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!
 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.
 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.
 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.
 Nasa Keep in touch with Robonaut 2, nicknamed R2 by following him on his new Twitter account http://twitter.com/astrorobonautR2 should hopefully be travelling up to the International Space Station (ISS) this November on board the space shuttle Discovery, as part of mission STS-133, to see how it is affected by a microgravity environment. Whilst waiting to travel, however, R2 has already begun posting updates on Twitter about his coming mission - in 140 characters or less!
 Nasa Major repairs to the International Space Station (ISS) have been temporarily postponed today, to give engineers more time to plan the two spacewalks that will be required to fix one of the cooling systems.
A pump on the system failed at the weekend due to a power surge which tripped the circuit breaker, requiring the loop which pushes liquid ammonia through the plumbing lines to be shut down. Lucky for them, there are 4 spare pumps kept on the ISS but unfortunately it will require astronauts to go outside the space station in order to replace the faulty part.
The complicated spacewalks are now scheduled for Friday and Monday, allowing a little more time for astronauts on Earth to conduct more underwater practice sessions at NASA’s huge spacewalk rehearsal pool in Houston, Texas, USA.
In an ideal world NASA engineers would like the faulty pump returned to Earth to determine why it failed but for now, regrettably, there is no room remaining to bring it back on the last scheduled shuttle missions. Let’s hope they have plenty more spare parts available in the ISS store cupboards for future mishaps, as transport capacity will be reduced if plans to cease shuttle flights go ahead.
Note added 06/08/10
Spacewalk dates put back again - first to take place on Saturday 07/08/10 and second on Wednesday 11/08/10.
Hmmmmm . . . . . . . we shall see but hoping it all goes well.
 China's Shenzhou 7 rocket With USA space shuttles going into retirement next year 2011, this leaves Russia as the only country currently capable of delivering crews to the International Space Station via their Soyuz capsules. Although the Russians have proven to be very reliable and thus far have a good safety record, this places a huge workload on their shoulders, so is it not always a good idea to have a Plan B just in case?
According to Russian space officials, Chinese spaceships meet all safety requirements and could fly to the ISS.
"I think Chinese spaceships would play an important role as a backup for the Russian vessels Soyuz and Progress in case of some unforeseen situations," said Anatoli Perminov, head of the Russian space agency Roskosmos, recently.
Perminov also repeated an earlier claim that five space agencies currently involved in running the ISS had invited China to become involved and were awaiting a reply on this proposal.
NASA has however issued a statement saying that China has not been formally asked to join the 15-nation program, but that ‘discussions were taking place about joint space efforts’.
Could it not be time to put aside the old rivalries and distrust and to globalize space research and travel?
 An unmanned Russian supply ship carrying much needed food, water and supplies to the International Space Station managed to successfully dock with the orbiting laboratory this Sunday, 4th July 2010, two days late after the first attempt didn’t go quite as planned.
The Progress cargo ship was supposed to have hooked up with the ISS on Friday, but the procedure failed because of interference caused by an activated transmitter for the manual rendezvous system, which overrode the automated system. According to Russian station commander Alexander Skvortsov, this meant that Progress was rotating uncontrollably as it drew near the ISS and so the docking procedure was aborted – though both NASA and Russian officials said that the ship was never out of their control.
The Progress ships have been the backbone of Russia's unmanned cargo ship program for many years now, and their importance will only increase as the U.S. space shuttle program comes to an end next year.
Currently, the space station has 3 Russian and 3 U.S. astronauts aboard as it orbits around 220 miles (350 kilometers) above the Earth.
 Picture courtesy of Thierry Legault 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!
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