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Space

ISS Expedition 9 Crew Finally Returns to Earth 72

Posted by CmdrTaco from the sorry-we're-late dept.
neutron_p writes "International Space Station Expedition 9 crewmembers, Commander Gennady Padalka and NASA Science Officer Mike Fincke landed on target in the steppes of Kazakhstan at 8:36 p.m. EDT Saturday after 188 days in space."
Biotech

Telerobotic Surgery A Reality 22

Posted by timothy from the old-hat-new-brain dept.
Moby Cock writes "Aquanauts on board NASA's NEEMO7 have successfully completed simulated gall bladder surgery with 'coaching' from a surgeon half a continent away. The story is covered at space.com and the Globe and Mail. The project is aimed at studying the feasiblity of dealing with medical emergencies in space on the ISS. "We have learned that it is possible, and quite safe, to telementor an untrained person through a complex medical task," said Dr. Mehran Anvari, one of the principal investigators from the McMaster University Centre for Minimal Access Surgery."
Technology

Zero-emission Power Plants Proposed 737

Posted by michael from the cold-fusion dept.
ckbreckenridge writes "Supercompact, superfast, superpowerful turbines called ZEPPS (zero-emission power plants), designed to combat global warming, could help produce the electrical power needed to keep up with 21st century demand. They would consume methane and oxygen and produce liquid carbon dioxide, which could be sequestered underground. The current electricity grid would need to be replaced by a 'supergrid' across the USA, says Jesse H. Ausubel in The Industrial Physicist. Work on such a system should start as soon as possible, since CO2 levels leaped up 2 ppm in the past two years as global warming becomes more of a reality."
Science

AIP Probes Bush, Kerry On Science Issues 54

Posted by timothy from the hey-that's-the-aliens'-technique-too dept.
martensitic writes "Physics Today (the 50-year-old monthly publication of the American Institute of Physics) continues their election-year tradition with this special report, posing nine questions 'in an effort to get the candidates to specifically address questions of interest to the science community'. The 'sometimes direct and sometimes vague' written responses 'show fundamental differences on several key issues.'"
Space

Space Station Turning Into a Trash Heap 312

Posted by CowboyNeal from the waste-management dept.
quintin3265 writes "Apparently, the International Space Station is becoming overloaded with junk, stored among other places in a now unused airlock. Since shuttles aren't visiting the station, the station's occupants can't return broken machines to Earth. Furthermore, the only way they can dispose of trash and human waste is by loading these items in Russian cargo ships that burn up in the atmosphere."
Space

Supernova Imaged by Hubble Telescope 163

Posted by michael from the long-shot dept.
Delta Vel writes "First discovered by a Japanese amateur astronomer on July 31, this Type II supernova was imaged by Hubble on August 17th. The newly named SN 2004 dj, the closest supernova to be observed in over ten years, is about 11 million light-years away in the spiral galaxy NGC 2403. Looks like they goofed in one of the images, though--the arrow points to a different bright spot on the before-and-after image than it does on the main and annotated images." Reader Saeed al-Sahaf writes "Today, astronauts Gennady Padalka and Mike Fincke popped open the hatch on the Russian side of the ISS spacecraft and quickly stepped through the fourth and final spacewalk of their six-month mission. Their mission? Install three antennas and replace a 2-foot-square Russian pump panel. But of course, because it isn't a part or our Mission to Mars, it is still too dangerous work on the Hubble Telescope, which after all, is only used for science."
Robotics

Robonaut "B" Getting Ready for Space 19

Posted by timothy from the putting-on-its-robotic-clothing dept.
mykepredko writes "CNN has more about Robonaut B, which is an updated version of the original Robonaut including mobility using a modified Segway or a 'Space Leg' which allows it to use handholds on the ISS. I was expecting to see that it was being primarily developed for Hubble, but it should also be very useful for the ISS, allowing astronauts to stay inside when construction resumes."
Science

First Plasma on the Levitated Dipole Experiment 447

Posted by michael from the more-power dept.
deglr6328 writes "In light of recent, somewhat disappointing news in the world of nuclear fusion research, it is worth noting that there are still reasons to keep up hope that some breakthroughs are yet to be made. At 12:53 pm on the 13th. of this month the Levitated Dipole Experiment achieved its first plasma. The Levitated Dipole Experiment(LDX), built at MIT's Plasma Science and Fusion Center as a joint project of Columbia University and MIT, is a magnetic confinement fusion research device, that unlike all previous stellarator, reverse-field pinch and tokamak like experiments, uses a superconducting levitated torus to confine its plasma. The LDX's achievement of first plasma is, in a way, about 17 years in the making even though it has only been in construction since 1999. The concept for LDX was first considered by Akira Hasegawa as he was studying the data coming in from the Voyager missions which flew through the (dipole) magnetospheres of the outer planets. He noticed that unlike laboratory confined fusion plasmas which tended to be unstable, difficult to control, and which lost energy quickly, the plasma of a magnetosphere is intrinsically more quiescent, stable and actually reacts favorably (increases its density/temperature) to outside perturbations such as ie. bombardment by a solar storm. A highly informative and interesting video of operations on the day of first shot can be found here. Congratulations to the scientists and engineers who have worked very hard on getting the project to this point and here's looking forward to the possibility that LDX will reveal fundamentally new physics in the arduous quest for clean fusion energy."
United States

NASA Provides Results Of Scramjet Test 176

Posted by michael from the they've-gone-plaid dept.
Guinnessy writes "Last March, NASA carried out the world's first test flight of a scramjet-powered aircraft. The Industrial Physicist has the latest results from this test. According to the article scramjet-powered missiles and aircraft could be in mass production as early as 2010. This piece is also a good introduction for those unfamilar with scramjet technology."
Slashdot.org

Reading Slashdot From Strange Locations 1006

Posted by simoniker from the back-of-a-volkswagen dept.
aarrieta writes "I was thinking about the location of Slashdotters around the world. Many of us read /. from our houses/offices/schools. But I guess there are people reading Slashdot from non-traditional places/sites (an oil platform in the middle of the sea, Antarctica, the ISS, etc?) But what's the strangest place you've ever read Slashdot from, or the most remote place you're currently reading it from?"
Space

ISS Gyro Fixed Via Spacewalk 143

Posted by CowboyNeal from the better-late-than-never dept.
Teahouse writes "After a failed attempt last week, the ISS Astronauts finally got to fix the external gyroscope circut breaker in the station. Tests are being run today, but it looks like the ISS is back to having attitude stability with redundancy. This is particularly significant with the Shuttle being grounded for an extended period because the ISS would have had to use thruster fuel to keep the Station's solar panels pointed in the right direction without the gyroscopes, and no guarantee when more fuel would be arriving."
Space

Update on Aborted ISS Spacewalk 12

Posted by michael from the breathholding-apparently-unnecessary dept.
Carnildo writes "Reuters is reporting that the cause of the aborted spacewalk was a stuck switch that gave a false reading of a leak."
Space

ISS Spacewalk Cut Short 181

Posted by michael from the practice-in-breath-holding-pays-off dept.
RobertB-DC writes "The spacewalk that was intended to replace a balky power supply ended almost before it started, according to Spaceflight Now's Mission Status Center play-by-play. The Russian Orlan spacesuit worn by US astronaut Mike Fincke developed a problem with its oxygen supply (!), forcing both spacewalkers back to the airlock after less than 15 minutes. Mission control and the ISS crew are still debating what to do next."
Space

ISS to Eclipse Jupiter 19

Posted by michael from the timing-is-everything dept.
MasterLock writes "If you are in the Eastern US take a moment tonight (13 May 2004) around 9:30 PM EDT to step outside and watch an eclipse of Jupiter by the International Space Station. Details at NASA."
Science

The Controversy of a Potential Hafnium Bomb 499

Posted by Hemos from the what-a-glowing-debate dept.
deglr6328 writes "Physics Today has a report detailing the surprisingly heated controversy surrounding the usually sober science of nuclear isomers (the Washington Post has run a less scientifically rigorous version). Since the 70's it has been known that the specific "m2" isomer of Hafnium-178 has an extraordinarily long half life of 31 years (nuclear isomers usually have half-lives on orders of pico or nanoseconds) and on decaying, emits high energy gamma rays at ~2.5 Mev. The prospect of energy storage and rapid release in Hf-178 for the puropse of creating large energy stores, bombs and even exotic gamma ray lasers did not escape the interest of Reagan era Star Wars researchers and was seriously studied for a time during SDI's heyday, but was eventually abandoned after being considered unfeasible. Then, in 1999, Carl Collins at the Univ. of Texas Center for Quantum Electronics reported inducing energy release from Hf-178 by bombarding a sample with X-rays (from a dental machine no less). Immediately, comments about the article were submitted, pointing out inconsistencies with basic nuclear theory and the controversy has only grown since then, with claims and counter-claims of flawed experimental design, incompetence and irrational theories in feuds reminiscent of the cold fusion debacle of the late 80's. It's seeming more unlikely as the arguments drag on, but if a Hafnium bomb could be built, it is thought that a golf ball sized chunk could produce the energy equivalent of 10 tons of conventional explosives."
Space

NASA - Robotic Repair Of Hubble 'Promising' 185

Posted by simoniker from the daleks-will-help dept.
mykepredko writes "According to CNN, using a robot to repair/update the Hubble observatory is much more feasible than NASA originally believed. According to the article, the desires for keeping Hubble operational, while keeping shuttle astronauts safe seems to be the impeus for suggesting robotic repair of the satellite. The article goes on to discuss 'Robonaut' and 'Ranger robot', two machines which can approximate the capabilities of a space-suited astronaut. I'm wondering if these robots could be used for the ISS assembly/maintenance, minimizing crew EVAs while maximizing assembly time and hopefully reducing costs."
Space

U.S. Snubs China's Offer for Space Cooperation 75

Posted by timothy from the one-upmanship dept.
Devar writes "According to this space.com article The US has turned down China's offer for cooperation in space because their 'technology was not mature.' "Anticipating future space cooperation with the U.S., China fitted the Shenzhou craft with a docking ring capable of linking up with the International Space Station (ISS) and has at least one launch site, Jiuquan, located at near the same latitude as NASA's Cape Canaveral, which would allow similar launch profiles." This action has prompted China to turn to the ESA."
Space

Loud Metallic Noise Heard at ISS 281

Posted by michael from the pieces-falling-off dept.
Z4rd0Z writes "Russian Cosmonauts at the International Space Station today heard a loud drumlike noise for the second time since November. The sound seemed to be coming from the same place as before. In February a space walk to find the source of the sound was cut short."
Space

Third Space Tourist is Set 170

Posted by michael from the can't-take-it-with-you dept.
Sgt York writes "Space Adventures announced yesterday that Gregory Olsen will be their next private space tourism client. He paid $20M to hop on a Soyuz, sometime by 2005, and go spend some time on the ISS. The cool thing is, he's not just playing tourist. He's the CEO of Sensors Unlimited, has a MS in physics, and a PhD in materials science. He's planning on using the trip to 'help inspire today's youth to dream big' and conduct a few experiments, including testing out some of his company's equipment. SA is billing him as his own 'private space program.'" There's also a space.com story.

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