The worst trip around the world

Posted on by

As you celebrate the end of the year in the warmth of your home, spare a thought for the organisms riding with a third-class ticket on the International Space Station - bolted to the outside with no protection against open space.

As part of ESA's Expose-R2 project, 46 species of bacteria, fungi and arthropods were delivered by a Progress supply ship to the Station in July. Spacewalking cosmonauts Alexander Skvortsov and Oleg Artemyev attached the package to the outside of the Zvezda module on 18 August, where it will stay for 18 months.

Freeze-dry, warm, repeat The vacuum of space is sucking out the water, oxygen and other gases in the samples. Their temperature can drop to -12 C as the Station passes through Earth's shadow, rising to 40 C at other times, and undergoing a similar process to the freeze-drying used to preserve foods.

The Expose experiments are exploring the limits of terrestrial life, whether the organisms can survive in space and how the full blast of solar radiation is affecting accompanying chemicals.

Earth is protected from the Sun's full radiation by our atmosphere filtering out the hard-hitting short wavelengths that are damaging to life. It is difficult to recreate on the ground the full spectrum of the Sun's light so these experiments in space are the only way to test how biological and material samples behave in conditions beyond Earth.

ESA has a long history of testing organisms and organic chemicals in the harsh environment of space. Previous experiments revealed that lichens and water bears can survive spaceflight unprotected, hinting at the possibility of species colonising planets via meteoroids.

Bringing Mars closer to Earth Not every sample is suffering the same level of discomfort on its epic ride in space. Expose has special compartments that recreate the martian atmosphere by filtering some sunlight and retaining some pressure.

Rene Demets, ESA's project scientist for Expose, explains: "The martian sections allow us to investigate to what extent terrestrial life can cope with the extreme conditions on the Red Planet. We hope they will contribute to the discussion about the possibility of life on Mars."

All the samples are stored in duplicate or even triplicate to strengthen the scientific results when the three trays are returned to Earth in early 2016 for analysis.

Who knows what we will find or even if any of the organisms will have survived possibly the worst voyage around the world.

Read the rest here:

The worst trip around the world

Time-lapse videos of Earth capture line between life and death

Posted on by

Astronaut Alexander Gerst combines more than 12,000 photos taken about the International Space Station in 2014 into a collection of spellbinding videos that show our lively planet in gorgeous HD.

Auroras abound in the ESA's time-lapsed view of Earth from space. Video screenshot by Eric Mack/CNET

We've already taken a look at some of the best still photos captured of the Earth from space in the past year, but high-quality video footage of our world from above can be harder to come by. Enter European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst, who has gifted all of humanity the beautiful compilation of time-lapse HD videos below, shot during his six-month stint on the International Space Station.

The six-minute video is actually created from combining 12,500 images taken at regular intervals by cameras that Gerst often setup to document experiments and docking procedures. Gerst's mission aboard the ISS ended in November.

Images of auroras abound in the video below, as do spellbinding shots of humming cities at night, storms and flashes of lightning, all captured as the space station sailed overhead, traveling as fast as 17,000 miles per hour. Also keep an eye out for the eye of a tropical storm, a few fascinating docking and detachment operations with visiting spacecraft, as well as a nice token outward-looking time lapse of the Milky Way.

But my favorite thing among all these thousands of images is the ever present greenish glow of the edge of our home planet's atmosphere, protecting us from the vacuum of space and from the punishing rays of the sun, also captured in blinding time-lapsed sunrises in the video. That emerald line, like everything else Gerst shares with us, is a stark reminder of just how tiny and fragile the vibrant envelope we live within is against the backdrop of a cold, unforgiving universe.

One of my New Year's resolutions for 2015 will be to watch this video anytime I have a bad day and be thankful that I not only get to live inside that beautiful green bubble but also that I live among others audacious and brave enough to leave it and send back images like these, so that we may be more aware of our great fortune (and in 4K, even). Happy New Year!

The rest is here:

Time-lapse videos of Earth capture line between life and death

India's Prototype Space Capsule Passes Big Test

Posted on by

BANGALORE, India In a two-in-one mission, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully conducted the first experimental flight of itsnext-generation launch vehicle and demonstrated the re-entry and recovery of a prototype crew capsule.

The Dec. 18 maiden flight of theGeosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark 3(GSLV-3) began with a liftoff at 9:30 a.mlocal time from the Satish Dhawan Space Centeron the southeastern coast of India and was over in 20 minutes.

ISRO said in a statement that this "suborbital" experimental mission was intended to test the vehicle performance during the critical atmospheric phase of its flight. The vehicle carried a passive, or nonfunctional, cryogenic upper stage. [See photos from India's space capsule test flight]

The rocket carried a 3,775-kilogram unmanned crew module built by Indian industry. The module, designed to accommodatethree astronauts, separated from the rocket at an altitude of 127 kilometers and, after being slowed by parachutes, splashed down in the Bay of Bengal.

The 42.4-meter tall GSLV-3 is a three-stage vehiclewitha liftoff weight of 630 metric tons. The first stage consists oftwo solid-rocket motors, each with 200 tons of propellant. Its second stage uses two restartable engines, with 110 tons of liquid propellant.

As designed, the cryogenic upper stage of the rocket features a propellant loading of 25 tons of liquid-oxygen and -hydrogen. But in this flight only the first two stages were fired; the cryogenic upper stage was inert. Themissionobjective was to test the first two stages they had never flown before and validate the rockets aerodynamic stability during the ascent phase through the atmosphere.

ISRO said in a statement that the flight aimed "to validate the re-entry technologies envisaged for crew module and enhance the understanding of blunt body re-entry aerodynamics and parachute deployment in cluster configuration." Withthe success the rocket "has moved a step closer to its first developmental flight with the functional cryogenic upper stage."

"It has been a significant day for ISRO," the agency's chairman, Koppilli Radhakrishnan, said in a post-launch speech. "The performance of solid and liquid stage motors and the unmanned crew module was as expected."

Radhakrishnan said the rocket's cryogenic upper stageis still in development and that he is confident the first full-fledged flight will take place in two years. Once ready, he said, the GSLV-3will be able to launch satellites weighing 4 tons and could be used for the Indian manned spaceflight program.

The GSLV-3, indevelopment since 2002, was initially expected to become operational by 2010 or 2011, with its first flight in 2009 or 2010. The demonstrationflight was pushed back several times, one reason being the failure of the home-made cryogenic upper stage during a2010 flight of the current-generation GSLV.

Read the original here:

India's Prototype Space Capsule Passes Big Test

Red-hot soccer welcome

Posted on by

Dec. 28, 2014, 11:08 p.m.

A FIRE truck raced past a group of travel-weary international soccer players as they trotted around an immaculate Morshead Park Stadium on Sunday.

Welcome: Members of Bahrains national soccer team limber up before their first training session at Ballarats Morshead Park on Sunday in preparation for the Asian Cup 2015. PICTURE: KATE HEALY

In control: Goalkeeper Ashraf Waheed keeps his eyes on the ball during Sundays training session.

No distractions: Team manager Muhanned Al Ansari.

A FIRE truck raced past a group of travel-weary international soccer players as they trotted around an immaculate Morshead Park Stadium on Sunday.

Welcome to Ballarat, Bahrain.

The group began its preparations for the Asian Cup 2015 in a low-key fashion after arriving in Melbourne in the early hours of Sunday.

Team manager Muhannad Al Ansari was suitably impressed with the facilities and the surrounds, saying the pitch was better than some surfaces the team had practised on at home.

The team will call Ballarat home until two days before the tournament starts on January 9, and, after a bit of encouragement from mayor John Philips, Mr Al Ansari said the players and staff planned to soak up all Ballarat had to offer apart from the soccer.

Excerpt from:

Red-hot soccer welcome

NASA Marks Accomplishments In Space And On Our Home Planet In 2014

Posted on by

In 2014, NASA says it took significant steps on the agencys journey to Mars -- testing cutting-edge technologies and making scientific discoveries while studying our changing Earth and the infinite universe as the agency made progress on the next generation of air travel.

We continued to make great progress on our journey to Mars this year, awarding contracts to American companies who will return human space flight launches to U.S. soil, advancing space technology development; and successfully completing the first flight of Orion, the next deep space spacecraft in which our astronauts will travel, said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. We moved forward on our work to create quieter, greener airplanes and develop technologies to make air travel more efficient; and we advanced our study of our changing home planet, Earth, while increasing our understanding of others in our solar system and beyond.

NASA achieved a major milestone in December on its journey to Mars as the agencys Orion spacecraft completed its first voyage to space during a four-and-a-half-hour flight test.

Orion is part of NASAs plan to develop new technologies and capabilities to send astronauts farther than ever before, first to an asteroid, and onward to the Red Planet.

Science, technology, engineering and math (STEM)-related education soared to new heights with a student-built radiation experiment aboard Orion. NASAs Office of Education, partnered with the Lockheed Martin Corp., used the Exploration Design Challenge to engage students in STEM by inviting them to help tackle one of the most significant dangers of human space flight -- radiation exposure.

NASAs parallel path for human spaceflight also took a giant leap forward in September when the agency announced U.S. astronauts once again would travel to and from the International Space Station (ISS) from the United States on American spacecraft under groundbreaking contracts worked by NASAs Commercial Crew Program. The agency selected Boeing and SpaceX to transport U.S. crews to and from the space station using their CST-100 and Crew Dragon spacecraft, respectively, with a goal of ending the nations sole reliance on Russia in 2017. NASAs parallel path for human spaceflight involves U.S. commercial companies providing access to low-Earth orbit while NASA prepares deep space exploration missions with Orion and the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket.

The SLS rocket, the most powerful ever built, moved from the concept phase to the development phase in 2014. Also this year, all major tools were installed at NASAs Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans where the rocket will be constructed.

For 40 years, increasingly advanced robotic explorers have studied the conditions on Mars. This has dramatically increased our scientific knowledge about the planet, as well as helped pave the way for astronauts on the journey to Mars. In July, NASA announced its Mars Rover 2020, which is based on the successful Curiosity rover. Mars 2020 will carry instruments to conduct unprecedented science and exploration technology investigations on the Red Planet, including help with data for a human mission to Mars.

See the original post here:

NASA Marks Accomplishments In Space And On Our Home Planet In 2014