Day 7 our trip to Koh Kong the Thailand border and the Gulf of Thailand. Irsquom now on a road trip with the Paulrsquos group Bunna the other Cambodia I apologize for not remembering his name Hen Sophea Richard Pela his wife Paul and myself. We headed to a city named Koh Kong. Paul had a meeting with them regarding their Fire Station. After 2 hours of straight driving in our Mini
back to the Keys
After two weeks of miserable cold weather we are finally back in shorts and t shirts as things return to normal.The cold water it went from 72f down to 49f killed hundreds of thousands of fish even as far south as here in the Keys.We had an uneventful run down the west coast to Marathon and have settled on a mooring for a month. From here we can take side trips to a few nice anchorages and a
Puerto Rico and Paula Deen
OK it is taking some time to get acclimatized to cruising but I am loving every minute of it. There is just so much to see and do and eat If someone anyone has lost weight on a cruise they have to be anorexic. The 6 sister 1 are starting to settle into a good routine of meals tours gym time alone time and taking care of another sister routine. Picture taking has been a challenge as S
"ACDC the last indoor show"
23rd April 09Everybody is looking forward to going home after the show tonight except me. Irsquove drawn the short straw and lsquovolunteeredrsquo to drop off a transformer or six somewhere in the depths of Ireland. By lsquodepthsrsquo I mean I have a map on the back of a cigarette packet and instructions to meet Vinnie in an unmarked quarry at 8pm tomorrow night. And when I say lsq
Halong Bay and Cat Ba
Hi everyoneWe've just finished a 3 day tour of Halong Bay and Cat Ba Island off the coast of northern Vietnam. After a 3 hour bus ride from Hanoi we acquired a guide which meant we could relax for a few days on the planning side and boarded a boat or 'junk' as they refer to them as at Halong City. From here we had a 45 hour boat ride around Halong Bay which had fantastic scenery as thou
Taiwan ChinaSarah’s visit to Asia
HAPPY NEW YEARIt has been some time since I last wrote in my blog my apologies I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and Happy New Year thank you so much to everyone who called and took time to skype with me over these Holidays it really meant a lot.So what has been going on across the worldhellip.Christoph and family returned to Germany for the Holidays they were so kind and let me st
48 hours of India and our schedule is already screwed up….
India is Great...So after our too short stay in Paki we're settling down in India. We think it will be approx for one month as our Myanmar a.k.a. Burma visa will expire the beginning of March. So India wil become a bit of a rush job that's the way things are going apparently. And we should not forget that instead of long stay in India we got Tibet Nepal and Pakistan not a bad deal...So aft
Lahore Easy going Pakistan
Dear Friendsno we did not disappear in Pakistan got kidnapped or was subject of any criminal activities it's an OK country. After our lovely week with Renate in ISB we moved out of the capital to explore some more countryside. Rawalpindi ISB's twin city is the travel hub so we caught our train to Lahore from there. Rawalpindi is worth a mention here. Even though it is damn close to ISB it
"My friend went to Maastricht all I got was this pair of underwear."
Today was yet another extremely random day with no real highlights to point out so this blog is going to be extremely short. Since it's Wednesday the market was going on out front today. There are so many random things there. For instance you can buy flowers at one cart right next to it you can buy a pair of underwear. I assumed that a market meant that local farmers would bring in their prod
Faith Healing
Faith healing is based on belief and is about as far as you can get from science-based medicine, but it is not exempt from science. If it really worked, science would be able to document its cures and would be the only reliable way to validate its effectiveness. Miraculous cures continue to be reported on a regular basis: what are we to make of them? In the Healing Rooms Ministry of Bethel Church in Redding, California, people regularly claim to be healed of cancer, broken bones, multiple sclerosis and many other ailments. Page after page of testimonials of cures are listed on their website. Are these cures real? If not, what is going on?
Amanda Winters, a journalist doing a series of articles on Bethel Church, interviewed me for a scientific view of these faith healings. She asked me some very incisive questions and understood my answers. She wrote what I thought was a balanced article, quoting me fairly and at more length than reporters usually allow.
Her article features a patient who believed his flat feet would be healed (bones would crack and form an arch). Healers poked him, blew a shofar at his feet, and covered him with a blanket when he collapsed on the floor. When he got up, his feet were unchanged. But
his faith was not shaken, he said, because he felt so loved and maybe the physical healing was secondary to the spiritual experience he had.
Multiple Sclerosis Healed
One impressive testimonial was of a woman who had had multiple sclerosis for 30 years and whose symptoms and impairments apparently vanished during a healing session. The reporter asked me what I thought of the situation and the testimony. What medical, scientific explanations could there be for the perceived healing?
In the first place, stories like these are notoriously unreliable. They are layman’s testimonials that amount to nothing but hearsay. How can we know they were not invented, exaggerated, misunderstood, or otherwise misrepresented? They fall far short of the kind of case reports that are published in medical journals with x-ray, lab and other documentation and the opportunity for peer review.
In the second place, multiple sclerosis is a notorious quack magnet because its symptoms come and go erratically. It is a disease with a wide variety of symptoms. It is characterized by remissions and exacerbations: to make the diagnosis you have to show that the symptoms go away and come back over time. It is very difficult to tell if any treatment has “worked” or if the disease was simply following its natural course and happened to be improving on its own at that time. We don’t have any objective report from a doctor about this patient’s condition before and after the “healing” episode. Some of the improvement could have been because she was trying harder: muscle strength is particularly effort-dependent. We don’t know what happened after the “healing” or how long the improvement lasted.
There are many, many similar reports where follow-up found the patients still just as sick or worse off. Patients who “get up and walk” may not be healed. In one unfortunate case a woman was encouraged to get up out of her wheelchair and discard her braces at church. The faith healer proclaimed her “healed.” Unfortunately her cancer of the spine had weakened her bones, and the activity caused bones in her spine to collapse; she died not long after. The faith healing hastened her death and caused her unnecessary agony. For the faith healer and the witnesses at church and for the patient herself that day, it appeared to be a miraculous healing: they couldn’t have been more wrong! Incidentally, many of the faith healing patients who get up out of a wheelchair and walk had actually walked into church and had been offered wheelchairs they didn’t really need.
Cancer Cures
The reporter asked me about a woman with brain cancer who was healed and a subsequent doctor’s visit showed the brain cancer was gone. Are there cases of cancer where it simply goes away?
There are cases of spontaneous remission but they are rare. There are other explanations that are more likely. Many “cancer cure” claims involve cases that were never proven to be cancer by biopsy. This story is particularly unbelievable because the “healing” supposedly relieved her tunnel vision and then produced a discharge from the ear. The vision and ear parts of the brain are in different locations — where was her tumor supposed to be? One report I saw on the website (not sure if it was the same patient) reported that the size of the tumor had decreased but it had not gone away. Release of liquid and a lesion that became smaller sounds more like some kind of cyst or abscess might have spontaneously drained. Where are the medical reports? Where are the x-rays? Why was this case not written up in a medical journal? What happened to the patient afterwards? There are too many unanswered questions for anyone to even make an educated guess.
Many years ago the Journal of the American Medical Association used to have a regular feature where there would be a testimonial on one page describing how a patient was cured of cancer. On the opposite page, they would print the patient’s death certificate showing that he had died of that cancer shortly after providing the testimonial.
The explanations for most alleged cancer cures are:
- The patient never had cancer. (Was a biopsy done?)
- A cancer was cured or put into remission by proven therapy, but questionable therapy was also used and erroneously credited for the beneficial result.
- The cancer is progressing but is erroneously represented as slowed or cured.
- The patient has died as a result of the cancer (or is lost to follow-up) but is represented as cured.
- The patient had a spontaneous remission (very rare) or slow-growing cancer that is publicized as a cure.
Raising the Dead?
Bethel even reports resurrections: one patient began to move shortly after she was declared dead, and she made a full recovery. This is uncritically accepted as a triumph of prayer and faith healing, without even considering other possible explanations. Which is more likely: that the doctor who declared her dead made a mistake or that a dead person returned to life? I know which I would bet on.
One of their students has formed a Dead Raising Team that is attempting to help the police in Mason County, Washington in cases of accident or fatality. The manager of the county Department of Emergency Management reports there have been no resurrections so far.
Bethel is part of a larger movement known as the Word of Faith movement, which teaches that faith is a force through which anything can be done. They believe they can train people in the supernatural ministry and they can go out and heal people and raise the dead. Other Christian denominations condemn this as a false teaching, because in the Bible healing ability was limited to Jesus and the apostles.
Their questionable claims are not limited to healing. They say angel feathers have floated down into their church. Ornithologists identified these as common bird feathers. They say diamonds and gold dust have also mysteriously appeared.
The Evidence for Faith Healing
There are lots of reports describing the emperor’s new clothes, but investigations consistently show he is naked. There is a good review of faith healing on Quackwatch. When faith healings have been diligently investigated by qualified doctors, they have found no evidence that the patients were actually helped in any objective sense. Even at Lourdes, the Catholic Church has only recognized 4 cures since 1978, out of 5 million people who seek healing there every year.
There simply is no evidence that faith healing heals. Not what science considers evidence. And the true believers don’t value evidence or the scientific method: for them, belief is enough.
The Psychology of Belief
Winters asked about healers who “feel someone else’s pain” and are led to a patient because God tells them words like “baby” and “blue” and “foot” and they use those correlations to find a baby with a foot problem and some association with the color blue who needs healing. What could cause someone to feel a pain they believe isn’t theirs? Are there neurological reasons why someone could think they hear prophetic words that are from God?
People have wonderful imaginations, and they are great at finding patterns, real and unreal. They can find ways to connect words to a patient, just as they can see the Virgin Mary on a toasted cheese sandwich, just as numerologists can find imaginary connections everywhere. People can convince themselves of almost anything if they want to believe. There are neurologic conditions that make people hyper-religious. Temporal lobe epilepsy can present as a religious experience. Experiments with magnets have created religious-like experiences of a higher presence. And hallucinations are not uncommon even in normal people. According to one study, 39% of people report having experienced hallucinations when they were neither sick nor on drugs. There are even mass hallucinations where one or a few people insist they are seeing something that is not there and they get a whole group of people to believe they can see it too.
These faith healings are never documented properly or investigated, because the people involved want to believe, need to believe. If you challenge the pastor to participate in a formal study to establish that these healings are really occurring, you will get lots of rationalizations and backpedalling with no understanding of how science can go about testing for the truth of a claim. They have no interest in finding out if the healing is “real” because they already “know” it is real for them. (Winters’ article confirmed my prediction: she says the pastor “doesn’t feel he needs to provide any documentation or hard evidence to inquiring minds. He also said he doesn’t check up on people who come to Bethel for healing – he doesn’t have the time.”) Some people who have had recurrences of cancer after faith healing have continued to claim that they were “healed” in some nebulous psychological or spiritual sense even though they know they are dying.
For more insight into the psychology behind faith healing, see this article from the Skeptic’s Dictionary.
Faith healers run the gamut from cynical con artists to well-intentioned but self-deluded true believers, with some in the middle who know they are cheating but whose exposure to grateful patients allows them to convince themselves there is something happening beyond the con. “Healing” may not mean objective cure of physical disease; it may mean a subjective feeling of wellbeing or a coming to terms with a disease.
Faith healing can comfort, but it can also cause suffering if patients believe a failure to heal was their fault due to insufficient faith. It can be deadly when patients are led to believe they don’t need conventional medical treatment.
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Democrats now attacking SC Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer for personal lifestyle
LR FOLLOW-UP
He made pro-individualist, pro-capitalist statements cause he's a "bachelor"
From Eric Dondero:
The furor over libertarian-leaning Republican Andre Bauer's statements in favor of individual responsibility rather than rampant moocherism, continues to grow. (See our previous story for full-length "Social Darwinist Republican," for comments by Bauer at Som'sPost). Now South Carolina Democrats and NetRoots Liberals nationwide are attacking the Gubernatorial candidate for his personal lifestyle.
From the Charleston City Paper:
South Carolina Democratic Party Chair Carol Fowler points out that Bauer is a bachelor who has never had another mouth to feed: "His notion of punishing children by not feeding them because their parents missed a PTA meeting flies in the face of basic South Carolina values."
From Wonkette:
Andre Bauer, the allegedly gay-as-the-dickens French lieutenant governor of “America’s Bordeaux,” South Carolina, has provided CNN with his gayest-ever photo to accompany its article about how he regrets comparing poor people to poor French farm animals...
From Queerty:
Bauer is also the guy who's rumored to be gay himself... And if that CV wasn't long enough, Bauer is now also the guy who referred to poor people who rely on public assistance as "animal[s] … [that] will reproduce, especially ones that don't think too much further than that. And so what you've got to do is you've got to curtail that type of behavior." He's also the guy who won't apologize.
Katherine Jenerette: Not your typical "Good Ole’ Boy" for Congress
South Carolina GOP Primary choice for limited government Conservatives
by Stephen Maloney, Pennsylvania
Scott Brown won his monumental victory on Tuesday because of American patriots dedicated to protecting our Constitution and preserving our way of life.
I'll forever be grateful that so many people trusted me six weeks ago, when I suggested long before he was on anybody's radar screen, that electing then-little-known Lt. Col. Scott Brown was vital to America's future. (See one of my original post here at Libertarian Republican on Scott Brown's campaign.)
Now, I'm asking you to trust me again in supporting and promoting the candidacy of Katherine Jenerette, a commisioned Army officer from the legendary 82nd Airborne Division.
I deeply believe that my friend, Katherine, has the same character, devotion to country, and commitment to conservative limited government values that Americans have found in Scott Brown.
Katherine's running for Congress in South Carolina's 1st Congressional District, one that stretches along the coast from Charleston all the way up to the North Carolina border. She is running, just as Scott Brown did, against the concept of family dynasties "owning" a seat and the reality of "good ole boy" politics.
She is an underdog; but I assure you, we will this contest. As Katherine says, "I don't fight like a girl; I fight like a PARATROOPER."
Please take a quick look Katherine's campaign website, and you will discover an American woman with the same character and unlimited potential we find in Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, and Liz Cheney.
A Scott Brown Republican... with a Pick-up Truck
From Katherine:
Obviously, I'm not your garden-variety politician, and that not just because I jump out of airplanes . . . and drive a pickup. I've been called "the good ole boys worst nightmare" because I don't believe in political chicanery, back-room deals, special-interest deals, or dynasties.
If you send me to Washington, DC, I won't be one that goes along . . . to get along. In my military career, I've sworn to protect my fellow Americans and our Constitution. That oath is a lifetime commitment.
Like most people in this state, I'm a conservative and, constitutionally, a strict constructionist. I believe in "the 3 Fs," faith in God, family, and fidelity to our country.
I'm pro-life, pro-Second Amendment, pro-private enterprise, and pro-military. In my Army career, I've been willing to give my life, if necessary, for our beloved nation, and now I'm willing to devote my life to serving God, my brother and sister South Carolinians, and my fellow Americans.
Again, I'm asking you to adopt -- and embrace the candidacy of --this remarkable woman -- Katherine -- committed to winning a tough election and primary. With your strong support, victory will be a certainty. Please support this mother (of four), soldier, patriot, and leader.
Please consier at least a small contribution to Katherine's campaign, using this link: Katherine Jenerette for U.S Congress.
More evidence fear of Islamic Terrorism may have been factor in Scott Brown win
The Pew Research Center just released findings on public policy priorities of the American electorate. Number three - Terrorism.
From Pew:
in the wake of the failed Christmas Day terrorist attack on a Detroit-bound airliner, defending the country from future terrorist attacks also remains a top priority
Did National Security issues matter in Massachusetts?
Jamie Glazov of Frontpage interviewed Andrew McCarthy of National Review,"Brown's National Security Win" Jan. 25:
The Brown campaign’s internal polling told them something very interesting. While it’s true that healthcare is what nationalized the election and riveted everyone’s attention to it, it was the national security issues that put real distance between the two candidates in the mind of the electorate—in blue Massachusetts of all places. Sen.-elect Brown was able to speak forcefully and convincingly on issues like treating our jihadist enemies as combatants rather than mere defendants, about killing terrorists and preventing terrorism rather than contenting ourselves with prosecutions after Americans have been killed, about tough interrogation when necessary to save innocent lives. Martha Coakley, by contrast, had to try to defend the indefensible, which is Obama-style counterterrorism. It evidently made a huge difference to voters.
Scott Brown the Tea Party, even "Libertarian" US Senator
"He embraced tenants... of the Libertarian Party"
Scott Brown win is increasingly seen as libertarian-leaning Tea Party victory.
Mike Huckabee, Fox News:
Scott Brown's defeat of Martha Coakley in the Massachusetts Senate campaign on Tuesday was a second Boston Tea Party as tons of Democrat hubris, elitism and paternalism were dumped into Boston Harbor.
From Fred Barnes, writing in the Washington Examiner:
conservatives and tea partiers joined moderates and independents in the Brown coalition.
He was skillful in encapsulating an anti-Obama message: "Raising taxes, taking over our health care, and giving new rights to terrorists is the wrong agenda for our country."
That's a mantra conservatives, tea party people, moderates, and independents can embrace.
David Bernstein at Volokh Conspiracy:
Like others who oppose much of President Obama’s legislative agenda, I’m pleased that Scott Brown won, and even more pleased that he won relying on generally libertarian themes...
Robert Laurie at The Daily Caller:
He embraced tenants of the Tea Party movement and the Libertarian Party, fusing them into a new take on classic conservatism. At least it feels new, since we haven’t seen it in so long. Issues like personal liberty, states’ rights, upholding the 10th Amendment, stopping cap and trade, and national sovereignty were front and center in a Massachusetts election, and they won.
Gruesome murders northwest of Houston, suggested links to Islam
From Eric Dondero:
Bellville (pop. 4,000) is an exurb approximately 50 miles northwest of Houston. It is the county seat for Austin County. The town is in close proximity to the world-renowned Katy Mills Mall, Katy, TX.
A week ago Sunday, Maron Thomas, 20, allegedly murdered 5 of his family members. Details are now just emerging. He reportedly shot them to death. But officials are also confirming that he took a machete and hacked off the head of his two-year old niece. The bodies were discovered by a woman named Anita Hassan. (Source: News Blaze)
From another source, local reporter John Kays with the Student Press, reports:
A final tidbit was picked up last night on CNN Headline with Mike Galanos. I don`t have the exact transcription, so it`s from memory only. Mike interviewed Courtney Zubowski, a reporter CBS affiliate KHOU in Houston. Courtney has the latest scoop on the suspect. One thing that she said is that Maron had to be restrained when the police were taking blood samples. He really tore up the lab.
The other thing is that Maron was acting strangely in the days leading up to the shootings. He was ranting and raving about white people... Exactly what he was saying and who heard him say it, is yet to be determined.
Maron was a recent convert to Islam. There is some speculation on various blogs, though unconfirmed, that he converted while in prison. Though, notably, other sources are reporting that Thomas has no previous criminal history.
From the Houston Chronicle, Jan. 20:
Thomas' sister, Ka'Tara Price, 24, of Houston, said she believes anger and Thomas' conversion to the Muslim religion influenced his actions. She said she is not aware of him suffering from any mental illness.
“It's anger and pure evilness,” Price said Wednesday night.
“This is one of the most horrific crimes we've had in Austin County,” District Attorney Travis Koehn said.
Photo made available through the Austin County Sheriff's Dept. Hat tip to Jawa Report.
Obama to Propose a Budget Freeze
President Barack Obama intends to propose a three-year freeze in spending that accounts for one-sixth of the federal budget—a move meant to quell rising voter concern over the deficit but whose practical impact will be muted.
To attack the $1.4 trillion deficit, the White House will propose a three-year freeze on discretionary spending unrelated to the military, veterans, homeland security and international affairs, according to senior administration officials. Also untouched are big entitlement programs such as Social Security and Medicare.
Is this proposal a step in the right direction? Yes, as far as it goes.
But it's a baby step: only $250 billion saved over the coming decade. To make a real difference, cuts must focus on national defense, social security, and health care. These three are the largest components of the budget, and health care in particular is growing rapidly. Unless budget cuts tackle these items, they will have only minor impact.
In addition, most of the affected programs should actually be zeroed out, not just frozen at current levels; that would be a real start on fiscal responsibility.
Still, any restraint in spending is welcome. We will see if President Obama wields his veto pen if (when) Congress does not play along.
No Plan | The Intersection
The latest edition of Ocean and Coastal Management has an article on the management of the world’s most charismatic invertebrate and I am sad to report–as expected–the news is not good:
Socio-Economic Features Of Sea Cucumber Fisheries
In Southern Coast Of KenyaJacob Ochiewoa, Maricela de la Torre-Castrob, Charles Muthamaa, Fridah Munyia and J.M. Nthutaa
A socio-economic assessment was conducted at Vanga, Shimoni, Majoreni and Gazi villages in the Kenyan south coast with focus on the sea cucumber fishing patterns, the social and economic characteristics of the fisher communities, the contribution of sea cucumbers to the local livelihoods, and analysis of the management systems. The results indicate that sea cucumber fishers are mainly men. Fishing is done in sub-tidal areas (3-10 metres deep) and inter-tidal areas depending on the species being targeted. Those who fish in the sub-tidal areas do skin-diving without using SCUBA diving gear. Sea cucumber fishing is heavily done during the north east monsoon season when the sea is calm and water is clear. About 32% of the sea cucumber fishers also collect other marine products such as octopus. The sea cucumbers are sold fresh from the sea to local first level middlemen who process and sell them to the second level middlemen and exporters in Mombasa. The fishers occasionally borrow money from first level middlemen especially when they fail to catch sea cucumbers but this in turn creates conditions of dependence and possible exploitation. Almost all sea cucumber fishers have stated that they are not willing to make sea cucumbers part of their daily diet. The economic value of the product was substantial; the average monthly revenue for dry sea cucumbers in the area was estimated to US$ 8,000. The relative highest profits are derived from juvenile species, thus there is an economic incentive hindering local stocks to reach sexual maturity, which in turn may create a situation in which recruitment success is highly dependent on faraway populations. The present management system falls into general fisheries regulations and was found weak. No specific management plan for sea cucumbers was found.
In other words, cukes are being collected before they reach sexual maturity and, at present, fishers have no incentive to harvest local populations sustainably.
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, our oceans are going to hell in a handbasket. The signs of dramatic decline across scales are crystal clear, but we have a habit of ignoring what happens below the surface. So when there’s nothing but jellyfish and algae left, our children may wonder why we knew, yet did nothing. Oh, for the love of sea cucumbers… Surely we can do better!
Book Excerpt: Finding Jesus, Discovering Self
Kaylin Haught's poem on God saying yes to us.
NASA Tests All-Composite Space Capsule for Toughness, Safety
Spacecraft of the future may well be built using the same tough, lightweight laminated materials used today for race cars, business jets and high-end sports equipment.A team led by the NASA Engineering and Safety Center designed and built such a space capsule, called a crew module, then mounted the full-scale test article into a custom-built rig for static testing at NASA's Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va. Internal pressure and forces are being applied to critical parts of the crew module, simulating the stresses it would encounter as it carries astronauts during a space flight.
"We pressurized the module to twice Earth's atmosphere to demonstrate the ultimate design capability of the structure, and followed that by pushing and pulling it to simulate the forceful tug of the different mission phases," said Mike Kirsch, manager of the Composite Crew Module (CCM) project. "There were no anomalies and performance aligned amazingly well with analytical predictions," he added.
Additional testing of the composite crew module will be conducted at Langley to gauge the structure's resistance to damage, culminating in a planned test to failure. As a first step, the structure has proven resistant to the type of damage that might occur during ground handling, as proven by a carefully designed set of damage-related experiments followed by a repeat of the internal pressure test.
The crew module structure was fabricated by a collaborative team of NASA and industry partners at Alliant Techsystems (ATK), Iuka, Miss. Its top and bottom halves were laid up by hand using a stiffened honeycomb sandwich of carbon fiber impregnated with resin, heat- and pressure-treated in an autoclave, then spliced together using local heaters outside the autoclave. During buildup of the two halves, many of the critical, orthogonal joints were assembled by the use of preformed three dimensional weaving technology, termed Pi joints.
For the push and pull load tests, the structure was blanketed with 318 strain gages -- fiber optic cables generating about 3,500 channels of data -- and 80 acoustic sensors that listen for fiber breaks in the composite lay-ups during the testing. In addition, a stereo video system focused on complex-shaped zones of interest to generate a computerized view of surface deformation.
Composite materials are desirable because they are stiff and lightweight and can be formed into complex shapes that may be more structurally efficient. In space travel, where every additional pound of weight drives costs higher, any weight savings provides increased payload capacity and potentially reduces mission expense.
Kirsch believes work on this project will enable more informed decisions about structural materials for future NASA spacecraft.
"One of the primary project objectives was to gain hands-on experience for NASA with our contract partners by designing, building and testing a full scale complex structure such as this, then communicate lessons learned to engineers working composites across the agency," said Kirsch.
There have been many lessons learned, including the challenge of keeping weight down while meeting design requirements for a human-rated spacecraft.
NESC sponsored the three-year CCM project as part of its mission to solve technical problems related to spaceflight and to make spaceflight safer. The CCM is an all-composite representation of the part-metal, part-composite flight crew module Orion, which is part of NASA's Constellation Program to return man to the moon and/or Mars.
For more information about the NASA Engineering and Safety Center, visit:
For more information about NASA and agency programs, visit:
View my blog's last three great articles....
- NASA's WISE Eye Spies Near-Earth Asteroid
- Hurricane Season 2010: Tropical Cyclone Olga (Sout...
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Groovy Hills Rising from Titan Surface
In this synthetic aperture radar image obtained by NASA's Cassini spacecraft, two generally similar features, upper center and lower right, appear to be low mountains with grooves running roughly in the up-down direction. › Full image and caption
Hills with a wrinkly radial pattern stand out in a new radar image captured by NASA's Cassini spacecraft on Dec. 28, 2009.
The grooved mounds in the picture, which are located in a northern hemisphere region known as Belet, are about 80 kilometers (50 miles) wide and about 60 meters (200 feet) high.
The shapes of these landscape features have not been seen on Titan before, though they bear similarity to spidery features known as coronae on Venus. A corona is a circular to elliptical feature thought to result from the flow of heat in a planet's interior.
Like forensic scientists, radar team members are trying to sleuth out what created these lines and hills on Titan.
"This star-shaped pattern of the hills indicates something significant happening in the middle of the star," said Steve Wall of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., a Cassini scientist on the radar team. "It might be caused by tectonic forces, such as the forces that pull the crust of a planet apart, or rainfall that leads to erosion, or an ice intrusion like a dike."
All of these forces produce grooves on Earth's surface, but Wall says the radar team is not yet sure what is happening on Titan.
View my blog's last three great articles....
- NASA Tests All-Composite Space Capsule for Toughne...
- NASA's WISE Eye Spies Near-Earth Asteroid
- Hurricane Season 2010: Tropical Cyclone Olga (Sout...
View this site car shipping car transport auto transport
