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Archive for University of Hawaii-Manoa

NASA wants volunteers to sample space food

By alkaon on February 24, 2012 No Comments

nasa space food

Astronaut Richard A. Searfoss, sorts out food on the mid deck of the Earth-orbiting Space Shuttle Columbia. Picture: NASA
Source: Supplied


nasa space food

Astronaut Brian Duffy, samples a beverage during a crew food evaluation session. Picture: NASA
Source: Supplied





ALWAYS wanted to be an astronaut but didn’t have the right stuff? Here is a chance to fulfll your childhood dream.


NASA is searching for a group of volunteers to don spacesuits and eat astronaut food for four months while in a lava flow in Hawaii.

The aim of the simulated trip is to determine which foods people like best in order to improve the quality of food provided for astronauts on a three year trip to Mars.

Volunteers will sample a range of instant foods while scientists observe and record their reactions.

Cornell University and University of Hawaii-Manoa are searching for six people for the trial.

While participants won’t actually get into a rocket or leave the planet, they will be asked to act like they are on Mars inside a faux space capsule.

There is a catch, of course: applicants must hold a bachelor’s degree in engineering, biological or physical sciences, mathematics, or computer science, and they need to have professional experience.

Smokers and no English speakers are also not eligible.

Those who get the nod will If you do get the nod you can hope to go through a two week training mission and will get $5,000 upon successful completion of the mission.

Volunteers can hope to get a taste of astronaut ice cream aside but no chance of fresh food.

The aim is to see what foods people tire of quickest because when astronauts experiecnce “menu fatigue” their  “overall food intake declines, putting them at risk for nutritional deficiency, loss of bone and muscle mass, and reduced physical capabilities,”  a statement from Cornell University said.

Common “space food” items include freeze-dried products such as ice cream, fruits, beef stew and meatballs.

Read more at space.com

Article source: http://www.news.com.au/technology/do-you-have-the-right-stuff-volunteers-wanted-to-sample-space-food/story-e6frfrnr-1226280408914

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Cornell scientists search for the best meals on Mars

By alkaon on February 24, 2012 No Comments

ITHACA — Life may exist in some form on Mars. Well-stocked supermarkets don’t.

So if astronauts someday head there in what’s estimated would be a three-year mission — roughly six months travel each way, plus two years on the planet — what they’d take to eat would be among the concerns.

To figure the cheapest and easiest ways to give astronauts well-rounded meals that they wouldn’t eventually tire of, a group of Cornell University and University of Hawaii-Manoa researchers are looking for a half-dozen volunteers to spend four months next year living in a simulated Mars base on a Hawaii lava flow.

The study is part of a three-year project sponsored by NASA. Data from the simulation will be used to look at menu fatigue and the economics of finding the easiest things to transport.

“It’s important to keep astronauts eating well,” says Jean Hunter, Cornell professor of biological and environmental engineering. “It goes to mission success and astronaut safety.”

The volunteers will live essentially like astronauts, Hunter says. They’ll dress in simulated spacesuits — hazardous material suits instead of heavier and more cumbersome spacesuits. They’ll take a mix of the prepared foods NASA astronauts eat today and some shelf-stable foods, such as flour, sugar and freeze-dried meats, for making their own meals.

NASA has no plans for a Mars mission, though it’s developing a rocket for deep-space distances, such as the moon or Mars, spokesman J.D. Harrington says. It also has a research projects under way that look at other issues related to long spaceflights, such as radiation exposure and eyesight problems astronauts often develop, he says.

The site of the study hasn’t been determined, though there are a number of locations in Hawaii that are “quite Mars-like in various ways,” says Kim Binstead, co-investigator at the University of Hawaii-NASA Astrobiology Institute. “We need a site that is very low on vegetation, visually isolated, visually Mars-like and very stark.”

Volunteers, Hunter says, should be mostly scientists or engineers and “people who are congenial or easygoing, without a whole lot of prickles — people who are interested in food, who know how to cook. And people who are healthy.”

Those chosen will go to Cornell this summer to train preparing meals with the given supplies, Hunter says. There’ll be a two-week dry run before the four-month experiment “to make sure everyone gets along and the equipment works,” she says.

Article source: http://www.theithacajournal.com/article/20120223/NEWS01/202230403/Cornell-scientists-search-best-meals-Mars?odyssey=nav%7Chead

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Mission to munch: Simulated Mars mission aims to find best menu for trip

By alkaon on February 23, 2012 No Comments

A joint study between researchers from Cornell University and University of Hawaii-Manoa promises to keep things interesting on a simulated mission to Mars — at least in the kitchen.

One of NASA’s concerns about sending a crew on a three-year journey to the Red Planet is something called “menu fatigue.”  Months and months of eating the same, freeze-dried, prepared foods that astronauts usually eat in space (given the inability to cook much of anything) can cause even those with normally healthy appetites to eat less. 

University of Hawaii researchers say this would be a big problem on a mission because if the astronauts’ overall food intake declines, they would be at risk for nutritional deficiency, loss of bone and muscle mass, and reduced physical capabilities. 

To solve the problem, USA Today says researchers have set up a study that requires applicants to “live essentially like astronauts” for four months, dressing in simulated space suits and eating a mix of the prepared foods NASA astronauts eat today and some shelf-stable foods, such as flour, sugar and freeze-dried meats, for making their own meals.

The half-dozen volunteers chosen will move into a simulated Mars base on a Hawaii lava flow for four months in 2013 for the study — and researchers are taking applications until February 29.  If you are interested in finding out more about the study or want to apply, you can find out more at the University of Hawaii’s Web site.

Copyright 2012 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Article source: http://www.abcactionnews.com/dpp/news/science_tech/mission-to-munch-simulated-mars-mission-aims-to-find-best-menu-for-trip

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Categories : Mars News
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Gastronauts: NASA’s Hawaiian Mars diet experiment

By alkaon on February 21, 2012 No Comments

NASA is lining up humans to eat space food on Hawaii in a mission-to-Mars simulation.

­Since no life on Mars has been proven so far to enable astronauts to catch and grill something fresh, the mission on Mars will have to take enough rations for three years. The problem is how to make those rations sufficient and not boring.

Researchers from Cornell University and the University of Hawaii-Manoa are going to test six volunteers in a facility simulating a base on Mars on a Hawaiian lava flow. The deadline for applications is February 29.

The experiment will last four months and the volunteers, mostly engineers and scientists who are cooks at heart, will have to act like astronauts in every way, living together in a module and wearing hazardous material suits instead of heavier spacesuits.

But in the core of the scheme will be “astronauts” mixing up ready food NASA astronauts eat currently with some shelf-stable foods, like flour and freeze-dried meats, cooking meals of their own choice.

“It’s important to keep astronauts eating well,” Jean Hunter, Cornell professor of biological and environmental engineering, told USA TODAY. “It goes to mission success and astronaut safety.”

The site for the experiment has not been chosen yet, but Hawaii has enough visually isolated Mars-like stark locations low in vegetation.

In 2012 researchers will be selecting volunteers and checking equipment and the experiment itself will take place in 2013.


­Russia might replace US in Mars project

­The US has left the ExoMars joint project with European Space Agency (ESA) to send missions to Mars in 2016 and 2018 due to lack of funding.

Still, development of a new rocket for deep-space exploration continues.

Now Russia’s Federal Space Corporation Roscosmos is showing interest in teaming up with ESA to jointly send man to Mars on a Russian rocket by the end of this decade.

“This is going to be a purely Russian-European project. In March Russia might make the decision to join ExoMars,” the head of Roscosmos Vladimir Popovkin told journalists. He said the offer of ESA sounds interesting and a joint group is already elaborating an agreement.

In the meantime Russia has already proven that a 100-million-kilometer round trip to Mars is possible – at least in socio-psychological way. In early November 2010 a mock expedition Mars-500 finally “returned” to Earth in Moscow.

Six volunteers, including three Russians, as well as representatives from Europe, China and South America, spent 520 days sealed in an imitation spaceship, researching human psychological and physiological capacities.

The half dozen international “cosmonauts” of the Russian experiment were actually eating their precooked rations for 17 months. They also ate vegetables from a prototype of a “salad machine”: space conveying salad greenhouse “Phytocycle SD”.

Mars-500 participants succeeded in fulfilling the task. They did so without drastic weight loss and – which is probably even more important – getting along with each other well enough to get out of the mock ship as a team, not as a bunch of burnt-out, irritated individuals.

Article source: http://rt.com/news/mars-diet-experiment-hawaii-819/

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SPACE: Mars mission to be simulated to find best menus for trip

By alkaon on February 20, 2012 No Comments

<!–Saxotech Paragraph Count: 4
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ITHACA, N.Y. – Life may exist in some form on Mars. Well-stocked supermarkets don’t.

So if astronauts someday head there in what’s estimated would be a three-year mission — roughly six months travel each way, plus two years on the planet — what they’d take to eat would be among the concerns.

To figure the cheapest and easiest ways to give astronauts well-rounded meals that they wouldn’t eventually tire of, a group of Cornell University and University of Hawaii-Manoa researchers are looking for a half-dozen volunteers to spend four months next year living in a simulated Mars base on a Hawaii lava flow.

The study is part of a three-year project sponsored by NASA. Data from the simulation will be used to look at menu fatigue and the economics of finding the easiest things to transport.

“It’s important to keep astronauts eating well,” says Jean Hunter, Cornell professor of biological and environmental engineering. “It goes to mission success and astronaut safety.”

The volunteers will live essentially like astronauts, Hunter says. They’ll dress in simulated spacesuits — hazardous material suits instead of heavier and more cumbersome spacesuits. They’ll take a mix of the prepared foods NASA astronauts eat today and some shelf-stable foods, such as flour, sugar and freeze-dried meats, for making their own meals.

NASA currently has no plans for a Mars mission, though it’s developing a rocket for deep-space distances, such as the moon or Mars, spokesman J.D. Harrington says. It also has a research projects underway that look at other issues related to long spaceflights, such as radiation exposure and eyesight problems astronauts often develop, he says.

The site of the study hasn’t been determined, though there are a number of locations in Hawaii that are “quite Mars-like in various ways,” says Kim Binstead, co-investigator at the University of Hawaii-NASA Astrobiology Institute. “We need a site that is very low on vegetation, visually isolated, visually Mars-like and very stark.”

Volunteers, Hunter says, should be mostly scientists or engineers and “people who are congenial or easygoing, without a whole lot of prickles — people who are interested in food, who know how to cook. And people who are healthy.”

Those chosen will go to Cornell this summer to train to prepare meals with the given supplies, Hunter says. There’ll be a two-week dry run before the four-month experiment “to make sure everyone gets along and the equipment works,” she says.

The deadline for applying is Feb. 29. To apply, go to manoa.hawaii.edu/hi-seas. Researchers say they’ll make their choices by the end of May.

Contributing: Daneman also reports for the Rochester (N.Y.) Democrat and Chronicle

Article source: http://www.delmarvanow.com/article/20120220/NEWS01/120220008

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Categories : Mars News
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Mars mission to be simulated to find best menus for trip

By alkaon on February 20, 2012 No Comments

So if astronauts someday head there in what’s estimated would be a three-year mission — roughly six months travel each way, plus two years on the planet — what they’d take to eat would be among the concerns.

To figure the cheapest and easiest ways to give astronauts well-rounded meals that they wouldn’t eventually tire of, a group of Cornell University and University of Hawaii-Manoa researchers are looking for a half-dozen volunteers to spend four months next year living in a simulated Mars base on a Hawaii lava flow.

The study is part of a three-year project sponsored by NASA. Data from the simulation will be used to look at menu fatigue and the economics of finding the easiest things to transport.

“It’s important to keep astronauts eating well,” says Jean Hunter, Cornell professor of biological and environmental engineering. “It goes to mission success and astronaut safety.”

The volunteers will live essentially like astronauts, Hunter says. They’ll dress in simulated spacesuits — hazardous material suits instead of heavier and more cumbersome spacesuits. They’ll take a mix of the prepared foods NASA astronauts eat today and some shelf-stable foods, such as flour, sugar and freeze-dried meats, for making their own meals.

NASA currently has no plans for a Mars mission, though it’s developing a rocket for deep-space distances, such as the moon or Mars, spokesman J.D. Harrington says. It also has a research projects underway that look at other issues related to long spaceflights, such as radiation exposure and eyesight problems astronauts often develop, he says.

The site of the study hasn’t been determined, though there are a number of locations in Hawaii that are “quite Mars-like in various ways,” says Kim Binstead, co-investigator at the University of Hawaii-NASA Astrobiology Institute. “We need a site that is very low on vegetation, visually isolated, visually Mars-like and very stark.”

Volunteers, Hunter says, should be mostly scientists or engineers and “people who are congenial or easygoing, without a whole lot of prickles — people who are interested in food, who know how to cook. And people who are healthy.”

Those chosen will go to Cornell this summer to train preparing meals with the given supplies, Hunter says. There’ll be a two-week dry run before the four-month experiment “to make sure everyone gets along and the equipment works,” she says.

The deadline for applying is Feb. 29. To apply, go to manoa.hawaii.edu/hi-seas. Researchers say they’ll make their choices by the end of May.

Article source: http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/story/2012-02-17/research-mars-food-hawaii/53160760/1

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Categories : Mars News
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NASA Image of the day

The Engine Burns Blue

 
This image shows a cutting-edge solar-electric propulsion thruster in development at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif., that uses xenon ions for propulsion. An earlier version of this solar-electric propulsion engine has been flying on NASA's Dawn mission to the asteroid belt. This engine is being considered as part of the Asteroid Initiative, a proposal to robotically capture a small near-Earth asteroid and redirect it safely to a stable orbit in the Earth-moon system where astronauts can visit and explore it. This image was taken through a porthole in a vacuum chamber at JPL where the ion engine is being tested. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
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