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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=s … station_dc
Space Station Stay Shows Humans Could Go to Mars
Donald Pettit, one of three members of the station's Expedition Six, said he and his two crew-mates who spent 161 days on the space station inadvertently demonstrated humans' fitness for interplanetary travel.
"The whole experience had an uncanny resemblance to a trip to and landing on Mars," Pettit said at a briefing at NASA (news - web sites) headquarters, referring to the extended stay in orbit and the return to Earth aboard a Russian Soyuz space taxi, which landed in Kazakhstan on May 3.
"We were on orbit in a reduced-gravity environment for 5-1/2 months, about as long as a one-way trip to Mars," Pettit said. "We got in our own vehicle, piloted it down to Earth through an air-brake maneuver ... Without any help from the ground we secured the spacecraft, we opened the hatch, we crawled out ...
"All of this demonstrates human beings have enough physical strength and integrity to go on these long missions, pilot vehicles through operational paths, secure equipment and operate immediately," he said.
The Expedition Six crew was not picked up for more than four hours after they landed.
NO BARRIERS
Pettit said the demonstration was not planned, but said Expedition Six demonstrated "that there are no barriers for human physical performance to a trip to and a landing on Mars."
Pettit, along with the expedition's commander, Kenneth Bowersox, and Russian cosmonaut Nicolai Budarin, began their tour last Nov. 23 and were to return to Earth in early March.
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We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...
--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)
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Cindy:-
Thank You, Dirty Snowballs!
Amen to that!
The word 'aerobics' came about when the gym instructors got together and said: If we're going to charge $10 an hour, we can't call it Jumping Up and Down. - Rita Rudner
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Clark, I would like to point out that the effects of staying in the ISS aren't exactly comparable to a Mars/Moon/etc space mission. The ISS resides within the Earth's magnetosphere, so quite a bit of the nasty stuff doesn't even hit us. Humans have never spent more than a few days outside of Earth's magnetosphere as far as I know (the Lunar missions).
Before, when we went into space for long durations, we didn't know that it caused problems with the bones; I expect a similar situation when we experience long time exposure to the suns radiation.
Some useful links while MER are active. [url=http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/home/index.html]Offical site[/url] [url=http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/MM_NTV_Web.html]NASA TV[/url] [url=http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/mer2004/]JPL MER2004[/url] [url=http://www.spaceflightnow.com/mars/mera/statustextonly.html]Text feed[/url]
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The amount of solar radiation reaching the surface of the earth totals some 3.9 million exajoules a year.
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*"Whirlwind Weekend of Irish Astronomy":
http://skyandtelescope.com/news/article_1067_1.asp
Hail His Majesty, Brian: King of the Leprechauns! (...better include that, as I don't want to incur any wrath of the banshees or anything like that...) :laugh:
"Cassini Proves Einstein Right...So Far":
http://skyandtelescope.com/news/article_1066_1.asp
--Cindy
We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...
--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)
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Water ice taken along for every purpose, including radiation shielding should be considered as an initial solution to all of the above, except lack of gravity, which I maintain can be compensated for by sleeping on a "funhouse turntable" with heads at the spin axis.
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Question: Does anyone have any idea of how much gravity you really need to maintain long-term health in space? I've heard figures as low as .10 gee, which sounds awfully low, but I guess that is far superior to no gravity whatsoever...
B
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Antartic astronomy is order of the day.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3167090.stm
Male contraceptive '100% effective'
Part of the treatment is given by injection
Scientists have developed a male contraceptive which was 100% effective and side-effect free in trials.
How will babies be born now?
This is a very liberating moment in the history of man.
I wonder how the catholic church will approach this issue... :laugh:
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3167090.stm
Male contraceptive '100% effective'
Quote
Part of the treatment is given by injection
Scientists have developed a male contraceptive which was 100% effective and side-effect free in trials.How will babies be born now?
This is a very liberating moment in the history of man.
I wonder how the catholic church will approach this issue...
I was half expecting to see a picture of Loraina Bobbit.. This is really great.. plus it put's emphasis and mutual responsibility.. I would take it if I was sexually active.. (damn military short tours)
We are only limited by our Will and our Imagination.
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I would suggest all males be given this free, without any cost to themselves, between the ages of 12 and 35.
That alone would go a long way towards fixing many of the problems we face in the world.
That, or make me king, but I won't hold my breath. :laugh:
Anyway, on to new discoveries... perhaps someone will finally figure out where my missing socks are.
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Ten Thousand New Views of Mars!
*Wow...this'll keep us busy for a while!
The Mars Global Surveyor camera has released 10,000 new images.
Be sure to scroll down to the bottom, "Related Stories."
--Cindy
We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...
--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)
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All Aboard! Your Tickets Please!
*The "Celestial Railroad."
(This Mars was uninhabited, too).
Byron, do you know anything about this?
--Cindy
We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...
--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)
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All Aboard! Your Tickets Please!
*The "Celestial Railroad."
(This Mars was uninhabited, too).
Byron, do you know anything about this?
--Cindy
No, I don't.... Pretty cool to read about that.
Jupiter and Juno are both less than an hour's drive from where I live by the way...both are pretty nice places to live...lol. Too bad Mars didn't make it...
B
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We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...
--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)
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Star Light, Star Bright, Last Planet I Eat Tonight...
*Interesting article about a star that likes to swell and gobble up planets in its path.
Stay away from THIS corner of the galaxy, ya hear?
--Cindy
P.S.: The article also includes a movie of the star's changes.
We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...
--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)
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Phobos over the Marsian "Limb"
*Wow, this photo really brings to light just how -tiny- Phobos is!
I knew it was small, but geepers...
--Cindy
We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...
--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)
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Yipes!! A miss as good as a mile, but...
*This asteroid got a little too close...
I wonder when our luck is going to run out (again)...
--Cindy
We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...
--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)
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Yipes!! A miss as good as a mile, but...
*This asteroid got a little too close...
I wonder when our luck is going to run out (again)...
--Cindy
They call this a "bullet burn"....happens a lot more often than you might care to think.
Can anyone on here recall the dramatic fireball that roared across the western U.S. in the early 1970's? It was a biggie (size of a house or larger), but impacted the Earth's atmosphere at such an oblique angle that it was actually deflected back out into space. However, it was captured by a tourist with a home movie camera (truly dramatic footage, if you've ever seen it on TV) and others could hear the sonic booms of this fireball, which indicates that it came within 40 miles of the ground.
More recently, there was an impact on the Greenland icecap...that was said to be a biggie, too. I guess we can be thankful that the vast majority of this planet is either ocean or uninhabited land...otherwise we would be much more effected by these "mini-asteroids" than we are now...
B
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Here's another interesting bit of info you might like...
In eastern North Carolina, there is a cluster of lakes called the Bladen Lakes, which are very popular places to visit because of their natural beauty, clear water and sandy bottoms that make for excellent swimming..indeed, it's one of the only places I've gone swimming in a lake and not gotten icked out by the typical mud and gunk that you normally see in North Carolina lakes.
However, these oblong-shaped bodies of water (the largest of which is maybe 2 miles in diameter) are not "natural" features of the landscape. Around 50 or 60 k years ago, an asteroid came in at a very steep angle (something like 10-15 degrees above the horizon), broke up in several pieces and impacted the ground, digging out shallow, oval-shaped craters which later filled up with water. As this part of the state has a good deal of silica in its soil, the heat of the impact was what created the fine, white sand that makes these lakes such attractive places to visit.
Pretty cool, huh? Talk about your "blast from the past"...lol.. :;):
B
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Yipes!! A miss as good as a mile, but...
*This asteroid got a little too close...
I wonder when our luck is going to run out (again)...
--Cindy
They call this a "bullet burn"....happens a lot more often than you might care to think.
Can anyone on here recall the dramatic fireball that roared across the western U.S. in the early 1970's? It was a biggie (size of a house or larger),
*Cool, Byron; I've not heard of the term "bullet burn" before, in relation to asteroids -- I don't recall it, anyway. I know you're away on vacation, so I won't expect a response for about a week -- lol.
My father might have seen what you are describing; in the 1970s he was standing outside our home when he saw a huge fireball streak across the northern sky. He checked the news, thinking a 747 had crashed and burned over northern Iowa or southern Minnesota. Of course, we didn't have cable TV (a rarity in those days, in rural areas) and radio news was on the hour...but nothing on the radio either.
But I thought he saw that around the mid- to late-70s...too bad I can't ask him (he's deceased).
Here's this:
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap031001.html
Quite dramatic.
--Cindy
We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...
--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)
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Astronomers find first 'dark galaxy'
Astronomers have found the first "dark galaxy" - a black cloud of hydrogen gas and exotic particles, devoid of stars. The gloomy galaxy lurks two million light years from Earth.
*Hi BGD. Interesting article. I'm a bit puzzled as to why it's called a "galaxy," however. I always associate the word "galaxy" with being star-rich, or composed of stars. Why not "dark-matter cloud"? Hmmmmm.
--Cindy
We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...
--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)
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*I dunno...I've tried many times to see "the rabbit" or "the lady's profile" or "the surprised man's face"; I can't quite pick those images out.
--Cindy
We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...
--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)
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