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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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A recently released NASA video shows interesting footage of a 3 year journey made by the Mars Exploration Rover called Opportunity, all condensed into just 3 minutes. Opportunity travelled from Victoria crater to Endeavour crater on Mars, between September 2008 and August 2011. Each day that the rover travelled it took an end-of-drive picture and these 309 images have been spliced together to give an interesting insight into a 13 mile (21 km) strip of Martian landscape.  The soundtrack for the video was created by speeding up by a factor of 1000 the low-frequency recordings from the rover’s accelerometers, which represent the vibrations recorded by the rover as it moved over the surface of Mars. Louder sounds represent the rover travelling on bedrock, whilst the quieter sounds are when the rover was moving over sand.

Interesting images and an eerie soundtrack -  definitely has a very desolate feel to it.

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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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Testing took place this week in Arizona, USA of the next generation of NASA technology for human Space flight. The Desert Rats (Research & Technology Studies) program is designed to test-run equipment to see how well it performs (or not!), so any problems can be identified and solved before it ever gets into a Space environment.

The test site, near Black Point Lava Flow in northern Arizona, is an inhospitable, dry and dusty, rocky area of land near the edge of the Grand Canyon, and simulates well the type of rough terrain that could be encountered on another planet such as Mars.

Click on the video below to get a better idea of the new equipment being tested. 
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Ascencion Island, South Atlantic
I came across an interesting news item on the BBC online news site about a small island called Ascension, in the middle of the south Atlantic.

Not much excitement there, other than the fact that when naturalist Charles Darwin first came across the island in 1836, towards the end of his famous five year travels on board his ship, the Beagle, it was nothing more than a barren, volcanic rock, devoid of trees, lacking in water and buffeted by dry trade winds from southern Africa.

In contrast today, Ascencion Island has peaks covered by lush tropical cloud forests, and a fully functioning ecosystem. So what changed to make this possible?

On his return to the UK, Darwin talked to his good friend, botanist and explorer Joseph Hooker about the island. He in turn, set in motion collaboration between the British Royal Navy and the botanical gardens of Kew, to arrange shipments of trees to Ascension. It was a simple plan, plant trees to capture the rain and reduce evaporation from the soil – and it worked!

Ecologist, Dave Wilkinson, from Liverpool John Moores University in England believes there is a lot to be learnt from this artificial eco-system, saying “What it tells us is that we can build a fully functioning ecosystem through a series of chance accidents or trial and error".

Wilkinson thinks that the principles that emerge from this experiment could be used to transform future colonies on Mars, so that perhaps, rather than trying to improve an environment by force, the best approach might be to work with life to help it "find its own way".

Read the full article by going to:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11137903
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ESA A300 Zero-G airliner
A European Space Agency (ESA) press release last week signals a call for new proposals from you scientists out there to submit proposals for experiments to be conducted during the 54th Parabolic Flight campaign, to take place in Spring 2011.

ESA has been providing such research opportunities for over 25 years now, with the A300 Zero-G wide-body airliner having been used for the last ten. The A300 is one of the most modern and largest aircraft to be used for parabolic flights, but the difference with this campaign is that flights will no longer be restricted to simulation of microgravity only.

Recent new certification now means that on offer will also be flights including parabolas that produce reduced gravity levels of 0.16 g for approximately 23 seconds, and 0.38 g for around 30 seconds. These gravity levels equate to the conditions found on the Moon and Mars respectively.

But you’ll have to hurry – proposals need to be submitted by 31st August 2010, although those received after that date are likely to be considered for future campaigns. 

Needless to say, my application is already submitted!

Want to read more details? Then click the link below to take you to the ESA website:

http://www.esa.int/esaHS/SEMCQH5OJCG_index_0.html
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In the news recently was an item about a space suit currently being developed by the Austrian Space Forum Institute, for use on a possible future manned mission to Mars.

One of the factors being considered by the Austrian’s is the fact that Martian temperatures can fall to 113 degrees below freezing, and so astronauts will need to be protected from the cold. Ideal testing conditions for the space suit can be found right on their doorstep in the ice tunnels under the Kaunertaler Glacier, some 5 hours from Vienna.

The suit will also need to be lighter than those used by NASA’s Apollo astronauts. The Moon suits weighed in on Earth at 76lbs, but reduced gravity on the Moon (about one sixth of planet Earth) meant that the astronauts were able to move in them – the gravity on Mars is closer to 40% of that found on Earth, so lighter in this case will definitely be better and with this in mind the Austrian suit is about 10lbs lighter.
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