Drosophila melanogaster (fruit fly) locomotion during a sounding rocket flight

The locomotor activity of young Drosophila melanogaster (fruit fly) was studied during a Nike-Orion sounding rocket flight, which included a short-duration microgravity exposure. An infrared monitoring system was used to determine the activity level, instantaneous velocity, and continuous velocity of 240 (120 male, 120 female) fruit flies. Individual flies were placed in chambers that limit their motion to walking. Chambers were oriented both vertically and horizontally with respect to the rocket's longitudinal axis. Significant changes in Drosophila locomotion patterns were observed throughout the sounding rocket flight, including launch, microgravity exposure, payload re-entry, and after ocean impact. During the microgravity portion of the flight (3.8 min), large increases in all locomotion measurements for both sexes were observed, with some measurements doubling compared to pad (1 G) data. Initial effects of microgravity were probably delayed due to large accelerations from the payload despining immediately before entering microgravity. The results indicate that short-duration microgravity exposure has a large effect on locomotor activity for both males and females, at least for a short period of time. The locomotion increases may explain the increased male aging observed during long-duration exposure to microgravity. Studies focusing on long-duration microgravity exposure are needed to confirm these findings, and the relationship of increased aging and locomotion.     

Corporate mergers - Lifeline for the space industry

The world's major space companies have undergone continual evolution, through a process of mergers and acquisitions, since their creation from their aerospace parents. Although much of this evolution occurred in the early years of the Space Age, the process seems to have become particularly dynamic in the 1990s, as companies have striven to become ever more competitive in an increasingly global business environment. This article reviews some of the most important mergers and traces the recent development of the world's leading space contractors.     

The Origin and Evolution of the Asteroid Belt��Implications for Vesta and Ceres

Vesta and Ceres are the largest members of the asteroid belt, surviving from the earliest phases of Solar System history. They formed at a time when the asteroid belt was much more massive than it is today and were witness to its dramatic evolution, where planetary embryos were formed and lost, where the collisional environment shifted from accretional to destructive, and where the current size distribution of asteroids was sculpted by mutual collisions and most of the asteroids originally present were lost by dynamical processes. Since these early times, the environment of the asteroid belt has become relatively quiescent, though over the long history of the Solar System the surfaces of Vesta and Ceres continue to record and be influenced by impacts, most notably the south polar cratering event on Vesta. As a consequence of such impacts, Vesta has contributed a significant family of asteroids to the main belt, which is the likely source of the HED meteorites on Earth. No similar contribution to the main belt (or meteorites) is evident for Ceres. Through studies of craters, the surfaces of these asteroids will offer an opportunity for Dawn to probe the modern population of small asteroids in a size regime not directly observable from Earth.     

Early renal changes in 45 degrees HDT rats

Background: Both microgravity and simulated microgravity models, such as the 45HDT (45 degrees head-down tilt), cause a redistribution of body fluids indicating a possible adaptive process to the microgravity stressor. Understanding the physiological processes that occur in microgravity is a first step to developing countermeasures to stop its harmful effects, i.e., (edema, motion sickness) during long-term space flights. Hypothesis: Because of the kidneys' functional role in the regulation of fluid volume in the body, it plays a key role in the body's adaptation to microgravity. Methods: Rats were injected intramuscularly with a radioactive tracer and then lightly anesthetized in order to facilitate their placement in the 45HDT position. They were then placed in the 45HDT position using a specially designed ramp (45HDT group) or prone position (control group) for an experimental time period of 1 h. During this period, the 99mTc-DTPA (technetium-labeled diethylenepentaacetate, MW=492 amu, physical half-life of 6.02 h) radioactive tracer clearance rate was determined by measuring gamma counts per minute. The kidneys were then fixed and sectioned for electron microscopy. A point counting method was used to quantitate intracellular spaces of the kidney proximal tubules. Results: 45HDT animals show a significantly (p=0.0001) increased area in the interstitial space of the proximal tubules. Conclusions: There are significant changes in the kidneys during a 1 h exposure to a simulated microgravity environment that consist primarily of anatomical alterations in the kidney proximal tubules. The kidneys also appear to respond differently to the initial periods of head-down tilt.     

The Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter Investigation on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Mission

The Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) is an instrument on the payload of NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft (LRO) (Chin et al., in Space Sci. Rev. 129:391–419, 2007). The instrument is designed to measure the shape of the Moon by measuring precisely the range from the spacecraft to the lunar surface, and incorporating precision orbit determination of LRO, referencing surface ranges to the Moon’s center of mass. LOLA has 5 beams and operates at 28 Hz, with a nominal accuracy of 10 cm. Its primary objective is to produce a global geodetic grid for the Moon to which all other observations can be precisely referenced.     

英国的防空压制专家——“狂风”F.3

2005年12月,英国国防部的“狂风”F.3维持项目（FSP）达到了一个重大里程碑。在美海军空中作战中心应于加利福尼亚州的穆古角靶场，1架英国皇家空军（RAF）的“狂风”F3防空战斗机首次成功试射了美国雷声公司的AIM-120-C5中距空-空导弹，这也星RAF首次试射该型导弹。     

Did earthquakes keep the early crust habitable?

The shallow habitable region of cratonal crust deforms with a strain rate on the order of approximately 10(19) s(1). This is rapid enough that small seismic events are expected on one-kilometer spatial scales and one-million-year timescales. Rock faulting has the potential to release batches of biological substrate, such as dissolved H(2), permitting transient blooms. In addition, the steady-state deformation of the brittle crust causes numerous small faults to be permeable enough (on the order of approximately 10(15) m(2)) for water to flow on a kilometer scale over relatively short geological times ( approximately 10(5) yr). Hence, active faults act as concentrated niches capable of episodically tapping resources in the bulk volume of the rock. Radiolysis and ferrous iron are potentially bases of sustainable hard-rock niches.     

航天部队与现代战争的革命

太空战是21世纪信息化战争的制高点，谁拥有制天权，谁就拥有制空权制海权和制信息权，美丽的天堂将成为航天大国争夺的焦点。一场争夺太空，利用太空，抢占制高点的战争将有可能发生。技术的突飞猛进可从根本上改变现代战争的进程。在信息收集、处理和传递为主的技术推动下，这场革命对军事行动产生的影响之大，决不亚于本世纪初飞机或坦克的投入使用。因此．航天部队在正进行的革命中正扮演着主角，具有收集、处理和传递信息的独特能力。     

Observations in the thermal IR and visible of a retired satellite in the graveyard orbit,and comparisons to active satellites in GEO

There exists a population of defunct satellites in the geo-stationary arc that potentially pose a hazard to current and future operational satellites. These drifting, non-station-kept objects have a variety of ages and sizes, and many are trapped in libration orbits around the Earth?s two gravitational potential wells (the non-spherical nature of the Earth gives rise to two geo-potential wells or “stable points” that affect objects in geostationary and geosynchronous orbits), whereas others were boosted to higher altitudes into so-called “graveyard” orbits.     

Space ethics and protection of the space environment

The construction of the International Space Station in low Earth orbit and the formulation of plans to search for life on Mars indicate that mankind is intent on making the space environment part of its domain. Publicity surrounding space tourism, in-space ‘burials’ and the sale of lunar ‘real estate’ suggests that, some time in the 21st century, the space environment will become an extension of our current terrestrial business and domestic environment. This prompts the question of our collective attitude towards the space environment and the degree to which we should regulate its use and protect it for future generations. This article offers a pragmatic view of an ethical code for space exploration and development, as far as it relates to the protection of the space environment.