Monthly Archives: March 2014

Hypnosis for Astronauts on the International Space Station – Space Adaptation Back Pain – Video

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Hypnosis for Astronauts on the International Space Station - Space Adaptation Back Pain
Space Adaptation Back Pain is a pain in the... lumbar region for about 50% of our astronauts. It occurs during the early stages of space flight and lasts for...

By: Susan Wallace

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Hypnosis for Astronauts on the International Space Station - Space Adaptation Back Pain - Video

Sir Richard Branson admits he got idea for space flight from children's TV phone-in

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By Travelmail Reporter

PUBLISHED: 11:08 EST, 9 March 2014 | UPDATED: 11:08 EST, 9 March 2014

Sir Richard Branson has revealed that the inspiration for his commercial space flight venture came during a phone-in on a children's TV show in the 1980s.

The Virgin boss said he first had the idea for the ambitious project when a viewer suggested it on the BBC Saturday morning show Going Live in 1988.

What's got into him? The businessman seemed to be having a laugh-a-minute on the show

Mr Branson made his confession while being interviewed on Jonathan Ross ITV chat show.

He said: You never know what sparks things off in your mind but as a result of that show we registered the name Virgin Galactic Airways.

Over the next decade I started travelling around the world meeting technicians and engineers to see if we could find a genius who could build a spaceship that could take you and me into space.

Sir Richard said the idea was the beginning of a whole new era of space travel and was the most ridiculously exciting thing that I've done in my lifetime.

He said: 'People will become astronauts, theyll be able to experience zero gravity. Theyll be able to check the world is really round and theyll have the ride of a lifetime.'

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Sir Richard Branson admits he got idea for space flight from children's TV phone-in

Space News: NASA tests new robotic refueling technologies

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NASA has successfully concluded a remotely controlled test of new technologies that would empower future space robots to transfer hazardous oxidizer a type of propellant into the tanks of satellites in space today.

Concurrently on the ground, NASA is incorporating results from this test and the Robotic Refueling Mission on the International Space Station to prepare for an upcoming ground-based test of a full-sized robotic servicer system that will perform tasks on a mock satellite client.

Collectively, these efforts are part of an ongoing and aggressive technology development campaign to equip robots and humans with the tools and capabilities needed for spacecraft maintenance and repair, the assembly of large space telescopes, and extended human exploration.

Technologies to help satellites that help Earth

The Satellite Servicing Capabilities Office (SSCO) at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., checked another critical milestone off their list with the completion of their Remote Robotic Oxidizer Transfer Test (RROxiTT) in February 2014.

This is the first time that anyone has tested this type of technology, and we've proven that it works. It's ready for the next step to flight, said Frank Cepollina, veteran leader of the five servicing missions to the Hubble Space Telescope and the associate director of SSCO.

RROxiTT gives NASA, and the satellite community at large, confidence that advanced satellite refueling and maintenance technologies aren't a wild dream of the future, said Cepollina. They're being built and tested today and the capabilities that they can unlock can become a reality.

Since 2009, SSCO has been investigating human and robotic satellite servicing while developing the technologies necessary to bring on-orbit spacecraft inspection, repair, refueling, component replacement and assembly capabilities to space.

Taking lessons learned from the successful Robotic Refueling Mission, the SSCO team devised the ground-based RROxiTT to test how robots can transfer hazardous oxidizer, at flight-like pressures and flow rates, through the propellant valve and into the mock tank of a satellite.

While this capability could be applied to spacecraft in multiple orbits, SSCO focused RROxiTT specifically on technologies that could help satellites traveling the busy space highway of geosynchronous Earth orbit, or GEO.

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Space News: NASA tests new robotic refueling technologies

Will 100 become the new 60?

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Co-founders of San Diego based Human Longevity Inc., Peter Diamandis, left, J. Craig Venter, center, and Robert Hariri, right.

It was a bold prediction, even at a time when technology evolves with blinding speed:

Getting your genome sequenced will soon become as common as dropping by a doctors office for a blood test.

The forecast was made Tuesday by three men who have money riding on the outcome: La Jolla geneticist J. Craig Venter, New Jersey stem cell pioneer Dr. Robert Hariri and Peter Diamandis of Los Angeles, founder of the X-Prize Foundation.

They gathered in Venters seaside office to announce that they had founded Human Longevity, Inc. (HLI), which they say will quickly become the largest genome sequencing company in the world, surpassing even Chinas well-known Beijing Genomics Institute.

Venter said that HLI will begin by sequencing 40,000 genomes a year, then push production to 100,000. The work will be done with cutting edge technology from San Diegos Illumina, which has helped to slash the time and cost of sequencing peoples genomes.

Venter and other scientists believe that sequencing the genomes of hundreds of thousands of people will clearly reveal which genes cause disease and illness, leading to better diagnostics and treatment. HLI also will analyze a persons microbes and metabolites, providing doctors with a more comprehensive picture of the patients they treat.

The goal: Enable people to live longer, healthier lives.

100 will become the new 60, Diamandis said in a moment of exuberance.

The remark came as all three men paused to discussion the future of genomic medicine with U-T San Diego.

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Will 100 become the new 60?