Space News Headlines for January 7, 2005 - Weekend Edition
Friday January 7, 2005
'Star Trek,' Math Inspire Calendar Reform
According to the Discovery Channel, "Two scientists who believe the current Gregorian calendar is outdated have each created proposals for calendars that they believe improve upon the current system.
"Both of the new plans involve acceptance of universal time worldwide. Both also would place specific dates of the month on certain weekdays that never would change. For example, if January 1 were to fall on a Sunday in 2006, New Year's Day would occur on a Sunday every year thereafter."
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Ride Festival Aims to Put Girls on Technical Path
USATODAY says, "Aiming to launch young girls into technical professions, former U.S. astronaut Sally Ride this month will stage a fun-filled science festival scant miles from the spaceport where her own career took off.
"The Sally Ride Science Festival %u2014 which will be hosted by the first American woman to fly in space %u2014 will be Jan. 29 at Brevard Community College in Cocoa.
"Girls in fifth through eighth grades are invited."
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Space Station Oxygen Generator Breaks Again
CNN is reporting that "the space station crew is spending the new year dealing with an old problem: a broken oxygen generator.
"The primary machine for producing oxygen aboard the international space station -- patched and jury-rigged repeatedly last fall -- stopped working again Saturday. The cabin atmosphere was replenished Tuesday with oxygen from the supply ship that arrived on Christmas Day with much-needed food.
"Cosmonaut Salizhan Sharipov and astronaut Leroy Chiao spent most of Wednesday trying to fix the Russian-built oxygen generator. The latest problem appears to be similar to what crippled the system last year: gas bubbles in the machine's extensive plumbing."
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Space Explosion Creates Giant Bubbles
CNN says, "The largest explosion ever seen in space reveals black holes to be more influential than expected, perhaps sometimes stifling star formation in a galaxy while gobbling up trillions upon trillions of tons of gas.
"The eruption has been ongoing for some 100 million years, astronomers said Wednesday."
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Space Station Crew Marks Orthodox Christmas Day
The International Space Station is truly international. It doesn't just operate on the US's calendar. ITAR-TASS - says, "The International Space Station crew marks Christmas under two Christmas trees.
"Russian Salizhan Sharipov and NASA astronaut Leroy Chiao have a day off this Friday, a source in the Mission Control Centre based near Moscow told Itar-Tass.
"The crew has no New Year holidays as in Russia. Sharipov and Chiao worked for all the week, the source said.
"The Russian and U.S. parties agree on what holidays each ISS mission will mark and when a crew will have days off, said Olga Kozerenko, head of the psychological support group at the medical and biological studies institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
"The tenth main mission crew has marked only four national holidays: Thanksgiving Day marked in the United States on last Thursday of November, Catholic Christmas, New Year and Orthodox Christmas, Kozerenko said."
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