What's The Environmental Impact Of Going Into Space?

Dirty Rockets -- Slate

We hear so much about the environmental impacts of transportation. What about space travel? How do rockets affect the atmosphere?

There's a simple reason why we hear a lot more about cars, ships, and planes than we do about rocket ships: There are lot more of them. Each flight into space does have a small impact on the planet it leaves behind, but—for the moment, at least—these launchings are very rare. Only a couple of rockets blast off every week around the world. As a result, space travel doesn't register on most environmentalists' radars.

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International Space Station Under Threat of Space Junk Collision

The International Space Station is visible against the Earth's horizon and the blackness of space in this image photographed by an STS-129 crew member on Atlantis Nov. 25, 2009, in this photo released by NASA. Flight controllers in mission control at the Johnson Space Center are crunching numbers, calculating the odds of the International Space Station getting hit by a piece of space junk. (NASA/Reuters)

From ABC News:

Scientists Scramble to Defend International Space Station From Space Junk.

While many Americans are figuring out how much they can spend on Black Friday, flight controllers in mission control at the Johnson Space Center are crunching numbers of their own, calculating the odds of the International Space Station's getting hit by a piece of space junk.

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Human Brains Emulated In The Computer World

From Alpha Galileo:

Researchers at Luleå University of Technology have created a computer-based architecture that mimics a pair of human brain functions. System that detects and compensates for their own shortcomings is a possible application, another is to reduce the impact of noise. The research takes a significant step forward because the research group has recently doubled.

We have developed a model of how the various sources of information that complement each other, can get a better idea of what is happening. Better to the extent that we may see more than what the different parts look, "says Tamas Jantvik researcher at Luleå University of Technology.

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NASA Clamors For Safer Launches

From Florida Today:

Reliability must grow tenfold in new rockets.

CAPE CANAVERAL — President Barack Obama faces decisions that will set safety levels for American astronauts launching on space expeditions for decades to come.

Congress will hear this week from NASA officials, proponents of commercial crew transportation and independent safety experts. No current NASA astronauts are scheduled to testify Wednesday before the House subcommittee on space and aeronautics.

But documents obtained by FLORIDA TODAY through the Freedom of Information Act show exactly where the actual risk-takers stand.

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Legends Of Vietnam: Super Tweet

In 1967, four months after delivery, the new A-37A entered combat in South Vietnam.
(Roger Moseley)

From Air And Space Smithsonian:

Yeah. The A-37 was small. So was Napoleon.

Looking for Mach-busting splendor in million-dollar wonders from the heavies of the U.S. military-industrial complex? This ain't it. The A-37 Dragonfly was a waist-high, subsonic light attack aircraft that could lift its own weight in fuel and armaments, built by a manufacturer known for civilian pleasure craft. You could get a half-dozen for the price of a single F-4. The A-37 brought jet-propelled combat in Vietnam down from rarefied heights to the low-and-slow—where the acrid haze of rice-burning season permeated the unpressurized cockpit and you plucked bullets from Viet Cong small arms out of the armor plate under your seat after a mission. Its claim to fame?

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Brain Has An Innate Sense Of Geometry

From U.S. News And World Report:

Despite minimal exposure to the regular geometric objects found in developed countries, African tribal people perceive shapes as well as westerners, according to a new study.
Click here to find out more!

The findings, published online in an “Early View” edition of Psychological Science, suggested that the brain’s ability to understand shapes develops without the influence of immersion in simple, manufactured objects.

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What The World's First 'Space Station Of The Sea' Will Look Like

Out of this world: This is what the SeaOrbiter will look like -
its inventor wants it to be a space station of the sea

From The Daily Mail:

It looks more like the Starship Enterprise sinking in the sea - but this huge vertical vessel could be the future of ocean exploration.

Called the SeaOrbiter, the huge 51m (167ft) structure is set to be the world's first vertical ship allowing man a revolutionary view of life below the surface.

Although currently only a prototype its inventor Jacques Rougerie thinks his international oceanographic station will soon be setting sail.

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Clue To Mystery Of How Biological Clock Operates on 24-Hour Cycle

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Nov. 29, 2009) — How does our biological system know that it is supposed to operate on a 24-hour cycle? Scientists at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have discovered that a tiny molecule holds the clue to the mystery.

Human as well as most living organisms on earth possess circadian a (24-hour) life rhythm. This rhythm is generated from an internal clock that is located in the brain and regulates many bodily functions, including the sleep-wake cycle and eating.

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Surprise! Your Skin Can Hear

From Live Science:

We not only hear with our ears, but also through our skin, according to a new study.

The finding, based on experiments in which participants listened to certain syllables while puffs of air hit their skin, suggests our brains take in and integrate information from various senses to build a picture of our surroundings.

Along with other recent work, the research flips the traditional view of how we perceive the world on its head.

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Russia: No Space for Space Tourists

Soyuz Spacecraft

From CBS News/AP:

International Space Station Full with Crew for Near Future.

(AP) There is no space for tourists wishing to fly to the International Space Station, a top Russian space official said Thursday.

Since the space station's crew doubled to six people earlier this year, there is no longer room for tourists who pay tens of millions of dollars for a trip on a Russian spacecraft from Earth, said Sergei Krikalyov, the chief of the Cosmonaut Training Center.

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2012: Six End-of-the-World Myths Debunked

A city slides into the sea in a scene from the movie 2012, to be released November 13, 2009. The movie's end-of-the-world plot is based on largely discredited prophecies dubiously attributed to the ancient Maya, experts say. Image courtesy Columbia Tristar Marketing Group

From National Geographic:

The end of the world is near—December 21, 2012, to be exact—according to theories based on a purported ancient Maya prediction and fanned by the marketing machine behind the soon-to-be-released 2012 movie.

But could humankind really meet its end in 2012—drowned in apocalyptic floods, walloped by a secret planet, seared by an angry sun, or thrown overboard by speeding continents?

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The Great Climate Change Science Scandal

From Times Online:

Leaked emails have revealed the unwillingness of climate change scientists to engage in a proper debate with the sceptics who doubt global warming.

The storm began with just four cryptic words. “A miracle has happened,” announced a contributor to Climate Audit, a website devoted to criticising the science of climate change.

“RC” said nothing more — but included a web link that took anyone who clicked on it to another site, Real Climate.

There, on the morning of November 17, they found a treasure trove: a thousand or so emails sent or received by Professor Phil Jones, director of the climatic research unit at the University of East Anglia in Norwich.

Jones is a key player in the science of climate change. His department’s databases on global temperature changes and its measurements have been crucial in building the case for global warming.

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First Programmable Quantum Computer Created

From Science News:

Ultracold beryllium ions tackle 160 randomly chosen programs.

Using a few ultracold ions, intense lasers and some electrodes, researchers have built the first programmable quantum computer. The new system, described in a paper to be published in Nature Physics, flexed its versatility by performing 160 randomly chosen processing routines.

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Devils’ Advocates

Dust devils like this one form frequently at Eldorado Valley.
(Planetary Science Institute)

From Air And Space Smithsonian:

Some people go to Las Vegas to gamble, others to learn about Mars.

“Three, two, one, now!” Just seconds ago Asmin “Oz” Pathare was sitting under a beach umbrella in the baking heat, gazing off into the distance—now he has jumped to his feet behind his camera tripod and is on his walkie-talkie with fellow scientist Steve Metzger, who’s a couple hundred yards away. At the count of zero, they both trigger their shutters to get a stereo picture of the devil headed our way.

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NASA Predator Scans California Burn Areas

From U.S. News And World Report/AP:

LOS ANGELES—An unmanned NASA Predator aircraft equipped with an infrared imaging sensor has flown over large areas burned by two California wildfires to help the Forest Service assess damage, the administration said Tuesday.

Operating from NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, the Predator flew over the 250 square miles burned by this summer's Station Fire in Angeles National Forest and the 57-square-mile area scorched by the 2008 Piute Fire in Sequoia National Forest and other federal land in Kern County.

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A History Of Music Sales (Graphical Repreentation)

Just 100 Years Apart, The Stark Images Which Point To A Vanishing World

The awe-inspiring McCarty Glacier in Alaska and now (below)
trees grow in an area that was once covered in ice.

Whether the causes of the warming are due to natural rhythms or down to man continues to provide fierce debate. But scientists say they give a face to global warming.

From The Daily Mail:

These revealing photographs show giant glaciers are melting away as the world slowly warms up.

Pictured over the last 106 years, the huge lumps of ice have been slowly melting and creeping back into the mountains.

Where there was ice many metres thick, there is now debris, sediment and stagnation.

In some cases the glaciers have disappeared altogether and the land they once covered has become pasture, lake or woodland.

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15 Things Worth Knowing About Coffee

CSN Editor: The following site has a great graphic that describes and explains all that there is to know about coffee. The link is HERE.

With First Neutrino Events, Physicists Closer to Answering Why Only Matter in Universe

Arc-part tunnel for Neutrino Experimental Facility at the J-PARC accelerator laboratory in Tokai, Japan. (Credit: Courtesy of J-PARC.)

From Science Daily:

Science Daily (Nov. 27, 2009) — Physicists from the Japanese-led multi-national T2K neutrino collaboration have just announced that over the weekend they detected the first neutrino events generated by their newly built neutrino beam at the J-PARC (Japan Proton Accelerator Research Complex) accelerator laboratory in Tokai, Japan.

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Science Untarnished By 'Climategate,' U.N. Says

From CNET News:

LONDON--The head of the U.N.'s panel of climate experts rejected accusations of bias on Thursday, saying a "Climategate" row in no way undermined evidence that humans are to blame for global warming.

Climate change skeptics have seized on a series of e-mails written by specialists in the field, accusing them of colluding to suppress data which might have undermined their arguments.

The e-mails, some written as long as 13 years ago, were stolen from a British university by unknown hackers and spread rapidly across the Internet.

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