NASA scientists design inflatable greenhouse that could feed astronauts on other planets

 An inflatable greenhouse has been designed by a team of NASA scientists which astronauts could one day use to grow fresh food and produce oxygen on other planets like Mars or Moon.

The prototype involves an inflatable, deployable greenhouse to support plant and crop production for nutrition, air revitalisation, water recycling and waste recycling.

Though astronauts are successfully growing plants and vegetables aboard the International Space Station (ISS), but NASA wants to develop long-term methods that could help sustain pioneers working in deep space.

Ray Wheeler, lead scientist at the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida said, "The new approach uses plants to scrub carbon dioxide, while providing food and oxygen."

Wheeler added that astronauts exhale carbon dioxide, which is then introduced into the greenhouse, and the plants then generate oxygen through photosynthesis.

The water cycle begins with water that is brought along or found at the lunar or Martian landing site.

Water is oxygenated, given nutrient salts, and it continuously flows across the root zone of the plants and returned to the storage system.

Tests involving the Prototype Lunar Greenhouse at the University of Arizona in the US have included determining what plants, seeds or other materials should be taken along to make the system work on the Moon or Mars.

The US space agency said, learning what to take and what to gather on site will be crucial for living on distant locations. Using available resources located or grown on site is a practice called in-situ resource utilisation, or ISRU.

NASA scientists and engineers are developing systems to harness resources such as water that should be available in certain areas of the lunar or martian surface to support missions lasting for months or years.

Gene Giacomelli, professor at the University of Arizona said, "We are mimicking what the plants would have if they were on Earth and make use of these processes for life support."

Giacomelli said, "The entire system of the lunar greenhouse does represent, in a small way, the biological systems that are here on Earth."

He said that the next big step is to use additional lunar greenhouse units for specialised testing to ensure the system being developed will adequately support a crew of astronauts working on the Moon or Mars.

He added, "We will develop computer models to simulate what we are doing to automatically control the environment and provide a constant level of oxygen."

The prototypes now being developed are cylindrical - 18 feet long and more than 8 feet in diameter and were built by Sadler Machine Company, one of the project partners.

According to NASA, to protect from radiation in space, the greenhouse units would likely be buried under surface soil or regolith thus requiring specialised lighting.

Wheeler added, "We have been successful in using electric LED (light emitting diode) lighting to grow plants. We also have tested hybrids using both natural and artificial lighting."

Donald Trump's pick for China Ambassador promises to mend US-Sino ties

US President Donald Trump's pick for Ambassador to China ,Terry Branstad, expressed confidence to take ties between Washington and Beijing in a positive direction.

Branstad promised to take a firm stand with Beijing on issues pertaining to North Korea nuclear programme, trade disputes and human rights.

"AS Governor of Iowa, I saw first-hand the importance of a positive and healthy trade relationship between our two countries," Global Times quoted Branstad.

While speaking to US Lawmakers on the importance of trade between United States and China, Branstad said " Aviation products, manufactured goods, chemicals, electronics and many other products and services are exported to China daily and helps and sustain the American economy."

Hoping to get a confirmation by the U.S. Senate, Iowa Governor Branstad said he would press China to convince North Korea to curb its nuclear ambitions.

70-years old Branstad has decades of experience with China on agricultural trade. Branstad was nominated by Trump in December 2016 to be the next US Ambassador to China. 

Humans must leave Earth within next 100 years to survive, warns Stephen Hawking

British physicist Stephen Hawking have warned that humans must leave Earth and to colonise another planet within the next 100 years to ensure survival of climate change, asteroid strikes and overpopulation.

In a new documentary, Expedition New Earth – a part of the BBC's new science season Tomorrow's World – Professor Hawking and his former student Christophe Galfard will travel the world to find out how humans could live in outer space.

In the series, the British physicist claims that time is running out for the Earth and humanity will need to leave the planet for its survival.

The shows aims to find Britain's greatest invention, by asking the public to vote on the innovation which has been the most influential in their lives,

Last month, Hawking had warned that the aggressive instincts of humans, coupled with the fast pace of growth in technology may destroy us all by nuclear or biological war, adding that only a 'world government' may prevent this impending doom.

Hawking had said that humans may lack the skills as a species to stay alive.

Awesome Warhammer 40K Costume (35 Pics)

Giant wave of hot gas discovered in nearby Perseus galaxy cluster

A vast wave of hot gas - believed to be the largest ever identified - has been discovered sweeping through the nearby Perseus galaxy cluster.

Scientists say the wave, spanning some 200,000 light-years, is about twice the size of our own Milky Way galaxy.

The discovery was made by combining data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory with radio observations and computer simulations.

“Perseus is one of the most massive nearby clusters and the brightest one in X-rays, so Chandra data provide us with unparalleled detail,” said lead scientist Stephen Walker at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. "The wave we've identified is associated with the flyby of a smaller cluster, which shows that the merger activity that produced these giant structures is still ongoing."

Chandra observations have revealed a variety of structures in this gas, from vast bubbles blown by the supermassive black hole in the cluster's central galaxy, NGC 1275, to an enigmatic concave feature known as the bay, as per a NASA release.

The researchers say the wave formed billions of years ago, after a small galaxy cluster grazed Perseus and caused its vast supply of gas to slosh around an enormous volume of space.

As per computer simulations, billions of years ago that gas was settled, but a smaller galaxy flyby caused the gas like cream stirred into coffee, creating an expanding spiral of cold gas. After about 2.5 billion years, when the gas has risen nearly 500,000 light-years from the center, vast waves form and roll at its periphery for hundreds of millions of years before dissipating.

These waves are giant versions of Kelvin-Helmholtz waves, which show up wherever there's a velocity difference across the interface of two fluids, such as wind blowing over water.

"We think the bay feature we see in Perseus is part of a Kelvin-Helmholtz wave, perhaps the largest one yet identified, that formed in much the same way as the simulation shows," Walker said. "We have also identified similar features in two other galaxy clusters, Centaurus and Abell 1795."
You can watch the video of the new findings below!

NASA's flying obervatory 'SOFIA' reveals nearby planetary system is remarkably similar to our own

The Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, or SOFIA, studying a nearby planetary system has confirmed that it has an architecture remarkably similar to that of our solar system.

NASA's SOFIA, the world's largest airborne astronomical observatory, recently completed a detailed study of this nearby planetary system.

Located 10.5 light-years away in the southern hemisphere of the constellation Eridanus, the star Epsilon Eridani, eps Eri for short, is the closest planetary system around a star similar to the early sun.

It is a prime location to research how planets form around stars like our sun, and is also the storied location of the Babylon 5 space station in the science fictional television series of the same name, a a NASA release published on its official website.

Previous studies indicate that eps Eri has a debris disk - that can be broad, continuous disks or concentrated into belts of debris, similar to our solar system’s asteroid belt and the Kuiper Belt.

Debris disk is the name astronomers give to leftover material still orbiting a star after planetary construction has completed. The debris can take the form of gas and dust, as well as small rocky and icy bodies.

Furthermore, careful measurements of the motion of eps Eri indicates that a planet with nearly the same mass as Jupiter circles the star at a distance comparable to Jupiter’s distance from the Sun, according to the report.

Using new SOFIA images, Kate Su of the University of Arizona and her research team were able to distinguish between two theoretical models of the location of warm debris, such as dust and gas, in the eps Eri system. These models were based on prior data obtained with NASA’s Spitzer space telescope.

“One model indicates that warm material is in two narrow rings of debris, which would correspond respectively to the positions of the asteroid belt and the orbit of Uranus in our solar system. Using this model, theorists indicate that the largest planet in a planetary system might normally be associated with an adjacent debris belt, the report added.”

“The other model attributes the warm material to dust originating in the outer Kuiper-Belt-like zone and filling in a disk of debris toward the central star. In this model, the warm material is in a broad disk, and is not concentrated into asteroid belt-like rings nor is it associated with any planets in the inner region.”

Su and her team ascertained that the warm material around eps Eri is in fact arranged like the first model suggests; it is in at least one narrow belt rather than in a broad continuous disk.

This study was published in the Astronomical Journal on April 25, 2017.

Pine Nuts: Are Their Health Benefits Worth The Cost?

Tasty, buttery pine nuts are considered one of the fanciest of all nuts. They are actually the seeds of pine trees and not really nuts. They are found in the pine cones but only 18 types of pine trees create pine nuts that are large enough to eat. Like most nuts, they are packed full of nutrition and health benefits.

Health Benefits

In numerous studies, the consumption of nuts was found to lower waist circumference, blood pressure, insulin resistance and increase high cholesterol.

Healthier Weight

Those who eat nuts regularly have been found to maintain a healthy weight, according to research. The thought is that those eating nuts regularly have a considerably healthy diet because they are getting more fiber, vitamin E, calcium, magnesium and potassium, according to statistics.

Bad Cholesterol Lowered

Mixed nuts (walnuts, peanuts and pine nuts), when included in a healthy diet for six weeks, showed an improvement in cholesterol levels.

Suppresses Appetite

The fatty acids in pine nuts help release an appetite-suppressing hormone (cholecystokinin). When women in a study consumed fatty acid (pinolenic acid from the pine nut) before breakfast it was found to lower the amount of food eaten throughout the day by 37 percent. Pine nut oil was found to help overweight, post-menopausal women suppress their appetite in this study.

Decreases Heart Disease Risk

There was a decrease in cardiovascular disease in participants that ate one-quarter ounce of nuts per day in a 1999-2004 study. 

Please Note: As with all nuts, they have been known to cause allergic reactions. There is a rare allergic reaction to pine nuts known as Pine Mouth Syndrome which can last a few weeks but it is not dangerous. This causes a bitter or metallic taste after eating pine nuts.

  

Growing and Harvesting Pine Nuts is An Expensive Process

There are about 18 pine trees that produce nuts worthy of harvesting. These trees are found in Europe, Russia, Mongolia, Eastern Siberia, North Korea and North America. There are eight varieties that grow in cold climates such as Canada.

It can take at least 10 years to get pine nuts from a tree; first, it takes between 6-8 years for the tree to mature fully and then 2-3 more years to develop the pine nuts. They ripen in late summer or early fall.

Next is the drying process: they are placed in a burlap bag and exposed to heat to dry out the cone for about 20 days. The outer shell must be removed, the cones are broken apart and the seeds are taken out. This time-consuming process makes it an expensive nut. Learn more reasons why pine nuts are so expensive.

Nutrient Dense

One ounce serving (165 pine nuts) contains a wide variety of nutrients (potassium, protein, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, zinc, thiamin, niacin, vitamin E, vitamin K and more) Go here for more nutrition details.

History

Pine nuts have been consumed since Stone Age times; remains have been found in caves in southern France. The pine nut tree has been cultivated since about 4000 BCE according to Archaeologists.

They have been harvested for over 8,000 years. There is proof of them being found in excavations at Gatecliff Shelter, Nevada, 6,000 years BCE. 

How to Select

Shelled nuts are best in air-tight plastic bags in the stores. Make sure they are fresh, have not lost their light color and are not brown.

How to Store

Their high-fat content makes it important to store them in the refrigerator for 1 – 3 months or kept in an airtight container or in the freezer for up to 9 months.  At room temperature, they will only last for a week before going rancid.

Tips for eating or cooking

They are delicious raw, but you can also eat them roasted, adding a sweet nutty flavor and crunch to vegetable dishes and salads. And of course, there is delicious pesto.