The scientific program at the Mars Desert Research Station in Utah includes ‘space walks’ in a kind of space suit to an outside area in which biological and geological experiments are to be conducted. (Credit: Mars Society)

DLR PR — Near Hanksville, Utah, in the United States, but ‘on Mars’. At least that is what Volker Maiwald will feel when he embarks on his two-week mission in the Mars Desert Research Station on 23 February 2013. The scientist is normally based at the German Aerospace Center (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt; DLR) Institute of Space Systems in Bremen, where he works determining the feasibility, costs and benefits of space systems and concepts of the future, calculating trajectories and planning habitats for isolated or harsh environments. As a member of Crew 125, he will soon experience being part of a team of six living on Mars.

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By Leland Kim
UCSF

Just a half-century after the first human ventured into space, commercial space travel — or “space tourism” — is quickly becoming a reality. A new UCSF study looks at the health implications of flying into outer space and suggests establishing health screening standards for private citizens who want to blast off.

“We all have questions from patients related to air travel,” said lead author S. Marlene Grenon, MD, MS, assistant professor of surgery at the UCSF Division of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery, and a researcher at the San Francisco VA Medical Center. “In the short future, we may be getting questions from our patients about space travel.”

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Hawthorne, Calif. (SpaceX PR) – Today, Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) successfully launched its Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft to orbit for SpaceX’s second mission under its Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract with NASA. Falcon 9 completed its job perfectly, continuing its 100 percent success rate.

“Falcon 9 was designed to be the world’s most reliable rocket, and today’s launch validated this by adding to Falcon 9’s perfect track record with our fifth success in a row,” said Gwynne Shotwell, President of SpaceX.

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The Experiment Container with Plant Seedling Seed Cassettes (seedlings, inset lower right) is an example of the samples returning aboard the SpaceX Dragon vehicle for ground analysis. (Credit: NASA)

By Rebecca Boyle
International Space Station Program Science Office

A second contracted flight for the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft to the International Space Station will be twice as nice for researchers working with investigations on the orbiting laboratory. While other cargo ships can bring research payloads to the station, only the Dragon and the Russian Soyuz can safely get the cargo home. Scientists in the United States, Canada, France and Japan — and several high school students — are awaiting the return of their research studying a wide range of subjects, from plants to liquid crystals.
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LATEST UPDATE, 4:05 EST:  All four thruster pods are now operating normally and efforts are underway to raise the Dragon’s orbit, which is too low to sustain it in space much beyond another day or so. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said he suspects that debris in the helium fuel line or a stuck valve may have been responsible. It might have been a frozen piece of helium. The rendezvous with […]

With touchdown 1,630 feet from the launch pad, Blue Origin completed a successful test of its Crew Capsule escape system. (Credit: Blue Origin)

Florida Today reports that Blue Origin is also interested in operating out of the launch complex that Florida officials want to build at the north end of the Kennedy Space Center.

Blue Origin, backed by Amazon.com founder Jeff Bezos, says Space Florida’s proposed “Shiloh” site would be a good fit for tests of a reusable booster and eventual launches of cargo and crews to orbit.

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The NanoRacks Plate Reader will enable in orbit analysis of research samples for certain studies aboard the International Space Station. (Credit: NASA)

An update on the Falcon 9/Dragon launch from NanoRacks’ Jeffrey Manber:

It’s been a difficult but worthwhile week for Mike Johnson and the NanoRacks team working payloads. We have onboard CRS-2 (SpaceX-2) multiple educational payloads spearheaded by Valley Christian High School in San Jose–not only has VCS designed, developed and is now ready for their own experiment, but the school has reached out to other high-schools and by sub-dividing a NanoLab, can offer up to four experiments in a single NanoLab!

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Earlier today, NASA officials and SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell gave a pre-flight briefing for tomorrow’s Falcon 9 launch of a Dragon freighter to the International Space Station. The weather looks good for the launch at 10:10 a.m. EST with an 80 percent chance of favorable conditions. There is a similar forecast for Saturday if the launch slips by 24 hours.

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WASHINGTON (NASA PR) — NASA has selected 24 small satellites to fly as auxiliary payloads aboard rockets planned to launch in 2014, 2015 and 2016. The proposed CubeSats come from universities across the country, a Florida high school, several non-profit organizations and NASA field centers.

CubeSats belong to a class of research spacecraft called nanosatellites. The cube-shaped satellites measure about 4 inches on each side, have a volume of about 1 quart, and weigh less than 3 pounds.

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Hey, all you next-gen suborbital researchers! The deadline for submitting abstracts for the Next-generation Suborbital Researchers Conference (NSRC) in Colorado is March 7. That’s just one week away. Submit your abstract today! Not presenting but still want to find out what’s happening in this exciting new field? Register for the June conference here.