Boeing announced on Wednesday that it's entering the space tourism business, the New York Times reports.
The aerospace company is building a seven-person capsule that it hopes will take four NASA astronauts to the International Space Station, leaving three seats up for grabs. "The entrance of an aerospace giant like Boeing perhaps marks the transition of space tourism from a dreamy pursuit of start-up entrepreneurs to a mainstream aerospace market," the Times remarks.
The announcement comes amidst a fight between the House Science and Technology committee and President Obama over how the US space program should operate going forward.
The House committee envisions NASA following a traditional route, building a government-owned rocket to take astronauts to the International Space Station. Obama's version of the bill focuses on helping private companies develop commercial space travel. NASA would buy seats for their astronauts on those flights.
Bestselling author Mary Roach on laboratory sex, space condoms, andFelix Baumgartner’s record-breaking attempt to jump from 23 miles above sealevel. --Stayton Bonner
What’s the deal with people jumping from really highplaces? As a BASE-jumper, Felix’s day job is more dangerous thanthis stunt. People just have an inexplicable drive to break records.
What are Felix’s dangers? He’s jumping in an atmosphere that’s a tiny fraction of ours.It’s very difficult to control your body there so he has to carefully positionhimself. If he starts spinning at 175 RPMs, he could literally spin his brainoff its stem. Traveling at supersonic speeds, he could shake his organs offtheir stocks or emulsify his brain. Nobody knows what will happen.
So...Is he crazy? Felix is a very analguy. BASE-jumpers find trouble when they get lazy and forget to do something.He'll also have a specially made suit. But there’s a certain amount of risk that even all this planning can’teliminate.
Speaking of crazy, any wild stories from your years of sciencereporting? That’s easy. My husband and I were subjects in an experimentwhere a scientist used ultrasound to scan genitals in sexual congress. You knowthe little wand they hold to your belly when you’re pregnant? The guy was rightthere holding one of those things to us. We asked about candlelight and softmusic. Doc offered to play the soundtrack to Le Misérables from his laptop. I said, “No, really, that’s okay.”
How’d you delve into the nitty-gritty of space travel inPacking for Mars? A lot of weird stuff happens in space because it’s anenvironment where our bodies aren’t meant to be. I visited a bed rest facilitywhere scientists study the effects of zero-gravity (where bones and musclebegin to deteriorate) by having people lie in bed for three months. You don’tever get up. The job appeals to hardcore video-gamers. Then they hear about thebedpan and they’re slightly less enthused.
Space condoms? They’re urine collection devices you slip on like a condom. Theyoriginally came in Small, Medium, and Large. Astronauts never ordered theSmall, which was a problem because they’d slip off. So they changed the sizesto L, XL, and XXL.
Size matters even in space? Apparently.
To listen to an extended interview with Mary Roach, click on the link below.
Director John Baza gave Canadian company Earth Energy Resources Inc. a permit to mine a 62-acre pit in eastern Utah, despite objections from environmental activists. According to a Canadian Newspaper that covered oil sands projects in Alberta, from well to tank, a barrel of oil from the oil sands creates three times more greenhouse gas than a barrel pumped from the ground.
Earth Energy is still trying to raise $35 million for the project. The company promises it "will leave Utah's oil sands as clean as beach sand after processing with a citrus-based solvent."
CNN.com's Senior Medical Correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, gathered some (potentially) useful info so you know what to do if you loose a finger, a tooth, or (almost) pop out an eyeball. Here's what we learned:
In July, eco-adventurer David de Rothschild and his crew ended their 130-day voyage across the Pacific from San Francisco to Sydney in Plastiki, crafted from 12,500 plastic bottles. Their journey helped bring attention to the problem of plastics in the ocean, particularly the massive, swirling island of plastic in the Pacific called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.
De Rothschild discusses the construction of Plastiki, the dangers of plastic, and the power of stories to inspire change in a podcast with TreeHugger Radio.
