Terraforming Mars – FOCUS points the way

Ever wondered what we’re going to be up to in a couple of centuries time? Science fiction author extraordinaire Stephen Baxter reckons we could have colonised Mars by then, in a feature for the current issue of the BBC science magazine FOCUS which has been out for a couple of weeks but I only spotted it on my way out of the UK for a well-earned break.

In the April issue, ace science fiction author Stephen Baxter writes on how we’d terraform the Red Planet, while Stuart Clark delivers a piece called “Mining the Moon”, looking at the resources we could get – and how. Plus, there’s an interview with a man who researches warp drive and hyperspace travel and a great piece on what our alien neighbours might look like.

Focus is the BBC’s science and technology monthly magazine, described as jargon-free and accessible, so “you don’t need a PhD in particle physics to enjoy reading it”. All you need is a quizzical mind that wants to understand the world around you, and gain a fact or two to keep up your sleeve in a pub quiz emergency.

The issue is well worth picking up if you’re interested in space exploration.

Life Science in Space

NASA scientists are sending three fundamental life science experiments onboard space shuttle Discovery in hopes of better understanding exactly how spaceflight affects cell growth and how cells fight off infections. Future astronauts on long-term space missions need to understand how wounds heal and cells become infected in space to prevent illnesses during space travel.When space shuttle Discovery hurtles into orbit after its scheduled launch on 5th April, in addition to the multi-purpose logistics module filled with science racks for the laboratories aboard the station it will carry seven astronauts, two Space Tissue Loss experiments and 16 mice as it rendezvous with the International Space Station.

“As we expand humanity’s reach to other planets we must learn how to live in space for prolonged periods of time,” said Eduardo Almeida, the Space Tissue Loss’s Stem Cell Regeneration experiment principal investigator and scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Calironia. “Understanding how space affects stem cell health is critical to exploration because our health relies on normal tissue repair and regenerative functions.”

Stem Cell Regeneration experiment will study how embryonic stem cells develop into specialized tissue types, or “differentiate” in space. The experiment will use mouse embryonic stem cells and embryoid bodies, or ball-shaped collections of embryonic stem cells, as a model to study the effects of microgravity on adult stem cells’ ability to carry out their normal function of repairing and regenerating tissues. Scientists compare the embryoid body to an early stage of development in mammals because embryonic stem cells can differentiate into any of the body’s many cell types.

In the weeks leading up to launch, scientists working on the Stem Cell Regeneration experiment at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Florida, grew mouse embryonic stem cells and prepared them for flight. Scientists will take the embryonic stems cells grown in the laboratory and place them into bioreactors, which are installed into an incubator that fits into a shuttle middeck locker, where they will remain during flight.

“We are trying to get at the root cause of tissue degeneration in space,” said Almeida. “We hope our research will help find preventive measures to address adult stem cell health in microgravity.”

The second Space Tissue Loss (STL) experiment, STL-Immune, led by principal investigator Cheryl Nickerson, associate professor of life sciences at the Center for Infectious Diseases and Vaccinology in the Biodesign Institute at Arizona State University, will be the first fundamental biology experiment to conduct an in-flight infection of human cells using pathogenic bacteria. Nickerson’s experiment will characterize the effect of microgravity on intestinal cellular responses before and after Salmonella infection during space flight.

“In addition, this experiment also closely monitors human cells giving us unique insight into conditions faced by astronauts during spaceflight, as well as how cells in our bodies normally behave or transition to disease caused by infection, immune disorders or cancer,” said Nickerson. “Only by studying how cells respond to microgravity can we reveal important biological characteristics that are masked by normal gravity when using traditional experimental approaches on Earth.”

The Immune experiment will help scientists determine whether bacterial responses to spaceflight are also seen in human cells.

“Better understanding how microbes and human cells interact in space can lead to novel vaccines and therapeutics for the general public against infectious disease, as well as other human diseases,” added Nickerson. “Our research has potential benefits and applications for life on Earth and astronauts on long-duration space missions.”

Mouse Immunology, the third space-based experiment, will study the influence of microgravity on mice immune systems. The experiment’s principal investigator, Millie Hughes-Fulford, former NASA astronaut and professor in the Departments of Medicine and Urology at the University of California, San Francisco will test whether an immune system response to a new infection or re-infection is affected by spaceflight.

“Mouse immunology will allow us to pinpoint which genes and pathways are or aren’t working or performing well in space,” said Hughes-Fulford. “We will examine all 8,000 genes of the mouse thymus cell to determine the molecular cause of a suppressed immune system.”

Before launch, half of the mice in both the group that will fly to space and the control group that will stay on Earth received white blood cells that had been inoculated with thymus cells, or white blood cells, that were exposed to a foreign protein challenge. The other half of the mice will not be exposed until immediately after they return from space. Scientists will analyze whether the mice that received white blood cells react differently than those that were not pre-exposed.

All three experiments are managed by the International Space Station Non-Exploration Projects Office at NASA Ames. The NASA Ames Flight Systems Implementation Branch and Space Biosciences Division developed and implemented the Mouse Immunology and Space Tissue Loss payloads, which were all funded by the Advanced Capabilities Division in the Exploration Systems Mission Directorate at NASA’s Headquarters, Washington.

The Walter Reed Army Institute of Research based in Silver Spring, Maryland, provided the hardware and the Department of Defense’s Space Test Program developed the payload and managed the hardware integration for the Space Tissue Loss Experiments.

• For more information about science on the International Space Station, visit: www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/science
• For more information about the Space Biosciences Division at NASA Ames, visit: http://spacebiosciences.arc.nasa.gov

NASA explores inner space

Learning how to walk again after long-duration space flights is a problem astronauts face as they readjust to Earth’s gravity. To learn how microgravity affects human space travelers, NASA scientists studied the nanomechanics of hair cells in the inner ear.

Their research may also help solve more down to Earth medical problems for ordinary people, such as motion sickness.

Using the toadfish (Opsanus tau) as their model, scientists tested whether hair cells amplify stimuli from very small head movements, and if so, can the brain regulate this enhanced sensitivity and shift this function on or off?

Test results showed that an organism’s ability to maintain equilibrium is regulated by hair cell sensory organs, including hearing organs.

“These hair cells are specialized mechanical sensors that are used to understand sound in the environment, and countermove the head for balance and coordination,” said Richard Boyle, a space bioscientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif. “Understanding the fundamental physiology of the hair cell in the inner ear is critical to identifying the impact of spaceflight on an organism.”

Boyle is an author of “Mechanical amplification by hair cells in the semicircular canals,” scheduled for publication in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, this week.
The inner ear organs are designed and precisely attuned to changes in the environment: for the hearing organ, a change in the sound pressure, such as caused by a car horn, can deform the ear drum and rapidly lead to the recognition and location of the sound. For the balance organ, movement of the head, such as unexpectedly stepping off the curb, is sensed and rapidly leads to motor reflexes to maintain equilibrium. The more sensitive our ability is to detect these changes, the more acute our sensation. This remarkable tuning and amplification to detect the slightest stimuli, allows us to adjust our posture.

For large movements this amplification is not evident. It is over the very small head movements that the amplification process benefits our ability to sense movement. But this places the hair cell systems at the blink of instability.

Fortunately, the amplification process is not all-or-nothing, but actually controlled by the organism. According to the organism’s intended behaviour, this instability can be turned off through a pathway from the brain back to the inner ear organs. For example, during a large, self-generated movement of the head, as one rapidly turns to view the location of the car horn, the amplification process can be turned off.

Fossil evidence, dating from at least the Devonian Period 400 million years ago, shows that the elaborate sensory structures used to sense the organism’s movement are remarkably conserved among vertebrata. The results demonstrate an active process in the hair cells of an ancient bony fish, thus suggesting that the mechanism is ancestral, and may underlie the broad appearance of active hair cell processes in amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals, including humans.

During orbital missions, organisms on board the spacecraft are exposed to microgravity. Microgravity exposure causes severe disorientation or “space adaptation syndrome” for many human travelers, a condition similar to what we on Earth experience as motion sickness. The possible cause is a miscommunication of information provided by various sensory systems.

“A change in gravity has a profound effect on how organisms maintain coordination and balance,” said Boyle. “This information is essential to understanding the human condition on Earth, and may contribute to the science that will eventually lead to improved diagnostics and treatment of disorders, such as dizziness and motion sickness,” he added.

• For more information about NASA visit: www.nasa.gov/home/index.html

Ex Astris Returns to Spaceship Away

The latest issue of Spaceship Away, the science fiction comics magazine inspired by and featuring the original Dan Dare, includes the first part of the Ex Astris strip “Homecoming”, set in the story’s 2511 time period, on an Earth devastated by both environmental and man made disaster.

The magazine has just gone to the printers and will be on sale in all its usual outlets, and online, soon.

Spaceship Away readers will soon realize that our latest episode of Ex Astris for the magazine is a very different beast to “Secrets of Ceres”, which ran in previous issues. This story, reflecting the huge scope of artist Mike Nicoll’s vision for the strip, is set in the 26th Century, at a point where Earth has long been a wasteland caused by a combination of environmental and other disasters, but humans are now fighting to reclaim their planet of birth from mysterious aliens and antagonistic descendants of the survivors of the world’s destruction some centuries previously.

While “Secrets of Ceres” is set before Earth is finally beset by disaster, Sarah Blake lives on in Katherine Blake in ‘Homecoming’, the all-action leader of an elite military squad aboard the Armstrong spaceship. Is she a direct descendant of Sarah, or are there other secrets yet to be revealed? More to the point, is Captain Charles Bryant the same Bryant followers of Ex Astris have seen in “Ceres” and “Return to the Moon” and, if so, how has he survived for almost five centuries?


Although the strip has been previously published – and was previously available online via myebook, where it achieved some 15,000 downloads – I’m looking forward to seeing it in Spaceship Away, simply because of the quality of the magazine. For us, the strip is a good fit with the science fiction vision of the Spaceship Away team.

The issue features a superb cover from veteran Dan Dare artist Don Harley, also continues two ongoing Dan Dare stories, “Green Nemesis” by Rod Barzilay and Tim Booth, and “The Gates of Eden” by Tim alone, a brand new Dare adventure strip, set a year and a half before “The Red Moon Mystery”.

“Garth: The Bubble Man” by Frank Bellamy, beautifully coloured by John Ridgway continues this issue, as does “Journey in Space: Planet of Fear” written by by Charles Chilton, and drawn by Ferdinando Tacconi.

Feature wise, there’s a report on the recent Spaceship Away day event and full information on Alistair Crompton’s new book on Dan Dare creator Frank Hampson, Tomorrow Revisited, out later this year. Graham Bleathman providea a cutaway of Dan Dare’s spaceship, the Anastasia, and there are some images of the original models used in the creation of the Dan Dare strip back in his original Eagle days, and an update on Day2Day Trading’s new Dan Dare action figure which we’ve reported on here.

• To order the issue online visit: spaceshipaway.org.uk

Comic Creators Ally against Human Trafficking

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”
- Margaret Mead
 
Monday, 11th January is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day in the US. To participate, a number of comics creators including Heroes Inc. creator Scott Austin, writer Peter David and X-Men artist J.K. Woodward – formed the Comic Creator’s Alliance – a group of over 80 comic book creators (both web and print) who volunteered their artistic talents to raise money and awareness for this cause.

While Ex Astris creative team is produced in Britain, trafficking is a global issue – plus, we know several of the creators who’ve got together for this cause personally. So we’re naturally more than happy to promote it here.You may not know it, but there are currently 27 million enslaved people worldwide – more than double the number of enslaved Africans during the trans-Atlantic slave trade. UNICEF estimates that 1.2 million children every year are sold into slavery, most of it sexual. The US Department of Justice estimates 16,000 victims of human trafficking are brought into the United States every year.

Unlike slavery in the 19th century, what is happening today is happening in secret. So it won’t end until awareness is raised, and people need to take a stand.

So here’s what the comic creators – all listed here – did: each of them contributed an original drawing of one of their own female characters, and combined them into a single wallpaper image. The preview featured above is just a small snippet of a simply gorgeous montage intended to raise money and awareness for an important cause.

The wallpaper features characters from The Phoenix Requiem, Girls with Slingshots, Earthsong, Looking for Group, Shadowgirls, Marsh Rocket, The Uniques and three IDW Publishing titles: Fallen Angel, The Dreamland Chronicles and The Dreamer, and lots, lots more.

To get hold of a copy, all you need to do is donate to the cause via the CCA website and download this unique, once-in-a-lifetime wallpaper. The Donations Drive will last for two weeks, from 11th – 24th January and all proceeds will be split evenly between Love146 and Gracehaven House – two organizations working on rehabilitation of victims and prevention of this crime.

• To learn more about the Comic Creator’s Alliance visit www.comicalliance.weebly.com.


• To learn more about the problem, visit http://love146.org/slavery. (Be warned: contains adult themes and actual accounts of sex slavery.)

Blue Moon Tonight

In case you don’t know it, there will be a blue moon – the first in 20 years – at 7.15pm tonight which should, cloud cover permitting, be viewable here in the Lancaster area. Not only that, there will be a partial lunar eclipse with the deepest eclipse at 7.22pm.
This eclipse of the Moon is partial, so only eight per cent of the Moon will actually be covered by Earth’s shadow. However, quite a lot of the moon will appear to change colour.Sadly, a blue moon isn’t actually blue.The name reflects the relative rarity of two full moons in a month and is linked to the saying “once in a blue moon.” Most years on average have 12 full moons, with one appearing each month.

We’re told that the whole event is deeply significant astrologically, if not astronomically. The National Geographic notes that the last time a blue moon appeared was on New Year’s Eve was in 1990, and it won’t happen again until 2028.

NASA notes that while we won’t see a blue moon tonight, it is possible for the Moon to appear tinged by a blue hue, sometimes caused by fine dirt circulating in the Earth’s atmosphere, possibly from a volcanic explosion. The above picture is of our Moon taken was taken in a dark blue morning sky. The bright crescent is the only part directly exposed to sunlight – the rest of the Moon glows from sunlight reflected from the Earth. The planet Jupiter is also visible along with its four largest moons.

(With thanks to Jessica Abrahams. Image: Vic Winter, ICSTARS)

NASA Ames Looks back on 2009, Forward into 2010

Finding water on the moon, initiating a search for Earth-size planets, the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing and a new federal government cloud computing initiative were among the top stories for NASA Ames Research Center in 2009, which has just published its review of the year online and outlined some of its plans for 2010.

Lunar Impactor Launched, Finds Water on Moon

NASA successfully launched the Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, in June on a mission to search for water ice in a permanently shadowed crater at the moon’s south pole. The satellite lifted off on an Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, along with a companion mission, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO. Preliminary data from LCROSS indicated the mission successfully uncovered water in a permanently shadowed lunar crater when it impacted the moon in October.

The discovery of water by LCROSS opened a new chapter in our understanding of the moon.

Kepler Mission Begins Search for Planets Like Earth
NASA’s Kepler spacecraft launched in March to begin its search for other Earth-like worlds. The mission will spend the next three years staring at more than 150,000 stars for telltale signs of planets. In August, the Kepler space telescope detected the atmosphere of a known giant gas planet, demonstrating the telescope’s extraordinary scientific capabilities.
Needless to say, the search for alien life remains one of the most exciting aspects of space exploration for all of here at Ex Astris.
More info at: http://kepler.nasa.gov

NASA Ames Celebrates 70th Anniversary
This year, NASA Ames is celebrating its 70th anniversary. Among the 10 activities held to commemorate the center’s 20th December 1939 anniversary, was a display of Ames historical exhibits in downtown Mountain View, California, and an aerial photo taken of Ames employees forming a “70″ on the airfield, and the launch of a new historical website.

New Cloud Computing Initiative Announced

Federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra announced a new government cloud computing initiative in September at NASA Ames. Kundra unveiled the new Apps.gov platform, an online storefront for federal agencies to browse and purchase cloud-based information technology (IT) services and predicted it would significantly lower government costs and increase innovation.

NASA Breaks Ground for ‘Greenest’ Federal Building Ever

In August, NASA held a ceremonial groundbreaking and dedication event for what is expected to become the highest-performing building in the federal government. The new, environmentally friendly building at NASA’s Ames will be named ‘Sustainability Base’ in honour of the first humans to walk on the surface of another world from their Tranquility Base Apollo 11 lunar landing site 40 years ago.

International Space University, Singularity University Host Programs at NASA Ames
Also this past summer, Ames hosted the International Space University’s nine-week course for postgraduate students and young professionals from more than 40 countries. Nearly 200 students, along with dozens of faculty and guest lecturers, attended the university’s 22nd annual Space Studies Program, held for the first time ever at a NASA center. Simultaneously, Ames also hosted the newly-launched Singularity University’s graduate studies program, a nine-week graduate-level interdisciplinary curriculum designed to prepare the next generation of leaders to address “humanity’s grand challenges.”

NASA Ames Celebrates 40th Anniversary of Moon Landings
40 years ago, humans took their first steps on the moon. In commemoration of that historic event, NASA Ames hosted ‘Moonfest 2009: From Apollo to LCROSS, and Beyond!,’ a celebration of all things related to the moon. Held in July, the celebration focused on the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moonwalks and NASA’s LCROSS mission. The day was filled with guest speakers, musical performances and hands-on family activities, interactive games and exhibits. More than 11,400 people attended the celebration at Ames.
Ex Astris fans will recall we celebrated the event with a contribution to the downthetubes Moon Landing album (above), which you can view online here.

Ames Wins 2008 NASA Government Invention of the Year Award
NASA Ames was named the recipient of the 2008 NASA Government Invention of the Year Award this year. Ames won the award for developing a “High Speed Three-Dimensional Laser Scanner with Real Time Processing.” The scanner is used in a Mold Impression Laser Tool (MILT), a hand-held instrument used to scan space shuttle tiles to detect and measure the amount of any damage. Several MILT instruments are currently in use at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Florida, where they provide accurate and reliable tile flaw information for the space shuttle maintenance crews. In addition, MILT technology been adapted for use in other NASA programs, including the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV), the Stardust Sample Return Capsule Program, and the Mars and Lunar Rover Programs.

NASA Successfully Launches PharmaSat, SOAREX Missions
NASA successfully launched its PharmaSat nanosatellite in May from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility and the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport located at Wallops Island, Va. PharmaSat investigated the effects of antifungal agents on the growth of yeast in microgravity. This research could improve understanding of how microbes may become resistant to the drugs used to treat sick astronauts on long-duration space missions. NASA also successfully launched two Sub-Orbital Aerodynamic Re-entry Experiments, or SOAREX, probes more than 80 miles high in 2009 from NASA’s Wallops. The two NASA-developed experiments will help engineers and scientists design efficient ways to return experiments to Earth from the International Space Station.

NASA, Google, Microsoft, Cisco Collaborate on Virtual Exploration, Climate Change
In commemoration of the 40th anniversary of Apollo 11, NASA and Google launched the Moon in Google Earth, an interactive, 3D atlas of the moon that enables users to explore a virtual moonscape and follow guided tours from astronauts Buzz Aldrin and Jack Schmidt.

Also in 2009, NASA and Google launched a new Mars mode in Google Earth that brings to everyone’s desktop a high-resolution, three-dimensional view of the Red Planet.
NASA and Microsoft Corp., announced this year they are jointly developing the technology and infrastructure necessary to make the most interesting NASA content, including high-resolution scientific images and data from Mars and the moon, available on WorldWide Telescope, Microsoft’s online virtual telescope for exploring the universe. Under the terms of a Space Act Agreement, NASA is processing enough data to fill 20,000 DVDs.

In 2009, NASA and Cisco Inc., partnered to develop an online collaborative global monitoring platform called the “Planetary Skin” to capture, collect, analyze and report data from satellite, airborne, sea- and land-based sensors on environmental conditions around the world. This data will be made available for the general public, government and businesses to measure, report and verify environmental data in near-real time to help detect and adapt to global climate change.

The Year Ahead…
Looking ahead to 2010, NASA Ames will continue to play a major role to support the space shuttle program with its work in thermal protection systems and the heat shields that protect the space shuttle during its fiery re-entry to Earth’s atmosphere. Public viewing opportunities of four live broadcasts of space shuttle launches drew nearly 500 people to Ames and will continue in 2010.

The Kepler mission, NASA’s first mission capable of finding Earth-size and smaller planets, will announce its latest discoveries in its search for habitable planets next year and the LCROSS mission will announce the latest results of its analysis of water it found at one of the lunar poles. The data will provide scientists with a wealth of data that will tell us a great deal about the lunar surface and help prepare NASA to put boots on the moon by the end of the next decade.

Also next year, NASA’s airborne observatory, SOFIA, is scheduled to begin conducting science flights.

New initiatives in 2010 will set the stage for a robust year in education and outreach.

“Educate to Innovate,” a federal challenge to improve education and NASA’s Summer of Innovation aspire to reach one million students through enrichment programs to keep kids on track and inspire the next generation of explorers.

• For more information about NASA Ames, visit: www.nasa.gov/centers/ames/news

• For information about NASA and agency programs, visit: www.nasa.gov