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from the is-dark-matter-like-dark-energon dept.
The Conversation has a story about five key findings from 15 years of the International Space Station:
1. The fragility of the human body — there is considerable loss of strength and bone mass without intervention. Mitigating this is key to making it possible to have manned trips to mars.
2. Interplanetary contamination — spores of Bacillus subtilis were exposed to space upon the ISS (but shielded from solar UV radiation). "The space vacuum and temperature extremes alone were not enough to kill them off."
3. Growing crystals for medicine — "Crystals in a microgravity environment may be grown to much larger sizes than on Earth, enabling easier analysis of their micro-structure. Protein crystals grown on the ISS are being used in the development of new drugs for diseases such as muscular dystrophy and cancer."
4. Cosmic rays and dark matter — early results from the Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer (AMS) support the theory that a halo of dark matter surrounds the Milky Way.
5. Efficient combustion — flames burn more efficiently in space with much less soot produced. Understanding this may lead to more efficient combustion in vehicles.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 01 2016, @04:56PM
1. This was well known from Skylab and Mir.
2. Apart from the specific strain, this was well known from Skylab and Mir and is the reason that interplanetary probe landers are "sterilized" before launch.
3. Complete bullshit [soylentnews.org].
4. The entire reason this experiment was put on in the first place was that Dan Goldin sold the ISS as a world-class science platform, then it was pointed out in many forums, including testimonies to Congress, that the ISS is not a worthwhile platform as a science lab (the science justification was rejected by over 80 scientific societies), he found that he needed a flagship science project to put on it [nature.com]. Hence, the ISS needs to be built because we have the AMS (and the AMS needs to be built because we will have this ISS in space). As for whether these preliminary results add any new knowledge, I haven't looked into it yet, but my gut would say "no" in keeping with the ISS track record of scientific results.
5. Nothing new here that wasn't known from combustion experiments on Skylab and Mir.
On its merits as a science platform, the ISS is indefensible. And it is infuriating to see NASA roll this same bullshit out over and over to the point that when you repeatably and consistently tout the same hyperbole, and you know it is hyperbole, you are basically lying by intent.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 01 2016, @05:11PM
but but ... the alzaseltzer tablet in falling spheroid of di-hydrogen-oxid movie was AMAZING!
srsly tho ... we're do you actually GO to SEE the scientific output of ISS? like do they have a document server like CERN?
it is all good and well to imprint the "blue marble - tiny rock" insight onto some (lucky) brains (of astronauts) but unless
they place these guys and gals onto some mecca equivalent place where they can preach the message to the masses,
then the message will not reach enough people and will most certainly peter-out in a few years or so ...
it'd like to see some mini-subs in spheroids of water trying to slowly propel themselves out of the water (sphere) and see what happens (can they actually "drive out" of the sphere or will the surface tension cling to them?)
how does pumping liquids from one container to another in free fall work? might be important to understand if refueling a zer0-gravity tug moving/operating between earth and moon or earth and mars or those special french-sounding named points works?
can living beings inside a drum falling in circular orbit violate newtons law? can they "row" the drum/ship to a higher orbit by "throw" a massive object (2 ton rod) back and forward in the right ..errr... beat inside the drum?
can we get a wifi AP on the ISS that we can point our wifi antennas at? just because ^_^ (password:iss)