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British scientists led by Nathaniel Szewczyk from Notthingham University believe that microscopic worms, which are biologically similar to humans, may hold important clues as to how we can adapt to long-term living in space environments, such as a colony on Mars.  

His team sent 4,000 microscopic worms, Caenorhabditis elegans, into space aboard the space shuttle Discovery, and were able to successfully remotely monitor 12 generations of them over a period of 6 months, whilst they were housed on the International Space Station.

This type of worm has long been used by scientists to further our understanding of human biology. They were the first multi-cellular organism to have its genetic structure completely mapped, and many of their genes perform the same function as found in humans, such as promoting muscle function.

According to Szewczyk, in a study recently published in the journal ‘Interface’, many of the biological changes that occur during space flight affect astronauts and worms in the same way.

"We have been able to show that worms can grow and reproduce in space for long enough to reach another planet and that we can remotely monitor their health. Worms allow us to detect changes in growth, development, reproduction and behaviour in response to environmental conditions such as toxins or in response to deep space missions," Szewczyk said.

This makes the worms an ideal and cost-effective way to study the possible effects of both long term and long distance human space exploration, which are known to have major challenges associated with them, including exposure to high levels of radiation, rapid loss of bone density and muscle weakness.

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Take a look at this interesting video clip showing the effects of a re-boost on the astronauts onboard the International Space Station. This took place last week, 26th October  2011, and raised the ISS back up to an altitude of around 242 miles (390km). The clip shows the effects of the ISS accelerating, in effect leaving behind all of the astronauts onboard.  

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The possibility has emerged that the International Space Station (ISS) may be left unmanned for a period of time if launch problems with the Russian Soyuz rockets cannot be rectified soon.

Earlier this month, 24th August 2011, saw the crash soon after launch from Kazakhstan of an unmanned Soyuz carrying food and fuel to the ISS, following the failure of one of the booster rockets. The Russian Space Agency Roscosmos has delayed the next manned mission by at least a month to allow time for safety checks to be carried out, and it is likely that at least two test launches of an unmanned rocket will be conducted before sending anymore astronauts up.

 The delay means that replacement crew will not go to the ISS until late October at the earliest, assuming that all goes well with the testing. The station is currently manned by a team of 6, with 3 likely to return to Earth in mid September and a decision needing to be made about the remaining crew.

Alexei Krasnov, head of manned flights at Roscosmos recently indicated that: 'If for any reason we will not be able to deliver the crew before the end of November, we will need to review all possibilities including leaving the station unmanned.'

The ISS has been continuously manned for more than a decade. It can in fact be flown without a crew if needed, though this is not an ideal situation as repairs can be made and problems fixed faster with crew members onboard, reducing the possibilities of major damage occurring. 

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The European Space Agency Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV2), named after Johannes Kepler, undocked from the International Space Station yesterday, Monday 20th June 2011, and will soon be making a destructive fiery re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere.

The supply ship first docked with the ISS earlier in February this year, taking up with it supplies for the station, and also laden with enough fuel to perform a series of manoeuvres to rotate and move the ISS to a higher altitude.

The 420 tonne orbiting complex now sits at more than 380km above the Earth, 40km higher up than previously, with boosts being needed every now and then to prevent the ISS from crashing back down to Earth.

The ATV is now filled with rubbish and unneeded cargo, and will perform two de-orbit burns before making a controlled re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere over the South Pacific ocean. The majority of the vehicle and cargo will burn up in the very high temperatures experienced during re-entry, around 1600C, and any residue parts will fall into the ocean below.  

The next ATV is already under preparation, named after Italian physicist Eduardo Amaldi, and should launch early next year from a spaceport in French Guiana.

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Space shuttle Endeavor blasted off today on its final mission before being decommissioned and put on display to the public at the California Science Center, USA.

The 16 day mission which will be its 25th flight into Space and the 11th calling at the International Space Station, will deliver $2bn worth of astrophysics equipment to the ISS, designed to search Space for antimatter. 

The final countdown for the launch of the last shuttle will take place in July when Atlantis will fly for the last time, bringing to an end the 30 year NASA shuttle program.

What follows next will be a significant period of time when the US will be unable to put astronauts into Space under its own steam, relying totally on the Russian Soyuz program. The future of American led missions into Space will only restart again once private companies have developed and built rockets to take over the job, with 2015 being estimated as the earliest date for new launches to begin.

Uneasy times ahead for the USA Space program I think!

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Yet another problem with long term Space travel has been highlighted this week, following the release of results for a study by NASA researcher Lakshmi Putcha and her colleagues.

Need a medication here on Earth? No problem – simply visit your local chemists or look in your medicine cabinet at home where simple medications such as pain-killers or antibiotics, if stored correctly, have a shelf life of up to a couple of years and retain most of their potency in that time. However, astronauts in Space it would seem might not be quite so lucky.

Longer duration Space travel, such as to Mars, may require astronauts to spend up to 2 years on board a space craft, and so the need to take greater volumes of medication will be required. Little is currently know in relation to the potential effects that the Space environment can have on these – an environment subject to such factors as microgravity, radiation, flight vibration, as well as variations in temperature and humidity.

Consequently, a study was conducted involving flying four boxes of drugs, each containing 35 medications up to the International Space Station (ISS). In accordance with good scientific practice, four identical boxes were also kept under controlled conditions at NASA’s Johnson Space Centre in Houston, USA, to act as a control for comparison. The four boxes from the ISS were returned one by one, back to Earth after varying lengths of time, with one box returning after just 13 days and the last box returning after 28 months on the ISS.

The medications were analysed to see how they compared to the control kits and it was found that; less than third of the medications kept in Space met US requirements for levels of active ingredients; the longer the kits were in Space, the fewer the number of formulations that retained acceptable potency levels.

The authors conclude that "It is important to characterize space-specific degradation products and toxicity limits using ground-based analogue environments of space that include proton and heavy ion radiation, vibration and multiple gravity conditions.  This information can facilitate research for the development of space-hardy pharmaceuticals and packaging technologies."

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NASA Astronaut Cady Coleman, currently onboard the International Space Station, teamed up this week with Ian Anderson from vintage British rock group Jethro Tull to perform the first ever Space-Earth duet on the flute, in tribute to the 50th anniversary of the first manned Space flight by Yuri Gagarin.

The realities of trying to synch up the two performances in real time, however, were impossible with astronaut Coleman being on the ISS some 250 miles up in orbit, and Anderson currently touring in Russia. Consequently Coleman recorded her part in the duet “Bouree” a few days prior to Anderson performing his part at a concert in Perm, Russia. The two performances were then spliced together for the tribute video.

Hit the play button and have a listen – it sounds good!

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The last flight of the shuttle Discovery to the International Space Station (ISS) has once again been postponed while engineers continue to try and sort out the mystery of the cracked fuel tank. 

Experts are baffled by the cracks that were found on the shuttles external fuel tank, with there being no obvious explanation as to their cause. Thus, a more detailed examination is being conducted, resulting in launch date being put back to 3rd February 2011, at the earliest.

The ‘safety first’ policy certainly has my backing as nobody would want to see a repetition of the disasters that befell the shuttles Challenger in 1986 and Columbia in 2003. Challenger broke apart 73 seconds into its flight after an O-ring seal on a solid rocket booster failed at lift-off, whilst Columbia disintegrated during re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere due to damage to the thermal protection system – accidents that resulted in the deaths of 14 crew members.

The 11 day mission of Discovery with an all American crew, including long time friend Michael Barratt, will deliver a new pressurized module to the ISS to provide extra storage space, more spare parts, and also Robonaut2, the first human-like robotic assistant in Space.

Every cloud has a silver lining, so the expression goes, and for the 6 strong Discovery crew of the STS-133 mission, that silver lining must be the certainty of spending the holiday period with their families. So may I wish a very Happy Christmas to the crew of STS-133, and a special festive hug to Mike and his family.

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It would seem that even the International Space Station (ISS) is not immune to the affects of the current poor financial climate, with the price of food for the cosmonauts sky-rocketing!

According to a Russian spokesman, there has been a near 50 percent increase over the last twelve months in the cost of rations, caused by price inflation on products used in making the rations, and rising costs of required testing and analyses.

"Last year, the cosmonaut's daily ration in space cost about 11,000 rubles (250 euros), and today the cost is reaching 15,000 rubles," said Viktor Dobrovolsky, director of the food institute that supplies space cosmonauts.

The weightless conditions onboard the ISS requires that some thought has to go into the provision of food for the astronauts to eat. Products that cause crumbs, like bread, are excluded as crumbs are light enough to simply float away and scatter throughout the space station, potentially clogging air vents, or contaminating equipment – instead tortillas are used as they have no crumbs, store easily, and of course, can double up as a  frisbee for a bit of fun! For the same reason of float-ability, salt and pepper are provided in liquid form. Food consumed is generally better if it has a moist or sticky consistency, such as porridge, scrambled eggs, or pudding, as this type of food will stay on the spoon or fork.
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Astronaut S Williams on ISS Treadmill
Reserachers from Marquette University, Milwaukee, USA, led by Prof Robert Fitts recently published results in the Journal of Physiology showing that astronauts suffer from a loss of muscle fibre mass, force and power when subject to the microgravity environment on board a spacecraft for any length of time.

The problem of muscle loss is a well known and researched area in space medicine, but this study is the first to include specific analysis of muscle cells on long-duration missions. Fitts and his team collected tiny samples of calf muscle tissue from nine US and Russian astronauts, 45 days before launch and again on the day of return from a six month mission onboard the International Space Station (ISS). Sample analyses results confirmed just how much muscles atrophy in zero gravity takes place, with according to Fitts, a decline of more than 40% in the capacity for physical work.

Crew members on board the ISS take part in a program of daily exercise, typically devoting up to 2 hours of their day for preparation and exercise time, either pedalling a stationary bike, jogging on a treadmill while held down by a harness, or using resistance devices. A once a day exercise session, however, no matter how intense, cannot compensate for the fact that whilst in Space their bodies are not having to work against the force of gravity.

From the day that we are born, here on Earth, we grow and function in a world where every movement we make requires our physiology to battle against gravity – and thus, our muscles develop and are maintained. Obviously, a lot depends on how active an individual is as to how well maintained those muscles are – are you a fitness god or a couch potato?

But the point is that astronauts on the ISS live in a virtually gravity free world. This has physiological effects and consequences which need to be addressed if a manned trip to Mars is ever to be a realistic option. 
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