No more #astronaut ice cream: #SpaceFood takes a new form! - http://clapway.com/2015/08/23/space-food-nasa-astronauts-get-a-taste-test-232/

Expedition 44 crew members, including NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, have successfully eaten the first space-grown food in the history of ever, and it took the form of simple romaine lettuce.

How Did it Taste?

On August 10 Kelly and fellow Expedition 44 crew members harvested the second batch of space crops sent up to the International Space Station (ISS). This batch was planted in July–a whopping 15 months after the pillow seeds had been brought aboard the ISS–and took 33 days to grow before the crops were harvested by the NASA astronaut.

Astronaut Kjell Lindgren tweeted a photo of the space lettuce saying that he was almost sad to see it go. A follow-up tweet in regards to eating the lettuce was simply, “That’s awesome,” as the astronaut gave a thumbs up to the camera in an accompanying photograph.

Read more about NASA’s space food initiatives here!

Some Background

NASA is calling this space gardening experiment Veg-01, and its goal is to test out the space station’s veggie facility in preparation of long-term space missions. In the experiment, seeds and fertilizer are “planted” in pillow seeds, which are flown up to the ISS in typical cargo missions. When it’s time to plant the crops, they’ll need approximately 33 days to grow before they can be harvested and eaten.

In the photographs of the romaine lettuce, you’ll see a lot of weird colors. The NASA astronauts shine a combination of red, blue, and green light through LEDs. The green LEDs aren’t necessary, but they do add a familiar light to the crop that would otherwise have a purple color to them. This was done in an effort to make them look more edible.

The first batch of crop was brought up with Expedition 39, and has already been grown, frozen, and sent back to NASA for study. The latest batch was consumed by the astronauts, though half of the harvest will again be sent back to NASA for study.

What’s Next?

This first step in sustainable foods is huge. The ability for astronauts to grow food on their own means NASA can sustain crews in long-duration space missions to places like Mars, or even further. NASA isn’t putting all of its eggs in one basket, though. The organization recently received $200,000 in grants to study how NASA may be able to turn human waste into an alternative food source.

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Before you go, check out the week in review in video form:

 

Space Food: NASA Astronauts Get a Taste Test

Astronauts used to have a glorified profession but now #NASA wants "em to eat #poop? - http://clapway.com/2015/08/20/nasa-receives-200000-to-turn-human-poop-into-space-food-322/

NASA has been doing a lot of weird things in regards to what astronauts may be eating while they’re out in space, but this newest idea takes the cake. In a recent blog post, NASA announced that it received a $200,000 grant that would allow the agency to research how they might be able to use human poop as a reusable food source.

NASA’s Innovation Engine

This news comes from NASA’s decision to select eight university-led studies that would explore and research various innovative technologies that would help propel America’s space program further along its path.

Among the various technologies were proposals for how to tackle areas of solar cell operations in scenarios involving high temperature, atmosphere entry, synthetic biology, and “dynamic tensegrity-based space structures.” Structures with tensegrity properties would be able to maintain mass with various changes in tension and compression.

“These early career researchers will provide fuel for NASA’s innovation engine,” said Steve Jurczyk, an associate admin of NASA’s Space Technology Directorate.

Learn more about NASA here!

So, What About the Poop?

NASA doesn’t refer to this program in terms quite so blunt. Instead, NASA is calling this the Synthetic Biology for Recycling Human Waste into Food, Nutraceuticals, and Materials: Closing the Loop for Long-Term Space Travel. Try saying that five times fast.

Mark Blenner of Clemson University in South Carolina is heading the project, and it’s just another idea NASA has to help solve how astronauts will maintain a sustainable supply of food during deep space missions.

NASA isn’t the first organization to consider repurposing human waste. Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates helped fund a water filtration system that turns human excrement into safe, drinkable water.

Preferable (?) Alternative Methods

Expedition 44 recently ate part of the second harvest of crop they’ve been growing on the Russian segment. This project is called veg-01, and the idea is that astronauts will be able to grow their own fresh produce while in space through the use of pillows. Astronauts plant these pillows, and in about 33 days they will have fresh produce to eat. So far the first taste-testing began earlier this week, and went over well. Astronauts aboard the ISS ate half of the harvest and sent the rest back for a second round of tests back at NASA headquarters.

Find more about NASA’s space gardening here.

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NASA Receives $200,000 to Turn Human Poop Into Space Food

Data From New Horizons Brings Pluto"s Planet Classification Back Into Question - http://clapway.com/2015/07/26/data-from-new-horizons-brings-plutos-planet-classification-back-into-question567/

The scientific community loves a good debate, and perhaps one of the most on-again, off-again debates is about Pluto — is it a planet? On Friday, NASA’s planetary scientists jumped back in the debate after revealing that the dwarf planet is geologically active.

New Horizons Pals up with Pluto

In a press conference on Friday, new data from New Horizons indicated that Pluto is, in fact, quite a bit more complex than scientists originally believed.

“It’s very hard not to call an object with this level of complexity in its geology, and such complex seasons, a planet,” said Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator at Southwest Research Institute.

According to the press conference, Pluto has an extensive, hazy atmosphere, and new glacier plains made up of nitrogen ice that are still actively carving away at Pluto’s surface. Scientists originally believed that Pluto was struck by an object so large that it blew bits of its mass away, which created its five moons. Oddly enough, there is no evidence of this impact since the dwarf planet’s surface is clean and almost perfectly spherical.

Making a Case Against Pluto

Back in 2006 the International Astronomical Union (IAU) delisted Pluto as a planet, ‘downgrading’ it to a dwarf planet. However, the original vote was so close that the new information being brought to light by New Horizons might force the IAU to reconsider.

In the original debate, the IAU had defined a planet as having three defining characteristics: it has to orbit around the sun, it must have a spherical shape, and it has to have “cleared the neighborhood” around its orbital plane.

Pluto has always been a little different from the rest of the gang, though. It’s smaller than our own moon, for instance, and it has an incredible elliptical orbit around the Sun, which is unique when compared to all of the other planets.

Unfortunately, it’s the third defining characteristic that puts a heavy damper on letting Pluto join the club again. The dwarf planet is located just in the inner edge of the Kuiper Belt, which is a collection of icy bodies right at the edge of the solar system. The more bodies discovered in the Kuiper Belt, the more the odds stack against the dwarf planet.

NASA Goes to Bat for Pluto

Stern has been poking holes in the IAU’s definition of a planet since 2006, so it’s no surprise that he’s using this new information to further cement his stance on Pluto’s planetship.

As Stern points out, most planets in the Solar System don’t have stable orbits, there are still plenty of asteroids cruising around Earth, Mars, and Jupiter. Last of all, Stern notes that less than five percent of the entire astronomical community voted to delist Pluto.

Despite Stern’s obvious bias, Pluto is getting plenty of support elsewhere, too. New Mexico and Illinois have both passed legislation which defines Pluto as a planet. There is also a lot of public support from people who just want to see the old band get back together.

Unfortunately for Pluto, its fate is tied to New Horizons. As it continues its mission to explore other bodies located in the Kuiper Belt, scientists will have a better understanding of Pluto’s neighbors and decide on a final classification.

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Data From New Horizons Brings Pluto"s Planet Classification Back Into Question

NASA scientist, Claudia Alexander, dies at 56 - http://clapway.com/2015/07/18/nasa-scientist-claudia-alexander-dies-at-56-968/

Beginnings of a NASA Scientist

It was in the 1990s that curiosity about comets came to be. To know everything about comets and satisfy our curiosity seemed to be everyone’s goal at NASA. After all, they are one of the most easily identifiable and dynamic things in the universe that we can see with the naked eye in the night sky.

In 1993, the Rosetta project was approved to catch the comet 67/P Churyumov-Gerasimenko () to begin in the 21st Century. In 2004, the project was launched into orbit to begin chasing the C-G and analyze it for more information with hopefully the same behavior as in previous years in mid-July this year.

So, what does this have to do with a NASA scientist?

It was around this time that NASA scientist Claudia Alexander served on the Rosetta Project and the Galileo mission, as well as others. In her time with NASA, her research on the projects she served on led to the writing or co-writing of fourteen papers.

For her work she has received awards such as Woman of the Year and Emerald Honor for Women of Color in Research & Engineering. Her work shows that she was a leader in the NASA space program.

In Remembrance

It is very sad to report that on July 11th in Arcadia, California, Claudia Alexander, NASA scientist, died at fifty-six years old. She was afflicted with breast cancer, a tragic illness. All those who knew her are immensely struck by grief.

Some of her work colleagues have mentioned that she was always wanting to keep the public updated on what was going on at NASA. Before her death, she saw the end of the Galileo project which she was a part of as it ran out of fuel, though the Rosetta project was still underway at the time of her death.

When not working as a NASA scientist, Alexander wrote books for young children as well as some some short stories, and taped a lecture that will be released later this year. A prolific team player, Alexander is survived by her mother, sister, and brother and will be sorely missed by all and who knew her and those of us who are thankful for her contribution to space science at NASA.

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NASA scientist, Claudia Alexander, dies at 56