problem," he says.
But he adds that a mission to Mars will probably still need to provide the astronauts with an artificial gravity area, generated by a rotating section of the ship. "The solution will be a combination of clever medicine and clever spacecraft," he says.
October 06, 2004
$50 million orbital space race launched
A Las Vegas hotel magnate who is hoping to build the world's first commercial space stations on Tuesday launched a challenge offering $50 million to the creators of the first privately funded spaceship to reach orbit. Robert Bigelow, who owns Budget Suites of America, formally announced the long-rumored prize just a day after the first privately funded spaceship rocketed out of the atmosphere and won the $10 million Ansari X Prize, which was designed to spur commercial spaceflight. To win the contest, which is limited to U.S.-based ventures, a team must build a five-seat spacecraft without government money and send five astronauts into orbit above the Earth twice within 60 days.
October 04, 2004
Hollis-Eden Releases Data from NEUMUNE Study Indicating Survival Benefit against High-Dose Radiation Exposure
BussinessWire
Hollis-Eden Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ:HEPH) today released data from a pilot study indicating that non-human primates treated with NEUMUNE(TM)(HE2100) after exposure to a high dose of radiation experienced an improved rate of survival over animals receiving placebo or no treatment. NEUMUNE is an investigational immune regulating hormone being developed by Hollis-Eden as a treatment for acute radiation injury pursuant to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) "animal rule" for countermeasures to weapons of mass destruction. The Company is presenting the data this week at the 46th Annual Meeting of The American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ASTRO) in Atlanta, Georgia, October 3-7, 2004.
October 01, 2004
UK aims to be major space player
The UK is almost certainly going back to Mars and is set to become a major player in Europe's efforts to explore the Solar System.
Science minister Lord Sainsbury says the country will pay the 5m interim subscriptions needed to maintain a premier place in the Aurora programme. Aurora sets out a vision for Europe to visit the planets with robotic probes and perhaps one day even with humans.
September 30, 2004
How to reach space - on a pair of junkyard shocks
The Christian Science Monitor
By 6:45 on a chilly desert evening, a deep indigo sky has squeezed what remains of the day into thin lines of pink and turquoise twilight along the horizon. Satisfied with nightfall's progress, NASA engineer Joe Kosmo gives the word, and his crew begins to pressurize a spacesuit glistening under a floodlit canopy. Tonight's objective: to test new helmet lights to see how effectively they might illuminate an astronaut's path. If you've ever wondered how exploration equipment makes its way into space, welcome to the rolling flanks of Arizona's famed meteor crater. For two weeks a year, this stark landscape becomes a surrogate planet - a place where a small team of scientists from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration drive a futuristic electric tractor, guide small robotic "scouts," and test an array of other gear astronauts may need in their cosmic garages for future explorations of the moon and Mars.
September 27, 2004
New $50 Million Prize for Private Orbiting Spacecraft
While a team of aerospace engineers takes aim this week on the $10 million Ansari X Prize competition for privately developed suborbital spaceflight, a Nevada millionaire is planning an even loftier contest. Robert Bigelow, chief of Las Vegas-based Bigelow Aerospace, is apparently setting higher goals for private spaceflight endeavors with America's Space Prize, a $50 million race to build an orbital vehicle capable of carrying up to seven astronauts to an orbital outpost by the end of the decade, according to Aviation Week and Space Technology. Bigelow told Aviation Week that not only would Space Prize winners secure the $50 million purse, half of which he's putting up himself, but also snag options to service inflatable space habitats under development by Bigelow Aerospace.
Bigelow's Gamble
Aviation Week & Space Technology
The Bigelow Aerospace project to privately develop inflatable Earth-orbit space modules is beginning to integrate diverse U.S. and European technologies into subscale and full-scale inflatable test modules and subsystems at the company's heavily guarded facilities here. While much public attention is focused on the massive International Space Station (ISS), Bigelow has quietly become a mini-Skunk Works for the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC). Ongoing technical assistance to Bigelow from JSC is focused on helping the company spawn development of orbiting commercial inflatable modules by the end of the decade, with the possibility of JSC later using the Bigelow technology for inflatable modules on the Moon or Mars.
September 23, 2004
Refreshing Drinks of Fresh Air
Wired News
As much as bullets or body armor, rations or radios, an army needs water to survive -- especially when it's fighting in the blistering heat of an Iraqi summer. But hauling a soldier's daily requirement of three to four gallons of water has become a gargantuan burden to U.S. armed forces. So Darpa, the Pentagon's mad science division, has come up with a plan for thirsty GIs: Cut the amount of the water they're carrying in half, and pluck the rest from out of thin air.
September 20, 2004
What to Eat on the Way to Mars
Wired News
Thirty-five years ago on the moon, Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin busted open one small meal for man -- foil packets containing roasted turkey and all the trimmings -- while kids at home slurped Tang in solidarity. That mission lasted only nine days. Now, food scientists are working out ways to feed astronauts on a mission to Mars that will last years.
Mars astronauts will hibernate for a 50 million-mile journey in space
The Belfast Telegraph
It was once the preserve of science fiction books and films but scientists now believe that they will be able to develop ways of sending people on long space journeys in hibernation. The European Space Agency is funding research into what has become the holy grail of space travel - a method that will allow astronauts to spend months or years in suspended animation. The agency hopes to create a hibernation system for a planned manned mission to Mars in 2033.
Operation Public Eye
The Space Review
With the advent of small probes using high technology, it's now possible to build and fly spacecraft on a budget similar to a Hollywood blockbuster movie, about $200 million. With another couple decades before the first manned mission to Mars begins its ramp up to launch, the cost of flying a small but very capable spacecraft to the Red Planet should drop still more. That would put it within the budget of a consortium of news organizations, if not quite within reach of any one.
September 19, 2004
Body clocks 'hinder' space travel
Researchers think the human body clock could hinder space exploration. Russell Foster's team at Imperial College London, UK, is looking at how astronauts would cope away from Earth. Whilst the human body is used to a 24-hour cycle, the day on Mars is an extra 39 minutes long, which could prove difficult for humans to adapt to.
September 17, 2004
China's Space Managers Seek Approval For New Heavy Lift Launcher
Space Daily
China's space program is expecting government approval this year to build a new and more powerful rocket that will serve as the nation's vehicle to explore the moon, state media said Thursday. According to Luan Enjie, director-in-chief of China's lunar exploration program, the new-generation carrier rocket will be developed over the next eight years, Xinhua news agency said.
September 15, 2004
People on Mars Possible in 20 to 30 Years
People could land on Mars in the next 20 to 30 years provided scientists can find water on the red planet, the head of NASA's surface exploration mission said on Wednesday. Two partially solar-powered "robot geologists" -- Mars Exploration Rovers, or MERs -- have been trundling across 3 miles of the planet and into craters since January, beaming back data about the makeup of what scientists believe is Earth's sister planet. Asked how long it could be before astronauts land on Mars, Arthur Thompson, mission manager for MER surface operations, told Reuters in an interview in Lima, "My best guess is 20 to 30 years, if that becomes our primary priority."
Antarctic Living: A Space House for an Icy Land
A new research station at the bottom of the world may give future Antarctica researchers some special treats, like the ability to live above ground and look out a window. German scientists are adapting a habitat designed by the European Space Agency (ESA) to replace the shifting, disappearing and aging Neumayer II Research Station, a pair of metal tubes buried amongst the snow of the Ekstrom Ice Shelf in Antarctica's Atka Bay. The Antarctic version of ESA's space house is only the beginning, especially for an agency with loftier goals. "We dream to go to Mars," SpaceHouse designer Fritz Gampe said. "To do that we need very lightweight housing." It might be inflatable or use rocket cylinders or the present shell-shaped structure.
September 14, 2004
World's 1st Indoor Smart Garden
Gizmodo
The AeroGrow is a new aeroponic garden designed for growing herbs and even larger fruits and vegetables right in your kitchen or smoky dorm room, all without soil. Instead, the AeroGrow uses water and nutrients inside a clear planter, where you can see all of the roots as they grow. Three different growing areas are designed to let you mix and match different plants, and seeds started in the AeroGrow can safely be transplanted into the soil if you want to use it as a starter.
September 13, 2004
Next stop Mars: Professor to develop rocket prototype
Daily Princetonian
In the basement of the energy wing of the Engineering Quad, past a long, white tunnel, down two flights of stairs and through a set of double doors, is a postcard with the message, "Greetings from Mars." The postcard hangs on the wall of a lab the Electric Propulsion and Plasma Dynamics Lab (EPPDyL) in which research is conducted that may help put a man on Mars. And a grant from NASA just moved that research one step closer to completion.
It Isn't Mars, but It'll Do for Now
Mars and the Moon can be tough on spacesuits. So can Arizona's high desert, and it's a lot easier to get to. That's why a NASA-led team will head for sites near Flagstaff, Ariz., this month to try out equipment -- spacesuits, rovers and science gear. The tests could help America pursue the Vision for Space Exploration to return to the Moon and travel to Mars. The team will conduct a series of live satellite link videoconferences between researchers in the field and students at eight NASA Explorer Schools. Three of the videoconferences -- at 2 p.m. EDT Sept. 16, 1 p.m. EDT Sept. 21 and 2 p.m. EDT Sept. 23 -- will also be available to Internet audiences through Web casts.
The Right Stuff [to Wear on Mars]
Design News
NASA's plans to send astronauts back to the Moon and, ultimately, to Mars raises an important sartorial question: What ever will they wear? The zero-gravity spacesuits that astronauts currently don when leaving the shuttle to manhandle satellites and other large objects won't do when it comes to walking around the surface of a planet for hours at a time. "The biggest issue is mobility. On a planet surface, they'll have to walk, move and bend," says Lara Kearney, program manager for advanced extravehicular activity (EVA) suits at NASA's Johnson Space Center. Planetary suits will also have to be lighter. The shuttle suits weigh in at just more than 100 lbs with their life-support backpacks. Even when contending with Mars' lower gravity, that kind of weight would impose a big burden.
September 11, 2004
New Project To Design, Build A Home On Mars
Mars Homestead Project
Over the past summer, a new non-profit organization was formed and began a systematic effort to design and build the first permanent habitat on the planet Mars. The Mars Homestead Project, located online at MarsHome.org, is composed of a growing corps of scientists and professionals in the fields of Structural, Mechanical, Electrical and Materials Engineering, Architecture, Agriculture and Nutrition, Systems Integration, Project Management, Public Outreach, Data & Telecommunications, Mars Geology, Space Transportation and other fields in science, engineering, and management. An expanding board of advisors to the Project includes NASA/Ames scientist Chris McKay.
Editor's Note: This is the first public release by the Mars Homestead Project and will be carried on the worldwide PRNewsWire and other media outlets.
September 10, 2004
Budget Cuts Would Severely Hinder Exploration, O'Keefe Says
Aerospace Daily & Defense Report
The cuts to NASA's fiscal year 2005 budget request contained in the House Appropriations Committee's NASA spending bill effectively would halt the agency's plans to develop a Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) and achieve new breakthroughs in in-space propulsion, according to Administrator Sean O'Keefe. "We can't do this at the levels that they've contemplated," O'Keefe told Senate lawmakers at a Sept. 8, 2004 hearing.
September 04, 2004
Let a Thousand Reactors Bloom
Wired
Explosive growth has made the People's Republic of China the most power-hungry nation on earth. Get ready for the mass-produced, meltdown-proof future of nuclear energy.
September 03, 2004
The Mars Homestead Project - To Arrive, Survive & Thrive!
MarsHome.org
Utilizing concepts and designs from the past several decades, the Mars Homestead Project seeks to develop a unified plan for building the first habitat on Mars utilizing local materials. The ultimate goal of the project is to build a growing, permanent settlement beyond the Earth, thus allowing civilization to spread beyond the limits of our small planet.
Planning efforts of the Project are well underway after last month's Kickoff meeting at MIT. The project is now shifting into high gear in what is being calling "Phase 1", where initial planning documents will be generated by the multidisciplinary Program Study Team.
Note: MarsNews.com Editor James Burk is on the leadership team and built the Project's website.
September 01, 2004
Virtual Humans Proposed As Space Travelers
Better make room for an extra crewmember aboard any spaceship heading outward. This person wont require food, oxygen or water, nor even need to buckle up for safety. The tag-along traveler could, however, be a lifesaver in terms of getting the expedition to and from a celestial destination. Most certainly, a humans-to-Mars mission would be very complicated, fully loaded with high-tech gear and festooned with operating manuals, along with scads of on-line documentation. A virtual human could be set up to monitor highly complex systems in real time. It can interface with the human sojourner, easing that persons workload by monitoring onboard systems and automatically make whatever critical adjustments it has been authorized to do.
August 31, 2004
Mars Society Convention A Smashing Success
The 7th International Mars Society convention has been a smashing success. Held at the historic Palmer House Hilton, Chicago, IL from August 19-22, 2004, the convention gathered 400 leading space scientists, engineers, government officials, entrepreneurs, activists, authors, and artists from many countries, including the USA, Canada, Mexico, Venezuela, Britain, Ireland, Spain, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Poland, Japan, China, India, and Australia to discuss ways and means of advancing the exploration and settlement. Over 120 papers were presented, and over $50,000 was raised to further the work of the Mars Society.
August 30, 2004
Debating the Aldridge report
The Space Review
When the Presidents Commission on Implementation of United States Space Exploration Policy (often called the Presidents Commission on Moon, Mars, and Beyond, or simply the Aldridge Commission after chairman Pete Aldridge) issued its final report in mid-June, it won seemingly unanimous praise from the small but often contentious space advocacy community. The Space Foundation announced it fully supports the Commissions recommendations, and challenged NASA to implement them. The National Space Society (NSS) described the report as a plan that will transform NASA and lead the way to a spacefaring civilization. Even the Space Frontier Foundation, while quibbling with some of the language in the report, called it a rhetorical breakthrough and a huge step forward in human space exploration.
August 24, 2004
Space houses on Earth
An ESA-designed house that uses technology designed for space could become the basis of the new German Antarctic station, Neumayer-III. The new station has to meet stringent laws set up to protect the Antarctic environment, which is where the use of space technology comes in.
On Mars, More Water From Pricey Plumbing
The New York Times
When NASA decides to send astronauts to Mars and farther out, one of the biggest technological hurdles it will face will be making sure they don't get thirsty. A $49,000 toilet at Purdue University may provide part of the answer. When NASA engineers first considered manned missions to Mars to follow the moon landings, they imagined that the astronauts would simply pack lots of water and food.
August 23, 2004
Mars holiday, a pricey bonecruncher
The University of Queensland
A space travellers dream of one day holidaying on Mars might sound appealing, but it would be a one-way-trip. Not only would it take years to reach the Red Planet but our bones, muscles and joints would crumble under gravity on return to Earth. UQ researchers have shown the harsh realities of space travel and its toll on the human body using results from a European Space Agency bedrest study.
Pushing Earth's limits
The Columbian
To promote interest in exploring the Red Planet and learn more about what would make a successful mission, the private Mars Society each summer sends volunteers who pay their own way to the uninhabited Devon Island, 900 miles from the North Pole. NASA also sends scientists to the rugged island, which comes as close to duplicating conditions on frigid Mars as Earth can offer. Louise Wynn was part of a seven-member international crew of four Americans, a Canadian, a Pole and an Australian.
August 20, 2004
Have Blood, Will Travel
The radiation astronauts encounter in deep space could put vital blood-making cells in jeopardy. Editor's Note: Stem cells discussed in this story are adult stem cells, not to be confused with controversial embryonic stem cells. All adults have stem cells; they're crucial to everyday health. NASA is working to learn how space radiation might affect the blood-making stem cells of astronauts en route to the Moon or Mars.
Personal mission to Mars
Daily Herald
Imagine it's 2100.
Human beings have destroyed Earth.
Do you and your family have a plan?
If you're a member of the Mars Society you do.
Since 1998, the group - which is holding its annual conference this weekend in Chicago - has been advocating and planning for human exploration of the red planet.
"It may be where we're going to have our great-grandchildren living some day," said legendary science fiction writer Frederik Pohl of Palatine.
August 17, 2004
Soldering Surprise
Richard Grugel, a materials scientist at the Marshall Space Flight Center, watched his video monitor in disbelief. A transmission from the International Space Station was playing. The scene: Astronaut Mike Fincke touches the tip of a soldering iron to a wire wrapped with rosin-core solder. The solder, heated, became a molten blob with a droplet of rosin clinging tight to the outside. Solder melts: that's not too surprising. It's the behavior of the rosin that amazed. As the temperature increased, the droplet began to spin, round and round, faster and faster, like a miniature carnival ride.
Boeing to Design Guidance Parachute Technology for Mars Missions
Boeing
Boeing has won a $1.5 million, three-year NASA Mars Technology Development contract to develop guidance parachute technology for future Mars missions. The contract award, which will be managed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology, supports NASA's Mars Exploration Program, an initiative to utilize cost effective innovations for precision entry, descent and landing. NASA's proposed robotic Mars missions, using this parachute guidance technology, would be capable of landing on the surface of the planet within four kilometers (2.5 miles) of the target area. The technologies could also have applications for future manned Mars missions.
August 15, 2004
Race to moon, Mars a possible boom for area
Galveston County Daily News
Call it a space race. Competition to build a new craft to take astronauts to the moon and maybe Mars is on, with major area companies strategizing how to win contracts worth billions of dollars. And just how it all plays out will affect thousands of area jobs from Clear Lake engineers to the Galveston science and medical communities in an industry that clearly needs a boost.
August 12, 2004
Site chosen for Mars training lab
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Mars Society of Australia is to begin searching for investors to help fund a proposed Mars research station at Arkaroola in northern South Australia. The proposed laboratory will allow scientists to live and work in isolation, in an environment that closely resembles Mars. The site was picked during a month-long research trip by the Mars Society of Australia and Arkaroola was chosen because of its similarity to the Mars environment. Society director Jon Clarke says the challenge now is to get the funding to build the lab.
Think beyond earth, Kalam urges scientists
New Kerala
President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Thursday urged Indian scientists to take up challenges beyond the earth like launching missions to Mars and other planets by collaborating with other countries. Delivering the annual Vikram Sarabhai Memorial lecture on 'Dynamics of societal transformation' here, Kalam said he visualised a habitat being established on Mars and mining of the moon and other planets by 2050. "India has to participate in such challenging mission with other countries. Thinking beyond our planet is an essential trait. The thought itself elevates the person. The person is transformed into a creative state."
Bar the location it could be Mars
The Age
Simulating Martian environments began as an amateur passion among a scientific underground but NASA scientists whose long-term brief is a series of robot missions followed by a manned mission to Mars by 2030 are becoming increasingly interested and involved. Two Mars analogue environments have been set up, one at Southern Utah in the American desert and another in the Canadian Arctic on Devon Island. A third is likely to be based in Iceland and the location for the fourth was finalised last week by the Australian Mars Society at a site about 20 kilometres north of Arkaroola on the ancient basalt flanks of the Flinders Ranges.
August 11, 2004
Mars: The Nasa Mission Reports, Vol. 2
Apogee Books
This latest volume brings the exploration of Mars up to date. Including the latest results from the amazingly successful Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, as well as progress reports from the Mars Global Surveyor and Mars Odyssey missions. 416 pages with 248 pages of color images INCLUDES DVD-V / DVD-ROM.
August 09, 2004
Future Warrior Suit Exhibits Super Powers
Gizmo
Two future soldier combat uniform concepts were demonstrated to members of the US congress recently - a vision of what the American soldier will be wearing in 2010 and ten years hence in 2020. Both systems look straight out of a science fiction movie, with the 2020 concept bearing more than a passing resemblance to Star War's Darth Vader. The two new uniform systems are being developed under the Future Combat System Program and include a weapon, head-to-toe individual protection, onboard computer network, soldier-worn power sources, and enhanced human performance.
August 08, 2004
Mars astronauts 'will hibernate for 50 million-mile journey in space'
telegraph.co.uk
It was once the preserve of science fiction books and films such as 2001: a Space Odyssey and Alien, but scientists now believe that they will be able to develop ways of sending people on long space journeys in hibernation. The European Space Agency is funding research into what has become the holy grail of space travel - a method that will allow astronauts to spend months or years in suspended animation.
August 06, 2004
MIT-NASA team to test first interplanetary laser communication link
MIT
A NASAMIT Lincoln Laboratory team will forge the first laser communication link between Mars and Earth. This unique experiment, part of NASA's Vision for Space Exploration, will greatly benefit the transmission of data from robotic spacecraft. In 2010, the Mars Laser Communication Demonstration (MLCD) will test the first deep-space laser communication link, which promises to transmit data at a rate nearly ten times higher than any existing interplanetary radio communication link.
August 05, 2004
Lessons from an Arctic Mars
Two groups of researchers are winding down their field season in the Canadian Arctic, after testing tools and techniques that could well come into play during future human missions to Mars. They're bringing back tips for those future explorers ranging from practical feedback on spacesuits and drilling equipment for the Red Planet to new types of robotic helpers you might call "hoverbots." The Mars Society has already finished up its three-week-long simulated Mars mission at the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station. In one of the closing dispatches, simulation commander Jason Held noted that his seven-person crew covered 160 miles (257 kilometers) of off-road driving and 32 miles (51 kilometers) on foot. "There is no way that current robotics technology can cover that distance, over Mars terrain, while receiving the level of data detail recorded by our crew," Held wrote. However, he noted that robots would be essential helpmates on Mars, even after humans arrived.
Could astronauts sleep their way to the stars?
Nature
The state of suspended animation that astronauts enter during long-haul space flights is a staple of science-fiction movies. But now the European Space Agency (ESA) wants to turn it into reality. Agency staff are planning future research into the possibility of inducing a hibernation-like state in humans. "We are not sure whether it is possible," says Marco Biggiogera, an expert on hibernation mechanisms at the University of Pavia, Italy, who is advising ESA. "But it's not crazy."
August 03, 2004
NASA Announces Space Radiation Materials Research Grants
NASA has selected 19 researchers to conduct ground-based research in space radiation biology and space radiation shielding materials. Sponsored by NASA's Exploration Systems Mission Directorate, this research will use the NASA Space Radiation Laboratory (SRL) and the Alternating Gradient Synchrotron at the Department of Energy's Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island, N.Y. The SRL provides beams of radiation that are the same type and energy as found in space. They will be used for studies in radiation physics and biology in order to accurately predict and manage radiation risk in space.
Flashline MARS Crew Completes Field Season
Mars Socieyt
The crew of the Flashline Mars Research Station (FMARS, Crew 9) has completed the 2004 field season on Devon Island and is now preparing for pullout via Twin Otter to Resolute Bay. Reports and photos covering their month-long Mars mission simulation in the high Arctic can be found at www.marsociety.org. A complete report on the crew's activity will be presented at the 7th International Mars Society Convention, Palmer House Hilton, August 19- 22, 2004, Palmer House Hilton, Chicago, IL. Registration is now open at www.marssociety.org.
August 02, 2004
Scientists target manned Mars mission
ABC Radio's AM
The latest pictures of Saturn may have enthralled many amateur astronomers around the world, but there's one group that has its sights set on a different planet. The Mars Society of Australia is part of a worldwide network of space exploration enthusiasts dedicated to furthering our chances of one day walking on the Red Planet. The society is holding its 4th annual Australian Mars Exploration Conference, AMEC 2004, in Adelaide this weekend, attracting scientists from around the country and indeed from around the world. The Director of the Mars Society of Australia is Dr Jonathan Clarke, and he told Nance Haxton that Australia is playing a significant role in planning for the first Mars expedition.
July 29, 2004
Mock Mars spacemen camp on Devon Island
Nunatsiaq News
Would you like to take a spin in the MARS-1 Humvee, short for "High Mobility Multi-Purpose Wheeled Vehicle" or HMMVV? If you're a researcher with Mars on your mind, you might end up driving the sturdy, 8,800-pound refurbished rover around the NASA Haughton-Mars Project camp on Devon Island. If plants interest you, then the project's Arthur C. Clarke greenhouse, named after the science fiction writer and author of 2001: A Space Odyssey, may be just what you were looking for. Or would you prefer an EVA, that is some Extra-Vehicular Activity?
July 28, 2004
Man on Mars "In 25 Years"
Sofia News Agency
A man will conquer Mars in 20 or 25 years, according to former NASA Astronaut Jon A. McBride. McBride, who is in Bulgaria at the special invitation of Bulgaria's first cosmonaut Georgi Ivanov, said that in his opinion the biggest challenge for the mankind will be to step on the Moon once again. The Cosmos has a lot of hidden secrets, McBride said.
July 27, 2004
Russians differ on Mars exploration
According to the majority of Russians (51%), Russia should participate in the space expedition to Mars. Twenty-four percent of the pollees believe that such an expedition will contribute to space exploration. At the same time, 27% of respondents say that this is necessary but only with other countries. Sociologists note that young people aged 18-24 were inclined to answer positively and said that this was necessary for further exploration of space." On the contrary, the older generation was more practical in this issue. They more often said that we should first solve problems here, on the Earth. People aged 25-34 were the most numerous group, which favoured international space exploration.
July 26, 2004
John Kerry on Space 2004
Of course, the only comments from a Democratic presidential candidate in 2004 that have come to have any real relevance to the future progress of Bush's new space policy (should Bush lose) are those of John Kerry, the Democratic Party's 2004 nominee. The day after Bush's speech, the San Francisco Chronicle quoted Kerry as saying, "Rather than sending Americans to Mars or the Moon right now, these people would be better off trying to figure out how to get Americans back from Iraq."
Gene Variants May Make Women See Red, and Burgundy
A new gene study may help explain why she sees crimson, vermilion and tomato, but it's all just red to him. In an analysis of the DNA of 236 men from around the globe, researchers found that the gene that allows people to see the color red comes in an unusually high number of variations. That's because the gene, known as OPN1LW, sits on the X sex chromosome. Women have two X chromosomes, one from each parent, while men have one X and one Y chromosome. Because women have two different copies of the "red" gene, the fact that the gene can have so many variations means it may especially aid women's perception of the red-orange spectrum.
The Mars Challenge: Making Space Chow
Institute of Food Technologists
The question of what scientists may ultimately discover on Mars is as nebulous as another thats dogged space agencies for years: How to feed astronauts on a mission lasting several years. Experts in this space race for food taste and ultra-convenience convened yesterday, appropriately, at the Institute of Food Technologists Annual Meeting and Food Expo, the worlds largest annual food science and ingredient conference.
With no inter[planetary] fast food restaurants available, feeding astronauts during a journey to Mars raises nutritional, mechanical, and even psychological issues. Michele Perchonok, a food scientist at NASAs Johnson Space Center, raised a host of concerns. How does space radiation affect the nutrient composition of food? Will cooking create volatile conditions on board the spacecraft that could prove to be harmful? Will growing crops in recycled water affect their micronutrients?
Spinning Brains
Space Daily
Researchers have long known that spinning spaceships like a merry-go-round could solve a lot of problems: In weightlessness, astronaut's bones and muscles weaken. It's tricky to eat and drink, and even use the bathroom. Inside a spinning spaceship, on the other hand, there would be an artificial gravity (due to centrifugal forces) that keeps bodies strong and makes everyday living easier. The problem is, spinning spaceships also come with a strong Coriolis effect. Tossed objects veer. Reach out to touch a button ... and your finger lands in the wrong spot. Could astronauts adapt to this? And if so, could they adapt well enough to perform dependably in the life-threatening environment of space?
July 23, 2004
Flashline Mars Crew "Hitting It's Stride"
Reports from the field indicate that the 2004 crew of the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station (FMARS) is doing very well. The FMARS is located on the rim of a 20 km diameter impact crater on Canada's Devon Island, 900 miles from the North Pole. The crew, consisting of five Americans, one Canadian, one Hungarian, and one Pole, are attempting to conduct a sustained program of field exploration of the Mars-like polar desert while functioning under Mars mission operational constraints. By so doing, they are gaining essential knowledge that will help develop the set of field tactics that human explorers will need to use on Mars.
NASA turns to deep sea training for space
On a rocking boat in the Atlantic Ocean, astronaut Dave Williams struggled into his wetsuit. After helping build the International Space Station in 1998, a dive into the sea was the unlikely beginning of his journey back into space.
Williams, 50, a crew member of the Space Shuttle Columbia, was preparing to visit an underwater habitat called Aquarius, located under the sea off the Florida Keys.
NASA is using the marine laboratory to train humans and test technology for expeditions into space, the moon and Mars.
July 22, 2004
Human mission to Mars faces shortage of radiobiologists
nynewsday.com
The U.S. goal of a human mission to Mars faces many hurdles, among them a shortage of space radiobiologists. It's a shortage NASA addressed in part with its first space radiation summer school, held last month at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Until recently, space radiobiology, a hybrid mix of biology and physics, was considered a dead-end field. But now, helped by new discoveries and new facilities, the research has gotten more attention.
Scientist wants to invent steak for space
Evanston Review
Northbrook food scientist Norman Singer says it has always been difficult to get new ideas into production. And corporate mergers are making it more so. So for the moment, he's concentrating less on improving human nutrition here on Earth, and is setting his sights on feeding astronauts. The Highland Park resident, inventor of the Simplesse fat substitute and other food ingredients, says he's on the way to creating the first truly portable meat, which could nourish astronauts on trips to Mars or living aboard the International Space Station.
July 19, 2004
Aurora participants approve preparatory phase for European Space Exploration Programme
At the last meeting of the Aurora Board of Participants, held at ESA's Paris headquarters on Thursday 8 July 2004, the participating states approved the Preparatory Phase of the European Space Exploration Programme (ESEP). Revising the original Declaration, the European countries already participating, plus Canada, unanimously agreed to remodel Aurora into a broader preparatory ESEP. This is with a view to possibly increasing their subscriptions and welcoming further participants, including the European Union, in accordance with the signed Framework Agreement.
July 12, 2004
GSLV fit for manned space voyage: ISRO chief
Sun Network
The Chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), G. Madhavan Nair, said the third-generation geo-synchronous satellite launch vehicle (GSLV Mk III), scheduled to undertake its first flight in 2007-08, would equip India with a rocket capable of putting a man in space.
Russians Will Fly To Space With Europeans And Possibly With Chinese
RIA Novosti
Close partnership of Russia and Europe in piloted space programs today look almost as a decided matter. The two partners are going over from general talks to concrete plans. It became known this summer that Russia had offered the European Space Association (ESA) to take part in designing a new spaceship for manned flights to the International Space Station (ISS) and for flights under a Lunar and Martian program. "Reference here is to the universal spaceship Clipper, being developed by the Energia Space Rocket Corporation, said Anatoly Perminov, chief of the Russian Federal Space Agency (FSA).
July 08, 2004
Space mission to the sea
Three astronauts and a NASA engineer will test space station equipment and practice for living in space as well in a station-size habitat 62 feet (19 meters) beneath the ocean surface in the Florida Keys. The July 12-21 tour of duty in the Aquarius Underwater Laboratory is part of the NASA Extreme Environment Mission Operations project, or NEEMO. John Herrington, the first Native American to fly in space, heads a team that also includes astronauts Doug Wheelock and Nick Patrick as well as biomedical engineer Tara Ruttley.
June 27, 2004
Kalam calls for India-US cooperation on Mars
New Kerala
President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam Friday called for India-US cooperation in exploring Mars. While addressing delegates at the India-US space summit here from Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi through videoconferencing, Kalam said he visualises an India-US team establishing a habitat in Mars, setting up mining industrial units in space and working on a joint programme to destroy or deviate asteroids that endanger earth.
Europe's Great Space Race
Deutsche Welle
With the success of its first Mars probe, the planned launch of the Galileo satellite navigation system, Europe is emerging as a global space power. But does it have a chance of beating NASA in the space game?
June 25, 2004
Manned Mission To Mars Could Drive Change
Small Times
A manned mission to Mars may be among the greatest technological challenges ever attempted by humankind. To meet such a missions unprecedented requirements, considerable innovation is needed to further reduce weight, energy consumption and maintenance requirements. New capabilities are also needed for better shielding from radiation, improved protection from extreme cold temperatures on Mars and extreme heat on re-entry, purification systems for water and air and early-stage diagnosis of sick astronauts.
June 24, 2004
The New Space Race
ProjectConstellation.US
An article by James Burk, the Editor of MarsNews.com
The new Vision for Space Exploration, announced by President Bush on January 14th, 2004, represents a sea-change for the United States space program led by NASA. But that announcement arrived during the context of many other recent and significant advancements in the space arena. Together many experts feel this signals the beginning of a new "space race" much like the 1960's race to the Moon between the United States and the Soviet Union.
Muscular 4-year-old may power medical advances
The Seattle Times
Somewhere in Germany is a baby Superman, born in Berlin with bulging arm and leg muscles. Not yet 5, he can hold 7-pound weights with arms extended, something many adults cannot do. He has muscles twice the size of other children his age and half their body fat. DNA testing showed why: The boy has a genetic mutation that boosts muscle growth.
June 22, 2004
Kerry: NASA yes, Bush space plan no
Space Politics
An article in Aerospace Daily today (not available online) discusses John Kerry's views on NASA and the Bush space plan, based primarily on an interview with Jason Furman, the candidate's economic policy director. Furman told Aerospace Daily that Kerry doesn't support the new exploration plan "mainly because he thinks it would cost too much."
June 18, 2004
The United Nations of Mars
Astrobiology Magazine
Great Terraforming Debate: Part V - Donna Shirley, John Rummel, and Kim Stanley Robinson. The Mars Terraforming Debate is co-sponsored by NASA's Astrobiology Magazine, the SciFi Museum (Seattle), and Breakpoint Media.
Builders in a Strange Land
Wired
If you have the heart of a homesteader and can endure a seven-month journey inside a container the size of a minivan, perhaps you will be among the first settlers of one of humanity's next frontiers: Mars. You may even find a comfy home -- made with locally produced red brick, metal and fiberglass -- waiting for you on the red planet, thanks to scientists and engineers, many of them from MIT, who are looking into the challenges of building homes on Mars. But Martian settlers will not want to live stuffed inside small, sterile-looking modular outposts for very long periods, said Mark Homnick, co-founder of the recently formed group at MIT, the Mars Homestead Project.
June 17, 2004
Op/Ed: Space Is Our Home, not a Program
Betterhumans
When I walk with my head held high, I can see great distances and imagine great things. When I walk with eyes cast down, I see only my feet and the sidewalk below them. When it comes to America's vision for space, most of the commentary on President Bush's recently announced initiative is sadly sidewalk-bound. For decades the space debate has focused too much on exploration. The exploration of space is valuable in and of itself, but the most important reason for exploring spacethe reason that robots alone simply don't countcan be summed up in one word:
settlement.
June 16, 2004
Kerry Criticizes Bush for Space Vision
U.S. Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry says he supports a reinvigorated space exploration agenda for NASA but finds fault with the vision U.S. President George W. Bush laid out for the space agency in January.
Kerry criticized the Bush space vision as big on goals but short on resources. Kerry also offered a preview of how NASAs agenda might change if he is elected president in November.
June 13, 2004
Business key to man on mars
Sunday Herald
A leaked US report has stated the ambitious journey of man to Mars will have to be funded by private companies and not rely on NASA coffers for the trip.
President Bush gave the Commission on Implementation of US Space Exploration Policy group six months to study what shake ups would be needed to ensure humans get further into the solar system.
June 11, 2004
Moon-to-Mars Commission Recommends Major Changes at NASA
A commission chartered by U.S. President George W. Bush to advise him on implementing a broad new space exploration vision is recommending streamlining the NASA bureaucracy, relying more heavily on the private sector, and maintaining more oversight of the nations space program at the White House. The Presidents Commission on Implementation of U.S. Space Exploration Policy is scheduled to release its final report June 16. A copy of that report, A Journey to Inspire, Innovate, and Discover, was obtained by Space News .
Space Flight For Fruit
Sky News
A British farmer is working with NASA to develop strawberries that could grow on Mars, it has emerged. Peter Vinson's family fruit firm may supply a plant for astronauts to grow during a two-year voyage to the Red Planet. The fruit - already dubbed 'Marsberries' - would then also be grown on any base that was set up on Mars, according to Mr Vinson.
June 09, 2004
Should the American space program send a manned mission to Mars?
KVIE Public Television
No matter how you vote, you will be presented with a view that differs from yours. Try it a few times and see. Only at the end will you make your "final" choice. We recognize that nothing about "You Decide" subjects is black and white. The activities invite you to become part of the debate through a critical exploration of the issues. Check back each month for new questions.
Delayed Moon-to-Mars Report to be Released June 16
The Presidents Commission on Moon, Mars, and Beyond will report its findings at a Noon press conference on Wednesday, June 16. The report had originally been scheduled for release June 10 but was delayed because of the activities in Washington in honor of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan, Commission spokeswoman Susan Flowers said June 7.
June 07, 2004
Man To Fly To Mars, Radiation Or None, Says Russian Scholar
RIA Novosti
An international symposium on gravitation physiology took start in Moscow today. Anatoli Grigoryev, Full Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medical and Biological Problems Director, made an opening address to an impressive scholarly gathering. He took stock of problems science encounters in preparing a manned flight to Mars. Hard radiation and bad gravitation changes are the most formidable stumbling blocks. Be that as it may, we have no reason to bury the idea, Academician Grigoryev said in a communication headed, "Physiological Problems of Manned Martian Flight".
Moon-to-Mars Report Delayed by Activities Honoring Reagan
The Presidents Commission on Moon, Mars, and Beyond has delayed the release its report to the public from June 10 to sometime the week of June 14 because of the activities in Washington in honor of former U.S. President Ronald Reagan, Commission spokeswoman Susan Flowers said June 7, 2004.
Sterility awaits Mars mission crews
The Sydney Morning Herald
A manned space mission to Mars should only include men aged over 60 in view of irreversible sterility that will afflict crew members on the flight, veteran Russian cosmonaut Valery Polyakov said in Moscow yesterday. Prolonged exposure to radiation, calcium deficit and muscular atrophy caused by weightlessness would make it "irrational and cruel" to send younger men, the qualified doctor said at a conference on the medical effects of long term space flight.
May 26, 2004
Desert trek a dry run for Mars
A 44-year-old adventurer sets off Wednesday on a gruelling solo trek across Australia's giant Simpson Desert that scientists hope will help them plan future missions to Mars.
Rob Porcaro, a marketing executive from South Australia, plans to hike 520km in 16 days across claypans, salt lakes and more than 700 sand dunes in remote central Australia.
Russia, EU to Simulate Manned Mars Mission
MosNews
Russian and European specialists, in planning for a piloted mission to Mars, are preparing an experiment that would put six or seven humans on a space ship that would simulate life on Mars. Valery Polyakov, a Russian scientist and biologist, was quoted as saying that the Institute for Biomedical Problems in Moscow was planning the so-called 500-days experiment for 2006. In the experiment, people will live in a completely autonomous space ship that will produce everything from food and water to the air people breathe on board.
NASA-ESA Study Shows Mars Direct Affordable
A joint study conducted by NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) shows that a humans to Mars program based on the Mars Direct mission plan is affordable.
NASA costing models show that the Mars Direct plan could be implemented for a cost of $39.4 billion for all hardware development plus the first mission, with each follow-on mission costing an additional $7 billion, while ESA costing models show Mars Direct costs for development plus first mission as $26.6 billion, with each follow on mission costing $5.2 billion.
Russia, Europe experts to jointly prepare manned flight to Mars
ITAR-TASS
Russian and European specialists will jointly prepare a joint manned space expedition to Mars.
Medical-biological aspects of support of a manned flight to Mars and back will top the agenda of the Russian-European seminar Space Medicine and Biotechnology opening in Brussels on Wednesday, Deputy Director of the Institute of Medicobiological Problems (IMBP) of the Russian Academy of Sciences Valery Polyakov told Itar-Tass before his departure for Belgium.
May 25, 2004
Simple formula for staying awake
Scientists have come up with a formula to enable people to calculate when they are most awake.
It is CDA + CT + KF = TMT or the time an individual is most tired.
Space Cycle Could Make Tour de Mars Possible
Pedal your way to Mars? Not quite. But an innovative "space cycle" that creates a miniature form of gravity might help keep a space traveler's muscles in shape.
UCI scientist will lead NASA effort to overcome physical impact of space travel
Today@UCI
UC Irvine scientist Kenneth Baldwin has been reappointed by the NASA National Space Biomedical Research Institute to lead a research effort that ultimately will help astronauts stay healthy in space for a year or longer enough time to conduct a manned mission to Mars.
May 21, 2004
Students fashion space suits for Mars
University of Alberta
As if getting to Mars weren't hard enough, astronauts also have to worry about what to wear when they arrive. Their concerns? Exposure to micrometeor sandstorms, radiation, and a hyper-cold climate. However, three undergraduate students at the University of Alberta--Jennifer Marcy, Ann Shalanski, and Matthew Yarmuch--addressed the problem in Dr. Barry Patchett's Materials Design 443 class and have published their findings in the Journal of Materials Engineering and Performance. Students in the class are asked to take something that already exists and improve its performance and design by using new materials.
China's First Astronaut Meets Buzz Aldrin
Three generations of astronaut met Thursday when Buzz Aldrin was introduced to China's first astronaut, Yang Liwei in the offices of U.S. Senator Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), the only serving member of Congress to have ever flown in space.
Later during the visit, Nelson returned to the topic of U.S.-Chinese cooperation. So when are China and the United States going to cooperate together in space exploration, Mr Ambassador?"
I want us to go to Mars, Nelson said, and I think we ought to go to Mars together.
May 19, 2004
Americans and Europeans in space race to be the first to Mars and back
cnews
American and European space agencies are in stiff competition in a race to send a manned mission to Mars within the next 30 years. U.S. President George W. Bush wants to return astronauts to the moon by 2020 and then send them on to Mars about a decade later. Michael McKay, the European Space Agency's ground manager for the Mars Express program, said "We're not sitting back resting in our laurels. . .we're looking at putting the first human on Mars in the year 2030."
Plants Altered to Produce Fish Oils
As if vegetables weren't already healthy enough, UK scientists have found a way to add heart-healthy fatty acids to plants. A team led by Dr. Baoxiu Qi at the University of Bath, UK, genetically altered a cress plant to produce both omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, which are thought to be protective against cardiovascular disease.
Harnessing the Power of Poop
On a two-year trip to Mars, according to one estimate, a crew of six humans will generate more than six tons of solid organic waste--much of it feces. So what do you do with all that? Right now, astronaut waste gets shipped back to Earth. But for long-term exploration, you'd want to recycle it, because it holds resources that astronauts will need. It will provide pure drinking water. It will provide fertilizer. And, with the help of a recently discovered microbe, it will also provide electricity.
May 18, 2004
Researchers Take Fruitful Look at Space Radiation Hazards to Brain
In addition to packing their space suits for a long trip through space, future astronauts may want to toss in some strawberries to take along for the ride. Fruits and vegetables, researchers said Monday, could help protect spacefaring humans from suffering severe neurological damage from radiation once they leave the protection of the Earths magnetic field, which shields the Earth from harmful high-energy particles.
China Cancels Moon Plans to Focus on Space Station
China plans to build its own manned space station by around 2020 but has shelved plans to put a man on the moon for financial reasons, state media quoted the chief designer of the nation's space program as saying. Wang Yongzhi, godfather of the mission that completed its first manned flight successfully last year, said the permanent station would take about 15 years to complete, the official Xinhua news agency said, citing a Beijing newspaper.
May 17, 2004
Space Exploration Alliance to mobilize 'Moon-Mars Blitz' on Capitol Hill
NSS
Twelve leaders of the Space Exploration Alliance announced today that their organizations would join in launching a "Moon-Mars Blitz" on Capitol Hill July 11-13. During this event, the organizations will bring their members to Washington D.C. to visit as many congressional members and staff as possible with a single message: "Fund NASA's requests for FY 2005 for starting the new Moon, Mars, and Beyond initiative."
NASA Researchers Say Space Radiation a Top Concern for Future Manned Missions
Before any astronauts can begin fulfilling NASAs new vision of traveling to the moon and Mars, scientists must first develop a full understanding of how long-duration exposure to space radiation affects the body, NASA researchers said Sunday. Radiation, they said, is among the top biological concerns facing anyone aboard long-duration missions. But it is not a showstopper, said Walter Schimmerling, NASA program scientist for space radiation research in Washington D.C., of the radiation risk facing long-term missions. What we are trying to do is to understand the risk and determine how to mitigate it.
May 14, 2004
Exploring the human factor of exploration
The Easterner
Human-manned missions to Mars may be more difficult than getting enough fuel. The Human Factor, as NASA scientist Dr. Jeffery Rosendahl defines it, may have more to do with future missions to Red Planet. Part of the argument for going to nuclear power is to cut down the trip time, in a low-entry orbit to Mars and back, Rosendahl, part of NASAs Biological & Physical Research Department, said. Officially, NASA has estimated a manned-trip to Mars would take at least six months, or 1,000 days of spaceflight for a round-trip, he said.
May 13, 2004
Moon And Mars Will Submit To International Community Of Earthlings
RIA Novosti
The sweeping American plans to explore the Moon and Mars are practically impossible to implement single-handed. This idea was expressed before journalists at a major international aerospace forum that met in Berlin by Anatoly Perminov, head of the Russian federal space agency. More than 30 years of Russian experience in developing and exploiting orbiting complexes and long-duration space flights makes such an approach well substantiated. Perminov emphasized, however, that Russia need not invest funds into a Martian project. "It is enough to contribute our scientific knowledge, because in many areas it is far superior to all foreign experience." True. Neither NASA nor anybody else today even try to challenge Russian achievements in space research. But it is far more profitable economically and politically to move beyond the framework of theoretical research alone and to develop a joint comprehensive Russian-American program for exploring deep space.
Veggie spread for astronauts earns Penn State team honors
Penn State
A team from Penn State took home top honors this week in a space product development contest by designing a vegetable spread specifically for astronauts. The annual competition is sponsored by the NASA Food Technology Commercial Space Center (FTCSC) at Iowa State University. Penn State students Renee Britton, Supratim Ghosh, Rajesh Potineni, Vandana Totlani, developed the winning entry, Veg@eez, under the direction of their advisor Koushik Seetharaman, assistant professor of food science.
May 11, 2004
New astronauts could be among the first on Mars
As universities are saying goodbye to the graduating classes of 2004, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is welcoming a new freshman class of astronauts. The 11 trainees are joining the astronaut corps at a time when the space program faces its greatest challenges and perils since the moon shots. The group includes four who already work at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Two of the 11 are women, and three are schoolteachers who will train as astronaut educators.
May 10, 2004
Russian Says Mars Mission Is Realistic
Russia's new space agency chief said Monday that a manned mission to Mars in the near future is realistic provided funding is adequate, and appeared to express support for an ambitious plan to visit the planet within a decade, the Interfax news agency reported.
"The project is very interesting and I am not turning it down," Interfax quoted space agency chief Anatoly Perminov as saying in Berlin, apparently referring to a plan announced last month to send a six-man crew to Mars.
May 07, 2004
Space Advocacy Groups Unite to Back Moon, Mars and Beyond Vision
NASAs vision of revisiting the Moon, stepping onto Mars and trekking to other destinations received a major boost today from leading civilian space support groups. In an unprecedented show of unity, thirteen of the nations premier space advocacy groups, industry associations and space policy organizations have teamed up to support the new space exploration effort.
JFK, Bush Space Plans Similar
More than four decades ago, on May 5, 1961, a Navy commander squeezed into a spaceship seat the size of a bathtub and was blasted into outer space for a history-making trip. American astronaut Alan Bartlett Shepard Jr. spent a scant 15 minutes in flight aboard his Mercury capsule, Freedom 7, but it was enough to electrify the nation's space program, sagging in the face of repeated Russian triumphs.
May 06, 2004
'Next Generation of Explorers' Named
Eleven new astronaut candidates are joining the ranks of space explorers. NASA introduced the new class during a Space Day celebration today at the National Air and Space Museum's Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center in Chantilly, Va. The class of 2004 will be the first focused from the very beginning on realizing the new Vision for Space Exploration. NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe called members of the new astronaut class, "our next generation of explorers, who'll help blaze a galactic trail through the solar system.
May 04, 2004
World calls for global space exploration
Representatives of European and Asian space programs say President George W. Bush's goal to send astronauts to the moon and Mars would be best served by including other nations. The international representatives, speaking Monday before a nine-member commission that has until June to make recommendations on Bush's proposal, said other nations were pursuing similar feats-- and their contributions could help.
May 03, 2004
Aim for Mars!
The Planetary Society
The proposed U.S. national space policy would direct NASA to shift its focus from low Earth orbit to the human exploration of the solar system. Robotic trailblazers, such as Spirit and Opportunity now on Mars, can prepare the way, but they cannot replace the human explorers that will one day walk the canyons and plains of the Red Planet. For over 30 years-since the last Apollo astronaut left the Moon-human explorers have been restricted to circling their home world. Now is the time to direct our vision to other worlds. It is time to Aim for Mars! The Planetary Society is leading the drive to redirect human space endeavors through this bold new vision. You can take action today to ensure that the vision becomes reality.
April 30, 2004
Perceived risks delay trip to Mars
Floriday Today
Perceived risks associated with a human flight to Mars are just excuses to delay the trip, Mars Society President Robert Zubrin said at Space Congress on Thursday. Zubrin, long an advocate of a direct-to-Mars voyage, compared the nation's space exploration goals to a rope. A tight rope between two points is the shortest route. A curvy, long rope, like a detour to the moon, means one thing -- someone is selling rope, he said.
Mars rocket designs favor tried and true
Aerospace giants are already prepared to compete for lucrative contracts in NASA's next big step toward the moon and Mars but they aren't eager to start from scratch on a new rocket to take it there. Rather than a crash program to produce a new super-rocket, like the Saturn 5 moon rocket in the 1960s, this new initiative -- which NASA is a year or more away from detailing -- is more likely to use existing technology from space shuttles and expendable rockets.
April 28, 2004
Sex, the final frontier: NASA acts to ensure that astronauts don't follow their urges
The Independent
In the First World War, frontline troops who were away from their loved ones for long periods famously had bromide put into their tea to reduce the distraction of their sexual drive. But yesterday it was suggested that such measures might be taken a lot further - to Mars, in fact.
Dr Rachel Armstrong, speaking yesterday at a British Interplanetary Society symposium on the Human Future and Space, said the US space agency NASA was considering how to deal with the natural urges of astronauts travelling on long journeys such as a three-year trip to Mars, where the six-strong crew would be likely to include two women.
In space, what do you do with the trash?
The Post-Standard
Forget about rockets, space suits and scientific discovery. Researchers whose work may allow human beings to one day live on Mars or the Moon are dealing now with more prosaic questions: Can you grow strawberries in space? Can you give tuna noodle casserole a shelf life of more than three years? And what do you do with all the trash?
April 27, 2004
Army Scientists, Engineers develop Liquid Body Armor
Military.com
Liquid armor for Kevlar vests is one of the newest technologies being developed at the U.S. Army Research Laboratory to save Soldiers' [Astronauts'] lives. This type of body armor is light and flexible, which allows soldiers [astronauts] to be more mobile and won't hinder an individual from running or aiming his or her weapon [science instrument].
Coffee on Mars, Anyone?
Deutsche Welle
You can't fly there yet, but that's not stopping visionaries and NASA from planning a colony on Mars. Would-be Mars dwellers can take a virtual tour of a habitat that includes many of the comforts of home. Welcome to the first Earthling settlement on Mars. The rover vehicle is parked on the left. On the right, there's a terrestrial biology growth experiment module, or, more simply, a greenhouse. And in the middle, there's the habitat -- a spaceship-like structure where it's imagined a crew of six astronauts will spend most of their 18-month stay on the red planet.
April 21, 2004
Reach for Mars, Kalam tells India
The Times of India
President APJ Abdul Kalam on Wednesday predicted that the planet Mars would become a home for human habitation in the next three decades and moon a major space industry base. "Mars might become a base for human habitation after 30 years and the moon would be a powerful space industry base," he said interacting with BEL employees from New Delhi over video conference during the golden jubilee celebrations of the public sector giant.
Fire-fighting fluid leaves computers intact
New Scientist
Fires in computer centres, museums and libraries could be quenched with minimal damage by a liquid that leaves electronic equipment and books dry and unharmed even after they have been flooded with it. Tyco Fire & Security of Boca Raton, Florida, US, has launched a fire suppression system called Sapphire that detects smoke and then spritzes the affected room with the liquid, which is known as Novec 1230.
April 20, 2004
Students to build Mars greenhouse
Floriday Today
Will red tomatoes grow on the red planet? The answer could bloom inside the Mars Pod, a geodesic greenhouse dome modeling a semi-permanent colony on Mars to be built at the West Melbourne Elementary School for Science. "Where are these kids going to be in 2020?" asked Maria DeChristofano, the science teacher who conceived of the base along with parent Susan Kawa. "I see some of them as future astronauts."
