No One Will Do Your Laundry In Space

Astronaut Catherine Coleman unpacks for a stay on the space station. NASA 

 In Space, No One Will Do Your Laundry -- Popular Mechanics 

University of Rhode Island design professor Karl Aspelund wants you to think about astronaut socks. In fact, he hopes his work with the 100 Year Starship Project—figuring out what kind of clothes space travelers will need for a long-duration mission—will change the way you dress, too.

How did you get interested in what clothes astronauts could use on a 100-year-long trip into space?

I had an NPR driveway moment when I heard Dr. Mae Jemison talking about the 100 Year Starship; I had to sit and listen to the whole thing. I immediately got this idea, and ran inside to email her saying, "Okay, you’re planning this long trip, but have you thought about what you’ll wear?" She hadn’t. Textiles and clothing are so integral to our lives, but that gets taken for granted.

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My Comment: It must smell pretty bad up there .... but if you are living in it all the time, who will notice.

Sleep Disorders Detected In Manned Mars Mission Simulation

Fake Mission To Mars Leaves Astronauts Spaced Out -- The Guardian 

Trip to Mars in pretend spaceship on Moscow industrial estate affects sleep, activity levels and motivation of six-man crew 

As the cheerless skies and grim economy sap all will to return to work, take heart that even on a trip to Mars, it is hard to get out of bed in the morning.

The drudge of interplanetary travel has emerged from research on six men who joined the longest simulated space mission ever: a 17-month round trip to the red planet in a pretend spaceship housed at a Moscow industrial estate.

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More News On The 'Fake Mission' To Mars  

17-month mock Mars mission turns up down-to-Earth sleep problem -- NBC
Astronauts on Mars Mission May Be Exhausted on Arrival -- Bloomberg
Sleep problems could jeopardise future missions to Mars -- BBC
Astronauts on Long Space Missions Will Need Earth-like Sleep Habits -- Voice of America
Sleep Disorders Detected in Manned Mars Mission Simulation -- US News and World Report

Is There A Link Between Alzheimer's Disease And Space travel?

Little is know about the ultra high-energy cosmic rays that regularly penetrate the atmosphere. J. Yang / NSF 

 Space May Accelerate Alzheimer's In Astronauts -- NBC  

Exposure to radiation levels could speed up changes in brain, study finds. Radiation in space might harm the brains of astronauts in deep space by accelerating the development of Alzheimer's disease, a new study on mice suggests. The research reveals another risk that manned deep-space missions to places such as Mars or the asteroids could pose, scientists added. "This study shows for the first time that exposure to radiation levels equivalent to a mission to Mars could produce cognitive problems and speed up changes in the brain that are associated with Alzheimer's disease," study author Kerry O'Banion, a neuroscientist at the University of Rochester Medical Center, said in a statement.

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My Comment: Maybe so .... but if I had the chance, I would still want to go up into space.

The Worst Part of GoingTo Space? Your Fingernails Come Off

Oh, It Hurts Some astronauts report losing their fingernails on spacewalks because of bulky gloves that cut off circulation and chafe against their hands. To avoid this inconvenience, a couple astronauts have taken to ripping off their own fingernails before reaching orbit. NASA

From Popular Science:

Did you think drinking your own urine was bad? To truly test whether you have the right stuff, imagine ripping out your own fingernails, on purpose.

A couple of astronauts have done this before going into orbit, because they figure it’s better than losing them inside chafing, unwieldy spacesuit gloves, according to Dava Newman, director of MIT’s technology and policy program and director of the university’s Man Vehicle Lab. Newman, who has studied space-related injuries, told a group of journalists at MIT that some astronauts have reported losing their fingernails during spacewalks. Fingernail trauma and other hand injuries are spacewalkers’ biggest complaint, she said.

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Engage The X Drive: Ten Ways To Traverse Deep Space

The VASIMR ion engine could - if powered by an onboard nuclear reactor - take astronauts to Mars in just 39 days (Illustration: Ad Astra Rocket Company)

From New Scientist:

In 1961, Yuri Gagarin became the first human being to reach outer space. Eight years later, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin made it to the surface of the moon. And that is as far as any of us has ventured.

Apart from the mundane problems of budgets and political will, the major roadblock is that our dominant space-flight technology – chemically fuelled rockets – just isn't up to the distances involved. We can send robot probes to the outer planets, but they take years to get there.

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Scramjets Promise Space Travel For All

Business-class return to space, please (Image:NASA)

From New Scientist:

ON A bright autumn morning five years ago, the space-flight community was turned on its head by a little teardrop-shaped spacecraft built in a small workshop in California's Mojave desert. The successful flight of SpaceShipOne on 29 September 2004, the first of two flights en route to winning the $10 million Ansari X prize, seemed to usher in a new era of space travel - one in which space flight would be affordable, frequent and, perhaps most importantly, accessible to all.

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