Live Coverage of Suborbital Scientist-Astronaut Training Course – Day Two

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Photo: Alan Stern (center, green flight jacket) Twittering from the altitude chamber on Tuesday. More photos from Tuesday's activities are posted here. An embedded viewer will appear when we stream live centrifuge runs today around 11 am EST. This link points to the webcast location.

Environmental Tectonics Corporations The NASTAR(R) Center Commences Space Training for Prospective Scientist-Astronauts

"The Suborbital Scientist-Astronaut Training Course [Tuesday/Wednesday, 12-13 Jan] has been developed by The NASTAR Center and is organized by Dr. Alan Stern and Dr. Dan Durda of the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI). "

Keith's note: You can follow events at the workshop at OnOrbit.com/suborbital or at The pre-flight of a sub-orbital scientist (Joe Hill)

On Twitter you can follow @thenastarcenter, NASAWatch or track all Tweets via #suborbital

You can also check the Suborbital Science page at Facebook and TheNASTARCenter on YouTube

- ETC's The NASTAR(R) Center Announces Winner of Student Patch Design Contest Outreach Effort, earlier post- NASA Solicitation: Commercial Reusable Suborbital Research Program - CRuSR - Request for Information, earlier post
- List of Speakers Announced for the Next-Generation Suborbital Researchers Conference, earlier post

VFD Behavior When Motor Stops

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Dear Friends,

I am facing a problem when i stop AC Drive. Actually, i reduced the deaccelaration time upto 3sec. When i give stop command to motor, motor stop abnormally with trip indication. But when i increases the decceleration tme upto 10sec it behaves normally when stop. what do u think

NCBI ROFL: Asparagus, urine, farts, and Benjamin Franklin (Part I) | Discoblog

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A polymorphism of the ability to smell urinary metabolites of asparagus.

“The urinary excretion of (an) odorous substance(s) after eating asparagus is not an inborn error of metabolism as has been supposed. The detection of the odour constitutes a specific smell hypersensitivity. Those who could smell the odour in their own urine could all smell it in the urine of anyone who had eaten asparagus, whether or not that person was able to smell it himself. Thresholds for detecting the odour appeared to be bimodal in distribution, with 10% of 307 subjects tested able to smell it at high dilutions, suggesting a genetically determined specific hypersensitivity.”

asparagus_pee

Face it: your pee smells after you eat asparagus. (And if you think yours doesn’t, it’s because you can’t smell it.) This phenomenon (which is caused by various malodorous sulfur-containing compounds) has tickled the fancies of many researchers, as well as such luminaries as Proust, who wrote of asparagus: “exquisite creatures who had been pleased to assume vegetable form, and whose precious essence when, all night long after a dinner at which I had partaken of them, they played (lyrical and coarse in their jesting like a fairy-play by Shakespeare) at transforming my chamber pot into a vase of aromatic perfume (translated from Du côté de chez Swann, Gallimard, 1988, I, 119; I, 131).

But our favorite allusion to the asparagus-pee phenomenon has to be from Benjamin Franklin, who, in 1871 1781, wrote a letter asking researchers to come up with a solution to fart smells (the letter is definitely worth reading in full: To the Royal Academy of Farting):

“Certain it is also that we have the Power of changing by slight Means the Smell of another Discharge, that of our Water. A few Stems of Asparagus eaten, shall give our Urine a disagreable Odour; and a Pill of Turpentine no bigger than a Pea, shall bestow on it the pleasing Smell of Violets. And why should it be thought more impossible in Nature, to find Means of making a Perfume of our Wind than of our Water?”

So, now that we understand why our pee stinks when we eat asparagus, can we address Benjamin’s larger concern? Check back tomorrow for some cutting-edge research on fart-smell-reduction!

Torque Required

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hi I have been having trouble with a question and i think i've finally done it. I was wondering if there is anyone that can confirm that i've done this correct.

Here is the question: Question 3 A flywheel has a mass of 700 kg and a radius of gyration, k of 0.7 m. What is the torque requi

Best Process for Coating Calcium Carbonate

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We are grinding Calcium Carbonate using a ball mill and classifier for particle size control. We are interested in coating this CaCO3 powder with Stearic Acid.

Is it possible to manage the coating within the existing ball mill and classifier arrangement?

What would be the b

Entanglements: Not Knot Theory

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I've tried, in vain, to keep the speaker, power and transfer cords at the back of TV, Hi-Fi, disk player, surround sound and satellite decoder from becoming a rats nest of wires. I can pack up my laptop very carefully and move to another room and have a mess with the power cord, mouse and the modem

New Jersey goes to the Pot, for a good reason

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New Jersey Becomes The 14th State To Legalize Medicinal Marijuana

by Ryan P. Christiano

The New Jersey legislator passed the The New Jersey Compassionate Use Medical Marijuana Act. Outgoing Governor Jon Corzine, vacating office next week, will sign the Act into law.

Governor-Elect Chris Christie is also supportive of the measure. He has pledged to oversee the implementation of the program once he takes the reigns of power next week.

From Phily2Phily.com:

New Jersey Goes Green! Passes Medical Marijuana Bill

For what is a victory for many cancer sufferers and libertarians, the New Jersey legislature has passed a bill which will allow marijuana to be prescribed for medicinal purposes. And, Governor Corzine has announced that he will pass it before leaving office next week.

What is more shocking though is that Governor-elect Chris Christie (who is very conservative) said he supports the measure as long as it's used for the intended purpose; helping sick people. What he opposes are loopholes in the measure, which can lead to abuses of the law.

There are now calls from all quarters of the state to pardon John Ray Wilson, the subject of an article in this publication several weeks ago, who was convicted of the lesser included charges in his indictment over a week ago (link to previous article here?).

Many legislators are now urging either Governor Corzine or incoming Governor Christie to pardon Mr. Wilson. They argue that the charges he was convicted of have now essentially been legalized in the state, as of yesterday, with this new law.

New Jersey, now somewhat surprisingly, becomes the first state in the Northeastern portion of the United States to legalize medicinal marijuana. Chronically ill and terminally ill patients are restricted to no more than two ounces of medicinal marijuana per month. All patients must be under a physician's strict supervision, and may only obtain medicinal marijuana by prescription.

The New Jersey Libertarian Party, along with The Coalition for Medical Marijuana in New Jersey (CMMNJ), hailed the long sought legislative achievement as a triumph for individual liberty.

The fight to pardon Mr. Wilson for an offense that is now technically legal in the state goes forth. Any Executive Pardon is not anticipated until after the Christie Administration takes office next week.

Editor's Note: Ryan Christiano has been active in the Marijuana Medicinal movement. He is also a longtime contributor to Libertarian Republican, a member of the Libertarian Defense Caucus, and a former staffer for McCain for President 2008

Cell Phones and Traffic Accidents

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I do not dispute that talking or texting on a cell phone can inhibit good driving.

But laws that limit the use of cell phones while driving may still be undesirable.

First, the people who text while driving might be the same people who would otherwise be putting on makeup, fiddling with the radio, trying to eat a sandwich, or yelling at their kids.  Thus, the net amount of bad driving due to cell phones may not be large.

Second, traffic fatalities per vehicle mile have declined steadily and significantly since 1994, even while cell phones and texting have grown enormously.  This does not prove cell phones do not cause bad driving, but it makes you wonder if this effect is large.  Most studies on cell phones and traffic accidents suffer from serious statistical flaws.

Third, any accidents caused by cell phones are only one side of the equation.  Millions of people use cell phones while driving for beneficial purposes, so the net impact may well be positive.

Obama moves to implement Civilian Force: Protecting US Borders, or some other purpose?

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by Ranald Hay

"We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded." - Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Hussein Obama

"That campaign statement sent a chill through libertarian and civil-liberty minded voters. Many of us were asking, soberly: "Why must we, and why a force?" Exactly what comprises a 'civilian national security force' if it not an armed police organization?" "Where will it operate?" "What will be its assignment?" "Who will lead it?" "How will it be funded?" "What will this morph into?"

'Security force', 'powerful', 'strong', 'well funded'... were explained away later as meaning diplomatic offices, agricultural specialists and Peace Corp type organizations, not a para-military organization at all... Given that a Harvard-trained lawyer can be very precise with words, the language of the proposal fit rather the pattern of the Stasi or Brownshirts. History shows that these sorts of organizations don't comport well with Liberty.

Tuesday 12 we came across two curious data. First, Sammy Benoit at Yid With Lid:

SHOCKING REPORT: Rand Corp Tells US Army Its Time For A National Stability Police Force

"This has to be the scariest thing I have read in a very long time. The Rand Corporation was asked by the US Army to prepare a report recommending whether or not the US Needed a National Stability Police force. Basically a call for American "Brown Shirts." Rand's answer was a resounding yes."

The second bit of news was yesterday's White House announcement that confirmed the need for Posse Comitatus vigilance:

President Obama Signs Executive Order Establishing Council of Governors

When we betray Liberty, we get the governance we deserve...

"The report recommends that these police would not only have a role in foreign lands but also in the United States
...
The report goes on to say that this Stability Police Force should be placed under the US Marshal Service because that will make it easier for it to have domestic US responsiblities.
...
I wonder what kind of Domestic Role the Stability Police can have, controlling Tea Parties? "Fixing" Fox News? A national police under the control of this or any president will do nothing less than signal the end of freedom in the United States. Any movement toward this force must be voted down. The Full document is embedded below:"

These are fair questions and concerns. (Please read Sammy's post and the Google Docs insert.)

From the White House website:

President Obama Signs Executive Order Establishing Council of Governors
Monday, 11 January 2010

"Washington, D.C. January 11, 2010. The President today signed an Executive Order establishing a Council of Governors to strengthen further the partnership between the Federal Government and State Governments to protect our Nation against all types of hazards. When appointed, the Council will be reviewing such matters as involving the National Guard of the various States; homeland defense; civil support; synchronization and integration of State and Federal military activities in the United States; and other matters of mutual interest pertaining to National Guard, homeland defense, and civil support activities.

"The bipartisan Council will be composed of ten State Governors who will be selected by the President to serve two year terms. In selecting the Governors to the Council, the White House will solicit input from Governors and Governors’ associations. Once chosen, the Council will have no more than five members from the same party and represent the Nation as a whole.

""Federal members of the Council include the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, the Assistant to the President for Intergovernmental Affairs and Public Engagement, the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense and Americas’ Security Affairs, the U.S. Northern Command Commander, the Commandant of the Coast Guard, and the Chief of the National Guard Bureau. The Secretary of Defense will designate an Executive Director for the Council.

The Council of Governors will provide an invaluable Senior Administration forum for exchanging views with State and local officials on strengthening our National resilience and the homeland defense and civil support challenges facing our Nation today and in the future.

"The formation of the Council of Governors was required by the Fiscal Year 2008 National Defense Authorization Act which stated, “The President shall establish a bipartisan Council of Governors to advise the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of Homeland Security, and the White House Homeland Security Council on matters related to the National Guard and civil support missions. (NDAA FY2008, Sec 1822)”

What of Posse Comitatus?

The Myth of Posse Comitatus
Major Craig T. Trebilcock, U.S. Army Reserve
October 2000

"The Posse Comitatus Act has traditionally been viewed as a major barrier to the use of U.S. military forces in planning for homeland defense.[1] In fact, many in uniform believe that the act precludes the use of U.S. military assets in domestic security operations in any but the most extraordinary situations. As is often the case, reality bears little resemblance to the myth for homeland defense planners. Through a gradual erosion of the act’s prohibitions over the past 20 years, posse comitatus today is more of a procedural formality than an actual impediment to the use of U.S. military forces in homeland defense."

Mere procedural formalities. Civil support missions. Do these dots connect? (I should pray 'not'.)

If so, is this Administration and this Congress preparing war? They're building something. What is it? Of course, it's about defending the borders, yes? (That Waco Texas and Ruby Creek stuff is so behind us.) Exactly how many divisions does Justice Roberts command, anyway?

Editor's Note - Ranald Hay is a regular reader of Libertarian Republican. His blog is Si Vis Placem, which is linked in our Blog Roll.

Is Antarctica Melting?

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The continent of Antarctica has been losing more than 100 cubic kilometers (24 cubic miles) of ice per year since 2002There has been lots of talk lately about Antarctica and whether or not the continent's giant ice sheet is melting. One new paper 1, which states there’s less surface melting recently than in past years, has been cited as "proof" that there’s no global warming. Other evidence that the amount of sea ice around Antarctica seems to be increasing slightly 2-4 is being used in the same way. But both of these data points are misleading. Gravity data collected from space using NASA's Grace satellite show that Antarctica has been losing more than a hundred cubic kilometers (24 cubic miles) of ice each year since 2002. The latest data reveal that Antarctica is losing ice at an accelerating rate, too. How is it possible for surface melting to decrease, but for the continent to lose mass anyway? The answer boils down to the fact that ice can flow without melting.

Two-thirds of Antarctica is a high, cold desert. Known as East Antarctica, this section has an average altitude of about 2 kilometer (1.2 miles), higher than the American Colorado Plateau. There is a continent about the size of Australia underneath all this ice; the ice sheet sitting on top averages at a little over 2 kilometer (1.2 miles) thick. If all of this ice melted, it would raise global sea level by about 60 meter (197 feet). But little, if any, surface warming is occurring over East Antarctica. Radar and laser-based satellite data show a little mass loss at the edges of East Antarctica, which is being partly offset by accumulation of snow in the interior, although a very recent result from the NASA/German Aerospace Center's Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (Grace) suggests that since 2006 there has been more ice loss from East Antarctica than previously thought 5. Overall, not much is going on in East Antarctica -- yet.

A Frozen Hawaii

West Antarctica is very different. Instead of a single continent, it is a series of islands covered by ice -- think of it as a frozen Hawaii, with penguins. Because it's a group of islands, much of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS, in the jargon) is actually sitting on the floor of the Southern Ocean, not on dry land. Parts of it are more than 1.7 kilometer (1 mile) below sea level. Pine Island is the largest of these islands and the largest ice stream in West Antarctica is called Pine Island Glacier. The WAIS, if it melted completely, would raise sea level by 5 to 7 meter (16 to 23 feet). And the Pine Island Glacier would contribute about 10 percent of that.

The Antarctic ice sheet. East Antarctica is much higher in elevation than West Antarctica

Since the early 1990s, European and Canadian satellites have been collecting radar data from West Antarctica. These radar data can reveal ice motion and, by the late 1990s, there was enough data for scientists to measure the annual motion of the Pine Island Glacier. Using radar information collected between 1992 and 1996, oceanographer Eric Rignot, based at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), found that the Pine Island Glacier's "grounding line" -- the line between the glacier's floating section and the part of the glacier that rests on the sea floor -- had retreated rapidly towards the land. That meant that the glacier was losing mass. He attributed the retreat to the warming waters around West Antarctica 6. But with only a few years of data, he couldn't say whether the retreat was a temporary, natural anomaly or a longer-term trend from global warming.

Rignot's paper surprised many people. JPL scientist Ron Kwok saw it as demonstrating that "the old idea that glaciers move really slowly isn't true any more." One result was that a lot more people started to use the radar data to examine much more of Antarctica. A major review published in 2009 found that Rignot's Pine Island Glacier finding hadn't been a fluke 7: a large majority of the marine glaciers of the Antarctic Peninsula were retreating, and their retreat was speeding up. This summer, a British group revisited the Pine Island Glacier finding and found that its rate of retreat had quadrupled between 1995 and 2006 8.

How the Ice Shelf Crumbles

The retreat of West Antarctica's glaciers is being accelerated by ice shelf collapse. Ice shelves are the part of a glacier that extends past the grounding line towards the ocean they are the most vulnerable to warming seas. A longstanding theory in glaciology is that these ice shelves tend to buttress (support the end wall of) glaciers, with their mass slowing the ice movement towards the sea, and this was confirmed by the spectacular collapse of the Rhode Island-sized Larsen B shelf along the Eastern edge of the Antarctic Peninsula in 2002. The disintegration, which was caught on camera by NASA's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) imaging instruments on board its Terra and Aqua satellites, was dramatic: it took just three weeks to crumble a 12,000-year old ice shelf. Over the next few years, satellite radar data showed that some of the ice streams flowing behind Larsen B had accelerated significantly, while others, still supported by smaller ice shelves, had not 9. This dynamic process of ice flowing downhill to the sea is what enables Antarctica to continue losing mass even as surface melting declines.

Michael Schodlok, a JPL scientist who models the way ice shelves and the ocean interact, says melting of the underside of the shelf is a pre-requisite to these collapses. Thinning of the ice shelf reduces its buttressing effect on the glacier behind it, allowing glacier flow to speed up. The thinner shelf is also more likely to crack. In the summer, meltwater ponds on the surface can drain into the cracks. Since liquid water is denser than solid ice, enough meltwater on the surface can open the cracks up deeper down into the ice, leading to disintegration of the shelf. West Antarctica is a series of islands covered by ice. Think of it as a frozen Hawaii, with penguinsThe oceans surrounding Antarctica have been warming 10, so Schodlok doesn't doubt that the ice shelves are being undermined by warmer water being brought up from the depths. But he admits that it hasn't been proven rigorously, because satellites can’t measure underneath the ice.

Glaciologist Robert Bindschadler of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center intends to show just that. He's leading an expedition scheduled to start in 2011 to drill through the Pine Island Glacier and place an automated buoy into the water below it. According to Bindschadler, Pine Island Glacier "is the place to go because that is where the changes are the largest. If we want to understand how the ocean is impacting the ice sheet, go to where it's hitting the ice sheet with a sledgehammer, not with a little tack hammer."

Meanwhile, measurements from the Grace satellites confirm that Antarctica is losing mass 11. Isabella Velicogna of JPL and the University of California, Irvine, uses Grace data to weigh the Antarctic ice sheet from space. Her work shows that the ice sheet is not only losing mass, but it is losing mass at an accelerating rate. "The important message is that it is not a linear trend. A linear trend means you have the same mass loss every year. The fact that it’s above linear, this is the important idea, that ice loss is increasing with time," she says. And she points out that it isn’t just the Grace data that show accelerating loss; the radar data do, too. "It isn't just one type of measurement. It's a series of independent measurements that are giving the same results, which makes it more robust."

For more information about this topic, visit NASA's Global Climate Change website.

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Asteroid To Fly By Earth Wednesday Is a Natural

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Orbital diagram depicts the trajectory of asteroid 2010 AL30 during its flyby of Earth in the early morning hours of Jan. 13.
Asteroid 2010 AL30, discovered by the LINEAR survey of MIT's Lincoln Laboratories on Jan. 10, will make a close approach to the Earth's surface to within 76,000 miles on Jan. 13 at 12:46 pm Greenwich time (7:46 am EST, 4:46 am PST). Because its orbital period is nearly identical to the Earth's one year period, some have suggested it may be a manmade rocket stage in orbit about the sun. However, this object's orbit reaches the orbit of Venus at its closest point to the sun and nearly out to the orbit of Mars at its furthest point, crossing the Earth's orbit at a very steep angle. This makes it very unlikely that 2010 AL30 is a rocket stage. Furthermore, trajectory extrapolations show that this object cannot be associated with any recent launch and it has not made any close approaches to the Earth since well before the Space Age began.

It seems more likely that this is a near-Earth asteroid about 10-15 meters in size, one of approximately 2 million such objects in near-Earth space. One would expect a near-Earth asteroid of this size to pass within the moon's distance about once every week on average. The asteroid does not pose a risk, in fact, stony asteroids under 25 meters in diameter would be expected to burn up in our atmosphere, causing little or no ground damage.

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Solar Scientists Use ‘Magnetic Mirror Effect’ to Reproduce IBEX Observation

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entire sky in the emission of neutral hydrogenEver since NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer, or IBEX, mission scientists released the first comprehensive sky map of our solar system's edge in particles, solar physicists have been busy revising their models to account for the discovery of a narrow "ribbon" of bright emission that was completely unexpected and not predicted by any model at the time.

Further study by a team of scientists funded through NASA's Heliophysics Guest Investigator program has produced a revised model that explains and closely reproduces the IBEX result by incorporating a single new effect into an existing model. The new effect, put forward by the IBEX team soon after sighting of the ribbon, is that the magnetic field surrounding our solar system—called the local galactic magnetic field—acts like a mirror for the particles that IBEX sees.

The results appear in the January 10 issue of the Astrophysical Journal Letters. Jacob Heerikhuisen, a solar physicist at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, is the lead author of the paper. Heerikhuisen and his colleagues believe the orientation of the local galactic magnetic field is closely related to the location of the ribbon in the sky.

Charged particles "orbit" magnetic field lines. When they suddenly lose their charge, they fly off in a straight line maintaining their current direction. Only particles that orbit the magnetic mirror, where it faces us directly, can flow back toward us and are captured by IBEX.

These particles originate in our magnetized solar system, or heliosphere—the region from the sun to where the solar wind meets the local interstellar medium (LISM). First these particles lose their charge and fly out of the heliosphere. At some distance they charge again and start “orbiting” a field line of the local interstellar magnetic field, where they get “recycled” by losing their charge again.

entire sky in the emission of neutral hydrogenSolar physicists did not expect this “mirror effect,” which is "somewhat analogous to exploring an unknown cave," says Arik Posner, IBEX program scientist at NASA Headquarters. "By activating IBEX, we suddenly see that the solar system has a lit candle and see its light reflected in the 'cave walls' shining back at us," says Posner. "What we find is that the 'cave wall' acts more like a faint mirror than like a normal wall," he adds.

What we saw with IBEX is that this “cave” we are exploring apparently has very straight and smooth magnetic walls, being shaped somewhat like a subway tunnel. IBEX can remotely observe the direction of the local interstellar magnetic field and may observe whether it stays the same or changes over time.

The sun’s presence affects the local interstellar magnetic field, bulging the field out to form something larger that is similar to a subway station. However, the “station” itself, our heliosphere, slowly moves along the tunnel, not subway cars.

Straight magnetic field lines are only found in plasmas where the magnetic field is strong and shapes the flow of particles, such as the smooth magnetic loops observed in the sun’s corona.

The IBEX results appear consistent with a recent finding by the Voyager mission that the surrounding galactic magnetic field in the LISM is much stronger than previously thought.

Assuming this "magnetic mirror effect" produces the narrow "ribbon" discovered by IBEX, then the orientation of the local galactic magnetic field is closely related to the location of the ribbon. With the help of global 3D models, this mechanism could help accurately determine the magnetic field's direction. The finding would also suggest that IBEX is detecting the particles from both inside and outside the heliopause, which is the boundary region between the outer solar system and the local interstellar medium.

"The IBEX mission has from the outset stressed both the criticality of new measurements and the collaboration between observations and theoretical research," explains Robert MacDowall, IBEX mission scientist at NASA Goddard. "The discovery by Heerikhuisen and colleagues demonstrates how successful this approach can be."

The IBEX spacecraft was launched in October 2008. Its science objective was to discover the nature of the interactions between the solar wind and the interstellar medium at the edge of our solar system. The Southwest Research Institute developed and leads the mission with a team of national and international partners. The spacecraft is the latest in NASA's series of low-cost, rapidly developed Small Explorers Program. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center manages the program for the agency's Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

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NASA’s New Museum Grant Allies Will Make the Universe Accessible to Families From Alaska to Florida

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Interactive museum exhibits about climate change, Earth science, and missions beyond Earth are among the projects NASA has selected to receive agency funding. Nine informal education providers from Alaska to New York will share $6.2 million in grants through NASA's Competitive Program for Science Museums and Planetariums.

Participating organizations include museums, science centers, Challenger Centers and other institutions of informal education. Selected projects will partner with NASA's Museum Alliance, an Internet-based, nationwide network of more than 400 science centers, planetariums, museums, aquariums, zoos, observatory visitor centers, NASA visitor centers, nature centers and park visitor centers.

Projects in the program will engage learners of all ages as well as educators who work in formal or informal science education. The projects will provide NASA-inspired space, science, technology, engineering or mathematics educational opportunities, including planetarium shows and exhibits.

In conjunction with NASA's Museum Alliance, the grants focus on NASA-themed space exploration, aeronautics, space science, Earth science, microgravity or a combination of themes. Some projects will include partnerships with elementary and secondary schools, colleges and universities.

The projects are located in Alaska, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, New York, North Carolina, Oregon and South Dakota. The nine grants have a maximum five-year period of performance and range in value from approximately $120,000 to $1.5 million. Selected projects work with the NASA Shared Service Center in Mississippi to complete the business review necessary before a NASA award is issued.

Proposals were selected through a merit-based, external peer-review process. NASA's Office of Education and mission directorates collaborated to solicit and review the grant applications. This integrated approach distinguishes NASA's investment in informal education. NASA received 67 proposals from 32 states and the District of Columbia.

Congress initially funded the Competitive Program for Science Museums and Planetariums grants in 2008. The first group of projects began in fall 2009 in California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Michigan, Montana, New York, North Carolina, Vermont and Washington. Congress has enacted funds to continue this program in 2010, and NASA anticipates selecting additional proposals to fund from those submitted in 2009.

For a list of selected organizations and projects descriptions, click on "Selected Proposals" and look for "Competitive Program for Science Museums and Planetariums (CP4SMP)" or solicitation NNH09ZNE005N at:

http://nspires.nasaprs.com

For information about NASA's Education programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/education

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., leads the Museum Alliance. For information about the alliance, visit:

http://informal.jpl.nasa.gov/museum

For more information about NASA and agency programs, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov

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Meet the Next International Space Station Crew: NASA Holds Briefing and One-On-One Media Interviews on Jan. 21

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NASA will hold a briefing for journalists with the next set of residents of the International Space Station at 1 p.m. CST Thursday, Jan. 21, from NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston. The briefings will be broadcast live on NASA Television and the agency's Web site. Questions also will be taken from participating NASA locations.

The briefing participants are:
- Expedition 23 Flight Engineer and NASA astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson
- Expedition 23 Flight Engineer and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov
- Expedition 23 Flight Engineer and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko

Following the briefing, the crew members will be available for individual round-robin interviews, in person or by phone. There also will be a photo opportunity. To participate in the interviews, reporters should contact the Johnson newsroom at 281-483-5111, by 4 p.m. CST, Wednesday, Jan. 20. U.S. and foreign nationals planning to attend the news briefing must contact the Johnson newsroom by 4 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 14, to arrange credentials.

On April 2, Skvortsov, Kornienko, and Caldwell Dyson will launch to the station aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. They will dock to the space station on April 4, joining Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kotov, NASA astronaut T.J. Creamer and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Soichi Noguchi, who arrived on the station in December as part of Expedition 22.

For NASA TV streaming video, schedules, and downlink information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/ntv

For the latest information about Expedition 23 and its crew, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/station

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M.U.L.E. – steading

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Peter Boothe writes about this classic computer game from the mid-80s:

a nonviolent economics game with both zero-sum and positive-sum aspects where people compete to be the best possible homesteaders in a scifi environment made me think of you. The game is quite fun, and I recommend it.

The game can be downloaded free, and played online. Enjoy!