The European Space Agency in partnership with the Russian Institute for Biomedical Problems has planned to send a crew of six on a 500 day simulated journey to mars in spring 2008. The entire experiment will be conducted in a 2,150 square-foot isolation facility in Moscow. The goal is to study how a long duration space journey would affect a human being psychologically and medically.

As part of the mission named Mars500, the participants will have to face simulated emergencies along with situations similar to those in a real space journey: namely, communication delays of around 20 minutes, frozen foods and medical emergencies.

In an interview, ESA scientist, Marc Heppener said:

“Our main interest is to look at the psychology of such a mission, knowing that you are enclosed for 500 days. As soon as there is a problem, the crew knows that they are on their own, and they have to solve it themselves. The only help available from the outside is through communications which may take up to 40 minutes.At the start of their mission the crew will be supplied with all the food they will have to live off for the duration of the study. They have to keep track of their consumables amongst themselves. This limited food supply could lead to additional tensions amongst the crew”.

In a statement, ESA announced:

“The goal of the experiment is to prepare “for future human exploration missions to Mars. We are currently looking for volunteers to take part in a 520-day simulated Mars mission. To go to Mars is still a dream and one of the last gigantic challenges.”

The participants will be selected among volunteers from the general public. The application for participating in the mission is available at the ESA’s Mars500 website. The applicants should be mentally tough and have a qualification in science, engineering and medicine. Good luck astronauts !

Technological advances seem to have never hesitated exploring new arenas as well as merge separate technologies to boost scientific brilliances and improve machine-expertise.

This is revealed by yet another brilliant marriage of laser sources with X-rays’ penetrating power along with atomic sensitivity. And, the result is — the birth of the world’s first X-ray free electron laser, Linac Coherent Light Source undulator system.

Though, the undulator system will be operational not before 2009, it can well be foreseen that the system, surely will, open up new scientific frontiers, representing an immense technical achievement for the United States.

Being designed and constructed at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, the X-ray free electron laser will be a 130-meter undulator system that would provide a precise magnetic field through which an electron beam will travel.

This is how the new improved laser would work:

The undulators’ magnetic fields force the electrons to oscillate back and forth and produce large amounts of X-rays. These X-rays interact back on the electrons and force them to bunch at X-ray wavelengths. When this occurs, the electrons emit their light coherently, causing a large gain in radiation power that raises the X-rays’ intensity.

And the result – Compared to the prevailing X-ray machines, the pulses of X-ray laser light from the Linac Coherent Light Source, will be shorter, but, a billion times brighter.

True, no other X-ray source presently available can produce such bright light and perhaps, would never be able to in the near future – making it a fourth-generation light-source.

Researchers at the University of Utah have reported that the reason we are able to keep ourselves afloat is the massive natural engine of Earth that heats it’s interior.

Without this internal heat all the major cities of Earth would have been hundreds of feet below sea level. In an estimate, researchers have stated that mile-high Denver would be 727 feet below sea level, New York would have been a quarter-mile below and Los Angeles would be almost three-quarters of a mile below the Pacific Ocean.
They also stated that if this engine is shut down then most of the United States would drown, except for some major Western Mountain ranges.

These researchers also stated that the heat inside Earth accounts for more than half the reason why land rises above sea level and forms mountains. Previously it was thought that the density and the makeup of rocks and the tectonic forces were the main reasons for this elevation of land.

However, these researchers have failed to tell what makes heat keep these rocks less dense and more buoyant, but future research can positively give an answer to this query also.

Researchers have also commented that the heat inside Earth’s interior and from the radioactive decay of Uranium, thorium and potassium in Earth’s crust will stay around for a long time to come, and even if the heat generating engine is cooled right now it would take billions of years for the continents to sink.

Researchers from the University of Berlin created the technology to write on HD-DVD Blu-ray drive or 500 gigabytes of data, reports The Register. Maximum capacity of conventional single disc density is 15 gigabytes for HD-DVD and 25-for History. Unlike standard method of recording on the surface, developed technology uses nanostructures disk, thus achieved a high density recording. Professor Suzanne Orlik, leadership development, reported that 500-gigabaytny disc contains 50 layers for storing information. Potentially, one disk can record up to terabytes of data, Orlick adde

Our universe is the "heir" to the other universe that existed before. This contradicts an earlier theory of the Big Bang.

The sensational conclusion of a kosmologa work from the University of Pennsylvania Martin Bodzhovolda. The execution of calculations based on a theory of quantum gravity suggest that our universe was not born in singularity, which is also called 'Big bang, as a result of the Greater spike caused by quantum processes and forces.

had been assumed that the time of the Big Bang that began the universe, preceded infinitely larger energy and deformity prostranstva-vremeni when all currently known laws of physics do not work. The current study suggests, however, that the level of energy and deformation space continuum were extremely high, but not be indefinitely high, but was the ultimate.

Some traces of the past, the universe may be in the present. The Bodzhovolda, they can be found in astronomical observations and models of the universe. However, the scientist, some knowledge of the past-the original universe, irretrievably lost. In particular, the current size of the universe completely exclude the possibility of determining how changes in the size of the universe, preceded Big explosion. This phenomenon scientist called "space bespamyatstvom."

The new hypothesis has not yet dropped to master the existing theory, but has generated great interest and is of great philosophical and ideological significance.

American Mission Mars rovers, Mars exploration rover, may end if not subside strong dust storm, now scene of the Red Planet.

The Martian storm strength comparable only with a very powerful storms occurring in 1971 and 2001, said managers of the mission, although the global level, it is far from reaching. But the bottom has already won : the greatest moments in attack storm, because raised in the atmosphere of giant clouds of sand and dust, access to the world solar cells decreased by 99%.

Shtormy, which began a couple of weeks ago, in the past few days have grown in size several times. Yes, scientists shared Martian storm two major storms, each of which in turn is a few neighbouring the regional dust storms. Together they have already cut a territory larger than the area the United States, Canada and Greenland together.

fact bottom now working at the remnants of energy in batteries, but as soon as drill not happen clearance, roboty-marsohody off : they simply freezing.

The American engineers discussing the possibility of issuing commands to disable much of the equipment bottom, to try to keep as long as the charge in the batteries. And just hope for a miracle.

recall since landing on Mars in January infection two Mars collected a vast amount of information, the importance of which can hardly be overestimated.

weak comfort planetologov, in the event of the untimely loss of groundwater, will be able to observe the evolution of a very strong dust storm on Mars from the beginning until the end. Incidentally, if you have not reached the size, the growth of the storm researchers called unprecedented.

Dark skies affect solar arrays; descent into crater delayed, NASA says

A major dust storm on Mars has worsened and is causing the Mars Exploration Rovers to lose power.

Opportunity's highly anticipated and risky entry into Victoria Crater is delayed for at least several days, NASA announced.

The regional storm, first reported by Space.com, is the most severe to hit the rovers since they began exploring Mars in January 2004. Already last week it was thousands of miles wide. At first, scientists did not expect it to affect rover operations.

But dust from the storm is partly blocking sunlight, which the rovers need in order to recharge their batteries via their solar panels. Opportunity's operations were scaled back June 30 to conserve power, according to the statement.

"The storm is affecting both rovers and reducing the power levels on Opportunity," said John Callas, Mars Exploration Rover project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "We are keeping an eye on this as we go forward, but our entry into Victoria Crater will be delayed until no sooner than July 13."

The storm is expected to continue for at least another week. In the past, regional tempests have been known to grow and engulf the entire planet.

"We have some data that show the atmospheric opacity is decreasing, so the storm might have peaked and we may have passed the worst of this," Callas said. "The situation could improve quickly from here, but we will have to wait and see."

Opportunity is perched near Duck Bay at the rim of Victoria Crater on Meridiani Planum.

Pictures from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter show the storm is regional and includes several local areas of especially high dust activity. The images were not released. The storm has been moving eastward and toward midlatitudes and is now also kicking up more dust at Spirit's location, on the opposite side of the planet at Gusev Crater.

The rovers measure atmospheric dust daily, and Opportunity revealed a new record, with the air's "opacity level" rising from 1.0 to 3.3. Solar array energy on the rover dropped from 765 watt-hours to 402. Dust levels at Spirit's location were much lower.

"While this only represents enough dust to coat the planet to about the thickness of a human hair, it is enough to decrease the brightness of the noon sun by 96 percent compared to a completely clear atmosphere," said Steve Squyres, a Cornell University researcher who is principal investigator of the rover mission. "The solar arrays also receive light that is scattered from the dust, so the decrease in power is not nearly that great."

"We have not seen dust measurements this high on either rover before," Callas said. "If the dust levels were to increase further and stay elevated for several days, there is a risk to how well Opportunity could continue to work in this darkened environment."