Monthly Archives: June 2012

‘Intense Action Is Path To Enlightenment‘– says His Holiness Paramahamsa Nithyananda

Posted on by

His Holiness Paramahamsa Nithyananda continued his morning discourses to inspire followers worldwide by revealing the sacred secrets of Bhagavad Gita Chapter 5, Sanyasa Yoga, verses 6 & 7.Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) June 26, 2012 [Life Bliss Foundation reported that, in the previous discourse on chapter 5, 5th verse, His Holiness had revealed the sacred secret of using intense contemplation to ...

Continue reading here:

‘Intense Action Is Path To Enlightenment‘– says His Holiness Paramahamsa Nithyananda

Space: The New Frontier For Medical Breakthroughs

Posted on by

Deadly bacteria that have spent time in space are already on Earthbut instead of killing humans, they might just save lives. Scientists are using bacteria cultivated on the International Space Station to help develop vaccines that experts say could revolutionize the medical field.

In 1998, researchers began studying how microbes such as bacteria, viruses, fungi, and yeast behaved in space because NASA wanted to be able to keep astronauts safe in the closed space station environment. What they found, specifically with certain types of bacteria, was surprising, says Tara Ruttley, NASA's associate program scientist for the International Space Station.

[See Spectacular Snapshots of Space]

"Bacteria can either respond in microgravity by sitting there and doing nothing, or they can become more aggressive and virulent," meaning they reproduce and evolve to cause disease more readily, she says. But that property of bacteria allows scientists to study exactly why certain bacteria, such as salmonella and MRSA, make people sick.

Scientists aren't exactly sure why certain bacteria become more virulent in space, but Ruttley says they believe it might be a stress response to being put into a low-gravity environment. But whatever the reason, studying bacteria that have spent time in space can make it easier for scientists to develop defenses.

"If you know the gene that makes bacteria more aggressive, you can build a defense against it," she says.

Last week, William Gerstenmaier, NASA's head of human explorations and operations, told the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation that medical discoveries and vaccines developed on the International Space Station could help the United States "create a new economy based on space-based research."

"It's like when we went to Africa to look for new plant species to use for drugs," he said. "We can create a new industry with this."

[NASA:Private U.S. Spacecraft Could Save Agency Millions]

Cheryl Nickerson and Roy Curtiss, professors at Arizona State University's Biodesign Institute, are leading the charge. They are studying salmonella that has spent time in space, in an attempt to "turn it from foe to friend" by crippling the disease-causing genes and replacing them with ones that protect against Streptococcus pneumoniae, the bacteria that causes meningitis, pneumonia, and many other diseases.

Go here to read the rest:

Space: The New Frontier For Medical Breakthroughs

Chinese edge closer to space dreams

Posted on by

China's first space laboratory module Tiangong-1 linked up with the Shenzhou -9 spacecraft on Sunday. Photo: Getty Images

BEIJING: China moved a step closer to achieving its goal of building a space station after it manually docked a spacecraft and an orbiting module for the first time.

The Shenzhou-9 spacecraft carrying three crew, including the nation's first female astronaut, linked up with the Tiangong-1 laboratory module on Sunday, the official Xinhua news agency reported. A remote-controlled, automated docking took place last week and the spacecraft was disconnected yesterday to repeat the manoeuvre manually, an event broadcast live on national television.

China is seeking to expand its space program and has goals of putting a person on the moon by 2020 as well as operating a permanent manned space station. The astronauts lived and worked in Tiangong-1 after last week's docking and returned to the lab module after the latest manoeuvre to conduct further experiments and studies, Xinhua said.

Advertisement: Story continues below

The docking was ''a complete success'', said Wu Ping, a spokeswoman for China's manned space program. The breakthrough in the docking technology ''lays a solid foundation for construction of the space station'', she said.

China has an investment budget of 19 billion yuan ($3 billion) for the country's space-rendezvous and docking missions, Wu said. That includes the Shenzhou-9 project and the planned Shenzhou-10 manned mission next year as well as previous missions conducted by the Shenzhou-7 and Shenzhou-8 spacecraft, she said.

Shenzhou-9 was launched on June 16, while Tiangong-1 was put into orbit last year. The astronauts will stay in the module for another three to four days before manoeuvering it to separate from the spacecraft and return to Earth.

China sent its first man into space and conducted its first spacewalk decades later than the United States and Russia. The US ended its 30-year space-shuttle program last year and now has no manned spaceflight capability.

Bloomberg

See original here:

Chinese edge closer to space dreams

Geoflow: Space station experiments shed light on conditions deep inside Earth

Posted on by

ScienceDaily (June 25, 2012) ESA astronaut Andr Kuipers is running experiments on the International Space Station that are shedding light on conditions deep inside Earth. Orbiting some 400 km above us, Geoflow is offering insights into the inner workings of our planet.

Descending 3000 km under our feet, Earth's mantle is a semi-solid fluid under our thin outer crust. The highly viscous layers vary with temperature, pressure and depth.

Understanding how the mantle flows is a major interest for geophysics because it could help to explain earthquakes or volcanic eruptions. Computers can model it, but how can scientists be sure they are correct?

The deepest that humans have ever drilled is just over 12 km, so investigating the mantle directly is out of reach for the immediate future.

Instead of probing Earth's depths directly, six European teams led by the University of Cottbus in Germany looked to recreate aspects of mantle flow in a laboratory. Experiments simulating these conditions can verify and improve the computer models.

This poses a different problem, however. How can gravity be simulated without Earth's gravity itself influencing the results?

The solution is to send an experiment to our largest weightless laboratory: the International Space Station.

Planet in a box

ESA sponsored the development of an experiment that mimics the geometry of a planet. Called Geoflow, it contains two revolving concentric spheres with a liquid between them.

The inner sphere represents Earth's core, with the outer sphere acting as the crust. The liquid, of course, is the mantle.

Go here to see the original:

Geoflow: Space station experiments shed light on conditions deep inside Earth

Photo: Readying Orion for Flight

Posted on by

The NASA team at the Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans has completed the final weld on the first space-bound Orion capsule. The Exploration Flight Test 1 (EFT-1) Orion will be shipped to the Kennedy Space Center for final assembly and checkout operations.

The EFT-1 flight will take Orion to an altitude of more than 3,600 miles, more than 15 times farther away from Earth than the International Space Station. Orion will return home at a speed of 25,000 miles, almost 5,000 miles per hour faster than any human spacecraft. It will mimic the return conditions that astronauts experience as they come home from voyages beyond low Earth orbit. As Orion reenters the atmosphere, it will endure temperatures up to 4,000 degrees F., higher than any human spacecraft since astronauts returned from the moon.

Image Credit: NASA/Eric Bordelon. Larger image.

Please follow SpaceRef on Twitter and Like us on Facebook.

See the original post here:

Photo: Readying Orion for Flight

Video: SpaceX Fires Up New Merlin 1D Rocket Engine

Posted on by

If Wile E. Coyote had one of these rocket engines strapped to his back, he might just have caught that pesky Roadrunner. Alas for the cartoon critter, SpaceX and not ACME devised the Merlin 1D, which the commercial spaceflight company is billing as the most efficient booster rocket engine ever built.

Luckily for us, there's footage of the Merlin 1D test firing for 185 seconds at the SpaceX rocket development facility in MacGregor, Texas (see video below) and it's anything but a cartoon. The rocket engine is an upgrade of the Merlin 1C boosters that have lifted three SpaceX Falcon 9 rockets carrying Dragon capsules into space, including last month's successful and history-making rendezvous with the International Space Station.

This week's test firing of the Merlin 1D generated 147,000 pounds of thrust, "the full duration and power required for a Falcon 9 rocket launch," according to DiscoveryNews.

The next generation of Falcon 9 rockets will be powered by nine Merlin 1D engines that can generated about 1.5 million pounds of thrust during launch, the site reported.

"This is another important milestone in our efforts to push the boundaries of space technology. With the Merlin 1D powering the Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets, SpaceX will be capable of carrying a full range of payloads to orbit," SpaceX co-founder and chief executive Elon Musk said in a statement after the engine test.

In May, SpaceX became the first commercial company to send a spacecraft on a docking mission to the ISS. Nine Merlin 1C engines sent the company's Dragon capsule on its way on May 22 following an aborted launch from Cape Canaveral in Florida on May 19.

The SpaceX Dragon capsule, carrying about 1,200 pounds of supplies for the ISS crew, was captured by space station's Expedition crew on May 25 following a journey that took three days, six hours, and change. The spacecraft departed the space lab, de-orbited and splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on May 31.

The rest is here:

Video: SpaceX Fires Up New Merlin 1D Rocket Engine

NASA measuring Tropical Storm Debby's heavy rains from space

Posted on by

Public release date: 26-Jun-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Rob Gutro Robert.j.gutro@nasa.gov 443-858-1779 NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

Tropical Storm Debby continues to be a big rainmaker in Florida and southern Georgia and NASA's TRMM satellite has measured those rainfall rates from space, showing where heavy rain has fallen.

The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite is basically a flying rain gauge in space. Scientists use TRMM data to calculate rainfall rates and rain totals from space. TRMM imagery from June 25 showed Debby's heaviest rains were falling at a rate of over 2 inches (50 mm) per hour, and to the southeast of the center.

Debby has been a huge rainmaker. For example, Debby dumped nearly 7 inches of rain on Gainesville Sunday, June 24. That was Gainsville's second highest one day total. Numerous other reports of between 6 and 10 inches of rain have already been reported as a result of Debby.

Debby's Status Today:

Today, June 25, 2012, a tropical storm warning is in effect for the Florida Gulf coast from Mexico Beach to Englewood. At 8 a.m. EDT (1200 UTC), Debby had maximum sustained winds near 45 mph (75 kmh). It was still centered in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico, about 85 miles (140 km) west of Cedar Key, near 28.9 north latitude and 84.5 west longitude. The estimated minimum central pressure is 991 millibars. Debby is slowly moving toward the east near 3 mph (6 kmh) and is expected to move east-northeastward in the next couple of days, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC). NHC forecasters note that Debby's center will weaken to a depression while moving over northern Florida in the next day or two.

Debby's History:

Tropical Storm Debby formed on the 23rd of June 2012 in the central Gulf of Mexico, becoming the earliest 4th named storm on record. Debby began as an area of low pressure that moved out of the northwestern Caribbean and into the Gulf. After forming on the afternoon of the 23rd, Debby has moved very slowly under the influence of weak steering currents.

Debby drifted ever so slowly northward on the night of the 23rd before turning northeast later on the morning of the 24th towards the northeast Gulf Coast of Florida. Despite its slow forward progress and lack of intensification, Debby has already lashed Florida with heavy rain as well as tornadoes.

Link:

NASA measuring Tropical Storm Debby's heavy rains from space

CTA heads rarely ride

Posted on by

The Chicago Transit Board meets once a month to decide various CTA issues relating to the budget and infrastructureyet some of the board members don't even ride the CTA that often.

Longtime board member Alejandro Silva rode the CTA zero times last year while board member Rev. Charles Robinson rode the system once, according to data gathered through a Freedom of Information Act request by Going Public.

Board chairman Terry Peterson used his agency pass to ride the CTA 13 times last yearan improvement from when he became chairman of the board in 2009. In an interview with Going Public in 2010, six months into his tenure, he admitted he had not taken the CTA in two years.

"Using a CTA ID card for ridership is just one way board members are familiar with the system. Board members regularly receive reports from CTA operations, infrastructure and maintenance staff that monitor a wide range of CTA topicseverything from vehicle cleanliness and bus bunching, to [Americans with Disabilities Act] complaints and safety incidents, and more," Peterson said in a statement provided to GP. "Also, setting policy and making financial decisions for the agency depends on and draws from a wider range of information and data than is available simply by riding the system."

Silva, who was appointed by Mayor Daley, said through a CTA spokesman that he regularly uses the CTA but pays his own way. Robinson was unavailable for comment.

The CTA board is composed of seven membersfour appointed by the mayor and three appointed by the governor. There has been some turnover on the board recently, and two new board members were appointed in the last six months.

Some of the longtime board members ride the system regularly. Jacquelyne Grimshaw, a board member for three years, rode the system 199 times last year while three-year board member John Bouman rode it 67 times.

Meanwhile, CTA president Forrest Claypool rode the CTA 166 times last year since he started the job in late May. Claypool told Going Public recently in a sit-down interview that he is on the system every week.

Last week, Claypool and Peterson hosted community meetings on the South Side about next year's proposed five-month shutdown of the southern portion of the Red Line for construction.

At a meeting Thursday in Englewood, some riders complained that the CTA doesn't understand how the shutdown would affect their commute and their daily lives.

Read the original:

CTA heads rarely ride

NH Red Cross manager heads to Fla. in wake of tropical storm

Posted on by

NH Red Cross manager heads to Fla. in wake of tropical storm

More than a foot of rain has fallen in Florida, where they're getting soaked by Tropical Storm Debby, and meteorologists said it could top 2 feet by the time the storm moves out.

One person in the Sunshine State died in a tornado spawned by Debby, and a man in Alabama disappeared after being swept away in rough surf.

Monday night, the New Hampshire Red Cross sent one of its managers south to coordinate relief efforts. While most people avoid the area, Ian Dyar is heading straight there. When he was 12, Dyar lived in Florida and saw the Red Cross come to the rescue of Hurricane Andrew victims.

Since then, he said, he has dedicated his life to helping others.

Debby has sustained 45 mph winds and her drenching rains have caused power outages across the state. Damage from the storm includes toppled trees, battered beach homes and shattered windows.The Coast Guard had to rescue a family of nine and their dogs after they were stranded on an island surrounded by rising water.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott declared a state of emergency.

"When you get the call, you really want to jump in and get ready to go to help out the team down there," Dyar said. He is one of only 27 certified Red Cross Disaster Services program managers in the nation. He's bringing his expertise from Nashua to Tampa, Fla., helping coordinate relief efforts with Red Cross volunteers and government agencies.

"We'll be working with our partners down there as well," Dyar said. "Whether it's the Salvation Army or Southern Baptists, we're all at the table to collaborate, to make sure individuals are being fed, shelters are being opened appropriately and providing those services that are necessary during the operation."

The aftermath of the storm is the biggest challenge, but Dyar said he's trained and ready. "I just really enjoy helping people," he said. "I enjoy working with the volunteers. They're outstanding. They're people that give of their time to go out there and help others in their darkest time of need."

Read the original post:

NH Red Cross manager heads to Fla. in wake of tropical storm

NASA Advisory Council Science Committee Meeting 23-24 Jul 2012

Posted on by

[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 123 (Tuesday, June 26, 2012)] [Notices] [Page 38093] From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov] [FR Doc No: 2012-15548]

NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION

[Notice 12-046]

NASA Advisory Council; Science Committee; Meeting

AGENCY: National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

ACTION: Notice of meeting.

SUMMARY: In accordance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act, Public Law 92-462, as amended, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announces a meeting of the Science Committee of the NASA Advisory Council (NAC). This Committee reports to the NAC. The meeting will be held for the purpose of soliciting, from the scientific community and other persons, scientific and technical information relevant to program planning.

DATES: Monday, July 23, 2012, 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Tuesday, July 24, 2012, 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., local time.

ADDRESSES: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Building 1, Room E100E, 8800 Greenbelt Road, Greenbelt, MD 20771.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms. Marian Norris, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC 20546, (202) 358-4452, fax (202) 358-4118, or mnorris@nasa.gov.

See the rest here:

NASA Advisory Council Science Committee Meeting 23-24 Jul 2012

NASA details looming Mars rover landing, '7 Minutes of Terror'

Posted on by

Curiosity, the Mars rover, is set to land on the planet in August; but to get there it must first pass a harrowing descent, which NASA details in new video.

NASA's Mars Science Laboratory rover -- Curiosity -- explores the surface of the red planet in this artist's concept. The nuclear-powered rover is scheduled to touch down on Mars in early August.

In just 41 days, on August 5, NASA's Mars Science Laboratory rover will touch down on the Red Planet, and this will be no ordinary landing. In fact, NASA has dubbed the descent "Seven Minutes of Terror."

"When people look at it, it looks crazy," senior EDL engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory Adam Steltzner said in a new video by NASA on the rover landing. "It is the result of reasoned engineering thought, but it still looks crazy."

The recently released video (see below) outlines exactly how crazy the feat of landing the rover actually is. Named Curiosity, the rover must tear through Mars' atmosphere, which takes up to seven minutes. However, transmitting a signal to Earth of its progress takes 14 minutes because of the distance between the planets.

"When we first get word that we've touched the top of atmosphere the vehicle has been alive or dead for at least seven minutes," Steltzner said.

In those seven minutes, NASA engineers have set up a complex sequence of procedures that must be followed in order to avoid disaster. First, they will deploy a parachute to slow the more than 1,000 mph descent. Then cutting off the chute, they'll fire up rockets to slow the vertical velocity even more, and lastly they will lower the rover on a tether into a crater to avoid a harmful dust cloud.

"If any one thing doesn't work just right, it's game over," EDL engineer Tom Rivellini said in the video.

The rover is the size of a small car and weighs 1,982 pounds. It is equipped with 17 cameras, a 7-foot-long robot arm, and a suite of 10 state-of-the-art scientific sensors and experiments weighing 125 pounds. In contrast, NASA's hugely successful Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, each weighed about 385 pounds, including just 20 pounds of miniaturized science hardware.

Curiosity is set to touch down at 10:31 p.m. PDT on August 5.

Original post:

NASA details looming Mars rover landing, '7 Minutes of Terror'

NASA Advisory Council Science Committee Astrophysics Subcommittee Meeting 30-31 Jul 2012

Posted on by

[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 123 (Tuesday, June 26, 2012)] [Notices] [Pages 38090-38091] From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov] [FR Doc No: 2012-15547]

NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION

[Notice 12-045]

NASA Advisory Council; Science Committee; Astrophysics Subcommittee; Meeting

AGENCY: National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

ACTION: Notice of meeting.

SUMMARY: In accordance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act, Public Law 92-463, as amended, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announces a meeting of the Astrophysics Subcommittee (APS) of the NASA Advisory Council (NAC). This Subcommittee reports to the Science Committee of the NAC. The meeting will be held for the purpose of soliciting from the scientific community and other persons, scientific and technical information relevant to program planning.

DATES: Monday, July 30, 2012, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Tuesday, July 31, 2012, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., local time.

ADDRESSES: NASA Headquarters, 300 E Street SW., Room 7H45, Washington, DC 20546.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms. Marian Norris, Science Mission Directorate, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC 20546, (202) 358-4452, fax (202) 358-4118, or mnorris@nasa.gov.

Go here to see the original:

NASA Advisory Council Science Committee Astrophysics Subcommittee Meeting 30-31 Jul 2012

NASA Advisory Council Information Technology Infrastructure Committee Meeting 24 Jul 2012

Posted on by

[Federal Register Volume 77, Number 123 (Tuesday, June 26, 2012)] [Notices] [Pages 38092-38093] From the Federal Register Online via the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov] [FR Doc No: 2012-15571]

NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION

[Notice 12-048]

NASA Advisory Council; Information Technology Infrastructure Committee; Meeting

AGENCY: National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

ACTION: Notice of meeting.

SUMMARY: In accordance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act, Public Law 92-462, as amended, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announces a meeting of the Information Technology Infrastructure Committee of the NASA Advisory Council (NAC). This Committee reports to the NAC. The meeting will be held for the purpose of soliciting from the information technology community and other persons, IT-related information relevant to program planning.

DATES: Tuesday, July 24, 2012, 8:30 a.m. to 12 p.m., local time.

ADDRESSES: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Building 28, Room E210, 8800 Greenbelt Road, Greenbelt, MD 20771.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Ms. Karen Harper, Office of the Chief Information Officer, NASA Headquarters, Washington, DC 20546, (202) 358-1807, fax (202) 358-3017, or karen.l.harper@nasa.gov.

Read more:

NASA Advisory Council Information Technology Infrastructure Committee Meeting 24 Jul 2012

NASA details looming Mars rover landing as "7 Minutes of Terror"

Posted on by

This story first appeared on CBSNews.com's sister site, CNET.com

In just 41 days, on August 5, NASA's Mars Science Laboratory rover will touch down on the Red Planet, and this will be no ordinary landing. In fact, NASA has dubbed the descent, "Seven Minutes of Terror."

"When people look at it, it looks crazy," senior EDL engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory Adam Steltzner said in a new video by NASA on the rover landing. "It is the result of reasoned engineering thought, but it still looks crazy."

The recently released video (see below) outlines exactly how crazy the feat of landing the rover actually is. Named Curiosity, the rover must tear through Mars' atmosphere, which takes up to seven minutes. However, transmitting a signal to Earth of its progress takes 14 minutes because of the distance between the planets.

"When we first get word that we've touched the top of atmosphere the vehicle has been alive or dead for at least seven minutes," Steltzner said.

In those seven minutes, NASA engineers have set up a complex sequence of procedures that must be followed in order to avoid disaster. First, they will deploy a parachute to slow the more than 1,000 mph descent. Then cutting off the chute, they'll fire up rockets to slow the vertical velocity even more, and lastly they will lower the rover on a tether into a crater to avoid a harmful dust cloud.

"If any one thing doesn't work just right, it's game over," EDL engineer Tom Rivellini said in the video.

The rover is the size of a small car and weighs 1,982 pounds. It is equipped with 17 cameras, a 7-foot-long robot arm, and a suite of 10 state-of-the-art scientific sensors and experiments weighing 125 pounds. In contrast, NASA's hugely successful Mars Exploration Rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, each weighed about 385 pounds, including just 20 pounds of miniaturized science hardware.

Curiosity is set to touch down at 10:31 p.m. PDT on August 5.

Here's the video of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory engineers sharing the challenges of the Curiosity's landing on the surface of Mars, it's called "Challenges of Getting to Mars: Curiosity's Seven Minutes of Terror:"

Follow this link:

NASA details looming Mars rover landing as "7 Minutes of Terror"