Space Station Live: The One Year Experiment
NASA Commentator Pat Ryan talks with Dr. John Charles of NASA #39;s Human Research Program about the science plan for astronaut Scott Kelly and cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko during the One Year...

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Space Station Live: The One Year Experiment - Video

Minecraft Project M.A.R.S #82 :Slabwrangle made it through the portal!
We also redesign our oxygen setup for the space station. Image used : http://sylphviper.deviantart.com/art/Simple-Minecraft-Wallpaper-359154297 Modpack used: Resonant rise. - http://www.atlauncher.

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Minecraft Project M.A.R.S #82 :Slabwrangle made it through the portal! - Video

Sierra Nevada's Dream Chaser Cargo System has foldable wings that allow it to fit inside a standard 5-meter rocket fairing. (Sierra Nevada Space Systems)

Louisville-based Sierra Nevada Space Systems on Tuesday revealed the next generation of its Dream Chaser spacecraft: an uncrewed plane with folding wings that the company hopes will win part of a $14 billion contract to ferry cargo to and from the International Space Station.

The reusable craft dubbed the Dream Chaser Cargo System, or DCCS is the Dream Chaser "space taxi" modified to hold cargo.

Although cargo runs aren't as sexy as astronauts embarking on space missions, they are just as important if not more so. In addition to ferrying supplies to the astronauts aboard the space station, cargo missions transport science experiments.

Dream Chaser Cargo System exceeds all of NASA's requirements for the Commercial Resupply Services 2 contract, Sierra Nevada Space Systems chief Mark Sirangelo said, and the craft which resembles a mini-space shuttle can land on a runway, allowing it to be reused.

In the expensive business of space exploration, reusability translates to cost savings and a faster time frame to launch, and rocket reusability has been a hot topic. SpaceX recently attempted to land a Falcon 9 rocket on a barge, and Centennial-based United Launch Alliance is expected to announce its own reusable rocket next month.

Space Systems is ready to push it a step further, Sirangelo said.

"We've been talking about reusability for nine years. That's where we started from," he said in an interview. "That's not conflicting with what ULA or SpaceX is doing. We're trying to make the top of the rocket reusable, which is the second part of the puzzle. If you can have a totally reusable system, it's totally more cost-effective."

Unlike capsule-style spacecraft, which require recovery after splashdown, DCCS's ability to land on a runway means returning cargo can reach the National Aeronautics and Space Administration within 24 hours, allowing quick access to science and other sensitive materials.

NASA's commercial resupply contract requires cargo to be returned within 14 days.

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Sierra Nevada Space Systems unveils new folding-wing Dream Chaser

Most missions to the International Space Station (ISS) range from 160 to 180 days, but this month Russia and NASA will launch a joint year-long mission designed to more fully test the stress of space travel on the human body. ISS veterans Scott Kelly (US) and Mikhail Kornienko (Russia) have been training for two years for this daunting mission, with departure slated for March 27, 2015, 3:42 p.m. EST. from the historic Baikonur Cosmodrome.

While the space station Mir hosted four cosmonauts for over a year each in the 1980s and 90s, (and Valery Polyakov racked up a 437 day 18 hour stay aboard Mir from January 1994 to March 1995), the ISS has yet to achieve that honor, nor has an any NASA astronaut stayed in space for longer than the average six month mission.

For the One-Year Mission, researchers all over the world have planned a slate of studies to test the astronauts in seven medical and psychological areas of concern. Most of the studies represent real problems for astronauts recovering from extended space travel, and thus would be concerns for future manned flights to Mars.

When returning from space, astronauts face difficulties, such as walking upright, decreased bone density, and changes in ocular fluids and pressure. The investigations will address the safety of astronauts on extended missions, in regards to their fatigue and fine motor control, however, the research may also benefit sufferers of certain diseases on Earth.

The extended stay will also allow Kelly and Kornienko to participate in more research studies than previous ISS participants. And because both men have logged about 180 days in space already, the studies can also be compared to physical data gathered previously. Additionally, Kelly's identical twin brother Mark, also a NASA astronaut, will act as a control for Scott in several twin studies.

"As [Konstantin] Tsiolkovsky said, the Russian space scientist, the humankind cannot stay in the cradle forever, so we have to leave Earth, and the function of the ISS is to learn as much as we can about life in space...Its impossible to do it with one country alone," said Kornienko when asked what the significance of cooperative space travel was to him before ISS Expedition 23/4.

The Baikonur Cosomodrome is significant historically, launching both Earth's first satellite and first man in space. Soon it will add the credit of launching Earth's first year-long visitors to the ISS.

Below is NASA's video explaining the significance of the One-Year Mission.

Source: NASA, Roscosmos

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One-Year Mission to launch first joint extended stay aboard the ISS

Photo By Screenshot via Twitter

Italian astronaut Samantha Cristofoertti said "ciao" to San Antonio from the International Space Station with an awesome photo of the Alamo City. "Hello San Antonio! Was actually surprised by so much green," Cristoforetti tweeted Sunday. "Ciao San Antonio, sorpresa da tanto verde."

Photo By DigitalGlobe via Getty Images

Here's what Texas and neighboring Mexico look like from space, via high resolution photos taken by Colorado-based satellite company DigitalGlobe.

Photo By DigitalGlobe/DigitalGlobe via Getty Images

This is a satellite image of San Antonio, Texas, United States, the seventh most populated city in the United States and home of the Alamo. Collected on November 28, 2012.

Photo By DigitalGlobe via Getty Images

The Tower of Americas can be seen casting its shadow in this photo taken in 2012.

Photo By DigitalGlobe via Getty Images

The Alamo looks like a speck from space in this photo taken in 2012.

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Astronaut tweets awesome photo of San Antonio from International Space Station

When youre cloistered 200 miles above Earth on the International Space Station, there are only so many ways to spend your downtime. Reading, exercising, tweeting William Shatner. During his four-month residency aboard the $150 billion satellite, Daniel Tani found a more creative hobby: photographing golf courses.

Ive got a fantastic picture of the Monterey Peninsula, Tani said the other day. You can make out all the holes at Cypress and at Pebble Beach.

Snapping courses from space isnt easy, and not just because of the absence of gravity or because of cloud interference far below. The space station, a bit longer than the length of a football field and with the living space of a six-bedroom house, orbits the earth at more than 17,000 miles per hour, or 280 miles per minute. That doesnt leave much set-up time.

I had about 10 seconds to find a course, frame it and photograph it, Tani says.

And photograph courses he did. Cape Kidnappers in New Zealand. Pinnacle Point in South Africa. Old Head and Ballybunion in Ireland...

And is that...yes, Bandon Dunes!

The two that Im kicking myself for not looking for were Augusta and Pine Valley, Tani says.

Epic space out.

This was back in late 2006 and early 2007 when Tani was on his second of two missions on the station. (His first came during an 11-day stint in 2001.) Its not unusual for spacemen and women to wile away the hours at the stations 360-degree bay window snapping photos of sunrises, swirling typhoons or Italy by night. But Tani appears to be the first astro-shooter to focus on golf courses.

When he was about 10 or 11, Daniel started beating golf balls around a field near his suburban Chicago home. By junior high, he had graduated to a par-3 course. But even through high school and his under- and postgrad days studying mechanical engineering at M.I.T., he never took the game too seriously. Then one of his older brothers moved to Scotland. On visits, Tani played some of the ancient links and his appreciation for the game grew. On side trips to Ireland, he pegged it around Dublin, through Kerry in the west, and up to Sligo in the north. He got washed out on his first visit to Old Head, on a stunning spit of land just south of Cork, but there was still plenty of sunshine that day: He met his future wife, Jane Egan, who was then the clubs business manager.

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Meet the man who takes photos of golf courses from space