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Mars Base

ESTCube-1 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views

en.wikipedia.org/ESTCube-1

scibyte86 ESTCube

shared by Mars Base on 13 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • scheduled to be launched to orbit in second half of 2013
  • Student Satellite is an educational project that university and high school students can participate in
  • The CubeSat standard for nanosatellites was followed during the engineering of ESTCube-1, resulting in a 10x10x11.35 cm cube, with a volume of 1 liter and a mass of 1.048 kg.
  • ...44 more annotations...
  • According to the CubeSat standard there are three different sized CubeSats corresponding to size 1U, 2U and 3U. Base side lengths are the same but height is 2 to 3 times bigger than 1U CubeSats
  • Mass is also set in CubeSat standard, the highest possible mass for 1U CubeSat is 1300 grams, 2U CubeSat 2600 grams and 3U CubeSat 4000 grams
  • CubeSat base side length must be 100.0±0.1 millimeters and satellite height must be 113.5±0.1 mm
  • the Estonian satellite
  • a 1U CubeSat
  • Although
  • its main purpose was to educate students, the satellite does have a scientific purpose.
  • On board of the satellite is an electric solar wind sail (e-sail) which was created by a Finnish scientist Pekka Janhunen
  • it is the first real experimentation of the e-sail
  • 10 meters of e-sail 50 to 20 micrometers thick wire of high-technology structure so-called Heytether will be deployed from the satellite.
  • The deployment of the Heytether can be detected by decrease of the satellite's speed of rotation or by a on-board camera
  • To control the loaded solar wind sail elements interaction with the plasma surrounding the earth and the effect it has on the spacecraft spinning speed the spacecraft has two on-board nanotechnologic electron emitters/gun
  • The electron emitters are connected to the e-sail element and by shooting out electrons it loads the e-sail element positively to 500 volts
  • The positive ions in the plasma push the e-sail element and have an influence on the satellites rotation speed
  • The effect of the e-sail is measured by the change in rotation speed
  • The camera is used to take a picture of Earth and the successfully deployed Heytether. [edit]
  • ESTCube-1 will be sent to orbit by the European Space Agency's rocket Vega in spring of 2013
  • Start in spring of 2013
  • Half an hour after the satellites deployment from the start capsule satellites antennas will be opened and radio transmitter and important subsystems will be switched on
  • First days or weeks will be used to test the satellite and set it to work on full capacity.
  • Orienting the satellite so the on-board camera will be faced to earth
  • trying to take a picture of Estonia
  • Rotating the satellite on an axis with a speed of 1 revolution per second
  • E-sail element deployment from the satellite by a centrifugal force and confirming the deployment via the on-board camera
  • Activating the electron emitter and loading the e-sail
  • Measuring the e-sails and Lorentz force by satellites revolutions per second
  • If possible using the negatively charged e-sail to take the satellite off orbit and burn it in the earths atmosphere
  • If everything goes perfect the mission can be completed within a few weeks to a month
  • Lifespan of the satellite
  • Measurements and weight
  • Scientific purpose
  • Communicating with the satellite
  • held by two International Amateur Radio Unions three registered frequencies
  • Periodic but very slow communication is done on a telegraphic signal on a frequency of 437.250 MHz
  • the most important satellite parameters are transmitted every 3 to 5 minutes
  • For fast connections FSK-modulation radio signal on a frequency of 437.505 MHz with a 9600 baud connection speed and AX.25 standard is used.
  • Somewhat slow connection speed is caused by the usage of amateur radio frequencies which allow a maximum of 25 kiloherz bandwidth
  • Fast connection is used only when the satellite has been given a specific
  • Using the GFSK-modulation maximum possible connection speed is 19,200 bits per second
  • Software
  • FreeRTOS on the satellite's Command and Data Handling System and camera module
  • TinyOS on the satellite's communication module
  • Financing and costs
  • Cheapest possibility to send a satellite onto orbit is offered by European Space Agency. Because Estonia is an associated member of ESA most of the launch expenses (about 70,000 euros) will be covered from Estonian member fee for educational expenses. With the launch total expenses for the project are approximately 100,000 euros.
Mars Base

Conductive paint lands in pens and pots for creatives - 0 views

phys.org/...13-05-pens-pots-creatives.html

scibyte96

shared by Mars Base on 28 May 13 - No Cached
  • The substance allows the painting of "liquid wiring" on any surface. Except for skin
  • Nontoxic and drying at room temperature, the product has caught on with educators, DIY makers and inventors
  • Radio Shack stocks their paint pen
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • they hope to appeal to a wide creative gamut of hobbyists, artists, and engineers for innovative ways to use their products
  • are Paint, they emphasized, is the first non-toxic electrically conductive paint available
  • the substance is child friendly, which opens the door to educational projects, including toys, and touch-sensitive paper drawings that play sounds
  • According to the company, Bare Paint has a surface resistivity of approximately 55 ohms/square at 50 microns layer thickness
  • The product is water-based but it is not waterproof
  • generally split applications into two simple classifications, signaling and powering
  • Signaling could include using the Paint as a potentiometer while interfacing with a micro-controller, as a conduit in a larger circuit or as a capacitive sensor
  • Powering a device would include lighting LED's or driving small speakers
Mars Base

Multiple sclerosis breakthrough: Trial safely resets patients' immune systems and reduc... - 0 views

medicalxpress.com/...breakthrough-trial-safely.html

scibyte97 MultipleSclerosis

shared by Mars Base on 06 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • In MS, the immune system attacks and destroys myelin, the insulating layer that forms around nerves in the spinal cord, brain and optic nerve
  • When the insulation is destroyed, electrical signals can't be effectively conducted, resulting in symptoms that range from mild limb numbness to paralysis or blindness
  • A phase 1 clinical trial for the first treatment to reset the immune system of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients showed the therapy was safe and dramatically reduced patients' immune systems' reactivity to myelin by 50 to 75 percent
  • ...23 more annotations...
  • The therapy stops autoimmune responses that are already activated and prevents the activation of new autoimmune cells
  • In the trial, the MS patients' own specially processed white blood cells were used to stealthily deliver billions of myelin antigens into their bodies so their immune systems would recognize them as harmless and develop tolerance to them
  • Current therapies for MS suppress the entire immune system, making patients more susceptible to everyday infections and higher rates of cancer
  • the study did show patients who received the highest dose of white blood cells had the greatest reduction in myelin reactivity
  • While the trial's nine patients
  • were too few to statistically determine the treatment
  • primary aim of the study was to demonstrate the treatment's safety and tolerability
  • the intravenous injection of up to 3 billion white blood cells with myelin antigens caused no adverse affects in MS patients
  • it did not reactivate the patients' disease and did not affect their healthy immunity to real pathogens
  • researchers tested patients' immunity to tetanus because all had received tetanus shots in their lifetime
  • One month after the treatment, their immune responses to tetanus remained strong, showing the treatment's immune effect was specific only to myelin
  • human safety study sets the stage for a phase 2 trial to see if the new treatment can prevent the progression of MS in humans
  • the trial, which has already been approved in Switzerland
  • patients' white blood cells were filtered out, specially processed and coupled with myelin antigens by a complex GMP manufacturing process
  • In the phase 2 trial we want to treat patients as early as possible in the disease before they have paralysis due to myelin damage
  • Then billions of these dead cells secretly carrying the myelin antigens were injected intravenously into the patients
  • The cells entered the spleen, which filters the blood and helps the body dispose of aging and dying blood cells
  • During this process, the immune cells start to recognize myelin as a harmless and immune tolerance quickly develops
  • This therapy,
  • may be useful for treating not only MS but also a host of other autoimmune and allergic diseases simply by switching the antigens attached to the cells
  • recently published research in mice in which he used nanoparticles—rather than a patient's white blood cells—to deliver the myelin antigen
  • Using a patient's white blood cells is a costly and labor-intensive procedure
  • study showed the nanoparticles, which are potentially cheaper and more accessible to a general population, could be as effective as the white blood cells as delivery vehicles
Mars Base

Tau Ceti: Sun-like star only twelve light years away may have a habitable planet - 0 views

phys.org/...ceti-sun-like-star-twelve.html

scibyte76 HabitablePlanet

shared by Mars Base on 23 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • An international team of astronomers has discovered that Tau Ceti, one of the closest and most Sun-like stars, may host five planets, including one in the star's habitable zone
  • twelve light years from Earth and visible to the naked eye in the evening sky, Tau Ceti is the closest single star that has the same spectral classification as our Sun
  • five planets are estimated to have masses between two and six times the mass of the Earth,
  • ...13 more annotations...
  • the lowest-mass planetary system yet detected.
  • One of the planets lies in the star's habitable zone
  • and has a mass around five times that of Earth
  • making
  • the smallest planet found to be orbiting in the habitable zone of any Sun-like star
  • The international team of astronomers
  • combined more than six-thousand observations from three different instruments and intensively modeled the data
  • Using new techniques, the team has found a method to detect signals half the size previously thought possible
  • We are now beginning to understand that nature seems to overwhelmingly prefer systems that have multiple planets with orbits of less than 100 days
  • researchers chose Tau Ceti for this noise-modeling study because they had thought it contained no signals
  • As it is so bright and similar to our Sun, it is an ideal benchmark system to test out our methods for the detection of small planets
  • Tau Ceti is one of our nearest cosmic neighbors and so bright that we may be able to study the atmospheres of these planets
  • researchers discovered this planetary system using data from three state-of-the-art spectrographs
Mars Base

Has Dark Matter Been Seen? | Dark Matter and Dark Energy | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/rk-matter-detection-wimps.html

scibyte91 DarkMatter

shared by Mars Base on 16 Apr 13 - No Cached
  • absolute zero, which is minus 459.67 degrees Fahrenheit, or minus 273.15 degrees Celsius
  • the signals detected could also be statistical hiccups
  • Scientists would expect to see three or more of these WIMP-like events 5.4 percent of the time simply due to random fluctuations in the experiment
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • But the fluctuations detected by the experiment are in a similar energy range, which is less likely to be a random accident
  • the signal is 99.81 percent more likely to be WIMP than simply background fluctuations, Cabrera said.
  • mass is consistent with earlier CDMS results as well as another dark-matter-hunting experiment called CoGeNT at the U.S. Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
  • contradicts preliminary results seen at the international XENON Dark Matter Project, a major experiment located in Italy
Mars Base

Spray-on Antennas Make Their Mark - SIGNAL Magazine - 0 views

www.afcea.org/...SIGNAL_Article_Template.asp

scibyte34 spray-on-antenna

shared by Mars Base on 17 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • July 2001
  • radio antennas that are sprayed onto a surface
  • consist of a conductive substance sprayed over a template with a radio aerial pattern on
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  • the antenna material is available in the form of metal-based paints such as nickel or silver and carbon-graphite-based paints. To create an antenna, a template is placed on the desired surface, the paint is sprayed over it and a connector is attached.
Mars Base

At Long Last, Physicists Discover Famed Higgs Boson - ScienceNOW - 0 views

news.sciencemag.org/...-last-physicists-discover.html

scibyte53 HiggsBoson

shared by Mars Base on 04 Jul 12 - No Cached
  • Both the CMS (top) and the ATLAS (bottom) detectors see evidence of the Higgs boson decaying into a pair of photons in the form of a peak in a so-called mass plot. The agreement of the two peaks and other data clinch the discovery of the Higgs.
  • CMS detector see clear signs of the Higgs decaying into two photons
  • From the energies of the two photons, physicists can infer the mass of their supposed parent particle
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  • peak atop a background produced by random photon pairs
  • signals the presence of a Higgs-like particle with a mass of 125 giga-electron volts (GeV) or about 133 times the mass of the proton
  • CMS researchers also see evidence of the Higgs decaying to a pair of particles called W bosons or a pair of particles called Z bosons
  • ATLAS team sees a similar peak in the mass plot for Higgses decaying into photon pairs
  • ATLAS researchers also see the Higgs decaying into Z bosons and other combinations of particles
  • Taken together, ATLAS's signals just meet the 5 sigma standard of discovery, Gianotti reported, earning immediate applause
  • in 1970, theorists predicted the existence of a particle called the charm quark; two experimenters independently discovered the particle in 1974, for which they received the Nobel Prize in physics 2 years later
  • In 1968, theorists predicted the existence of the W and Z bosons; in 1983, those particles were also discovered
  • won the Nobel Prize in
  • won it in 1984
  • Physicists say that conceptual holes in the standard model strongly suggest that the theory is incomplete
  • in the standard model interactions between the Higgs and the other particles ought to force the mass of the Higgs to skyrocket to a value a trillion times larger
  • that doesn't happen
  • most physicists suspect there are new particles out there that somehow counteract ballooning of the Higgs mass.
  • But will such particles have low enough masses to be discovered with any conceivable human-made atom smasher? "There's absolutely no guarantee,"
  • Peter Higgs
Mars Base

Bionic retina runs on laser power - 0 views

optics.org/1

Scibyte55 RestoringVision

shared by Mars Base on 18 Jul 12 - No Cached
  • tiny implant that is inserted into the eye and attached to the retina in a minimally invasive procedure no more complicated than conventional cataract surgery
  • consists of photodetectors, microelectrodes and electronic circuitry that act together to replace the eye’s natural photoreceptors that have been damaged by AMD and feed visual information to the brain
  • photoreceptors in a healthy retina convert light into a series of electrical signals which are transmitted to the brain via complex neural pathways
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  • AMD, the photoreceptors do not function, which prevents the brain from receiving these signals from the eyes
  • bio-retina implant is essentially a combined imaging circuit and neural interface which is glued rather than sutured to a patient’s macula
  • area of the retina responsible for high-resolution central vision
  • Measuring 3 x 4 mm and 1 mm thick, the implant is designed to capture light through the normal optical track of the eyeball and stimulate neurons to transmit information to the brain, essentially restoring the function of the damaged photoreceptors
  • Light incident on the implant is collected by an array of CMOS pixels
  • first-generation bio-retina will use an array of 600 pixels, although the aim is to increase this to 5000 pixels in future generations
  • Nano Retina has dedicated a substantial amount of time developing a proprietary algorithm that translates the received visual information and image into the neuron language
  • translating circuitry that discriminates 100 gray-scale levels and responds to varying light levels. It is a sophisticated process
  • implant uses an array of micro-electrodes that first penetrate into the retina, then connect closely to the neurons and thereafter transmit the information. The goal is that every pixel will connect to a neuron, so that every pixel in the array would use a micro-electrode
  • neurons must be stimulated electrically
  • the bio-retina implant also requires a source of electrical power
  • Patients who undergo surgery to implant a bio-retina will need to wear a special set of glasses
  • glasses feature a built-in battery and an infrared diode laser. “The infrared laser light is transmitted into the eye and captured by a miniature photovoltaic cell on the bio-retina
  • harvests the energy, which in turn powers the electronic circuitry. Our goal is for the imager and the electronics to consume no more than 1mW
Mars Base

Eye implants make vision-restoring progress - 0 views

medicalxpress.com/...implants-vision-restoring.html

Scibyte55 RestoringVision

shared by Mars Base on 18 Jul 12 - No Cached
  • Second Sight’s Argus II, a retinal prosthesis already on the market in Europe
  • Bio-Retina from NanoRetina, which is to start clinical trials next year
  • Argus II Retinal Prosthesis System was developed to provide electrical stimulation of the retina to induce visual perception
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  • system includes an antenna, an electronics case, and electrode array
  • designed to bypass damaged photoreceptors altogether
  • video camera in the glasses captures a scene
  • video is sent to a small patient-worn computer VPU where it is processed and transformed into instructions sent back to the glasses via a cable
  • transmitted wirelessly to the antenna in the implant
  • signals are sent to the electrode array, which emits small pulses of electricity. The pulses bypass the damaged photoreceptors and stimulate the retina’s remaining
  • Users of the Argus II bionic eye say that they can see rough shapes and track the movement of objects; they can slowly read large writing.
  • Anticipation is high, meanwhile, for a bionic retina that has been designed to restore sight at less cost and with a different technique
  • Bio-Retina developed by Nano Retina does not make use of an external camera
  • vision-restoring sensor is placed inside the eye, on top of the damaged retina
  • 24×24-resolution (576-pixel) sensor atop the damaged retina. The device generates a grayscale image
  • implant is inserted through an incision in the eye
  • procedure takes 30 minutes and requires only local anesthesia
  • transforms naturally received light into an electrical signal that stimulates the neurons, which send the pictures received by Bio-Retina to the brain
  • rechargeable, battery-powered mini-laser on a pair of eyeglasses powers the implant wirelessly
  • anticipated recover time is up to one week
  • patients able to distinguish faces and to be able to look from side to side with their eyes rather than needing to turn their heads
Mars Base

Heart-powered pacemaker could one day eliminate battery-replacement surgery - 0 views

www.physorg.com/...ttery-replacement-surgery.html

scibyte36 heart health

shared by Mars Base on 04 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • A new power scheme for cardiac pacemakers turns to an unlikely source: vibrations from heartbeats themselves.
  • a device that harvests energy from the reverberation of heartbeats through the chest and converts it to electricity to run a pacemaker or an implanted defibrillator.
  • new energy harvester could save patients from repeated surgeries. That's the only way today to replace the batteries, which last five to 10 years.
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  • use ambient vibrations that are typically wasted and convert them to electrical energy
  • researchers haven't built a prototype yet
  • made detailed blueprints and run simulations demonstrating that the concept would work
  • A hundredth-of-an-inch thin slice of a special "piezoelectric" ceramic material would essentially catch heartbeat vibrations and briefly expand in response
  • Piezoelectric materials' claim to fame is that they can convert mechanical stress (which causes them to expand) into an electric voltage.
  • have precisely engineered the ceramic layer to a shape that can harvest vibrations across a broad range of frequencies
  • incorporated magnets, whose additional force field can drastically boost the electric signal that results from the vibrations.
  • new device could generate 10 microwatts of power, which is about eight times the amount a pacemaker needs to operate
  • originally designed the harvester for light unmanned airplanes, where it could generate power from wing vibrations
Mars Base

New energy source for future medical implants: sugar - 0 views

phys.org/...e-future-medical-implants.html

scibyte51 medical FuelCell

shared by Mars Base on 13 Jun 12 - No Cached
  • This silicon wafer consists of glucose fuel cells of varying sizes; the largest is 64 by 64 mm
  • MIT engineers have developed a fuel cell that runs on the same sugar that powers human cells: glucose
  • This glucose fuel cell could be used to drive highly efficient brain implants of the future, which could help paralyzed patients move their arms and legs again
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  • strips electrons from glucose molecules to create a small electric current
  • The idea of a glucose fuel cell is not new
  • In the 1970s, scientists showed they could power a pacemaker with a glucose fuel cell, but the idea was abandoned in favor of lithium-ion batteries, which could provide significantly more power per unit area than glucose fuel cells
  • glucose fuel cells also utilized enzymes that proved to be impractical for long-term implantation in the body, since they eventually ceased to function efficiently
  • The new twist
  • is that it is fabricated from silicon, using the same technology used to make semiconductor electronic chips
  • has no biological components
  • consists of a platinum catalyst that strips electrons from glucose
  • mimicking the activity of cellular enzymes that break down glucose to generate ATP
  • So far, the fuel cell can generate up to hundreds of microwatts — enough to power an ultra-low-power and clinically useful neural implant.
  • in theory, the glucose fuel cell could get all the sugar it needs from the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) that bathes the brain and protects it from banging into the skull
  • are very few cells in the CSF
  • There is also significant glucose in the CSF, which does not generally get used by the body
  • only a small fraction of the available power is utilized by the glucose fuel cell, the impact on the brain’s function would likely be small.
  • the work is a good step toward developing implantable medical devices that don’t require external power sources.
  • ultra-low-power electronics, having pioneered such designs for cochlear implants and brain implants
  • combined with such ultra-low-power electronics, can enable brain implants or other implants to be completely self-powered
  • group has worked on all aspects of implantable brain-machine interfaces and neural prosthetics, including recording from nerves, stimulating nerves
  • decoding nerve signals and communicating wirelessly with implants
  • designed to record electrical activity from hundreds of neurons in the brain’s motor cortex, which is responsible for controlling movement
  • data is amplified and converted into a digital signal so that computers
  • can analyze it and determine which patterns of brain activity produce movement
Mars Base

Mysterious Extragalactic Explosions Baffle Astronomers | Fast Radio Bursts | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/-radio-explosions-mystery.html

scibyte100 RadioSignal

shared by Mars Base on 07 Jul 13 - No Cached
  • known as fast radio bursts (FRBs), above the plane of our Milky Way Galaxy.
  • These bursts gave off more energy in a millisecond than the sun does in 300,000 years
  • The bursts ranged from 5.5 to 10 billion light-years away, meaning it took the light from some of them 10 billion years to reach Earth. (The Big Bang 
  • ...17 more annotations...
  • occurred 13.8 billion years ago
  • These newfound objects allowed the researchers to calculate that an FRB should occur once every 10 seconds
  • whether the new signals came from inside or outside the Milky Way.
  • they studied how the radio waves were affected by the material they pass through — a technique that could allow these new objects to shed light on the components of space.
  • As radio waves travel in space, they are stretched and slowed by the ionized material through which they move
  • Using models, the team concluded that the FRBs traveled billions of light-years — much farther than the edge of Earth's galaxy
  • the source is likely located in another galaxy
  • They are so bright and narrow that we can limit the size of the emission region at the source to just a few hundred kilometers
  • Although the explosions are brief, the astronomers can pinpoint the bursts' locations pretty accurately
  • No corresponding object could be observed in optical, gamma or X-ray wavelengths, so the explosions' origins remain unknown to scientists
  • Possible sources
  • intersecting magnetic fields from two neutron stars, extremely dense city-size bodies packing the mass of the sun.
  • A special kind of supernova orbited by a neutron star could potentially produce radio bursts as the star's magnetic field interacts with the explosion of the supernova
  • such combinations would be rare
  • favorite explanation is a giant burst from a magnetar, a highly magnetized type of neutron star
  • performed approximately a year after the FRBs were first spotted, looked at whether the objects continued to produce emission, but the signals appear to be nonrepeating
  • Efforts are ongoing at the moment to detect FRBs in close to real time, such that they can be followed up quickly
Mars Base

Breakthrough therapy allows four paraplegic men to voluntarily move their legs - 0 views

medicalxpress.com/...araplegic-men-voluntarily.html

scibyte126

shared by Mars Base on 08 Apr 14 - No Cached
  • Four young men who have been paralyzed for years achieved
  • moving their legs—as a result of epidural electrical stimulation of the spinal cord
  • All four participants were classified as suffering from chronic, motor complete spinal cord injuries and were unable to move their lower extremities prior to the implantation of an epidural stimulator
  • ...42 more annotations...
  • The stimulator delivers a continuous electrical current to the participants' lower spinal cords, mimicking signals the brain normally transmits to initiate movement
  • an initial study, published in May 2011
  • evaluated the effects of epidural stimulation in the first participant
  • who recovered a number of motor functions as a result of the intervention
  • three years later, the key findings documented
  • detail the impact of epidural stimulation in a total four participants, including new tests
  • What is revolutionary
  • is that the second, third and fourth participants
  • were able to execute voluntary movements immediately following the implantation and activation of the stimulator.
  • The participants' results and recovery time were unexpected, which led researchers to speculate that some pathways may be intact post-injury and therefore able to facilitate voluntary movements.
  • Two of the four subjects were diagnosed as motor and sensory complete injured with no chance of recovery at al
  • Because of epidural stimulation, they can now voluntarily move their hips, ankles and toes
  • groundbreaking for the entire field and offers a new outlook that the spinal cord, even after a severe injury, has great potential for functional recovery.
  • In epidural stimulation, the electrical current is applied at varying frequencies and intensities to specific locations on the lumbosacral spinal cord
  • corresponding to the dense neural bundles that largely control the movement of the hips, knees, ankles and toes
  • With the participants, once the signal was triggered, the spinal cord reengaged its neural network to control and direct muscle movements.
  • When coupling the intervention with rehabilitative therapy, the impact of epidural stimulation intensified
  • Over the course of the study, the researchers noted that the participants were able to activate movements with less stimulation, demonstrating the ability of the spinal network to learn and improve nerve functions
  • uncovered a fundamentally new intervention strategy that can dramatically affect recovery of voluntary movement in individuals with complete paralysis, even years after injury
  • The belief that no recovery is possible and complete paralysis is permanent has been challenged
  • Beyond regaining voluntary movement, the research participants have displayed a myriad of improvements in their overall health
  • increases in muscle mass and regulation of their blood pressure, as well as reduced fatigue and dramatic improvements to their sense of well-being.
  • all four men were able to bear weight independently, as reported by the team
  • The study offers hope that clinical therapies can be developed to advance treatment for the nearly 6 million Americans living with paralysis, including nearly 1.3 million with spinal cord injuries.
  • The four paralyzed participants ranged in neurological level from C7–T5 and were at least two years post-injury at the time of the intervention
  • Two of them had been rated "A" on the American Spinal Injury Association's classification system, meaning they had absolutely no sensation or cognition below the site of their injury
  • surprising the scientists, who believed at least some of the sensory pathway must be intact for epidural stimulation to be successful.
  • With this study, the investigators show that their findings about a motor complete patient regaining movement, as published three years ago in The Lancet, were not an anomaly
  • At the present time,
  • there are no effective evidence-based treatments for chronic spinal cord injury
  • , the implications of this study for the entire field are quite profound, and we can now envision a day when epidural stimulation might be part of a cocktail of therapies used to treat paralysis
  • first learned that a patient had regained voluntary control as a result of the therapy, we were cautiously optimistic
  • The research was funded by the Reeve Foundation and the National Institutes of Health
  • the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust, the Kessler Foundation, the University of Louisville, the Jewish Hospital and St. Mary's Foundation, the Frazier Rehab Institute and University Hospital.
  • Investing in epidural stimulation
  • Now that spinal stimulation has been successful in four out of four patients, there is evidence to suggest a large cohort of individuals,
  • previously with little realistic hope of any meaningful recovery from spinal cord injury, may benefit from this intervention
  • how we see motor complete spinal cord injury
  • don't have to necessarily rely on regrowth of nerves in order to regain function
  • observed this in four out of four people suggests that this is actually a common phenomenon in those diagnosed with complete paralysis
  • The scientists are optimistic that the therapy intervention will continue to result in improved motor functions
  • based on observations from the research, there is strong evidence that with continued advancements of the epidural stimulator, individuals with complete spinal cord injuries will be able to bear weight independently, maintain balance and work towards stepping
Mars Base

ESA Awakens Rosetta's Comet Lander - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...-awakens-rosettas-comet-lander

scibyte125

shared by Mars Base on 29 Mar 14 - No Cached
  • ESA sent a wake-up call to the 100-kg (220-lb) lander riding aboard the Rosetta spacecraft
  • bringing it out of its nearly 33-month-long slumber and beginning its preparation for its upcoming
  • landing on the surface of a comet in November
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Rosetta, which awoke in January via a pre-programmed signal, Philae received a “personal wake-up call” from Earth, 655 million kilometers away.
  • A confirmation signal from the lander was received by ESA five and a half hours later
Mars Base

A Brief History Of Gliese 581d and 581g, The Planets That May Not Be - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...1g-the-planets-that-may-not-be

scibyte135 exoplanet

shared by Mars Base on 04 Jul 14 - No Cached
  • Two potentially habitable planets in the Gliese 581 system are just false signals arising out of starstuff, a new study said
  • Gliese 581d and 581g are (study authors said) instead indications of the star’s activity and rotation
  • Planets were first announced around the system in 2007
  • ...13 more annotations...
  • The system has been under heavy scrutiny since a team
  • announced Gliese 581g in September 2010
  • Both 581d and 581g were considered to be in the “habitable” region around the dwarf star they orbited
  • About two weeks after the discovery, another team
  • said it could not find indications
  • Two years later
  • another research team saying that analysis of an “extended dataset” from HARPS did show Gliese 581g
  • But in a press release at the time from the Planetary Habitability Laboratory
  • the discovery would continue to be controversial
  • As of yesterday, both 581d and 581g are crossed off
  • The uncertainty arises from the delicacy of looking for signals of small planets around much larger stars
  • Astronomers typically find planets through watching them pass across the face of a star, or measuring the tug that they exert on their parent star during their orbit
  • researchers now say that only three planets exist around this star.
Mars Base

India's 1st Mars Mission Celebrates 100 Days and 100 Million Kilometers from Mars Orbit... - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...ising-right-behind-nasas-maven

scibyte135 India-MarsOrbiterMission

shared by Mars Base on 22 Jun 14 - No Cached
  • India’s
  • Mars Orbiter Mission or MOM, has just celebrated 100 days and 100 million kilometers out from Mars on June 16, until the crucial Mars Orbital Insertion (MOI) engine firing
  • NASA’s MAVEN orbiter
  • ...19 more annotations...
  • MAVEN arrives about 48 hours ahead of MOM on September 21, 2014.
  • rendezvous on September 24, 2014
  • MOM probe
  • will study the atmosphere and sniff for signals of methane.
  • Working together, MOM and MAVEN will revolutionize our understanding of Mars atmosphere, dramatic climatic history and potential for habitability
  • MOM was designed and developed by the Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO) at a cost of $69 Million and marks India’s maiden foray into interplanetary flight
  • before reaching Mars, mission navigators must keep the craft
  • on course
  • from Earth to Mars through a series of in flight Trajectory Correction Maneuvers (TMSs).
  • The second TCM was just successfully performed on June 11 by firing the spacecraft’s 22 Newton thrusters for a duration of 16 seconds
  • TCM-1 was conducted on December 11, 2013 by firing the 22 Newton Thrusters for 40.5 seconds
  • Two additional TCM firings are planned in August and September 2014.
  • the probe has flown about 70% of the way to Mars, traveling about 466 million kilometers out of a total of 680 million kilometers (400 million miles) overall, with about 95 days to go.
  • One way radio signals to Earth take approximately 340 seconds
  • ISRO reports the spacecraft and its five science instruments are healthy. It is being continuously monitored by the Indian Deep Space Network (IDSN) and NASA JPL’s Deep Space Network (DSN). Remove this ad
  • Although they were developed independently and have different suites of scientific instruments, the MAVEN and MOM science teams will “work together” to unlock the secrets of Mars atmosphere and climate history, MAVEN’s top scientist
  • MAVEN’s principal Investigator
  • “We have had some discussions with their science team, and there are some overlapping objectives,”
  • “At the point where we [MAVEN and MOM] are both in orbit collecting data we do plan to collaborate and work together with the data jointly,”
Mars Base

GRAIL First Results Provide Most Precise Lunar Gravity Map Yet - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...most-precise-lunar-gravity-map

scibyte74 Grail

shared by Mars Base on 06 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • first science results from NASA’s twin GRAIL lunar orbiters provide incredible detail of the Moon’s interior and the highest resolution gravity field map of any celestial body, including Earth
  • Ebb and Flow, send radio signals to each other and any changes in distance between the two as they circle the Moon are measured, down to changes as small as
  • 1/ 20,000th the velocity that a snail moves
  • ...19 more annotations...
  • new gravity maps reveals an abundance of features such as tectonic structures, volcanic landforms, basin rings, crater central peaks and numerous simple, bowl-shaped craters
  • the moon’s gravity field is unlike that of any terrestrial planet in our solar system.
  • Ninety-eight percent of local gravity is associated with topography, while 2 percent are other gravitational features
  • You can see bull’s-eyes of the lunar mascons, but otherwise we see a smooth inner surface
  • The only way this could happen is if impacts to the early Moon shattered the inner surface
  • also revealed evidence for ancient volcanic activity under the surface of the Moon and strange linear gravitational anomalies
  • identified a large population of linear gravitational anomalies. We don’t see any expression of them on topography maps, so we infer that these are an ancient internal structures
  • Basin, which forms one of the ‘man on moon’s’ eyes, the gravity maps shows a linear feature crossing the basin while topography maps show no such correlating feature
  • the gravity anomaly formed before the impacts
  • Additional data reveal that the Moon’s inner crust in almost completely pulverized
  • Using GRAIL gravity data, we found the average thickness of the crust is 32-34 kilometers which is about 10 km less than previous studies
  • We found the bulk abundance of aluminum on Moon is nearly the same as that of the Earth
  • consistent with a recent hypothesis that the Moon is derived of materials from the Earth when it was formed during a giant impact event
  • GRAIL finishes the primary science mission in May and are currently working in an extended mission where the spacrafts’ altitude was lowered to just 23 km above the surface
  • During its prime mission, the two GRAIL spacecraft orbited just 55 km above the Moon’s surface
  • hearing results from the new data sets soon
  • the team will lower the GRAIL spacecraft down to just 11 km above the lunar surface.
  • extended mission will end soon, in mid-December, and soon after that, the two spacecraft will be crashed intentionally onto the lunar surface
  • they are still formulating ideas for the impact scenario, and looking at the possibility of aiming the crashes so they are within the field-of-view of instruments on NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
Mars Base

Water Ice Found at Mercury's North Pole | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/r-ice-messenger-discovery.html

scibyte73 mercury

shared by Mars Base on 30 Nov 12 - No Cached
  • Confirming decades of suspicion, a NASA spacecraft has spotted vast deposits of water ice on the planet closest to the sun
  • Temperatures on Mercury can reach 800 degrees Fahrenheit (427 degrees Celsius
  • around the north pole, in areas permanently shielded from the sun's heat
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  • Messenger spacecraft found a mix of frozen water and possible organic materials
  • Evidence of big pockets of ice is visible from a latitude of 85 degrees north up to the pole
  • smaller deposits scattered as far away as 65 degrees north.
  • NASA will direct Messenger's observation toward that area in the coming months — when the angle of the sun allows — to get a better look
  • Researchers also believe the south pole has ice, but Messenger's orbit has not allowed them to obtain extensive measurements of that region yet
  • Messenger will spiral closer to the planet in 2014 and 2015 as it runs out of fuel
  • Speculation about water ice on Mercury dates back more than 20 years
  • In 1991, Earth-bound astronomers fired radar signals to Mercury and received results showing there could be ice at both poles
  • reinforced by 1999 measurements using the more powerful Arecibo Observatorymicrowave beam in Puerto Rico
  • Radar pictures beamed back to New Mexico's Very Large Array showed white areas that researchers suspected was water ice.
  • The laser is weak — about the strength of a flashlight — but just powerful enough to distinguish bright icy areas from the darker, surrounding Mercury regolith
  • Messenger's neutron spectrometer spotted hydrogen, which is a large component of water ice. But the temperature profile unexpectedly showed that dark, volatile materials – consistent with climes in which organics survive – are mixing in with the ice
  • Organic materials are life's ingredients, though they do not necessarily lead to life itself
  • the presence of organics is also suspected on airless, distant worlds such as Pluto
  • suspect Mercury's water ice is coated with a 4-inch (10 centimeters) blanket of "thermally insulating material
Mars Base

Auditory test predicts coma awakening | Body & Brain | Science News - 0 views

www.sciencenews.org/...y_test_predicts_coma_awakening

scibyte73 coma

shared by Mars Base on 30 Nov 12 - No Cached
  • A coma patient’s chances of surviving and waking up could be predicted by changes in the brain’s ability to discriminate sounds, new research suggests
  • Recovery from coma has been linked to auditory function before, but it wasn’t clear whether function depended on the time of assessment
  • previous studies tested patients several days or weeks after comas set in
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  • new study looks at the critical phase during the first 48 hours
  • At early stages, comatose brains can still distinguish between different sound patterns
  • this ability progresses over time can predict whether a coma patient will survive and ultimately awaken
  • very promising tool for prognosis
  • am led by neuroscientist
  • of the University of Lausanne in Switzerland studied 30 coma patients who had experienced heart attacks that deprived their brains of oxygen
  • All the patients underwent therapeutic hypothermia, a standard treatment to minimize brain damage, in which their bodies were cooled to 33° Celsius for 24 hours
  • played sounds for the patients and recorded their brain activity using scalp electrodes
  • once in hypothermic conditions during the first 24 hours of coma
  • again a day later at normal body temperature
  • sounds were a series of pure tones interspersed with sounds of different pitch, duration or location
  • brain signals revealed how well patients could discriminate the sounds, compared with five healthy subjects
  • After three months, the coma patients had either died or awoken
  • . All the patients whose discrimination improved by the second day of testing survived and awoke from their comas
  • many of those whose sound discrimination deteriorated by the second day did not survive
  • all of the patients showed signs of auditory discrimination
  • suggests that residual auditory function itself does not predict recovery
  • rather, it’s the progression of function over time that is predictive.
  • The study couldn’t distinguish whether auditory function initially was preserved due to the hypothermia treatment or was related merely to the early stage of coma
  • scientists speculate that distracting neural jabber may have been reduced during the hypothermia, making it easier for the patients’ brains to separate sounds
  • now running a follow-up study with 120 coma patients
  • whether the results can be replicated in a bigger population
  • s test could give information about patients who will survive during the first two days of coma
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