H-II-A Flight 12

Going Strong



It's been a year since I was over in Japan to watch Flight 9 take off into the dark clouds. Roughly a year on, JAXA have launched Flight 12 successfully after some delays.

宇宙航空研究開発機構は２４日午後１時４０分すぎ、政府の情報収集衛星レーダー２号機と、光学３号機の実証機を載せたＨ２Ａロケット１２号機を、種子島宇宙センター（鹿児島県南種子町）から打ち上げた。ロケットは衛星２基を予定の軌道に放出し、打ち上げは成功した。

　情報収集衛星は光学とレーダーの２基１組で、既に光学１、２号機とレーダー１号機が打ち上げられている。内閣衛星情報センターによると、レーダー２号機が予定通り運用されれば、政府が目指す全４基の体制が整い、地球上のあらゆる地点を１日１回撮影できるという。

　現在の光学１、２号機は、地上の約１メートルのものを見分ける能力があるとされる。光学３号機では能力を５０センチ程度に上げることを目指しており、実証機で機器の性能確認などをする。

　当初１５日に打ち上げ予定だったが、落雷の恐れなどで３度延期されていた。

　開発費はレーダー２号機が約３００億円、実証機が約１１５億円。

The rocket was launched at 1:40pm local time. It was carrying a double-payload of optical satellites no. 2 & 3. Both satellites got into orbit safely.
The development of the satellite is estimated at AUD$300Million, an No.3 itslf cost AUD$115Million.
And so it goes!

Violent Chimps

Chimp Watch

I know lateley I've been slack and if anything, tend to gravitate ot chimp stories than space, but this is quite extraordinary.

Chimpanzees in Senegal have been observed making and using wooden spears to hunt other primates, according to a study in the journal Current Biology.
Researchers documented 22 cases of chimps fashioning tools to jab at smaller primates sheltering in cavities of hollow branches or tree trunks.

The report's authors, Jill Pruetz and Paco Bertolani, said the finding could have implications for human evolution.

Chimps had not been previously observed hunting other animals with tools.

Pruetz and Bertolani made the discovery at their research site in Fongoli, Senegal, between March 2005 and July 2006.

"There were hints that this behavior might occur, but it was one time at a different site," said Jill Pruetz, assistant professor of anthropology at Iowa State University, US.

"While in Senegal for the spring semester, I saw about 13 different hunting bouts. So it really is habitual."

Chimpanzees were observed jabbing the spears into hollow trunks or branches, over and over again. After the chimp removed the tool, it would frequently smell or lick it.

In the vast majority of cases, the chimps used the tools in the manner of a spear, not as probes. The researchers say they were using enough force to injure an animal that may have been hiding inside.

So much for the notion that humans are the only apes to use tools as weapons.

Hammer Of The Chimps

New Chimp Finds

It turns out that chimps might have learned tool use at least 4200 years, putting paid to the theory that only humans use tools. Here's the Article:

The research pushes back chimpanzee tool use thousands of years. It casts into doubt the long-standing theory that direct human ancestors were the only animals to independently develop tools—and that chimps learned to use stone tools by watching humans.

Instead both humans and chimps could have inherited the ability to crack nuts with rocks from a common ancestor, Julio Mercader of the University of Calgary in Canada and co-authors report in today's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Or chimps may have developed the behavior on their own. In either case, it's no longer likely that chimps learned to use stones as tools only by imitating humans.

At 4,300 years old, the chimps' tools correspond to the late Stone Age of human history—before the advent of agriculture in West Africa.

"Until recently people used to say that among modern-day chimpanzees the behavior came from imitation of farmers," Mercader said. "That assumption is no longer valid. What we present predates the presence of farming."

Of course some animals do use tools. For instance Sea Otters use a flat rock to break open sea shells. Doesn't make them exactly 'sapient', though. :)

Space Sickness

Look Back And Ponder

The jokes about Capt. Nowak aside, the incident has brought about a hightenned interest in the psychological screening of astronauts. Space Sickness is the stuff of fiction; except there's always the spectre of cabin fever. After all, one could argue, not so much "how this came to pass", but more "why doesn't it happen more often?"
They are highly stresses professionals under immense scrutiny. It's amazing they don't sort of crack up more often.

The recent meltdown of captain Nowak has brought about this article, which I think is interesting.

The bizarre case of Lisa Marie Nowak, a Naval officer and NASA astronaut who was arrested on Monday and formally charged yesterday with attempted kidnapping and murder, continues to animate online discussions (including in our own forums). Much of the chatter centers on NASA’s psychological screening process, as well as the degree to which Ms. Nowak’s conduct falls under the jurisdiction of civilian authorities, Naval rules and NASA regulations.

At least a few people associated with the nation’s space program have emerged in news reports suggesting that psychological testing for astronauts is not quite up to snuff. The Associated Press quotes retired astronaut Jerry Linenger, for example, who suggested that NASA needed to review its psychological screening process:

With NASA talking about a 2 1/2-year trip to Mars, it would be dangerous for someone to “snap like this” during the mission, he said.

“An astronaut is probably the most studied human being by the time you go through your testing, your training,” Linenger said. “I think there’s still a lot of unknowns out there.”

No screening, of course, is foolproof. Writing more than a decade ago in New Scientist magazine, Ian Mundell noted the problems that Soviet cosmonauts have encountered during long term space flight. He includes a telling quote from Cosmonaut Valery Ryumin:

Cosmonaut Valery Ryumin wrote in his personal diary in 1980, “All the necessary conditions to perpetrate a murder are met by locking two men in a cabin of 18 by 20 feet … for two months.” As far as the Western world knows Soviet space missions never went that far, despite missions lasting more than a year in the 90 cubic meters of the Mir orbital station. And even that space became increasingly constricted because used equipment was stored inside, rather than ejected.

NASA itself, in exploring the risks associated with an extremely long manned flight to Mars, should it ever be undertaken, has noted on occasion that psychological and psychosocial issues crop up periodically — perhaps inevitably — among astronauts:

The bits in italics are quotes within quotes. You get the idea that spending time in a tin-can isn't exactly like relaxing in the lounge-like atmosphere of a Star Trek spaceship bridge or even the main section of the Millennium Falcon. People are going to get a form of cabin fever up there.