Spirit’s Tracks

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Spirit's Tracks
This view from the navigation camera near the top of the mast on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit shows the tracks left by the rover as it drove southward and backward, dragging its inoperable right-front wheel, to the location where the rover broke through a crust in April 2009 and became embedded in soft sand.

The rover team's strategy to extricate Spirit from the sand trap was to follow these tracks out, heading north. Spirit took this image during the 2,092nd Martian day, or sol, of the rover's mission on Nov. 21, 2009.

For scale, the distance between the right and left wheel tracks is about 3 feet.

The rover team began commanding extrication drives in November after months of Earthbound testing and analysis to develop a strategy for attempting to drive Spirit out of this soft-soil site, called "Troy."

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Michigan Students Connect with Orbiting Astronauts for Out of this World Conversation

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Astronauts orbiting 220 miles above Earth will discuss science with students of the Troy School District in Troy, Mich., on Feb. 1. The call between the students and International Space Station Commander Jeff Williams and Flight Engineers T.J. Creamer and Soichi Noguchi will take place from 9:10 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. CST at Athens High School in Troy.

U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, U.S. Rep. Gary Peters, state Sen. John Pappageorge and state Rep. Marty Knollenberg also will be in attendance. U.S. Sen. Carl Levin will send the students a video welcome.

To develop an understanding of microgravity and orbital motion in preparation for the call with the astronauts, students wrote proposals for NASA programs to design, build and test their own microgravity experiments. Four teams from Troy Athens High School were selected for NASA's Dropping In a Microgravity Environment, or DIME, program and a team from Smith Middle School was selected for NASA's What If No Gravity? or WING, program.

The teams will send their science experiments to NASA's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland to be tested in its drop tower, where the falling experiments will experience a few seconds of weightlessness, similar to the microgravity astronauts experience continuously in space. The experiments and resulting data will be returned to the teams so they can prepare reports about their findings.

Reporters interested in attending the event should contact Tim McAvoy of the Troy School District at 248-823-4035 by 5 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 29.

On the day of the call, students also will have the opportunity to look at the sun through telescopes and walk through a 2-D map of the space station created by third grade classes. They also will explore booths set up by local science and engineering companies, Michigan State University, the University of Michigan and Wayne State University to promote student interest in careers in science, technology, engineering and math.

The event is part of a series with educational organizations in the U.S. and abroad to improve teaching and learning in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The in-orbit call, as well as the DIME and WING programs, are part of Teaching From Space, a NASA project that uses the unique environment of human spaceflight to promote learning opportunities and build partnerships with the kindergarten through 12th grade education community.

NASA Television will air video from the space station during the event. For NASA TV downlink, schedule and streaming video information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For information about NASA's DIME and WING student competitions, visit:

http://spaceflightsystems.grc.nasa.gov/DIME.html

For information about NASA's education programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/education

For information about the International Space Station, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

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NASA Cues Up University CubeSats for Glory Launch This Fall

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NASA will launch small research satellites for several universities as part of the agency's Educational Launch of Nanosatellite, or ELaNA, mission. The satellites are manifested as an auxiliary payload on the Taurus XL launch vehicle for NASA's Glory mission, planned for liftoff in late November.

The satellites, called CubeSats because of their shape, come from Montana State University, the University of Colorado and Kentucky Space, a consortium of state universities. The University of Florida was selected as an alternate in case one of the three primary spacecraft cannot fly.

CubeSats are in a class of small research spacecraft called picosatellites. They have a size of approximately four inches, a volume of about one quart and weigh no more than 2.2 pounds.

To place these satellites into orbit by an agency expendable launch vehicle, NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida is adapting the Poly-Picosatellite Orbital Deployer, or PPOD. This deployment system, designed and manufactured by the California Polytechnic State University in partnership with Stanford University, has flown previously on Department of Defense and commercial launch vehicles.

Montana State designated its satellite as Explorer 1 Prime, or E1P. The name honors the launch and scientific discoveries of the Explorer-1 mission, which detected the Van Allen radiation belts more than 50 years ago. E1P will carry a miniature Geiger tube to measure the intensity and variability of the electrons in the Van Allen belts.

Colorado's satellite is named Hermes. Its mission is to improve CubeSat communications through the on-orbit testing of a high data-rate communication system that will allow the downlink of large quantities of data.

The Kentucky vehicle is called KySat-1. It includes a camera to support a scientific outreach program intended for, but not limited to, Kentucky students in kindergarten through 12th grade. The satellite also has a 2.4-gigahertz industrial, scientific and medical band radio, which will be used to test high-bandwidth communications in the license-free portion of the S-band.

The satellites will hitch a ride to space with the Taurus rocket's primary payload, NASA's Glory spacecraft. The Glory climate mission, developed by NASA's Science Mission Directorate, will extend the nearly 30-year record of precise measurements of the sun's energy output. It also will obtain first-ever, global measurements of the distribution of tiny airborne aerosol particles. Aerosols represent one of the greatest areas of uncertainty in understanding Earth's climate system.

The ELaNA project is managed by NASA's Launch Services Program at Kennedy. For more information about the program, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/kennedy

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Bootable CD or USB

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Is there any "easy" way to make an XP bootable cd that will allow me to remove a corupted file that is preventing my computer from booting. It is not part of the OS and was corrupted in an "Automatic update" from windows. I do have the original XP disk but it tries to reload the OS. I also have re

Now a Stationary Research Platform, NASA’s Mars Rover Spirit Starts a New Chapter in Red Planet Scientific Studies

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view from the front hazard-avoidance camera on NASA's Mars Exploration Rover SpiritAfter six years of unprecedented exploration of the Red Planet, NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Spirit no longer will be a fully mobile robot. NASA has designated the once-roving scientific explorer a stationary science platform after efforts during the past several months to free it from a sand trap have been unsuccessful.

The venerable robot's primary task in the next few weeks will be to position itself to combat the severe Martian winter. If Spirit survives, it will continue conducting significant new science from its final location. The rover's mission could continue for several months to years.

"Spirit is not dead; it has just entered another phase of its long life," said Doug McCuistion, director of the Mars Exploration Program at NASA Headquarters in Washington. "We told the world last year that attempts to set the beloved robot free may not be successful. It looks like Spirit's current location on Mars will be its final resting place."

Ten months ago, as Spirit was driving south beside the western edge of a low plateau called Home Plate, its wheels broke through a crusty surface and churned into soft sand hidden underneath.

After Spirit became embedded, the rover team crafted plans for trying to get the six-wheeled vehicle free using its five functioning wheels – the sixth wheel quit working in 2006, limiting Spirit's mobility. The planning included experiments with a test rover in a sandbox at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., plus analysis, modeling and reviews. In November, another wheel quit working, making a difficult situation even worse.

Recent drives have yielded the best results since Spirit became embedded. However, the coming winter mandates a change in strategy. It is mid-autumn at the solar-powered robot's home on Mars. Winter will begin in May. Solar energy is declining and expected to become insufficient to power further driving by mid-February. The rover team plans to use those remaining potential drives for improving the rover's tilt. Spirit currently tilts slightly toward the south. The winter sun stays in the northern sky, so decreasing the southward tilt would boost the amount of sunshine on the rover's solar panels.

"We need to lift the rear of the rover, or the left side of the rover, or both," said Ashley Stroupe, a rover driver at JPL. "Lifting the rear wheels out of their ruts by driving backward and slightly uphill will help. If necessary, we can try to lower the front right of the rover by attempting to drop the right-front wheel into a rut or dig it into a hole."

At its current angle, Spirit probably would not have enough power to keep communicating with Earth through the Martian winter. Even a few degrees of improvement in tilt might make enough difference to enable communication every few days.

"Getting through the winter will all come down to temperature and how cold the rover electronics will get," said John Callas, project manager at JPL for Spirit and its twin rover, Opportunity. "Every bit of energy produced by Spirit's solar arrays will go into keeping the rover's critical electronics warm, either by having the electronics on or by turning on essential heaters."

Even in a stationary state, Spirit continues scientific research.

"There's a class of science we can do only with a stationary vehicle that we had put off during the years of driving," said Steve Squyres, a researcher at Cornell University and principal investigator for Spirit and Opportunity. "Degraded mobility does not mean the mission ends abruptly. Instead, it lets us transition to stationary science."

One stationary experiment Spirit has begun studies tiny wobbles in the rotation of Mars to gain insight about the planet's core. This requires months of radio-tracking the motion of a point on the surface of Mars to calculate long-term motion with an accuracy of a few inches.

"If the final scientific feather in Spirit's cap is determining whether the core of Mars is liquid or solid, that would be wonderful -- it's so different from the other knowledge we've gained from Spirit," said Squyres.

Tools on Spirit's robotic arm can study variations in the composition of nearby soil, which has been affected by water. Stationary science also includes watching how wind moves soil particles and monitoring the Martian atmosphere.

Spirit and Opportunity landed on Mars in January 2004. They have been exploring for six years, far surpassing their original 90-day mission. Opportunity currently is driving toward a large crater called Endeavor and continues to make scientific discoveries. It has driven approximately 12 miles and returned more than 133,000 images.

JPL manages the rovers for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. For more information about Spirit and Opportunity, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/rovers .

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NCBI ROFL: And you thought your carpal tunnel was from typing… | Discoblog

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Monkey-typingThe role of sexual intercourse in the etiology of carpal tunnel syndrome.

“The etiology of non-occupational carpal tunnel syndrome is not well understood. It is proposed that carpal tunnel syndrome can develop during sexual intercourse when the hands become repeatedly extended while under pressure from the weight of the upper body. Of the eight risk factors associated with non-occupational carpal tunnel syndrome, age, marital status, pregnancy and use of hormonal agents can be explained by changes in the frequency of sexual intercourse. On the other hand, obesity, macromastia and large chest circumference can be explained by the increased pressure imposed on the wrists by the heavier upper body associated with such conditions. The bilaterality of carpal tunnel syndrome can be explained by the fact that both hands are needed to support the upper body during sexual intercourse. A parallel decrease in the frequency of sexual intercourse and the incidence of carpal tunnel syndrome between the sixth and the seventh decades of life suggests a possible cause and effect relationship between sexual intercourse and carpal tunnel syndrome.”

carpal tunnel

Image: Wikimedia


Evolution in Medicine

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A recent series of article in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) discusses the role of evolutionary biology in modern medicine. The authors collectively make a forceful point – medicine is an applied science. It is based upon a number of basic sciences, and one of those basic sciences is evolution.

The most obvious example is bacterial antibiotic resistance. Antibiotics place a selective pressure on a bacterial population, often resulting in the emergence of resistant strains. Understanding this “evolutionary arms race” between bacteria and antibiotics allows us to develop strategies for minimizing resistance.

But there are less obvious ways in which evolutionary principles apply to infectious diseases. It has been known for a long time that sickle-cell trait provides resistance to malaria (the blood cells are less hospitable to the P. falciparum bacteria that is one cause of malaria). This explains the persistence of sickle cell disease in populations where malaria is endemic.

Evolutionary principles may also improve our vaccine strategy. Vaccines are another way to create selective pressures on infectious organisms. We may inadvertently target vaccines against proteins that select out less virulent strains, selecting for the more virulent or infectious strains. Understanding of this allows us to instead target vaccines against virulence without targeting less deadly strains.

An example given is the following:

The diphtheria toxoid vaccine selects against toxin production, which is what causes disease, rather than other features of Corynebacterium. Thus, diphtheria infections and clinical isolations still occur, but the extant strains lack toxin production.

The authors also provide examples of how evolutionary principles can direct future research. They reference new research looking into the role of intestinal parasites and autoimmune diseases. The research is based upon the premise that humans co-evolved not only with our intestinal flora, but with certain parasites, such as intestinal worms. Now we live in a largely hygienic environment, and have even taken steps to eliminate parasites. This may have unintentionally deprived our immune systems of needed stimulation, resulting in poor immune regulation, and subsequent increase in auto-immune diseases like asthma and multiple sclerosis.

The authors also point out that the incidence of lactose intolerance inversely correlates with the duration of dairy farming in various populations. Populations that have consumed dairy products for thousands of years have evolved the ability to produce lactase even into adulthood, while populations without dairy farming have not.

Knowledge of common descent and cladistic patterns (evolutionary relationships) also allows for the targeting of drugs at genes and gene products that are present in certain pests and parasites but not in the crops or animals they infect.

Conclusion

There  are more examples, and collective they provide a compelling case that evolutionary principles are important to understanding populations, genetics, infectious diseasease, diet, and other issues of public health – in diagnosis, treatment, and research. Therefore, the authors argue, evolution is an important topic for medical professionals to understand, and I completely agree.

In the press release for this special issue of PNAS, they report:

Their ideas may be gaining ground. This past summer, the American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) published a joint report, titled Scientific Foundations for Future Physicians. The report calls for ambitious changes in the science content in the premedical curriculum and on the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT), including increased emphasis on evolution. “For the first time, the AAMC and HHMI are recommending that evolution be one of the basic sciences students learn before they come to medical school,” Nesse explained.

(Randolph Nesse is an author on the final paper in the series.)

Increasing the basic science standards for medical students can only help the goals of science-based medicine, and I am glad to see that evolutionary biology is being recognized as the core basic science that it is.

This recognition is also not new. There is already a journal of evolution in medicine, available online as the Evolution and Medicine Review. Some of the current PNAS authors have also written about the topic previously, including this 2006 editorial in Science titled Medicine Needs Evolution.

The PNAS series is an indicator that their views are indeed taken seriously.


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iPhone Developers’ Portal Supposedly Slips Up With "Need To Update This For The 27th Launch" Message [Apple]

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A MacRumors forums member has posted a screengrab of the iPhone Dev Portal which updated the terms and conditions yesterday (supposedly) with the line "need to update this for the 27th launch." So there'll be a new iPhone OS, hmm?

MacRumors forum member Withnail explained the screengrab he pasted on 'The Apple Tablet Rumor Roundup' thread:

"I had let my developers license lapse, and I wanted to renew it today. I noticed that the portal went down for a while with the "We'll be back soon!" placeholder.

When it was back up, I went in and renewed my account. I thought the Ts&Cs were a bit funny."

This adds further weight to Flurry Analytics' claims just days ago that they detected up to 50 different Apple Tablet-like devices testing apps, traced back to the Cupertino HQ of Apple. They were apparently running OS 3.2, suggesting the tablet would merely be a larger version of the iPhone, and not a completely different platform. [MacRumors forums via 9 to 5 Mac]


More Sources Claim That Windows Mobile 7 Will Be Shown Off Next Month, Launch By End of Year [Windows Mobile]

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Windows Mobile 7 will most definitely, positively, absolutely be shown off next month at Mobile World Congress, sez CNET. And Digitimes. Despite more conflicting stories than a Brangelina love-saga, I believe there'll be solid news next month for WinMo fans.

It wasn't going to launch until next year, then the end of this year, and then as soon as next month, but with this latest rumor comes some believable news: Microsoft is still working on the code for WinMo 7, and while it won't be completed until the end of summer, it should be included on end-of-the-year hardware.

Nonetheless, we're expecting to see some demos of the latest phone OS next month, and heaven forbid if it's hexagonal screengrabs. [CNET via Electronista]


A 10-Point, Libertarian, SOTU Address

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1. Abandon Obamacare

2. Forget Cap and Trade

3. Reject the Card Check Bill

4. Withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan

4. Legalize Drugs

5. Scrap the Tax Code and replace with a flat tax.

6. Expand free trade and immigration.

7. Stop the bailouts

8. Cut spending

9. Cut spending

10. Cut spending

Running a Piston Compressor with a VSD

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Good day engineers.

I have a piston compressor that I want to install and use a VSD for controls. A certain Engineer told me that one can not use a VSD on a piston compressor. Is this true? What are the disadvantages of using a VSD on the piston compressor.

Nasa Admits Mars Spirit Rover Won’t Be Moving Again [Nasa]

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After getting bogged down in sand, and damaging its two right wheels, all is not looking good for the Mars Spirit Rover. Nasa's admitted it will be stuck in its rut for all eternity, with little hope of moving it.

Part of the massive $900m Mars Exploration Rover program, the little Spirit Rover hasn't had much luck on the planet, but Nasa is still hopeful it can collect data from the soft patch of sand it's bogged in. It's powered by the solar panels on its back, but due to the angle it's stuck in the sand, the Spirit Rover must be turned slightly to catch some valuable sun rays over the coming months of hibernation, waking up in August to start collecting information on its surroundings.

While it can't zip across Mars' surface anymore, it could still provide details on the level of movement Mars makes on its axis, which would suggest whether it contains a solid or liquid core. [BBC]


Why Two Filters for Upstream of Servo Valve?

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Hello,

In a hydraulic circuit of a particular hydraulic system, I noticed that there were two parallel pressure line filters without by-pass valve provided to the upstream of the servo valve, both the filters were of same rating viz. 3 micron, and shut off valve of both filters were in open