China will not likely send a woman into space any time soon, as the pool of people trained to be astronauts are all men and the spacecraft would need to be modified, a space expert was quoted saying Sunday. “It’s regrettable that in the short-term there won’t be any female astronauts,” Huang Weifen, a female trainer for China’s astronauts, was quoted saying by the Guangzhou Daily. Huang said the reason was not any shortcomings on the part of women, but because the spacecraft China uses was designed for men.
December 4th, 2003
Crucial Moments On Route To Mars
Mars Express, ESA’s first probe to Mars, still has some challenges to face. The spacecraft has successfully come through its first power test after the gigantic solar flare on 28 October. Since 17 November the on-board software has been ‘frozen’ after several updates and the spacecraft is now quietly proceeding to its destination. The next major task, starting on 19 December, will be to safely release the Beagle 2 lander.
December 1st, 2003
Countdown To Martian Xmas Now In The Express Lane
The Mars Express spacecraft, despite a series of intense solar flares that occurred late October-early November in active sunspots regions, is in good health and is operating normally. The spacecraft flew in the intense radiation environment that resulted from the exceptional solar and geomagnetic activity associated with these regions, temporarily causing disturbances on the star trackers. These disturbances, which were over within a few days, did not cause damage and did not constitute a threat to the mission.
November 20th, 2003
Rovers On Course For Mars
NASA’s Spirit spacecraft made its third trajectory correction maneuver on Friday, Nov. 14, fine tuning its flight path toward Mars with an engine-firing operation planned into the seven-month trip.
November 17th, 2003
The Calm Before The Storm: An Interview With Dr. Gilbert Levin
In a little over one month, the British built Beagle 2 exobiology lander will look for signs of extinct or extant life on the surface of Mars. Not since NASA’s Viking mission 27 years ago has another search for life on Mars been attempted.
November 13th, 2003
ESA’s First Step Towards Mars Sample Return
What is the next best thing to humans landing on Mars and exploring the wonders of the Red Planet? The answer: touching, imaging and analysing carefully preserved samples of Martian rock in a state-of-the-art laboratory on Earth. If all goes according to plan, this is exactly what ESA’s long-term Aurora programme of Solar System exploration will achieve a decade from now, when the first samples of Mars material will be sealed in a special capsule and returned to Earth for analysis.
November 11th, 2003
Go To Mars Says Planetary Society
The Planetary Society is mobilizing its members and the general public to write President Bush in support of a human space exploration program geared towards the ultimate goal of landing men and women on Mars. “The U.S. human space flight program has been bogged down in Earth orbit for more than 30 years,” said Louis Friedman, Executive Director of The Planetary Society. “It is time to move outward.”
November 10th, 2003
Diet May Improve Cognition, Slow Aging, And Protect Against Cosmic Rays
Eating certain foods can help protect you from heart disease, some types of cancers and other illnesses. But can your diet also help protect your brain if you should suffer a stroke or accidental head injury? Or keep your thinking and memory skills strong as you age? Some scientists believe it might. They even think eating the “right” foods –specifically, those high in antioxidants — may help defend astronauts from brain-damaging cosmic rays on future manned missions to Mars.
November 10th, 2003
Mars-Like Atacama Desert Could Explain Viking No Life Results
A team of scientists from NASA, the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Louisiana State University and several other research organizations has discovered clues from one of Earth’s driest deserts about the limits of life on Earth, and why past missions to Mars may have failed to detect life.
November 5th, 2003
Possible To Conceive And Give Birth To A Child In Space
It is quite possible to conceive, bear and give birth to a healthy child during a space flight. An expert of the Russian Institute of Medical Sciences and Biology Lyubov Serova told RIA Novosti in an interview published Saturday.