NASA selects Marquette University professor for space flight research

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Posted on: 10:57 am, June 25, 2013, by Trisha Bee, updated on: 07:47pm, June 25, 2013

MILWAUKEE (WITI) NASA has selectedDr. Sandra Hunter, associate professor of exercise science in the College of Health Sciences at Marquette University, to conduct gender-based flight research.

Dr. Hunter is a leading expert in gender-based neuromuscular research. NASA selected Hunter to review the latest findings on sex and gender differences in the musculoskeletal system during space flight.

The review, coordinated in conjunction with the National Space Biomedical Research Institute, examines the Impact of Sex and Gender on Adaptations to Space.

Our review found that space flight in general resulted in marked reductions in muscle strength and power, as much as 20 to 30 percent in two to three months, Hunter says. Theres evidence that women have even greater losses of muscle strength and mass than men when talking about the effects of space flight.

In addition, the team found that strength loss equates to roughly double the loss of muscle mass, and women may take longer to recover post-flight.

Our findings indicate that much more research is required to fully understand sex differences in response to muscle loss, Hunter says. But it also shows that there are definite differences that will be apparent.

The research teams will first present their findings at a NASA and NSBRI online workshop on Tuesday, June 25, and will publish their research at a later date. The purpose of the review and workshop is to identify research priorities specific to sex and gender physiology that could be mission-critical for future space flight missions.

NASA recently announced eight new astronauts its first group in four years and four of the eight are women, the highest percentage ever chosen.

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NASA selects Marquette University professor for space flight research

Huge Plasma Cloud Swirls Above the Sun | NASA SDO Space Science Full HD Video – Video

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Huge Plasma Cloud Swirls Above the Sun | NASA SDO Space Science Full HD Video
Visit my website at http://www.junglejoel.com - a huge mass of plasma swirled above the Sun #39;s surface for over 36 hours (June 16 through June 17, 2013). Plea...

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Astronaut Training Technique Tests: "Water Immersion… Balanced Gravity Conditions" 1964 NASA – Video

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Astronaut Training Technique Tests: "Water Immersion... Balanced Gravity Conditions" 1964 NASA
more at http://scitech.quickfound.net/ Early tests to determine the potential of underwater simulation of microgravity (weightlessness, zero-g...) for astron...

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Photos: NASA’s IRIS Solar Observatory Mission in Pictures

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Preparing Solar Satellite for Launch

Technicians work on the payload fairing that will protect NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) spacecraft during launch aboard an Orbital Sciences Pegasus XL rocket. Launch is currently scheduled no earlier than May 28, 2013.

NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) with solar panels open in flight position, in the clean room at the Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center in Palo Alto, where it was designed and built.

This image from JAXAs Hinode mission shows the lower regions of the suns atmosphere, the interface region, which a new mission called the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, or IRIS, will study in exquisite detail. Where previous missions have been able to image material at only a few predetermined temperatures in this region, IRIS will observe a wide range of temperatures from 5000 Kelvins to 65,000 Kelvins (and up to 10 million Kelvins during solar flares). Its images will resolve structures down to 150 miles across.

IRIS mission logo features a sun, a prism with a rainbow light spectrum coming from it, and on the bottom a list of mission partners: NASA, LMSAL, LMS&ES, ARC, SAO, UiO, MSU, LSJU.

Engineers attach the starboard side of the payload fairing into place for NASA's IRIS spacecraft. The fairing connects to the nose of the Orbital Sciences Pegasus XL rocket that will lift the solar observatory into orbit in June. This image was released June 10, 2013.

Engineers inspect the solar panel connections on the NASA's Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) in the clean room at the Lockheed Martin Advanced Technology Center in Palo Alto where it was designed and built.

The Orbital Sciences Pegasus XL rocket that will lift NASA's IRIS solar observatory into orbit is moved from a hangar onto a transporter at Vandenberg Air Force Base. This image was released June 10, 2013.

This image shows technicians and engineers at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California connecting the Pegasus XL rocket with the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, or IRIS, solar observatory to the Orbital Sciences L-1011 carrier aircraft. This image was released June 19, 2013.

Technicians and engineers at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California mate the Pegasus XL rocket with the Interface Region Imaging Spectrograph, or IRIS, solar observatory to the Orbital Sciences L-1011 carrier aircraft. This image was released June 19, 2013.

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Photos: NASA's IRIS Solar Observatory Mission in Pictures

Space Shuttle Atlantis on display at new NASA exhibit

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NASA's Space Shuttle Atlantis has a new $100 million home at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.

The retired Space Shuttle Atlantis on display at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex.

After 33 missions into space over a 30-year career, NASA's Space Shuttle Atlantis has found a permanent base close to home. The shuttle is part of a new $100 million visitor center exhibit at the Kennedy Space Center Visitors Complex which will immerse visitors in the experience of space travel.

The exhibit opens June 29 and will weave first-hand accounts from astronauts and flight engineers, along with the history of NASA, into 60 interactive displays. The displays will touch on everything from launches and orbits to how a space station is assembled.

But the centerpiece of the exhibit is Atlantis. Visitors will able to get an up-close, 360-degree view of one of the world's first reusable spacecraft. Robert Z. Pearlman of collectSpace.com recently toured the exhibit during a preview of the grand opening this week.

Atlantis' last mission, STS-135, landed on Runway 15 of the Kennedy Space Center at 5:57 a.m. on July 21, 2011. It was the Shuttle program's final flight.

After being officially retired, Atlantis was moved in November 2012 to the center's visitor complex aboard the 76-wheel Orbiter Transporter System -- at less than 1 mile per hour. It took around 12 hours for the shuttle to make the 9.8-mile trip from the Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building to its new museum facility, which opens Friday.

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Space Shuttle Atlantis on display at new NASA exhibit

NASA to launch mission to capture asteroid

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Bangalore, June 25 (IANS) US' National Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA) will launch a space mission to capture and redirect an asteroid into an orbit closer to earth to enable its astronauts to visit it, a top space official said Tuesday.

"As part of our new initiative, we are going to launch a mission to capture and redirect an asteroid into an orbit closer to earth so that astronauts can visit it," NASA administrator Charles F. Bolden said in a talk delivered at the space applications centre of the state-run Indian space agency in Ahmedabad.

The mission also will identify and characterise asteroids of all types for clues to their origin, formation and separation from smaller planets in the solar system to become rocky-metallic objects floating in sizes ranging from pebbles to 1,000 km across.

In a statement earlier, Bolden said NASA was develop a first-ever mission to identify, capture and relocate an asteroid, by bringing together the space agency's science, technology and human exploration efforts to achieve the goal of sending humans to an asteroid by 2025. The mission is estimated to cost $105 million.

NASA plans to first locate a large asteroid floating in space closer to earth, deploy a robotic arm to capture it and push it into a safe orbit around the moon before sending astronauts in a capsule to study it.

"Our future plans also include advance space exploration and reach new destinations such as an asteroid and Mars," Bolden told scientists and officials of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

On his first visit to India as NASA administrator, Bolden discussed the cooperative activities between the two space-faring countries with ISRO chairman K. Radhakrishnan and senior space officials and potential areas of future missions.

"India and the US pursue active civil space cooperation in earth sciences, space exploration, satellite navigation and professional exchange," the space agency said in a statement here.

During his day-long visit, Bolden was shown the technical facilities of the space applications centre, which develops satellite sensors and antennas.

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NASA to launch mission to capture asteroid

NASA Thruster Achieves World-Record 5+ Years of Operation

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A NASA advanced ion propulsion engine has successfully operated for more than 48,000 hours, or 5 and a half years, making it the longest test duration of any type of space propulsion system demonstration project ever.

The thruster was developed under NASA's Evolutionary Xenon Thruster (NEXT) Project at NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. Glenn manufactured the test engine's core ionization chamber. Aerojet Rocketdyne of Sacramento, Calif., designed and built the ion acceleration assembly.

The 7-kilowatt class thruster could be used in a wide range of science missions, including deep space missions identified in NASA's Planetary Science Decadal Survey.

"The NEXT thruster operated for more than 48,000 hours," said Michael J. Patterson, principal investigator for NEXT at Glenn. "We will voluntarily terminate this test at the end of this month, with the thruster fully operational. Life and performance have exceeded the requirements for any anticipated science mission."

The NEXT engine is a type of solar electric propulsion in which thruster systems use the electricity generated by the spacecraft's solar panel to accelerate the xenon propellant to speeds of up to 90,000 mph. This provides a dramatic improvement in performance compared to conventional chemical rocket engines.

During the endurance test performed in a high vacuum test chamber at Glenn, the engine consumed about 1,918 pounds (870 kilograms) of xenon propellant, providing an amount of total impulse that would take more than 22,000 (10,000 kilograms) of conventional rocket propellant for comparable applications.

"Aerojet Rocketdyne fully supports NASA's vision to develop high power solar electric propulsion for future exploration," said Julie Van Kleeck, Aerojet Rocketdyne's vice president for space advanced programs. "NASA-developed next generation high power solar electric propulsion systems will enhance our nation's ability to perform future science and human exploration missions."

The NEXT project is a technology development effort led by Glenn to develop a next generation electric propulsion system, including power processing, propellant management and other components. The project, conducted under the In-Space Propulsion Technology Program at Glenn, is managed by NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

Aerojet Rocketdyne provides propulsion expertise for domestic and international markets. For more information about Aerojet Rocketdyne, visit: http://www.Rocket.com

To view the NEXT ion engine in operation, visit: http://go.nasa.gov/16v9y8g

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NASA Thruster Achieves World-Record 5+ Years of Operation

NASA Has Now Found 10,000 Near-Earth Objects

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NASA this week announced that it has now discovered more than 10,000 near-Earth objects asteroids that could pass close to Earth in the future. The agency also bragged that 98% of all near-Earth objects have been uncovered by NASA surveys.

The 10,000th near-Earth object was discovered on June 18, 2013 by the Pan-STARRS-1 telescope on Maui, Hawaii. The telescope is operated by the University of Hawaii, and receives NASA funding. The asteroid, 2013 MZ5, is around 1,000 feet (300 meters) wide but is not considered a potential danger to the Earth.

The first near-Earth object was discovered in 1898, said Don Yeomans, manager of the Near-Earth Object Program Office at NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Over the next hundred years, only about 500 had been found. But then, with the advent of NASAs NEO Observations program in 1998, weve been racking them up ever since. And with new, more capable systems coming on line, we are learning even more about where the NEOs are currently in our solar system, and where they will be in the future.

This new announcement comes just as NASA has issued a Grand Challenge to find and combat potentially hazardous asteroids. The agency is accepting ideas on how to locate, explore, and redirect an asteroid, as well as plans to deal with potential doomsday asteroids that might be headed toward Earth.

Finding 10,000 near-Earth objects is a significant milestone, said Lindley Johnson, program executive for NASAs Near-Earth Object Observations Program. But there are at least 10 times that many more to be found before we can be assured we will have found any and all that could impact and do significant harm to the citizens of Earth.

According to NASA, only around 10% of known near-Earth objects are large enough (over 1 kilometer) to have doomsday-like consequences, were they to hit Earth. Luckily, none of them are on a collision-course with Earth, though the Near-Earth Object Observations program estimates that a few dozen of these large asteroids are still undiscovered.

(Image courtesy PS-1/UH)

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NASA Has Now Found 10,000 Near-Earth Objects

The Medicine of Tomorrow: With an Eye to the Individual – Professor Henri Atlan – Video

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The Medicine of Tomorrow: With an Eye to the Individual - Professor Henri Atlan
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Revenge of the Q

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Revenge of the Q A (June 22nd, 2013): Jesse vs The Cold Medicine
Jesse is back for another Question and Answer session: Drugs Are Bad Edition bull; Listen to Cox n #39; Crendor in the Morning! The best PODCAST! On iTunes!: https:/...

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Revenge of the Q

Medicine Hat flood evacuees start to return home; officials warn damage severe

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By Bill Graveland, The Canadian Press Published Tuesday, June 25, 2013 9:47AM CST Last Updated Tuesday, June 25, 2013 4:53PM CST

As Medicine Hat returns after flooding, frustration grows in High River

HIGH RIVER, Alta. -- The mayor of High River on Tuesday beseeched residents demanding to return to their homes to have some understanding for the monumental recovery task that faces the flooded southern Alberta community.

Emile Blokland said people need to realize that the water that engulfed the town of 13,000 and forced a full and mandatory evacuation last week bore little resemblance to a normal flood.

"What you don't understand is we don't have a flood. We have a disaster," Blokland said. "Floods are very easy to deal with -- water comes, water goes, and then we clean up afterwards.

"This is a major disaster we are dealing with. It's at the same level as the Slave Lake fire that devastated that community. That's what we are dealing with and that is the major reason we cannot have residents return to the town of High River."

The wildfires that swept through Slave Lake in 2011 destroyed hundreds of homes and businesses. In that disaster, evacuees were put on buses and driven around the town so that they could safely inspect the damage.

Not an option here, said Blokland.

"That will happer our efforts," the mayor said. "We need to keep the town as completely free of people that don't need to be there as much as possible.

"We can't have more people in the community. It is as simple as that."

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Medicine Hat flood evacuees start to return home; officials warn damage severe