NASA denies snubbing Russia's Moon offer

Have you heard about this? You know, I can just imagine bonehead upper management at NASA doing this.... this is so typical of the bureaucracy that is rampant at NASA! (pac)

NASA denies that it has received any proposal from Russia to conduct joint Moon activities, despite media reports to the contrary. Still, some experts say the US agency is pursuing an increasingly isolationist stance and could be left behind as other nations forge new partnerships to explore space.

On Sunday, the Interfax news agency reported that Anatoly Perminov, head of the Russian space agency Roskosmos, said that Russia had proposed pooling resources to explore the Moon. "We were ready to cooperate, but for unknown reasons, the United States have said they will undertake this programme themselves," he said.

But NASA spokesperson Michael Braukus, speaking from the agency's headquarters in Washington, DC, said that NASA has not received such an offer from Russia. "Nothing was offered and nothing was declined," he told New Scientist. "We have not received a Moon cooperation offer from Roskomos."

Submitted by Shaun A. Saunders

NASA starts competition for better space suit glove

Six teams are getting ready to compete in the first ever Astronaut Glove Challenge, one of NASA's Centennial Challenges. The goal of the $250,000 competition, which will be held on 2 and 3 May, is to spur innovation to design more flexible spacesuit gloves. Gloves are possibly the most important part of the spacesuit from an astronaut's perspective. In addition to cranking levers and handling power drills, astronauts use their hands – rather than their feet – as their primary mode of "walking" around the International Space Station. Current gloves use two inner layers – a rubbery balloon-like layer surrounded by cloth to help keep the glove's shape – and an outer shield that protects against micrometeoroids and orbital debris and insulates the hands against the extreme temperatures of space. The gloves are pressurised, making it difficult for the astronauts to move their fingers. The labour-intensive spacewalks often leave astronauts' hands bruised and pinched and their fingernails bent backwards. So NASA has gone outside the usual big aerospace companies. Up for grabs is $250,000 in prize money. Each competitor's glove will be graded on how it withstands pressure, how flexible it is and most of all, how comfortable the glove is while doing work. The team with the glove that scores highest in the three tests and also beats the existing spacesuit glove will take home the $200,000 prize.

submitted by Shaun A. Saunders

Could black holes be portals to other universes?

The objects scientists think are black holes could instead be wormholes leading to other universes, a new study says. If so, it would help resolve a quantum conundrum known as the black hole information paradox. A black hole is an object with such a powerful gravitational field that nothing, not even light, can escape it if it strays within a boundary known as the event horizon. But physicists in France, and in Germany now say that these objects could be structures called wormholes instead. Wormholes are warps in the fabric of space-time that connect one place to another. If you imagine the universe as a two-dimensional sheet, you can picture a wormhole as a "throat" connecting our sheet to another one. Physicists studying what such a wormhole might look like, and were surprised to discover that it would mimic a black hole so well that it would be virtually impossible to tell the difference. Matter would swirl around a wormhole in the same way as for a black hole, since both objects distort the space around them in the same way.

submitted by Shaun A. Saunders

Summer Sci-fi Channel offerings

For those of you out there that are not interested in wrestling on the Sci-fi channel and - horrors- prefer science fiction! Oh come now... embrace your scienceficioness.... rejoice in your need for science fiction on the sci-fi channel! Better? Good.

Now, from the folks at SWf...ummmm SF Signals reports that the Sci-Fi channel have announced the U.S. start dates for series starting or retuning this summer. Here is what we can expect!!!

Flash Gordon premieres Aug. 10.

Destination Truth debuts June 6 at 10 p.m. ET/PT.

The as-yet-untitled Derren Brown Project premieres July 25 at 10 p.m. The series stars British mentalist Derren Brown. (OMG, they aren't going to do this crap again are they? Well, maybe it IS a step up from wrestling.... and they canceled SG-1.....for what....mental wrestling....just shoot me now please)

Among returning series, Ghost Hunters comes back June 6 at 9 p.m., Doctor Who July 6 at 9 p.m., Eureka on July 10 and Who Wants to Be a Superhero? July 25 at 9 p.m. (somebody please hide Stan's crack pipe? Pleaaaase? Another season of people in bad fitting spandex not taking their meds?!!!! ... OK...maybe it off-sets wrestling....but I swear....I can't be the only one who wants to open a vein when I hear these shows coming back)

Stephen Hawking goes Zero G

Wow, Courtney scooped me on this one! Thanks for the tip!

Astrophysicist Stephen Hawking on Thursday fulfilled a dream of floating weightless in zero-gravity. A modified jet carrying Hawking, a handful of his physicians and nurses, and dozens of others flew up to 32,000 feet and made a parabolic dive back to 24,000 feet, allowing Hawking and the other passengers to experience weightlessness for about 25 seconds. Hawking, a mathematics professor at the University of Cambridge who has done groundbreaking work on black holes and the origins of the universe, has the paralyzing disease ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. "As you can imagine, I'm very excited," Hawking told reporters before the flight. "I have been wheelchair bound for almost four decades. The chance to float free in zero-g will be wonderful." The 65-year-old was the first person with a disability to experience the flight by Zero Gravity Corp. "I want to demonstrate to the public that anybody can participate in this type of weightless experience," Hawking said Thursday.