Freedom Autosport claim 2nd in CTSCC driver, team championship at Lime Rock

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LAKEVILLE, Conn.Freedom Autosports season finale at Lime Rock Park wrapped up a year of consistency and hard work that earned the team second in both the Street Tuner team and driver championships in GRAND-AM Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge.

#25 Freedom Autosport Mazda MX-5: Tom Long, Derek Whitis

Photo by: Luis Betancourt

For most of the race, the team was poised to do just that. After starting on the pole, Whitis was never out of the top two and led the race during his stint. After a quick pit stop, Long took over and was also running up front. As the race progressed, though, a misfire developed that slowed lap times.

Eventually, Long crossed the finish line in tenth. Although it wasnt enough for a championship, both Whitis and Long are quick to note that the finish caps off a season with no DNFs for the No. 25 Mazda. In fact, they won the Continental Tire Driving Confidence Award for completing the most ST miles during the season.

Whitis comments, I couldnt be prouder of all the Freedom Autosport folks who put us on the track with the fastest and most dependable Mazda possible. All of our success this year is due to their work and their efforts. Thanks to Mazda, the amazing Freedom crew, and most of all, the veterans and troops who make it all possible.

The Freedom Autosport crew really proved themselves with the new cars they built this year, says Long. They are the reason weve had such consistency and reliability all season, and theyve given so much hard work and dedication this year: in the shop, at the track, and especially in pit stops.

The No. 25 Freedom Autosport Mazda MX-5 took second in the Street Tuner team championship with 226 points, just three points behind the leader. The same points spread gave Whitis and Long second in the driver championship. Freedom Autosport also helped Mazda finish the season with second in the manufacturer championship.

In addition to racing, Freedom Autosport also hosted Liam Dwyer throughout the weekend. Dwyer was injured in Afghanistan while serving in the Marines, and hes not only a race fan but a track day enthusiast. He has even rigged up a system so he can drive with his prosthetic leg.

On Saturday night, Dwyer was Freedom Autosports guest at the championship banquet, where he was introduced and received a standing ovation from the series teams.

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Freedom Autosport claim 2nd in CTSCC driver, team championship at Lime Rock

Black ‘Human Zoo’ Fury Greets Berlin Art Show

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A performance-art show with half- naked black people thats touring Europe has drawn protests during its visit to Berlin.

White stage director Brett Baileys Exhibit B features museum-style installations of living models in static poses designed to highlight the troubled history of European colonialism in Africa.

Black activists demonstrated at the Kleiner Wasserspeicher, which is showing the work as part of the Foreign Affairs Festival, after acclaimed stagings in Brussels and Grahamstown, South Africa.

This is the wrong way to discuss a violent colonial history, said Sandrine Micosse-Aikins, a member of Buehnenwatch, the organization which instigated the protest.

In one piece, a black woman sits above a cooking pot, holding a skull and a shard of glass. A plaque describes how Namibian women in concentration camps had to boil and scrape clean the skulls of their menfolk so that they could be sent to Germany for scientific examination in the early 20th century.

In another display, photographs of severed black heads stuffed and skewered on metal prongs recall the work of Eugen Fischer (1874-1967), the German professor of anthropology and eugenics whose theories of racial hygiene guided the Nazis.

Below them, the heads of four living Namibian singers seem to float above plinths. They sing beautiful Herero songs about genocide, in counterpoint to the grisly displays.

Contemporary asylum seekers are on show alongside a supine representation of Angelo Soliman, an 18th-century Nigerian philosopher and confidant of Maria Theresa and Emperor Joseph I. Upon his death in 1796, Solimans body was stuffed and displayed in a glass case alongside wild animals.

An earlier version of the show, Exhibit A, opened at Viennas Festwochen in 2010 and went on to Braunschweig, Germany, and Helsinki.

On Oct. 2, a post-performance public debate took place in Berlin below the photographs of Fischers severed heads.

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Black ‘Human Zoo’ Fury Greets Berlin Art Show

Eco-friendly Move by Chesapeake – Analyst Blog

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US gas giant Chesapeake Energy Corporation (CHK) is planning to develop a 100% green mixture of fluids for fracturing oil and gas formations underground. In line with this move, it is experimenting with hydraulic-fracturing fluids prepared entirely from eco-friendly materials in wells.

According to management, the current frac fluid formulations frequently contain risky components like hydrochloric acid or diesel fuel. Environmentalists believe that these components create a threat to water supplies.

Chesapeake is analyzing numerous environment friendly methods in several shale formations. The details of these shale formations have not been disclosed. The company is apprehensive of the fact that drilling a well costs about $4 million to $6 million. Meanwhile, if an untested frac system is pushed down a well it would damage the reservoir, resulting in wastage of resources.

Therefore, Chesapeake is testing the green fracking fluids to curtail threats from surface leak of drilling sites close to lakes, creeks and rivers. It would also help in reducing workers' contact with potentially dangerous substances.

Another process developed by Halliburton uses ultraviolet light that destroys bacteria in the fracking fluid, combining the technology with a recycling process called CleanWave that uses an electrical charge to detach contaminants and clean the water.

The efforts by Chesapeake will go a long way in helping the company to grow in the rising environment friendly surroundings.

Chesapeake carries a Zacks #3 Rank, which is equivalent to a Hold rating for a period of one to three months. Longer term, we maintain our Neutral recommendation.

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Eco-friendly Move by Chesapeake - Analyst Blog

Eco-friendly Move by Chesapeake

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US gas giant Chesapeake Energy Corporation (CHK) is planning to develop a 100% green mixture of fluids for fracturing oil and gas formations underground. In line with this move, it is experimenting with hydraulic-fracturing fluids prepared entirely from eco-friendly materials in wells.

According to management, the current frac fluid formulations frequently contain risky components like hydrochloric acid or diesel fuel. Environmentalists believe that these components create a threat to water supplies.

Chesapeake is analyzing numerous environment friendly methods in several shale formations. The details of these shale formations have not been disclosed. The company is apprehensive of the fact that drilling a well costs about $4 million to $6 million. Meanwhile, if an untested frac system is pushed down a well it would damage the reservoir, resulting in wastage of resources.

Therefore, Chesapeake is testing the green fracking fluids to curtail threats from surface leak of drilling sites close to lakes, creeks and rivers. It would also help in reducing workers contact with potentially dangerous substances.

Chesapeake is not the only company, which is working on means of providing more environment friendly fluids. The worlds largest fracking company Halliburton Co. (HAL) also offers CleanStim. This is effective in suppressing the growth of subterranean bacteria that can create a thick slime and hinder oil and gas flow.

Another process developed by Halliburton uses ultraviolet light that destroys bacteria in the fracking fluid, combining the technology with a recycling process called CleanWave that uses an electrical charge to detach contaminants and clean the water.

The efforts by Chesapeake will go a long way in helping the company to grow in the rising environment friendly surroundings.

Chesapeake carries a Zacks #3 Rank, which is equivalent to a Hold rating for a period of one to three months. Longer term, we maintain our Neutral recommendation.

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Beaches At Shinnecock Will Be Rebuilt With Sand From Inlet

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Contractors working for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and New York State will dredge about 300,000 tons of sand from Shinnecock Inlet beginning next month and pump it onto beaches west of the inlet that were severely eroded during the passing of Hurricane Irene last year.

The project officially has a dual purpose: bolstering the beaches decimated by Irenes waves and clearing the navigation channel leading from the Atlantic Ocean into Shinnecock Bay, home to the states second-largest commercial fishing port.

The project will be funded jointly by the Army Corps and the state and conducted by a private contractor hired by the Army Corps, Great Lakes Dredge & Dock Co.

U.S. Representative Tim Bishop announced this week that the project bids for the federal portions had come in well under budget. The dredging is officially slated to begin on or about November 1 and will be completed by mid-January 2013, according to Mr. Bishops office.

In June, the Army Corps appropriated some $5.1 million for the project, but the accepted bid for the work by Great Lakes was just under $3.9 million. The additional money will be held in reserve in case of any unexpected contingencies and would then be reassigned to other Army Corps emergency projects. Mr. Bishop said he will push for the money to be redirected to other Long Island projects.

I fought for a strong federal response to mitigating the damage from Tropical Storm Irene, and this vital project will protect the more than 500 jobs that rely on the small businesses and marine infrastructure located west of Shinnecock Inlet and will also ensure continued safe access to New Yorks second-busiest fishing port, the congressman said this week. We should all applaud the fact that the bid for the project was lower than expected and that taxpayers can expect extra bang for their buck with the federal-state partnership on this work.

The federal portion of the project will dredge 128,000 cubic yards of sand13,000 dump truck loadsfrom the main fairway of the inlet that will be pumped onto the quarter-mile stretch of badly eroded beach and dunes immediately to the west of the inlet.

The state portion of the project will fund the removal of another 115,000 cubic yards of sand from the navigation channel leading to and from the inlet. That sand will also be deposited along the beach near the inlet.

In late 2009 and early 2010, the Army Corps dredged more than 500,000 tons of sand out of the inlet and channel and pumped it onto beaches in western Hampton Bays and East Quogue. That project was funded with money from the federal stimulus package known as the American Recovery and Investment Act.

The beaches west of the inlet have suffered from chronic erosion for decades, the ill effects of the stone jetties that were used to stabilize the inlet in the 1950s. The jetties interrupt the sand that flows naturally from east to west along the shoreline, redirecting it offshorealso forming a long offshore sandbar that creates recurring hazardous navigation problems for boats entering and leaving the inlet.

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Beaches Still Closed After Sewage Spill

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The city of Long Beach, pictured from just outside the breakwater, closed all beaches in Alamitos Bay after a Sunday sewage spill.

An expanded beach closure in the Long Beach's Alamitos Bay that remained in effect Wednesday following a weekend sewage spill will likely keep the beaches shut down for at least two more days.

A private sump pumpthat serves a residentialcommunity nearthe Cerritos Channel failed on Sunday, spilling sewage that flowed in Alamitos Bay,city public health officials said.

Initially, the spillonlyprompted the closure of Mother's Beach. But on Tuesday, Long Beach health officials said bacteriological test results had induced the cityto close all other recreational beaches in Alamitos Bay.

"Out of an abundance of caution, the beaches will remain closed to water contact until testing confirms that the results are within state standards," Long Beach City Health Officer Dr. Mitchell Kushner said in a press releaseTuesday.

Water-quality test results on Wednesday morning showed continued "moderate to heavy" exceedance of state standards for bacterial limits, according to Nelson Kerr, head of the environmental health bureau in the city's health department.

Kerr said the city wants to see two clean samples in a row at each of its four sampling locations in the bay. Samples are taken once per day and results are available the next day, so the earliest the beaches could reopen would be Friday.

It's uncertain how much sewage has entered the bay, Kerr said.

Ocean-facing beaches in Long Beach have remained open to the public.

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Beaches Still Closed After Sewage Spill

Davis Aerospace High School Showcased in Statewide Aviation Event as host of 2012 Michigan Air Tour – Video

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27-09-2012 22:40 Davis Aerospace was the only school-based program to host this year's Michigan Aviation Association Michigan Air Tour on September 21, 2012. In recognition of the remarkable aviation programs that Davis Aerospace offers, the school was selected as the starting point of the 2012 Michigan Air Tour. Nearly 30 pilots from across the state and Canada landed personal aircrafts on the grounds of Davis Aerospace. The tour also held stops in Marshall, Adrian, Battle Creek, Cadillac and Alpena. A presentation was held honoring the Davis Aerospace Flight Training Program for being only one of few flight programs available to public school students in the United States that allows students who successfully complete all flight-training requirements to achieve their Private Pilot license prior to graduation. The students also provided school tours to the visiting pilots of the MAA.

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Davis Aerospace High School Showcased in Statewide Aviation Event as host of 2012 Michigan Air Tour - Video

A look at 'Looper's' potential for real world time travel

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Bruce Willis plays Joseph Gordon-Levitt's future self in "Looper."

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

(CNN) -- "Looper," this past weekend's mind-bending futuristic thriller from writer/director Rian Johnson, follows "The Terminator's" time traveling mantra: There's no fate but what we make. The destiny audiences forged helped "Looper" land at the box office in second place, earning the film a cool $21.2 million. Not bad for an R-rated action flick whose big questions would have made sci-fi novelist Philip K. Dick smirk.

In the film, bottom barrel assassins are handpicked to do the future mobster's dirty work by killing targets in 2044, 30 years before time travel is even invented. Unfortunately, the hit men collecting silver bounty off of bodies sent to the past tend to die young (sort of). They retroactively commit suicide by murdering their future selves, giving them three decades to live life to the fullest. It's also full of space-time paradoxes. What if you could change the future by altering the past? That's precisely what happens when Joe the looper, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, makes the mistake of letting his future form, played by Bruce Willis, escape.

Time travel is obviously a sci-fi staple, but sometimes it's best to keep things simple.

"We'll be sitting here all day making diagrams with straws," Bruce Willis yells at his younger self after being hounded by questions about the history of things to come. But believe it or not, there are scientists who study the real world possibilities of time travel, and it's a lot of information to sip up.

Combating bad pop culture time travel

Joseph Gordon-Levitt in 'Looper'

Meryl Streep in 'The Iron Lady'

Robert Downey Jr. in 'Tropic Thunder'

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A look at 'Looper's' potential for real world time travel

Super-light notebooks fail to take off

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High prices plus competition from smartphones and tablets mean that ultrabook PCs are failing to sell in high numbers.

Ultrabooks, the super-slim, super-light, super-quiet notebook PCs that were meant to revolutionize the market are failing to entice users away from other gadgets.

Hopes had been high that 2012 would be the year that these ultra-portable computers really took off and sales of 22 million units were predicted. However, the latest IHS iSuppli Compute Platforms Topical Report, published Monday, shows that these estimates were way off the mark and due to a combination of ineffective marketing, competition in the market and their comparatively high cost, only 10.3 million ultrabooks are now predicted to ship by the end of the year.

"So far, the PC industry has failed to create the kind of buzz and excitement among consumers that is required to propel ultrabooks into the mainstream," said Craig Stice, the report's author. "This is especially a problem amid all the hype surrounding media tablets and smartphones. When combined with other factors, including prohibitively high pricing, this means that ultrabook sales will not meet expectations in 2012."

Issues surrounding marketing and price can be overcome -- especially as ultrabook sales increase -- but competition from tablets and smartphones can only be addressed through new features and functionality that consumers want or need. And in this respect, the report is optimistic, noting that Intel, the microprocessor giant whose chipset and specifications define the term ultrabook, has been busy unveiling new capabilities for future models. These include touchscreen technology, voice recognition and a host of GPS and motion sensors -- technologies that are key drivers of the success of tablets.

In particular, manufacturers including Acer, HP and Dell have high hopes for convertible' ultrabooks which, via detachable or rotating screens, can be turned into tablets, or have touchsensitive screens, giving users the best of both worlds. For example the Acer Aspire S7 can be opened to 180 and has a 10-point touch display optimized for the forthcoming Windows 8. Meanwhile the Dell XPS Duo 12 has a screen that can spin within its outer frame so that it can be on the inside or the outside of the computer.

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Super-light notebooks fail to take off

Cedars-Sinai study sheds light on bone marrow stem cell therapy for pancreatic recovery

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Public release date: 2-Oct-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]

Contact: Sandy Van sandy@prpacific.com 808-526-1708 Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

LOS ANGELES (Oct. 2, 2012) Researchers at Cedars-Sinai's Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute have found that a blood vessel-building gene boosts the ability of human bone marrow stem cells to sustain pancreatic recovery in a laboratory mouse model of insulin-dependent diabetes.

The findings, published in a PLOS ONE article of the Public Library of Science, offer new insights on mechanisms involved in regeneration of insulin-producing cells and provide new evidence that a diabetic's own bone marrow one day may be a source of treatment.

Scientists began studying bone marrow-derived stem cells for pancreatic regeneration a decade ago. Recent studies involving several pancreas-related genes and delivery methods transplantation into the organ or injection into the blood have shown that bone marrow stem cell therapy could reverse or improve diabetes in some laboratory mice. But little has been known about how stem cells affect beta cells pancreas cells that produce insulin or how scientists could promote sustained beta cell renewal and insulin production.

When the Cedars-Sinai researchers modified bone marrow stem cells to express a certain gene (vascular endothelial growth factor, or VEGF), pancreatic recovery was sustained as mouse pancreases were able to generate new beta cells. The VEGF-modified stem cells promoted growth of needed blood vessels and supported activation of genes involved in insulin production. Bone marrow stem cells modified with a different gene, PDX1, which is important in the development and maintenance of beta cells, resulted in temporary but not sustained beta cell recovery.

"Our study is the first to show that VEGF contributes to revascularization and recovery after pancreatic injury. It demonstrates the possible clinical benefits of using bone marrow-derived stem cells, modified to express that gene, for the treatment of insulin-dependent diabetes," said John S. Yu, MD, professor and vice chair of the Department of Neurosurgery at Cedars-Sinai, senior author of the journal article.

Diabetes was reversed in five of nine mice treated with the injection of VEGF-modified cells, and near-normal blood sugar levels were maintained through the remainder of the six-week study period. The other four mice survived and gained weight, suggesting treatment was beneficial even when it did not prompt complete reversal. Lab studies later confirmed that genetically-modified cells survived and grew in the pancreas and supported the repopulation of blood vessels and beta cells.

Anna Milanesi, MD, PhD, working in Yu's lab as an endocrinology fellow, is the article's first author. The researchers cautioned that although this and other related studies help scientists gain a better understanding of the processes and pathways involved in pancreatic regeneration, more research is needed before human clinical trials can begin.

Insulin-dependent diabetes occurs when beta cells of the pancreas fail to produce insulin, a hormone that regulates sugar in the blood. Patients must take insulin injections or consider transplantation of a whole pancreas or parts of the pancreas that make insulin, but transplantation carries the risk of cell rejection.

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Cedars-Sinai study sheds light on bone marrow stem cell therapy for pancreatic recovery

New study sheds light on bone marrow stem cell therapy for pancreatic recovery

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ScienceDaily (Oct. 2, 2012) Researchers at Cedars-Sinai's Maxine Dunitz Neurosurgical Institute have found that a blood vessel-building gene boosts the ability of human bone marrow stem cells to sustain pancreatic recovery in a laboratory mouse model of insulin-dependent diabetes.

The findings, published in a PLoS ONE article of the Public Library of Science, offer new insights on mechanisms involved in regeneration of insulin-producing cells and provide new evidence that a diabetic's own bone marrow one day may be a source of treatment.

Scientists began studying bone marrow-derived stem cells for pancreatic regeneration a decade ago. Recent studies involving several pancreas-related genes and delivery methods -- transplantation into the organ or injection into the blood -- have shown that bone marrow stem cell therapy could reverse or improve diabetes in some laboratory mice. But little has been known about how stem cells affect beta cells -- pancreas cells that produce insulin -- or how scientists could promote sustained beta cell renewal and insulin production.

When the Cedars-Sinai researchers modified bone marrow stem cells to express a certain gene (vascular endothelial growth factor, or VEGF), pancreatic recovery was sustained as mouse pancreases were able to generate new beta cells. The VEGF-modified stem cells promoted growth of needed blood vessels and supported activation of genes involved in insulin production. Bone marrow stem cells modified with a different gene, PDX1, which is important in the development and maintenance of beta cells, resulted in temporary but not sustained beta cell recovery.

"Our study is the first to show that VEGF contributes to revascularization and recovery after pancreatic injury. It demonstrates the possible clinical benefits of using bone marrow-derived stem cells, modified to express that gene, for the treatment of insulin-dependent diabetes," said John S. Yu, MD, professor and vice chair of the Department of Neurosurgery at Cedars-Sinai, senior author of the journal article.

Diabetes was reversed in five of nine mice treated with the injection of VEGF-modified cells, and near-normal blood sugar levels were maintained through the remainder of the six-week study period. The other four mice survived and gained weight, suggesting treatment was beneficial even when it did not prompt complete reversal. Lab studies later confirmed that genetically-modified cells survived and grew in the pancreas and supported the repopulation of blood vessels and beta cells.

Anna Milanesi, MD, PhD, working in Yu's lab as an endocrinology fellow, is the article's first author. The researchers cautioned that although this and other related studies help scientists gain a better understanding of the processes and pathways involved in pancreatic regeneration, more research is needed before human clinical trials can begin.

Insulin-dependent diabetes occurs when beta cells of the pancreas fail to produce insulin, a hormone that regulates sugar in the blood. Patients must take insulin injections or consider transplantation of a whole pancreas or parts of the pancreas that make insulin, but transplantation carries the risk of cell rejection.

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New study sheds light on bone marrow stem cell therapy for pancreatic recovery

International Space Station to change orbit to avoid possible collision with debris

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MOSCOW - The Russian space program's Mission Control Center says it will move the International Space Station into a different orbit to avoid possible collision with a fragment of debris.

Mission Control Center spokeswoman Nadyezhda Zavyalova said the Russian Zvevda module will fire booster rockets to carry out the operation Thursday at 07:22 a.m. Moscow time (0322 GMT).

The space station performs evasive manoeuvrs when the likelihood of a collision exceeds one in 10,000.

NASA estimates that more than 21,000 fragments of orbital debris larger than 10 centimetres (3.9 inches) are stuck in earth's orbit, and experts worry that orbiting junk is becoming a growing problem for the space industry.

There are six astronauts three Russians, two Americans and one from Japan onboard the orbiting laboratory.

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International Space Station to change orbit to avoid possible collision with debris

Space freighter starts suicide plunge: ESA

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NASA image shows the International Space Station in 2005. A bus-sized craft that had delivered food to the International Space Station will re-enter Earth's atmosphere overnight for a controlled implosion over the South Pacific, the European Space Agency said Tuesday.

A bus-sized craft that had delivered food to the International Space Station will re-enter Earth's atmosphere overnight for a controlled implosion over the South Pacific, the European Space Agency said Tuesday.

The automated transfer vehicle (ATV) undocked from the ISS last Friday after a six-month visit.

Its undocking was delayed by three days because astronauts had sent the craft a wrong identification code.

Named after a 20th-century Italian physicist, the Edoardo Amaldi will exit its ISS orbit at 2142 GMT on Tuesday, firing its engines for 14 minutes to place it on an Earth-bound suicide mission.

At 0042 GMT the craft will fire its engines again, this time for a second, 15-minute "deorbit burn"and will start falling to Earth about 20 minutes later.

Impact of the debris surviving the atmospheric burnout is scheduled for 0130 GMT, according to an ESA blog.

The Edoardo Amaldi is the third of five ATVs that the space agency is providing for the ISS project.

The robot craft, each the size of a London double-decker bus, are designed to make one-way trips to the space station, hauling up tonnes of food, water, air, equipment and other supplies for the three people on board.

The ATVs also use on-board engines to give boosts to the ISS, whose altitude drops because it is in low orbit and dragged down by lingering atmospheric molecules.

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Russia OKs year-long space station mission

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MOSCOW The first year-long mission to the International Space Station may begin in March 2015, following an agreement between ISS partners who have previously sent crews for six months, the Russian space agency director said on Tuesday.

Alexei Krasnov, in charge of manned flights at Roscosmos, said the decision was made by participants at the International Astronautical Congress in Naples, Italy, this week.

The two-person expedition with crew members from Roscosmos and NASA will be a first test, the result of which will determine whether all flights are extended to a year, he said.

Space news from NBCNews.com

The strange case of the Cincinnati Lights intrigued UFO fans, but it looks as if the person who took the original video has come up with the likeliest explanation: They were skydivers.

"The fundamental decision has been made, only the formalities remain to be negotiated. So far, we are talking about a single mission," Krasnov told RIA news agency.

"If it proves effective, we will be able to discuss with partner countries a permanent transition from half-year flights to year-long flights."

Veteran Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko, NASA astronaut Sunita Williams and Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide are currently in orbit aboard the International Space Station.

They are to be joined by another trio Kevin Ford, Oleg Novitsky and Yevgeny Tarelkin due to blast off from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at the end of the month, their flight delayed by a week due to a technical equipment glitch.

Russia's space program has suffered a series of humiliating setbacks in recent months that industry veterans blame on a decade of crimped budgets and a brain drain.

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Russia OKs year-long space station mission

International Space Station plans move to avoid debris collision

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Published October 03, 2012

Associated Press

MOSCOW The Russian space program's Mission Control Center says it will move the International Space Station into a different orbit to avoid possible collision with a fragment of debris.

Mission Control Center spokeswoman Nadyezhda Zavyalova said the Russian Zvevda module will fire booster rockets to carry out the operation Thursday at 7:22 a.m. Moscow time (0322 GMT).

The space station performs evasive maneuvers when the likelihood of a collision exceeds one in 10,000.

NASA estimates that more than 21,000 fragments of orbital debris larger than 3.9 inches are stuck in earth's orbit, and experts worry that orbiting junk is becoming a growing problem for the space industry.

There are six astronauts -- three Russians, two Americans and one from Japan -- onboard the orbiting laboratory.

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Year-Long Missions Could Be Added to Space Station Manifest

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Special crews on board the International Space Station will stay in space for year-long missions instead of the usual six-month expeditions, according to a report by the Russian news agency Ria Novosti.

The principal decision has been made and we just have to coordinate the formalities, Alexei Krasnov, the head of Roscosmos human space missions was quoted, saying that the international partners agreed to add the longer-duration missions at the International Astronautical Congress in Italy this week. This confirms rumors from earlier this year, and pushes ahead the aspirations of Roscosmos to add longer missions to the ISS manifest.

The first yearlong mission will be experimental and could happen as early as 2015.

Two members of the international crew, a Russian cosmonaut and a NASA astronaut will be picked to carry out this yearlong mission, Krasnov said, adding that planning for the missions has already been underway.

If the mission proves to be effective, we will discuss sending year-long missions to ISS on a permanent basis, he said.

For years, the Russian Space Agency indicated that they wanted to do some extra-long-duration mission tests on the ISS, much like the Mars 500 mission that was done by ESA and Russia in 20102011 which took place on Earth and only simulated a 500-day mission to Mars.

Since NASAs long-term plans now include human missions to Mars or asteroids, in April of this year, Universe Today asked NASAs associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate, John Grunsfeld about the possibility of adding longer ISS missions in order to test out in space the physiological and psychological demands of a human Mars mission. At that time, Grunsfeld indicated longer missions wouldnt be necessary to do such tests.

A 500-day mission would have a six-month cruise to Mars and a six-month cruise back, he said. When we send a crew up to the ISS on the Soyuz, they spend six months in weightlessness and so we are already mimicking that experiment today.

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Year-Long Missions Could Be Added to Space Station Manifest

Space station to move to avoid debris

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MOSCOW (AP) The Russian space program's Mission Control Center says it will move the International Space Station into a different orbit to avoid possible collision with a fragment of debris.

Mission Control Center spokeswoman Nadyezhda Zavyalova said the Russian Zvevda module will fire booster rockets to carry out the operation Thursday at 07:22 a.m. Moscow time (0322 GMT).

The space station performs evasive maneuvers when the likelihood of a collision exceeds one in 10,000.

NASA estimates that more than 21,000 fragments of orbital debris larger than 10 centimeters (3.9 inches) are stuck in earth's orbit, and experts worry that orbiting junk is becoming a growing problem for the space industry.

There are six astronauts three Russians, two Americans and one from Japan onboard the orbiting laboratory.

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Space station to move to avoid debris