The Phantom Adventures
Thu May 28 2009
Post a commentNo no, not this Phantom, this one:
Details from the original press release follow:
He’s an armless, legless, human-shaped torso, a mannequin that looks like he’s wrapped in a mummy’s bandages. Scientists at the European Space Agency call him Matroshka, and like his NASA counterpart Fred, this mannequin is an intrepid space traveler. Now that he’s spent four months on the International Space Station, scientists are learning about the space radiation that Matroshka endured.
Lessons learned from Fred and Matroshka have major implications for NASA’s plans to set up a manned outpost on the Moon and eventually to send people to Mars. Protecting astronauts from the harmful effects of space radiation will be a critical challenge for these extended missions. To design spacesuits, vehicles, and habitats with enough shielding to keep astronauts safe, mission scientists need to know how much radiation –and what kinds –astronauts actually absorb.
[…]
By analyzing the measurements from hundreds of radiation sensors embedded throughout Matroshka’s body, Francis Cucinotta of NASA’s Johnson Space Center and his colleagues found that the models are actually quite good: They’re accurate to within 10% of the measured dose. That means it’s “all systems go” for using these models to plan NASA’s return to the Moon or even a trip to Mars.
Recent Stumblers
Wed May 27 2009
Post a commentThis site has gotten quite a bit of visits from StumbleUpon.com, which Wikipedia describes as a ‘personalized recommendation engine which uses peer and social-networking principles’.
Two features in particular seem to have attracted a lot of visits:
WWF: Viewing Trees As The World’s Lungs
Which was marked ‘favourite’ by SU users Bahamoth, Nilski and Osinisa (Thanks Guys!)
and
World Water Flows (pun intended)
Which was equally favoured by Leaflee, GalloiseBlonde and Scholiast (Thanks again!)
What’s interesting to me is that, in addition to traffic generating more traffic (which is always a good thing!), both of those posts prominently feature stunning (and green — wonder if that matters?) images. This leads me to believe strongly that visual content fares far better on the StumbleUpon community than ye olde printed word.
