I don’t envy the folks going into the modules: I’m pretty sure I’d go stir crazy within a couple days. But the experiment itself has real-world value, so I applaud everyone’s dedication. I’m particularly impressed that communications with “Earth” (ie: the outside world) will be gradually delayed, to simulate the transmission delay as the craft gets farther and farther from our fair planet.

The Mars500 is so called because it simulates the duration of a possible human Mars mission in the future using conventional propulsion: 250 days for the trip to the Red Planet, 30 days on the martian surface and 240 days for the return journey, totalling 520 days (in reality it would probably take a lot longer than this).

Via BBC News.

I don’t care what you say. Astronauts have balls of steel. They strap themselves onto a rocket, shit in a vacuum, and are risking death by space junk tonight.

Apparently a new external ammonia tank for the ISS is important enough to risk getting it by a part of an old European rocket. NASA says that the junk should be far enough away and I guess it doesn’t really matter. I mean, if the the old rocket is close enough to hit the astronaut spacewalking, then it’s close enough to hit the actual station and therefore killing everyone aboard in a Moonraker-fashion.

Lucky cosmonaut and astronauts. Not only do they get the best corner office view ever, but they also have a legit version of Star Trek downloaded. The three men currently on board the International Space Station received a special copy of the film via NASA and settled into a dark node of the station to enjoy the show yesterday.

From the NYTimes,

Michael Barratt, the American astronaut, requested the film before boarding a space-bound shuttle in March, said Ms. Cloutier. He told NASA officials that he was a lifelong admirer of the TV series and did not want to miss this latest big-screen installment while off-planet. It was beamed up to them – really – after being reformatted by NASA technicians in a five-hour procedure Thursday night and beamed up Friday morning.

I’m mean, what more can you want out of life: rides on a Space Shuttle whenever, pissing in zero gravity, and a downloaded copy of Star Trek literally out of reach from the MPAA. Life must be good.

You may have heard last week, while withdrawing all your money from Citibank, that an astronaut lost her tool bag while performing a routine space walk. (Late night comics made jokes along the lines of, “Why does she need her pocketbook up there?”) Well, as luck would have, a “veteran space watcher” may have discovered the bag floating around space. In fact, if you’re in the northeast of the U.S. you may able to spot it, too, provided you have a decent telescope. I mean, what could be more exciting than combing the heavens for a bag?

ABC News has an un-embeddable video on its site of the bag streaking across. The first comment I say made me laugh, too: We can find a bag floating in space but we can’t find Osama bin Laden?

The new suits are being developed for the next major moon mission, Constellation. They’re rejiggering everything from the suits to the mode of transportation (bye bye shuttle) and this is the first look at the new space gear.
Configuration 1, left, is for takeoff, landing, and occasional spacewalks.
Configuration 2, middle, is optimized for walking around on the moon (resistant to moon rocks).
Configuration 3, on the right, is for after the moon base is left undisturbed for years and the astronauts revert to savage infighting and genetic modification.
[via New Scientist]

Whuh oh. Seems the only toilet on the ISS is busted and they can’t get a plumber out there until next week. Astronauts aboard the space station have been able to impose upon the nearby Russian Soyuz spacecraft, using its limited-capacity toilet in a pinch, and have now apparently rigged some sort of sack-like contraption to the toilet on the ISS. Sounds delightful.

The good news is that the problems are only occurring when going number one. The astronauts can go number two just fine, Lord o’ Mercy.

“While one of the crew was using the Russian-made toilet last week, the toilet motor fan stopped working, according to NASA. Since then, the liquid waste gathering part of the toilet has been working on-and-off.

Fortunately, the solid waste collecting part is functioning normally.”

Space Shuttle Discovery is set to launch this Saturday and will meet up with the crew at the ISS on Monday. NASA is “considering having some parts flown to Cape Canaveral, Florida, and placed in the shuttle during its countdown,” which is apparently a bit dangerous. After everything else has already been weighed and balanced, any extra weight could throw off initial calculations.

Come on, though. You gotta fix the toilet, right? That, or hang a sign above it saying “If it’s yellow, let it mellow. If it’s brown, flush it down.”

UPDATE: The Associated Press is reporting that NASA will be sending a special pump up with Space Shuttle Discovery to fix the broken toilet. Flush away, boys. Flush away.

AP/CNN via Switched

Matt tells me this guy has been performing all kinds of semi-trivial experiments like blowing bubblegum bubbles, hitting golf balls of the space station, and now testing the complicated physics involved in boomerangology. I’d say this experiment was a complete and delicious success.
[via Pink Tentacle]