Category Archives: Transhuman News

#blizzardof2015 New York/Boston Blizzard 2015 from Space
Astronaut Terry Virts captured this video of the East Coast blizzard last night from the International Space Station. #blizzardof2015 #Juno #Blizzard #Boston #newyork Video Credits : International...

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#blizzardof2015 New York/Boston Blizzard 2015 from Space - Video

Xenobot | iOS Gameplay Video
Xenobot - GameShock Limited Liability Company | iOS Gameplay Video Xenobot Online is a strategy game about combat robots controlled by a player from a space station. The gigantic spaceship...

By: IGV IOS Gameplay Videos

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Xenobot | iOS Gameplay Video - Video

Space, the final frontier, announces James T. Kirk at the start of the first Star Trek episode. As the spaceship Enterprise flies past the screen, the voice sounds as though it was recorded in a very reverberant cathedral. I know space is a big place, but where are the reflections meant to be coming from? And anyway, space is silent or, to quote the catchy tag line from the 1979 movie Alien, in space, no one can hear you scream.

For an astronaut unfortunate enough to be caught outside the spaceship without a space suit, screaming to occupy the moments before asphyxiation would be pointless, as there are no air molecules to carry the sound waves. But Hollywood does not let anything as trivial as physics get in the way of a compelling soundtrack. The latest Star Trek film showed the outside of the soaring Enterprise accompanied by lots of powerful engine noises; the photon torpedoes sounded pretty impressive as well.

When I think of the inside of a real spacecraft, I picture people floating serenely and gracefully in zero gravity. I met NASA astronaut Ron Garan in early 2012, when he had just returned from a six-month mission on board the International Space Station. He explained to me that the sonic environment in a real spacecraft is a long way from being serene. Even outside on a spacewalk (his previous mission had included a walk that lasted six and a half hours), there is no silence.

Indeed, it would have been worrying if there had been, because it would have meant that the pumps circulating air for him to breathe had stopped working. Spacecraft are full of noisy mechanical devices, such as refrigerators, air-conditioning units, and fans. Theoretically, the noise could be reduced, but quieter, heavier machines would be expensive to lift into orbit.

Studies on a single space shuttle flight found temporary partial deafness in the crew. Inside the International Space Station (ISS) it is so loud that some fear for the astronauts hearing. At its worst, the noise level in sleep stations was about the same as in a very noisy office (65 decibels). An article in New Scientist reported, Astronauts on the ISS used to have to wear ear plugs all day, but are now only [required to] wear them for 2 to 3 hours per work day. The need for earplugs, even for part of the day, indicates how hostile the soundscape is. Squidgy foam earplugs can reduce sound by about 2030 decibels. The higher levels of carbon dioxide and atmospheric contaminants that exist at zero gravity in spacecraft might also make the inner ear more susceptible to noise damage.

Outer space might be devoid of audible sound, but that is not true of other planets, and scientists have put microphones on spacecraft such as the Huygens probe to Saturns moon Titan to record it. As long as a planet or moon has an atmospheresome gas clinging to the planetthere is sound. Microphones have the advantage of being light, needing little power, and being able to hear things hidden from cameras. Mind you, the audio recorded from Titan as the Huygens probe descended through the atmosphere is not very otherworldly. It reminded me of wind rushing by an open car window while driving on a highway. However, when I consider where it was recorded, almost a billion miles away from Earth, this mundane sound feels much more exciting.

If a pipe organ were taken to Mars for a performance of Bachs Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, the astronauts would find the notes coming out of their musical instruments at a lower frequency. The atmosphere of Mars would transpose the music to roughly G-sharp minor.

The frequency of the note produced by an organ pipe depends on the time it takes sound to travel up and down the length of the tube. Because Mars has a thin, cold atmosphere of carbon dioxide and nitrogen, sound moves at about two-thirds the speed it does on Earth. The slower round-trip up and down the organ pipe produces a lower frequency.

Given the toxic gases in the atmosphere, visiting astronauts would not be taking their helmets off to sing. But if someone did dare to do this, the voice would drop in pitch like the organ pipe, turning tenors into Barry White soundalikes. Unfortunately, the sexy voice would not carry very far, because Marss thin atmosphere is almost a vacuum.

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What Does Space Sound Like?

Boeing and SpaceX are building private spaceships to resume launching US astronauts from US soil to the International Space Station in 2017. Credit: NASA

After a hiatus of six long years, US astronauts will finally launch to space in a revolutionary new pair of private crew capsules under development by Boeing and SpaceX, starting in 2017, that will end our sole source reliance on the Russians for launching our astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS).

Two years from now, crews will start flying to space aboard the first US commercial spaceships, launching atop US rockets from US soil, said officials from Boeing, SpaceX, and NASA at a joint news conference on Monday, Jan. 26. The human rated spaceships also known as space taxis are being designed and manufactured under the auspices of NASAs Commercial Crew Program (CCP).

A two person mixed crew of NASA astronauts and company test pilots will fly on the first test flights going to the space station in 2017.

The goal of NASAs Commercial Crew Program, underway since 2010, has been to develop safe, reliable, and cost-effective spaceships that will ferry astronauts to and from the massive orbiting lab complex.

Its an incredible testament to American ingenuity and know-how, and an extraordinary validation of the vision we laid out just a few years ago as we prepared for the long-planned retirement of the space shuttle, said NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden during the briefing at the agencys Johnson Space Center in Houston. Bolden is a four time veteran space shuttle astronaut.

This work is part of a vital strategy to equip our nation with the technologies for the future and inspire a new generation of explorers to take the next giant leap for America.

NASAs Stephanie Schierholz introduces the panel of Johnson Space Center Director Dr. Ellen Ochoa, seated, left, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden, Commercial Crew Program Manager Kathy Lueders, Boeings John Elbon, SpaceXs Gwynne Shotwell, and NASA astronaut Mike Fincke at Jan. 26 commercial crew new conference. Credit: NASA TV

We have been working overtime to get Americans back to space from US soil and end US reliance on Russia, Bolden added. My job is to ensure we get Americans back to space as soon as possible and safely.

We have been in-sourcing space jobs back to the US.

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NASA, Boeing, and SpaceX to Launch 1st Commercial Crew Ships to Space Station in 2017

Using the Nightpod camera stand aboard the International Space Station, an astronaut captures a series of dramatic lightning strikes as seen from above our clouds.

This electrical storm looks decidedly sci-fi when seen from the ISS. ESA/NASA

Trying to take a snapshot of the Earth from aboard the International Space Station -- let alone a series of them -- is tricky business because they're both rotating at some pretty impressive camera-blurring speeds.

So how do you capture lightning flashes down on Earth with the clarity seen in a new, seven-second video from the European Space Agency? By using the Nightpod camera stand, that's how.

The Nightpod is a special camera stand mounted in the cupola of the ISS that tracks a specific point on Earth as it zooms around the planet at 28,800 km/h (about 17,895 mph), according to the space agency. By compensating for both the rotation of our planet and the ISS itself, it allows cameras to snap super-sharp pictures free from the blur that would otherwise ruin the shots.

"To calibrate the motors, an astronaut enters the Space Station's altitude, as well as its yaw, pitch and roll," according to the Nightpod website. "These parameters change in orbit but are readily available to astronauts on the Space Station computers. After calibration, all the astronaut has to do is point the camera at the target, release the shutter and Nightpod will automatically compensate for the movement of the Station, keeping the subject steady in the camera's viewfinder during its exposure time."

In the case of the video below, the ESA stitched together 49 Nightpod-aided images of an electrical storm above eastern Romania, according to the Daily Mail. The shots were taken by astronaut Andr Kuipers from the ISS in June 2012, although the video montage was released by the ESA just last week. Kuipers is the Dutch astronaut who brought the Nightpod camera mount to the ISS .

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Dramatic video shows lightning strikes from space