¿Astronauta por computadora?!

Learn to dock ATV the astronaut way

 11 April 2012

Do you have what it takes to be an astronaut?
ESA is making actual astronaut training available on your computer and tablet, so you can see for yourself.
 
ESA’s third Automated Transfer Vehicle, ATV Edoardo Amaldi, has safely docked with the International Space Station. ATV is the largest supply ship to fly to the Space Station. A truly international team effort, ATV-3 brought fresh food, fuel and supplies to the Station.  
 

Although this spacecraft has sophisticated automatic docking systems, astronauts on the Station are trained to ensure a safe docking. On Earth, ESA’s astronaut instructors have shown them how to do the job. The astronaut instructors are often overlooked but they are a vital part of Space Station operations.

Astronauts spend their working life training for every possible scenario. Up to half a year can pass from the moment an astronaut receives ATV training until an actual docking. To make sure that astronauts are still on the ball when the time comes, the European Astronaut Centre developed refresher courses that astronauts follow while on the Station.
 

These refreshers courses are designed to work on laptops but astronauts will soon use tablets, because they have to be able to follow the courses while orbiting 400 km above Earth. Two sets of these lessons are now available for the home user to try.

Astronauts continuously monitor ATV’s approach during final docking phases, ready to act to if necessary. Lesson one, a regular webpage, lists possible malfunctions, how to recognise them and what to do to avoid further problems.

Once docked, astronauts cannot simply open the hatch and access the fresh food ATV brings. Lesson two shows in 3D the steps required to enter the vehicle safely: from opening the hatch and turning on the lights, to connecting air ducts and installing acoustic covers.
 
 

Don’t be surprised if the lessons are very technical - basic ATV training takes more than two weeks on ground even for real astronauts, including one-to-one sessions with ESA astronaut instructors. The simulators on Earth reproduce ATV docking with higher fidelity, but the mobile versions have been adapted to the needs of astronauts on the Space Station. The lessons work best with Internet Explorer and need the Cortona 3D viewer plugin installed. Mobile users can download an iPad/iPhone version of the lessons from the app store. 

ESA International News
http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMET6HWP0H_index_0.html

¿Quién quiere ser astronauta?

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Rusia Hoy * Idiomas

¿Quién quiere ser astronauta?

29 de marzo de 2012 * Spanish English Russian French Italian Portuguese German

A finales de 2011 Roskosmos presentó un concurso para seleccionar astronautas. 


En aquel momento, Popovkin, director de la agencia espacial rusa, declaró: “Modificaremos ligeramente los principios de selección de astronautas”.

Hasta el momento, según informó Roskosmos, sólo 25 personas en toda Rusia han presentado su solicitud para participar en este concurso. A modo de comparación, en la selección de candidatos para la NASA del año 2009 se recibieron más de 3.500 solicitudes de las que se seleccionaron nueve personas. 

La selección de los candidatos se llevará a cabo en los alrededores de Moscú por el comité del Centro de Formación de Astronautas Yuri Gagarin. De las 25 personas sólo cuatro serán seleccionadas conforme a los requisitos. “Habiendo examinado la documentación de los 25 candidatos recibida hasta la fecha, el comité ha tomado la decisión de invitar a cuatro candidatos que cumplen con los requisitos establecidos a la fase interna de selección”, se cita en el documento. 

Russia Hoy (Russia Today Magazine ) 
http://rusiahoy.com/articles/2012/03/29/quien_quiere_ser_astronauta_16673.html

Androide al espacio

Un androide ruso volará al cosmos en 2014

27 de marzo de 2012 * Denís Telmanov, Izvestia

El hermano mayor del robot que “saludó” en 2008 al presidente Dmitri Medvédev, se prepara para su envío a la Estación Espacial Internacional. 

En Rusia han creado un robot-cosmanauta parecido a un humano, capaz de trabajar en órbita. Tal y como relataron a Izvestia los investigadores, SAR-400 copia por completo los movimientos de un operador y puede realizar de forma autónoma un sencillo trabajo mecánico, como girar tornillos, jugar al ajedrez e inspeccionar los revestimientos. 

En los próximos dos años, el robot se enviará a la Estación Espacial Internacional, y en perspectiva se pretende enviar a la Luna, Marte y otros planetas. Sin embargo, los cosmonautas están seguros de que ningún robot puede sustituir al hombre.  

“Lo más importante es la cualidad de la persona, la capacidad de conocer el mundo de alrededor. Y esto no lo va a hacer ninguna máquina”, considera el cosmonauta Serguéi Avdéyev. 

Rusia Hoy Com (magazine) 

http://rusiahoy.com/articles/2012/03/27/un_androide_ruso_volara_al_cosmos_en_2014_16655.html

Agua pura en la Antártida

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RUSSIA BEYOND THE HEADLINES 

Revealing details on one of the world's most freshwater sources 

March 11, 2012 * Alexander Yevstigneev, Special to the Ogoniok magazine

Polar explorers from Russia’s Antarctic station describe how they extracted water samples from the sub-glacial lake.

Generally, it isn’t allowed to fly to Vostok Station just for the sake of it. Russian expeditions either arrive to the Antarctic by sea, although this takes several months, or by plane from South Africa. There are only 10–12 of these special flights per year, and only during the three to four short months that the weather is good enough for the trip to be made

It takes five hours to get from the African heat to the polar cold. The airstrip at Novolazarevskaya Station, Russia’s gateway to the Antarctic, resembles a hostel or alpine campsite. There are huge tents, skis, backpacks, and flags upon flags from all over the world. Antarctic tourists constitute a club of a select few, like visitors to Mount Everest or space. It is the start and finish line of gutsy adventures. Some ride to the Pole on bicycle, and some run the Antarctic Marathon. Paul, an Englishman, paid a lot of money to get here and, judging from his burnt face and frostbitten lips, he has already gotten a taste of Antarctica.

“We reached the South Pole on skis. After all, this is the 100th anniversary of Amundsen and Scott first reaching it. It took us a month. Frankly, we were at our breaking point. But we made it. It was cool, a real adventure!”

Vostok is the coldest place on the entire continent, where extreme winds hold sway along with zero humidity and a lack of oxygen comparable to that at an altitude of 16,000 feet.

Russia does not have its own South Polar aircrafts. Within the continent, Russian polar explorers fly on Canadian airplanes, small Basler turbo-props. When the plane climbs to 16,000 feet, the pressure inside the cabin is the same as it is outside. Breathing is difficult––even in your sleep. Cheyne-Stokes syndrome sets in, which is when the body manages a deep breath with one out of every five. It’s important not to make any sudden, jerky movements. The crew recommends the passengers breathe oxygen “through a tube” but no one wants to be the first to show weakness.

The polar explorers who live at Vostok for months on end acclimatize; they say that within just a week, and a half their heads stop hurting, they stop vomiting, and the begin to be able to sleep. This is partially the reason there are only three permanent scientific bases deep in the Antarctic continent. At the South Pole, there are the American Amundsen-Scott base and the French-Italian base Concordia. And at the Pole of Cold, there’s  Russia’s Vostok. For nine months a year, it is cut off from the outside world––completely. And that’s no exaggeration: planes can’t make their way through the constant storms. Ships get stuck in the ice. At Vostok, there is no stop valve, no red button. No matter what happens, there will be no outside help.

At Vostok Station, there is no time to talk about polar romantics. After two or, at the most three, hours, the plane has to depart. If it gets colder than -56, the plane cannot take off, even in windless weather. Skis won’t work. At this temperature, the snow freezes into tough, sandpaper-like grit.

What is Vostok? A white desert. Several buildings, antennas, and a drilling rig. Fifty years ago, the station looked different, a small village that has now gone completely beneath the snow. To get inside requires descending into a narrow, frozen labyrinth. It’s a sort of avenue, dug under the snow. In the niches of this ice corridor there is a bookcase, a bust of a legendary polar explorer, and a potable water supply––cubes of snow the size of a soccer ball. There is nowhere to get liquid water.

Russia Beyond The Headlines * Magazine 
http://rbth.ru/articles/2012/03/11/revealing_details_on_one_of_the_worlds_most_freshwater_source_15026.html

''You won't believe this...!

''Llamando a Cancun... llamando a Cancun... !

Someday I'll be a space reporter!

Ocean at night...!

Ancient Astronauts

The ancient astronaut theory seeks to explain anomalies in the human past, whether they be archaeological, mythological, anthropological, or palaeoanthropological. Here, we are concerned with the latter – the ancient astronaut theory for the origins of man, i.e. Homo sapiens, approximately 180,000 years ago.

Ancient astronaut writers believe that a race of intelligent extraterrestrial beings visited and/or colonised Earth in the remote past, whereupon they upgraded the primitive hominidHomo erectus by means of genetic engineering to create the human race as we know it:Homo sapiens.

Evidence for this idea is found (a) in the improbability of Homo sapiens emerging so suddenly, according to the principles of orthodox Darwinism; and (b) in the myths of ancient civilisations which describe human-like gods coming down from the heavens and creating mankind ‘in their own image’. Homo sapiens is thus regarded as a hybrid being, incorporating a mix of terrestrial genes from Homo erectus and extraterrestrial genes from the race of the gods.

Prior to the modern age of space travel and genetics, this theory for the origins of man could not have been conceived. And even now, in the 21st century, there are many people who would regard it as science fiction. However, in the light of the problems with the orthodox theory of human evolution, the idea of a genetic intervention by an intelligent human-like species (who themselves evolved on another planet over a more credible time frame) does require to be taken seriously as a potential solution to the mystery.

The most famous exponents of the ancient astronaut intervention are the Swiss writer Erich von Daniken and the American writer Zecharia Sitchin. The latter, in particular, has argued the case in great detail, and it is to his theory that we now turn.

http://www.ufoarea.com/main_ancientastronauts.php  

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