Category Archives: Transhuman News

Alien: Isolation - Episode #42 - The Nest
Amanda Ripley #39;s search for her missing mother has lead her to the space station Sevastopol... Unfortunately, something terrible has happened on board! Amanda will have to fight for her life...

By: OSWguild

Read this article:
Alien: Isolation - Episode #42 - The Nest - Video

Staying fit on the space station
Aboard the International Space Station, Expedition 43 Flight Engineer Samantha Cristoforetti of ESA (European Space Agency) discussed the merits of fitness and nutrition with elementary school...

By: Waspie_Dwarf

Read this article:
Staying fit on the space station - Video

An American astronaut and Russian cosmonaut will leave Earth this week and move into the International Space Station for an entire year, all in the name of science.

Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko begin their marathon mission with a Soyuz rocket launch from Kazakhstan early Saturday Friday in the U.S. They should arrive at the orbiting outpost six hours later.

It will be NASA's first stab at a one-year spaceflight, a predecessor for Mars expeditions that would last two to three times as long. The Russians are old hands at this, but it's been nearly two decades since a cosmonaut has spent close to a year in orbit.

Five things to know about the duo's extraordinary endeavor:

THE CREW

Both Scott Kelly and Mikhail Kornienko have lived on the space station before. No-nonsense former military men, they were selected as an astronaut and cosmonaut in the 1990s. Kelly, 51, is a retired Navy captain and former space shuttle commander. Kornienko, 54, is a former paratrooper. The pair will blast off with Russian Gennady Padalka, a veteran spaceman who will spend six months at the orbiting lab.

THE MISSION

Kelly and Kornienko will remain on board until next March. During that time, they will undergo extensive medical experiments, and prepare the station for the anticipated 2017 arrival of new U.S. commercial crew capsules. That means a series of spacewalks for Kelly. They also will oversee the comings and goings of numerous cargo ships, as well as other Russian-launched crews. Soprano superstar Sarah Brightman will stop by as a space tourist in September.

THE SCIENCE

Doctors are eager to learn what happens to Kelly and Kornienko once they surpass the usual six-month stay for space station residents. Bones and muscles weaken in weightlessness, as does the immune system. Body fluids also shift into the head when gravity is absent, and that puts pressure on the brain and the eyes, impairing vision for some astronauts in space. Might these afflictions peter out after six months, hold steady or ramp up? That's what researchers want to find out so they can protect Mars-bound crews in the decades ahead.

Read the original:
American, Russian Leaving Earth for Year at Space Station

Hamid Ansari talks on the phone with his wife, Anousheh Ansari, during her first moments onboard the International Space Station, on September 20, 2006 in Korolev Russia. Ansari and the Expedition 14 crew docked to the International Space Station September 20, 2006. A Soyuz TMA-9 spacecraft lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan September 18, 2006. Photo by Bill Ingalls/NASA/Getty Images

Russia officials say they will resume space tourism in 2018 after years of sending into space only professional cosmonauts and astronauts.

Russia had sent seven paying guests to the International Space Station since 2001 before curtailing the program in 2009. Sending a tourist has been all but impossible since 2011 when the United States shut down its Space Shuttle program and had to rely on Russian Soyuz rockets in order to get into orbit.

Russia, however, has made an exception for British soprano Sarah Brightman who is due to blast off on Sept. 1.

American enterprises aimed at space tourism were stymied last fall after a Virgin Galactic craft crashed during a test flight over the Mojave desert. The SpaceShipTwo crash, on Oct. 31, 2014, killed one pilot and left another injured. It also slowed Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson's plans of getting paying customers to the edges of space, for $250,000 a pop.

Virgin Galactic CEO said soon after the incident that the company could resume test flights this summer.

Russia's RKK Energia, a state-controlled rocket manufacturer, said in a quarterly report released on Tuesday that it plans to make up for an expected drop in demand for manned flights by resuming space tourism in 2018.

Read more here:
Russia to resume space tourism in 2018