This Desert Life: A massive plane, a decoded genome – VVdailypress.com

Matthew Cabe Staff Writer @DP_MatthewCabe

Significant news for the Mojave Desert in recent weeks emanated from separate sections of the scientific world.

Out in Mojave, California, on May 31, the worlds largest all-composite plane ever built rolled out of its Mojave Air and Space Port hangar for the first time.

Dubbed Stratolaunch, the dual-fuselage plane weighs approximately 250 tons unfueled, stands 50 feet tall and boasts a record-setting wingspan (385 feet) thats 25 feet longer than a football field. Its powered by six Boeing 747 engines.

Before Stratolaunchs gargantuan reveal, several weeks were spent removing the fabrication infrastructure and three-story scaffolding around the plane. Crews then rested the planes full weight on 28 wheels.

Stratolaunch belongs to billionaire Paul Allen, the Microsoft co-founder who owns the Seattle Seahawks and is currently Forbes' 42nd richest person in the world. In 2011, Allen founded Stratolaunch Systems with the goal of making access to space more convenient, reliable and routine.

The purpose of Stratolaunch the plane, then, is to launch satellite-carrying rockets into space at a reduced cost. Allens company partnered with the Virginia-based Orbital ATK, which will provide the rockets capable of carrying the 1,000-pound satellites. Stratolaunch will drop the rockets from about 35,000 feet.

The main cost-effective benefit of an air launch such as this, the company said, is an ability to avoid the limitations of fixed launch sites that can be impacted by weather, air traffic and ship traffic on ocean ranges.

According to the Associated Press, all this will translate into new ways to beam the Internet all across the globe, which in turn will provide better communication.

In the interim, Stratolaunch CEO Jean Floyd said the company will conduct numerous tests in the coming weeks at the Mojave hangar while keeping the plane on track for a launch demonstration in 2019.

On the same day Stratolaunch rolled out of its hangar, researchers from Arizona State Universitys School of Life Sciences made headlines by decoding the Mojave Desert tortoises genome. Their findings were published in the scientific journal PLOS ONE.

Such a breakthrough could help our reptilian neighbor survive an increasing number of threats, according to Science Daily.

Those threats include natural predators, invasive grasses also a threat to the beloved Joshua tree an upper respiratory disease and human activity. All have contributed to the decline of the Mojave Desert tortoise.

But the researchers, led by Marc Tollis, believe the tortoises now decoded genome i.e. a complete set of its DNA will provide a launchpad for further study into areas like disease resistance.

Tollis, as quoted in Science Daily: We don't know how the tortoise is handling the fact that it's also being threatened by an upper respiratory disease," said Tollis. "Decoding this genome will help us catalog which tortoise genes are evolving quickly enough to help them overcome this threat.

Other advantages include deeper dives into how the Mojave tortoise is adapting to its changing desert environment and the diversity of its hybridization with its sister species, the Sonoran Desert tortoise.

The goal is to increase conservation efforts for the Mojave tortoise, which is listed as threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, by posing new questions in light of the decoded genome.

Inevitably, though, the simplest answer already exists. It came up during a chat I had in 2016 with Ed LaRue, a former U.S. Bureau of Land Management biologist and tortoise counter with nearly 30 years experience.

I asked Ed what can be done to combat the significant population reductions numbers decreased 50 percent between 2004 and 2012 alone among Mojave tortoises.

(People) go out to the desert and see a tortoise and think it would be cool in their backyard, Ed said. So to encourage people to understand that they are wild and endangered and don't belong in backyards.

Interpretation: leave the tortoises alone. Maybe look toward the desert skies instead.

You might just spot a giant in two years' time.

Matthew Cabe can be reached at MCabe@VVDailyPress.com or at 760-951-6254. Follow him on Twitter @DP_MatthewCabe.

Visit link:
This Desert Life: A massive plane, a decoded genome - VVdailypress.com