What?: June 2017

Friday, June 30, 2017

Nintendo America Boss: Switch Online Platform Will Have ‘Nintendo Flair’ [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

Authors of ‘The Expanse’ Preview Syfy’s Season 2 [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

Season 2 of the high-flying “Expanse” TV show is coming soon, and Space.com can’t wait — so we caught up with the book’s authors, who are also deeply involved with the new show, about what to expect when it returns Feb. 1.

Earlier, we talked with authors Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck — who use the pen name James S.A. Corey — about the newest book in the “Expanse” series. Here, we got the details about how the show’s newest season will measure up.

The show’s second season expands the scope of the first, its creators have said. There are more complicated interactions among the three main solar system factions: Earth, Mars and groups in the Asteroid Belt (mainly the Outer Planets Alliance being the main one)as well as deeper interactions among the crew of the Rocinante. And that scope will also come with an increase in length — there are 13 episodes this season, compared to last season’s 10 — and physical space. [Turning a Sci-Fi Series into a TV Epic: Q&A with ‘The Expanse’ Authors]

“The sets they came up with for Season 2 are astounding,” Abraham said. “I walked into some of the things that they built for Season 2, and it was like nothing I have ever seen before — it was awesome.”

The crew of the ship Rocinante from Syfy’s space opera “The Expanse,” whose second season starts Feb. 1.

Credit: Kurt Iswarienko/Syfy Abraham called out the Tycho space station in particular, which is serving as Outer Planets Alliance headquarters at the start of the second season, as a particularly cool locale that’s given a closer look during the upcoming season.

“I think that [Tycho’s operations center] is the biggest set we’ve ever built,” Franck added. “It looks like the Kennedy Space Center. You could launch space shuttles in there.”

They also mentioned the Martian soldier Bobbi Draper’s warship — which Franck told the production team to make look like “a flying threat” — as another striking Season 2 set piece.

Draper herself — whom fans of the book have been very excited to meet — will make her first appearance at the beginning of Season 2, as well.

“Bobbi is awesome, and Frankie [Adams, the actress playing her] is awesome,” Abraham said. “I am in a constant struggle not to just be smug about Frankie Adams in this.”

Another major new character, Prax (played by Terry Chen), is also getting the duo excited because of the actor’s “fascinating and lovely” take on the botanist.

“He was a really interesting choice, because if you look at his CV up until now, mostly he’s been playing tough guys,” Abraham said. “And then he comes in as this very vulnerable, very, very thoughtful, very cerebral character and he just owned it.”

“I think I heard somebody describe him as ‘intensely gentle,’ which is a weird mixture, but it absolutely describes what he is doing” Franck said.

With regard to the main Rocinante crew, although the authors couldn’t offer details, they stressed that the foursome would all grow and develop as characters.

“The thing that I liked the most [is how] the characters grow and change and become clearer and more accessible to the audience in ways that are really peculiar to the show,” Abraham said. For instance, Alex and Amos have a mini-arc between them that is unique to the TV series, but would have fit in the books, he said.

In another example, a very minor book character plays a large role in the series’ second season. That character “winds up being an opportunity to really compare and contrast with some of the crewmembers, in ways that I thought were fascinating and enlightening,” Abraham said. “Getting to remix it a little bit like that so that they can play off each other was really awesome.”

Abraham and Franck talked about the pleasure they’ve taken in the way that the world of the books and show have become more mainstream. For instance, Tycho Station was featured on the cover of Physics Today in December. Abraham said that it was the first time that the magazine had featured something from science fiction on the cover since 1974, and that he was “flattered as hell,” since the authors and show’s writing team spend a lot of time working to develop the science of the “Expanse” solar system.

Why yes, that’s Tycho Station from Syfy’s The Expanse on the December cover of Physics Today https://t.co/LKtA0Kdtn8 pic.twitter.com/LUGZkxHKpp

— Paul Guinnessy (@starbird2005) December 1, 2016

“We are a pretty nerdy writers’ room,” Frank said. (“We apologize for nothing,” Abraham quipped.)

The duo mentioned that there would be some cool projects ahead to tie into the TV season and the books, but they couldn’t yet clarify what that might entail — though they did have an unrelated proposal.

“The thing that it isn’t, but that I would love, is a coffee machine,” Abraham said. “I would love a dedicated espresso machine in the style of the Rocinante. We haven’t had any interest in that one yet — but if the guys at Keurig want to talk to us about that, I would be happy to have the conversation.”

Email Sarah Lewin at slewin@space.com or follow her @SarahExplains. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

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http://www.space.com/35308-what-to-expect-expanse-season-2.html Authors of 'The Expanse' Preview Syfy's Season 2

[bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]Authors of ‘The Expanse’ Preview Syfy’s Season 2

Listen to Lin-Manuel Miranda’s West Wing Rap [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

Nintendo America Boss: Switch Online Platform Will Have ‘Nintendo Flare’ [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

NASA’s Moonwalking Apollo Astronauts: Where Are They Now? [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

Astronaut Neil A. Armstrong, Apollo 11 Commander, inside the Lunar Module as it rests on the lunar surface after completion of his historic moonwalk in July 1969.

Only a handful of men have stood on the moon and looked up at Earth. NASA landed six missions and 12 astronauts on the moon during the Apollo program. Six others remained in lunar orbit aboard their Apollo spacecraft command modules. One mission, Apollo 13, was aborted in mid-flight. Here is a snapshot of NASA’s six successful moon-landing crews and where they are now:

Apollo 11

Neil Armstrong: Commander, Apollo 11, the first manned moon landing flight, which landed on the lunar surface on July 20, 1969. Armstrong was a Navy aviator and later a test pilot for NASA’s precursor agency, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics, where he tested the X-15 rocket plane, among other experimental aircraft. He joined NASA in 1962 and commanded the Gemini 8 mission in 1966 to perform the first space docking in orbit. Armstrong left NASA in 1971 to teach aerospace engineering at the University of Cincinnati and chair an electronic systems company. Armstrong died Aug. 25, 2012, of complications related to recent surgery at age 82. [Photos: Neil Armstrong — American Icon Remembered]

Buzz Aldrin: Lunar module pilot, Apollo 11. A U.S Air Force pilot before joining NASA in 1963, Aldrin first launched into space on the Gemini 12 mission in 1966 to test spacewalking procedures, including new restraints attached to the outside of the space capsule, and new training techniques. After becoming the second man to walk on the moon, Aldrin resigned from NASA in July 1971. Post-NASA, he has written numerous books, given lectures around the world, and even participated in the reality television show “Dancing With the Stars.” Aldrin is currently the president of Starcraft Enterprise, a company he founded to promote his vision for the future of space exploration.

Michael Collins: Command module pilot, Apollo 11. Collins stayed on the Columbia command module while Armstrong and Aldrin took the Eagle lunar lander down to the moon’s surface. Apollo 11 was Collins’ second spaceflight, after the Gemini 10 mission in 1966. On that flight, Collins served as pilot during a successful rendezvous and docking with a separately launched unmanned spacecraft called Agena. Before joining NASA in 1963, Collins was an experimental flight test officer in the U.S. Air Force, logging approximately 5,000 hours flying time. He retired as a brigadier general from the Air Force, and left NASA in 1970 to work for the U.S. State Department, and then to become the director of the Smithsonian’s National Air & Space Museum. In 1980, Collins left the Smithsonian, joining the LTV Aerospace company, and then started his own consulting firm in 1985. He has written several books and paints watercolors.

Apollo 11 astronauts, from left, Michael Collins, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin stand during a recognition ceremony at the U.S House of Representatives Committee on Science and Technology tribute to the Apollo 11 astronauts at the Cannon House Office Building on Capitol Hill, Tuesday, July 21, 2009, in Washington. The committee presented the three Apollo 11 astronauts with a framed copy of House Resolution 607 honoring their achievement, and announced passage of legislation awarding them and John Glenn the Congressional Gold Medal.

Credit: NASA/Bill Ingalls

Apollo 12

Charles “Pete” Conrad: Commander, Apollo 12. Conrad headed up the second lunar landing mission, Apollo 12, in November 1969. Conrad became the third person to walk on the moon, and spent more than a day exploring the lunar surface. Apollo 12 was Conrad’s third spaceflight, following his turns on the Gemini 5 and Gemini 11 missions. A test pilot for the U.S. Navy, Conrad joined NASA in 1962, and retired in 1973 after commanding the Skylab 2 mission on the first American space station. After his military and NASA career, Conrad worked at the American Television and Communications Corporation (ATC) and the McDonnell Douglas Corporation. He died in 1999, following a motorcycle accident in Ojai, Calif.

Alan Bean: Lunar module pilot, Apollo 12. Bean’s first spaceflight was Apollo 12, during which he spent more than a day on the surface of the moon with Pete Conrad. A captain the U.S. Navy, Bean joined NASA in 1963, and followed up Apollo 12 as commander of the Skylab 3 mission in 1973. He retired from NASA in 1981 to concentrate on painting, saying he was inspired to communicate his space experiences through art. In 2009, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the first moon landing, many of Bean’s works were displayed at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C.

Richard F. “Dick” Gordon: Command module pilot, Apollo 12. On Apollo 12, Gordon stayed inside the command module Yankee Clipper, photographing potential future lunar landing sites while Conrad and Bean walked on the moon. Gordon, a captain in the U.S. Navy, was selected as an astronaut in 1963, and served as pilot for the Gemini 11 mission in September 1966. He retired from NASA and the Navy in 1972, and went on to work for the New Orleans Saints Professional Football Club; Energy Developers, Limited (EDL); Resolution Engineering and Development Company (REDCO); and Astro Sciences Corporation. [NASA’s 17 Apollo Moon Missions in Pictures]

Apollo 14

Alan Shepard: Commander, Apollo 14. Prior to commanding Apollo 14 in 1971, Shepard became the first American to reach space when he rode in the Freedom 7 spacecraft on May 5, 1961, under NASA’s Mercury program. Apollo 14 marked his second spaceflight, following a stint as chief of NASA’s astronaut office, a job he resumed after his moon mission. During his walk on the moon, he famously hit two golf balls and watched them soar in the low lunar gravity. Shepard, a rear admiral of the U.S. Navy, left NASA and the Navy in 1974. After NASA, Shepard wrote a book about his space experiences, served on the boards of various corporations, and helped lead the Mercury Seven Foundation, which awarded college scholarships for science. He died in 1998 of leukemia. [Photos: Freedom 7, America’s First Manned Spaceflight]

Edgar Mitchell: Lunar module pilot, Apollo 14. Mitchell’s first flight to space on Apollo 14 sent him to the moon with Alan Shepard for a total of 216 hours and 42 minutes in space. The U.S. Navy captain retired from NASA and the Navy after that mission in 1972, going on to found the Institute of Noetic Sciences, dedicated to the study of consciousness. He has written books on mystical experiences and psychic exploration.

Stuart Roosa: Command module pilot, Apollo 14. On his first and only trip to space, Roosa piloted the command module Kitty Hawk, making observations of the moon from orbit while Shepard and Mitchell walked on the lunar surface. Roosa joined NASA in 1966 from the U.S. Air Force, and worked on the space shuttle program after the Apollo flights ended. After his retirement from NASA in 1976, Roosa then worked for U.S. Industries, Inc., for a commercial real estate firm called Charles Kenneth Campbell Investments, and was president and owner of Gulf Coast Coors, Inc., a beer distributor. Roosa died in 1994, due to complications of pancreatitis.

Apollo 15

David Scott: Commander, Apollo 15. During the fourth manned moon-landing mission, Apollo 15, Scott and Irwin became the first people to drive a lunar rover around the surface of the moon. When he commanded the mission in 1971, Scott was already a space veteran, having served aboard the Gemini 8 mission in 1966 with Neil Armstrong, and then the Apollo 9 mission in 1969. After joining NASA in 1963, Scott eventually logged a total of 546 hours and 54 minutes in space. Following his work as an astronaut, Scott served as director of NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards, California. He is a retired colonel in the U.S. Air Force. [Driving on the Moon: Photos of NASA’s Lunar Cars]

James Irwin: Lunar module pilot, Apollo 15. Irwin’s first and only flight to space was on Apollo 15, during which he walked around the moon’s Hadley Rille and Apennine Mountains, collecting 171 lbs. (77.5 kilograms) of moon rocks with Scott. Irwin, a retired colonel in the U.S. Air Force, joined NASA in 1966. He left the space agency after his Apollo 15 flight in 1972, to become a preacher, and formed a religious organization called High Flight Foundation in Colorado Springs, Colo. Irwin died in 1991 of a heart attack.

Alfred Worden: Command module pilot, Apollo 15. As a test pilot, Worden was selected as an astronaut by NASA in 1966. He piloted Apollo 15’s command module Endeavour while Scott and Irwin walked on the moon’s surface. Following his space flight, Worden worked as a scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California, and ultimately retired from NASA in 1975. He went on to work at Maris Worden Aerospace, Inc., and BG Goodrich Aerospace.

Astronaut James B. Irwin, lunar module pilot, works at the Lunar Roving Vehicle during the first Apollo 15 lunar surface extravehicular activity at the Hadley-Apennine landing site.

Credit: NASA/David R. Scott

Apollo 16

John W. Young: Commander, Apollo 16. Young led the fifth manned moon landing mission, Apollo 16, in April 1972, when he and Charlie Duke explored the lunar highlands at Descartes, collected 200 lbs. (90.7 kg) of moon rocks, and drove more than 16 miles (24.75 kilometers) in the lunar rover. Young joined NASA in 1962 as a pilot in the U.S. Navy, and flew on six separate space missions. He flew on the first manned Gemini mission, Gemini 3, in 1965, and then on the Gemini 10 mission in 1966. Young then served as command module pilot of Apollo 10, which orbited the moon in 1969, but did not land. Following the Apollo program, Young went on to fly on two space shuttle missions, STS-1 — the first ever space shuttle flight — in 1981 and STS-9 in 1983. Overall, Young logged 835 hours in space, and worked at NASA until retiring in 2004.

Charles Duke: Lunar module pilot, Apollo 16. A retired brigadier general in the U.S. Air Force, Charlie Duke joined NASA in 1966 and flew on one space mission, Apollo 16, before retiring from NASA in 1975. During the Apollo 16 mission, Duke and Young deployed a cosmic ray detector and an ultraviolet camera on the lunar surface. After NASA, Duke pursued business opportunities, founding the Duke Investments Charlie Duke Enterprises firms. He is also president of the Duke Ministry for Christ.

Thomas “Ken” Mattingly: Command module pilot, Apollo 16. Mattingly joined NASA in 1966 and was due to make his first flight to space on the Apollo 13 mission, but was removed from the crew 72 hours before launch because he had been exposed to the German measles. Mattingly was reassigned to the Apollo 16 mission. Mattingly piloted the command module Casper, working on photographic and geochemical mapping of a belt around the lunar equator. Following Apollo 16, Mattingly flew on two space shuttle flights, STS-4 and STS-51C, before retiring from NASA in 1985.

Apollo 17

Eugene Cernan: Commander, Apollo 17. Cernan had made two flights to space — on Gemini 9 in 1966 and on Apollo 10 in 1969 — before leading the sixth and last lunar landing mission, Apollo 17, in December 1972. This excursion to the moon marked the longest lunar landing flight, with Cernan and Harrison Schmitt spending more than three days on the moon’s surface. Cernan was the last man to leave his footprints on the surface of the moon. A captain in the U.S. Navy, he retired from NASA and the military in 1975. He worked at Coral Petroleum, Inc., and then founded his own consulting company, the Cernan Corporation. He also served as Chairman of the Board of Johnson Engineering Corporation, which has helped NASA design trainers and equipment for space exploration. He died on January 16, 2017.

Harrison Schmitt: Lunar module pilot, Apollo 17. Schmitt, a trained geologist, was the only astronaut without military experience to walk on the moon, and helped train all Apollo moonwalking crews in geology. He was selected by NASA as a scientist-astronaut in 1965. Apollo 17 was Schmitt’s only flight to space, but he continued to work at NASA after the Apollo program as chief of the scientist-astronauts and then as NASA assistant administrator for energy programs. In 1975, Schmitt resigned from NASA to run for election in the U.S. Senate in New Mexico, where he won as a Republican and served a six-year term.

Ronald Evans: Command module pilot, Apollo 17. While Cernan and Schmitt walked on the lunar surface, Evans stayed in lunar orbit aboard the command module America. During the flight, he completed a spacewalk to retrieve three camera cassettes and make an inspection of the capsule’s equipment bay area. He still holds the record of more time spent in lunar orbit than anyone else in the world. Evans became an astronaut in 1966. In 1976, he retired as a captain in the U.S. Navy, but stayed on at NASA working on the space shuttle program in the operations and training group and within the astronaut office. He retired from NASA in 1977 to work as an executive in the coal industry. Evans died in 1990 of a heart attack.

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How to get a flat stomach by eating THIS food at lunchtime [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

A nutritionist has revealed the one food to eat if you want to get a lose weight and get a flat stomach.

Lentils often get a negative press but they could be the key to a trim figure.

They will keep you fuller for longer thanks to their unique combination of fibre, carbohydrates and protein.

As they are part of the pulse family, they also have a low glycaemic index.

This means they can help keep blood sugar levels stay and could potentially help the body metabolise fat.

Speaking to Metro.co.uk, dietitian Breanna Crawley recommended lentils and said that while they cause gas and bloating in some people, this won’t be the case for everyone.

She said: “They provide a good source of protein and are gluten free.

“I’d recommend including them in your lunch as they can be rather heavy on the stomach of an evening.

“They’ll also help to keep you fuller for longer and help you beat those 3pm sugar cravings.”

The advice about lentils comes after it was revealed eating habanero peppers could also speed up weight loss.

Nutritionist Cassandra Burns explained why, and said: “Red peppers contain different amounts of capsaicin, which is a natural substance – colourless, odourless and flavourless.

“It produces a burning sensation in the mucous membranes giving spicy foods their heat, and it stimulates your body helping to burn calories and improve your fat oxidation.”

The highest levels a capsaicins are found in habanero peppers, according to Cassandra, which usually have a rating of around 100,000 to 300,000 Scoville heat units.

But bell peppers, which only have a rating of 0 or 1 on the Scoville scale, do not contain significant amounts of capsaicins.

“As red bell peppers have no heat, most people find these more favourable, due to their sweetness,” Cassandra added.

“They contain high levels of vitamins and are a nutritious addition to any diet.”

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http://www.express.co.uk/life-style/diets/754668/how-to-get-a-flat-stomach-lentils How to get a flat stomach by eating THIS food at lunchtime

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Japan’s Small Experimental Rocket Fails to Launch Tiny Satellite [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s experimental SS-520-4 rocket is prepared to launch the TRICOM-1 microsatellite into orbit. The rocket failed to reach orbit after its launch on Jan. 15, 2017 from Japan’s Uchinoura Space Center.

The first flight of a tiny experimental Japanese rocket, touted as the world’s smallest booster designed to launch a satellite in orbit, failed Sunday (Jan. 15), Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency officials said.

The three-stage rocket, called SS-520-4, was the size of a telephone pole and launched from Japan’s Uchinoura Space Center at 8:33 a.m. Japan Time (6:33 p.m. EST or 2333 GMT on Saturday, Jan. 14), but a communications failure forced JAXA flight controllers to abort the ignition of the rocket’s second stage, according to a translated JAXA mission update. The rocket and its tiny payload, a microsatellite called TRICOM-1, ultimately fell in to the sea southeast of the Uchinoura center in Japan’s Kagoshima Prefecture.

According to JAXA, the first stage of the SS-520-4 rocket performed as planned, but then flight controllers were unable to receive a signal from the booster. That apparently prompted the abort decision. [Small Rocket Launches in Pictures]

The data dropout occurred about 20 seconds into the launch and the abort occurred three minutes after liftoff, according to a Japan Times report. Sunday’s launch was delayed repeatedly from its original date of Tuesday, Jan. 10, due to weather conditions.

The 31-foot-tall (9.5 meters) SS-520-4 rocket design expanded upon a two-stage sounding rocket that was capable of lifting experiments to space for a few minutes; the addition of a third stage lets the craft reach high enough speeds to place objects into orbit, according to Spaceflight Now.

The rocket weighs 2.9 tons (2.6 metric tons), is 1.7 feet (0.52 m) in diameter and operates using solid fuel, according to a JAXA description. The cubesat, TRICOM-1, weighs in at approximately 6.6 lbs. (3 kilograms), and measures just 4.7 inches (12 centimeters) in length and width and 13.8 inches (35 cm) in height. TRICOM-1 was designed by students to photograph the Earth and run communications experiments.

While small satellites like TRICOM-1 are frequently launched into space, they are rarely launched alone; usually, many are deployed at oncefrom a rocket hefting larger satellites or cargo. The recent launch demonstrates the potential for using a low-cost, dedicated craft for tiny satellites that relies on commercial technology, Spaceflight Now said. The project’s budget was $3.5 million, and it was a one-of-a-kind demonstration toward building future “nano launcher” rockets.

The U.S. company Rocket Lab and others are also working on small, low-cost launch vehicles for tiny satellites, but those would be able to carry much larger payloads(and are correspondingly larger).

Email Sarah Lewin at slewin@space.com or follow her @SarahExplains. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

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Thursday, June 29, 2017

President Obama to NASA: Thanks for Sending My Signature to Mars [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

In 2012, the Curiosity Mars rover snapped this photograph of a plaque bearing the signatures of important U.S. officials and Mars Science Laboratory team members.

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover arrived at the Red Planet in 2012, carrying a special embellishment: a plaque with signatures from the country’s top officials, including U.S. President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.

Last night (Jan. 12), Obama responded to a NASA tweet about that plaque with a thank you, calling it “out of this world.”

That is out of this world. Thanks, @NASA. https://t.co/R8CSjAwt2E

— President Obama (@POTUS) January 12, 2017

The plaque also includes the signatures of John Holdren, Obama’s science adviser; Charles Bolden, NASA administrator; Lori Garver, former deputy administrator of NASA; and Ed Weiler, former associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate.

It also contains signatures of the Mars team leaders: Doug McCuistion, the program director; Michael Meyer, the lead scientist; and Dave Lavery, the program executive for the Mars Science Laboratory (the broader mission name for Curiosity). collectSPACE described the plaque and its signatures just after the rover’s launch in 2011.

Signed, sealed, delivered. I carried @POTUS’s signature to the surface of #Mars. https://t.co/YThE6o82e3 #NASAPast8Years pic.twitter.com/q7bE8etRAc

— Curiosity Rover (@MarsCuriosity) January 12, 2017

Similar signature plaques, with the presidential and vice-presidential signatures of the time, are also on NASA’s Spirit and Opportunity Mars rovers, officials from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory said in a statement. Curiosity photographed its plaque using its Mars Hand Lens Imager Sept. 19, 2012, on the 44th day of its Martian stay.

Obama is leaving office soon, but Curiosity is still going strong: It’s exploring near the base of the immense Mount Sharp, where it recently snapped a photo of purple rocks. Curiosity’s main mission is to study the planet’s environment and see if it could have hosted life in the ancient past; its many tools and sensors can fire neutrons at, drill and bake a variety of samples (along with taking vivid photographs).

The plaque doesn’t host the only signatures on Curiosity; the 12-year-old who named Curiosity, Clara Ma, got to add her name to the rover’s base, too.

Email Sarah Lewin at slewin@space.com or follow her @SarahExplains. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

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Space Visor VR Headset Offers Virtual Tour of Space Artifacts, Space Station [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

Former astronaut Jon McBride uses the Space Visor headset in the Space Shuttle Atlantis exhibit at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida.

Visitors to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center can now take home the retired space shuttle Atlantis, the International Space Station and the entire solar system as a souvenir — all through a new virtual reality (VR) headset and app-driven experience.

Space Visor, available from Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex gift shops and its online store, is designed to give its wearers the chance to continue their exploration of the complex and its space artifact exhibits after departing from the Florida spaceport.

“At [the] Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex we create immersive space experiences for our visitors,” said Therrin Protze, chief operating officer, in a statement. “The Space Visor is the next step to bring our guests an unparalleled experience at the height of current technology.” [Virtual Reality and Mars: 4 Ways Tech Will Change Space Exploration]

Developed by Delaware North, the company that operates the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex for NASA, and brandVR, Space Visor uses the owner’s smart phone and a trio of custom-designed apps to immerse visitors in a VR world that “brings space artifacts to life.”

The Space Visor takes users on a spacewalk outside the International Space Station, where they can explore inside and learn about the orbiting outpost’s modules, and to the surface of the moon for an Apollo lunar rover ride. Wearers can also tour parts of the visitor complex where the public cannot go in real life, including exploring inside the Gemini 9 and Apollo 14 space capsules.

Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex’s premium Space Visor VR headset with head strap.

Credit: Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex

Three apps were developed for use with the Space Visor:

“KSC 360 Expedition” encompasses a virtual tour of the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex. Users are prompted to learn about each launch vehicle in the Rocket Garden, gaze at the shuttle Atlantis as it was seen in orbit and explore the moon’s surface at the Apollo/Saturn V Center.
“Space Dreams” explores a space-themed room of a young child to learn more about the planets in our solar system, a NASA Mars rover and a spacesuit.
“Edge of Home” gives users an astronaut’s view of the International Space Station by taking part in an extravehicular activity (EVA, spacewalk) outside the outpost to learn more about each module.

All three mobile apps can be downloaded for free from the Apple App Store or Google Play.

The headset, which costs $60, can be used while at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex or elsewhere. The Space Visor is recommended for use with flagship mobile devices produced since 2015, including the Apple iPhone and Samsung Galaxy.

Preview the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex’s Space Visor apps at collectSPACE.

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http://www.space.com/35335-space-visor-nasa-virtual-reality-headset.html Space Visor VR Headset Offers Virtual Tour of Space Artifacts, Space Station

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Belly fat burning foods: Eat habanero peppers to lose weight FAST [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

Certain foods have been known to have specific effects which help you burn calories as you chew.

One of the most notorious fat burning foods is a red pepper.

But with there being hundreds of varieties on offer, Nutritionist Cassandra Barns explains why some are better at helping you beat the flab than others.

She explained: “Red peppers contain different amounts of capsaicin, which is a natural substance – colourless, odourless and flavourless.

“It produces a burning sensation in the mucous membranes giving spicy foods their heat, and it stimulates your body helping to burn calories and improve your fat oxidation.”

The highest levels a capsaicins are found in habanero peppers, according to Cassandra, which usually have a rating of around 100,000 to 300,000 Scoville heat units.

But bell peppers, which only have a rating of 0 or 1 on the Scoville scale, do not contain significant amounts of capsaicins.

“As red bell peppers have no heat, most people find these more favourable, due to their sweetness,” Cassandra added.

“They contain high levels of vitamins and are a nutritious addition to any diet.

“However, eating red bell peppers will not improve your fat burning, unlike eating other red peppers.”

But peppers aren’t the only known weight loss aid.

Nutritionist and weight loss expert Lily Soutter (lilusoutternutrition.com) suggests other foods which could help you on your slimming mission.

Quinoa

This gluten-free carbohydrate is packed full of protein. When protein is combined with a carbohydrate, it slows the rate at which sugar from that carbohydrate enters the blood stream. This is great for balancing blood sugar, reducing cravings for sugary ‘quick fixes’, and keeping us satiated. All of which are essential for weight loss.

Coconut oil

Coconut oil is made up of unique fats called medium chain triglycerides, which have been shown to boost metabolism. They are utilised by the body as an instant source of fuel in favour of being stores as fat. Two great reasons to eat more fat to lose fat. Coconut oil can be used within cooking or even topically as an anti-bacterial, anti-viral and anti-fungal agent.

Grapefruit

Grapefruit is a wonderful superfood to help shift those extra few pounds. Grapefruit has been shown to curb appetite as well as lower the output of the fat storage hormone insulin, which can result in weight loss.

Raspberries

Raspberries are extremely low in sugar, but are still super tasty. Sugar stimulates the output of our fat storage hormone insulin, therefore the low sugar content of raspberries makes them the perfect choice for weight loss.

Almonds

Almonds are often avoided due to their high calorie content, however numerous studies have shown that they can actually help us to lose weight. Those who consume a handful of almonds a day, tend to lose more weight in comparison to those who have none. Their high protein and healthy fat content are responsible for keeping us fuller for longer, leading to a lower overall calorie consumption throughout the day.

Eating peanut butter could also help you lose weight.

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Wednesday, June 28, 2017

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Alien Glow? Brilliant Light Pillars Appear Over Canada [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

Timmy Joe Elzinga captured this image of light pillars in northern Ontario on Jan. 6, 2017, at 1:30 a.m. local time.

Despite appearances, aliens have not descended upon a snowy scape in Ontario, Canada. Rather, an Earthly phenomenon is the cause of a ring of brilliant shafts of pastel-colored lights, captured in the wee hours of the morning by Timmy Joe Elzinga using his smartphone camera.

It was 1:30 a.m. local time in northern Ontario on Jan. 6 when Elzinga spotted the phenomenon.

“When I first saw these light beams shooting through the sky from my bathroom window, I was sure they were the northern lights,” Elzinga told Live Science in an email. “I was able to capture these images both because the lights were so bright and pronounced and because I’m a bit of an amateur photographer.” That experience, he said, led him to use “the manual settings on my phone to adjust the time the aperture was open to 8 seconds.”

Elzinga said he wasn’t aware of this light-pillar phenomenon until he saw it firsthand. [7 Things Most Often Mistaken for UFOs]

Light pillars like these seen in northern Ontario can lead to UFO reports.

Credit: Timmy Joe Elzinga, YouTube

Ice from high altitudes explains the pillars that Elzinga saw, NASA said. During some cold, wintry nights, flat ice crystals that normally reside higher up in the atmosphere come fluttering closer to the ground, according to NASA. These whimsically wobbling ice crystals are sometimes referred to as crystal fog. When the crystals reflect ground lights from nearby cars and other bits of civilization, the result can be glorious: columns of light called “light pillars.”

“The pillars are not physically over the lights or anywhere else in space for that matter — like all halos, they are purely the collected light beams from all the millions of crystals, which just happen to be reflecting light towards your eyes or camera,” said Les Cowley, a retired physicist and atmospheric optics expert, on his site Atmospheric Optics.

The light pillars are so strange-looking that people often mistake them for UFOs, according to EarthSky.org. “There are said to be a lot of UFO reports caused by light pillars over Niagara Falls, where the mist from the rush of descending water interacts with the city’s many upward-facing spotlights,” EarthSky reported.

[embedded content]

The beams resemble so-called sun pillars, which appear as columns of light extending from the sun due to light reflecting off ice crystals in the upper atmosphere, according to NASA.

And Elzinga saw quite a show.

To capture the northern Ontario pillars, Elzinga said he got creative.

“I also opened the window and removed the screen so I could get an unobstructed view, and I used the ridges in my bathroom window’s track as a make shift tripod so I could avoid motion blur,” he said. “I ran outside to see if I could get some more images and even went for a drive, but the light pillars seem[ed] to look best right from my area of town.”

After 45 minutes or so, the lights were too dim for Elzinga to see them, he said.

Original article on Live Science.

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No Launch for NASA’s NEOCam Worries Asteroid Hunters [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

Amid the excitement for NASA’s Discovery program announcement last week — which said that two new missions would fly by eight asteroids after launching in the 2020s — comes more difficult news for the other competitors in that proposal. Among them, an asteroid-hunting mission called NEOCam did not make the cut, although it will receive additional funding for a year.

NEOCam, also known as the Near-Earth Object Camera, was supposed to search for asteroids in infrared wavelengths, located at the L1 point, a stable gravitational region between the Earth and the sun. And the B612 Foundation, a private nonprofit organization that is focused on protecting Earth against dangerous asteroids, said it was disappointed the mission was not chosen.

“We urge the new administration to direct NASA or another involved agency to fund an asteroid-hunting infrared space telescope through an open solicitation rather than a science mission competition (e.g. Discovery), since the primary purpose would be for planetary defense and space development,” B612 wrote in the statement.

RELATED: NASA to Send Mission to Metal Asteroid That Could Be Dead Planet’s Core

NASA was directed by Congress in 2005 to find 90 percent of asteroids that are at least 140 meters (459 feet) in diameter by the year 2020. Multiple reports say the agency is behind on that search. NEOCam was designed to find two thirds of that population in the first four years after launch, according to their website.

B612 says NEOCam would be a complement to another telescope under construction, called the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope, which is expected to start operations in 2023. LSST would survey the sky over 10 years for several science applications, including looking for hazardous asteroids.

NEOCam also received the support of the National Research Council back in 2010, in its Defending Planet Earth report. The report says a space-based telescope would be an effective method to search for hazardous asteroids, and specifically mentions NEOCam as an example.

Separately, B612 is working on an asteroid-hunting telescope of its own called Sentinel. It would orbit the sun in approximately the same orbit as Venus (which is closer to the sun than Earth). The telescope would look for objects as small as 40 meters (131 feet) in size, thought to be about the same size as the impactor that flattened a Siberian forest in Tunguska in 1908. B612 is in the process of raising funds for the mission, despite some setbacks.

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NASA is already looking for asteroids through its Near-Earth Object program, which partners with several surveys in the United States to share information. NASA also has an asteroid-hunting telescopic mission called NEOWise that is expected to finish operations this year, once its orbit brings it into an area with too much sunlight to conduct surveys.

The principal investigator of NEOWise, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Amy Mainzer, is also one of the proposers for NEOCam.

WATCH VIDEO: Why Do We Want to Capture an Asteroid?

Originally published on Seeker.

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Astronauts Breeze Through Spacewalk to Boost Space Station Power Grid [bestandroiddoubledinheadunit950.blogspot.com]

NASA astronaut Shane Kimbrough catches his reflection on the International Space Station during a spacewalk on Jan. 13, 2017.

Two astronauts embarked on a spacewalk outside the International Space Station (ISS) today to complete an upgrade to the station’s power supply. The spacewalkers breezed through all their objectives in about half of the allotted time before knocking out a list of optional “get-ahead” tasks.

NASA astronaut and space station commander Shane Kimbrough set out with French astronaut Thomas Pesquet of the International Space Station this morning (Jan. 13) at 6:22 a.m. EST (1122 GMT), nearly 40 minutes ahead of schedule. The spacewalk was slated to last about 6.5 hours, but as the team breezed through their primary tasks, they constantly progressed farther ahead of schedule, finishing their objectives in just 3.5 hours. [Spacewalk Photos: International Space Station Gets a Power Upgrade]

From the speed and efficiency of his work today, it was hard to tell that this was Pesquet’s first spacewalk. Kimbrough, who performed another spacewalk last Friday with NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson last week, completed the fourth spacewalk of his career today.

Today’s mission was the second and final spacewalk for the space station’s power upgrade process, which began with robotic work in December. In both spacewalks, astronauts worked to replace nine old nickel-hydrogen batteries with six new lithium-ion batteries. Before the spacewalks, a Canadian robotic arm called “Dextre” relocated the new batteries from the HTV-6 cargo spacecraft that arrived in December and placed them into their slots in the Integrated Electronics Assembly (IEA), where the astronauts could then connect them to the power grid. The robotic work saved the spacewalkers the work of lugging all of the batteries around themselves, which means less time spent on the spacewalks.

The spacewalkers were tasked with installing the new batteries by wiring up electrical connections with special adapter plates. Last week, Kimbrough and Whitson installed three of the six adapter plates and hooked up electrical connections for three of the six batteries. Today Kimbrough and Pesquet completed the installation of the last three batteries and adapter plates.

Dextre will now complete the whole power upgrade process by moving nine of the old nickel-hydrogen batteries onto the HTV-6 cargo craft for storage. When HTV-6 departs the ISS, it will burn up in Earth’s atmosphere along with the old batteries. Three of the old batteries will remain stowed at the IEA. Dan Hut, a NASA public affairs officer and NASA TV commentator for today’s spacewalk, called the process “a real choreography between robotics and humans.”

With the new power upgrade, the lithium-ion batteries will perform more efficiently than the old batteries and can hold more charge. The space station’s solar panels charge the batteries, and the astronauts depend on that battery power to maintain power when the ISS passes around the nighttime side of the globe, where sunlight doesn’t reach the solar panels.

Doing a #spacewalk is not a simple case of putting on the suit and popping outside! @astro_kimbrough and I preparing back in December #TBT pic.twitter.com/uxHHVwAQY4

— Thomas Pesquet (@Thom_astro) January 12, 2017

With three hours to spare after completing the installation of the batteries and adapter plates, Kimbrough and Pesquet had plenty of time to knock out some optional “get-ahead” tasks to help prepare for future operations aboard the ISS. Spacewalks are “fairly labor intensive, so it’s very important to pack in as many activities in as short a time as possible,” Huot said. Working with remarkable speed, Kimbrough and Pesquet managed to knock out the entire list of these optional tasks with time left to spare.

The duo made a pit stop at the Quest airlock from which they emerged this morning to drop off some tools and pick up padded shields, which they then carried to the Node 3 or “Tranquility” module. Located at this module are six berthing locations where visiting spacecraft can dock to the ISS. The shields will protect one of Tranquility’s pressurized mating adapters from potentially hazardous collisions with space debris.

Kimbrough and Pesquet separated to perform two other get-ahead tasks. Pesquet visited a part of the ISS known as the “rat’s nest” to take photos of a jumble of cables for flight planners on the ground, who will use the photos to plan for future spacewalks. Meanwhile, Kimbrough headed to the U.S. Destiny Laboratory to remove two unnecessary handrails, making room for two communication antennas that will be installed in future spacewalks.

After completing “a litany of get-ahead tasks taking them all over the station,” as Huot put it, Pesquet led the way back to the Quest airlock, where Whitson and Russian cosmonaut Oleg Navitskiy helped them back inside the station and out of their spacesuits. The spacewalk ended at 12:20 p.m. EST (1720 GMT) after five hours and 58 minutes.

Kimbrough has now racked up a total of 25 hours and 22 minutes of spacewalk time in his career. Pesquet, a rookie astronaut at the ISS, now holds five hours and 58 minutes of total spacewalk time. It may have been his first spacewalk, but he made it look like a piece of cake!

Email Hanneke Weitering at hweitering@space.com or follow her @hannekescience. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.

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