Category Archives: Transhuman News

Next Station Crew Tours Red Square on May 8
Expedition 40/41 Soyuz Commander Max Suraev of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), NASA Flight Engineer Reid Wiseman and Flight Engineer Alexander Gerst of the European Space Agency...

By: ReelNASA

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Next Station Crew Tours Red Square on May 8 - Video

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Cash Machine Present Your Brand After Effects Templates - Video

ISS Exp Mission Overview Briefing
The International Space Station Program Overview Briefing discusses upcoming mission priorities and objectives for Expeditions 40 and 41. The two expeditions will involve increasing research...

By: NASA

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ISS Exp Mission Overview Briefing - Video

ISS Expedition Crews 40 and 41 Practice for Space Launch in Baikonur, Kazakhstan
At the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, Expedition 40/41 Soyuz Commander Max Suraev of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), NASA Flight Engineer Reid Wiseman and Flight Engineer...

By: NASA

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ISS Expedition Crews 40 and 41 Practice for Space Launch in Baikonur, Kazakhstan - Video

In the wake of all the jabs about trade sanctions, trampoline launches and a space station pullout, America's dependence on Russian space hardware is suddenly looking like a bad idea. But Rand Simberg, a self-described recovering aerospace engineer, says policymakers should have seen it coming.

"I think the scales have been falling off people's eyes in Washington, and now they realize what a huge mistake they made 20 years ago," Simberg told NBC News.

Simberg argues that there's a connection between the current troubles with Russia and America's post-Apollo space policy. "The reason that we're dependent on the Russians," he said, "is because we're chicken...," he said. (Simberg added another word after "chicken" that may not be suitable for a family publication.)

In his book "Safe Is Not an Option," Simberg argues that America's space program has stagnated because it's become so risk-averse. The way he sees it, policymakers learned the wrong lessons from the 1986 Challenger shuttle disaster and the 2003 loss of the shuttle Columbia.

Rather than doubling down on an expensive launch system, NASA and Congress should have looked to more reliable, more commercially viable alternatives, he says. And Simberg fears that they're making the same mistake with the heavy-lift Space Launch System, which is arguably more expensive than the shuttle.

Some members of Congress argue that spaceflight has to be expensive, and has to be under the control of the government, because commercial launch providers may not measure up to their safety standards. But Simberg says the bureaucratic fixation on complete safety is wrong-headed.

"The point that I make in the book is that there is no 'safe,'" he said. "It's always a continuum. There is no 'safe' or 'unsafe' unless we quantify what's the cost of a loss of crew."

He explains that the safety of a risky endeavor should be measured against the importance of that endeavor. For example, the U.S. military's role is so important that casualties, even non-combat casualties, are a given. If space exploration and settlement is in the national interest, Simberg argues that there should be a more reasonable balance between those endeavors and their risks.

"We're behaving as though space isn't important," Simberg said. "I am not going to try to convince somebody that space is important. I'm just saying that if it is, we should be doing things differently."

This week he laid out some recommendations in an op-ed column for USA Today and a follow-up on The Corner, a blog at National Review Online. The top item: Accelerate NASA's commercial crew program, which is currently supporting the development of U.S. commercial spaceships to carry astronauts to and from the International Space Station. NASA is aiming to have those spaceships ready by 2017, but Congress has consistently pared down funding requests for the effort.

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Safety First? It's Time for a Fresh Look at the Risks of Spaceflight

Space food has come a long way since 1966 when this photo was taken of a NASA test subject consuming a meal of pot roast and gravy through a feeding tube pack aboard a Gemini spacecraft mockup. Photo by Underwood Archives/Getty Images

In space, green beans taste like grass and sliced strawberries are repulsively sweet. Thats according to NASA astronaut Douglas Wheelock, who spent more than 178 days living and eating aboard the International Space Station and space shuttle Discovery.

The astronaut palate is a mysterious thing. Some say their favorite foods taste like plastic in space. Others say flavor gets better. What is undisputed is that a persons taste for something on Earth cant be trusted in orbit.

This is partly because the bodys fluids realign in microgravity, causing nasal congestion, says Pamela Dalton, a researcher at the Monell Chemical Senses Center. Swelling in the nasal passage also obstructs the transport of odor molecules to their receptors, which, Dalton said, can translate to a 70 percent reduction in flavor. After a few weeks the swelling subsides, but some congestion remains.

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield known by earthlings as the guy who performed a rendition of David Bowies Space Oddity while commander of the International Space Station said being in space was like suffering a perpetual head cold.

Imagine standing on your head for hours, he said. Its kind of like that.

To compensate, astronauts have been known to go heavy on the hot sauce. Wasabi, Louisiana hot sauce, peppery olive oil and Tabasco clutter the ISS cabinets.

The perennial favorite? Shrimp cocktail freeze-dried shrimp and a tomato-based sauce with bits of horseradish.

Its got a really strong, searing, wasabi kind of cut to the flavor that opens up the sinuses, Hadfield said. Moreover, the distinctive texture of shrimp that fibrous chewiness survives rehydration better than other foods.

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In space, take your protein pills and get your Sriracha on