According to leading national newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun this week, the Japanese government is planning on investing  $2.2 billion over the next 10 years on lunar research.

Phase 1 of the plan will see a mobile robot being sent to the moon by 2015, which will send video images of the surface as well as conducting seismographic research on the Moon's composition. The following 5 years will see a research centre (producing its own electricity) being established on the Moon's south pole to study the surface within a 100km radius, with some of the samples being sent back to Earth for further evaluation.

Despite the USA's abandonment of any future lunar based activities, Japan intends to go full speed ahead as it tries to secure its position on the Moon before China and India complete their programs.

Back on one of my current favourite topics of space tourism, I saw this video today released by the company Space Adventures and couldn't resist posting it here! If you remember from a previous blog, this is the company that has gone into partnership with Armadillo Aerospace to develop a craft for sub-orbital flights priced at  $102,000 - around half the cost of a flight with Virgin Galactic.

Not sure what their time scale is though as at the moment I'm not sure if they have come up yet with a full-scale prototype, but Space Adventures CEO Eric Anderson seems to be a man prepared to put his money where his mouth is and so I have no doubt that they will come up with the goods.

Do you think I should I put my $4,000 deposit down yet?!

When visiting Poland in 2008 as part of a link I have with the Medical University of Warsaw, I couldn’t help but take some time out to go and visit the Nicolaus Copernicus monument outside the headquarters of the Polish Academy of Sciences at the Staszic Palace.

Having had a love of astronomy since childhood, I remember from an early age reading about Copernicus, the 16th century father of modern astrology. His pioneering work ‘De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium’ (On the Revolution of the Heavenly Spheres) suggested that the Earth rotated on its axis once a day and travelled around the sun once a year. This shocked people, and more especially the Church at the time as the idea that the Sun was in fact the centre of the universe and not the Earth was unthinkable!  The Church declared him to be a heretic and banned his book in 1616, some years after his death in 1543.

At the time of his death, the body of Copernicus was put into an unmarked tomb in the cathedral of his hometown of Frombork, Poland and there it lay for centuries until it was finally located after a long search, in 2005. The remains were positively identified by DNA testing in 2008, by comparing the bones and a tooth from the remains, to two strands of his hair found in a book that Copernicus once owned. 

And so, this Saturday the remains of Nicolaus Copernicus were once more laid to rest as his coffin was entombed in the 14th century cathedral of Frombork, his northern Polish hometown, and his grave marked by a black granite headstone engraved, quite aptly, with a map of the solar system.

Rest in Peace Nicolaus Copernicus.

Looking a bit like a speck of dust on the surface of the Sun, this stunning picture taken by the French astro-photographer  Thierry Legault in fact shows the unique sight of the space shuttle Atlantis next to the International Space Station, silhoutetted against the Sun.
 
The shuttle and ISS can be seen in orbit some 250 miles above the Earth, with the Sun as the backdrop,  93 million miles away.

An unusual and spectacular image!

Those of you who know me will also know that I travel a lot, and as such, I have tasted many different dishes from around the world.  I like to keep an open mind and at least try something once – but there are limits!

This week saw the autobiography launch of China’s first astronaut in Space Yang Liwei, a military pilot who commanded the Shenzhou Five mission in 2003 – and with it comes the revelation that the on-board menu for Chinese astronauts includes dog meat!

This ‘delicacy’ has long been eaten by the Chinese, with the best dog meat reportedly coming from Huajiang County in Guangdong where it is famed for its nutritional benefits. The menu, including braised chicken, steamed fish and the dog meat is part of a special diet drawn up by Chinese nutritionists to keep up the strength of their astronauts as they orbit the Earth.

Needless to say dog meat is not something that will be found as the ‘Dish of the day’ on board the International Space Station (ISS) where the astronauts eat more or less the same food as they would on Earth.  Some foods, fruits for example are eaten in their natural form, while other foods require adding water, such as macaroni & cheese or spaghetti. Astronauts have access to an oven for heating food but there are no refrigerators in space so food must be preserved and stored well to avoid spoilage.

Some foods are also best avoided on the ISS due to the microgravity environment. Condiments like salt or pepper are only available in liquid form because sprinkling them contaminates the atmosphere as the particles float away, and thus present hazards such as getting in astronaut’s eyes or inhalation, or even blocking air vents. Likewise bread presents problems due to the crumbs.

Whether you fancy eating dog meat or not I guess is just a matter of location and cultural upbringing - who is to say what is right or what is wrong?

For now though I think I will stick to cuddling dogs rather than barbecuing them!

British born astronaut Piers Sellers is planning to take into Space an original piece of Sir Isaac Newton’s apple tree when he flies on board the shuttle Atlantis, due to blast-off this Friday, 14th May 2010 from Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA.

The tree fragment, engraved with the scientists name is one of several pieces taken from the original apple tree that still stands at Woolsthorpe Manor, Newton’s former home.  

The popular story goes that in 1666 Newton was sat under his tree when an apple fell and landed on his head and this inspired him to develop his universal law of gravitation. However, it is more likely that he was looking at his apple tree one day from afar and wondered why apples fall downwards to the ground, and why they accelerate from zero. – and thus coming up with the laws of gravity and motion.

Sellers said "While it's up there, it will be experiencing no gravity, so if it had an apple on it, the apple wouldn't fall … Sir Isaac would have loved to see this, assuming he wasn't spacesick, as it would have proved his first law of motion to be correct."

The event is part of the 350th anniversary celebrations of the Royal Society, the UK’s National Academy of Science, of which Newton, who died in 1727, was a former president..

Can you remember those days not so many decades ago when to fly from one country to another was only something for the fabulously wealthy, whereas nowadays anyone with a few hundred pounds to spare can fly half way across Europe? 

Likewise with the advent of manned space flight in the 1960’s it seemed an opportunity for only the very select few.

And then came along the birth of Space Tourism with the first paying passenger in 2001, Californian businessman Dennis Tito who went to the International Space Station via a Russian Soyuz capsule at a cost of $20 million (£14 million) – still an out of this world price tag out of the reach of most mere mortals.

However, don’t despair all you would be astronauts as the price war may well just be starting!

Currently you can book your place for a flight into space with Virgin Galactic on Space Ship Two at a cost of $200,000. But you might want to wait a while before putting down your deposit, as just announced this week is a joint venture between Space Adventures and Armadillo Aerospace to provide suborbital space flights at half the price – just $102,000.

The Armadillo rocket ship which will take off vertically from a spaceport in the United States, will take passengers to a height of over 62 miles (100 kilometers), to the point where space begins. With engines then shut down, the ‘astronauts’ onboard will experience up to five minutes of weightlessness and also get to gaze out into the blackness of Space and to see the Earth's horizon below.

Just how low the cost of a suborbital flight will go is anyone’s guess – perhaps no lower for a while yet until more players are in the market, but I think I will hold on to my hard earned money for a while and wait to see what happens!