Identical twins offer scientists a unique way to look at the effects of the environment on human health. With twin astronauts Scott and Mark Kelly, NASA was able to assess how six months onboard the International Space Station affected Scott while Mark stayed on Earth; Mark served as a control and helped established baselines for the experiment. This work will help NASA understand how lengthier missions in the extreme environment of space, such as a trip to Mars, will challenge human physiology. The findings from the twin study have been reported in Science and are discussed in the video below by Seeker. Now that the study has ended, NASA determined that spaceflight has multiple impacts on the genome. DNA is arranged carefully in cells and gets compacted into chromosomes, whose ends are protected and capped by telomeres. Aging has been connected to a shortening of telomeres, which can be influenced by factors like stress. NASA scientists found that the length dynamics observed in Scott’s telomeres were altered within days of landing and during spaceflight. There were also changes in how Scott’s genes were expressed that were outside of the normal variability seen in Mark - his gene expression also changed while he remained on Earth, but not as dramatically. While just over ninety percent of those gene expression changes came back to baseline once Scott got back to Earth, a few of them were still different months later. It was suggested that in space, radiation exposure is causing some damage to DNA, an idea supported by other observations, like bone formation changes and stress in the immune system. Three vaccines administered over the course of the study showed that Scott’s immune system was able to respond in a normal way, however. Most of the changes seen in Scott's physiology, which were probably caused by his time in space, went back to preflight levels by the conclusion of the study. A few of those changes may have even been beneficial. Increased exercise and a very controlled and nutritious diet probably led to a decrease in body mass, and an increase that in folate was observed, respectively. Some food choices while in space were better than the selections made on Earth. Related: Space Has an 'Explosive' Effect on Gene Expression In other areas, little change was seen, such as in cognition. While mental alertness and emotional recognition weren’t altered, upon return to Earth that was a significant reduction in speed and accuracy, potentially caused by a re-exposure to our planet’s gravity. One area that has gained a lot of recent research attention and has been shown to impact human health is the microbiome, the bacteria we carry in and on our bodies. The gut microbiome was profoundly affected by spaceflight, and while the food is surely one factor in that observation, there are probably other contributing influences. Scott’s gut bacteria levels did come back to baseline after he got back to Earth, however. NASA may have to consider this when evaluating future meal plans. This research has shown that the human body is resilient and flexible to significant changes caused by the extraterrestrial environment. Some of the findings may also help researchers learn more about diseases on Earth too. Sources: NASA, Science

Following a two-year journey through our solar system, NASA’s Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security-Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) asteroid intercept mission officially arrived at its destination this week: an asteroid known to astronomers as Bennu. Image Credit: NASA/Goddard/University of Arizona Although Bennu resides within the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter like any other asteroid would, it’s of particular interest to astronomers because of the secrets it might contain about the formation of the planets and the origins of life in our solar system. “The OSIRIS-REx team is proud to cross another major milestone off our list -- asteroid arrival,” explained Dante Lauretta, the OSIRIS-REx mission’s principal investigator. “Initial data from the approach phase show this object to have exceptional scientific value. We can’t wait to start our exploration of Bennu in earnest. We’ve been preparing for this moment for years, and we’re ready.” Related: This is the first picture of Bennu that OSIRIS-REx ever snapped OSIRIS-REx isn’t orbiting Bennu just yet; instead, it’s flying around the asteroid from about 19 kilometers away such that it can photograph the rocky body’s equatorial region and its North and South poles. OSIRIS-REx will begin orbiting Bennu by December 31st, earning the asteroid the title of ‘smallest object ever orbited by a spacecraft.’ As OSIRIS-REx takes all these pictures and beams them back to Earth, astronomers will hopefully be able to discern telling attributes about the world including its mass, shape, and spin rate, among other things. “During our approach toward Bennu, we have taken observations at much higher resolution than were available from Earth,” added Rich Burns, the project manager of OSIRIS-REx. “These observations have revealed an asteroid that is both consistent with our expectations from ground-based measurements and an exceptionally interesting small world. Now we embark on gaining experience flying our spacecraft about such a small body." Related: NASA adjusts the course of its OSIRIS-REx mission But NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission is about so much more than just visiting a puny space rock, entering an orbit around it, and snapping a bunch of pictures. Instead, NASA wants to use the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft to collect surface samples that can be returned to Earth for analysis by September 2023; NASA says it can grab up to two full ounces of dust and rocks from the distant world. This is a particularly important step because a space sample this significant hasn’t been brought back to Earth since the Apollo era. OSIRIS-REx also gets to enjoy setting other precedents in space exploration, such as being the first American mission to return an asteroid sample to Earth, being the first spacecraft to visit a primitive B-type asteroid, and being the first spacecraft to visit a potentially hazardous space rock. But what makes Bennu so hazardous? According to planetary scientists, Bennu poses the potential threat of colliding with Earth between the years of 2175 and 2199. This mission could shed more light on why this is expected to happen. While it’s exciting that Bennu has finally reached its destination, it will be even more exciting when the first oodles of scientific data begin rolling in. As you can probably imagine, we’re just as thrilled as those involved with the mission to learn more about a previously-unexplored space rock. Source: NASA

Antibiotic resistant bacteria are considered a major threat to public health and is expected to get more serious. Drug-resistant bacteria were once found primarily in healthcare settings and patients receiving antibiotics were at greater risk of infection. But since then, antibiotic-resistant microbes have been turning up in more environments, putting more people at risk. Scientists have also been tracking antibiotic resistance among wild animals, and have found that it’s increasing. "In 2009, we reported a high prevalence of antibiotic resistance in wild dolphins, which was unexpected," said lead study author Adam M. Schaefer, MPH, an epidemiologist at Florida Atlantic University's (FAU) Harbor Branch. "Since then, we have been tracking changes over time and have found a significant increase in antibiotic resistance in isolates from these animals. This trend mirrors reports from human health care settings. Based on our findings, it is likely that these isolates from dolphins originated from a source where antibiotics are regularly used, potentially entering the marine environment through human activities or discharges from terrestrial sources." The researchers collected data over thirteen years for this study. They took several samples including feces and gastric fluid after capturing wild dolphins, which were released afterwards. The scientists isolated 733 pathogens from 171 bottlenose dolphins during that time. Some of the pathogenic microbes they recovered are capable of infecting people. Several bacteria were identified frequently, including E. coli and S. aureus. The scientists found that just over 88 percent of the bacteria were resistant to at least one antibiotic. Most were resistant to erythromycin, while about 77 percent were resistant to ampicillin and about 62 percent had cephalothin resistance. Over their sampling period, resistance to ciprofloxacin increased more than two-fold among the E. coli the researchers were isolating, which is similar to what’s been seen in humans. The Multiple Antibiotic Resistance (MAR) index also went up significantly for Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which can cause respiratory system and urinary tract among other infections, and Vibrio alginolyticus, which can cause seafood poisoning. "The Health and Environmental Risk Assessment or HERA Project has helped discover that the emerging bacterial resistance to antibiotics in bottlenose dolphins is prevalent. Bottlenose dolphins are a valuable sentinel species in helping us understand how this affects human and environmental health. Through HERA we've been able to provide a large database of information in order to continue learning from these impressive animals," said study co-author Gregory D. Bossart, V.M.D., Ph.D., senior vice president and chief veterinary officer at Georgia Aquarium. "Antibiotic resistance is one of the most significant risks to public health. As resistance increases, the probability of successfully treating infections caused by common pathogens decreases." "The nationwide human health impact of the pathogen Acinetobacter baumannii is of substantial concern as it is a significant nosocomial pathogen with increasing infection rates over the past ten years," said study co-author Peter McCarthy, Ph.D., a research professor and an associate director for education at FAU's Harbor Branch. Sources: AAAS/Eurekalert! via Florida Atlantic University, Aquatic Mammals

Bacterial cells may shut down for many reasons - nutrients might have become scarce, they may be dealing with pathogens, or they may be under stress in their environment from harsh conditions such as heat or pressure. Some microbes can become dormant, and enter a state in which they become spores that can withstand the unfavorable conditions, as they are nearly dead. But when the time is right, spores can wake up, sometimes after years, and begin life anew. While we knew that spores awaken by rehydrating and getting their physiology and metabolism going again, researchers did not know how spores could sense their environment without awakening, and how they were able to differentiate between truly favorable conditions in their environment and vaguely positive signals. Scientists have now shown that spores do indeed evaluate their environment actively while staying in a physiologically dormant state. To do so, spores use electrochemical energy that is held in reserve to recognize favorable conditions. The findings have been reported in Science. In this time-lapse movie, electrochemical potential is color coded and overlaid on an image of one spore. Though the spore stays dormant, it can count stimuli, which are indicated by electrochemical potential changes, seen as multicolor-coded flashes. The video is by the Süel Lab/Kaito Kikuchi. "This work changes the way we think about spores, which were considered to be inert objects," said senior study author Gürol Süel, a professor at the University of California - San Diego, among other affiliations. "We show that cells in a deeply dormant state have the ability to process information. We discovered that spores can release their stored electrochemical potential energy to perform a computation about their environment without the need for metabolic activity." Spores are a good survival strategy for bacteria, but they can also pose a threat to human health as contamination in food and medicine. This movie shows color-coded jumps in the electrochemical potential value of one spore, as it reacts to short stimuli. The spore inches closer to exiting dormancy with every flash, seen as the color transitions from deep purple to yellow. The video is by the Süel Lab/Kaito Kikuchi. Dormant Bacillus subtilis spores were able to detect short signals, and could count each small input. Once a certain threshold was reached, they exited dormancy and restarted biological activity. The microbes use an integrate-and-fire mechanism, which is based on the influx of potassium into the cell from its environment. Spores could respond to favorable signals even when they were short. A bit of potassium was stored and summed up, for the spore to decide whether it would exit dormancy. The researchers noted that this work has changed the idea that spores are in dormant states that are like being dead. It may impact how researchers assess spores that might be found on space missions or meteors. "This work suggests alternate ways to cope with the potential threat posed by pathogenic spores and has implications for what to expect from extraterrestrial life," noted Süel. "If scientists find life on Mars or Venus, it is likely to be in a dormant state and we now know that a life form that appears to be completely inert may still be capable of thinking about its next steps." Sources: University of California - San Diego, Science

In May 2018, NASA announced the three teams that would be receiving five-year grants of about $8 million each to study astrobiology: the origins, evolution, distribution and future of life in our universe. Studies will explore the development of Earth’s organisms; the possibility of life on Saturn’s largest moon, Titan; the organic molecules found in meteorites, and more intricacies of how life comes to be. Director of the Astrobiology Program at NASA Headquarters Mary Voytek said: The intellectual scope of astrobiology is vast, from understanding how our planet became habitable and inhabited, to understanding how life has adapted to Earth’s harshest environments, to exploring other worlds with the most advanced technologies to search for signs of life. The three teams will become members of the NASA Astrobiology Institute, or NAI, located in Silicon Valley, California. NAI seeks to answer these questions: “How does life begin and evolve? Is there life beyond Earth and, if so, how can we detect it? What is the future of life on Earth and beyond?” ENIGMA Evolution of Nanomachines in Geospheres and Microbial Ancestors, or ENIGMA, is a research program joining NAI from Rutgers University in New Jersey. ENIGMA seeks to explore the evolution of proteins, which it refers to as nanomachines, as the main catalysts of life on Earth. Proteins are big molecules that are made of compounds called amino acids. Proteins carry out a wide range of functions in living beings, including converting food into energy, building DNA and sending signals to coordinate many processes between parts of the body. Because the origin of these nanomachines remains an enigma, this team of scientists will explore their synthesis and functions, their increasing complexity in our microbial ancestors, and their co-evolution with the geosphere. Titan and Beyond In an undertaking called, “Habitability of Hydrocarbon Worlds: Titan and Beyond,” a NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, or JPL, team will search for a habitable environment on Titan and related biosignatures -- any substances used to prove evidence of past or current life. In 2014, data from the Cassini spacecraft revealed that Titan likely has a salty subsurface ocean. These researchers aim to determine how to transport organic materials from the atmosphere to the surface to the subsurface ocean, which they identify as the “most likely habitable environment,” and back to the atmosphere. They want to know what biosignatures might exist, how they will be recognized, and, perhaps most importantly, if the ocean’s chemical and physical processes create stable habitats. Organic Molecules From Earth and Other Environments Researchers from Pennsylvania State University will be studying astrobiology by examining the origins of molecules in diverse environments on Earth and beyond. They will focus on patterns of isotopes, which are atoms missing a neutron or possessing an extra neutron. The scientists will use advanced computing to build a predictive understanding of the isotopes of organic compounds “found in meteorites, dissolved in deep Earth fluids, from individual living organisms, within microbial ecosystems and in organics associated with minerals and ice.” NASA Scientist Jim Green said of the three teams’ missions: With NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite on its way to discover new worlds around our nearest stellar neighbors, Cassini’s discovery of the ingredients necessary for life in Enceladus’s plumes, and with Europa Clipper and Mars 2020 on the horizon, these research teams will provide the critical interdisciplinary expertise needed to help interpret data from these missions and future astrobiology-focused missions. Source: NASA

NASA is very interested in learning exactly how long term space missions affect the human body, and thanks to the experiment involving the Kelly twins, Mark and Scott, NASA might finally have some leads into how exactly long term space missions impact the human body. Image Credit: NASA Scott was the ex-astronaut that spent 340 days in space on the International Space Station between 2015 and 2016 before he retired shortly after, while his identical twin brother stayed right here on Earth during the experiment to play the role as a control variable; Mark was a retired NASA astronaut himself. The goal behind the experiment was to see what kinds of differences would be seen in Scott’s body after spending such a long time in space. Mark was his identical twin, and as a result, NASA had a very good ‘before and after’ variable that they could attribute to the study. When Scott came back home to Earth after spending so much time on the International Space Station, NASA requested DNA samples, including but not limited to blood samples, from both Mark and Scott so that they could be compared after the fact. The findings were nothing short of interesting. The telomeres, or the small caps at the ends of their white blood cell chromosomes, were reportedly longer on Scott’s after spending such a long time in space. More importantly, as Scott started to spend more time on Earth following his space mission, the length of his chromosomes’ telomeres is said to have returned to normal size. For what it was worth, experts thought the exact opposite was going to happen; that Scott’s telomeres would shrink rather than lengthen, so this study was quite the learning experience. There isn’t yet much insight as to why Scott’s telomeres returned to normal after he returned back to Earth. Citing Nature, they returned to normal “relatively quickly,” and figuring out why this change occurred in the first place could be instrumental to understanding what goes on in the human body while it is in space for long periods of time. As puzzling as it is, it wasn’t the only difference that was noticed. It was also found that there were significant differences in gene expression signatures in both Mark and Scott. These changes were most noticeable in Scott, which researchers say could have been the result of stress from the many things Scott had to put up with while coping in a micro-gravitational environment that he wasn’t used to. Much of the research still has yet to be completed, as the study is very much a work in progress at this point in time. Nevertheless, we should expect to see papers some time before the end of this year that go a little more in depth about what was found. On the other hand, the research is also quite personal, as it deals directly with the genetics of two live men. That said, it’s possible that NASA will have to be selective about what information is released to the public and what isn’t in order to respect the privacy of the two test subjects. With so many long-term space missions planned for the future, including those of not only the International Space Station, but also for sending astronauts to Mars and even the Moon, it’s important that we gather as much information as possible about the possible long-term negative side effects so that proper combatants can be formulated. This might include the development of new medicines to prevent their bodies from experiencing as many of the negative side effects as possible. It should be very enlightening to learn more about the information this study will provide to mankind as the research slowly trickles in. Source: NASA, Nature

A drug-like molecule could prove valuable in cancer research with the potential of developing a new pharmaceutical. Researchers from the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR) and the Structural Genomics Consortium (SGC) at the MaRS Discovery District in Toronto have developed a new drug prototype called OICR-9429 and made it available to the research community. Research performed by international groups using OICR-9429 has demonstrated its effectiveness in halting cancer cell growth in breast cancer cell lines and a specific subtype of leukemia cells. While a great deal of time and resources are needed to test new cancer treatments, most ideas fail late in the development process. Most of the activities are carried out in parallel, without collaboration, causing duplication of effort and increased cost of cancer drugs. By offering early-stage drug-like compounds such as OICR-9429 to other researchers, OICR and the SGC are enabling more rapid testing of new treatment strategies and sharing of the results. Independent studies from Philadelphia and Vienna have offered evidence that the cellular target of OICR-9429 could be important for drug discovery. According to Dr. Cheryl Arrowsmith, chief scientist at SGC Toronto, professor in the Department of Medical Biophysics, Faculty of Medicine at the University of Toronto and a senior scientist, Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network, "In the time that it would normally take to negotiate a legal agreement to provide OICR-9429 to other research teams we have received results back from our collaborators showing that it can kill two different types of cancer cells. Opening our chemistry capabilities to the world's scientists allowed us to crowdsource and accelerate the research." As Dr. Rima Al-awar, director and senior principal investigator, Drug Discovery Program, OICR, explained, "It is remarkable how quickly our research results were translated into discoveries by the groups around the world. We are looking forward to seeing more research conducted with OICR-9429 and showing that this new approach to early-stage drug discovery has significant advantages." OICR-9429 inhibits a protein called WDR5. Two recent studies evaluated its effect on breast cancer and leukemia cell lines and offered promising results. Dr. Shelly Berger at the University of Pennsylvania used OICR-9429 to stop cancer cell growth in a panel of breast cancer cell lines driven by mutated forms of the gene p53. In its normal form p53 is a tumor-suppressor, but once it is mutated, it causes cancers to grow though its stimulation of WDR5 function. The p53 gene is mutated in at least half of all cancers and is dysregulated in others. Drs. Florian Grebien and Giulio Superti-Furga at the CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine in Vienna, Austria, used OICR-9429 to show the potential of WDR5 as a therapeutic target for leukemia. They found that OICR-9429 stopped the growth of leukemia cells with a very specific mutation found in about nine per cent of patients with acute myeloid leukemia. These two studies culminated in joint publications, in Nature and Nature Chemical Biology respectively, between the international researchers and the Ontario-based OICR and SGC teams, as reported in Drug Discovery & Development. OICR-9429 is one of a series of drug-like compounds developed by the SGC. These compounds are enabling a new approach to early-stage drug discovery. The SGC and OICR teams are continuing their collaboration to identify additional drug-like molecules to advance cancer drug discovery.

After years of setbacks and delays, NASA’s much-lauded Space Launch System (SLS) carrying the uncrewed Artemis 1 mission lifted off in spectacular fashion at 1:46am EDT on November 16, 2022, from Cape Canaveral in Florida, the very launch complex that sent the Apollo astronauts to the Moon onboard the towering Saturn V rocket in the late 1960s and early 1970s. While this was SLS’s maiden flight to conduct a thorough systems check of both the launch vehicle and the Orion capsule for Artemis 1, this also started a new age in human space exploration as we plan to send humans back to the Moon in the next few years, followed by Mars in the next decade, or so. But the joy and excitement about SLS and what it can accomplish also brings with it a sense of concern, as mega rockets like SLS produce a lot of noise, which can be damaging to both humans and the environment. And it’s these very noise concerns that a team of researchers led by Brigham Young University (BYU) hope to address, as they measured the noise levels during liftoff from various locations around the launch site to better understand the acoustics of super heavy-lift rockets. This was done primarily due to SLS now being designated as the world’s most powerful rocket, eclipsing NASA’s Saturn V that launched the Apollo missions in the 1960s and 1970s by 13%, as the Saturn V produced about 7.6 million pounds of thrust, SLS produced about 8.4 million pounds of thrust. The purpose behind such a study is to verify current noise prediction models, which are required to both protect equipment and the surrounding community and environment, as well. Such data will come in handy as more powerful launch vehicles are expected to be built in the coming years and decades. “We hope these early results will help prevent the spread of possible misinformation, as happened with the Saturn 5,” Dr. Kent Gee, who is a Professor of Physics and Chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at BYU and lead author of the study, said in a statement. “Numerous websites and discussion forums suggested sound levels that were far too high, with inaccurate reports of the Saturn 5’s sound waves melting concrete and causing grass fires.” What Dr. Gee is referring to is a 2022 study published in The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America regarding “misunderstood or incorrect data” about the Saturn V’s acoustic levels. For the study, the researchers placed microphones at listening stations between 1.5 km (1 mi) and 5.2 km (3.2 mi) from the launch pad which is outside the designated blast danger area. The resulting noise maximum noise levels reached 136 decibels at 1.5 km from the launch pad and 129 decibels at 5.2 km from the launch pad, which surpassed predicted models by 20 percent. “We found the Artemis 1 noise level at 5 km had a crackling quality about 40 million times greater than a bowl of Rice Krispies,” said Dr. Whitney Cole, who is an Assistant Physics Professor at Rollins College and a co-author on the study. The researchers also compared the noise levels at 5.2 km from the launch site as on par with a chainsaw. “Although this study is an important step forward, we still have a long way to go to understand everything about the generation, propagation, and perception of rocket noise,” Dr. Gee concluded. The research team has some time to analyze their data, as Artemis 2 isn't scheduled to launch until sometime in 2024. Sources: Reuters, NASA, JASA Express Letters, EurekAlert!, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, Space.com As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!

A recent study published in Nature Communications examines how microgravity can impact red blood cells and bone density in astronauts while bone marrow fat can restore them when the astronauts return to Earth from the International Space Station (ISS). This study holds the potential to help scientists and future astronauts better understand the impact of reduced gravity on the human body, both in space and upon their return to Earth. This study also comes at a time when NASA is preparing to send humans back to the Moon with the Artemis missions, and for the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972. “We found that astronauts had significantly less fat in their bone marrow about a month after returning to Earth,” said Dr. Guy Trudel, who is a Professor of Medicine, Surgery, and Biochemistry at the University of Ottawa, and a co-author on the study. “We think the body is using this fat to help replace red blood cells and rebuild bone that has been lost during space travel.” For the study, the researchers examined 14 astronauts both before and after conducting six-month missions to the ISS. They specifically focused on the astronauts’ bone marrow and conducted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans at various times throughout the study. While the researchers discovered a 4.2 percent reduction in bone marrow fat approximately one month after returning from space, they also found these levels slowly returned to normal the longer the astronauts stayed on Earth, which corresponded with increased levels of red blood cells and bone restoration. “Since red blood cells are made in the bone marrow and bone cells surround the bone marrow, it makes sense that the body would use up the local bone marrow fat as a source of energy to fuel red blood cells and bone production,” said Dr. Trudel. “We look forward to investigating this further in various clinical conditions on Earth.” This study builds off a 2022 study published in Nature Medicine and first-authored by Dr. Trudel that examined what is called “space anemia”, and was part of ongoing research known as MARROW. For that study, Dr. Trudel found that microgravity resulted in a 54 percent reduction in red blood cells in astronauts after returning to Earth compared to how their bodies would have reacted entirely under Earth’s gravity. Like this most recent study, the researchers also examined 14 astronauts, but this time the analyses were conducted during their six-month missions to the ISS. Astronaut Thomas Pesquet imaged inserting blood samples for MARROW research into the Minus Eighty-Degree Laboratory Freezer aboard the International Space Station. (Credit: NASA) “Thankfully, anemia isn’t a problem in space when your body is weightless, but when landing on Earth and potentially on other planets or moons with gravity, anemia would affect energy, endurance, and strength and could threaten mission objectives,” said Dr. Trudel. “If we can find out exactly what’s controlling this anemia, we might be able to improve prevention and treatment.” While further studies are required to better understand the impacts of microgravity on the human body, and specifically red blood cells and bone degradation, this study helped lay the groundwork for what astronauts can expect when traveling to the Moon and even Mars, someday. What new discoveries will researchers make about how microgravity impacts the human body? Only time will tell, and this is why we science! As always, keep doing science & keep looking up! Sources: Nature Communications, NASA, NASA (1), NASA (2), EurekAlert!, Nature Medicine, Government of Canada

The Axiom-2 mission is currently docked at the International Space Station (ISS) and due to return to Earth on May 31. Axiom-2 is not only the second private mission to the ISS, but it's also taking part in several science experiments, one of which is to test nanobioreactor experiments from the UC San Diego Sanford Stem Cell Institute, which will study how the microgravity environment impacts human stem cell inflammation, cancer, and aging. UC San Diego Sanford Stem Cell Institute researchers evaluating cell samples after they have returned from space. (Credit: UC San Diego Health Sciences) Since the dawn of the space age, scientists have learned that microgravity causes a myriad of both short-and long-term health issues ranging from bodily fluid relocation to slower heart rate to aging. Better understanding how microgravity impacts an astronaut’s health will help scientists make better informed decisions when we start sending astronauts to the Moon and Mars. Scientists at UC San Diego will examine astronauts’ blood stem cells before, during and after spaceflight. (Credit: UC San Diego Health Sciences) “Space is a uniquely stressful environment,” said Dr. Catriona Jamieson, who is a professor at the UC San Diego School of Medicine, Koman Family Presidential Endowed Chair in Cancer Research at UC San Diego Health, and director of the Sanford Stem Cell Institute. “By conducting these experiments in low Earth orbit, we are able to understand mechanisms of cancer evolution in a compressed time frame and inform the development of new cancer stem cell inhibitory strategies.” Along with better understanding how astronauts respond to microgravity, the findings from these experiments also hold the potential to develop improved predictive models and better medicines—both here and in space—in the fight against numerous cancers, including breast and colorectal cancer, leukemia, and immune dysfunction-related diseases. “We are pleased to have the opportunity with our private astronaut missions to advance this important work, aligned with the White House Cancer Moonshot initiatives,” said Christian Maender, executive vice president of in-space solutions at Axiom Space. “Our mission is to improve life on Earth and foster the possibilities beyond by building and operating the world’s first commercial space station. Together with the Sanford Stem Cell Institute team, we are building history.” This research builds off previous stem cell research conducted on the ISS that identified elevated amounts of pre-cancerous markers after only one month in space. Follow-up studies include a longitudinal study designed to monitor long-term impacts on stem cells of astronauts. What new discoveries will scientists make about stem cells, cancer, and the impacts of long-term spaceflight on human health? Only time will tell, and this is why we science! Sources: UC San Diego Today As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!

Microorganisms that end up on the International Space Station (ISS) just do their best to survive, researchers at Northwestern University have found. The environment on the ISS is not pushing microbes to mutate into virulent or antibiotic-resistant bugs, they determined. Although bacteria found on the ISS do carry genes that are different from their earthbound counterparts, these new genes are not creating dangerous bugs, they’re just responding to their environment and trying to live. The findings have been reported in mSystems. "There has been a lot of speculation about radiation, microgravity and the lack of ventilation and how that might affect living organisms, including bacteria," said the study leader Erica Hartmann, an assistant professor of environmental engineering in Northwestern's McCormick School of Engineering. "These are stressful, harsh conditions. Does the environment select for superbugs because they have an advantage? The answer appears to be 'no.'" This research is not only important to astronauts that travel on shuttles or stay onboard the ISS for months. It’s also relevant to tourism efforts that will take people to space, or potential missions to Mars. "People will be in little capsules where they cannot open windows, go outside or circulate the air for long periods of time," noted Hartmann. "We're genuinely concerned about how this could affect microbes." The ISS has plenty of microbial passengers on board, which have hitched a ride with astronauts or stowed away in the cargo. A freely accessible database maintained by The National Center for Biotechnology Information contains genetic data from many of those microbes. In this study, the researchers utilized that database to compare two strains of bacteria that live on Earth and have been found on the ISS, Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus cereus. "Based on genomic analysis, it looks like bacteria are adapting to live, not evolving to cause disease," said the first author of the work Ryan Blaustein, a postdoctoral fellow in the Hartmann lab. "We didn't see anything special about antibiotic resistance or virulence in the space station's bacteria." In an effort to survive on inhospitable surfaces, bacteria might mutate, or microbes that carry genes that enable them to get by are the ones that last. For ISS microbes, those genes might help the microbes deal with stress, gather nutrients, grow and live in a harsh place. "Bacteria that live on skin are very happy there," Hartmann said. "Your skin is warm and has certain oils and organic chemicals that bacteria really like. When you shed those bacteria, they find themselves living in a very different environment. A building's surface is cold and barren, which is extremely stressful for certain bacteria." The researchers point out that while their study is good news for astronauts and space tourists, it’s still possible for sick people to spread virulent bacteria around space shuttles and stations. "Everywhere you go, you bring your microbes with you," Hartmann explained. "Astronauts are exceedingly healthy people. But as we talk about expanding space flight to tourists who do not necessarily meet astronaut criteria, we don't know what will happen. We can't say that if you put someone with an infection into a closed bubble in space that it won't transfer to other people. It's like when someone coughs on an airplane, and everyone gets sick." Learn more about why researchers study space bacteria from the video above. In the video below, learn more about what happens when someone does get sick in space. Sources: AAAS/Eurekalaert! via Northwestern University, mSystems

Rest easy, chips-and-dip lovers, the world's guacamole supply has been secured for future generations. Scientists have been able to successfully preserve the tips of avocado shoots; they put the tips in deep-freeze, called cryopreservation, and then revived them into healthily growing plants. The work, which comes after decades of research, has been reported in Plant Cell, Tissue and Organ Research. "The aim is to preserve important avocado cultivars and key genetic traits from possible destruction by threats like bushfires, pests, and disease such as laurel wilt - a fungus which has the capacity to wipe out all the avocado germplasm in Florida," said University of Queensland (UQ) graduate student Chris O'Brien. He created the first important steps of the avocado cryopreservation protocol. "Liquid nitrogen does not require any electricity to maintain its temperature, so by successfully [freezing] avocado germplasm, it's an effective way of preserving clonal plant material for an indefinite period." Cryopreservation is often used to preserve samples and cells. The samples are usually suspended in a media and placed in special tubes (cryotubes) that can withstand the cold, then suspended in liquid nitrogen, which is around minus 196 degrees Celsius. Other plants like bananas, grape vines, and apples have been successfully cryopreserved. O'Brien and an international team of colleagues worked to perfect the process for avocados. Tissue propagation techniques led to technology in which a single shoot tip can give rise to 500 plants that are true to type. The shoot tips are placed onto foil strips so they can be cooled and rewarmed very quickly, and these foil strips are put into the cryotubes that sit in liquid nitrogen. "At first I was just recovering brown mush after freezing the avocado tips," noted O'Brien. "There was no protocol so I experimented with priming the tips with Vitamin C, and used other pre-treatments like sucrose and cold temperature to prepare the cells - it was a question of trial and error to get the optimal mixture and correct time points." Once placed in a Petri dish with a sucrose solution, the frozen shoot types can be easily rehydrated and revived. "It takes about 20 minutes to recover them," O'Brien said. "In about two months they have new leaves and are ready for rooting before beginning a life in the orchard." About 80 percent of frozen Reed avocado plants and 60 percent of Velvick cultivar were revived successfully. Eighty of these avocado plants continue to grow in a UQ glasshouse, where they will be monitored for flooring times and fruit quality. "I suppose you could say they are space-age avocados - ready to be cryo-frozen and shipped to Mars when human flight becomes possible," said Mitter. "But it is really about protecting the world's avocado supplies here on earth and ensuring we meet the demand of current and future generations for their smashed 'avo' on toast." Sources: AAAS/Eurekalert! via University of Queensland; Plant Cell, Tissue and Organ Culture

Since the Star Wars series first hit the theatre four decades ago, it has created its own sci-fi culture and captivated audiences around the world. Have you ever wondered how close we are to achieve those futuristic technologies in the movies? Is it possible to create a lightsaber? Can someone build a Death Star for real? With so many advances in robotics and AI, has anyone already created a robot like R2-D2 or C-3PO? Lightsaber The idea that a beam of laser light can be shaped into a blade, and clash with other sword-like beams is purely imaginative. The name lightsaber is misleading since there are no laser swords (even George Lucas admitted in interviews). But there are other options to consider for building a glowing melee weapon: accelerated particles, ionized plasma gas and a newly discovered material known as photonic molecules. Particle accelerators like cyclotrons can spin particles such as protons at high velocity and spit them out to a targeted outlet. Proton beam is an increasingly popular method for cancer radiotherapy because its emission can be conditioned to stop at a specific range without overshooting, just like the blade of a sword. But putting a particle accelerator, which comes with the size between a vending machine and a small room, inside a sword handle is almost an unimaginable task on it own. Plasma is an ionized gas, a very hot gas. You could picture it as an extreme hot soup of atoms and electrons. Plasma can be used to build a lightsaber, but it would require very strong magnetic fields to confine the distribution of plasma so that it can form a sword shape. The good thing about the plasma is that it can explain the colors of the lightsaber: different kinds of gasses, different plasma, can create different colors. First theoretically predicted in 2007, photonic molecules are a natural form of matter which can also be made artificially in which photons bind together to form "molecules". In a 2013 study, scientists pumped gaseous rubidium atoms into a vacuum chamber and cooled close to the absolute zero. As photons the light particles entered the gaseous cloud, their energy excited atoms along their path, causing them to be stuck within the rubidium atoms. If you designed it right, it could just be in the shape of a sword. One may excuse the delicate conditions how these photonic molecules are formed, but the mass-less existence of electromagnetic interaction can barely do any harm to anything in the path. In fact the extreme cold condition of the cloud may cause someone frostbite. So to build a sword that cuts through metal and flesh, and comes with a colorful glow, we still have a lot to figure out. Death Star In the movie, the Death Star launched its lethal attack by firing up a six-beam laser that conjoined in the middle of the circle, before dealing a single, devastating photonic blow to the target. But in real life is that the six rays would pass through each other and head off in six different directions. Again, the violation of physics behind how light works make it impossible to construct a weapon that acts like the Death Star. But how about just normal laser weapon without the fancy appearance, but as powerful as the Death Star? Laser weapon systems nowadays can deal extensive damages and have been equipped US navy vessels in defense of hostile drones, helicopters, and fast patrol craft. The directed energy (which would need stayed focus on the target for a couple of seconds to allow for damage) can burn through structures or melt holes on the object surface. In a 1998 test, a Mid-Infrared Advanced Chemical Laser (MIRACL) fired at a retiring satellite that was 432 kilometers (268 miles) above the Earth’s surface and temporarily blinded the sensors on broad. The 2.2-megawatt laser was believed to be able to melt the satellite if allowed. The energy output of any laser weapons needs to be proportional to the amount of energy that is pumped into or generated within them. Any weapon that can blow up a planet, for example, the size of the Earth, into pieces, it would need to deliver an output of 2 * 10^32 joules, which is equal to 2.3% of the sun’s annual energy output. With such mind-blowing amount of energy, it is hard to believe anyone can power up a weapon anywhere close to the Death Star. However, this is not to completely dismiss the possible existence of a planet killer. In fact, there is another source of power no one has imagined could destroy an entire planet—a star. A 2016 study had dug up some convincing evidence. The host star in the HIP 68468 system had likely ingested some of its planets, according to the star's composition. It contains four times more lithium and other elements that are abundant on rocky planets. So alternatively, if you cannot afford to build a Death Star but manage to move or nudge a real star close to the target planet with other methods, it would be just as good as a Death Star. Intelligent robots like R2D2 and C3PO With the advances made in both robotic technology and artificial intelligence, one would expect that intelligent robots would become reality soon. Take the Curiosity rover for example, this world-renowned robotic adventurer has been working on the surface of Mars via remote control from NASA. It conducted exploratory tasks such as taking and analyzing rock samples on Mars, as well as sending the data back to Earth. Atlas, a human-like robot built by Boston Dynamics, can act more agile and nimble than both R2D2 and C3PO. It is now capable of doing backflips with decent success rate. On the artificial intelligence front, Google DeepMind's AlphaGo defeated professional Go, chess, and poker champions multiple times since 2016. AlphaGo Zero, a most recent version of the system demonstrated some eerily intelligent behaviors: all previous versions learned Go by observing millions of moves of human players, AlphaGo Zero learned by playing only against itself. So, as you see, the chance is high that someday we may have robots that possess or surpass the mobility and intelligence of R2D2 and C3PO. What's new, Atlas? Credit: Boston Dynamics Source: CBC/Scientific American/Wikipedia

Peter Berg has been working at NASA since 2007. He is an Aerospace Engineer and the Design and Analysis Team Lead in the Integrated Systems Health Management (ISHM) and Automation Branch at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. He also currently works with the Mission and Fault Management Team for the Space Launch System (SLS), Human Landing System (HLS), Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV), and Solar Cruiser. To commemorate this year’s National Engineers Week, Labroots Science Writer and Planetary Geologist, Laurence Tognetti, spoke with Berg about what drew him to space exploration, how he came to be an engineer at NASA, and what it’s like working for NASA in this new age of space exploration. Laurence Tognetti: Tell us a bit about your background, your experiences training to be an engineer, and where you are right now in your career. Peter Berg: I earned my bachelor’s in science in Aerospace Engineering with minors in math and physics from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) Prescott Arizona Campus, but that was far easier said than done. Early in my school career at ERAU, my grades were not the best and it took 5-years to get my degree after having to retake Calculus and Physics classes. With a lot of self-reflection and unwavering support from my parents, the poor grades in math and physics couldn’t overpower my passion and insistence on becoming an aerospace engineer and working at NASA. During Spring Break before graduation, I decided to stay on campus, in case I needed to fly to various places for interviews like Houston, Tucson, China Lake, instead of going home to the Bay. Little did I know that an opportunity to return home and work in the Bay Area would arise after I applied to an Engineer Level 2/3 position on a whim. When I started my engineering career, like me, discussions on new ways of doing space, including the commercialization of space, were in their infancy. I started working on the Constellation program on what was then called the Abort Fault Detection Notification and Response (AFDNR). Luckily fault management as a discipline was also in its beginnings and I received the best advice a manager can give an entry level engineer from my manager Greg, “be a sponge”. My managers at Ames also allowed me to explore new ways of looking at fault management and fault propagation models of an integrated system. In the death throes of Ares and the Constellation program, an idea emerged to use Finite State Machines (FSM) to represent system behaviors. This caught the attention of the Software Technical Discipline Lead for an elite group at NASA known as the NESC, or NASA Engineering and Safety Center. One day that I will never forget, my team lead, Dwight, pulled me into his office with my manager Greg and asked me to close the door behind me. This brought back memories of me as a young kid getting in trouble and being sent to the principal’s office. I had surprisingly been asked to work on the Toyota Unintended Acceleration investigation and counted amongst the top NASA engineers at 25 years old. After Toyota’s investigation and 700+ page report completed, I was trying to figure out what would be next. Luckily, NASA's Ames Research Center had been planning a Lunar exploration and technology demonstration mission, the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE). LADEE was incredible. The average age of folks working the program was easily in the 30s, and for a NASA mission at the time, that was very, very low. We all were figuring out how to do things as a group. I had to be flexible in my roles as Software Systems Engineer, Fault Management Engineer, Mission Operations Simulation Engineer, and Console Operator. But LADEE was not the only program I was working on at the time. The old gang from Constellation came back together for a young program called Artemis and a re-org at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) created the Mission and Fault Management (M&FM) group. I continued looking at FSM as a way to model the SLS vehicle plant and software in a method called State Analysis Modeling (SAM). While LADEE was occluded by the moon, I would work on the SAM, getting it to the point where it was making an actual impact on the way SLS operated. And after the impact of LADEE on the moon, I found myself looking towards my future with NASA and how to push the SAM concepts further. I am now the Design and Analysis Team Lead in the Integrated System Health Management and Automation Branch at MSFC, home of the M&FM team, far from where I began as an engineer, but close to the action of where NASA is going in the future. Laurence Tognetti: What got you interested in working for NASA? Were there any inspirational figures in your life or moments where you realized this is what you wanted to do? Peter Berg: I think it primarily was my desire to solve problems, by being creative and exploring elegant simple solutions to answer the complex and confusing. My first introduction to NASA was when an engineer from Ames came to talk to my grammar school class. I don’t remember who they were nor what they said, but they inspired me to not only look into a career at NASA, but also to remember to pay it forward and take an opportunity to talk to schools and classes whenever I can. I was also blessed by having several inspirational figures in the engineering field surrounding me in life. My godfather Lee worked at Hughes Aerospace; my mother’s uncle Vic worked at Lockheed Martin on the Hubble Space Telescope. Laurence Tognetti: Have you always had a passion for space exploration or is that something that came in time? Peter Berg: As a child, my grandma Rina, an immigrant from Italy, would take me to the nearby San Francisco International Airport (SFO) to watch aircraft take-off and land. It was at that point I decided that I wanted to become an Aerospace Engineer and design aircraft. Once I got to college, I learned that there isn’t as much design that goes into aircraft and that there would be so much more to invent and explore in space. Laurence Tognetti: How did you land working at Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Alabama? Peter Berg: I had never heard of Huntsville until I started working at NASA Ames on Constellation and closely collaborated with the engineers at MSFC. About once a year for ten (10) or so years, I traveled to Huntsville for a Technical Interchange Meeting (TIM). I saw how great the town of Huntsville was and what moving here would do to my career and the acceptance of the SAM as a product. An opportunity with Aerodyne Industries, a sub-contractor to Jacobs, the main support contractor to NASA at MSFC opened. This would let me join the ISHM and Automation branch and allow me to continue working on the SLS and SAM opened. It was not an easy decision, requiring me to move 2,000 miles away from family and friends, like my grandparents before me. Even though it was going from California to Alabama, there wasn’t too much of a negative difference, besides actually having weather and seasons. When the opportunity opened up to become a Civil Servant, I immediately took it, and once I did, I could almost literally hear the multiple doors of opportunity open. Laurence Tognetti: Can we ask what current and/or future space missions you’re working on? Peter Berg: Following, and even preceding, the well-known successful flight of Artemis I, our team worked on incorporating several features and improvements necessary to have the abort system enabled for the crew of Artemis II. We’re just about to start working on data analysis from the SLS System Integration Lab (SIL) after running the tests ahead of time in the SAM. Simultaneously, we are working on developing the algorithms and fault management for the upcoming SLS Block 1b, which will first be used for Artemis IV. But SLS is obviously not the only program NASA and MSFC are working on and there are a lot of exciting projects being worked on and planned. The Human Landing System (HLS) Program is led out of MSFC and my branch is a part of the Integrated Performance Functional Analysis and Mission Planning teams, providing functional analysis models as well as a novel adaption of the SAM to use FSMs in an agent-based model to build timelines in a tool called STEDe. The Branch is also developing the Mission and Fault Management algorithms for the Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV), which is part of the Mars Sample Return (MSR) program. The process of developing these algorithms relies heavily on the processes used during Constellation and SLS, as well as experience with cFS on LADEE. We’re also working with technologies beyond launch vehicles as MSFC works on exotic space propulsion missions like solar sails with Solar Cruiser. For this, the Mission and Fault Management algorithms are being integrated within the Guidance Navigation and Control (GN&C) simulation. MSFC is also leading the way for Habitation systems for the Moon, transit to Mars and of course on Mars itself. The ISHM and Automation branch is developing the System Health, Autonomy, and Redundancy Control (SHARC) Lab to develop and promote Artificial Intelligence (AI) / Machine Learning (ML) and other advanced Fail-Active Autonomy and Self-Reliant systems and System-of-Systems techniques. Laurence Tognetti: How excited are you for the success of Artemis 1 and the upcoming Artemis missions? Peter Berg: Artemis I’s launch is a shining light to the new age of space exploration that’s fueled by decades of unseen problem solving and sacrifices. Personally, I have sacrificed many days of being too busy to hang out with friends and family. Was it worth it, absolutely, and I’m lucky enough to be surrounded by friends and family who understand the meaning of it. There wasn’t much celebration after the launch, but I can almost guarantee that Huntsville will have its night of dancing in the streets again – when we have boots back on the Moon. Laurence Tognetti: Describe a typical day for you at MSFC. Peter Berg: A typical day for me starts waking up and biking on my stationary bike for at least 30 minutes before heading to MSFC. I usually arrive at work around 7am, early enough to be there before everyone and avoid as much of the Huntsville traffic as possible. There’s lots of projects going on, which usually means lots of meetings and lots of frequent visits by people coming into my office and working out elegant solutions out in groups or on whiteboards. On days when I don’t have leftovers from my fiancé packed in my lunch, I will walk across the street to the MSFC food truck corral. Most of the team interaction and coordination occurs online, especially with the team only needing to be in the office two days a week. Laurence Tognetti: What advice would you give to students who wish to work for NASA? Peter Berg: I think I should answer this in two parts, before you work at NASA and after. Before you work at NASA and while you’re in the interview process, be sure to do things like research the people giving the interview. When you show interest in some personal research projects of the interviewer, it can really set you apart. Additionally, don’t worry so much about the minimum requirements of what you’re applying for. Apply for what you want to do and where you want to work. Finally, as I am a big example of this, your GPA is important but probably not as important as your ability to explain a design process and think critically. This advice applies whether you work at NASA, any NASA support contract, or any job in the space industry. I think the advice my first manager, Greg, provided me still holds as the best, he said “be a sponge”, meaning absorb everything and anything presented in a meeting or discussion, this is valuable because at any moment you may be asked for some of that information in the future. One of my personal pieces of advice, which I take from watching lots of hockey, is to use “we” and not “I” when describing something a team has done together. Laurence Tognetti: Is there anything else you feel our readers need to know about your amazing career? Peter Berg: Engineering isn’t only about technical work, with as mentally exhausting and emotionally draining as it can be, it is best to have fun and an open mind on different approaches. With that said, I’ve found that one of the best ways to express emotions through comedy is with memes. During LADEE, I consistently documented different mission activities and problems with memes, but it wasn’t till LADEE decommissioned into the side of the Sundman V crater that I showed them to the team. You can connect with Peter Berg on LinkedIn and read more about his work at NASA here.

NASA hopes to send humans to Mars by 2030 on a round-trip mission that could take up to three years -- far longer than any human has ever traveled in space. Such long-term spaceflights could adversely affect specific cells in the immune systems of astronauts, according to a new study led by University of Arizona researchers. "What NASA and other space agencies are concerned about is whether or not the immune system is going to be compromised during very prolonged spaceflight missions," said Richard Simpson, senior author and associate professor of nutritional sciences at the UA. "What clinical risks are there to the astronauts during these missions when they're exposed to things like microgravity, radiation and isolation stress? Could it be catastrophic to the level that the astronaut wouldn't be able to complete the mission?" Simpson and his team of researchers at the UA, the University of Houston, Louisiana State University and NASA-Johnson Space Center, studied the effects of spaceflights of six months or more on natural killer cells, or NK cells, a type of white blood cell that kills cancerous cells in the body and prevents old viruses from reactivating. "Cancer is a big risk to astronauts during very prolonged spaceflight missions because of the exposure to radiation," Simpson said. "[NK-cells] is also very important to kill off virally infected cells. When you're in the space station, it's a very sterile environment -- you're not likely to pick up the flu or a rhinovirus or some community-type infection -- but the infections that are a problem are the viruses that are already in your body. These are mostly viruses that cause things like shingles, mononucleosis or cold sores; they stay in your body for the rest of your life, and they do reactivate when you're stressed." Scientists compared blood samples of eight crewmembers who completed missions to the International Space Station with healthy individuals who remained on Earth. Blood samples were taken before launch, at several points during the mission and after the astronauts' return to Earth. The results showed that NK-cell function is impaired in astronauts as compared with pre-flight levels and ground-based controls. At flight day 90, NK-cell cytotoxic activity against leukemia cells in vitro was reduced by approximately 50 percent in International Space Station crew members. "When we look at the function of the astronaut samples during flight compared to their samples before they flew, it goes down. When we compare them to controls who stayed on Earth, it still goes down," Simpson said. "I don't think there's any doubt that NK-cell function is decreasing in the spaceflight environment when analyzed in a cell culture system." The effect appears to be more pronounced in first-time astronauts, as opposed to those who have already been in space. "Serendipitously, we found that half our crew members had flown before, and the other half hadn't," Simpson said. "So we were able just to split them in half to see if there was an effect, and there was. The 'rookies' had more significant drops in NK-cell function compared to the veterans." The differences could be chalked up to age or stress, Simpson said, assuming that rookie astronauts, who are generally younger than their veteran counterparts, would find space travel more stressful than those who had done it before. Whether the drop in NK-cell function makes astronauts more susceptible to cancer and viral reactivation remains to be seen, Simpson said. He hopes to learn more from future studies. "The next question would be, how do we mitigate these effects? How do we prevent the immune system from declining during space travel?" he said. "To do that, you have first to figure out what's causing the decline: Is it stress, microgravity, radiation? When we figure that out, we can try to find ways to target those factors and mitigate them directly." Simpson and his fellow researchers at NASA-Johnson Space Center, along with European and Russian scientists, are already working on potential countermeasures that could help keep astronauts healthy in space, including nutritional or pharmacological intervention and increased exercise, all of which have been shown to have a positive effect on immune system function. Studies have shown that spending extended periods away from Earth comes with some health risks, such as muscle and bone loss due to the effects of microgravity. But scientists didn't know whether the unique conditions encountered by astronauts had an impact on the immune system until now. Sources: Science Daily, Applied Physiology, YouTube

You may know that the human body is made up of elements that almost all originated in stars, and many of those elements have been through supernovas. New research reported in Science Advances has taken that finding further and examined how carbon helped form the planet. The new study has demonstrated that most of the carbon found on Earth was probably sent here by material that exists in between the stars in a galaxy, the interstellar medium. That carbon was likely delivered after the disc of dust, gas, and planetary building blocks swirling around the sun, the protoplanetary disc, formed and began to heat up. Carbon may have been in solid materials within one million years of the Sun's birth. It was previously suggested that the Earth's carbon was derived from molecules in nebular gas. As the gas cooled down, molecules could precipitate and planets could form. "The condensation model has been widely used for decades. It assumes that during the formation of the Sun, all of the planet's elements got vaporized, and as the disk cooled, some of these gases condensed and supplied chemical ingredients to solid bodies. But that doesn't work for carbon," explained Jie (Jackie) Li, a professor in the University of Michigan's (U-M) Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. Once carbon is vaporized, it produces volatile species and will not condense back into a solid organic form. Most carbon on earth seems to have been sent here in the form of organic molecules. Thus, Li's team hypothesized that the carbon on Earth came straight from the interstellar medium, and avoided vaporization. The team asked how much carbon Earth could possibly hold. By examining the speed of seismic waves through the planet's core, and known sound velocities, they determined that less than half of a percent of the Earth's mass is carbon. Knowing the upper limit of carbon levels can tell the researchers more about when it arrived. "We asked a different question: We asked how much carbon could you stuff in the Earth's core and still be consistent with all the constraints," said U-M astronomer Edwin Bergin, professor and chair of the U-M Department of Astronomy. "There's uncertainty here. Let's embrace the uncertainty to ask what are the true upper bounds for how much carbon is very deep in the Earth, and that will tell us the true landscape we're within." The carbon level on a planet has to fit a Goldilocks standard - not too much, and not too little - to support life. Another report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences examined how much carbon was processed by the precursors of planets as they formed. The metallic cores of these planets are now found as iron meteorites. When the researchers examined samples of them, they determined that while planets were forming, lots of carbon is lost while cores are created, and gas is lost. "Most models have the carbon and other life-essential materials such as water and nitrogen going from the nebula into primitive rocky bodies, and these are then delivered to growing planets such as Earth or Mars," said Marc Hirschmann, a professor of earth and environmental sciences at the University of Minnesota. "But this skips a key step, in which the planetesimals lose much of their carbon before they accrete to the planets." "The planet needs carbon to regulate its climate and allow life to exist, but it's a very delicate thing," Bergin said. "You don't want to have too little, but you don't want to have too much." The loss of carbon seems to be crucial to turning the earth into a habitable place, noted Bergin. "Answering whether or not Earth-like planets exist elsewhere can only be achieved by working at the intersection of disciplines like astronomy and geochemistry," said Fred Ciesla a professor of geophysical sciences at the University of Chicago. "While approaches and the specific questions that researchers work to answer differ across the fields, building a coherent story requires identifying topics of mutual interest and finding ways to bridge the intellectual gaps between them. Doing so is challenging, but the effort is both stimulating and rewarding." Sources: Science Daily via University of Michigan, Science Advances, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

Dr. Alyssa Rose Rhoden is a Principal Scientist within the Planetary Science Directorate at the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Boulder, Colorado. She is an expert in the geophysics of ocean worlds, specifically Jupiter’s moon Europa, but has since expanded her studies to include Pluto’s moon Charon, Saturn’s moons Enceladus, Mimas, and Tethys, Mars’ moon Phobos; and irregular-sized moons of Jupiter. She is also a mom of two, an avid guitar player, and enjoys the outdoors in her spare time. “I strive to make a difference in the world, create strong friendships, have an awesome time raising my kids, and have an active lifestyle,” Rhoden writes on her website. Alyssa is a testament to how you can both be a scientist and have a successful and well-balanced life outside of science, too, and says she was driven to become a scientist after receiving encouragement from her mother. “Of course, I also had a sense of wonder for the natural world, blended with curiosity and a deep interest in solving mysteries, so the field suited me,” she explains in a short biography. Alyssa stumbled around a bit, once she got to college, because she did not see people like her—quirky, creative types who could not seem to effortlessly speak the language of math and physics. At one point, she decided to leave science to pursue a career as a lawyer but says this serendipitously led her to the field of planetary science. “The images of the diverse worlds of our solar system—particularly of the outer solar system—gave me the spark I had been lacking. And I have been studying icy moons ever since.” She further explains. Alyssa Rose Rhoden officially began her career in planetary science as a second-year undergraduate at the University of Arizona after switching from astrophysics, graduating with a Bachelor of Science in Physics in 2003. As an undergraduate, she worked with Dr. Richard Greenberg, who was working on understanding Jupiter’s moon, Europa, using the recently-acquired data from the Galileo spacecraft, saying the images of Europa’s surface is what drew her in. “But the thing that sealed the deal was that Europa’s surface, interior, and orbit are all linked through the process of tides,” she explains. “The idea that we could learn about the entire system of a planetary body by looking at each individual component of its surface was fascinating to me. I wasn’t just learning about one feature or one process, but the whole history of Jupiter’s moons. Even today, more than 20 years later, I am most interested in the way satellite systems function and evolve.” Upon graduation, she spent the next two years as a Research Assistant at the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory studying tidal tectonic on Europa, a position she started as an undergraduate. She went on to get her PhD in Earth and Planetary Science at UC Berkeley in 2011 under her PhD advisor, Dr. Michael Manga, with the PhD Dissertation title, “The rotation and fracture history of Europa from modeling of tidal-tectonic processes”. After earning her PhD, Dr. Rhoden continued to hone her geophysics modeling skills as a NASA Postdoctoral Program fellow and later a Mission Scientist at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center where she was part of a Discovery mission proposal team. She completed her postdoc experience as a post-doctoral Staff Scientist at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory working on the Europa Clipper pre-project team. In 2015, Dr. Rhoden accepted a tenure-track position as an Assistant Professor of Planetary Science at the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University, where she polished her skills as both a teacher and mentor for undergrad and grad students with the Rhoden Research Group. In 2018, she accepted her current position as a Principal Scientist at SwRI where she continues to receive funding for various ocean world studies. She says working at SwRI is “pretty amazing”. “I always thought it seemed like a fantasy job – brilliant people just sitting around chatting about science and figuring out the Universe,” she says. “And now that I work at SwRI, I can tell you, it’s exactly like that. With donuts.” She thinks students don’t get enough exposure to research institutions outside universities. She also believes the notion that anything but a faculty job at a research-focused university is somehow “less than" is garbage. “Of course, universities can be amazing institutions for scientific inquiry, but they are not the only places or the best places.” She explains and further says the various institutions she’s worked at are all different in terms of culture. “They each have pros and cons. But the best place for you to be a scientist is the place where you can flourish as an individual and as a collaborator, and there is no one right fit for all people.” Sources: ASU, Weebly

In 2017, researchers reported that they had identified microbes in Antarctica that could basically survive on only air. Now a follow-up study from the same group of researchers has shown that this process commonly occurs in the polar soils of the Arctic, Antarctic, and Tibetan Plateau in the Himalayas. The findings have been reported in the journal Frontiers in Microbiology by the research team from the University of South Wales (UNSW), the Australian Antarctic Division, and China's Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research. This research can help us learn more about the extraterrestrial life that could exist in the extreme environments of our solar system. "This is what NASA's Mars 2020 Perseverance Rover (below) is aiming to do - to search for signs of ancient microbial life in core samples of Martian rock and soil," said the senior author of the study, Associate Professor Belinda Ferrari, of UNSW Science. "A future mission will take the samples back to Earth and NASA scientists will analyze the soil in a similar way we do, to try and see whether there are any indicators of life." Photosynthesis uses light to generate energy, but microbes that can use gases for energy (in a process known as chemosynthesis) can be found outside of Antarctica. "There are whole ecosystems probably relying on this novel microbial carbon fixation process where microbes use the energy obtained from breathing in atmospheric hydrogen gas to turn carbon dioxide from the atmosphere into carbon in order to grow," suggested Ferarri. "We think this process occurs simultaneously alongside photosynthesis when conditions change, such as during the polar winter when there is no light, but we aim to confirm this hypothesis in the next stage of our research. "So, while more work is needed to confirm this activity occurs globally, the fact that we detected the target genes in the soils of the three poles means this novel process likely occurs in cold deserts around the world, but has simply been overlooked until now." After their previous findings, the scientists wanted to know whether the phenomenon they observed happened elsewhere. "So, this time we did a global study. We collected the top 10-centimeter layer of soil from various sites at the three poles, which is the depth where most of the organisms we study are found," said the lead study author and UNSW graduate candidate Angelique Ray. "The ground at those locations is completely frozen for most of the year - and there's not a lot of soil because it's mostly rock." In this study, the researchers focused on samples collected between 2005 and 2019 from 14 sites in cold desert ecosystems in Antarctica, the high Arctic, and the Tibetan Plateau. They extracted any DNA that was in the soil and sequenced it to identify genes that are involved in carbon fixation and took note of the environmental conditions. "By looking at the environmental parameters in the soil, that's how we knew there was low carbon, low moisture, and other factors at play," explained Ray. "So, we correlated the target genes for the carbon fixation process against the different sites and found the locations which are drier and lower in nutrients - carbon and nitrogen - had a greater potential to support this process, which made sense." This work can help show how flexible the boundaries of life may be. It may change how microbiology is taught, suggested Ferrari. "A lot of these ecosystems are quite dry and nutrient-poor - so, these locations are mostly dominated by bacteria," she said. "Particularly at the original east Antarctic sites we studied, there is not much else there apart from some mosses and lichens. Because these bacteria have adapted to survive and have the ability to use trace gases to live, their environment has selected them to become significant contributors to their ecosystems." The scientists are also trying to learn more about the microbes they have identified. "As part of the next phase, we aim to isolate one of these novel bacteria in the laboratory - to obtain a pure culture," added Ferrari. "This is difficult because the bacteria are used to growing on very little and an agar plate is different to their natural environment. Hopefully, then we can fully understand the conditions these bacteria need to carry out this unique process of living on air." Sources: AAAS/Eurekalert! via University of New South Wales, Frontiers in Microbiology

This series will explore historic space missions from the start of the Space Age to the present day, including both crewed and robotic missions. Here we will investigate the scientific rationale behind each mission and, most importantly, what we learned from these early missions and how they helped shape future missions that will launch to the Moon and Mars within the coming years. We recently explored some of NASA’s first robotic missions to study the Moon and planets: Pioneer, Ranger, and Surveyor. This week, we will begin exploring the history of NASA’s crewed spaceflight, which not only helped shape the Apollo Program to the Moon, but crewed spaceflight, overall. The first American crewed program was Project Mercury, with each of the missions carrying a 7 after their respective titles in honor of the first seven astronauts of NASA. Project Mercury was NASA’s very first human spaceflight program which operated from 1958 to 1963, having a total of 26—six crewed and 20 uncrewed—flights to space. While we lost the race to space when the Soviet Union’s Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space on April 12, 1961, the United States was determined to keep going. With Project Mercury, we saw the first Americans launch into the void and orbit the Earth, with the first two flights being short 15-minute suborbital missions and progressively got longer throughout the program. The first mission of Project Mercury was called Freedom 7 and saw astronaut Alan B. Shepard Jr. become the first American to lift off from the surface of the Earth on May 5, 1961, mere weeks after Gagarin’s historic flight. While Freedom 7 lasted only 15 minutes and 28 seconds, it nonetheless proved that the United States possessed the capabilities to put humans into space. Next was Liberty Bell 7, which launched astronaut Virgil “Gus” Grissom into space on July 21, 1961, once again consisting of a suborbital flight of 15 minutes and 37 seconds. Despite a successful launch and splashdown, the mission almost ended in disaster when the hatch of Grissom’s spacecraft prematurely blew off, causing ocean water to rapidly fill the capsule and almost drowning Grissom. While Grissom was thankfully pulled to safety, the capsule sank to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, not being recovered until 1999. The third mission of Project Mercury was Friendship 7, launching astronaut John H. Glenn Jr. into space on February 20, 1962, making him the first American to orbit the Earth, which he successfully did three times. This flight lasted far longer than its two predecessors for a total of 4 hours, 55 minutes, and 23 seconds. With this mission, the United States was able to even the score with the Soviet Union, as Gagarin’s historic flight also orbited the Earth. Aurora 7 launched only a few months later, May 24, 1962, putting astronaut Scott Carpenter into space and surpassing Glenn’s mission duration by a smidgen at 4 hours, 56 minutes, and 5 seconds. This mission successfully duplicated Glenn’s spaceflight of three orbits, but temporarily stranded Carpenter at sea on his life raft for over an hour after splashdown due to misfiring of the capsule’s retrorockets. The second to last mission of Project Mercury was Sigma 7, which launched on October 3, 1962. This mission saw astronaut Walter M. Schirra surpass the previous two missions by orbiting the Earth a total of six times for a mission duration of 9 hours, 13 minutes, and 11 seconds. Unlike Aurora 7, the Sigma 7 capsule had a near-perfect splashdown as it was recovered only half a mile from the aircraft carrier. Upon recovery, Schirra successfully blew open the hatch and climbed out, which was designed to absolve Grissom of wrongdoing, as some had accused him of accidentally blowing the hatch, causing his capsule to sink to the bottom of the Atlantic. The final mission of Project Mercury was Faith 7, which launched astronaut L. Gordon Cooper Jr. into space on May 15, 1963. Both the mission duration and number of orbits surpassed all of the previous mission combined, cataloging a total of 22 orbits around the Earth for a duration of 1 day, 10 hours, 19 minutes, and 49 seconds. This not only marked the longest US spaceflight, but closed the book on a resoundingly successful Project Mercury, which not only saw the first Americans fly to space but laid the groundwork for Project Gemini. We owe our infinite gratitude to the brave first astronauts on Project Mercury, as they not only helped usher in American human spaceflight but was a historic first step toward landing astronauts on the Moon, which we will be once again doing with Artemis in the next few years. Sources: Labroots, Labroots (2), Labroots (3), NASA, NASA (2), NASA (3), National Air and Space Museum, NASA (4), NASA (5), NASA (6), Spaceflight Insider, Space Center Houston As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!

NASA's groundbreaking science mission to retrieve a sample from an ancient space rock has moved closer to fruition. The Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) mission has passed a critical milestone in its path towards launch and is officially authorized to transition into its next phase.Key Decision Point-D (KDP-D) occurs after the project has completed a series of independent reviews that cover the technical health, schedule and cost of the project. The milestone represents the official transition from themission's development stage to delivery of systems, testing and integration leading to launch. During this part of the mission's life cycle, known as Phase D, the spacecraft bus, or the structure that will carry the science instruments, is completed, the instruments are integrated into the spacecraft and tested, and the spacecraft is shipped to NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida for integration with the rocket."This is an exciting time for the OSIRIS-REx team," said Dante Lauretta, principal investigator for OSIRIS-Rex at the University of Arizona, Tucson. "After almost four years of intense design efforts, we are now proceeding with the start of flight system assembly. I am grateful for the hard work and team effort required to get us to this point."OSIRIS-REx is the first U.S. mission to return samples from an asteroid to Earth. The spacecraft will travel to a near-Earth asteroid called Bennu and bring at least a 60-gram (2.1-ounce) sample back to Earth for study. OSIRIS-REx carries five instruments that will remotely evaluate the surface of Bennu. The mission will help scientists investigate the composition of the very early solar system and the source of organic materials and water that made their way to Earth, and improve understanding of asteroids that could impact our planet.OSIRIS-REx is scheduled for launch in late 2016. The spacecraft will reach Bennu in 2018 and return a sample to Earth in 2023."The spacecraft structure has been integrated with the propellant tank and propulsion system and is ready to begin system integration in the Lockheed Martin highbay," said Mike Donnelly, OSIRIS-REx project manager at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "The payload suite of cameras and sensors is well into its environmental test phase and will be delivered later this summer/fall."The key decision meeting was held at NASA Headquarters in Washington on March 30 and chaired by NASA's Science Mission Directorate.On March 27, assembly, launch and test operations officially began at Lockheed Martin in Denver. These operations represent a critical stage of the program when the spacecraft begins to take form, culminating with its launch. Over the next several months, technicians will install the subsystems on the main spacecraft structure, comprising avionics, power, telecomm, thermal systems, and guidance, navigation and control.The next major milestone is the Mission Operations Review, scheduled for completion in June. The project will demonstrate that its navigation, planning, commanding, and science operations requirements are complete.The mission's principal investigator is at the University of Arizona, Tucson. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, will provide overall mission management, systems engineering and safety and mission assurance for OSIRIS-REx. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver will build the spacecraft. OSIRIS-REx is the third mission in NASA's New Frontiers Program. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, manages New Frontiers for the agency's Science Mission Directorate.OSIRIS-REx complements NASA's Asteroid Initiative, which aligns portions of the agency's science, space technology and human exploration capabilities in a coordinated asteroid research effort. The initiative will conduct research and analysis to better characterize and mitigate the threat these space rocks pose to our home planet.Included in the initiative is NASA's Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM), a robotic spacecraft mission that will capture a boulder from the surface of a near-Earth asteroid and move it into a stable orbit around the moon for exploration by astronauts, all in support of advancing the nation's journey to Mars. The agency also is engaging new industrial capabilities, partnerships, open innovation and participatory exploration through the NASA Asteroid Initiative.NASA also has made tremendous progress in the cataloging and characterization of near Earth objects over the past five years. The president's NASA budget included, and Congress authorized, $20.4 million for an expanded NASA Near-Earth Object (NEO) Observations Program, increasing the resources for this critical program from the $4 million per year it had received since the 1990s. The program was again expanded in fiscal year 2014, with a budget of $40.5 million. NASA is asking Congress for $50 million for this important work in the 2016 budget.NASA has identified more than 12,000 NEOs to date, including 96 percent of near-Earth asteroids larger than 0.6 miles (1 kilometer) in size. NASA has not detected any objects of this size that pose an impact hazard to Earth in the next 100 years. Smaller asteroids do pass near Earth, however, and some could pose an impact threat. In 2011, 893 near-Earth asteroids were found. In 2014, that number was increased to 1,472.(Source NASA)

Just as expected, SpaceX moved forward with a momentous end-to-end demonstration launch for NASA on Saturday, verifying once and for all that the Falcon 9 booster rocket and Crew Dragon space capsule would be viable tools for upcoming missions that will loft American astronauts from American soil to the International Space Station. Image Credit: NASA Without any unexpected deviations from the original plan, SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket ignited each of its nine Merlin engines at 2:49 A.M. Eastern time and took off from the launchpad at NASA’s historic Launch Complex 39A at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. It wasn’t long after the launch that SpaceX’s un-crewed Crew Dragon capsule made it to outer space. Once there, it entered orbit around the Earth and waited for the opportune time to rendezvous with the International Space Station and initiate its fully-autonomous docking sequence. “Today’s successful launch marks a new chapter in American excellence, getting us closer to once again flying American astronauts on American rockets from American soil,” NASA’s Jim Bridenstine explained in a statement to the public. “I proudly congratulate the SpaceX and NASA teams for this major milestone in our nation’s space history. This first launch of a space system designed for humans, and built and operated by a commercial company through a public-private partnership, is a revolutionary step on our path to get humans to the Moon, Mars and beyond.” Related: Watch SpaceX fly a Tesla roaster into space with its Falcon Heavy rocket platform Even SpaceX CEO Elon Musk had something to say in response to the commercial space company’s successful launch demonstration: “First a note of appreciation to the SpaceX team. It has been 17 years to get to this point, 2002 to now, and an incredible amount of hard work and sacrifice from a lot of people that got us to this point...I’d also like to express great appreciation for NASA,” Musk said. “SpaceX would not be here without NASA, without the incredible work that was done before SpaceX even started and without the support after SpaceX did start.” As you might come to expect, SpaceX live-streamed the launch for the world to see. Here's the footage: The Crew Dragon capsule has since docked with the International Space Station, but unlike most capsules that dock with the Earth-orbiting space lab, this one wasn’t carrying any people or vital supplies. Rather, it was carrying around 400 pounds’ worth of dummy weight and supplies to simulate that of two adult humans. The supplies will soon be offloaded from the Crew Dragon capsule, and International Space Station crew members will then fill it up with spent supplies and science experiments to return them to Earth. The re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere and the spacecraft’s safe descent are additional objectives of the Demo-1 mission that still need to be completed. Given the circumstances surrounding the first successful demonstration launch, SpaceX is well on its way to conducting its second demonstration launch by July. The only difference between the two is that the latter will ferry live inhabitants to the International Space Station. Related: SpaceX is planning test flights for its BFR prototype in the near future Humans haven’t launched from American soil since the space shuttle program was retired in 2011, so this is a significant milestone for all involved. More importantly, it will reduce the United States’ dependency on foreign nations for conducting space-related research, which should benefit the country’s scientific endeavors. It should be interesting to see how the rest of the demonstration mission goes. We’re particularly excited about the upcoming launch in July. Source: NASA

Have you heard of the tardigrade before? These microscopic critters are considered by many scientists around the world to be some of the toughest forms of life on Earth. Image Credit: Tanaka S, Sagara H, Kunieda Numerous studies have proven their resilience, showing that tardigrades can survive in even the most extreme circumstances where other forms of life couldn’t. For example, tardigrades have shown their ability to withstand pressures as high as 600 megapascals (MPa), which is far greater than any exhibited by our ocean floors. In another experiment, scientists sent tardigrades up into space to see if they could survive the cold and bitter vacuum where most other life forms would die, and miraculously, many survived and continued reproducing. Did you think starving them might work? Think again; these creatures can survive several decades without drinking or eating a single thing. Now that we’re all back to square one with this mind-boggling question, what would it take to cause a mass extinction event for tardigrades? That’s a question researchers from both Harvard University and the University of Oxford tried to answer in a study published in the journal Scientific Reports. With their durability being duly noted by the scientific community, the researchers wanted to think outside the box and consider what kind of astrophysical-based disaster would have the potential to wipe out the tardigrade species. “A lot of previous work has focused on 'doomsday' scenarios on Earth - astrophysical events like supernovae that could destroy the human race. Our study instead considered the hardiest species - the tardigrade,” said study co-author Dr David Sloan from the University of Oxford. “As we are now entering a stage of astronomy where we have seen exoplanets and are hoping to soon perform spectroscopy, looking for signatures of life, we should try to see just how fragile this hardiest life is.” Related: This is how tardigrades mate They brainstormed a host of astrophysical events that might fit the bill for wiping out life on Earth as we know it, including asteroid impacts, gamma-ray bursts, and supernovae, and then used mathematic modeling to determine their effectiveness. Each of these events would have a high likelihood of wiping out human and other surface animal species, but perhaps not for tardigrades. An asteroid impact is one of the extinction theories for the dinosaurs, so we’re aware of just how catastrophic one would be to humans and other animal species. On the other hand, the dangers of gamma-ray bursts and supernovae come from the radiation that becomes beamed at the Earth, which could eradicate our ozone layer, destroy all living cells on the Earth’s surface, and boil the water in the oceans. Tardigrades, which are known to survive just fine in the harsh conditions of outer space, seem to be resistant to the damaging effects of radiation, so perhaps gamma-ray bursts and supernovae are out of the question completely. Additionally, they would occur so far away from Earth that they wouldn’t boil the oceans; if anything, they might just hinder life on the surface. That just leaves the asteroid theory, but astronomers don't think there any projected intersections with asteroids large enough to wipe life out in the future, so we’re probably safe on that front too. “To our surprise we found that although nearby supernovae or large asteroid impacts would be catastrophic for people, tardigrades could be unaffected,” Sloan continued. “Therefore it seems that life, once it gets going, is hard to wipe out entirely. Huge numbers of species, or even entire genera may become extinct, but life as a whole will go on.” Related: Tardigrades have tons of foreign DNA With these findings in mind, tardigrades seem to have it made. The research strongly suggests that tardigrades could survive longer than any other animal species on the planet. Moreover, they’re likely to stick around until the day our Sun grows into a red giant and swallows the Earth. Until then, however, we’ve still got plenty of time to learn from tardigrades; we’re still at least 7-10 billion years away from the day the Earth gets swallowed by the Sun. The study really makes you think about what could be hiding just below the surface on seemingly "lifeless" planets. If tardigrades could survive such harsh conditions on Earth, then what's to stop them (or another comparably-durable species) from surviving on other planets? This concept highlights why it's so important to study planets like Mars and moons like Enceladus, Europa, and Titan. Source: University of Oxford

A recent study published in The Astrophysical Journal Letters discusses a groundbreaking discovery using the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) onboard NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) to reveal the processes responsible for planetary formation, specifically the transition of water from the colder, outer regions of a protoplanetary disk to the warmer, inner regions. This study was conducted by an international team of researchers and holds the potential to help astronomers better understand the complex processes behind planetary formation, which could also help us better understand how our own solar system formed billions of years ago. “Webb finally revealed the connection between water vapor in the inner disk and the drift of icy pebbles from the outer disk,” said Dr. Andrea Banzatti, who is an assistant professor of physics at Texas State University and lead author of the study. “This finding opens up exciting prospects for studying rocky planet formation with Webb!” Using MIRI, which is sensitive to water vapor in protoplanetary disks, the researchers analyzed four protoplanetary disks orbiting Sun-like stars, although much younger, at only 2-3 million years old, and the four disks analyzed consisted of two compact disks and two extended disks. The compact disks were hypothesized to deliver ice-covered pebbles to a distance equivalent to the orbit of Neptune in our solar system, and the extended disks were hypothesized to deliver ice-covered pebbles as far out as six times Neptune’s orbit. The goal of the study was to determine if the compact disks exhibited a greater amount of water in the inner regions of the disk where rocky planets would theoretically form. Artist’s rendition comparing two types of traditional, planet-forming disks orbiting newborn, Sun-like stars, a compact disk (left), and an extended disk with gaps (right), which were the basis for this study. (Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Joseph Olmsted (STScI)) In the end, MIRI revealed the compact disks exhibited larger amounts of cooler water than the extended disks, which is a finding the researchers were expecting, and that the cooler water results from ice evaporating as the pebbles travel farther inward towards their parent star. While the researchers found the initial data confusing, once they overlaid it with data from the extended disks, they found the compact disks contained large amounts of water inside the snow line. Graphic depicting data from Webb’s MIRI, which is sensitive to water vapor in disks showing the contrast between pebble drift and water content in a compact disk compared to extended disk with rings and gaps. (Credit: NASA, ESA, CSA, Joseph Olmsted (STScI)) This finding is profound as, aside from Earth, the three other rocky planets, Mercury, Venus, and Mars, are completely devoid of water. Present research postulates that water is typically swallowed up by larger planets, leaving the rocky planets water-poor, but this discovery could open allow for the formation of planets closer to their stars to contain much larger volumes of water than previously thought. “For two months, we were stuck on these preliminary results that were telling us that the compact disks had colder water, and the large disks had hotter water overall,” said Dr. Banzatti. “This made no sense because we had selected a sample of stars with very similar temperatures. Now we finally see unambiguously that it is the colder water that has an excess. This is unprecedented and entirely due to Webb’s higher resolving power!” The researchers note this new discovery could open doors for further exploring the chemistry of planetary formation within inner disks using JWST. What new discoveries will researchers make about planetary formation in the coming years and decades? Only time will tell, and this is why we science! As always, keep doing science & keep looking up! Sources: The Astrophysical Journal Letters, EurekAlert!, NASA

The longstanding question of whether we’re alone in the universe brings up a stressing amount of follow-up questions that are even harder to answer. As it would seem, searching for life on other exoplanets is a narrow-minded perspective of the big picture. Researchers from Queen's University Belfast in Northern Ireland and the Max Planck Institute for solar system Research in Germany followed an interesting new approach to the question in which they’ve flipped the traditional search a full 180º. Image Credit: NASA/HiRISE Rather than searching elsewhere in the galaxy for exoplanets, they made calculations to figure how nearby alien life could use tools just like ours to track our solar system and its inner planets. They've published their findings in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. It’s a polarizing study because hardly anyone thinks about space exploration from this perspective. Nevertheless, the truth is that we’re just as vulnerable to observation by aliens as they would be to observation by us. If alien life is as advanced as we are, then they could already be spying and have an idea of how habitable Earth is. Scientists use a method of tracking planetary transits to discern distant exoplanets. When a transit across its host star begins, it blocks out a small percentage of that star’s light and hints its existence. Further observations can then be made with other equipment to determine the exoplanet's temperature, atmospheric composition, and potential habitability. Since we can do all of that from afar, what stops an advanced alien civilization from any of the surrounding star systems we’ve found thus far from doing the same to us? Virtually nothing, researchers would argue. Related: Astronomers have a new theory regarding the irregularities of Tabby's Star The international team found that there are at least 68 exoplanets positioned just right to observe transits of some of the planets in our solar system, but just nine of those would be in ideal spots to observe transits of Earth. Moreover, they explain how the innermost terrestrial planets of our solar system (Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars) have the highest likelihood of getting spotted when compared to the much larger planets in the outer reaches of our solar system (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune). “Larger planets would naturally block out more light as they pass in front of their star,” said study lead author Robert Wells from Queen’s University Belfast. “However the more important factor is actually how close the planet is to its parent star – since the terrestrial planets are much closer to the Sun than the gas giants, they’ll be more likely to be seen in transit.” Another interesting idea is just how many of our solar system’s planets aliens could observe from the perspective of their world at one given time. The researchers’ calculations illustrate how they'd most likely see just one of our solar system's planets at a given time, but it’d be possible to see as many as three if the geometrical circumstances were just right. Image Credit: 2MASS/A. Mellinger/R. Wells “We estimate that a randomly positioned observer would have roughly a 1 in 40 chance of observing at least one planet,” study co-author Katja Poppenhaeger noted. “The probability of detecting at least two planets would be about ten times lower, and to detect three would be a further ten times smaller than this.” But the thinking doesn’t end there; while we’ve discovered many exoplanets, others lurk and evade detection. There could be more that we have yet to find that have the ideal positioning for observing transits of the Earth. It’s unsettling to think that there could be a mystery observer out there that we can’t even see yet, sort of like an interstellar stalker, but that could be the way of things. So, should you be worried? Probably not. After all, if aliens wanted to contact us or visit our planets, they probably would have done so already. The study simply shows that, if we’re not alone in the universe, aliens could potentially spy on our solar system just as we do on other stellar systems for science. Source: Queens University Belfast

The International Space Station is used every day by astronauts from official space agencies of countries around the world, including, but not limited to, Japan, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, but NASA has been tossing around the idea of leasing the International Space Station out to private companies in the future; at least when the International Space Station out-lives its current uses and we start moving astronauts to more important places for more permanent settlement, like on the Moon and on Mars. Image Credit: NASA But could private use of the International Space Station happen much sooner? And more importantly, could private companies eventually build their own space stations to work alongside the International Space Station? It certainly seems so… especially since private companies appear to be expressing more interest than originally thought. It would seem that one company, Texas-based Axiom Space, could already be in development of a commercial international space station that would be accessible to private companies, as well as smaller nations and private entities, and bits and pieces to start building it could launch no later than 2020. This just happens to coincide with a date when NASA intends to eventually ‘abandon’ the International Space Station and/or lease it out to third-party companies, which they estimate will be sometime within the next decade or so. Currently, funding for the International Space Station will continue until 2024, but a de-orbiting process could occur as soon as 2028 unless someone else decides to start maintaining it. Fortunately, the latter is more likely, as it seems commercial entities see value in outer space. Citing a report from Space.com, a commercial international space station would make space even more accessible to private companies and individuals, reducing reliance on the already busy space agencies who have important jobs to do, besides pleasing third parties. The goal of the new commercial space station is to make space more of a potential resource for space research, manufacturing, and technology development, rather than simply a giant science experiment. As we come to grips with the fact that we might one day become an interplanetary species, having more than just a few brilliant minds in space at one time can seriously advance our understanding of space and its effects on human health, as well as help us to learn to cope better with space conditons. Interestingly, this is exactly what a recent NASA mission involving the use of two identical twins was all about, as it allowed us to learn more about how long stays in space affect the human body. Remember NASA astronaut Scott Kelly? – He was participating in this year-long space experiment, along with his Earth-bound idental twin brother, so that NASA would be able to study how space affected the human body over long periods of time. More importantly, Axiom has a vision to make space travel more accessible so that it can help with research and manufacturing that can better mankind as a species overall. Axiom Space is reportedly already in talks with over a dozen different countries, as well as various commercial entities, who would be very interested in taking to space. It offers opportunities to expand businesses, improve the knowledge of mankind, and help to propel our footprint in our own Solar System. Given all the talks that have taken place already, it would seem that there is quite a bit of demand to get into space, and should Axiom develop its own commercial international space station that could be rented out to other entities, there could be a large profit to be made. Axiom might actually utilize some parts of the International Space Station some day when it’s no longer in use to realize its dreams, but things are honestly still in the air at this point in time. It’s entirely possible that they could opt to start from scratch, but right now it's looking like Axiom might be interested in sending a specialized module to the International Space Station when we get closer to its termination so that parts can be salvaged for the construction of something new. You can listen to Axiom CEO Michael Suffrendini as he talks about why a commerciall-accessible space station is important in the recent Bloomberg interview below: Space, which has long been thought to be restricted to government research and agencies, is becoming more commercialized with each passing year. If you remember, NASA used to fund their own launches and build their own equipment (I.E. the space shuttle), but now relies on third-party commercial companies like Boeing and SpaceX to make launches into space. The increased commercial interest in low-orbit Earth activities could be a very good thing for mankind. Perhaps eventually we’ll get to the point where ordinary citizens can visit space on a frequent basis, rather than just government or high-ranking personnel. Space tourism might be just around the corner if we play our cards right. Source: Space.com, Inquisitr

This series will explore historic space missions from the start of the Space Age to the present day, including both crewed and robotic missions. Here we will investigate the scientific rationale behind each mission and, most importantly, what we learned from these early missions and how they helped shape future missions that will launch to the Moon and Mars within the coming years. Previously, we looked at NASA’s Pioneer Program, which was the first program run by NASA that began only one month after the agency was officially founded in July 1958. This program helped set the stage for outer space exploration while teaching us new scientific and engineering techniques along the way, and in turn helped pave the way for the hundreds of NASA programs to come. In the preceding few years leading up to Neil Armstrong’s historic first step on the Moon in July 1969, our scientific knowledge of our nearest celestial neighbor was scant. We didn’t know much about the Moon geologically, let alone if we could actually land on its surface. Enter NASA’s Ranger Program, which operated from 1961 to 1965 and whose purpose was to teach us more about the Moon while allowing us to gain knowledge on spacecraft communication and navigation. Since we still weren’t sure whether we could land on the Moon’s surface, all of the Ranger spacecraft were designed to literally crash into the surface while collecting data and sending back images to help us better understand the Moon’s geology and terrain. Much like its predecessor program, Pioneer, the first few Rangers missions were met with a myriad of problems and failures, with the first six missions (Ranger 1 through 6) experiencing everything from rocket engine failures to missing the Moon completely to camera malfunctions. Like Pioneer, the smart people at NASA learned from every failure and mistake, resulting in Ranger 7 through 9 having complete successes in all of their respective missions. Ranger 7 was the first complete success of the Ranger Program, becoming a key turning point in our race to beat the Russians to the Moon. While en route to its crash landing on the Moon, Ranger 7 sent back 4,316 stunning images of our satellite which helped to locate several potentially safe landing sites for the Apollo astronauts in the next few years. Scientists on the ground concluding that the mare regions of the Moon were the safest to land due to their relative smoothness. Building off the lauded success of Ranger 7, the Ranger 8 spacecraft sent back more than 7,000 images of the lunar surface, ultimately crashing about 15 miles (24 kilometers) from the Sea of Tranquility where Neil Armstrong would take his historic first step on the Moon only a few years later. The last mission of the Ranger Program was Ranger 9, which while sending back less images than Ranger 8 at 5,814, it was decided to point the camera in the direction of travel which provided stunning shots as it rapidly approached the lunar surface. These images were later converted for live viewing on commercial TV, providing the pubic a chance to see the Moon as never seen before. Unlike Ranger 7 and 8, who each had the goal of searching for potential Apollo landing sites, Ranger 9 was more of a science mission. Its target was the crater Alphonsus, which was chosen due to it being a possible site for recent volcanic activity. NASA’s Ranger Program continued to push the envelope for what we can achieve for both science and engineering, as it helped pave the way for the upcoming Apollo missions to the Moon along with teaching us more about the geological marvel that makes up our nearest celestial neighbor. The many failures experienced during the first Ranger missions gave us the tools we needed that helped us eventually beat the Russians to the Moon, and it is these experiences that will make the upcoming Artemis missions that much more successful. Sources: Labroots, NASA JPL, NASA, NASA, NASA As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!

This series will explore historic space missions from the start of the Space Age to the present day, including both crewed and robotic missions. Here we will investigate the scientific rationale behind each mission and, most importantly, what we learned from these early missions and how they helped shape future missions that will launch to the Moon and Mars within the coming years. With the success of Project Mercury, NASA needed a bridge between Mercury and Apollo to continue to teach us about how humans work and live in outer space while testing new technology. Thus, Gemini was born. NASA’s Project Gemini consisted of a two-person capsule and functioned from 1965 to 1966, featuring 19 total launches, which consisted of 2 initial uncrewed test missions, 10 crewed missions, and 7 target vehicles designed to practice docking maneuvers in space. Once NASA decided to go with lunar orbit docking for Apollo, the purpose of Gemini was to practice these maneuvers in Earth orbit. During its duration, Project Gemini accomplished several firsts for American human spaceflight, to include the first week-long flight, first extravehicular activity (EVA), first use of fuel cells, first docking with another space vehicle, and even the first musical instruments played in space. The first two missions of Project Gemini were Gemini 1 and Gemini 2, which both consisted of uncrewed vehicles meant to test the various spacecraft systems and subsystems from launch to recovery. While Gemini 1 was intentionally destroyed during reentry, Gemini 2 successfully tested the spacecraft’s heat shield on a suborbital flight. The first crewed flight of Project Gemini was Gemini 3, which launched astronauts Virgil “Gus” Grissom and John Young into space for three orbits and almost five hours before splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean. The primary goal of this first crewed mission was to demonstrate the crewed qualifications of the spacecraft, to include the various navigation and reentry subsystems. Gemini 4 launched astronauts James McDivitt and Edward White on a 4-day, 62-orbit flight into space culminating in the first American spacewalk, which lasted 22 minutes and was performed by White. The overall objective of the mission was to continue to test the various spacecraft systems and subsystems, along with flight planning for extended stays in space, with the crew plashing down in the Atlantic upon re-entry. The first week-long spaceflight came in Gemini 5, which saw astronauts Gordon Cooper and Charles “Pete” Conrad spend almost eight days in space. The primary goals of the mission were to test the rendezvous maneuver subsystems and demonstrate a long-duration crewed flight while seeing the long-duration effects of weightlessness on the crew. This mission marked the first use of first cells for electrical power, and the crew conducted 17 experiments before splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean. Since the overall purpose of Project Gemini was to practice docking maneuvers with another spacecraft, NASA utilized the uncrewed Agena Target Vehicle (ATV), but when that launch failed then Gemini 6 was officially scrubbed and later renamed Gemini 6A, and was actually launched after Gemini 7. The primary goal of this dual-spacecraft mission was to test rendezvous maneuvers, which it achieved by approaching each other from 1 to 300 feet. Gemini 6A was crewed by astronauts Walter Schirra and Thomas Stafford and was in space for just over one day, while Gemini 7 was crewed by astronauts Frank Borman and Jim Lovell and their respective mission lasted for almost 14 days. The primary objective of Gemini 7 was to observe whether humans could live and work in space for 14 days. The first successful docking with another spacecraft happened during Gemini 8, when astronauts Neil Armstrong and David Scott docked with the ATV. However, this mission also had the first real space emergency when one of the thrusters became stuck open causing the mated spacecrafts to tumble violently, which was made worse even after Armstrong has disengaged from the ATV. In the end, Armstrong was able to bring the spacecraft under control using all 16 reentry control system (RCS) thrusters. Unfortunately, because they ended up using 75% of the RCS, they were ordered to come home and splashed down in the Pacific Ocean after only 10 hours in space. This mission demonstrated Armstrong’s capability in thinking quickly while staying calm, which demonstrated one of the many reasons he was the first person to walk on the Moon. Much like with Gemini 6, the Gemini 9 mission was scrubbed due to a failed launch of the Augmented Target Docking Adapter (ATDA) and was later renamed Gemini 9A, which launched astronauts Tom Stafford and Gene Cernan into space to dock with a re-launched ATDA. However, the ATDA shroud failed to completely open, preventing docking from happening. Once the crew was in orbit and confirmed the shroud failure up-close, their mission plan was changed to perform passive rendezvous maneuvers. Their missions lasted a total of 3 days with the crew splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean. Gemini 10 saw astronauts John Young and Michael Collins dock with its ATV while also performing rendezvous maneuvers with Gemini 8’s ATV, as well. During the mission, the crew also performed 15 scientific, technological, and medical experiments throughout their almost 3 days in space before splashing down in the Atlantic Ocean. Gemini 11 saw astronauts Charles “Pete” Conrad and Richard Gordon successfully perform a first orbit rendezvous and docking with an ATV and demonstrating automation reentry. During the almost 3-day mission, the crew also performed eight scientific and four technological experiments, ultimately down in the Atlantic Ocean. The final mission of Project Gemini was Gemini 12, which saw astronauts Jim Lovell and Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin launch into space for almost 4 days. The primary objective of the mission was to rendezvous and dock with an ATV, which had to be done manually due to radar malfunctions. During the mission, Aldrin performed the longest EVA at 5 hours and 30 minutes, while demonstrating solutions to previous EVA issues. The crew splashed down in the Atlantic Ocean after 59 orbits of the Earth. Project Gemini accomplished a number of firsts for American spaceflight, which not only helped set the stage for the Apollo missions, but for the upcoming Artemis missions, as well. Sources: Labroots, NASA, NASA (2), NASA (3), NASA (4), NASA (5), NASA (6), NASA (7), NASA (8), NASA (9), NASA (10), NASA (11), NASA (12), NASA (13) As always, keep doing science & keep looking up!

Jupiter, the fifth planet from the Sun – The Majestic Planet, with its massive size, swirling multi-colored clouds, and giant red spot, it’s hard not to gaze at it in wonder and amazement and ask how the largest planet in the solar system evolved to become one of the most beautiful spectacles in science and astronomy. Despite its jaw-dropping features, its massive size also means it has intense gravity, measuring at approximately 2.4 times that of the surface gravity of Earth. Due to its even more massive magnetic field, it also gives off deadly levels of radiation that is equivalent to 10 million dental X-rays. Despite these unpleasant characteristics, why is Jupiter so worth exploring? Here we will explore Jupiter’s physical characteristics, mythological and observational history, spacecraft exploration, and potential for life on some of its moons, and determine what it is about Jupiter that makes it so intriguing for exploration. Jupiter Characteristics As stated, Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system, and is so big that all of the other planets in the solar system could fit inside it, to include more than 1300 Earths. It orbits beyond the asteroid belt—well past the orbit of Mars—at approximately 463 million miles from the Sun. It has the second largest number of known moons in the solar system at 79—Saturn has 82—with four of those moons garnering the most scientific interest—Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. Jupiter is a gas giant, lacks any visible surface due to its deep clouds, and is comprised of 90% hydrogen and 10% helium. These same elements also primarily make up our own Sun, and some consider Jupiter as a failed star because of these attributes. Due to its enormous gravity, Jupiter has often been called the vacuum cleaner of the solar system, because its gravity literally sucks in asteroids and comets, ultimately protecting Earth from certain doom in the process. Ancient Astronomers and Galileo The mythology of Jupiter is primarily attributed to the Roman Empire, who believed Jupiter to be a sky-god overseeing all aspects of life, and was thought to have originated from the Greek god Zeus. Military commanders often paid tribute to Jupiter after being victorious in battle. Jupiter was the god of light, a protector during defeat, and the giver of victory. While Jupiter remained a mythological figure for centuries, the first telescopic observations of the giant planet were not made until 1610 by Galileo Galilei, who also discovered Jupiter’s four largest moons—Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto—which have since been appropriately named the Galilean satellites. This discovery primarily demonstrated that the Earth was not the center of the universe as had been the longstanding belief for centuries. While Galileo would go on to contribute to science and astronomy in other ways—observations of Earth’s Moon, phases of Venus, and sunspots—he is most well-known for his initial observation of Jupiter and its largest moons. Spacecraft Missions to Jupiter With human exploration still limited to the Earth’s Moon, a number of spacecrafts have visited and explored Jupiter and its many moons, with the most notable being Voyager 1 and 2 in 1979. While Voyager was preceded by short flybys of Jupiter from Pioneer 10 and 11 in 1973 and 1974, the Voyager probes were the first to explore Jupiter and its Galilean satellites in great detail. While Callisto and Ganymede were found to be cratered ice balls, Voyager 1 and 2 observed very diverse worlds such as the volcanic moon, Io, and the craterless ice moon, Europa, the latter of which indicated a very young surface. The first spacecraft to orbit Jupiter was NASA’s Galileo mission, which made several key scientific discoveries during its almost eight years orbiting the massive planet. These discoveries included the confirmation that a global ocean of liquid water exists underneath Europa’s icy crust, which deduces why the surface is largely devoid of craters, possibly due to ongoing resurfacing from the interior ocean. The most successful spacecraft mission sent to Jupiter is NASA’s Juno mission, which arrived at Jupiter in 2016 and will continue to explore the solar system’s largest planet through at least 2025, or until the spacecraft’s end of life. During its mission, Juno has sent back the highest resolution images of Jupiter, to include its incredible swirling clouds and infrared images of its deep atmosphere. Potential for Life As noted earlier, Jupiter has 79 known moons, but it’s the Galilean satellites which hold the most scientific interest. These four large moons comprising of Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto have helped shaped our understanding of how our solar system formed and our place in the universe. Of these four moons, Europa has been at the forefront of scientific debate for the potential for life within its deep ocean beneath its icy outer shell. Its ocean is currently thought to be similar to the deep ocean environment on Earth, which is comprised of hydrothermal vents providing heat and nutrients for microbial and multi-cellular life. Future Missions to the Jupiter System While NASA’s Juno mission continues to explore Jupiter in depth, two missions are currently in the works to explore Jupiter and its moons in even greater detail. These missions are the European Space Agency’s JUICE (JUpiter ICy moons Explorer) mission and NASA’s Europa Clipper mission. The JUICE mission is currently scheduled for launch in 2023 and will spend at least three years making detailed observations of Jupiter and its three largest moons, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto, and Europa Clipper is scheduled for launch in 2024 and will conduct detailed reconnaissance of Europa to determine if this icy world could harbor the conditions necessary for life. What secrets will Jupiter and its largest moons reveal in the years to come? Is there life within Europa’s vast ocean? Could the other moons harbor life, as well? Future missions will explore these possibilities, and this is why we science! As always, keep doing science & keep looking up! Sources: Cool Cosmos, Astronomy.com, NASA (1), NASA Solar System Exploration (1), NASA Solar System Exploration (2), Nine Planets, The Planetary Society, National Geographic, World History Encyclopedia, Universe Today, Labroots, NASA Lunar and Planetary Science, NASA Solar System Exploration (3), NASA Solar System Exploration (4), NASA Solar System Exploration (5), NASA (2), Geology.com, EarthSky, American Museum of Natural History, European Space Agency, NASA JPL