In the Name of Biological Science : Exploring Space

"I believe it's the most comprehensive assessment of human beings to date."
"I don't know that there's been anything close to this."
"The main conclusion I got from this paper, based on all the objective data, is why would anybody want to go to Mars or be in space?"
Dr. Eric Topol, director, Scripps Research Translational Institute

"The fact that they're twins really narrows down the alternatives."
"We can say that, as best as we can tell, these changes [biological changes to the human body] are due to space flight."
"People have asked me, 'Well, is going to space the Fountain of Youth?' I don't think so If it is, you're going to have to stay up there forever."
Susan Bailey, cancer biologist, Colorado State University

Over the past few years, twins Mark and Scott Kelly have participated in what’s now called the NASA Twin Study: A first-of-its kind longitudinal study in which one brother (Scott) spent a year onboard the International Space Station (ISS) and the other (Mark, who had already retired from spaceflight) spent those same 12 months on Earth.

NASA/Robert Markowitz

Two brothers, actually twin brothers, and both American astronauts. What an opportunity for science to study the effects on the human body that is hurtled into space and remains there for a period of time. What might the change of atmosphere, gravity, living in an scientifically technologically-manipulated environment for an extended period of time result in with respect to the human body's ability to adjust to these radical new conditions imposed upon it?

Scott Kelly, aboard the International Space Station, spent 340 days using his own body as the experiment from which he drew data to be examined at a later date upon his return to Earth from his stay on the orbiting space station. While he played computer games to test his memory and reaction speed, and drew blood for tests, saved his urine for the same purpose, measured the shape of his eyes, his twin brother Mark, conducted identical tests on himself 385 kilometers away, on Earth.

The idea was to compare test results between the twins and to determine the differences at the molecular level. It has taken three years to study the results drawn from the 55-year-old astronaut-twins for NASA researchers to report on the changes that Scott's body underwent while he was in orbit. In some of his cells DNA mutated; his immune system responded with a number of new signals, and his microbiome hosted new bacterial species.

Of the biological changes, many faded away after his return while others, including genetic mutations and declines in cognition test scores failed to return to their former, pre-orbit state. The former was reassuring, while the latter was found concerning, at the very least to the scientists if not to Scott himself. Among the scientists there were some who thought of managing the risks -- leaving others to wonder whether long journeys to Mars or beyond would ever be 'safe' biologically for astronauts.

It's been six decades that astronauts have shot out of Earth's atmosphere into the inner ring of space surrounding our planet. Despite that sixty years and the experiences that have been documented, scientists face a large question mark about life in space. The NASA Twins Study published in the journal Science, led the agency to hope to be able to more fully appreciate changes that Scott Kelly experienced.

Researchers were led to believe by studying the comparison tests between the twins that the pace of biological alterations became more measured, hinting that the human body in space reaches a new equilibrium in adjustment. Dr. Bailey, a co-author of the study, looked at sections of Kelly's DNA called telomeres which protect chromosomes where they are seated, from deterioration. Telomeres become shorter as people age. Radiation or pollution may hasten aging, fraying telomeres more than is usual.

Kelly's telomeres increased while in space, rather than decreasing; it was as though his cells were more youthful, a reversal of expectations -- and it was speculated that the space environment might have aroused a quiet population of stem cells in his body. His body may have produced a fresh supply of young cells with longer telomeres, it was suggested. Thousands of genes, once inactive, increased their activity in Scott's body, while Mark's body on Earth saw his genes remaining stable.

Scott Kelly on board the International Space Station during his year in space. (NASA)

Radiation levels in the International Space Station, higher than those on Earth may have been responsible for some of the awakened genes known to encode proteins to aid in restoring damaged DNA. On his return to Earth in March of 2016, his body indicated signs of intense stress, his immune system in high gear, reflecting a shock to the body, which restored to normal pre-flight condition quite expeditiously. The bacteria that thrived in his gut while in space that were alien, disappeared, back on Earth.

Yet some biological aspects of Kelly's body failed to return to their pre-flight norm, and six months following his return to Earth, 8.7 percent of his genes still behaved in an untypical manner -- and research indicated he failed to respond as well on cognitive exams, while even more worrying was a collection of genetic mutations gained in space, enduring. Radiation can trigger a kind of mutation that incites cells to gain even greater mutations as they divide; cells may begin growing exponentially "taking steps on the road to cancer", explained Dr. Bailey.

"I think all of these problems are solvable", stated Jerry Shay, a cell biologist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, who holds out hope for countermeasures that might protect astronauts. To that end, he and his colleagues are testing drugs meant to trigger cells to mend DNA which has been damaged by radiation exposure.

Graphic illustration of the path the individual Twins Study research takes from research to integration to one summary paper to several companion papers. (NASA)

Capturing an Elusive Cosmic Theory

"In many moments you search and ask yourself, why do I do this?"
"I thought, Oh my God, what is this?"
"[But witnessing the joy of astronomers at this discovery was] awe-inspiring and unique. It's so exciting to find and register something yet unseen by humans."
Victor Buso, amateur astronomer, Rosario, Argentina

"In our field, this is a fundamental question: What is the structure of the star at the moment of explosion [birth of a supernova]?"
"We immediately noticed this was an incredibly important discovery. Given that we don't know where and in which moment a supernova is going to explode, it is very easy to lose this very fast early phase."
"This is the first confirmation of the existence of this phase, which is really in agreement with the [computer] models."
Melina Bersten, astrophysicist, Institute of Astrophysics, La Plata, Argentina

"[Stellar explosions] come in different flavours."
"Victor was really very lucky - cannot deny that - but also he had enough expertise to be able to see the object and to realize that this was possible."
"I would hope the amateur astronomers are encouraged to do more of this." 
"We want to know how stars evolve into the different structures that give different outcomes in supernovas."
Gaston Fotalli, astrophysicist, Institute of Astrophysics, La Plata, Argentina

To date, no one has been able to capture the 'first optical light' from a supernova, since stars explode seemingly at random in the sky, and the burst is fleeting. Pictured is the supernova (red cross) captured by University of California researchers after Mr Buso's find

A passion for astronomy led a man whose parents instilled that fascination in him when he was a little boy, to dedicate himself to scanning the night sky to discern what he could of the mysteries of the universe. As a child he made his first telescope as precocious children are wont to do with tin cans, lenses from magnifying glasses and clay mucilage. He watched, alongside his parents on television as Neil Armstrong took the first steps on the surface of the moon, for humanity. "Vitito, you have to see this moment. You will never forget it", his mother told him.

And he never did. Now 58, and a locksmith by trade, his love of astronomy only grew over the years. He had at one point, sold some property belonging to his family and with the proceeds built an observatory on the roof of his house. It is where he spends all of his leisure hours, scanning the skies. To help him in this passion, he acquired a powerful 40-centimeter telescope and with it observes the sky and the shimmering stars that are housed in his observable cosmos and in the process takes photographs.

On September 21, 2016 he was putting a new camera to the test, pointing it toward a barred spiral galaxy, some 65 million light-years away, called NGC-613. Soon something unusual drew his attention; a tiny pixel of light appeared in his photographs, and that pixel of light had no presence in archival images he studied online for comparison. He keenly observed as the light appeared to become brighter. He wanted to immediately contact professional astronomers but they all had gone off to attend an annual conference.

Victor Buso at the rooftop observatory in which he captured the first images of the early stages of the birth of a supernova.

The next night Victor Buso rushed up to his roof, anxious to see if that faint pixel had developed to become a brilliant, full-bore supernova, and to his amazement his expectation was met. In time, those images he took which had so excited him, came into the possession of Drs. Bersten and Folatelli, and they were thunderstruck by the revelations and ramifications. Buso, according to a statement from the University of California Berkley, had captured light from the first hour of a supernova.

The two astrophysicists at the La Plata Institute of Astrophysics authored a paper on this event so unusual it had never before been witnessed, an event that bore out all the theories that astronomers had posited about the birth of supernovas. Their paper was published in the journal Nature, as a landmark event for astronomy. The instantaneous "shock breakout" phase of a supernova; an energy wave rolling out of a star's core to its exterior, heralding the star's explosion. Theorized and finally witnessed.

With the photographs acquired from Mr. Buso to guide them, the two astrophysicists used powerful telescopes, observing the supernova in multiple wavelengths, detecting the light signature of a star whose hydrogen envelope had disintegrated, then exploded, allowing insight into the structure of the progenitor star, a yellow supergiant identified as a binary star, roughly 20 times more massive than Earth's sun.

That Mr. Buso was able to capture this singular event, one that had eluded the best efforts of trained astronomers in their search to observe just such an event, represented an opportunity of rare synchronicity, serendipitous and coincidental to the fact that as an amateur he was in possession of a new, powerful camera, all of which came together; his determined passion, his keen eye and acquired knowledge, his excellent equipment and the particularity of the event occurring just at that moment.

In 1987, astronomers spotted a ‘titanic supernova’ in a nearby galaxy blazing with the power of over 100 million suns (pictured)

Interstellar Interception? Misconception?

"It appears to be moving at an orbit affected only by gravity. The object is rotating and we want to make sure to catch every face of it."
"[Should Listen's telescopic probe detect something outside the norm, it could indicate] that either there is some very exotic physics going on, in and around the object] or that an advanced, extraterrestrial civilization had created it and perhaps sent it to our solar system for purposes that are unknown."
"Nature doesn’t broadcast on a very specific frequency, it smears it out across colour and time."
"Technology behaves differently. It can compress electromagnetic energy and so we look for those specific signs and for repeating patterns which nature doesn’t tend to do. We look for structure."
Andrew Siemion, director, Berkeley SETI Research Centre

"With our equipment at Green Bank, we can detect a signal the strength of a mobile phone coming out of this object."
"We don't want to be sensational in any way and we are very realistic about the chances this is artificial, but because this is a unique situation, we think mankind can afford ten hours of observing time using the best equipment on the planet to check a low-probability hypothesis."
Yuri Milner, Breakthrough Listen

"A cigar or needle shape is the most likely architecture for an interstellar spacecraft, since this would minimize friction and damage from interstellar gas and dust."
University of California, Berkeley, Breakthrough Listen project

"We're not implying anything here with respect to artificial intelligence or extraterrestrial life."
"It's on a trajectory that is well defined, moving at a speed that says it had to have entered from interstellar space. So it came from elsewhere, if you will."
"There's a lot of stuff flying between the stars. We eject material from planetary systems all the time, especially during formation processes."
Paul Delaney, Professor of physics and astronomy, York University, Toronto

An artist's impression of the huge cigar-shaped object (PA)

It is unusual enough to have drawn the attention of the world's foremost theoretical physicist and cosmologist to the possibility that the asteroid-like rock formation hurtling through space in a trajectory that brought it from outer space as an interstellar object of interest into our solar system for some deliberate purpose which in the minds of astronomers could only be to document the presence of life in solar systems throughout the universe other than their own; which is to say the advanced technological civilization that presumably lives elsewhere in the universe.

"Perhaps the aliens have a mothership that travels fast and releases baby spacecrafts that freely fall into planetary system on a reconnaissance mission."
"If this object is natural in origin, there should be many more like it in the solar system… and even if most of them are natural, perhaps one of them will be found to be of artificial origin, some space device or junk from an alien civilization."
"The more I study this object, the more unusual it appears, making me wonder whether it might be an artificially made probe which was sent by an alien civilization."
Professor Stephen Hawking, Britain

The mysterious object is cigar shaped and believed to be from interstellar space

Seriously, can we take this seriously? But there it is, the first object to have ever been spotted coming into our solar system from interplanetary space. If it is indeed a highly advanced technological spaceship-laboratory designed and sent off by some alien extraterrestrials it would seem that however this object is designed, its exterior resembling a rocky asteroid, it is not dependent on any kind of rocketry or jet propulsion of any kind to attain its tremendous speeds through space, but on gravity itself, a method of taking advantage of the most basic force in nature unknown to earthly physicists.

The largest telescope on Earth will dedicate multiple hours of focused attention on this interloper into our solar system. Tentatively identified as an asteroid, or, in the enthused minds of astronomers, as a spaceship placed within an asteroid-like exterior covering, this strange object was discovered with the use of the University of Hawaii's PanSTARRS1 telescope in October. Funded by NASA's Near Earth Object Observations Program, the telescope is among the most powerful on the planet.

The Green Bank radio telescope in West Virginia, US, which is going to track the object (PA)

NASA revealed that the asteroid whipped past our sun on September 9 at a speed described as "blistering", some 87.3 kilometres each second. Hedging their bets, astronomers admit that chances are slim this curious object is an abandoned spacecraft, or alternately an alien interstellar probe. As of today, however, the University of California, Berkeley's Breakthrough Listen project which has been set up as a global astronomical program to search for life beyond Earth, will dedicate time using the Green Bank telescope in West Virginia to search for signs of extraterrestrial technology across four radio bands, emanating from Oumuamua.

Several days earlier, the asteroid was 50 to 70 times closer to Earth than was NASA's Voyager-1 spacecraft, and at the present time is roughly two astronomical units away, calculated at over two times as far as the Earth is from the sun, with no evidence it is propelled by anything but gravity. Electromagnetic emissions, optic or infrared light fundamentally in variance from known astrophysical background if detected, will offer affirmation that this space object is no mere asteroid but something profoundly more complex and puzzling.

On the one hand, scientists fully expect the object to be verified as completely natural; on the other hand if signals are detected that indicate otherwise, whatever is ultimately discovered will further humankind's knowledge of the universe and the world we inhabit.

The project will fly past Jupiter next year and will hurtle beyond Pluto by the 2020s

Here's Stephen Hawking with his sobering last thoughts expressed  a while ago in an interview:
"Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonize whatever planets they could reach."
"If so, it makes sense for them to exploit each new planet for material to build more spaceships so they could move on. Who knows what the limits would be?"
"We don't know much about aliens, but we know about humans. If you look at history, contact between humans and less intelligent organisms have often been disastrous from their point of view, and encounters between civilizations with advanced versus primitive technologies have gone badly for the less advanced."
"A civilization reading one of our messages could be billions of years ahead of us. If so, they will be vastly more powerful, and may not see us as any more valuable than we see bacteria."

Cheerfully constructive optimist, isn't he?

The Imagined Confirmed

"The observations showed we were observing a kilonova, an object whose light is powered by extreme nuclear reactions."
"This tells us that the heavy elements, like the gold or platinum in jewelry, are the cinders, forged in the billion-degree remnants of a merging neutron star."
Dr. Joe Lyman, University of Warwick

"The first discovery of gravitational waves from the merger of two neutron stars is a historic event."
"It is every bit as exciting as the first discovery of gravitational waves from merging black holes. Since this involves neutron stars that radiate light, for the first time we can also see what is going on in an extreme astronomical event that shakes up spacetime."
David Wiltshire, department of physics and astronomy, University of Canterbury

"We're all made of stardust, but gold, silver and platinum are made of neutron stardust."
"In this particular event, it's likely that hundreds or thousands of Earth masses of gold and other elements were made."
"If the rate of neutron star mergers is as high as we now think, these dying stars are now the source of most of these elements in the universe."
Dr. J.J. Eldridge, astro-physicist, University of Auckland

"This discovery has answered three questions that astronomers have been puzzling for decades -- what happens when neutron stars merge? What causes the short duration gamma ray bursts? Where are the heavy elements, like gold, made?"
"In the space of about a week all three of these mysteries were solved."
Dr. Samantha Oates, University of Warwick astrophysics group

New source in galaxy NGC 4993   space in images

The Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory  in Washington and Louisiana a few short months ago validated as a reality a prediction that Albert Einstein proposed fully one hundred years ago. Einstein's theories, clarity in his mind, imponderable in the minds of most humans incapable of grasping the intuitive leaps of imagining the mechanics of the universe, have over time been shown to be amazingly scientifically clairvoyant. His visionary genius guided the science of astrophysics, theoretical physics.

His successors have built upon his theories, his advice, his philosophical view of science and the natural phenomena that we struggle to fully comprehend. One can only wonder what he might make of the great strides that have been realized since his death? What, above all, he might have taken out of the latest observations of the heavens. That scientists' theories that cataclysmic collisions of neutron stars and the monumental explosive force that ensued would create the sought-after precious metals mined on Earth, have seen observable confirmation.

These events of unimaginable force, dimensions, time-space occurrences where supernovas created from the death of giant stars become neutron stars where protons and electrons combine forming neutrons in the creation of tiny, dense stars and then collide in a spectacular burst of fierce energy, spewing debris hundreds of millions of years in the past, in a sense mimic the creation of the universe as we know it, through the Big Bang theory when planets and stars emerged.

Neutron stars merging     Space.com

The sheer magnitude of the event, the concussion that followed, were picked up in a space-time ripple in the detection of gravitational waves. The signal picked up by the LIGO Washington/Louisiana observatory by American astronomers was the remnant of a cosmic event at a time on Earth when dinosaurs made their home here, 130 million years ago. Space and time were rattled, to send gravitational waves throughout the universe in a powerful reaction.

Once the exciting word got out, astronomers worldwide aimed  heir telescopes toward the identified area of space, to pick up the infrared afterglow caused by the monumental collision and within that light they found the unique chemical signatures for gold, silver and platinum. The stars, before colliding, were 10 kilometres wide, yet each as heavy as our own sun. (A teaspoon-size of neutron star material has an estimated mass of a billion tons.)Their galaxy was NGC 4993, and gravity drew them to each other over millions of years as they revolved around each other more and more swiftly until they span at a rate of 500 times per second before crashing.

Another bonus from the discovery appears to be the realization that the mystery of what creates shortwave gamma ray bursts picked up on Earth may lead to future discoveries including how fast the universe is expanding. Stardust produces sensate, animate forms of life, it seems, while neutron dust creates dense material, inanimate, rare and costly. Will this discovery spur a precious metals rush into space to mine it of its treasures?

This map shows the locations of all five gravitational-wave signals detected by LIGO since the first detection in 2015. In the background is an optical image of the Milky Way; the discoveries are plotted on the entire celestial sphere, which is represented as a translucent dome. The gravitational waves come from relatively small sources (the two neutron stars were each only about the size of a large city),   Space.com

Freedom From Gravity Ages Us

"Being in space can bring on accelerated aging. Returning to Earth, we see accelerated rehabilitation. if we study those two things, maybe they can inform each other so what we see in space can help us better understand aging."
"What we see in space is like an accelerated parallel of aging, related to microgravity."
"We are at the beginning of what is going to be a big increase [of the elderly population] in the world. We are going to see an increase in the needs that must be met. And what we learn in space can be a very valuable tool to help that process along."
Nicole Buckley, lead scientist, Canadian Space Agency

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield. MAXIM SHIPENKOV / AP

The aging institute for the Canadian Institutes for Health Research has launched an international initiative, along with the Canadian Space Agency, to investigate the possibility of science learning from the processes that occur in the human body freed from its gravitational grounding, when the body reacts by gradually losing muscle mass and bones become less dense, and over time humans in space realize a diminution of normal body musculature.

This effect on the human body is acknowledged by having astronauts regularly perform one and a half to two and a half hours daily of training exercises to rebut the process.

But the decline itself, a phenomenon that appears as an aging process similar to what happens to people on Earth as they grow old, holds out promise to medical science that a fuller investigation of the space process of [reversible] aging, may provide clues to better managing the aging process of elderly humans on terra firma. And Canada's space institutions are leading the studies hoping to persuade space scientists and geriatricians to work together to prod and explore the similarities.



Health systems worldwide are experiencing growing pressure with the inevitable aging of the population bulge known in the West as baby boomers. The idea being that a finer understanding of the process through this type of investigation might lead to improved treatment regarding the aging process. In space, bone loss is temporary and mostly reversible on return to Earth. That bone loss is central to the bones involved in weight-bearing; legs, spine and hips, a more rapid process than what occurs in Earthbound aging.

As an example there is more density in affected bones for female astronauts in a six-month period, than what menopausal and post-menopausal women experience in the space of two years. The loss of muscle mass, the decreases in the immune and cardiovascular systems, all all ripe for study, as is the fact that the elderly and astronauts as well experience deceased elasticity of the arteries. As well, points out Dr. Buckley, the psychosocial experiences of astronauts linked to isolation and living amongst strangers mirror experiences of the elderly, increasingly living in institutional settings.

While for most people, it takes decades to really start to feel the effects of the aging process, humans stationed in space experience some of them in fast-forward. They're often reversible once an astronaut returns home, although sometimes a few of the changes can be permanent.
A lack of gravity is the main cause for these intense alterations. Gravity is one of the most important forces at work on Earth, and it plays an immense role in the majority of our bodily systems. Take the muscles, for example. Older peoples' muscles tend to shrink and atrophy as they age and become less mobile. Astronauts' muscles react in a similar way because they are barely used. That's why astronauts in space for extended periods of time use special exercise machines to help mitigate this effect.
A similar process takes place in the bones. After a certain age, people on Earth start to lose mass in their bones, typically at a rate of about 1-to-2 percent a year. But in space, those people lose bone mass at a greatly accelerated rate: as much as 1-to-2 percent a month. Because the astronauts' skeletal systems don't need to support their weight, the bones begin to decrease production of new bone material and increase the amount of old bone absorption. Luckily, their skeletal systems usually return to normal once they've spent some time back on terra firma [source: NASA].
Even though they're saving 0.007 seconds, astronauts still experience some of the symptoms of a drawn-out aging process. Researchers are working to figure out the mechanics of why these changes occur, as well as what can be done to prevent them. This information could not only to help make spaceflight easier on the human body, but to help improve life on Earth as well.                           Jessica Toothman, Science/Spaceflight

The Diplomacy of International Courtesy?

"The use of hydrazine has devastated the environment around Baikonur, Kazakhstan, the world's most heavily used [satellite] launch site. Residents of the surrounding countryside have high rates of cancer. Reports of 'acid' rain, followed by the death of livestock, have emerged after launches."
"Russia, which leases Baikonur from Kazakhstan, has paid compensation for hydrazine pollution on at least one occasion. But with a stockpile of hydrazine-fuelled SS-19 and Proton rockets left over from the Cold War, it [Russia] has little incentive to stop using them. These old rockets enable Russia to compete in the commercial space launch market, which  yields much-needed foreign currency."
Michael Byers, Canada Research Chair, Global Politics and International Law,  University of British Columbia

"Any debris should be considered potentially hazardous, and first responders should not attempt to pick it up or move it."
Federal Emergency Management Agency public warning, Canada

• ← Photos: Soyuz Rocket Assembled for Resurs Earth Observation Satellite Launch -- Spaceflight101.com

The fuel that is used to power Russian SS-19s is unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine (hydrazine) which is a stable compound whose common use is to fuel missiles and to power the thrusters that are used to manoeuvre satellites in space. This compound is toxic, so much so that technicians working with it must wear pressurized hazmat (hazardous material) suits while they are involved in working with the compound. Hydrazine, on contact with air, degrades, becoming an even more toxic compound: nitrosodimethylamine (NDMA).

Europe and the United States take steps to regulate the use of hydrazine; both American and European-produced rockets make use of less toxic fuels to achieve the same ends, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration as well as the European Space Agency are in the process of developing alternative propellants to be used in future satellite thrusters. Canada, additionally, lists hydrazine as a dangerous chemical.

A Soviet-era SS-19 intercontinental ballistic missile, modified to boost a satellite into orbit has a launch date in early June, from Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia which will take it to a trajectory where it will crash with highly toxic fuel on board, in the Canadian Arctic. The first stage of the missile will see it fall into the Barents Sea north of Norway and soon afterward the second stage will fall into Baffin Bay located just east of Ellesmere Island, in Canada's far north.

This will not represent a one-off or first-time event. In February, the second stage of a SS-19 fell in Baffin Bay, around 50 kilometres from Ellesmere Island, a location well within Canada's "exclusive economic zone", subject to its Arctic Waters Pollution Prevention Act. The second stage of a Soyuz rocket was dropped nearby as well in April, along the maritime boundary with Greenland. Impact zones, as it happens are predictable and quite precise, based on the parameters of launch site, rocket type and intended orbit.

Russia makes no effort to seek permission from Canada when its territory is impacted in this manner; which is to say, used as a dumping ground for toxic materials. On several occasions, the previous Conservative-led government had issued diplomatic protests when notified by Russia of incoming Russian rocket stages. While Russia makes no effort to seek permission from Canada, it does advise the Canadian government in advance of such launches and impact zones, whereupon a "notice to airmen" (NOTAM) is issued so aircraft are able to avoid such danger areas at critical times.

Canadian Inuit live nearby Baffin Bay at Grise Fiord and Pond Inlet. They travel on the water and sea-ice while hunting for traditional food. Baffin Bay supports large concentrations of seals, whales, polar bears and seabirds in its shallow waters and on its seasonal sea-ice. There are no scientific studies that indicate just how hydrazine interacts with the environment in Arctic conditions. Just an idea that it might react with the air, degrade into NDMA, and then be carried on the wind.

← Photos: Soyuz Rocket Assembled for Resurs Earth Observation Satellite Launch -- Spaceflight101.com

A cloud of hydrazine could drift anywhere from Baffin Bay; toward Greenland or Ellesmere Island. Some could entrench itself into sea-ice, which later drifts in a southerly direction in the summer months, toward Labrador. Canadians living in the Arctic are not notified of impending space junk falling in their environment or that if any does fall where they are located, to avoid it. In light of this situation, both the Government of Canada and that of Russia should be collaborating to avoid any potential problems over and above the littering of Canadian territory with space junk and dangerous compounds.

An international ban might be timely, on the use of hydrazine-fuelled rockets. At the very least, to alert other countries and corporations that contract with Russia to purchase their commercial launches, that there is an environmental danger inherent in the process with the use of this dangerous substance, in a world that has become sensitive to the damage we do to our natural environment. Every country could use a reminder that this is their responsibility. No country should be acting with impunity on this file.

The Ultimate Getaway

"How do people's psychological processes go when they're down there for a whole year? There's very little in the way of quantitative data."
"In fact a fair number of people say the culture shock is greater coming back [from Antarctica] than it was going there."
Dr. Peter Suedfeld, UBC psychology professor emeritus

"Overwintering crew members regress further into their own rooms and minds, which can be dangerous."
"It's almost as if our senses become under-stimulated and wither in the darkness, ice and silence. So when a new stimuli comes along it can be disproportionately fascinating. It has been some time since I stubbed my toe walking around the station barefooted in the dark. But I can tell you it hurt each and every time, even more."
British medical doctor Alexander Kumar

"With no point of reference [continual winter-dark atmosphere] I regularly find myself wide-awake in the middle of the night and falling asleep at lunch!"
"We greeted it [the returning sun] as if it was a long-lost friend."
British doctor Beth Healey

ESA   The barren landscape surrounding Concordia station in Antarctica is often dubbed “White Mars.”

Well, that's the environment, temperatures ranging around minus-80 degrees Centigrade, feeling worse, much worse, when a snowstorm is raging and the wind bellowing, amid perpetual darkness during Antarctica long winter months. But these are the conditions in the white endless landscape of a barren southernmost tip of the Earth. Those who are stationed there are subject to emotional ups and downs, coping with sensory deprivation, loneliness and bone-tingling dry conditions.

Since the Antarctic landscape resembles what scientists consider to be an other-worldly landscape in outer space, research is being conducted specifically to study the psychological and physical effects on the human brain and body through living in the harsh conditions of Antarctica in the hope that this will give insights into the changes that astronauts will encounter and need to struggle with in future space missions to other planets in the empty, cold and dark atmosphere of space.

Canadian researchers supported by financial grants from the Canadian Space Agency have set out to collaborate on a global research project focusing on the effects of living in icy-harsh conditions, and how that might translate to understanding what will be in store for coping mechanisms for future space travel. Studies are under way at two research stations, the Concordia station operated by French and Italian polar institutes and the Halley station, operated by the British Antarctic Survey.

ESA   For nine months, no aircraft or land vehicles can reach Concordia station in Antarctica and the Sun does not rise above the horizon for 100 days

Dr. Suedfeld points out the conditions faced by people living in Antarctica with its vast white desert, isolated from contact with others by distance and harsh climate; almost unreachable during the cold winter months when few flights can be safely managed should rescue be required. Although medical practitioners are stationed there, what they can accomplish is limited. Famously the American doctor, Jerri Nielson had to operate on herself when she discovered she had breast cancer.

If interpersonal relations become strained, there is nowhere to retire to other than each individual's private room. There is high interest in how and whether brain function may undergo alterations from what is considered the norm; whether and how sleep patterns could be deleteriously affected, and how eyes accustomed to light during the day and darkness at night when we normally sleep, might be impacted when there is no difference between night and day; black night consumes both day and night.

Professor Suedfeld is prepared to analyze audio diaries that crew members are tasked to record on a weekly basis; pitch, rhythm and speed are assessed to determine whether stressors are present linked to living conditions. Cardiovascular systems, muscle function and bone marrow cells will be examined to determine what, if any changes occur, just as they do in the weightlessness of space which impacts on the body accustomed to Earth's gravity.

Internet and telephone access is available, just as these modes of communication are present in space ships. But it has been observed through personal introspection by crew members like Alexander Kumar that a tendency to withdraw during the long winter prevails. When the sun reappears in spring, there is a release of tensions. This, in fact, is what northern-dwelling people experience, living in their normal exposure to long, harsh winter months, expressing relief when winter succumbs to spring.

For those who have the experience of living in the vast isolation of the Antarctic, busy in spurts, boringly without activity at many other times, their exposure to a hauntingly beautiful landscape, and the camaraderie in the presence of others isolated along with them can change the way people regard life, and transform them in many ways. They have an idea of the strength of their endurance, their resilience and creativity.

ESA   The aurora australis is a well-deserved bonus for the crew of 13 who are spending the winter months at Concordia station in Antarctica

La Donna Delle Stelle"

"In only 140 characters [Twitter feed] she's able to represent, to explain in a simple way, the results of very important research."
Francesco Corfaro, Italian mission in Ottawa

"Most of the time we would be spinning! [On two-day flight to the International Space Station.] In fact when there are no dynamic operations [example: no need to fire the thrusters or the main engine], the Soyuz is put in gyroscopic stabilization with the solar panels pointed at the sun to maximize power generation."
"It's actually not the greatest things for the crew; any space sickness you're experiencing, the spinning is guaranteed to make it worse [or to give you symptoms, if you didn't have any]. But unless you actively stabilize the altitude with thrusters, the only way to keep a stable orientation is to rotate on an axis."
"I find [the Canadarm2] an object of intrinsic beauty, I'll confess. But it's of course intended as a tool of visualization and as an aid in the extensive brain gymnastics to come: mentally flipping camera images, predicting how the arm movement will look from different points of view, identifying the best camera combination to monitor clearances from structure, determining hand controller inputs in different co-ordinate frames, visualizing joint movements -- these are some of the tasks that are sure to keep your brain on its toes as you fly the arm."
Samantha Cristoforetti, Italian astronaut, on board the International Space Station, Space-to-you

Samantha Cristoforetti snaps photos of the Earth from orbit aboard the ISS.
ESA/NASA

She will speak of her fascination with space and space travel, her scientific and engineering interests to anyone who is interested in five languages, take your pick. She is a gifted scientist and a science popularizer. Two years in the United States, once as a high-schooler, the second year at a Texas Air Force base. She received her master's in engineering from Technische Universitat Munich. Four months of that degree were spent in France. And ten months of research at the Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology in Russia. She's practising Chinese, now as well.

To say that this 38 year old woman is accomplished is to understate the obvious. Apart from the distinction of being Italy's first woman in space, her academic degrees launched her into quite the career. She has experience as a fighter pilot, as a flight engineer, a scuba diver, and she is a bibliophile. Oh, and as a woman whose career trajectory has taken her where few have gone before, she is an obvious role model for young women who impatiently shunt aside compliments on their physical beauty, to focus on aspirations of rare accomplishment.

How many young woman of spectacular ambition, talent and beauty are capable of sending messages such as this one? Good night from #space. Buona notte dallo spazio.

Over two thousand of the photographs she has taken on this trip have been posted on flickr. She shoots both videos and stills, showcasing the northern lights, and landscapes of the Earth from distances and angles unique indeed from Space.  She teaches, while orbiting Earth, a formal physics lesson on gravitational pull on orbiting objects, with equations and floating baseballs, just to make the lesson all the more appealing and approachable to the ordinary mind.

Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield may have initiated a popular connection with the viewing public excited about space travel, inviting them into his temporary space-travel world while orbiting Earth, explaining the inexplicable [to most people], with a common touch, and giving his avid fans a view of what he himself treasured while in deep, dark space. And now, this extraordinary woman is doing the very same thing, entertaining and informing the public, casually and appealingly.

She, along with the other astronauts that team up in an international experience of ongoing exploration and experiments greets a sunrise and a sunset every 92 minutes, throughout the course of their "day" in Space. And each time she settles down for a well-earned rest from her duties and her communications, she sends the same message: "Good night from #space. Buona notte dallo spazio."

Inducing Human Hibernation

"We see the science has advanced enough to put some of the science fiction into the realm of science reality."
"It doesn't mean we will have hibernating astronauts anytime soon, but we are learning from nature how to understand some of the things that happen to animals during hibernation, such as preventing bone loss or preventing muscle loss. This is already something that would be of great benefit for long-distance flight."
Leopold Summerer, head, advanced concepts team, European Space Agency

"We think that if we understand how they do it [hibernating animals], we can replicate it in humans."
"We don't know what the natural signal is for torpor. We don't know where the signal occurs in the brain -- it could be in the brain stem or the hypothalamus."
Kelly Drew, biochemist, University of Alaska, Fairbanks

"We don't know why it works, but we know it slows down metabolism and the inflammation] that epilepsy causes in the brain]."
"You actually lower the need for energy for the entire body [biological cooling]. So you give it time to catch up."
Romergryko Geocadin, professor of neurology and anesthesiology, John Hopkins University

SpaceWorks has looked at creating a habitat that would allow astronauts to travel to Mars while hibernating. Photo: Spaceworks

Professor Geocadin uses treatment known as therapeutic hypothermia in treatment of patients with severe epilepsy, or those patients suffering from brain trauma. The body has more of an opportunity to repair itself, if it is cooled and functions are slowed. With the use of ice packs, liquid-filled blankets, caps and cooling IV fluids, a patient's body temperature is reduced from normal by two or three degrees for up to three days.

This treatment has become a useful protocol for a small group of patients who have become comatose resulting from cardiac arrest, or who experience seizures or swelling of the brain. Any longer a cooling respite than that, says Professor Geocadin "and the whole house of cards starts to fall apart"; in other words the risk of precipitating blood clots, pneumonia or additional complications increases.

Kelly Drew, the biochemist at University of Alaska's Institute of Arctic Biology is studying the Arctic ground squirrel, trying to get a handle on how its metabolism can become so low, as a result of its being able to set its internal body temperature at 0 C -- freezing point -- during winter and survive. She thinks she has isolated the molecule responsible; the A1 adenosine receptor which, when stimulated, reduces the animal's body temperature to a depth that would destroy most animals' tissues.

Scientists are studying how the Arctic ground squirrel can get so cold without dying.

In attempts to reach a full understanding of the biological anomaly that leads to hibernation of this kind, biologists have busied themselves dissecting the neurological and biochemical transitways of the hibernating animals, including bears known to sleep in a hibernation state for six months at a time, and yet survive despite not having eaten anything for that period, nor exerted a muscle.

Scientists are hoping that full understanding of the natural process may aid them in devising medical therapies to be adapted for space travel. That therapeutic hypothermia which aids in the treatment of patients with traumatic brain injuries may lead eventually to trials useful enough to induce sleeplike states for very long periods of them, enabling them also to arouse the sleepers with no ill effects having been suffered.

To that end, a panel of European biomedical researchers, biologists and neuroscientists is preparing to announce recommendations for methodologies to be developed to result in human hibernation research and funding. A preliminary study funded by NASA viewed the proposal of placing astronauts in a state of torpor (hibernation) for weeks at a time. The benefits that might arise from that include less food and water required and a reduction in waste products.

Which would naturally lead to smaller living quarters, less space devoted to supplies, exercise and entertainment. If placing a crew in sleep mode is possible, it could conceivably minimize psychological challenges. The yearlong mission that U.S. astronaut Scott Kelly has begun at the International Space Station, combined with medical monitoring of his twin brother back on earth may provide clues relating to protecting humans who leave Earth's orbit for months or years at a time.

Meanwhile, in Italy scientists are set to begin a clinical trial lowering the body temperature of a pig through inhibiting a part of the hypothalamus that controls levels of energy, translated to inducing hypothermia. Should the experiment be successful, it would indicate that the pathway could be repeated in other animals that nature hasn't endowed with the biological traits of hibernation.

Winning The Lottery: The Ultimate Isolation

"Being confined with the same individuals for such a long period of time millions of miles from Earth might create psychological and interpersonal stress for the crew members and affect their ability to carry out mission goals."
"People have been on-orbit for as long as 14 months with no apparent negative sequelae, but this duration was relatively brief compared to a Mars mission, the crew had real-time contact with mission control and family and friends on the ground, and the Earth was always in sight."
Nick Kanas, Journal of Cosmology: Expedition to Mars: Psychological, Interpersonal and Psychiatric Issues, 2010

International Space Station, Photo Dave Walker

"I've lived it, and I can describe it."
"You get tired of holding back. You get tired of accommodating other people's quirks and idiosyncrasies. ... It's psychological erosion."
"The truth to all these additional complexities is they don't make things easier. With such a small crew, the characteristics of individuals are really what counts."
"You don't necessarily want to go there with your best friend. [Gender or ethnic or cultural parity or marital mix are] more likely to divide than to somehow unite."
"[Most astronauts come from a military or scientific elite, the] prima donnas of their trade."

Pascal Lee, planetary scientist, co-founder, chairman, Mars Institute

Image courtesy of the Earth Science and Remote Sensing Unit, NASA Johnson Space Center

The thin green line of an aurora borealis cuts below the moon and above the radial lights of Moscow in this recent nighttime image

"It felt like winning the lottery. I think it's very easy for people to criticize, for people to point to the latest study that says it's a suicide mission, or there's no way you're going to survive."
Karen Cumming, Canadian on Mars One mission short-list

The Mars One project aims to establish the first human colony on Mars, but all tickets to the red planet are one-way only organizers warn. (Mars One)

Scientists are professionals whose work takes them to some of the unlikeliest places on the planet, exploring nature in ways that most people would never think of in a never-ending quest for understanding the complexities and permutations of natural processes at every level of existence. And some of those scientists are astrophysicists, whose interest in space flight studies, along with psychologists involve them in trying to assess how isolation impacts on humans, the kind of isolation that is beyond the imagination of the ordinary person.

Who couldn't conceive of being enclosed in a very finite space conducting experiments and interacting with a few people who share their mission of exploration in outer space at a given time, remote from the world most familiar to us, in a far-off distant revolution of the planet we call home, viewing it from their space platform, adjusting to the reality that if the mechanics of the science that brought them there malfunction they may never return.

But it is the interpersonal social interaction of a handful of individuals all in isolation from what they know best and are most comfortable with, sharing that compact area that a space capsule provides and manipulating devices that enable them to live in a dark, atmosphereless void, and the minor irritations that surface when people of different temperaments work together with no opportunity of escaping one another's presence that is of interest in evaluating the human-dimension success of a mission.

Apart from the way in which space affects the human body, the focus is also on how space and its inevitably exciting yet perhaps also alienating effects on the human mind affects those working together in such stark isolation, that psychologists are consumed with.  "If there's anything that you can predict about what will happen to people in space [it] is that there will be conflict, for sure", commented Jordan Bimm, a NASA research fellow at York University, Toronto.

The worst manifestation of dysfunction in space is known as "third-quarter syndrome" in reflection of its typically late onset in a mission. In the Mars500 crew emerging after 17 months in an isolation pod in Moscow in 2011, ailments were exhibited that included severe insomnia. Psychological research has identified negative feelings breeding resentment take place among people living together in close proximity, and overall isolation.

People become irritable, they are prone to committing errors, they experience cabin fever on an immense scale. Cosmonaut Valentin Lebedev's diary of his experiences in space was used to diagnose depression on his 211-day mission aboard Salyt 7. "We don't feel time anymore. I don't even want to look out the porthole any more", he wrote on one dark-feeling day. Stories surfaced of Russian astronauts not speaking with one another for months.

In hopes of averting crises such as these, research is being conducted on the use of robot psychologists which record and manage the stressors astronauts might not want to speak of but which have the potential of posing a threat to the success of a mission. As part of a study to determine how humans might deal with extreme isolation, Koichi Wakata of Japan brought with him Kirobo; "hope robot", when he took over as commander of the International Space Station in 2013.

Dr. Lee, who has gone on 30 expeditions to polar regions, and acted as director of the Haughton-Mars Project in the Canadian High Arctic, has identified five criteria for a good astronaut: deep knowledge (expertise in a number of areas); good health (because it will take 3 months to reach a hospital); motivation (deeper-sourced in the psyche than enthusiasm), adaptability and altruism. Another list was composed by Raye Kass, professor of applied human sciences at Concordia: resiliency, adaptability, curiosity, ability to trust, creativity/resourcefulness.


The longest time spent in space thus far was recorded by Valery Polyakov, a Russian doctor who was on the Russian Mir for over 437 days. And then, he returned to Earth to begin re-acclimatizing and to resume his life on our planet. For Karen Cumming and those others who applied  for the Mars One mission to land crews of four in multiple missions to Mars to begin in 2024 with the purpose of establishing a permanent colony, there will be no return. That is to be a one-way trip.

An image of what the Mars One permanent human colony on Mars may look like. (Photo : BasLansdorp/Twitter)

Their seven-month journey is to lead them to an experiment to inhabit a permanent home away from Planet Earth. To establish a settlement there, and to become self-sufficient. That is something the successful choices may consider the adventure of a lifetime, but it will be for their lifetime, a commitment that doesn't come with a Plan B for escape from the mind-numbing reality of distance from Earth, and that acceptance that they've chosen a new home for themselves.

Exploring Nature's House

It is beyond difficult for the ordinary human mind to grasp the significance and wonder at the colossal advance in space exploration made manifest by the European Space Agency's success in landing a tiny robotic science laboratory on a speeding comet that made a ten-year journey across 6.4-billion kilometres through the solar system to succeed in what surely must have seemed a dauntingly impossible mission.

That the Space Agency could even predict with such accuracy when the first signal from Philae would reach Earth to confirm that landing after the suspenseful detachment from its mother ship Rosetta is nothing short of amazing; they predicted the first signal would come in at 11:03 a.m. and so it did on Wednesday, November 12. Capping a journey and an intent beyond mere imagination of even the most feverishly aware science fiction writer.

"We are on the comet. We are sitting on the surface and Philae is talking to us", announced the lander manager, Dr. Stephan Ulamec. "It's complicated to land on a comet. It's also complicated to understand what has happened during the landing. What we know is that we touched down and we landed on the comet We had a very clear signal and we also received data from the lander. That is the very good news.
"The not-so-good news is that the anchoring harpoons did not fire So the lander is not anchored to the surface. Did we just land in a softsand box and everything is fine? Or is there something else happening? We still do not fully understand what has happened.
"Some of the data indicated that the lander may have lifted off again. It touched down and was rebouncing. We saw data on the solar generator which could be interpreted that the lander lifted off and started to turn itself. About two hours later this information of turning stopped. So maybe today, we didn't just land, we landed twice."

Twice indeed; the initiating bounce sent Philae into a seven-hour-long lift-off from which it returned to the comet finally, to rest under the shade of a cliff in that landscape of house-sized boulders, craters and alien cosmic rockface. The little science laboratory went right to work, sending back reams of data to the excited scientific minds sifting through it all, beyond joyful at the success of the mission. With the realization that because of where the little lab had finally landed its solar-fuelled generators would soon lapse into deep sleep for lack of sunlight, under the shade of that great cliff.

Even trying to imagine the cold black indifference of outer space, and a space ship hurtling purposefully through it all to finally put a distance of a half-billion kilometres between itself and Earth, to obey instructions it received from the command centre in Darmstadt, Germany to focus on landing on the surface of a speeding comet, everything depending on precise follow-up, boggles the mind. Let alone the design of the ship and its landing cargo, and the inputting of instructions for geological-scientific retrieval data to be beamed back to Earth.

The dazzling enormity of the wonder of human inquisitiveness aligned with the magnitude of human scientific ingenuity is difficult to quite comprehend. The colossal wonder that is Nature, and the incredible functioning capabilities that she endowed Earthling human beings with to enable them to explore her magnificent house of existence reflects a reality resistant to complete mindful digestion.

 
A probe named Philae is seen after it landed safely on a comet in this CIVA handout image

Egypt-inspired probe explores our galaxy’s secrets

The Philae lander is attached to Rosetta’s side. (Photo courtesy: esa.int)

By Staff Writer | Al Arabiya News
Monday, 27 October 2014 

 

A space craft named after the Nile’s Isle of Philae will land on a comet following a 10-year mission through space aimed to unlock some of the universe’s secrets, the Guardian reported.

As part of the Rosetta Mission, organized by the European Space Agency, Philae is due to land on the comet on Nov. 12 where it will map the body and drill into the surface to obtain material that may reveal clues about the origins of the galaxy and earth.

 

Rosetta mission selfie at comet. (Photo courtesy: esa.int)

On Wednesday, scientists behind the mission met with Egyptologists at an English country estate to mark the link between the trip and a 19th-century adventurer responsible for the Egypt-inspired names in the trip.

Kingston Lacy, where the scientists and Egyptologists met, was the home of William John Bankes, the adventurer who found the Philae Obelisk in Egypt in 1815 and brought it to his estate where it stood for almost 200 years.

Bankes deciphered the Greek inscription on the Obelisk. His work led others to “crack” the code to the hieroglyphs, which allowed archaeologists and Egyptologists to decrypt the Rosetta stone and other ancient Egyptian artifacts.

The Philae obelisk at the Kingston Lacy Estate near Wimborne, Dorset. (Photo courtesy: collectingegypt.blogspot.ae)

The architects of the mission were drawn to the significance of the Rosetta Stone, and more towards the mysterious Philae obelisk.

While scientists continue to map encryptions on the obelisk revealing more information about the time and age it came from, James Grasby, a curator for the modern custodian of Kingston Lacy, the National Trust, described the events as a “wonderful collision” between the two different fields.

“The Philae obelisk led to a greater understanding of the ancient world. The Philae probe may lead to greater understanding of the planets and life on earth,” he told the Guardian.

Last Update: Monday, 27 October 2014 KSA 09:46 - GMT 06:46