A team of French doctors say they have carried out a successful operation on a human under “weightless” conditions in an adapted aircraft. The trial is being seen as a first step to performing surgery in space.
The doctors removed a benign tumour from the arm of a volunteer as their plane made a series of swoops to mimic a reduced-gravity environment.
The medics and patient were strapped down for the procedure which was done inside a hygienic plastic tent.
An effort to build a suborbital spaceport destination to cater to space-hungry tourists and families is pushing forward in Singapore, where aviation authorities are developing a homegrown set of regulations for commercial spaceflight. The Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CCAS) is laying the groundwork here for the rules to govern flights out of Spaceport Singapore, a planned $115 million (SGD $191 million) project to offer suborbital spaceflights and a host of other experiences to adventure-seeking tourists. Slated to open in 2009, Spaceport Singapore is the brainchild of a consortium of investors and the Virginia-based adventure tourism firm Space Adventures, which announced the project – alongside plans for a United Arab Emirates spaceport and a fleet of suborbital Explorer spacecraft– earlier this year. A rocket carrying a satellite space telescope has lifted off from the Uchinoura Space Centre in Japan. The M-5 rocket blasted off at 0628 local time (2128 GMT Tuesday) after a 48-hour delay caused by heavy rain. The Astro-F probe will use infrared wavelengths to study the heat glow of space objects hidden by clouds of cosmic dust. European astronomers are collaborating with Japan on the 500-day mission to make a map of the Universe. Researchers at Northeastern University and the University of California, Irvine say that scientists might soon have evidence for extra dimensions and other exotic predictions of string theory. Early results from a neutrino detector at the South Pole, called AMANDA, show that ghostlike particles from space could serve as probes to a world beyond our familiar three dimensions, the research team says. No more than a dozen high-energy neutrinos have been detected so far. However, the current detection rate and energy range indicate that AMANDA’s larger successor, called IceCube, now under construction, could provide the first evidence for string theory and other theories that attempt to build upon our current understanding of the universe. An article describing this work appears in the current issue of Physical Review Letters. The authors are: Luis Anchordoqui, associate research scientist in the Physics Department at Northeastern University; Haim Goldberg, professor in the Physics Department at Northeastern University; and Jonathan Feng, associate professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at University of California, Irvine. A modified theory of gravity that incorporates quantum effects can explain a trio of puzzling astronomical observations – including the wayward motion of the Pioneer spacecraft in our solar system, new studies claim. The work appears to rule out the need to invoke dark matter or another alternative gravity theory called MOND (Modified Newtonian Dynamics). But other experts caution it has yet to pass the most crucial test – how to account for the afterglow of the big bang. EVERY year, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics awards prizes for the best papers presented at its annual conference. Last year’s winner in the nuclear and future flight category went to a paper calling for experimental tests of an astonishing new type of engine. According to the paper, this hyperdrive motor would propel a craft through another dimension at enormous speeds. It could leave Earth at lunchtime and get to the moon in time for dinner. There’s just one catch: the idea relies on an obscure and largely unrecognised kind of physics. Can they possibly be serious? The AIAA is certainly not embarrassed. What’s more, the US military has begun to cast its eyes over the hyperdrive concept, and a space propulsion researcher at the US Department of Energy’s Sandia National Laboratories has said he would be interested in putting the idea to the test. And despite the bafflement of most physicists at the theory that supposedly underpins it, Pavlos Mikellides, an aerospace engineer at the Arizona State University in Tempe who reviewed the winning paper, stands by the committee’s choice. “Even though such features have been explored before, this particular approach is quite unique,” he says. Unique it certainly is. If the experiment gets the go-ahead and works, it could reveal new interactions between the fundamental forces of nature that would change the future of space travel. Forget spending six months or more holed up in a rocket on the way to Mars, a round trip on the hyperdrive could take as little as 5 hours. All our worries about astronauts’ muscles wasting away or their DNA being irreparably damaged by cosmic radiation would disappear overnight. What’s more the device would put travel to the stars within reach for the first time. But can the hyperdrive really get off the ground? Thinking of spending that next vacation on the moon or Mars or circling the Earth? Before liftoff, there’s a list of things the would-be “space flight participant” should know. More than 120 pages of proposed rules, released by the government Thursday, regulate the future of space tourism. This don’t-forget list touches on everything from passenger medical standards to preflight training for the crew. Before taking a trip that literally is out of this world, companies would be required to inform the “space flight participant” — known in more earthly settings as simply a passenger — of the risks. Passengers also would be required to provide written consent before boarding a vehicle for takeoff. Legislation signed a year ago by A mission to determine whether spider-like robots could construct complex structures in space is set to launch in January 2006. The spider bots could build large structures by crawling over a “web” released from a larger spacecraft. The engineers behind the project hope the robots will eventually be used to construct colossal solar panels for satellites that will transmit solar energy back to Earth. The satellites could reflect and concentrate the Sun’s rays to a receiving station on Earth or perhaps beam energy down in the form of microwaves. The Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency will launch a satellite called Furoshiki on 18 January 2006, which will conduct three experiments to test the idea. Initial testing of a new plasma drive engine for spacecraft has been successful, according to the European Space Agency. The “double layer thruster” accelerates charged particles between two layers of argon plasma. The ESA says its test has proven the principle of the thruster and it will proceed with simulations and possibly bigger prototypes. OTTAWA, CANADA (PRWEB) November 24, 2005—A former Canadian Minister of Defence and Deputy Prime Minister under Pierre Trudeau has joined forces with three Non-governmental organizations to ask the Parliament of Canada to hold public hearings on Exopolitics—relations with “ETs.” By “ETs,” Mr. Hellyer and these organizations mean ethical, advanced extraterrestrial civilizations that may now be visiting Earth. On September 25, 2005, in a startling speech at the University of Toronto that caught the attention of mainstream newspapers and magazines, Paul Hellyer, Canada’s Defence Minister from 1963-67 under Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Prime Minister Lester Pearson, publicly stated: “UFOs, are as real as the airplanes that fly over your head.” Mr. Hellyer went on to say, “I’m so concerned about what the consequences might be of starting an intergalactic war, that I just think I had to say something.” Europe’s first mission to Venus was successfully launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan in the early hours of Wednesday. Venus Express is the first expedition to Earth’s closest planetary neighbour in over 10 years. The probe will explore the planet’s stormy atmosphere and runaway global warming. Scientist’s hope this could help them better understand the Earth’s own greenhouse effect. Hundreds of new stars are igniting in the wake of intense gravitational interactions between four galaxies, new observations reveal. Most scientists have long assumed that life on Earth is a homegrown phenomenon. According to the conventional hypothesis, the earliest living cells emerged as a result of chemical evolution on our planet billions of years ago in a process called abiogenesis. The alternative possibility—that living cells or their precursors arrived from space—strikes many people as science fiction. Developments over the past decade, however, have given new credibility to the idea that Earth’s biosphere could have arisen from an extraterrestrial seed. Planetary scientists have learned that early in its history our solar system could have included many worlds with liquid water, the essential ingredient for life as we know it. Recent data from NASA’s Mars Exploration Rovers corroborate previous suspicions that water has at least intermittently flowed on the Red Planet in the past. It is not unreasonable to hypothesize that life existed on Mars long ago and perhaps continues there. Life may have also evolved on Europa, Jupiter’s fourth-largest moon, which appears to possess liquid water under its icy surface. Saturn’s biggest satellite, Titan, is rich in organic compounds; given the moon’s frigid temperatures, it would be highly surprising to find living forms there, but they cannot be ruled out. Life may have even gained a toehold on torrid Venus. The Venusian surface is probably too hot and under too much atmospheric pressure to be habitable, but the planet could conceivably support microbial life high in its atmosphere. And, most likely, the surface conditions on Venus were not always so harsh. Venus may have once been similar to early Earth. Moreover, the expanses of interplanetary space are not the forbidding barrier they once seemed. Over the past 20 years scientists have determined that more than 30 meteorites found on Earth originally came from the Martian crust, based on the composition of gases trapped within some of the rocks. Meanwhile biologists have discovered organisms durable enough to survive at least a short journey inside such meteorites. Although no one is suggesting that these particular organisms actually made the trip, they serve as a proof of principle. It is not implausible that life could have arisen on Mars and then come to Earth, or the reverse. Researchers are now intently studying the transport of biological materials between planets to get a better sense of whether it ever occurred. This effort may shed light on some of modern science’s most compelling questions: Where and how did life originate? Are radically different forms of life possible? And how common is life in the universe? A giant “black widow” is lurking in the Milky Way, spawning young and zapping its surroundings with intense radiation. Hanging just above the galactic plane, the Black Widow Nebula is a cloud of dust, gas and stars about 10,000 light years from Earth. The nebula is nearly invisible at optical wavelengths ? hidden behind a web of dust spun from the galaxy’s disc. But NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope used its Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) to peer through the haze. It has captured wispy streams of dust, flowing like spider’s legs from the centre of the nebula, where massive young stars are forming. The Large Binocular Telescope in Arizona, US, has taken its first spectacular image, even though one of its eyes is still shut. The $120-million telescope is the first of its kind, being comprised of two 8.4-metre primary mirrors on the same mount. It is still being built, but when completed, the telescope should have vision 10 to 12 times better than the Hubble Space Telescope.Spaceport Singapore: One-Stop Shopping for the Future Space Tourist
Japan Launches Space Telescope
South Pole Neutrino Detector Could Yield Evidences of String Theory
Gravity theory dispenses with dark matter
Antigravity Field Could Propel Spacecraft to Mars in 3 Hours
FAA Releases Space Tourism Regulations
President Bush and designed to help the space industry flourish prohibits the
Federal Aviation Administration from issuing safety regulations for passengers and crew for eight years, unless specific design features or operating practices cause a serious or fatal injury.Space ‘spiders’ could build solar satellites
Plasma engine passes test
Former Canadian Minister Of Defence Asks Canadian Parliament To Hold Hearings On Relations With Alien Civilizations
Europe’s first mission to Venus blasts off
Intergalactic attraction creates star crop
Did Life Come from Another World?
Black widow nebula seen crawling through space
New telescope snaps galaxy with one eye shut
