Upcoming International Space Station crew prepares to host musical celebrity

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LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) Ever since Alan Shepard blasted off aboard the Freedom 7 capsule in Jan. 1961, the roughly 550 individuals who have traveled into space have all come from an elite albeit similar pool of candidates.

The original "Mercury Seven" astronauts? All military pilots. Through much of NASA's space shuttle program, the space agency mostly limited its pool of astronauts to pilots, engineers, scientists and medical doctors along with the occasional politician.

In 1986, NASA expanded its criteria when it launched teacher Christa McAuliffe aboard space shuttle Challenger a flight that ended in fatal tragedy for all seven crew members. Though NASA says McAuliffe will always be remembered as the nation's first and only "Teacher in Space," the agency launched McAuliffe's backup, Barbara Morgan, as an "Educator Mission Specialist" in 2007, and says it remains committed to sending more teachers in the future.

But as the crew that makes up Expedition 44 comprised of American astronaut Kjell Lindgren, Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kononenko and Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui prepares to launch for a six-month stint aboard the International Space Station, they say they're also preparing to host a new type of unconventional' astronaut: famed opera singer Sarah Brightman.

Station Soprano

Brightman, who received worldwide acclaim for her breakout role as 'Christine' in Andrew Lloyd Weber's popular 1986 rock-opera "Phantom of the Opera," has been a performing vocalist for three decades, with her official Web site calling her "the world's biggest selling soprano" who boasts a vocal range of over "three full octaves."

And if all goes as planned, in September, Brightman will be singing from an unprecedented venue, launching aboard a Russian Soyuz capsule and spending 10 days aboard the International Space Station. Using the station as her concert stage, Brightman is expected to perform a song written in collaboration with Weber especially for the occasion, along with accompaniment by artists on the Earth.

Lindgren, Kononenko and Yui will be on the station during Brightman's brief stay, and WDRB Web Producer Travis Kircher -- along with Space.com reporter Miriam Kramer -- spoke with them briefly during a round robbins phone interview about the upcoming flight.

"I'm excited that Sarah Brightman is flying," Lindgren said. "She is something of an international ambassador for arts and so I'm excited to see the arts in space to see music and do a little performance in space of something that's new."

"She's going to be reaching out to a whole new population that maybe didn't have a particular interest in space previously," he added. "And then she's just going to be something new to the space station. I can tell you that it's going to be very exciting to watch her and hear her perform up there."

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Upcoming International Space Station crew prepares to host musical celebrity

AL NASA Space Launch System Supplier Conference held in Montgomery

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MONTGOMERY, AL (WSFA) - NASA partnered with the Montgomery Area Chamber of Commerce to hold the Alabama NASA Space Launch System Supplier Conference on Wednesday.The space program has a significant economic impact right here in Alabama, and leaders are hoping to grow that impact even more.

NASA's latest mission, the Space Launch System, is to send humans into deep space with hopes of one day reaching Mars, but leaders say that's only possible with the help of others outside of NASA.

"We look for folks that want to be part of the future and rise to the next chapter of our history of exploration," said Jody Singer, program manager for the flight programs and partnerships office at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.

Now, NASA leaders are giving the all call for businesses, of any sort, to help with the mission.

"It obviously has to be within what we work in our mission of going forward with exploration, but there are many different companies, many different activities, many different things that we need and specialties," Singer said. "As well as, day today activity that we need to be able to fly and survive in space. So the doors are really wide open."

"We want to make sure we communicate that not only are they looking for rocket scientists. Yes, they are looking for new ideas, but they're also looking for commodities such as ink pens, pencils, and paper. They have to run officers everyday. Theyhave to have grass cut. You'd be amazed at what you can sell to them," said Ron Simmons, Vice President of Business Development for the Chamber of Commerce.

One Montgomery company, Goodwyn, Mills, and Cawood, is already partnered with another firm on a contract to design the Space Launch System test stand. The company hopes it's a contract which could launch them into even more business.

"We want to keep expanding on it. It's important to the company, it's also important to our country," said Al Allenbeck, Vice President of Airport Planning and Engineering with Goodwyn, Mills, and Cawood.

NASA has more than a $3 billion economic impact in our state alone. Local leaders are hopeful that chunk of change will head to central Alabama, ultimately creating more jobs.

"We want these companies to do well, make a good profit, generate revenue, but grow jobs, that's what we are here for," claims Simmons.

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AL NASA Space Launch System Supplier Conference held in Montgomery

Seasonal, year-long cycles seen on the Sun

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IMAGE:Bands of magnetized solar material march toward the sun's equator. The way the bands in each hemisphere interact leads to a 330-day cycle of waxing and waning activity on the... view more

Credit: S. McIntosh

Our sun is constantly changing. It goes through cycles of activity - swinging between times of relative calm and times when frequent explosions on its surface can fling light, particles and energy out into space. This activity cycle peaks approximately every 11 years. New research shows evidence of a shorter time cycle as well, with activity waxing and waning over the course of about 330 days.

Understanding when to expect such bursts of solar activity is crucial to successfully forecast the sun's eruptions, which can drive solar storms at Earth. These space weather events can interfere with satellite electronics, GPS navigation, and radio communications. The quasi-annual variations in space weather seem to be driven by changes in bands of strong magnetic field that are present in each solar hemisphere, said researchers in a paper published on April 7, 2015, in Nature Communications.

"What we're looking at here is a massive driver of solar storms," said Scott McIntosh, lead author of the paper and director of the High Altitude Observatory of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado. "By better understanding how these activity bands form in the sun and cause these seasonal instabilities, we can greatly improve forecasts of space weather."

The new study is one of several by the research team to examine what creates the magnetic bands and how they influence solar cycles. McIntosh and his co-authors detected the bands by drawing on a host of NASA satellites and ground-based observatories that observe the sun and its output -- from the constant flow of particles in the solar wind to large explosions such as solar flares or giant eruptions of solar material called coronal mass ejections, or CMEs.

The scientists note that the changes in the magnetic field in the bands gives rise to a 330-day activity cycle on the sun that is observable but has often been downplayed and overlooked when trying to seek the cause of the sun's longer, 11-year cycle.

"People have not paid much attention to this nearly-annual cycle," said McIntosh. "But it's such a driver of space weather that we really do need to focus on it. Cycles over this time frame are observed in all sorts of output from the sun: the sun's radiance, the solar wind, solar flares, CMEs."

Magnetic band interaction can also help explain a puzzle first discovered in the 1960s: Why does the number of powerful solar flares and CMEs peak a year or more after the maximum number of sunspots? This lag is known as the Gnevyshev Gap, after the Soviet scientist who first noticed the pattern. The answer appears to also depend on two activity bands. Having one band located in each solar hemisphere provides an opportunity for them to mix -- magnetic field from one band effectively leaking into the other -- creating more unstable active regions on the sun and leading to more flares and CMEs. In other papers, scientists have shown that this process happens only after the sunspot maximum.

In doing their analysis on band interaction the scientists noticed that the bands themselves undergo strong quasi-annual variations, taking place separately in both the northern and southern hemispheres. Those quasi-annual variations in magnetism could be almost as large in magnitude as those of the more familiar, approximately 11-year solar cycle, giving rise to the appearance of stormy seasons.

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Seasonal, year-long cycles seen on the Sun

NASA LIFTING BODY DOCUMENTARY "MAN IN SPACE TODAY TOMORROW AND TITAN III" Part 1 of 2 30482 – Video

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NASA LIFTING BODY DOCUMENTARY "MAN IN SPACE TODAY TOMORROW AND TITAN III" Part 1 of 2 30482
Made in 1966, this rarely seen documentary "Today, Tomorrow and Titan III" shows the U.S. Air Force and NASA #39;s activities and research. The Manned Orbiting Laboratory space station concept,...

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NASA LIFTING BODY DOCUMENTARY "MAN IN SPACE TODAY TOMORROW AND TITAN III" Part 1 of 2 30482 - Video

NASA scientist: Evidence of alien life by 2025

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Story highlights NASA chief scientist believes we're close to finding alien life Indications within a decade; definitive evidence within "20 to 30 years," said Ellen Stofan Finding water on other celestial bodies is key to determination

"I think we're going to have strong indications of life beyond Earth within a decade, and I think we're going to have definitive evidence within 20 to 30 years," NASA chief scientist Ellen Stofan said Tuesday during a panel discussion on water in the universe.

"We know where to look. We know how to look," she said. "In most cases, we have the technology, and we're on a path to implementing it. And so I think we're definitely on the road."

NASA released a graphic noting that scientists have found evidence or indications of water on a number of celestial bodies, including the dwarf planet Ceres and Jupiter's moon Europa.

The Hubble Space Telescope has been key to the discoveries, NASA said in a news release.

"Scientists using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope recently provided powerful evidence that (Jupiter's moon) Ganymede has a saltwater, sub-surface ocean, likely sandwiched between two layers of ice," the agency noted.

There are some caveats involved, of course. NASA isn't talking about intelligent alien civilizations from the Alpha Quadrant; it's referring to microorganisms.

"We are not talking about little green men," Stofan said at the panel. "We are talking about little microbes."

Still, former astronaut John Grunsfeld said it's an exciting time -- and he thinks it's just a matter of time before we find life outside our solar system as well.

"I think we're one generation away in our solar system, whether it's on an icy moon or on Mars, and one generation on a planet around a nearby star," he said.

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NASA scientist: Evidence of alien life by 2025

We are on the verge of discovering aliens, says NASA's chief scientist

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Humanity is on the verge of discovering alien life, high-ranking NASA scientists say.

"I think we're going to have strong indications of life beyond Earth within a decade, and I think we're going to have definitive evidence within 20 to 30 years," NASA chief scientist Ellen Stofan said Tuesday (April 7) during a panel discussion that focused on the space agency's efforts to search for habitable worlds andalien life.

"We know where to look. We know how to look," Stofan added during the event, which was webcast live. "In most cases we have the technology, and we're on a path to implementing it. And so I think we're definitely on the road." [5 Bold Claims of Alien Life]

Former astronaut John Grunsfeld, associate administrator for NASA's Science Mission Directorate, shared Stofan's optimism, predicting that signs of life will be found relatively soon both in our own solar system and beyond.

"I think we're one generation away in our solar system, whether it's on an icy moon or onMars, and one generation [away] on a planet around a nearby star," Grunsfeld said during Tuesday's event.

Recent discoveries suggest that the solar system and broader Milky Way galaxy teem with environments that could support life as we know it, Grunsfeld said.

For example, oceans of liquid water slosh beneath the icy shells of the Jupiter moonsEuropaand Ganymede, as well as that of the Saturn satellite Enceladus. Oceans covered much of Mars in the ancient past, and seasonal dark streaks observed on the Red Planet's surface today may be caused by salty flowing water.

Further, NASA's Curiosity rover has found carbon-containing organic molecules and "fixed" nitrogen, basic ingredients necessary for Earth-like life, on the Martian surface.

Farther afield, observations by NASA'sKepler space telescopesuggest that nearly every star in the sky hosts planets and many of these worlds may be habitable. Indeed, Kepler's work has shown that rocky worlds like Earth and Mars are probably more common throughout the galaxy than gas giants such as Saturn and Jupiter.

And just as the solar system is awash in water, so is the greater galaxy, said Paul Hertz, director of NASA's Astrophysics Division.

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We are on the verge of discovering aliens, says NASA's chief scientist

Reducing energy usage with nano-coatings

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14 hours ago Metal strip coated with thermochromic nanoparticles. At temperatures above 30 Celsius (about 86 F), the coating is transparent and the metal underneath reflects heat. Credit: Fraunhofer ICT

Thermochromic nano-coatings employed appropriately can help reduce energy usage and generate savings. The coatings either absorb heat or permit its reflection, depending on their temperature. Researchers will demonstrate this phenomenon using samples of coated metal strips at the Fraunhofer Joint Booth in Hall 3, Booth D26 during the Hanover Trade Show (April 13-17, 2015).

Minute dimensions major effects. Nanoparticles possess an especially large surface-area-to-volume ratio. This makes them extremely efficient and reactive. Tiny amounts are sufficient to produce large effects. Researchers of the Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology ICT in Pfinztal near Karlsruhe are utilizing this characteristic to create novel coatings. They are incorporating active nano-materials into polymer systems. These coatings can be applied easily like paint or varnish.

Finely distributing nanoparticles in polymers

"However, the special properties of nano-composites only become apparent if the particles do not clump so that an agglomeration is avoided," explains Helmut Schmid from Fraunhofer ICT. The scientist together with colleagues at the Institute therefore developed a process through which the nanoparticles are distributed uniformly in the polymer matrix. "In addition, integrating the nanoparticles in the plastic system provides extra safety. The binding forces prevent the uncontrolled release of individual nanoparticles," explains Schmid. "We can prove this using analytical techniques able to detect extremely small concentrations of substances."

The process is highly adaptable and suited to processing quite varied nanomaterials. Additional advantages: small amounts of substances can be bound in environmentally-friendly, water-based systems of plastics that release hardly any volatile organic compounds. These coatings can be applied directly without first requiring a primer coat experts refer to this property as "direct-to-metal"." In addition, the layers prevent oxygen from reaching the metal and thereby protect against corrosion.

Reduced energy usage through color change

Researchers at Fraunhofer ICT worked together with partners in industry under a project funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) on novel nano-coatings for metallic wire and strip. The experts developed thermochromic coatings during the project that change color depending on their temperature. The coatings thereby either absorb heat or become transparent and permit its reflection "Metal strip possesses very special properties when coated in this way. If temperatures are below 30 Celsius (about 86 F), the black coating absorbs heat. If it is warmer, the color changes. The varnish, which has now become transparent, allows the infrared radiation to be reflected," Schmid explains.[ Strip and wire coated like this are useful in architectural applications. They can be interwoven and used as exterior self-regulating thermal cladding for walls and faades to help cool buildings passively and thereby reduce operating costs. The researchers are continuing to work on additional nano-systems such as coatings with luminescent properties, for instance. These kinds of effects are useful for safety markings and signage. The coatings can also help clearly differentiate branded products from pirated copies, since pirates do not have these kinds of luminescent nano-coatings at their disposal.

Metallic and carbon nano-coatings for particles and powder

Researchers with the Application Center for Plasma and Photonics of the Fraunhofer Institute for Surface Engineering and Thin Films IST in Braunschweig have also become involved in nanotechnology. They are designing particle surfaces with beneficial properties by applying for example carbon or metallic nano-coatings. Specific particles surrounded by a 1-2 nm carbon nano-coating become more electrically conductive and this leads to an enhanced performance of lithium-ion batteries.

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Reducing energy usage with nano-coatings

Stan Collymore turns the airwaves blue while watching Aston Villa from press box

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By Charles Sale for the Daily Mail

Published: 16:37 EST, 8 April 2015 | Updated: 19:07 EST, 8 April 2015

Stan Collymore, talkSPORT lead football pundit who revels in laying down the law on the radio, astonished reporters with his behaviour during Aston Villas 3-3 Premier League draw with QPR on Tuesday night.

Collymore, despite sitting in the Villa Park press box where media impartiality is taken for granted, was jumping up and down during the game like the most fanatical Villa fan, celebrating the goals with the home supporters.

He even greeted QPRs Joey Barton falling down to win a free-kick by clearly shouting at him: You f****** rat.

talkSport pundit Stan Collymore was in full fan mode as he celebrated Villa's 3-3 draw with QPR

The former Villa striker let loose with his wild, and sometimes expletive laden, comments from the press box

Villa fan Collymore believed such actions in the supposed neutral sanctuary of the press box were permissible as he wasnt working for talkSPORT during the match. He tweeted: With respect, on nights I go as a fan . . . Im not being paid to do anything other than be a fan.

And talkSPORT would not comment as they said Collymore wasnt on duty, with reporter Nigel Pearson giving his rather more impartial verdict for the station. However Collymore did an interview with Adrian Durham and Darren Gough on talkSPORT before the match.

Collymore called Joey Barton a 'f*****g rat' after he fell down to win a free-kick for QPR during the game

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Stan Collymore turns the airwaves blue while watching Aston Villa from press box

Open Discussion April 8, 2015

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Nave Kent12 hours ago

I for one love the comparisons between Marvel and DC when the discussions arent boiled down to two dudes talking about which brand is superior. I love how each brand compliments the other. Recently with CWs A.T.O.M. essentially filling the role of power-suited IRON MAN (outta NO where) and NetFlixs Daredevil filling in for Arrow as the urban vigilante it got me thinking that on-film the traditional archetypal equivalences just dont match up. In the comics, bearded, cynical Oliver Queen with his politically-charged comics depicting stories of substance abuse problems paralleled ironical Tony Starks politically-charged comics depicting stories of substance abuse but thats clearly not the case in live-action. So it got me thinking, what other characters have been changed archetypally? Moreover, simply by staying on the surface level, we can see several interesting parallels.

For example, Ive always seen Superman and Hulk to be of the same archetype; both are creatures of science-fiction depicting the potential of scientific achievement and its horrors (Supermans villains), both have a civilian identity that is comparatively weak (and often their weakness is depicted by having them wear glasses) and the alternative being super-strength, powerhouse, invulnerability, etc. Coupled with the theory that Hulk uses a form of photosynthesis to keep his energy and can leap long distances it all adds up. However, visually and on a surface-level, they are nothing alike, and thus Hulk has more in common with DCs Solomon Grundy than Superman. So I was thinking, with Age of Ultron approaching, who would be the primary Avengers-equivalent? And holy s***, are they totally the villains of the DCU? Observe:

Tony Stark/Iron Man = Lex Luthor/with Green-K Suit The Incredible Hulk = Solomon Grundy Black Widow = Catwoman Captain America = Deathstroke, the Terminator (both super-soldiers, anti-govt) Thor = Black Adam Hawkeye, the sniper = Deadshot, the sniper The Vision = OMAC

I mean, forget a JLA on TV if they just push Oliver Queen or CWs Ray Palmer into a shade more sinister, we essentially have a team reflecting the Avengers as a team that needs to be stopped. One brands heroes are anothers bad-guys.

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Open Discussion April 8, 2015

Premier Chiropractic in Highlands Ranch, CO | Premier Chiropractic & Natural Medicine – Video

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Premier Chiropractic in Highlands Ranch, CO | Premier Chiropractic Natural Medicine
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