ISS Storage Room, a Video, and Hair

"Space Station Gets a Zero Gravity Storage Room"
Denise Chow, Space.com (March 1, 2011 )

"The astronaut crew of space shuttle Discovery made a special delivery at the International Space Station today (March 1) by installing a new, and much-needed, extra storage room on the orbiting lab.

"The astronauts used a robotic arm to attach the zero gravity closet, called the Permanent Multipurpose Module, to the bottom of the space station on an Earth-facing port of NASA's Unity node. The module's installation also marked another historic moment for the mission – it is the last NASA room to be attached to the multinational laboratory.

"The module was successfully attached to the station at 10:05 a.m. EST (1505 GMT).

" 'Leonardo is looking very happy to be in his or her new home,' station astronaut Cady Coleman said...."

"...The Leonardo module was one of three cargo-carrying Multipurpose Logistics Modules built for NASA by the Italian Space Agency. It's about the size of a small bus and weighs about 28,353 pounds (12,860 kilograms) when loaded with cargo.

"Leonardo was delivered to NASA in 1998 and made its first spaceflight in 2001. This mission is its eighth and last trip to space. [Infographic: A New Closet for the Space Station]

"By coincidence, flight controllers here at the station's Mission Control here at NASA's Johnson Space Center radioed the crew with a timely announcement: The space outpost was flying over Turin, Italy as the Italian-built module was bolted into place...."

The psychological and cultural implications of that phrase, "Leonardo is looking very happy to be in his or her new home," deserve a little attention. There's anthropomorphism: assigning human traits to something that's not human. Then there's the careful "his or her" phrase: the Lemming remembers when folks in America had to start being crazy-careful about personal pronouns. Looks like we're still in that sociopolitical bog.

On the other hand, this video shows how much things have changed since the '50s. Which the Lemming doesn't miss, by the way. On the other hand, homo sapiens sapiens hasn't changed all that much in the last 50 years. Or 500, or 5,000 for that matter. Which is another topic.

One of the Lemming's daughters, seeing the video, remarked on the futility of all that money spent on hair conditioners: when someone's hair gets world-class body just by living on the ISS. Which is yet another topic.

The PMM - the Lemming thinks "closet" is a pretty good term, too - is another example of the modular design. It's a smart approach, in the Lemming's opinion, since a 'modular' ISS could be used as soon as a habitat, power source, and docking points were in place. Or is it in orbit?

Which brings up the matter of how new things like the ISS, Web, and iPod are named - which is yet again another topic.


Source SPACE.com: All about our solar system, outer space and exploration

Related posts:

• "Four Ships Docked at the ISS"
  (February 28, 2011)
• "International Space Station: Not Many Amenities, But What a View!"
  (January 26, 2011)
• "Looking Down on the Auroras"
  (June 21, 2010)
• "Postcards From the Frontier"
  (April 3, 2010)
• "ISS Space Station Walkthrough, Looking Ahead"
  (October 28, 2009)

Related NASA video:

• "Waking up, working, and going to sleep in Zero G"
  NASAtelevision, YouTube (January 18, 2011)
  video, 17:10
  • Expedition 26 NASA Flight Engineer Cady Coleman discusses what daily life is like aboard an orbiting space laboratory on CBS' news program "The Talk" on January 18, 2011.

More:

• "Humanity in Space: The Next Few Decades"

Leaning Tower of Pisa: Nothing to do With Pizza

"Leaning Tower of Pisa's Kaleidoscope Effect to Be Restored"
Rossella Lorenzi, Analysis, History News, Discovery News (January 14, 2011)

"The Leaning Tower of Pisa is about to add a new effect to its oddball geometry, according to restorers working on Italy's most iconic monument.

"Restoration work on the seventh tier of the tower, just below the bell chamber at a height of about 164 feet, has returned a unique optical effect which was conceived at the tower's construction.

"At this tier, a series of decorative arches allow sunlight to stream into the tower in intricate patterns, producing a kaleidoscope-like effect on the tower's white marble.

" 'For decades they have remained closed because of several wooden doors. They were installed to prevent pigeons intruding inside,' Gisella Capponi, director of the Institute for Conservation and Restoration at the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, told the daily Corriere della Sera.

"The complete view upwards of the interior was also obstructed by a floor on the first tier. It was built in 1935 to house bulky instruments to monitor the tower's tilt...."

Pisa's famous landmark started tilting while it was being built, around 1200. The tower's belfry was the last part to be finished, in 1360. (BBC) Then, during the 20th century, technology - and a growing concern that one of Pisa's prime attractions would fall over - let the lean be fixed. A little.

The 'leaning tower of Pisa' is a lot cooler than a plain 'tower of Pisa' would be, so a little lean was left.

The tower's restoration got a built-in lighting effect in working order again, too.

"...Basically an empty cylinder covered by a great vault, the tower's interior will boast unique light effects.

"They will be particularly striking at dusk or dawn, when the marble inside the tower turns pink because of the sun's rays filtering through the arcades.

"Much whiter -- the restorers have removed centuries of grime and dust from the tower's marbles -- the tower is also very stable.

"The monument shows no signs of tilting any further, and its condition is now 'excellent,' Francesco Karrer, Italy's public works chief, told the news agency ANSA.

"The tower was saved from tumbling after a decade-long engineering feat in the 1990s.

"The lean was fixed with the simplest and most intuitive solution: by sinking the high side...."

The Lemming suspects that, 'simple' as the fix may have been - it involved a very great deal of care, too. Tilting a tower that size isn't quite like wedging a shim under a chair.

More:

• "The Leaning Tower of Pisa"
  BBC (December 16, 2001)
• "Opera della Primaziale Pisana"
  (English version) Includes a page on Piazza dei Miracoli (The Miracle Square)
  • "Miracles' square"
    • "Leaning Tower"

Switzerland-Italy Gotthard Rail Tunnel: Trucks, Trains and Trees

"Swiss complete world's longest tunnel"
UPI (October 15, 2010)

"Workers completed drilling Switzerland's 35-mile-long Gotthard rail tunnel -- the world's longest tunnel -- breaking through rock Friday under the Swiss Alps.

"Crews cheered as a 10-meter (33-foot) drillhead ripped through at 2:15 local time, the BBC reported. The landmark event was broadcast live on Swiss television.

"The tunnel, which has been under construction for 14 years, is not expected to open for service until at least the end of 2016. Trains are expected to rush through it at speeds of up to 155 mph and travel times between Zurich, Switzerland, and Milan, Italy, will be slashed by as much as an hour and a half...."

Saving the Alpine Trees?

Freight traffic overland between Switzerland and Italy runs to about 3,000 heavy vehicles a day. Some news services pointed out how bad this was for "the environment." Quite aside from exhaust fumes, the Lemming figures that many a tree has been cruelly crushed when a truck slid off the mountain roads.

My guess is that all that truck traffic was a little hard on the roads, too - and none to calming for the drivers during winter. Mountain roads and all that.

On the other hand, with high-speed underground train traffic picking up the cargo traffic: those drivers may be looking for new jobs soon.

Good for Trees, Good for People: In the Long Run

The Lemming could declaim about heartless technocrats dooming families of the helpless truck drivers to starvation or something: but why bother?

First, diverting traffic through that tunnel makes sense on several counts: safety; efficiency; and, of course, 'the environment.'

Second, it's there, and I don't see Switzerland and/or Italy plugging the thing up. Not after 14 years spent building the thing.

Of course, the Lemming could demand (there's a picture: some guy in Minnesota making demands of two European nations) that the oppressed truck drivers be given jobs, sitting in the new trains.

Sort of like railroad firemen rode on diesel locomotives for a while, here in America. They were there to shovel coal that wasn't there into boilers that diesel-electric locomotives don't have.

And that's another topic.

Seriously? The Gotthard rail tunnel is a big deal

• A little longer than the Chunnel
• Tunneled under mountains
  • Where some geologist experts said it couldn't be done
• Provides freight service between Switzerland and Italy that's
  • Faster
  • Safer
    • Probably
  • 'Better for the environment'

As for the people who drive trucks over the mountains? Finding new lines of work can be - challenging. But maybe they'll find jobs that are better than wrangling trucks over icy, steep mountain roads.

Postcards from Europe: Isle of Skye; Venice, More

"The most beautiful destinations in Europe"
opentravel.com / Travel Blog Magazine (July 31, 2009)

"This is a very tight and subjective selection of the most beautiful places in Europe. Some will agree, others may find different locations more worthy of honors, but without dispute, these places deserve to be called the beauties of our Mother Nature. Besides, you can drop me a note of your favorites anytime...."

Keep scrolling down, past the advertisements. This post has some pretty good photos. It also lists the Isle of Skye. Scotland, Sicily (shown in the thumbnail) and Italy, the Swiss Alps and Switzerland, Venice, and Iceland as "The most beautiful destinations in Europe".

The writer, "chili," obviously doesn't mind places that don't look much like downtown Hong Kong or Times Square in New York City. I think the places look fine, but as the post indicates, individual tastes will differ.

There are 20 photos - pretty good quality - showing the places at (I suspect) their best.

The Isle of Skye, in some of those pictures, looks a bit like western North Dakota - but that's another topic.

Pre-Roman Burial Found in Italy

"Italy finds 4,500-year old skeleton of warrior"
Reuters India (August 1, 2009)

"A roughly 4,500 year-old skeleton of a man, probably a warrior killed by an arrow to the chest, has been discovered on a beach south of Rome, Italian police said.

"The well-preserved skeleton, dubbed 'Nello,' was found during a routine flyover around areas of archaeological interest in May that prompted police to probe a fissure in the ground...."

The article gives a brief overview of the archeological find.

Italian officials thought 'Nello' might be a Roman, until they found out how old he was. There wouldn't be a Roman Republic for about two thousand years when he died.

Like the fellow wrote, "Very deep is the well of the past. Should we not call it bottomless?..." (Prelude of "Joseph and His Brothers," Thomas Mann, 1934, H. T. Lowe-Porter translation)

A Swim-Up Bar With the Ultimate Rude Waiters

"The worst swim-up bar EVER!"
Oddly Enough, Reuters, (July 24, 2009)

"Blog Guy, I normally love tropical swim-up bars. There’s nothing like paddling over for a refreshing cocktail.

"But this week I'm staying at an Italian seaside resort, and I can't figure out their system. The drinks were already made, but they pulled them away when I tried to grab one. Not only that, they used these long poles to beat me senseless...."

I'm always a bit dubious about 'the best' claims. You know, like "the world's best fried pork rinds" or "the best lutefisk anywhere" or "the best scrod recipes."

In this case, however, the author may have a point. The photo is for real, as far as I can tell - and the place is a sort of swim-up bar; sort of. You'll have to read the rest of today's Oddly Enough to lean the details.

Hordes of Italian Robots on the Moon: It Could Happen

"Italy Aims to Send Spider-Bot Swarm to Moon"
Space.com (May 13, 2009)

"Nearly 40 years after Americans first set foot on the moon on July 20, 1969 with NASA's historic Apollo 11 flight, a host of private rocketeers are hoping to follow to win a $30 million prize. Here, SPACE.com looks at Team Italia, one of 17 teams competing in the Google Lunar X Prize:

"What began as a glimmer in the mind's eye for one robotics researcher has grown into a national endeavor for Team Italia, one of 17 groups competing for the Google Lunar X Prize.

" 'Team Italia has evolved,' said Piero Messina, president of the Naples-based International Association for the Aerospace Culture (AICA) that is coordinating Team Italia. Messina helped pull together all the major Italian aerospace and engineering universities, as well as the two largest Italian aerospace companies, to support the race to land a robot on the moon by 2012...."

"...Rovetta's designs for lunar robots resemble skittering spiders or crabs that could deploy as a swarm of mobile cameras and sensors on both legs and wheels...."

There's a sequence of frames from a videotape of one of the prototype robots, showing how it scuttles.

One of the things I find promising about this is that the Italian team's planning to use mostly off-the-shelf technology. There's a lot still to develop, when it comes to robots: but we're at a point where it seems that much of the basic work has been done.

And - it's about time that someone get back to the moon, and start what the Apollo program started.