Category Archives: Transhuman News

Youve used Google Street View to check out a new apartment, map traffic before you hit the road and search for haunting slices of the everyday world.

Now, the comprehensive terrestrial mapping system has gone extraterrestrial, allowing users to peer inside the International Space Stationfrom their computer 248 miles below with 360-degree, panoramic views.

The Street View imagery was captured by Thomas Pesquet, an astronaut with the European Space Agency, who spent six months aboard the ISS before returning to earth in June.

Google Street View, which is featured in Google Maps and Google World, was launched in 2007 and quickly expanded locations around the globe, including places as remote as Mount Everest base campand as offbeat as Scotlands Loch Ness. The vast majority of Street Views photography is shot by a vehicle, whose movement is available to fans online.

[The search for the Loch Ness monster has moved online, thanks to Google]

Googles foray into space is the first time StreetView imagery was captured beyond planet Earth.

In a blog post about his experience, Pesquet wrote that it was difficult to find the words or take a picture that accurately describes the feeling of being in space.

Working with Google on my latest mission, I captured Street View imagery to show what the ISS looks like from the inside, and share what its like to look down on Earth from space, he added.

The virtual tour allows users to peek into areas where astronauts eat, exercise, work and even bathe.

Pesquets imagery reveal an environment that may look a bit cramped and chaotic if not altogether dizzying to humans anchored on earth, but some of the scenes from inside the ISS are downright mesmerizing.

The images were captured using DSLR cameras and then stitched together back on earth to create panoramic views.

Pesquet noted that the ISS is a busy place with six crew members working and researching 12 hours a day.

There are a lot of obstacles up there, and we had limited time to capture the imagery, so we had to be confident that our approach would work. Oh, and theres that whole zero gravity thing, he wrote.

Floating through the ISS online, youll notice clickable dots with detailed descriptions of the space and its objects to help viewers understand what theyre looking at. Pesquet noted that this is the first time annotations helpful little notes that pop up as you explore the ISS have been added to Street View imagery.

The ISS is a large spacecraft that orbits around Earth at more than 17,500 miles per hour and is home for astronauts from around the world, according to NASA. The ISS is made up of many pieces that were constructed by astronauts beginning in 1998. By 2000, as more pieces of the station were added, the station was ready for people, according to NASA. Portions of the station are connected via modules known as nodes, according to NASA.

The first crew arrived on November 2, 2000, NASA wrote. People have lived on the space station ever since. Over time more pieces have been added. NASA and its partners around the world finished the space station in 2011.

NASA compares the inside of the station to the inside of a house, noting that the structure which weighs almost one million pounds and covers an area the side of a football field has five bedrooms, two bathrooms, a gymnasium and a big bay window.

The station houses labs from the United States, Russia, Japan and Europe.

We can collect data on the Earths oceans, atmosphere, and land surface, Pesquet wrote. We can conduct experiments and studies that we wouldnt be able to do from Earth, like monitoring how the human body reacts to microgravity, solving mysteries of the immune system, studying cyclones to alert populations and governments when a storm is approaching, or monitoring marine litter the rapidly increasing amount waste found in our oceans.

Several times a week, Mission Control at NASAs Johnson Space Center in Houston determines where Earthlings can spot the station from the ground below from thousands of locations all over the globe. To find out the best time to see the station from your town, click here.

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Google Street View's latest destination: The International Space Station - Washington Post

Fly me to the moon, let me play among the stars, students sang in a large Campbell Middle School classroom as they tucked away their workbooks and laptops.

They werent rehearsing to form a Frank Sinatra tribute band. Crooning the tune is the celestial motivation for a group of roughly a dozen students hoping to get their lines of code to the International Space Station this summer.

The Zero Robotics program at Campbell Middle aims to take students work to the moon and beyond, all while teaching students about space exploration, computer science and coding.

The five-week summer program is an offshoot of a national high school program and competition provided through a partnership between MIT Space Systems Lab, the Innovation learning Center and Aurora Flight Sciences. It is sponsored by NASA, the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space and the Northrup Grumman Foundation.

The program sees students learn about efficient use of fuel and how to write specific lines of code. Once theyve had enough practice on and off the computer, students write and send the best line of code to the competition in their respective state. There are nine other teams in California competing.

Students must complete objectives, such as navigating around obstacles, docking to other satellites or going in a particular direction, all while conserving the most amount of fuel possible.

Winning teams will get their code uploaded to the International Space Station and watch via a live feed as small robots aboard the space station follow their program. The robots are similar to the ones students work with in the program back on Earth.

Students participate in a game to program movements for synchronized, position, hold, engage, reorient, experimental satellites, or SPHERES for short.

I thought the SPHERES would be shaped like the Earth, but they are shaped like a 3D octagon, said sixth-grade student Tamba Bangurah.

This is the first year students from the Campbell Union School District have participated. Summer camp program coordinator Tanner Marcoida said he had been planting the seed among some students toward the end of the school year to generate interest in participating.

If we have the best code out of our region, then our code will be uploaded to the space station and we will get to see the SPHERES, the actual robots that are on the space station in zero gravity, he said. We actually get to see them play out the game that they have been coding this entire time. Thats quite the treat for hard work.

Documenting the middle school students feat is a film crew from National Geographic.

Marcoida and his students have had Thomas Verrettes film crew follow their daily lessons and games and it will stick around until the final winner is announced.

I didnt know what school I would be in at the time, what students Id be following and the educators, Verrette said. I used the orientation as that resource. I watched how all the educators responded to the program and interviewed quite a few of them and then decided on Campbell.

After deciding Marcoida and his students would be an interesting group to film, he showed up the second day of camp with cameras to get the students used to the crew and having cameras in the room.

The kids are great, Verrette said. Every once in awhile theyll smile and laugh because they forget that were there. In some ways they are a lot easier to deal with than adults when youre trying to document something.

Verrette said he hopes when the documentary is complete and released, people have a newfound respect for science.

As for a release date, Verrette said that is to be determined.

For more information about Zero Robotics, visit zerorobotics.mit.edu.

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Summer program aims to send students' coding projects to space - The Mercury News

When a resupply mission lifts off in August bound for the International Space Station, it will be carrying an important cargo for researchers studying Parkinsons disease: aprotein consideredto be a key to potential future therapies.

Theleucine-rich repeat kinase 2(LRRK2) protein will be the focus of an experiment conducted on the Space Station.It is hoped that the microgravity conditions aboard the Space Station will allow growth of larger, more regular LRRK2 protein crystals, which would help scientists solve the proteins structure providing valuable information for thedesign of optimized therapies to fight Parkinsons disease (PD).

The experiment is the result of a partnership between theMichael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinsons Researchand the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS).

Were thrilled that PD research has been selected to travel to the International Space Station and honored to partner with CASIS on behalf of the PD community here on Earth, said Michael J. Fox, the actor who started the foundation after he was diagnosed with Parkinsons, in a video message played at the International Space Station Research and Development Conference held in Washington, DC, July 17 20.

The SpaceX CRS-12 cargo resupply mission scheduled for liftoff in August will carry LRRK2 protein to the Space Station to be used in the Crystallization of LRRK2 Under Microgravity Conditions (CASIS PCG 7) experiment.

In its role as manager of the Space StationsU.S. National Laboratory, CASIS is responsible for coordinating transfer of scientific materials to and from theSpace Station and oversight of work conducted in the laboratory. The Michael J. Fox Foundation, which initiated this project, has supported earthside preparation of the protein for growth in space.

Advancing Understanding of LRRK2 as a Key Parkinsons Drug Target

LRRK2 is considered to be the greatest known genetic contributor to Parkinsons disease, according to the Michael J. Fox Foundation. Most Parkinsons cases are categorized as idiopathic of unknown cause with only about 10 percent of cases having been linked to a genetic cause. LRRK2 gene mutations are the most common cause of Parkinsonsin that minority, which represents only 1 to 2 percent of total Parkinsons cases.

However, LRRK2 mutations account for a much higher proportion of Parkinsonscases among people of certain ethnic groups, notably Ashkenazi Jews, North African Arab Berbers, and Basques, than they doin the general population.

The foundationnotes that while estimates vary, it is believed that mutated LRRK2 (predominantly the mutation scientists refer to as G2019S) account for some 15 to 20 percent of Parkinsons cases among Ashkenazi Jews, and about 40 percent of cases in North African Arab Berbers. Also, other genetic changes in LRRK2 have been found to increase risk of developing Parkinsons among people of other ethnic backgrounds, such as in Asians of Chinese descent.

Because LRRK2 protein function is heightened in people with Parkinsons disease, and is associated with a mutation in the LRRK2 gene, the foundation believes therapies targeting this gene could also accelerate development of treatments that can benefit a broader Parkinsons population.

However, one obstacle holding back this line of drug development is the limited understanding of LRRK2s exact structure. The foundationnotes that greater understanding of a proteins shape and structure can help developers design therapies more likely to engage a particular protein in treatment of disease.

Overcoming Gravitational Limitations

Earths gravitational field allows only low resolution versions of LRRK2 protein to be grown. However, the Crystallization of LRRK2 Under Microgravity Conditions (CASIS PCG 7) experiment will use automated biotechnology devices operating in the microgravity environment to grow larger, better-formed protein crystals with fewer defects that may yield higher resolution views of LRRK2. These will then be returned to Earth for postflight analysis.

Having a better detailed view of the precise shape and morphology of LRRK2s crystalline structure would help scientists better understand Parkinsons pathology, and accelerate development of LRRK2 inhibitor therapies designed to prevent, slow, or stop Parkinsons disease progression.

The unique environment of the International Space Station untethers research from restrictions imposed by gravity,CASIS president and executive director, Gregory H. Johnson, said in a press release. CASIS is glad to partner with The Michael J. Fox Foundation to explore the structure of this important piece of the Parkinsons puzzle.

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Key Parkinson's Protein Gets Starring Research Role on International Space Station - Parkinson's News Today