The icelefant Daily |Edition of Wednesday, Mar. 23, 2011

====================== The icelefant Daily |The spacefuture Daily |The astronomy Daily ============================ OTHER HEADLINES OF INTEREST TODAY

APOD: 2011 March 22 - NGC 6384: Spiral Beyond the Stars Published on SpaceTwits.com Published on The Redundant Daily Redundant  APOD: 2011 March 23 - MWC 922: The Red Square Nebula

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Apollo 11 |Mond

NASA Introducing "Moonbase Alpha", a 3-D Game Set on the Moon

NASA Introducing "Moonbase Alpha", a 3-D Game Set on the Moon:

A meteor strikes, damaging solar arrays and life support systems, and as you watch the billowing dust cloud move ominously toward your lunar camp, you have to restore critical systems and oxygen flow. Starting July 6, a new NASA video game will let you save the day, in 3-D.  Moonbase Alpha

Gamers will have to get used to running with a moon-bounce loping gait while wearing a bulky moon suit -- atypical for first-person video game missions. You can play alone or with a team.

The game includes VOIP chat, text chat, and pretty cool 3-D graphics. It's only supposed to take about 20 minutes.NASA's Learning Technologies division built the game to prove the space agency can make cool video games that will inspire kids. Ultimately, the game could be used in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) education programs. And if Congress decides to end NASA's moon-return program, this might be the only way to have a lunar adventure.

Moon 2020 |JAXA

Japan Shoots for Robotic Moon Base by 2020

Concept drawing of a robotic lunar base. Credit: JAXA

These ARE the droids we've been looking for. The Japanese space agency, JAXA, has plans to build a base on the Moon by 2020. Not for humans, but for robots, and built by robots, too. A panel authorized by Japan's prime minister has drawn up preliminary plans of how humanoid and rover robots will begin surveying the moon by 2015, and then begin construction of a base near the south pole of the moon. The robots and the base will run on solar power, with total costs about $2.2 billion USD, according to the panel chaired by Waseda University President Katsuhiko Shirai...
Read the rest of Japan Shoots for Robotic Moon Base by 2020

quelle: NODE

Erdbeeren |Moonbeeren

www.wissenschaft-online.de Erdbeeren ließen sich auch im All anbauen Eine genügsame Erdbeersorte könnte auch im Weltraum gedeihen und Astronauten auf langen Missionen als Nahrung dienen, schlagen Forscher der Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana, vor. Jedenfalls würden die Pflanzen mehreren NASA-Kriterien für solche Einsätze genügen. Gioia Massa und ihre Kollegen testeten mehrere Erdbeersorten und stießen dabei auf die Sorte Seascape, die vergleichsweise wenig Pflege und Energie benötigt. Die Pflanzen liefern für etwa sechs Monate nach ihrer Blüte kontinuierlich einen ähnlichen Ertrag, egal ob sie 10 oder 20 Stunden Tageslicht ausgesetzt waren, berichten die Forscher. Zwar trugen die Erdbeeren durch die scheinbar verkürzten Tage weniger Früchte, aber dafür waren die Beeren in diesem Fall größer.