Local chiropractor educating patients about stem cell treatments – WZZM

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Denise Pritchard, WZZM 12:44 PM. EDT August 14, 2017

Woman's Bones

GRAND RAPIDS, MICH. - Stem cell injections are being used to treat all sorts of illness, from joint pain to tissue damage. Dr. Michael Kwast is a chiropractor who's sold on the benefits of stem cell treatments.

He joined The Exchange to explain how they work and describe the results hes seen for patients.

Dr. Kwasts group, Medical Services Providers, is affiliated with the Stem Cell Institute of America.

For more information about stem cell therapy, visit http://www.stemcellgrandrapids.com. Or, you may attend a free seminar on Aug. 21 at 7 p.m. Its at 475 Lake Michigan Dr. NW in Grand Rapids. Register now by calling 616-888-3160.

Make it easy to keep up to date with more stories like this. Download the WZZM 13 app now.

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The unique spirituality of Reverend Hyeon Soo Lim – The Globe and Mail

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Lorna Dueck is host of Context TV.

The unique disciplines of Christian Korean spirituality drew gasps and applause Sunday as Reverend Hyeon Soo Lim told his Toronto area congregation about his life in a North Korean prison during the past two and a half years. Daily digging of metre-deep holes through frozen mud, breaking apart frozen coal and outdoor labour in the scorching heat of summer under the constant watch of two guards was Rev. Lims routine.

I did not have a day of gloom, said Rev. Lim as he explained in a Korean heart-to-heart with his Mississauga congregation how he turned moments of despair into trust in God.

On Sunday, a strong Rev. Lim stood for the first time back in his Canadian pulpit and opened with deep thanks for Prime Minister Trudeau, negotiator Daniel Jean, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and the personnel of Global Affairs Canada. Then the reality of how a pastor walks with God when hes going through hell was revealed. Rev. Lim stuck to prayer, bible reading, scripture memorization, thankfulness, singing to God, and repeated the practice, again and again. He sang to God for more than eight hours each of the 130 Sundays he was imprisoned. The mystery of what happens internally to a person living out that rhythm was undeniable.

Mentally, psychologically, spiritually, hes the same, hes great, said Pastor Jason Noh of Light Korean Presbyterian Church. Rev. Lim lost almost a third of his body weight, dropping from 90 to 67 kg in two months, but on Sunday he smiled and he joked with his congregation about the deprivation weight-loss program. He seemed chagrined that despite a rigorous examination by a Canadian doctor sent with his government rescue, no diagnosable ailment could be found. Rev. Lim is convinced prayer from churches around the globe made all the difference in his case.

Dawn Prayer is a unique daily gathering done by Canadian Koreans; at Rev. Lims church, it happens before people head to work, at 5:30 a.m. weekday mornings and 6:30 a.m. on Saturdays. Outsiders might think God is deaf if you drop by. Volume and passion runs high at Dawn Prayer. Rev. Lim was on the agenda daily.

Koreans go to church in Canada as a family, and their tenacity is translated into their faith. Our immigrant story is we came knowing we had nothing and had to work extremely hard to survive and that meant we had a huge dependency on God, said Anna Cho-Leon, who was hired as a youth pastor by Rev. Lim. The inter-generational mentoring in Korean church life is everywhere. Rev. Lim was a young missionary from South Korea who trained at Knox College in Toronto, mentored by Light Presbyterian founder Rev. Pak to reach out to young Korean families. On Sunday, the elderly Rev. Pak waited in a wheelchair for a private sushi lunch with Rev. Lim after all the congregants had been greeted. Rev. Pak recently put to music five hymns that Rev. Lim wrote while in prison, songs the congregation sang with tears streaming down their faces.

As this ordeal comes to an end, North Korea is left with the aftermath of Rev. Lims crimes: millions of dollars of charitable investment that have created orphanages, homes for senior citizens, noodle and tofu factories, farming and educational programs in North Korea. Lisa Pak, a spokeswoman for the church and Lim family, said there are no plans to continue the work. We did a full stop on all Korean activity and always intended it to be a gift to the North Koreans; we have no plans on returning there.

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Psychic Fair brings spirituality and charity together as one – Caboolture News

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IF YOU'VE ever wondered about reaching out to someone on the other side or perhaps you just want to get more in touch with your spirituality, the Wamuran Psychic Fair is your chance to connect with some of the most gifted mediums in the state and support a fantastic charity too.

The annual fair will host 16 readers and more than 30 stallholders selling everything from crystals and tarot cards to candles and homoeopathic products.

Hosted by the Spiritualist Church of Love, Light and Harmony, the fair's gold coin entry will raise funds for Angel Flight.

Reverend Val Heward said the organisation holds a special place in their hearts.

"Angel Flights gets no government assistance. It's totally run by volunteers, she said.

"All the pilots fly their own planes and most of the donations just pay for the fuel otherwise they have to pay for it themselves.

Church member Linda Jones has been involved with the fair for about a decade and said people kept coming back for more.

"It's a good platform for people to learn about spirituality. They get a little taste of reading without charging them an arm and a leg.

"There are all different types of mediums; readers, psychics, card readers, numerologists, palm readers.

Priced at $20 for 30 minutes, Linda said it was a great opportunity for people to get a taste of what the church was all about.

"It's not a religion, it's a way of life, she said.

Head along to the Wamuran Community Hall on August 19 from 9am to 4pm.

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Psychic Fair brings spirituality and charity together as one - Caboolture News

Eastern Spirituality Could Help Sustainable Development – IDN InDepthNews | Analysis That Matters

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By Kalinga Seneviratne

This article is the 18th in a series of joint productions ofLotus News Featuresand IDN-InDepthNews, flagship of theInternational Press Syndicate.

YANGON, Myanmar (IDN) The desire for peace exists everywhere, but the majority of people are not in a position to enjoy peace, stability and security they desire, noted venerable Dr Ashin Nyanissara, spiritual head of the Sitagu International Buddhist University (SIBU), in opening a two-day gathering of spiritual leaders and scholars at the university here on August 5.

The event was the second Global Initiative for Conflict Avoidance and Environmental Consciousness (SAMVAD) conference, following the first held in New Delhi in September 2015.

SAMVAD is an initiative of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to adopt principles of Asias age-old spiritual teachings of Hinduism and Buddhism to address modern-day issues threatening human civilisation.

Though there were a number of Muslim and Christian scholars from Myanmar and India among the 250 people that attended the event in Yangon, the SAMVAD initiative is driven by Buddhists and Hindus who are keen to exploit commonalities in their spiritual teachings to create a more tolerant, liberal and accommodative world living in harmony with nature rather than seeing it as a resource to exploit.

SAMVAD is spearheaded by the Delhi-based Vivekananda International Foundation (VIF) and the International Buddhist Confederation (IBC) in association with the Tokyo-based Japan Foundation. Local partners this year were the Myanmar Institute of Strategic and International Studies (MISIS) and SIBU.

In a video message shown at the opening session, Japanese Prime Minister Abe told the audience that Buddhists always say may all beings be well and happy that the spirit of tolerance and compassion encompasses coexistence of all lives.

The spirit of tolerance is facing challenges today, he warned. Terrorism and violent extremism are expanding and trying to deny the existence of others and trying to paint our world in a single colour, adding that in Asia we must let flowers of all different colours bloom in harmony.

In the inaugural speech, the governor of Uttar Pradesh, Ram Naik, pointed to the great contribution of Hindu and Buddhist traditions to the modern world, such as yoga and mindful meditation. Noting that it was a Burmese of Indian descent, S.N. Goenka, who introduced Vipassana (mindful) meditation to the world, he pointed out that such is the strength of our deeply woven heritage that, today, this tradition of meditation is being practised in over 94 countries It would not be wrong to say that by gifting meditation and yoga, Asia has persuaded the world to take a pause and look within.

Although SAMVAD was built as an inter-faith dialogue, it was not all sweet talk and smiles. There were some animated discussions both in the spiritual masters roundtable and lay scholars panel presentations.

Both Hindus and Buddhists repeatedly referred to problems in Abrahamic scriptures and their lack of tolerance of other beliefs. Many Hindu speakers from India spoke about how they have rejected old Hindu scriptures that speak of caste and untouchability because this does not fit into the 21st century where they are trying to build an inclusive society. They also suggested that Muslims in particular need to reject some of their Koranic scriptures that may preach exclusivity.

While endorsing the spirit of Buddhist Kalama Sutra (Buddhas sermon on free inquiry) and the Hindu sayings of Shri Ramakrishnan, Al-Haj Aye Lwin, Chief Convener of the Islamic Centre of Myanmar, stressed that truth is not in books but that it has to be experienced to be realised, warned that one needs to be vary of misinformation and disinformation on Islam in this age.

It would be needless to say that if anyone alleged that other religions are false or label the adherents of other religions as heathens or kafirs, the dialogue would certainly be counterproductive he argued.

It will be equally counterproductive to brand any religion, be it Abrahamic or not, as doctrinally intolerant and consisting in exhortation to religious violence or its teachings as not being ecologically friendly.

Lwin pointed out that there are black sheep in every religion and they should not be looked upon as role models for any religion. No matter how good the original teachings are, people want to hijack religion to suit their vested interests and hidden agendas would twist and turn the truths and translate them in line with their sinister plans, he warned.

Both Buddhists and Hindus pointed out that many rituals and festivals in their respective religions which have survived so far draw the link between nature and humans.

The consciousness that man is part of nature and not independent and certainly not its master is fundamental to protecting and sustaining environment and ecology, noted Rajalaksmi Ravi, a social activist from Chennai, in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu.

Hindu culture has made the tree a symbol of forests and prescribed Vriksha Vandana (reverence of trees) as the attitude of humans to forests unless humans revere trees, forests are not safe, she noted, pointing out that Ganga Vandana (worship of water) and Bhumi Vandana (homage to earth) celebrate all rivers, lakes and ponds to inculcate environmental consciousness and protect water resources.

In his video message, Indian Prime Minister Modi reminded participants that Hindu and Buddhist philosophies see nature as living in harmony. If we dont live in harmony with nature, we have climatic change, he warned. (We must) revere nature and not consider it merely as a resource to exploit.

Buddhists apply the concept of interdependent origination to everything in our world, said Tibetan Buddhist monk His Holiness Drikung Kyahgon Chetsang. An authentic environmental consciousness will develop naturally once people recognise the deep interdependence between humans, plants, and animals. Thus, the ancient Buddhist philosophy of interdependence is critical to the future of our planet, he said.

The Tibetan monk described a Go Green Go Organic campaign his monastic order is developing in the Himalayan Ladakh region of India where water supplies and environment are under threat from global warming. Over 2000 trees have been planted in an effort to prevent soil erosion and also to give local people natural resources to harvest sustainably, which he called creating sustainable economic opportunities.

With the glaciers of the Himalayan snow mountains melting rapidly, his campaign has dug trenches to capture the water flow in the summer and distribute its water to a wider area, which is also giving rise to the growth of wild plants that contribute to tackling soil erosion.

We need to develop a broader perspective of the earth as a whole, argued His Holiness Chetsang. Natural disasters and ecological problems do not choose people of one religion or one nation.

Referring to the preamble of the UNESCO constitution which declares that since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defences of peace must be constructed, Venerable Miao Hai of the Boshan Zhegjue Monastery in China said that we need to review the rules of capitalism. The competition for fossil fuels, especially for oil, leads to conflicts and war, he noted. Such fundamentally wrong attitudes expose our planet to extreme danger.

Citing a number of instances where environmental disasters have led us to question economic models and technology, he pointed out that providing electricity to the 1.2 billion people who do not still have access cannot be done by using existing capitalist models because this will create more conflicts for fuels.

He described a model his monastery is spreading using Chinese solar technology and a pilgrimage called the Chan-Tea-Solar Road Trip that started in Shanghai in May 2016 and ended in Bodhgaya in India in May 2017 passing through Thailand, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and India. This was a cross-cultural experience during which Chan Tea Musical performances were organised and solar power was introduced to communities.

The new Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh (with a population of over 230 million), Yogi Adityanath, a Hindu priest turned politician, flew all the way from Lucknow to Yangon to give the Valedictory Address in which he pointed out that Indian philosophies are not dogmatic and do not thrust their points of view on others. He particularly praised Buddhism and made many references to Buddhist scriptures in his speech.

We have inherited this glorious tradition of tolerance and peaceful accommodation of ideas, differing from our own something which has almost vanished in the contemporary world, he noted. If the world must progress towards peace and prosperity, it is time to re-evaluate Lord Buddha and his Dhamma, he added, drawing parallels between Hinduism and Buddhism in the approach to sustainable development.

The SAMVAD process is expected to grow on a more formalised basis in the next few years and it is the hope of many of the Hindu and Buddhist participants that the two religions may be able to lead the world in promoting a sustainable development model where humans and nature can exist in harmony. [IDN-InDepthNews 14 August 2017]

Photo: Final session of SAMVAD meeting with Yogi Adinath (fourth from left) seated among Buddhist and Hindu priests. Credit: Kalinga Seneviratne | IDN-INPS

IDN is flagship agency of the International Press Syndicate

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Success! SpaceX launches supercomputer toward International Space Station – CNNMoney

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About ten minutes after launching from Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Monday, a Dragon spacecraft separated from SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket -- beginning its two-day trek through orbital space to the space station.

Cargo missions are always packed with some interesting payloads -- typically several tons of experimental equipment, food and other provisions.

But this mission will deliver something the space station has never seen before: A supercomputer built by Hewlett Packard Enterprise, (HPE, Tech30) dubbed the "Spaceborne Computer."

If it works, it could be the most powerful commercial computer ever to operate in space.

Astronauts aboard the space station already have a bunch of devices you'd find at your local electronics store -- including HP laptops.

Related: SpaceX now valued at $21 billion

But a supercomputer is something different. It's a much more powerful piece of hardware that can crunch massive amounts of data and send the results to other computers in just moments.

According to Mark Fernandez, the HPE engineer who is heading up this new experiment, the space-bound supercomputer will have the ability to make one trillion calculations in a single second -- about 30 to 100 times more powerful than your average desktop computer.

Julie Robinson, the chief scientist for NASA's space station program, said that if this supercomputer can function in the harsh conditions of space, it will be very exciting news for companies down here on earth.

Robinson points out that a huge point of interest for the private sector is taking high-quality satellite images of earth in order to track things like crop growth or oil exploration.

"What's happening is -- just as your TV now has so much more resolution -- the same thing is happening with [satellite imagery]," she said.

But the high-definition images require 200 to 300 times more data, which can clog up the communication pipeline between earth and space. That's where a supercomputer on board the space station would become hugely valuable, Robinson told CNNMoney.

"If you can process the data on board [the space station], you then only need to send down a subset of the data that's actually needed," she said.

Related: SpaceX rocket finally lifts off after two aborted launch attempts

Will the supercomputer work?

Astronauts on board the space station can begin collecting the payload when the spacecraft docks on August 16.

Fernandez said HPE has volunteered to have its payload removed last, so it'll be a few days into September by the time the supercomputer makes its way onto the space station and is plugged in.

"If it powers up, that's going to be my first relief. I will be very excited then," Fernandez told CNNMoney.

Related: SpaceX's plan is to make history, then make more history

The mission that kicked off Monday marks the 12th unmanned resupply mission that SpaceX has conducted for NASA since 2012.

When NASA retired its Space Shuttle program in 2011, the space agency turned to the private sector to begin making these cargo trips.

SpaceX -- the upstart exploration company headed by Tesla's (TSLA) Elon Musk -- was one of only a couple of companies that have been able to step in and take up the job.

Without SpaceX, NASA would likely have had to rely on some Russian launches to ferry cargo to the space station.

That's already a problem when it comes to manned missions.

Currently, there are six astronauts on board the space station -- three from the U.S., one from the European Space Agency, and two from Russia. And all of them were brought to the space station by Russian spacecrafts.

After the Shuttle program retired, the U.S. no longer had a spacecraft that was certified to carry humans.

Both SpaceX and its private sector competitor Boeing (BA) are hoping to change that soon. They're currently working on crew-grade spacecrafts that NASA hopes to begin using in the near future.

CNNMoney (New York) First published August 14, 2017: 11:17 AM ET

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SpaceX Cargo Mission Demonstrates Increasing Research on Space Station – Wall Street Journal (subscription)

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SpaceX Cargo Mission Demonstrates Increasing Research on Space Station
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A successful cargo launch by SpaceX, the company's 12th such mission to the international space station, highlights the steady expansion of scientific research on the orbiting laboratory. In addition to routine supplies such as replacement parts and ...

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SpaceX set for supply run to space station on Monday – 10TV

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The launch of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket Monday to carry supplies to the International Space Station kicks off an exceptionally busy few weeks in space, with a Russian spacewalk on tap Thursday, a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 flight Friday, the 40th anniversary of the Voyager program's first launch on Sunday and a coast-to-coast solar eclipse the next day.

SpaceX plans another launch, this one from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, on August 24 to boost an Earth observation satellite into orbit for Taiwan, followed by the launch of a solid-fuel Orbital ATK Minotaur rocket from Cape Canaveral on August 25 carrying a military satellite.

Three space station crew members return to Earth on September 2. Then, another Falcon 9 -- this one carrying an X-37B Air Force space plane -- is expected to launch from Florida around September 7 and another ULA Atlas 5 is scheduled for takeoff September 11 to boost a classified military payload into space. The next day, three fresh space station crew members take off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan to boost the lab's crew back up to six.

The surge begins at 12:31 p.m. EDT (GMT-4) Monday when SpaceX launches its 39th Falcon 9 rocket, its ninth flight from historic pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center and its 11th flight overall this year. Forecasters are predicting a 70 percent chance of good weather.

Mounted atop the slender rocket is a Dragon cargo ship loaded with more than 3 tons of cargo, supplies and research equipment bound for the International Space Station. Assuming an on-time launch, astronaut Jack Fischer, operating the station's robot arm, will snare the Dragon early Wednesday so it can be pulled in for berthing.

Because of the time needed to catch up with the station, limited shelf life for several on-board experiments and the Russian spacewalk Thursday, SpaceX will not have a second launch opportunity Tuesday. If the flight is delayed for any reason, it will slip to sometime after the Friday launch of the Atlas 5.

But with generally good weather expected, mission managers were optimistic about sending the Dragon on its way Monday.

"We've loaded Dragon with 6,400 pounds of cargo and I'm happy to say 75 percent of that total mass is headed toward our research community," said Dan Hartman, deputy manager of NASA's space station program. "It sets a new bar for the amount of research we've been able to get on this flight."

Packed away in the Dragon's pressurized cabin will be needed computer gear, crew food and clothing, station hardware, research equipment and test subjects (including 20 mice) on board as part of a project to learn more about the long-term effects of weightlessness.

Mounted in the Dragon's unpressurized trunk section is a 1.3-ton cosmic ray detection experiment known as CREAM -- Cosmic Ray Energetics and Mass -- that has logged 191 days aloft during earlier high-altitude balloon missions.

It will spend three years attached to the space station, flying 10 times higher than the balloons, to measure high-energy cosmic rays and how they trigger cascades of particles during collisions with atoms and molecules in the upper atmosphere.

"By utilizing the space station, we can increase our exposure by an order of magnitude," said Eun-Suk Seo, CREAM principal investigator at the University of Maryland. "Every day on the station we will increase the statistics, and the statistical uncertainties get reduced, and we can detect higher energies than before.

"It's a very exciting time for us in high-energy particle astrophysics, and the long development road of CREAM culminating in this space station mission has been a world-class success story."

Because the Dragon is bound for the space station's relatively low orbit, the Falcon 9's first stage will have enough propellant left over to attempt a landing back at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station about eight minutes after launch.

SpaceX has successfully recovered 13 stages in 18 attempts, five at the Air Force station and eight aboard off-shore droneships. Monday's landing attempt will be the company's first since a droneship landing June 25.

But as with all SpaceX missions, landings are a secondary objective. The primary goal of the fight is to deliver cargo to the space station in SpaceX's 12th operational resupply mission.

With the Dragon berthed at the Earth-facing port of the forward Harmony module, space station commander Fyodor Yurchikhin and Sergey Ryazanskiy plan to float outside the complex Thursday, starting around 10 a.m., to manually deploy five small satellites and carry out routine inspections and maintenance on the Russian segment of the station.

Then on Friday, at 8:03 a.m., United Launch Alliance plans to launch NASA's $408 million TDRS-M communications satellite atop a powerful Atlas 5 rocket, the latest in a series of agency-operated relay stations used by a variety of science satellites, rockets and the International Space Station.

On Sunday, planetary scientists will celebrate the 40th anniversary of Voyager 2's launch, the first of two identical spacecraft that explored the outer solar system. Voyager 1 studied Jupiter, Saturn and the ringed planet's giant moon Titan, while Voyager 2 flew past Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. Both spacecraft are still sending back data as they leave the solar system and move into interstellar space.

Next Monday, Aug. 21, millions of Americans will enjoy a total solar eclipse, weather permitting, as the moon's shadow races from Oregon to South Carolina. Weather will not be an issue for the crew of the space station, who will see the sun partially eclipsed on three successive orbits.

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SpaceX launches cargo capsule full of science experiments – Spaceflight Now

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Credit: SpaceX

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket climbed into space Monday from NASAs Kennedy Space Center atop a column of gleaming exhaust, shooting a commercial resupply vessel toward the International Space Station with research projects looking into cosmic rays, the origin of Parkinsons disease, the utility of small satellites and an experimental radiation-tolerant supercomputer.

Crammed with more than 6,400 pounds (2,900 kilograms) of supplies, the Dragon capsule bolted on top of the Falcon 9 rocket also carried computer and camera gear, components to maintain the stations life support system and medical equipment, and provisions for the stations six-person crew, including clothing, fresh food and ice cream.

The 213-foot-tall (65-meter) rocket took off from pad 39A at the Florida spaceport at 12:31:37 p.m. EDT (1631:37 GMT), pitched toward the northeast to align with the space stations orbit, and roared through scattered clouds before disappearing into a blue summertime sky.

Nine Merlin 1D main engines at the base of the booster generated 1.7 million pounds of thrust, pushing the rocket into the stratosphere before the first stage switched off and fell away at an altitude of 40 miles (65 kilometers).

A single Merlin engine fired on the Falcon 9s upper stage to power the Dragon capsule into orbit. Glowing red-hot, the second stage engine throttled up to more than 200,000 pounds of thrust for its six-and-a-half minute firing.

Meanwhile, in a maneuver now common during SpaceX launches, the first stage flipped around with guided pulses of cold nitrogen gas to point tail first, then reignited three of its Merlin engines to boost itself back forward Cape Canaveral.

Two more braking maneuvers were needed to slow down the descending rocket, steering it back to the coast with the help of aerodynamic fins before extending four landing legs and settling on a concrete target at Landing Zone 1 less than eight minutes after liftoff, around 9 miles (15 kilometers) south of the Falcon 9s departure point at pad 39A.

From what Ive heard, its right on the bullseye and (had a) very soft touchdown, so its a great pre-flown booster ready to go for the next time, said Hans Koenigsmann, SpaceXs vice president of flight reliability.

SpaceX has reused two of its recovered first stage boosters to date, and engineers are prepping another previously-flown rocket for a mission with an SES communications satellite this fall.

The rocket launched Monday was a fresh vehicle, but its landing legs were scavenged from a vehicle flown on a previous mission, Koenigsmann said.

The upper stage continued rocketing into orbit, turning off its engine just after the nine-minute point in the flight, then deploying the Dragon capsule into an on-target slightly egg-shaped orbit averaging around 175 miles (280 kilometers) above the planet.

The second stage went into a near-perfect orbit (and) deployed Dragon, Koenigsmann said in a media briefing around two hours after the launch.

Dragon primed propellant and has performed the first co-elliptic burn at this point in time, he said, referring to the first in a series of thruster firings on tap to guide the capsule toward the space station.

The supply ships power-generating solar arrays extended shortly after it arrived in space, while the Falcon 9s second stage reignited for a de-orbit maneuver to avoid the creation of space junk.

With Mondays launch, SpaceXs Falcon 9 rocket family has accomplished 39 missions since debuting in 2010, and 38 of them have succeeded in their primary objectives. Those statistics do not include a Falcon 9 rocket that exploded before takeoff during testing on the launch pad, destroying an Israeli communications satellite.

SpaceX has landed the Falcon 9s first stage intact 14 times in 19 tries since the company attempted its first rocket landing on a barge at sea in 2015. Six of those touchdowns have occurred at Landing Zone 1 at Cape Canaveral.

The automated cargo freighter will reach its destination Wednesday, when astronaut Jack Fischer will take command of the space stations Canadian-built robotic arm to capture the commercial spaceship around 7 a.m. EDT (1100 GMT).

The robotic arm will install Dragon on the space stations Harmony module for a planned 32-day stay.

While astronauts inside the station will unpack cargo inside Dragons internal cabin, the Canadian and Japanese robotic arms will transfer a NASA-funded cosmic ray sensor to a mounting post outside the Kibo laboratory.

Derived from an instrument carried aloft on high-altitude balloons, the Cosmic Ray Energetics and Mass, or CREAM, payload will spend at least three years sampling particles sent speeding through the universe by cataclysmic supernova explosions, and perhaps other exotic phenomena like dark matter.

Scientists think the subatomic particles could hold the key to unlocking mysteries about the universe.

One experiment stowed inside the capsules pressurized section will investigate the origins of Parkinsons disease in a bid to find a therapy that could slow or halt its development, and another will study the affects of spaceflight on the development of bioengineered lung tissue, potentially helping scientists lessen the chance of organ rejection in transplant patients.

A supercomputer developed by Hewlett Packard Enterprise will spend at least a year on the space station, helping engineers gauge the ruggedness of commercial computer components in the harsh conditions of space.

Most computers sent into space are physically hardened to withstand radiation, cosmic rays, and other rigors of spaceflight. Hewlett Packard said its spaceborne computer experiment was hardened with software, reducing the time, money and weight of the supercomputer.

The experimental computer passed at least 146 safety tests and certifications to win NASA approval for the trip to the space station. If it works, Hewlett Packard officials said it could help future space missions, including a human expedition to Mars, have the latest computer technology.

Four small satellites inside the Dragon capsule will be moved inside the space station for deployment later this year.

The biggest of the bunch, named Kestrel Eye 2M, is a pathfinder for a potential constellation of Earth-imaging spacecraft for the U.S. military. About the size of a dorm room refrigerator, the Kestrel Eye 2M satellite was developed by the Armys Space and Missile Defense Command over the last five years.

Three CubeSats sponsored by NASA will test technologies for compact telescopes that could help astronomers observe stars and search for exoplanets, demonstrate a more reliable small satellite design, and study space weather.

Mondays Falcon 9 flight was the first of three launches scheduled from Cape Canaveral in the next 11 days.

A United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket is scheduled to roll out Wednesday to pad 41 at the Cape ahead of liftoff Friday at 8:03 a.m. EDT (1203 GMT) with a NASA satellite designed to track rockets climbing into space and relay communications between scientific spacecraft in orbit around Earth.

An Orbital ATK Minotaur 4 rocket is being readied for launch at 11:15 p.m. EDT Aug. 25 (0315 GMT Aug. 26) from Cape Canaverals pad 46 with a military space surveillance mission.

The next mission on SpaceXs manifest is scheduled for Aug. 24 from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. A Falcon 9 rocket will haul the Taiwanese Formosat 5 Earth observation satellite into a polar orbit, and its first stage will attempt a return to a barge downrange in the Pacific Ocean.

SpaceXs team at the Kennedy Space Center will prepare a Falcon 9 to deploy the U.S. Air Forces reusable X-37B spaceplane no earlier than Sept. 7.

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SpaceX launches cargo capsule full of science experiments - Spaceflight Now

NASA contracts energy firm to refine nuclear thermal propulsion concepts – SpaceFlight Insider

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Collin Skocik

August 14th, 2017

Nuclear Thermal Propulsion technology test. Photo Credit: NASA

As the U.S. government continues to pursue plans for a crewed mission to Mars, NASA has contracted with BWXT Nuclear Energy Inc. of Lynchburg, Virginia, to advance concepts in Nuclear Thermal Propulsion (NTP), which could drastically reduce travel times to Mars.

This is part of NASAs Game Changing Development Program, which takes ideas from academia and industry as well as NASA and other government programs, to advance new approaches to space technologies to accommodate the changing needs of U.S. space efforts.

NTP is not a new concept, but it was abandoned in 1972 when plans for a Mars mission were shelved. NASA conducted ground tests since 1955 to determine the viability of NTP and has occasionally been revisited as a conceptual part of Mars mission feasibility studies.

The advantage of NTP is mainly in that it can provide twice the rocket thrust of the Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSMEs), which are among the most powerful chemical rockets ever developed.

Sonny Mitchell, Nuclear Thermal Propulsion project manager at Marshall, said: As we push out into the Solar System, nuclear propulsion may offer the only truly viable technology option to extend human reach to the surface of Mars and to worlds beyond. Were excited to be working on technologies that could open up deep space for human exploration.

Rex Geveden, BWX Technologies president and CEO, said: We are uniquely qualified to design, develop and manufacture the reactor and fuel for a nuclear-powered spacecraft. This is an opportune time to pivot our capabilities into the space market where we see long-term growth opportunities in nuclear propulsion and nuclear surface power.

Using conventional rockets, a mission to Mars at opposition would take six months. NTP could cut the travel time to four months. There are several advantages to cutting down travel time. One is that the astronauts would get less exposure to solar radiation something that is of greater concern, as some recent studies suggest that the Apollo lunar astronauts may have had their health more adversely affected by radiation during their journeys than previously realized.

A shorter travel time will also reduce the vehicles mass. It would need to carry less fuel and fewer consumables and could, therefore, carry more payload.

It works by expanding a propellant, such as hydrogen, by heating it in a nuclear reactor. This differs from chemical rockets, in which the fuel is the heat source. As a result, an NTR rocket can use a propellant with a low molecular weight rather than complexfuels such as kerosene or hydrazine.

Tagged: BWXT Nuclear Energy Mars NASA Nuclear Thermal Propulsion The Range

Collin R. Skocik has been captivated by space flight since the maiden flight of space shuttle Columbia in April of 1981. He frequently attends events hosted by the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation, and has met many astronauts in his experiences at Kennedy Space Center. He is a prolific author of science fiction as well as science and space-related articles. In addition to the Voyage Into the Unknown series, he has also written the short story collection The Future Lives!, the science fiction novel Dreams of the Stars, and the disaster novel The Sunburst Fire. His first print sale was Asteroid Eternia in Encounters magazine. When he is not writing, he provides closed-captioning for the hearing impaired. He lives in Atlantic Beach, Florida.

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NASA contracts energy firm to refine nuclear thermal propulsion concepts - SpaceFlight Insider

Stockton student spaceflight experiment at Space Station – Shore News Today

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GALLOWAY TOWNSHIP Two Stockton University students will find out if the experiment they designed will work on the International Space Station.

Stockton University students Danielle Ertz of Woodlynne and Valkyrie Falciani of Hammonton and faculty mentor Tara Luke, associate professor of biology, developed an experiment that studies fungus as a potential force for improving agriculture in space.

The students want to see if astronauts can sustain their food supply in space.

The project was accepted by the Student Spaceflight Experiments Program and launched Monday from Cape Canaveral, Florida on the on SpaceX-CRS-12.

The students watched the launch in person in Florida.

Their experiment uses a mycorrhizal fungus species and flax. Flax was chosen because its seeds are edible, the plant can be used to make cloth, its extensive taproot system allows growth in limited space and it is proven to grow in space.

The experiment consists of a fluid mixing enclosure mini-lab that will hold enough water, fungi spores and flax seed to grow for 4-6 weeks on the International Space Station. The same experiment will be conducted here as a scientific ground truth for later comparison.

The Student Spaceflight Experiments Program is a program of the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education in the U.S. and the Arthur C. Clarke Institute for Space Education. It is enabled through a strategic partnership with DreamUp PBC and NanoRacks LLC, which are working with NASA under a Space Act Agreement as part of the utilization of the International Space Station as a National Laborator

For more details see https://stocktonspaceflight.org/.

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Stockton student spaceflight experiment at Space Station - Shore News Today

Mars 160: Study evaluates crew performance, EVA procedures for future missions – SpaceFlight Insider

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Paul Knightly

August 14th, 2017

Two Mars 160 crew members collect samples to analyze. Photo Credit: Paul Knightly / Mars Society

Over the last week, a break in the weather allowed the crew of the Mars Societys Mars 160 mission to conduct multiple science extravehicular activities (EVAs). The six-person crew wrapped up its last full week in simulation, capping off a shortened Mars mission at the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station (FMARS) in the Canadian high Arctic.

The simulation was originally planned to last for 60 days but was shortened to 30 days after three weeks of poor weather delayed the crews arrival to FMARS, which is located on Devon Island in Nunavut, a territory of Canada.

One of the primary science and operational studies of the Mars 160 mission is the Twin EVA Study, which is designed to assess science return at the Mars Societys two analog sites: FMARS in the Arctic and the Mars Desert Research Station (MDRS) in Utah. Four trials for the arctic portion of the EVA study were conducted over the past week.

The FMARS analog station in the Canadian high Arctic. Photo Credit: Paul Knightly / Mars Society

The study is looking at the differences between suited and unsuited EVAs as well as differences in performance between scientist and generalist crew members. The end result will be to highlight procedural and design changes that can be made on future missions.

The study is led by Mars 160 Principal Investigator Shannon Rupert, who also operates MDRS. Rupert hopes to identify ways to improve how mission simulations are conducted in order to lay the operational groundwork for planning the first missions to Mars.

We will be looking not only at how work was done on Earth vs. Mars but how well a generalist on a crew can assist a scientist in the field, Rupert said. By only having crew scientists train generalist crew, and having them work as a pair, we were able to see what gain we get with non-science crew who assist in fieldwork.

Rupert was not able to join the rest of the crew at FMARS to view EVAs in the Arctic but is excited to watch a video of them after the mission is over.

At MDRS it was interesting to see how a scientist and non-scientist explored and whatcollaboration did occur in situ and organically, Rupert said of the first half of the study. Of course this was only from my observations, its going to be fun to put the video and other parameters in a matrix and see what we have in terms of science return for each of the eight EVAs.

In addition to the Twin EVA Study, the Mars 160 crew was busy wrapping other field work. Because primary science investigations concluded toward the end of the week, the crew conducted a few extra EVAs to collect additional data to aid in its biology, geoscience, and engineering investigations. The work from field investigations will continue in laboratory settings once the mission has concluded.

A series of final science EVAs was conducted over the weekend with the simulation expected to end on Aug. 14, 2017. The Mars 160 crew will spend the next day cleaning and securing the station for the winter before being flown back to Resolute, Nunavut, around Aug. 16. After briefly going separate ways, most of the crew will reunite for a presentation about Mars 160 at the Mars Society Convention at the University of California, Irvine between Sept. 710.

The crew is expected to remain at FMARS until the middle of August.For more information and regular updates on the Mars 160 mission, visithttp://mars160.marssociety.org/. Additionally, you can follow the mission on Twitter:@MDRSUpdates.

Paul Knightly is serving as a crew geologist for Mars 160 and is alsowritingfor Spaceflight Insider.

Two crew members on the Mars 160 mission conduct an in-simulation extravehicular activity. Photo Credit: Mars Society

Tagged: Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station Mars Mars 160 Mars Society The Range

Paul is currently a graduate student in Space and Planetary Sciences at the University of Akransas in Fayetteville. He grew up in the Kansas City area and developed an interest in space at a young age at the start of the twin Mars Exploration Rover missions in 2003. He began his studies in aerospace engineering before switching over to geology at Wichita State University where he earned a Bachelor of Science in 2013. After working as an environmental geologist for a civil engineering firm, he began his graduate studies in 2016 and is actively working towards a PhD that will focus on the surficial processes of Mars. He also participated in a 2-week simluation at The Mars Society's Mars Desert Research Station in 2014 and remains involved in analogue mission studies today. Paul has been interested in science outreach and communication over the years which in the past included maintaining a personal blog on space exploration from high school through his undergraduate career and in recent years he has given talks at schools and other organizations over the topics of geology and space. He is excited to bring his experience as a geologist and scientist to the Spaceflight Insider team writing primarily on space science topics.

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Mars 160: Study evaluates crew performance, EVA procedures for future missions - SpaceFlight Insider

JPL’s Space Flight Operations Facility Prepares for Cassini Mission’s ‘Grand Finale’ – Pasadena Now

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This illustration shows NASAs Cassini spacecraft above Saturn's northern hemisphere prior to one of its 22 grand finale dives. Credits: NASA/JPL-Caltech

After almost 20 years in space, NASAs Cassini spacecraft, controlled from the Space Flight Operations Facility at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, will enter the final chapter of its remarkable story of exploration: its Grand Finale.of 22

The Grand Finale actually began in April when the spacecraft began a series weekly dives into the space between Saturn and its icy rings. Cassini began its five final orbits around Saturn on Sunday, August 13. This will end with a final plunge into Saturns atmosphere on September 15. During this time, its instruments send back to Earth new and unique information about what will be its closest encounter with the planet, before it finally burns up like a meteor in Saturns dense atmosphere and becomes part of the planet itself.

As it makes these five dips into Saturn, followed by its final plunge, Cassini will become the first Saturn atmospheric probe, said Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist at JPL. Its long been a goal in planetary exploration to send a dedicated probe into the atmosphere of Saturn, and were laying the groundwork for future exploration with this first foray.

On these final dives, the spacecraft is expected to encounter an atmosphere dense enough to require the use of its small rocket thrusters to maintain stability conditions similar to what it encountered during many of its close flybys of Saturns moon Titan, which has its own dense atmosphere.

Cassinis Titan flybys prepared us for these rapid passes through Saturns upper atmosphere, said Earl Maize, Cassini project manager. Thanks to our past experience, the team is confident that we understand how the spacecraft will behave at the atmospheric densities our models predict.

No other mission has ever explored this unique region in the planets surroundings. Scientists at JPL say what can be learned from these final orbits will help to improve mans understanding of how giant planets and planetary systems everywhere form and evolve.

On September 11, a distant encounter with the moon Titan will slow Cassinis orbit around Saturn and bend its path slightly to send the spacecraft toward its September 15 plunge into the planet.

During the half-orbit plunge, the plan is to have seven Cassini science instruments, including the ion and neutral mass spectrometer (INMS) turned on and reporting measurements in near real-time. With these, the spacecraft will be able collect some incredibly rich and valuable information that was too risky to obtain earlier in the mission.

The spacecraft will make detailed maps of Saturns gravity and magnetic fields, revealing how the planet is arranged internally, and possibly helping to solve the irksome mystery of just how fast Saturn is rotating. The final dives will also vastly improve mans knowledge of how much material is in the rings and how they were formed.

Cassinis particle detectors will also sample icy ring particles being funneled into the atmosphere by Saturns magnetic field.

Its cameras will take amazing, ultra-close images of Saturns rings and clouds and send those back to earth, almost in real-time. Other instruments will make detailed, high-resolution observations of Saturns auroras, temperature, and the vortexes at the planets poles. Its radar will peer deep into the atmosphere to reveal small-scale features that the spacecraft could not observe prior to the Grand Finale.

At this final plunge, the spacecraft is expected to reach an altitude where atmospheric density is about twice what it encountered during its final five passes. Once Cassini reaches that point, its thrusters will no longer be able to work against the push of Saturns atmosphere to keep the spacecrafts antenna pointed toward Earth, and contact will permanently be lost. The spacecraft will break up like a meteor moments later, ending its long and rewarding journey.

While its always sad when a mission comes to an end, Cassinis finale plunge is a truly spectacular end for one of the most scientifically rich voyages yet undertaken in the solar system. From its launch in 1997 to the unique Grand Finale science of 2017, the Cassini-Huygens mission (Huygens is the European probe that the spacecraft launched in 2005 into the moon Titan) has racked up a remarkable list of achievements.

This Grand Finale is still a controlled dive until its final seconds when it burns up and loses contact. After spending 13 years in orbit around Saturn following a seven-year journey from Earth, the spacecraft is running low on fuel, and mission operators are afraid the situation will prevent them from controlling Cassinis course.

To avoid the remote possibility of Cassini colliding with the moons Titan and Enceladus and contaminating them, NASA has chosen to safely dispose of the spacecraft in the atmosphere of Saturn, thereby ensuring future missions could still continue studying the habitability and potential life scientists have observed for years on those moons, courtesy of Cassini.

The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA (European Space Agency) and the Italian Space Agency. JPL manages the mission for NASAs Science Mission Directorate in Washington. JPL also designed, developed and assembled the Cassini orbiter.

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JPL's Space Flight Operations Facility Prepares for Cassini Mission's 'Grand Finale' - Pasadena Now

Calling all redheads: There’s just 50 days to go to Orange’s world record ginger attempt – Forbes Advocate

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Family fun day festival planned for Wade Park

REDDY, SET, GO: Redheads from Catherine MacAuley primary school joined organiser Rachael Brooking and teacher Trish Aumuller to launch the big red day. Photo: JUDE KEOGH

Calling all Redheads the countdown to Oranges red letter day has begun.

There are only 50 days to go until redheads from all over are being urged to head to Wade Park on September 30 and join in the fun.

It will culminate in an attempt to break the world record for the most redheads in the one place at the one time.

The current record stands at 1672members of the ginger army.

Organiser Rachael Brooking announced actor and writer and redhead Stephen Hallwould be the MC for the four-hour event to run from 11am-3pm.

She said she had lined up guests ranging from Ronald McDonald to singer Joel Leffler who would be releasing his new single Auburn Hair in September and the Honey Drippin Mudskippers Band.

It is going to be a fun family festival, she said.

All redheads are being encouraged to wear white for the event.

And while true redheads will only be allowed in the official count Mrs Brooking said non-redheads were encouraged to join in.

Were encouraging non-redheads to spray, colour or don a red wig for the event, she said.

And blokes with red beards, the festival is looking for you.

There will be a red beard competition, she said.

Well be looking for the longest, bushiest, most manicured and even the reddest, she said.

The red theme will be splashed through the food, drink and merchandise stands.

That would include red apples, toffee apples, orange juice, ginger ale and red slushies for sale plus red wig and redhead merchandise stalls.

Mrs Brooking said there would be a cliff hanger and jumping castle plus face painting to entertain the children.

The Rural Fire Service is bringing a shiny new red fire truck.

Red and orange vintage and custom cars will also be on show.

And your big day at the festival will be captured by photographer Chris Rehberg of Oatley Photography.

Mrs Brooking said he would be doing portraits and was looking to do a book to commemorate the day Orange turns red.

Mrs Brooking said there would be a gold coin entry fee with proceeds to go toward supporting familiesof people with Huntingtons Disease [HD] as September is HDawareness month.

She is also organising the screening of theThe Inheritance, which showsa familys journey with HD, on September 1, Walk for Hope Orange and Tea with Gatsby-High Tea4HD at Kenna Hall on September 16 to raise funds and awareness for HD.

Mrs Brooking said she was still looking for businesses and groups to be involved.

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Calling all redheads: There's just 50 days to go to Orange's world record ginger attempt - Forbes Advocate

Ask Hutch: Are vultures overtaking Hutchinson? – The Ottawa Herald

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Amy Bickel @KansasAgland

For those who are superstitious, my little hometown of Gypsum could appear to have a few bad omens.

It proudly displays the fact, outside of town, that it has 13 exits. And if youre in town in the right season, youll find dozens of turkey vultures roosting on the rails of the water tower.

But alas, Ive never superstitious or fearful of disaster. The buzzards, however, are just a nuisance. Every evening they would come home after circling the skies for death and decay.

Thankfully, most of them already have left this summer, except for a few that cant seem to get the hint.

Q: My wife and I were walking in the 20th and Adams area. There was a real commotion in the tree, and we heard fluttering. We watched to see what all the racket was about - turns out they were turkey vultures. They were certainly bigger than a blackbird and bigger than a crow. They had red heads. What really struck the two of us was how many there were - we couldn't count them because there were so many. We've seen a few here or there driving off to McPherson but never that many of them and never that close. I didnt smell anything foul - whats up?

Dont worry, its not because there is a lot of roadkill.

While they devour anything dead, vultures, or buzzards, also have to find a place to rest, which is most likely what these birds are doing, said Mary Clark, Dillon Nature Centers director.

They search for food during the day and roost together in the evenings. Typically, you will see them around 30th Avenue - an area they have been known to roost for years.

Buzzards migrate south for the winter and now some of them will stay in Kansas from late spring to early fall, Clark said.

It is kind of a historic place, Clark said of the area around 30th Avenue, adding she has seen them on her rural property all summer. They like the northern part of Hutch - it might be historic - I dont really know. My guess is mom did it, grandma did it.

Other birds have historical roosting patterns, she said. When she first came to Hutchinson, the little community of Medora was like a scene from the movie The Birds. The area around the town had a high concentration of crows.

Then they cut down a great number of catalpas, she said.

Well, I guess we could remove a few trees if the problem was that bad. But the water tower will have to stay.

Q: With the repair work starting on Woodie Seat Bridge beginning, traffic is down to one lane in each direction. With so many ambulances that use the bridge every week, what is one supposed to do if you find yourself in front of an ambulance with their lights and sirens on? Theres no way to move over for them.

Yes, Woodie Seat will be down to one-lane traffic for several months. Thankfully, I havent seen much of a traffic jam here in Hutchinson - except during the Kansas State Fair. So hopefully this wont happen too often.

But if for some reason you are in a situation where you are in front of a siren-sounding ambulance, just keep driving.

She should precede until she can get over, said Hutchinson Police Traffic Sergeant Brian Hirt. There is nothing you can do until you can get over.

Q: I used to give coupons to the library to send to soldiers. However, they quit taking them. I know a few schools used to take them. Is there a place I can donate coupons?

I couldnt find a place in Hutchinson. The Hutchinson Public Library told me they did indeed quit taking the coupons. I called a couple schools, and they said because of time and personal restraints, they no longer take them, either.

However, you can mail them.

The program, called Troopons, enhances the well-being of military families overseas. In many countries, the U.S. dollar doesnt go as far, according to the website Support Our Troops. In England, it is worth 66 cents, Germany, 76 cents and Japan, 90 cents.

Military families dont get coupons in newspapers overseas. However, the stores on military bases accept U.S. coupons - even expired ones.

You can mail the coupons to: Support Our Troops, P.O. Box 70, Daytona Beach, FL 32115-0070.

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Ask Hutch: Are vultures overtaking Hutchinson? - The Ottawa Herald

Red-headed woodpeckers are on decline – SW News Media

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R ecently I had a wonderful opportunity to study and photograph a pair of red-headed woodpeckers nesting in an old tree and feeding their young.

All of this happened because a reader of this column gave me a shout to share the exciting news of this cool woodpecker.

The red-headed woodpecker (Melanerpes erythocephalus) was once a very common woodpecker. In the mid-1800s, John James Audubon stated that the red-headed woodpecker was the most common woodpecker in North America. He called them semi-domesticated because they werent afraid of people. He stated that they were camp robbers and also a pest.

According to Audubon Society, Christmas Bird Count data, between the 1950s and the year 2010, the population of red-headed woodpeckers dropped dramatically. Over 80 percent of the population died out in just over 50 years.

Currently we continue to lose approximately 2 percent each year. That means within a couple decades we could see this bird become extinct if the trend continues.

The reason behind this decline is not understood. Many are quick to blame loss of habitat for their decline. While it is true that we have had a decline in mature tree habitat, no conclusive study indicates this to be the cause.

I would point to the fact that the population of red-bellied woodpeckers, with a similar size, shape and habitat requirement, is exploding across the country. If it were truly a habitat issue, it should affect both species equally since they both have the same habitat requirements.

Competition with European starlings for the nest cavity has also been implicated in the decline of the red-heads. While theres no doubt competition for the nest cavity with the starling will impact the red-heads, the population of the European starling is also dropping across the country at the same time. Also, if the starling usurps the red-head, the woodpecker can always excavate a new cavity.

It has been proposed that red-headed woodpeckers are habitat specialists and require a very unique habitat called the oak savanna. The argument goes that as oak savanna habitat is reduced, so goes the woodpecker.

I would maintain that the amount of oak savanna habitat was never very large and perhaps the reason why we find red-heads in this habitat now is because its the last holdout where the woodpeckers can still live. Ask anyone over the age of 50 who grew up on a farm and theyll remember red-headed woodpeckers, and they didnt have oak savanna habitat.

Over the past 30 years of studying and photographing red-headed woodpeckers, the vast majority have not been in oak savanna habitat. In fact the nest I was photographing recently was in a dead birch tree in a mixed deciduous forest.

There are over 200 species of woodpecker in the world and only four species cache food. Caching food is a process of storing nuts, such as acorns, in a cavity for later consumption. This might be a clue. For example the number of nut-bearing trees has declined dramatically over the past 100 years.

Both the number of oak trees, hickories and beech have declined and the American chestnut is completely gone. Whether or not this is the cause of the decline is not known.

Here are some interesting aspects of the red-headed woodpecker. In nearly all of the woodpeckers species, it is easy to see the difference between the male and female. Usually the male has some kind of marking on its head.

However the red-headed woodpecker male and female look exactly the same. Even if you have these birds in your hands and you can examine them, you wont be able to tell the difference between the male and the female. This is an interesting difference between the red-headed woodpeckers and the rest of the woodpeckers.

Red-headed woodpeckers are remarkable species and I always feel honored to be able to see and film this bird. If you have a nest in your yard, no matter how common the species, give me a shout. You never know, I might come visit.

Stan Tekiela is an author/naturalist and wildlife photographer who travels the United States to study and photograph wildlife. He can be followed on Facebook and Twitter. He can be contacted via his webpage at http://www.naturesmart.com.

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Red-headed woodpeckers are on decline - SW News Media

NASA is testing supercomputers to send to Mars – Marketplace.org

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ByBen Johnson and Kristin Schwab

August 14, 2017 | 11:11 AM

Scientists in space have computers, but they don't exactly look like the one you might be reading this on. Computers in space have highly specific functions. There is no consumer-grade Mac or PC up in space. A lot of that has the do with the fact that laptops in space degrade quickly out there.

But NASA wants to fix that problem by creating new supercomputers, developed in partnership with Hewlett Packard Enterprise. The technology is being tested on the International Space Station in hopes that the computer can withstand trips to Mars.

Marketplace Tech's Ben Johnson spoke with Hewlett Packard Enterprise'sMark Fernandez, the lead developer for the NASA project, about the mission. Below is an edited excerpt of their conversation.

Ben Johnson: What is the spaceborne computer?

Mark Fernandez:The spaceborne computer is a joint effort between NASA and Hewlett Packard Enterprise. And one of the goals is to get state-of-the-art technology on board the International Space Station and to test it for at least a year. One year is the length of time we anticipate that it will take for a mission to Mars. And we kinda want to make sure that our computers, supercomputers and IT components can endure that trip.

Johnson:I understand that you guys have had a long partnership with NASA. But I think some people would wonder to themselves: The government's computers seemed to have worked pretty darn good on spacecraft for the entirety of the American space program. Why does a private company need to get involved with something like this?

Fernandez:Most of the computers on board the International Space Station are purpose-built for specific functions related to the flight and operation of the ISS. For example, they have a navigation computer and it only does navigation. This one is unique in that it's a general-purpose, high-performance computer system. So scientists can now have a platform with which they're familiar and begin to exploit those capabilities while in orbit rather than bringing all that data back down to Earth.

Johnson:Interesting. So it's not a mission-critical? This is something that might be a little more similar to what they have in their offices?

Fernandez:Yes, absolutely.

Johnson:Does it let them surf Facebook though?

Fernandez:We're pretty nerdy scientists. There are no games on board. There is no keyboard or monitor. This is strictly for crunching numbers for the benefit of the scientist and the community.

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NASA is testing supercomputers to send to Mars - Marketplace.org

Young Astronaut Hopeful Gets NASA Tour Of His (Space) Dreams … – NPR

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Sixteen-year-old Murad Rahimov peered down into a gigantic space he had only dreamed about before: the world's largest clean room, kept scrupulously free of any dust or contamination, where NASA assembles and tests spacecraft before launch.

Murad's eyes gleamed and a smile played on his face as he took it all in the scientists encased in sterile white suits; the replica of the massive new space telescope, the most powerful ever built, that will study the first galaxies born after the Big Bang.

Murad is obsessed with space. He has been ever since he was three, back in his home country Uzbekistan. His young imagination was sparked when his aunt gave him a picture book about space, and he couldn't stop looking at the images of the solar system. Soon after, he told his parents his dream: He wanted to become an astronaut and work for NASA.

On this recent day, he was getting a private tour of NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., thanks to an NPR listener who heard about Murad's passion for space in a story that aired earlier this year. In January, NPR profiled the Rahimov family on the day they became naturalized as U.S. citizens. The Rahimovs immigrated to the U.S. from Uzbekistan in 2010, when Murad was nine. When they first landed in Kansas City, Murad spoke no English. Now, heading into his junior year of high school, he's on an accelerated track, taking extra classes in the summer and packing his schedule with AP courses.

Listener Aaron Schnittman heard that story on the radio, and his ears perked up when he heard that Murad's goal is to work for NASA. He emailed NPR that same day, that his brother is a research astronomer working for NASA at Goddard. "I think it would be a cool follow up to connect the son to my brother and help him make the connections needed to pursue studies in astronomy," he wrote.

Cool, indeed. The connection was made, emails were exchanged, and last week, at the invitation of Jeremy Schnittman, Murad and his mother, Limara Rahimova, made the trip to Goddard outside Washington, D.C. Schnittman, an astrophysicist who specializes in black holes, spent several hours showing the Rahimovs the inner workings of the space flight center and sharing his enthusiasm for space science.

Murad was clearly in his element, sporting a t-shirt with a picture of the Millennium Falcon spaceship from Star Wars, and a line from the movie: "the fastest hunk of junk in the galaxy."

He and his mother got to see the giant cryo-vac chamber where spacecraft are tested to find out if they'll withstand the extreme temperatures of space. They walked inside the acoustic chamber that blasts spacecraft with earsplitting sound to simulate the vibration of launch. They toured the laser lab where scientists are fine-tuning measurements to detect gravitational waves. "Amazing," Murad marveled.

Jeremy Schnittman, an astrophysicist who specializes in black holes, spent several hours with Murad and his mother. Melissa Block/NPR hide caption

Jeremy Schnittman, an astrophysicist who specializes in black holes, spent several hours with Murad and his mother.

Back in his office, ("black hole central," as he calls it) Schnittman talked with Murad about his research into how light gets bent around black holes. Naturally, they both share a hero in Albert Einstein, whose photo Schnittman keeps pinned above his desk. "It's remarkable," Schnittman said. "It's over 100 years since Einstein did all of this stuff, and still, everything is Einstein. Einstein, Einstein, Einstein."

When Murad mused about the possibilities of time travel, Schnittman sounded optimistic. "It's really not that much of a stretch to say that we're one step closer to time travel," he told Murad. "This is something that Einstein predicted 100 years ago. According to the theory, the equations, time travel should be possible. The trick is just building it and getting it to work, but as far as we can tell, there's no rule against it."

The astrophysicist and the would-be astronaut parted ways with the promise to stay in touch.

Murad touring NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center with astrophysicist Jeremy Schnittman. Melissa Block/NPR hide caption

Murad touring NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center with astrophysicist Jeremy Schnittman.

Later Murad said he loves science because it shows "the sheer awesomeness, the sheer scale of how insignificant and alone we are in the universe. All these petty fights that people have between themselves, they are just insignificant. When you start thinking about space, you get lost in the vastness of it. That's what captivates me the most."

Now that he's a U.S. citizen, he believes his dream of becoming an astronaut is more within reach. He and his brother automatically became citizens when their parents did. Murad was at school the day they took the oath: "I came home and looked at my parents, and felt all this pride," he said. "You could sense that something has changed. They were smiling from ear to ear."

For his mother, Limara, becoming a U.S. citizen has grounded her in a new way. "I felt before like I'm between countries," she said. "But now I feel like I'm staying ...both my feet here in this land."

Limara works at a school, and each morning they all stand for the pledge of allegiance. Before, she said, "it didn't touch me. But now, yes! And I know what each word in the pledge of allegiance means. And it means, for me, a lot."

As for Murad? The rising high school junior has his sights set on going to Cal Tech, and on the Mars mission he dreams of one day leading. "Some people, they tell me to try to get a real job," he said, "of maybe not shooting so high. But nah. I'm shooting for it. I'm gonna chase my dreams."

Meantime, there's a celestial show about to happen, one he's been excited about for years: the total solar eclipse.

Murad's hometown, Kansas City, is a perfect spot to see it: right in the path of totality.

Next Monday he will be outside, watching in awe as the moon slides over the sun, and dreaming big dreams of space.

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Young Astronaut Hopeful Gets NASA Tour Of His (Space) Dreams ... - NPR

NASA’s Cassini probe dives into Saturn’s atmosphere – CNN

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The spacecraft embarked on the first orbit on Sunday evening, marking a turning point in planetary exploration as Saturn's upper atmosphere has never previously been explored.

The probe's instruments are expected to collect rich scientific data as it makes the dives, potentially revealing how the planet is arranged internally and how much material is contained in its icy rings.

With the first pass still in progress, Cassini will go where no craft has gone before -- reaching as close as 1,010 and 1,060 miles (1,630 and 1,710 kilometers) above the planet's cloud tops.

"It's long been a goal in planetary exploration to send a dedicated probe into the atmosphere of Saturn, and we're laying the groundwork for future exploration with this first foray," Spilker said.

Launched in 1997, Cassini reached Saturn in 2004. The craft revolutionized scientists' knowledge of Saturn, with its first close-up survey of the gas giant.

The craft is now locked into a terminal collision course with the atmosphere of the planet, where it is expected to burn up like a meteor on September 15 at 9:45 a.m. GMT (6:45 a.m. ET).

At this point, contact will be permanently lost and the spacecraft will burn up.

Experts say that allowing Cassini to be destroyed reduces the risk of the probe damaging one of Saturn's moons and impacting future scientific work.

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NASA's Cassini probe dives into Saturn's atmosphere - CNN

See fruit punch attack a NASA astronaut’s face in space – CNET

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Liquids behave very differently in microgravity than they do down on Earth. NASA astronaut Jack Fischer demonstrated a particularly odd and entertaining property of tropical punch in a video showing how to make a wet mess while floating around the International Space Station.

Fischer used a repurposed condiment bottle with a makeshift "NASA rocks" label. He filled it with tropical punch, placed a straw into the opening and blew air in to displace the liquid.

On Earth, the punch would have spewed out and dropped down under the power of gravity. In space, it turns into what looks like a giant gum bubble, clinging to Fischer's face and covering his mouth, nose and eyes. Fischer finally pops the bubble with a towel and it explodes into small floating punch globules.

The video, which Fischer posted on Friday, is fun, but's also a fascinating lesson about how liquids react without the pull of gravity to keep them in line.

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See one astronaut's wild pictures from space

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See fruit punch attack a NASA astronaut's face in space - CNET