Drinking Coffee In Micro Gravity (Minus The Bag)

(Hat Tip: Lunar News Network)

Perhaps one of the greatest pleasures in space is micro-gravity. While the lack of terrestrial pull can make your heart sing, the environment is not exactly great for your immune system, bones or muscles (and yes, that includes your heart as well).

While scientists may have devised ways to counter the effects of micro-gravity on the body via drugs and electrodes, no one seems to have thought about the creature comforts of drinking coffee without the aid of space bag--until now.

While the fact that one can enjoy a hot cup of coffee (or tea) without a straw will appeal to millions of Starbucks fans, this technology could easily be adapted for medical doctors who may need to hook up a patient with an IV bag.

Unless future space stations find a way to develop artificial gravity, future colonists may end up using these micro-gravity cups throughout our solar system.

Video: Google And Virgin Partner For Martian Colony

After realizing that going to the Moon was not their cup of tea, the Mountain View giant has decided to partner up with Virgin Galactic to launch the first Martian colony funded by corporate dollars instead of governmental taxes.

(Google Press Release) "Some people are calling Virgle an 'interplanetary Noah's Ark,'" said Virgin Group President and Founder Sir Richard Branson, who conceived the new venture. "I'm one of them. It's a potentially remarkable business, but more than that, it's a glorious adventure. For me, Virgle evokes the spirit of explorers such as Christopher Columbus and Marco Polo, who set sail looking for the New World. I do hope we'll be a bit more efficient about actually finding it, though." [...]

"Virgle is the ultimate application of a principle we've always believed at Google: that you can do well by doing good," said Google co-founder Larry Page, who plans to share leadership of the new Martian civilization with Branson and Google co-founder Sergey Brin.

"We feel that ensuring the survival of the human race by helping it colonize a new planet is both a moral good in and of itself and also the most likely method of ensuring the survival of our best – okay, fine, only -- base of web search volume and advertising inventory," Page added. "So, you know, it's, like, win-win."

The plan calls for terraforming the planet within a 100 years, using the newly improved Virgle One spaceship to transport citizens willing to brave the dangers of Martian weather, radiation and wildlife in order to settle the red planet (via the Open Source Planet).

Despite the fact that experts have pointed out that terraforming Mars may be a bad idea, Sergey Brin has decided to lead the charge and is asking humans with Earthen citizenship to join him in his quest to conquer the crimson planet.





Sergey Brin is asking interested users to not only fill out the necessary forms online, but to also submit a video proving why they should be one of the lucky few to join him and several hundred pigs on the surface of another world.

Note: While Brin works out getting the permits for establishing a Martian colony, Larry Page is working on the Jupiter mission which involves settling the moons Ganymede and Callisto in the hopes of expanding Virgle's empire across the solar system.

In other related news, Microsoft has decided to partner with the Saturn Corporation (a division of General Motors) to colonize Titan in the hopes that its methane lakes will help ease the energy crisis on our home world.

Microsoft hopes this initiative will help ease public tension after the software giant imprisoned Yahoo! employees on Mercury after they resisted its attempts at taking over the company.

Note: Microsoft and Google are still suing each other in court over the right to colonize the dwarf planet Ceres, which they believe holds the key towards settling Mars.

Carnival Of The Space Geeks (Seventh Heaven)

(Image Credit: Physorg.com)


The seventh Carnival of Space is up over at Star Stryder with various posts by other space geeks. Some really interesting highlights included:

• Alan Boyle discusses the potential of space diving, which is like sky diving, except much, much higher.
• Dan Rankin rebukes space scientists for ignoring the potential resources of Mars today by focusing on the past. (Amen to that!)
• The mysterious Flying Singer delves into the real reasons for human space exploration.

But the best post of the carnival thus far has to go to James who has an interesting post about recycling human waste for fertilizer (ghetto!!).

(Surfin' English) Not only do hydroponic farms serve as air and food sources, they also serve as natural garbage bins. The minerals, bacteria, and other stuff in human waste can be used by our plants as fertilizer, which then filters our air, and grows us more food to make poop from. Plants also add a nice splash of colour to our spaceship.

Poop may be the biggest offender, but it's not the only one. Urine, dirty air filters, filthy and ripped clothing, bandages, sanitary napkins/toilet paper, plastics from food wrappings, the list could go on forever. But there are simple, though not easy, solutions for all of them.

Our urine can be filtered using the same process as the Space Shuttle and ISS, and dumped right back into the drinking water. Or the water can be used by the plants, and partially filtered by the soil network, and we can use the ammonia and other chemicals in urine to keep our space ship’s windows clean.

Although advertising this would probably be a good way to filter out those who really want to settle Mars from those who simply want to visit there, James may have a point. However disgusting (and unappealing) this may be, recycling our own waste could enable humans to "seed the planet" with fertile soil.

Martian dirt may not only be lacking in plant vitamins, but it could potentially be fatal towards most living organisms. Hauling nutritious soil (or fertilizer) is probably not an option for our future explorers, and NASA may have to convince astronauts to "create" the fertilizer themselves.

Obviously each astronaut would have to "handle their own" by products, although NASA may have to build a robot to do most of the farming, otherwise they may find themselves with a mutiny tens of millions of miles away.

Video: iPhone Going Galactic?

(Hat Tip: NASA Watch)

If astronauts ever revisit the moon, they will definitely require a robust, easy to use communication device in order to survive on the harsh lunar surface.

After all, communication can mean the difference between life and death, and what better device could one ask for than an iPhone?

Editor's note: If only iPhone was with Verizon I would seriously consider it. Since hacking the iPhone is potentially illegal, I may have to settle for an OQO instead. :-(

Carnival Of The Space Geeks (The Gathering)

Editor's note: Whether they post a few paragraphs or a few pages these space geeks are bound to make you laugh or cry (depends on you view of NASA with the latter).

There were several amazing posts (amazing was the theme of the carnival) ranging from Clark Lindsey new way to fund space tourism to Louie Riofrio's take on Benson's Dreamchaser space craft to Ed's sharp rebuke towards NASA and space whiners.

But the best post thus far has to go to Dave Rankin of Tales of the Heliosphere who discussed every one's favorite subject--unless you work for NASA of course.

(Tales of the Heliosphere) In any event, the truly uncomfortable reality of sex in space is not about relationships, morale, techniques, alternative sexual lifestyles, and the whole gamut of things that first come to mind when sex in space is discussed. The truly uncomfortable reality of sex in space is that the biological purpose of sex is reproduction and artificial birth control sometimes fails. What do we do if an astronaut becomes pregnant? [...]

We can't be certain how weightlessness or even reduced gravity would affect a developing human in the womb or an infant, and we don't know what should be done to protect its health in space. A pregnancy on a long, three-year mission to Mars, for example, would certainly help us learn. But that knowledge would come at the cost of unplanned experimentation on a human being that never consented and couldn't.

A pregnancy in space would probably be a nightmare for any space agency, not to mention NASA. After all, a deformed child born in microgravity could be more than enough to convince the public that space is too dangerous for humans, ensuring domination by our robotic slaves friends.

It would probably be wiser to raise a kid on the Moon or Mars, than try experimenting with microgravity where a child brought into the world of stars may have to spend the rest of their days living among them.

Note: Do not forget to check out the other various articles about space on Henry's Carnival of Space.

Video: Out Of This World Advertising

(Via New West)

New Mexico, home to Spaceport America is using some extraterrestrial fun to get its point across about it being home to "space culture."

There is a second video over here.

Related: New Mexico appoints Spaceport Authority (via Jack Kennedy of spaceports)

Update: Be sure to visit their official tourism site. Is it me, or is New Mexico taking this whole space thing a little too seriously? ;-)

FedEx Will Deliver On The Moon?

Despite the fact that my default team lost (since the Colts took out the Patriots) one of my favorite parts of the super bowl was this commercial.

Despite the humor of it all, wouldn't it be great if outer space was this boring?

Note: This by far was perhaps the funnest super bowl commercial that aired.

Ten Reasons For Not Building A Space Elevator

Throughout our history, humanity has built technology to enable faster, cheaper or larger transportation from one point to another. Although many of these feats faced great difficulties from the drawing board to the final product, our world has been blessed by these inventors efforts decades later as the airplane, train and automobile can testify.

But before any of these inventions were fully developed, skeptics and doubters have mocked either the possibility of an invention or the need for one. Since the Space Elevator definately falls into this category, here are ten reasons why a space elevator should not be built to benefit humanity.

_____________________________________

10) Too complex to succeed: The technology behind a space elevator has too many moving parts. It lacks the simplicity of a rocket engine.

9) It's too expensive: It would be better to spend $10 billion on developing new ways to kill each other on dozens of projects than to pool our money into this single one.

8) It's a dumb idea: The space elevator has only existed in science fiction novels. Since when has anything from a science fiction novel become reality?

7) It will take too long: If such a feat can not be built in my generation, why should the next one have the honor to benefit from it?

6) It's too hard: We should focus on solving easier topics such as ending war and global poverty.

5) It would ruin Star Trek: The writers never envisioned a space elevator in their television series. Building one would ruin the story line, enraging fans across the scifi community.

4) We need Space Powers: If too many nations have access to space, people might get the notion that we are all created equal, leading to chaos.

3) Rockets are doing a fine job: Despite 95% of their weight being fuel, rockets are doing a great job hauling up cargo and people. Who needs change?

2) Space is for the elite: Only the healthy and wealthy deserve to visit the stars. The poor and unhealthy deserve their lot on Earth.

1) The English language has too many words: We have too many "ports" on planet earth already, such as seaport, airport, carport, etc. Adding LiftPort to the dictionary would only increase the cost of dictionaries worldwide.

_____________________________________

Note: These are the best reasons I could come up with. Does anyone else have a better excuse?