Category: Space Flight

Astronauts don’t talk much about it, but about half of those who fly in space experience Space Adaptation Syndrome (SAS), or space sickness, which includes nausea, vertigo, visual illusions and headaches. Even though SAS isn’t life threatening, the onset of these symptoms at a crucial point in the mission could have potentially detrimental affects. The last thing any space flight needs is a violently ill commander or pilot during important maneuvers like docking to the space station, or a spacewalker doing the Technicolor Yawn in his helmet. Researchers have determined that SAS is not caused so much by the weightlessness experienced in space, but more by the body adapting to a different gravitational force. A Dutch PhD student studying SAS believes she may have developed a ground-based method for identifying people who are subject to space sickness, following her research in which she whirled test subjects around in a centrifuge.

Until now, no one could determine which astronauts would experience SAS. It can strike seasoned fighter-pilots-turned-astronauts who would claim to be immune from motion sickness, and additionally frequent flyer astronauts can experience SAS on one mission, but not another, while some rookie astronauts are symptom-free.

But Suzanne Nooij says her research shows that an astronaut who will suffer space sickness in microgravity conditions will also suffer it after being vigorously centrifuged at 3G for an hour or so. Spinning at that force is somewhat easily endured for that amount of time, but Nooij says, if you’re susceptible to SAS, once you get out of the centrifuge you’ll puke.

Nooij focused her research on the organ of balance, the area in the inner ear made of semi-circular canals, which are sensitive to rotation, and “otoliths,” saccules inside the ear which are sensitive to linear acceleration. Previous research suggests that a difference between the functioning of the left and right otolith contributes to susceptibility to sickness among astronauts. If this is the case, this should also apply after lengthy rotation.

Nooij tested this otolith asymmetry hypothesis. The otolith and semi-circular canals functions on both sides were measured of fifteen test subjects known to be susceptible to space sickness. Those who suffered from space sickness following rotation proved to have high otolith asymmetry and more sensitive otolith and canal systems. These people could not be classified as sensitive or non-sensitive on the basis of this asymmetry alone, but could on the basis of a combination of various otolith and canal features. This demonstrates that the entire organ of balance is involved in space sickness and that it probably entails complex interactions between the various parts of the organ of balance.

While researchers have yet to find a cure for this, previous knowledge of a space flyer’s susceptibility to SAS would allow for preventative measures such as taking motion sickness medicine, limiting food intake, and avoiding quick head movements.

While Nooij is not an astronaut, her PhD supervisor at TU Delft, is Wubbo Ockels, the first Dutchman in space in 1986, who suffered from SAS.

Original News Sources: Physorg, The Register

Looking for a new and exciting job that will take you places? Now is the time to take the leap, as everyone is looking for astronauts. Here’s how to become an astronaut. The European Space Agency today opened applications for talented individuals wishing to become an astronaut. There hasn’t been a call for new applicants for the European Astronaut Corps since 1992, and so the ESA says this is a rare opportunity to be at the forefront of Europe’s human spaceflight programs including future missions to the ISS, the Moon and beyond. Four European astronauts will be selected from the applicants. But if you’re not from Europe, don’t lose hope. NASA also has openings, as does Canada and Japan.

“As a former astronaut I have been looking forward to the start of the selection procedure with a great deal of anticipation”, says Michel Tognini, Head of the European Astronaut Center. “With the recent additions of ESA’s Columbus laboratory to the ISS and the Automated Transfer Vehicle serving as an ISS logistics spacecraft, European human spaceflight has now entered a new era with respect to science and operations. Building on the past 30 years of experience of ESA astronauts, we now need high-calibre people to spearhead ESA’s vision of ISS exploitation and future human exploration of our solar system.”

For the ESA astronaut positions, candidates from all 17 Member States (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom) are welcome to apply.

Those Europeans interested can take the first step by filling out a preliminary application online.

NASA is accepting applications until July 1, 2008. Click here for more information.

Canada’s application process will open at the end of May 2008. More info.

And JAXA, the Japanese space agency, announced on April 1, 2008 they are looking for astronauts, too.

The usual procedure for astronaut selection goes something like this: Those making the first cut will go through a series of additional selection procedures such as psychological and professional aptitude evaluations, and a medical evaluation. At the end of that process, potential candidates are invited for interviews, after which the final selections are made.

To everyone with high aspirations: Go for it!

Original News Source: ESA Press Release

A Swiss adventurer who calls himself Fusionman tried out a new jet powered carbon wing, and successfully flew for 5 minutes on May 15 before landing with a parachute. Yves Rossy, a 48-year-old former air force pilot lit the jets on his wing and then jumped from a plane over Bex, Switzerland. He is the world’s first man to fly with jet powered wings.

Rossy performed his first official demonstration of his wings, which are 2.5 meters in diameter and comes with four tiny jets. Once in full flight, Rossy can reach speeds of up to 200km/hr, but he can only stay in the air for a maximum of ten minutes due to the small fuel capacity of his jets.

Rossy, who now works for the Swiss airline, first unveiled his design in 2004. Today he flew like a rocketeer above the Swiss Alps.

Rossy hasn’t always had an easy ride though — during one jump in 2005, he lost control of his wing and didn’t open his parachute until he was just 500 meters above ground.

Since first designing his wing, Rossy has performed more than 30 motorized flights, improving this first prototype with the help of his team. He’s looking to one day have take-off capability with his jet-powered wings. His motto for his test flights: “Always have Plan B ready.”

For more information about Fusionman, see his website. , or the English version

Original News Source: Brisbane Times, AFP

When the Shuttle fleet is retired in 2010, what other mode of transport could be used to take NASA astronauts into space? After all, we routinely launch satellites into orbit, why can’t the same technology be adapted and used for human spaceflight? Well, the US Senate committee on space and aeronautics was told by a retired US Air Force general on Wednesday that this option should be considered. Rather than injecting billions to accelerate development of the Orion space vehicle or becoming dependent on the Russian Soyuz, the reliable workhorses of satellite launches, the Atlas V and Delta IV rockets, could be “human rated”…

Concern is growing for the gap in the US ability to get astronauts into space between 2010 (when the Shuttle fleet is retired) and 2015 (the scheduled completion of Orion spacecraft and Ares rocket). As voiced on Tuesday by record breaking astronaut John Glenn, to depend on the Russian Soyuz system could prove problematic. This concern has been echoed by former US Air Force general Robert S. Dickman and has outlined a possible solution to the five-year gap. For a modest $500 million to $1 billion, the Atlas V and Delta IV launch systems (more accustomed to blasting communication satellites and military payloads into orbit) could be adapted to carry astronauts into space, and supplying the International Space Station. The only other way to reduce the gap would be to accelerate the Constellation Program, or (as voiced by Glenn on Tuesday) extend the Shuttle program. Unfortunately, both of these options would be disproportionately expensive.

So, converting satellite rockets might be a nice compromise; reduce the dependence on other space agencies, keep costs low and keep space open to manned space flight for NASA. Sounds like the perfect solution…

However, a top NASA official who worked on the Gemini and Apollo programs had a sobering reply for this possibility. Eugene Kranz told the US Senate committee that human rating existing rockets is no easy task. Kranz was involved in converting Titan and early Atlas rockets so they could be used for the manned Mercury an Apollo missions. Unfortunately, although this option looks attractive on paper, in reality, much more investment is required – often larger, unforeseen modifications are needed.

In the case of the Titan and Atlas modifications, the human rating took several years to complete. Unfortunately, 2010 is only two years away, modifying existing rockets sufficiently simply will not be completed on time.

Where NASA may not convert the rockets, private space corporations might. The company SpaceDev is looking into converting the Atlas V rocket, incorporating its Dreamchaser capsule as part of the plan to offer commercial ferrying of NASA astronauts to the ISS. Bigalow Aerospace and Lockheed Martin are hot on their tails, proposing human rating the Atlas V for trips to future Bigalow space hotels.

Source: New Scientist Blog

In a few decades from now, when we’ve got interplanetary space travel perfected and all of us Average Joes can hop in our own personal spacecraft or grab the local express line of the Milky Way Transport Service, visiting other planets and moons is going to be a blast. Just imagine it: kicking back for a relaxing weekend on Mars, or heading out for a diving expedition on Europa, or possibly week of mountain climbing on Titan. But there are a few safety rules we’ll need to know, especially in the event of a spacesuit failure. Unfortunately, unless someone is able to figure out how to do some serious terraforming, we’ll all be stuck wearing spacesuits in order to survive on the other worlds in our solar system. And just how bad would it be if your spacesuit malfunctioned? Well, let’s just say it wouldn’t be pretty. Here’s a look at some problems you might encounter without an operational spacesuit on other worlds.


We’ll start with Mercury. Lack of air is going to be a serious problem here if your spacesuit quits working. So far, no discernable atmosphere has been detected on Mercury, except for trace amounts of helium, so maybe you could amuse your companions by doing a Munchkin voice for a short while before you passed out. A spacesuit designed for Mercury would have to withstand high temperature fluctuations, as temperatures range from -150 C to 425 C. Without your spacesuit, you’d either freeze or instantly turn into a carbon briquette, depending on which side of the planet you were standing. Moving about on Mercury would be fairly easy, since the gravity is about 1/3 that of Earth, and Mercury has smooth plains, plentiful craters and high cliffs that would be fun to explore. But if you were stuck on Mercury with a malfunctioning spacesuit, it would be a very long bad day, since one day on Mercury is equal to 59 days on Earth.

Venus. Why anyone would want to visit Venus is a mystery. It’s too hot, too cloudy and the atmospheric pressure is downright depressing. A spacesuit designed for Venus would need to be constructed of titanium or some other material that could withstand Venus’ high surface pressure, which is 90 times that of Earth’s. Without a strong spacesuit, you’d be instantly squashed. The Russians tried several times to land a robotic spacecraft on Venus, and most never made it to the surface without being crushed. The Venera 8 lander, however, lasted 50 minutes. So, if your titanium-strength spacesuit was working, and you, too could survive for at least 50 minutes, there are 1600 major volcanoes, lots of mountains, large highland terrains, and vast lava plains to explore. Before landing on Venus, you’d want to do a thorough checkout of your spacesuit’s Primary Life Support Subsystem (PLSS) which contains oxygen tanks, carbon dioxide scrubbers, cooling water, communications, and ventilating fans. You’ll need all of those things to be working at peak efficiency. Venus’ atmosphere is mostly carbon dioxide (96%), with some carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide thrown in just to keep the riffraff out. Suffice to say, without a spacesuit, you wouldn’t last long and you might not even make it to the surface. And a bad day on Venus would be even worse than on Mercury: it’s about 230 Earth days long.

If you plan just to take a day trip and visit our Moon, you’re probably going to be in pretty good shape, as we’ve had the chance to thoroughly test out spacesuits designed for the lunar surface. Again, you’re going to need your PLSS, since there’s no air on the moon. Just the opposite of Venus, there’s no air pressure on old Luna, so you’ll need your spacesuit to keep your innards inside your body. Surface temperatures can vary dramatically over the course of a day, from 100° C at noon to -173° C at night, so a malfunctioning spacesuit might cause a predicament. But hopefully there’ll be a moon base just around the corner if you run into any problems.

Let’s head back to the safety of Earth now before we head on out to the rest of our solar system.

Sources: (9) 8 Planets, Windows to the Universe

During the STS-123 mission to the International Space Station in March 2008 Japanese astronaut Takeo Doi tested a special boomerang in space to see how it worked in the microgravity environment of the ISS. The boomerang used in the experiment was a “Roomerang,” a small, tri-blade boomerang intended for use indoors in a small area or outdoors in light winds. IT was designed by boomerang expert Gary Broadbent, and it travels 5 to 8 feet before returning to the thrower.

The Japanese Space Agency has now released the video of the event:

As you can see, it worked very well, even in the small space of the ISS module. Broadbent told Universe Today that in the pressurized environment of the ISS, “microgravity has very little effect on the boomerang flight. The boomerang is so versatile, it can be tuned to fly in a perfect path back to the thrower, with gyroscopic precession and angular momentum over-compensating the lack of gravity.”

But Broadbent also said that a boomerang would not work in the vacuum of space. “You need air molecules to generate the lift to make the boomerang turn,” he said.

Here’s our earlier article about the boomerang experiment.

Original News Source: You Tube