Artificial Gravity: A New Spin on an Old Idea

One problem inherent in long space flights, such as a trip to Mars, is keeping an astronaut crew in tip-top shape. Yahoo! News says this requirement may demand portable gravity.

"There's need for long-duration space travelers to counter such debilitating effects as muscle atrophy, bone loss, cardiovascular deconditioning and balance disorders -- effects seen in humans as they cope with stints in microgravity.

"Over the decades, artificial gravity research has been an on-again, off-again proposition. But in the last few years, and propelled by NASA's new Moon, Mars and beyond exploration mandate, artificial gravity studies are now being developed, this time with a new spin."

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Asteroid Named After Professor

Although the Beagle 2 Mars Probe failed last year, BBC NEWS reports a success for one of its creators. Dr. Colin Pillinger has been honoured by the International Astronomical Union which has named an asteroid after him.

Nasa senior scientist Dr Everett Gibson said: "A piece of Professor Pillinger now moves between Mars and Jupiter."

Professor Pillinger said: "It's nice to know something named after me will be existing for the next billion years." Read the article...

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Holidays Disrupt Launch Plans for Da Vinci Rocket Team


Despite the loss of the X-Prize to Scaled Composites' SpaceShipOne, a team from Ontario still plans to launch its Da Vinci rocket. However, CBC News reports that the launch has been delayed until at least January. "The da Vinci Project had planned to use a gigantic balloon to lift a rocket to 24 kilometres. By igniting rocket engines, the craft is supposed to reach an altitude of 100 kilometres, the limit of suborbital space.

"The launch was set to take place from Kindersley, Sask., by Nov. 1 as part of an international competition. A lack of parts forced an earlier postponement. Transport Canada granted the team an extension on their original launch window."

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Experts Say Path Beyond Earth Orbit Has Its Challenges

Scientists, technologists, and policy experts gathered recently at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Space.com report that while they are enthusiastic about the prospect of lunar and Mars missions, "they cautioned that the path to exploration beyond Earth orbit will not be easy and will probably require significant changes at NASA and in the aerospace industry."

"'We can in fact do this mission inside the resources that are available,' but there are several thorny issues, said Robert Walker, a former Republican Congressman from Pennsylvania who chaired the House Science Committee and also served this year on the Presidential Commission on the Implementation of the United States Space Exploration Policy.

"One of the things that worries him most, Walker said, is people inside NASA who are more focused on protecting existing programs than on moving ahead with the agency%u2019s new vision."

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How Collisions Shaped an Asteroid

Space.com reports on a NASA plan to slam a heavy probe the size of a garbage can into a comet. This experiment, scheduled for ext Fourth of July, will purposely carve a football-field sized crater.

"Despite several close-up examinations of comets and asteroids in recent years, including NASA's dramatic landing of the NEAR Shoemaker spacecraft on Eros in 2001, the makeup of space rocks remains largely undetermined. Scientists aren't even sure what structural and chemical differences separate comets and asteroids."

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