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NASA wants to build a floating city above the clouds of Venus

Posted: December 22, 2014 at 9:46 pm

Venus exploration has been deemed off-limits due to its inhospitable climate -- but NASA believes Cloud City may be the answer.

Artistic concept of the permanent city. NASA Langley Research Center

A number of agencies, including, of course, NASA, are focusing solar system exploration efforts on Mars. At first glance, though, Mars doesn't really seem like the best candidate. Venus is much closer -- at a distance that ranges between 38 million kilometres and 261 million kilometres, compared to Mars' 56 million to 401 million kilometres, it's Earth's closest neighbour.

It's also comparable in size to Earth -- a radius of 6,052km to Earth's 6,371 -- and has similar density and chemical composition.

But everything else about it makes it almost utterly unvisitable. While probes have been sent to the planet's surface, they lasted, at most, just two hours before surface conditions on Venus destroyed them. These conditions include an atmospheric pressure up to 92 times greater than Earth's; a mean temperature of 462 degrees Celsius (863 degrees Fahrenheit); extreme volcanic activity; an extremely dense atmosphere consisting mostly of carbon dioxide, with a small amount of nitrogen; and a cloud layer made up of sulphuric acid.

In short, Venus? Not a top holiday destination, really.

NASA thinks it might have a solution that will allow sending humans up to check it out, though: Cloud City.

The High Altitude Venus Operational Concept -- HAVOC -- is a conceptual spacecraft designed by a team at the Systems Analysis and Concepts Directorate at NASA Langley Research Center for the purposes of Venusian exploration. This lighter-than-air rocket would be designed to sit above the acidic clouds for a period of around 30 days, allowing a team of astronauts to collect data about the planet's atmosphere.

While the surface of Venus would destroy a human, hovering above its clouds at an altitude of around 50 kilometres (30 miles) is a set of conditions similar to Earth. Its atmospheric pressure is comparable, and gravity is only slightly lower -- which would allow longer-term stays, effectively eliminating the ailments that occur during long-term stays in zero G. Temperature is about 75 degrees Celsius, which is hotter than is strictly comfortable, but would still be manageable. Finally, the atmosphere at that altitude offers protection from solar radiation comparable to living in Canada.

Artist's concept of the cockpit of the crewed zeppelin. NASA Langley Research Center

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NASA mulls plan to explore Venus with 'Cloud City'

Posted: at 9:46 pm

Washington Its been done in Star Wars living at a planet by floating above it. Now NASA researchers have proposed the concept in real life.

And the planet they have in mind is not so far, far away.

Its actually Earths closest neighbor, Venus.

Some scientists at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration propose sending people there to help study the atmosphere while flying among the clouds in a dirigible.

Although Venus isnt a hospitable place to land, the scientists make a case that the planet should be part of humanitys future in space.

"The atmosphere of Venus is an exciting destination for both further scientific study and future human exploration, says Christopher Jones of NASAs Systems Analysis and Concepts Directorate, in a summary document shared by the space agency. The environment at 50 km [about 31 miles above the surface] is relatively benign, with similar pressure, density, gravity, and radiation protection to the surface of Earth.

Mr. Jones describes the mission as rich in atmospheric research, but also as part of a multi-phase campaign to explore and potentially settle Venus.

Settle Venus? Where ground temperatures are currently in excess of 800 degrees Fahrenheit?

OK, this is where the analogy to Cloud City in the Star Wars movies comes in.

In "The Empire Strikes Back," Cloud City was suspended above the planet Bespin, and film audiences suspended their disbelief as city leader Lando Calrissian (Billie Dee Williams) gave a hard time to interstellar jet jockey Han Solo (Harrison Ford).

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A New Way to Reach Mars Safely, Anytime and on the Cheap

Posted: at 9:46 pm

Ballistic capture, a low-energy method that has coasted spacecraft into lunar orbit, could help humanity visit the Red Planet much more often

A newfound, lower-energy means for spacecraft to attain Martian orbit could help make Red Planet voyages cheaper, safer and therefore more frequent. Credit: NASA

Getting spacecraft to Mars is quite a hassle. Transportation costs can soar into the hundreds of millions of dollars, even when blasting off during "launch windows"the optimal orbital alignments of Earth and Mars that roll around only every 26 months. A huge contributor to that bottom line? The hair-raising arrivals at the Red Planet. Spacecraft screaming along at many thousands of kilometers per hour have to hit the brakes hard, firing retrorockets to swing into orbit. The burn can require hundreds of pounds of extra fuel, lugged expensively off Earth, and comes with some risk of failure that could send the craft careening past or even right into Mars.

This brute force approach to attaining orbit, called a Hohmann transfer, has served historically deep-pocketed space agencies well enough. But in an era of shrinking science budgets the Hohmann transfer's price tag and inherent riskiness look limiting.

Now new research lays out a smoother, safer way to achieve Martian orbit without being restricted by launch windows or busting the bank. Called ballistic capture, it could help open the Martian frontier for more robotic missions, future manned expeditions and even colonization efforts. "It's an eye-opener," says James Green, director of NASA's Planetary Science Division. "It could be a pretty big step for us and really save us resources and capability, which is always what we're looking for."

The premise of a ballistic capture: Instead of shooting for the location Mars will be in its orbit where the spacecraft will meet it, as is conventionally done with Hohmann transfers, a spacecraft is casually lobbed into a Mars-like orbit so that it flies ahead of the planet. Although launch and cruise costs remain the same, the big burn to slow down and hit the Martian bull's-eyeas in the Hohmann scenariois done away with. For ballistic capture, the spacecraft cruises a bit slower than Mars itself as the planet runs its orbital lap around the sun. Mars eventually creeps up on the spacecraft, gravitationally snagging it into a planetary orbit. "That's the magic of ballistic captureit's like flying in formation," says Edward Belbruno, a visiting associated researcher at Princeton University and co-author, with Francesco Topputo of the Polytechnic University of Milan, of a paper detailing the new path to Mars and the physics behind it. The paper, posted on arXiv, has been submitted to the journal Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy.

"A delicate dance" Ballistic capture, also called a low-energy transfer, is not in of itself a new idea. While at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory a quarter century ago, Belbruno laid out the fuel-saving, cost-shaving orbital insertion method for coasting probes to the Moon. A Japanese vessel, called Hiten, first took advantage in 1991, as did NASA's GRAIL mission, launched in 2011.

Belbruno worked out how to let the competing gravities of Earth, the sun and moon gently pull a spacecraft into a desired lunar orbit. All three bodies can be thought of as creating bowl-like depressions in spacetime. By lining up the trajectory of a spacecraft through those bowls, such that momentum slackens along the route, a spacecraft can just "roll" down at the end into the moon's small bowl, easing into orbit fuel-free. "It's a delicate dance," Belbruno says.

Unfortunately, pulling off a similar maneuver at Mars (or anywhere else) seemed impossible because the Red Planet's velocity is much higher than the Moon's. There appeared no way to get a spacecraft to slow down enough to glide into Mars' gravitational spacetime depression because the "bowl," not that deep to begin with, was itself a too-rapidly moving target. "I gave up on it," Belbruno says.

However, while recently consulting for the Boeing Corp., the major contractor for NASA's Space Launch System, which is intended to take humankind to Mars, Belbruno, Topputo and colleagues stumbled on an idea: Why not go with the flow near Mars? Sailing a spacecraft into an orbital path anywhere from a million to even tens of millions of kilometers ahead of the Red Planet would make it possible for Mars (and its spacetime bowl) to ease into the spacecraft's vicinity, thus subsequently letting the spacecraft be ballistically captured. Boeing, intrigued by this novel avenue to Mars, funded the study, in which the authors crunched some numbers and developed models for the capture.

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Patricia Bacus Genetic Engineering Fall 2014 – Video

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Patricia Bacus Genetic Engineering Fall 2014

By: Kim Solez

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GENETIC ENGINEERING BIOTECHAWESOME – Video

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GENETIC ENGINEERING BIOTECHAWESOME
based on journal paper "gene cloning and soluble expression of Aspergillus niger phytase in E.coli via chaperone co-expression (Ushasree et al.)"

By: SAM SHU CUEN

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Stem Cells: Tools for Human Genetics and Heart Regeneration – Video

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Stem Cells: Tools for Human Genetics and Heart Regeneration
Department of Medicine Grand Rounds presentation by Dr. Charles Murry, professor, Department of Pathology, Bioengineering and Medicine/Cardiology; Director, ...

By: UWDeptMedicine

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HERBERT THE PERVERT (The Hidden Source) – Video

Posted: at 9:45 pm


HERBERT THE PERVERT (The Hidden Source)
Enjoy the video? Subscribe! http://bit.ly/SubToSeaNanners What is The Hidden? "In the early 1950s human genetics experimentation was taking its first, tent...

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NewLink Genetics, Merck receive grant to manufacture Ebola vaccine candidate

Posted: at 9:45 pm

Published 22 December 2014

NewLink Genetics and Merck announced that the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) of the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has awarded a contract to manufacture Ebola vaccine candidate.

NewLink Genetics' wholly-owned subsidiary, BioProtection Systems, is the prime contractor in a $30 million contract to support the manufacturing and development activities of its investigational rVSV-EBOV (Ebola) vaccine candidate, including clinical development through a new 330-person Phase Ib study.

The vaccine candidate was initially developed by the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), and is now being developed under an exclusive licensing and collaboration agreement between NewLink Genetics and Merck. The rVSV-EBOV (Ebola) vaccine candidate is currently being evaluated in Phase I clinical studies in humans.

"The current funding provided by BARDA is key to the rapid development of this Ebola vaccine candidate. These funds will support multiple facets of the accelerated Ebola vaccine program including the expansion of critical vaccine supplies and larger clinical studies," said Dr. Charles Link, CEO and Chief Scientific Officer of NewLink Genetics.

"Governments and industry are effectively collaborating in an unprecedented effort to accelerate the development of Ebola vaccine candidates," said Dr. Mark Feinberg, chief public health and science officer of Merck Vaccines. "If we can bring an efficacious and well-tolerated vaccine to the outbreak countries, we will not only help protect people at risk in the current crisis, but also may help reduce the likelihood of such tragic events in the future."

Pending the results of Phase I trials underway, the US National Institutes of Health has announced plans to initiate, in early 2015, a large randomized, controlled Phase II/III study to evaluate the safety and efficacy of this and another investigational Ebola vaccine candidate.

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NDSU, Sanford Health Announce Research on Human Health, Nutrition

Posted: at 9:45 pm

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North Dakota State University, Fargo, and Sanford Health will conduct collaborative research on human nutrition, weight management and other dietary-related areas as part of a seed-grant initiative developed between the two organizations. The research will address key objectives of the Profile by Sanford program.

Profile is a weight-management program that uses customized meal plans, health coaches and real-time technology. It was developed by Sanford physicians and researchers.

NDSU researchers will have opportunities to collaborate with investigators from Sanford Research on topics like metabolism, food choices and consumption, prenatal nutrition, genetics, development of sensors that monitor wellness factors and food manufacturing and nutritional interactions with the human microbiome. Research findings relevant to Profile will be considered as the program evolves and expands.

Sanford will provide $250,000 annually for five years for the seed-grant program.

This collaboration with Sanford represents additional opportunities for faculty to conduct research with potential wide-ranging implications for positive impact on human health, said NDSU President Dean L. Bresciani.

Sanford Health was named as the first Campus Community Partner in 2012, to recognize private sector collaborations with the university that benefit the community, said President Bresciani. Adding this research collaboration to our already strong partnership to train nurses in the region, further illustrates our commitment to the communities we serve.

The Profile system utilizes meal-replacement products, nutritionally complete foods, qualified health coaches and client tracking of body weight, blood pressure and physical activity through smart wireless technology. Jawbone UP24 activity trackers are integrated with the Profile app to allow members to track their movement and sleep patterns. A new fitness tracker will provide additional measurable data helpful to members to monitor progress.

This collaboration offers an additional opportunity to further serve the citizens of the region, while potentially making strides that contribute to important research on health and well-being, said Kelly A. Rusch, NDSU vice president for research and creative activity.

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Fragile bones of modern humans result from reduced physical activity

Posted: at 9:45 pm

VIDEO:This is a scan of a femur and comparison of gracile and robust tribecular bone in the femur head. view more

The comparatively light bone structure of modern humans compared to early human species and other modern primates may be due to the modern abandonment of the constant physical activity that was inherent in the life of early hunter gathers, according to an international team of researchers. This knowledge may aid in prevention of osteoporosis and hip fracture in the elderly.

"We set out to test three potential explanations for modern human gracility and any one of them would have been interesting," said Timothy M. Ryan, associate professor of anthropology and information science and technology, Penn State. "What we found was the most interesting."

The most plausible explanation, he said, is that a lack of constant physical activity causes the bone in the head of the femur -- the long bone in the thigh -- to become thinner and lighter than that found in more mobile populations or modern primates such as chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans. The other two possible explanations, that humans and nonhuman primates have different bone structure because of genetics, with humans evolving to a lighter, more gracile structure, or that the large joint surfaces required for upright, two-legged movement decrease the strain on bone and therefore the development of strong bones, do not appear to be true.

Ryan, working with Colin N. Shaw of the University of Cambridge, UK, looked at the hip joint to determine which of the three possible explanations was likely. They compared these joints in samples from foraging populations, early agriculturalists and comparably sized nonhuman primates. The human bones came from two agricultural groups and two foraging groups that once lived in what is now Illinois. The nonhuman bones came mostly from wild specimens in collections.

The researchers used noninvasive microcomputed tomography to scan the hip joint ends of the femurs. In all, the study included 59 adult humans and 229 nonhuman primates. Ryan and Shaw compared the trabecular bone -- the honeycomb-like bone that fills joint ends -- among the three groups.

"The results of the present study indicate that human populations with divergent activity patterns display significantly different trabecular bone structural characteristics in the proximal femur," the researchers report online today (Dec 22) in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The researchers found that the agriculturalists had significantly lower bone mass than the foragers. However, the bone characteristics of the more mobile foragers overlapped with those of the nonhuman primates.

"There are other things that could account for some of the differences between early agriculturalists and foragers," said Ryan. "The amount of cultivated grains in the diet of the agriculturalists, in this case maize, as well as possible deficiencies in dietary calcium may also contribute to lower bone mass. It does seem, however, that the biomechanical aspects of foraging play a large part."

"The findings of the present study have significant implications for understanding human skeletal form and its relationship to age-related bone loss in contemporary human populations," the

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