NASA Expands Role of International Space Station 153
coondoggie writes "NASA is looking for a few good experiments to run in space. The space agency this week said it was seeking research ideas (PDF) from private entities who want to do research on board the International Space Station. NASA said it was looking to expand the use of the ISS by providing access to the lab for the conduct of basic and applied research, technology development, and industrial processing to private entities — including commercial firms, non-profit institutions, and academic institutions. NASA said using the ISS as a national lab could help develop a number of applications in areas such as biotechnology, energy, engineering, and remote sensing."
Re:Out of interest (Score:4, Interesting)
Don't know how useful it is, but Japanese astronaut Naoko Yamazaki has demonstrated that soap bubbles retain their color in space [mainichi.jp], answering a scientific question from her daughter.
Again, how useful this is will depend on the person.
Suggestions (Score:4, Interesting)
Sadly since I pissed off 1 to many NASA engineers in the past (blah blah Crusader project by UDLP, blah blah trying making some money... blah blah blah remote mining and processing project... sub orbital meteor mining is a stupid idea...)
Anyway they'll no likely to talk to me (ever again) so here are my suggestions. Please feel free to run with them:
1: Sex (Duh. We all want to know.)
2: Artifical ring construction via centrifical force =
Take a spinning sphere and launch a tethered satellite while still spinning. from the teathered satellite launch another teather out such that the secondary teather is long enough to have the circumfrence of the satellite's oribital circumfurance. See if you can get it to hook up back to the original satellite to create an artifical ring on which we can construct stuff. (may required 2 satellites at opposite sides.
3: Behavior of molten metal in low gravity for crystal structure analysis (see if effect is more brittle or harded.)
4: Better estimate of open space survival time of a human being.
5: Field test atmosphering re-entry capable space suit for orbital deployment of troops (GETA LL WARHAMMA 40K ON YA!)
6: Polymer extrusion and blown film line test in low gravity for polymer chain linkage testing.
7: Smoking in the cargo bay in low-G (Can you blow smoke rings in low-g)
8: Will a paper airplain with a weight of less then .5 lbs survive re-entry to Earth?
9: Subspace structural testing to see if spacial structure exists (e.g. test if space itself has an actual shape, e.g. a quantum of space itself (rather then an infinitly divisible continum))
10: Test if the bullshit in DC is so thick you can really smell it on the ISS.
Just a few...