Baldrson writes: "UPI reports "President George W. Bush has selected Sean O'Keefe, Deputy Director of the Office of Management and Budget, to head NASA." In his prior position, Dr. O'Keefe reviewed and gave testimony before Congress, critical of the budgetary overruns of NASA's International Space Station." (Of course, the ISS isn't all NASA's.)

Guinnessy writes: "In 1960 Willard Frank Libby won a Nobel Prize for his work on radiocarbon dating, a technique that truly revolutionize archaeology. Now Physics Today magazine has an article describing how new methods are yielding more accurate dates for our prehistoric ancestors, profoundly affecting our understanding of the past. Neat stuff."

ribbiting writes: "A father-son team have won the "Ultimate Builder Competition" (Lego Mindstorms) with their entry named "Jitter". The robot will fly to the ISS in November. It fits (whole) into a approx. 1'x1'x1' box and weighs less than 3 lbs. It's main mission is to collect small, flying debris. It can interact with the station walls and crew and supposedly has some light "mischief" programmed in as well (sneaking up on people, dancing). The story can be found here, de.news.yahoo.com, it's in German (sorry)." We mentioned the contest a few months ago. Altavista gives a semi-readable machine translation.

dragons_flight writes: "Physics Today has a lengthy article on MEMS (microelectromechanical systems AKA micromachines) including the ways they are being put to use right now. Uses include airbag collision detectors in cars, pressure guages, "micro-microphones", video projection, scientific equipment, and the ever popular optical switching technology. In addition there are two brief sidebars discussing how micro- and macro-machines differ and the use of integrated circuit technology to build MEMS."

Guinnessy writes "This year more than a thousand physicists gathered for three weeks at Snowmass Village, in the Colorado Rockies near Aspen, to talk about the future of particle physics in the US. Physics Today has a report on the meeting which says that the community should build a 500-GeV electron-positron linear collider. That's powerful enough to make mini black holes."

bytor4232 writes: "I ran across this AP story on Yahoo about the new Russian module added to the ISS. Apparently this module will not only provide extra docking ports, but it will also serve as a backup to the U.S. air lock."

maddogsparky writes: "Over at Spacedaily, there is an article about how a 3D printer was used to fabricate a replacement part in a production environment--the first known case. They've also done some tests in NASA's vomit comet and are planning on a shuttle test for applications on the ISS or Mars trip."

su-geek writes: "BBC is reporting that the Russians are looking into the feasibility of a commercial space station. The Station would be used to promote space tourism and would help pay for future supply missions to the ISS." I think they should get into the business of crashing space stations into the Pacific, and bringing tourists on boats to watch the fireworks.

An anonymous submitter - anonymous because of the database crash that wiped out several hours of data today, sigh - sent in this tale about the duties of a physicist during World War II.

CodingFrenzy writes: "If you're over 18 and living in Germany, Switzerland or Austria (thats all in Europe) you can submit your best Mindstorm based Robot to a competition to fly to the ISS (this link in German). Choose any design you want: cleaning windows, space-ballet, etc. Include a gravity generator and you might even be able to use those wheels. Pack it into fur and give them a space-pet. What the heck, there's enough junk in space already..." If you win, let us know, we'll send you a t-shirt. :)

Guinnessy writes: "According to Toni Feder on Physics Today, scrounging used equipment is worthwhile if you can avoid the pitfalls of wasting time and compromising scientific goals. Feder interviews experimenters who have dug up everything from dewars to nuclear reactors."

Michael Wallis writes: "Just saw a story on AllNews.ru (in English) announcing South African Internet millionaire Mark Shuttleworth is in training to be the second space tourist. This just two days after the head of the Russian space program said in Quebec that there would be no more tourists to ISS until 2006. Guess Mark will just fly a Soyez to orbit for a few days."

Dada writes: "The crews of the space shuttle Atlantis and the International Space Station successfully installed the 'Quest' airlock to the ISS. The Canadian-built space station arm actually worked!"

zardor writes: "According to a spacehab news release, the LEGO company shipped a few bricks up to the station for the cosmonauts to play with. (US astronauts were probably not allowed to play since they can't "engage in commercial activities"). From the news release: "The LEGO Company flew an experiment designed to help students learn about weight and mass. Space Media's STARS Academy global education program developed this experiment, and the Challenger Center for Space Science Education contributed educational materials for it. In this first-ever toy-based experiment on the ISS, cosmonauts attached a LEGO Life on Mars Red Planet Protector toy set to a mass measurement device and determined the oscillation frequency of the toy in the device in order to gauge its mass in space. Cosmonauts videotaped the experiment for educational uses. The LEGO payload also included a promotional banner, which cosmonauts unfurled and photographed in space, and 300 toy ``alien'' figures. Most of the figures will be awarded to winners of the LEGO ``Life on Mars Survival Challenge National Building Contest'' for children aged 5-12. Its a shame they flew the bricks down, otherwise they could have used them to repair that broken CanadaArm 2."

Matthew Moyle-Croft writes "On the ISS the Astronauts have been hard at work building a kitchen table away from the prying eyes of mission control."

mitd writes: "ISS Mission STS-100-6A will leave be leaving Thursday carrying the new Canadarm2 and Chris Hadfield who will become the first Canadian to walk in space. Chris gave an interview on CBC radio (MP3) . He talks about the new features of the Canadarm2 including its ability to walk around the ISS and do very delicate work that previously only astronauts could do." And MP3 interviews are a nice idea, too, versus streaming.

mzac writes: "The amateur radio abord the ISS is now activated and is digipeating packet radio. With a simple 5W handheld and a 3/4 wave 2 meter antenna, the signal can be received quite easily. Anyone who doesn't have a amateur radio license but does have a scanner can probably also receive the signals with a handheld scanner and the stock antenna. Using satellite tracking software and NTP software to sync your computer's clock is a good way of knowing when the ISS will pass over." (Read more.)

FortKnox writes: "Just when you thought you heard the end of it, Russian engineers unveiled plans for the Mir2. Fortunately, the Russian government has no plans to put this on the agenda. Why can't we all just build the ISS like good little countries??" Taking the Russian space budget into account, this seems unlikely to occur any time soon. But it's nice to dream...

We've gotten several submissions of this Wired story about life on space station Alpha. The story was written from these logs (which we linked to a few days ago) kept by the commander of the most recent ISS mission. So, let me recommend the logs once again - like the Wired reporter, I found them fascinating reading. For instance, the commander describes losing a washer because everyone's hands were full and they couldn't grab it - obviously letting go of dozens of washers to grab one, in zero-gravity, would not be a good idea - and they can't just "put them down" somewhere.

automandc writes "NASA has posted the Mission Logs kept by Commander William Shepard (slightly redacted). Among other interesting things is an insider's view of the computing infrastructure of the station. (For instance, he complains of running out of 'laptop desks' because they have 9 laptops running and want to add two more). He asks for a Windows boot CD, and gripes about a russian Cosmonaut's familiarity with "that other" OS. All in all, a very interesting read for ISS buffs. (Note, they are in reverse chronological order)."