Universe http://www.akgmag.com/ Thu, 09 Feb 2012 18:00:03 -0600 By Nancy L. Young-Houser. At a fee of $980 dollars a year, one can join the Spaceflight Club at Space Adventures where this fee can be set aside as credit toward the price of a future spaceflight. And at $100m per seat to go to the moon, apparently the recession has not hit the type of clientele that Space Adventures is dealing with. And news has it that a seat to the ISS may be open for this upcoming September--which was supposed to be occupied by a Kazakh cosmonaut. Hmmmm.... http://www.akgmag.com/article/Space_Adventure_s_Space_Frontier_.htm Sat, 04 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.akgmag.com/article/Space_Adventure_s_Space_Frontier_.htm By Nancy L. Young-Houser. With space tourism getting ready to get into gear by 2010, tickets have been selling for $200,000 each, through agencies such as Virgin Galactic's SpaceShip Two, as compared to the previous $20 million dollar rides offered by Space Adventures to view the International Space Station http://www.akgmag.com/article/Price_Cuts_on_Space_Travel.htm Sat, 04 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.akgmag.com/article/Price_Cuts_on_Space_Travel.htm By Nancy L. Young-Houser. In 2007, the International Astronautical Federation (IAF)discussed the issue of space tourism, while this coming October 9-16, 2009, its 60th Congress in Daejeon, Republic of Korea is being organized by the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) and Daejeon Metropolitan City. http://www.akgmag.com/article/The_International_Astronautical_Federation__or_IAF.htm Fri, 03 Apr 2009 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.akgmag.com/article/The_International_Astronautical_Federation__or_IAF.htm By Nancy L. Young-Houser. We all know that washing our hands prevents germs from spreading and is the number one preventive in the health care field for disease prevention. A simple habit, only soap and water or an alcohol-based sanitizer that does not require water is used, which makes the practice excellent while in space. With infectious diseases spreading through hand-to-hand contact, NASA has... http://www.akgmag.com/article/NASA_s_Planetary_Protection_Concept.htm Fri, 20 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.akgmag.com/article/NASA_s_Planetary_Protection_Concept.htm By Nancy L. Young-Houser. At the time of this writing the Kepler spacecraft is ten days into its six-year mission, about 250,000 miles away from Earth. Moving at a rapid speed of 10 million miles a year, the NASA spacecraft is carrying one of NASA's largest cameras that has ever been beyond the orbit of Earth, capable of finding Earth-like sized planets located in a habitable zone. http://www.akgmag.com/article/The_Keppler_Spacecraft_NASA_s_Search_for_Earth_Sized_Planets.htm Mon, 16 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.akgmag.com/article/The_Keppler_Spacecraft_NASA_s_Search_for_Earth_Sized_Planets.htm By Nancy L. Young-Houser. When a big name like CNN bringing forth an article about the 13 billion-year-old Milky Way possibly being home to thousands of intelligent civilizations, a little more weight is garnered for believers in life on other planets—especially Earth-like planets with some form of water. http://www.akgmag.com/article/Analysis__Milky_Way_May_be_Home_to_Thousands_of_Intelligent_Civilizations.htm Mon, 16 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.akgmag.com/article/Analysis__Milky_Way_May_be_Home_to_Thousands_of_Intelligent_Civilizations.htm By Nancy L. Young-Houser. After five delays, the NASA space shuttle Discovery STS-119 has finally taken off toward the International Space Station in order to fit it with a final pair of power-generating solar wings. With the recent delay involving leaking hydrogen gas which delayed last Wednesday's launch attempt, prior delays involved hydrogen gas valves inside the space shuttle's engine compartment. http://www.akgmag.com/article/Successful_Liftoff_for_Space_Shuttle_Discovery.htm Mon, 16 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.akgmag.com/article/Successful_Liftoff_for_Space_Shuttle_Discovery.htm By Nancy L. Young-Houser. With space debris forming a wide-spreading mass of wreckage orbiting Earth, it should come to no surprise that astronauts were forced to flee from their International Space Station onboard a Russian escape spaceship today, due to a high-speed upcoming motor traveling in space known as "space junk" or "space debris". With the crew safely back inside after a 10-minute evacuation, maybe we should look at the fact that space debris and junk are . . . http://www.akgmag.com/article/The_Dangers_of_Space_Debris_and_Garbage.htm Thu, 12 Mar 2009 00:00:00 -0500 http://www.akgmag.com/article/The_Dangers_of_Space_Debris_and_Garbage.htm By Nancy L. Young-Houser. NASA has announced this is the year of the International Year of Astronomy, when Galileo used his telescope in 1609 to observe the heavens for the very first time. With over 400 years of universe exploration and to celebrate Galileo's birthday on February 15, images are being released from the Hubble Space Telescope, the Chandra X-ray Observatory, and the Spitzer Space Telescope across the country. http://www.akgmag.com/article/2009___The_International_Year_of_Astronomy.htm Sat, 14 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0600 http://www.akgmag.com/article/2009___The_International_Year_of_Astronomy.htm By Nancy L. Young-Houser. Even though both twin rovers, Spirit and Opportunity, have won over the hearts of the world in the past five years, Spirit has been the one which has grabbed everyone's attention with her past not-so-subtle statements, "I Hate Mars!" We all realize that rovers cannot speak, but apparently the little rover Spirit did not know that when she began sending disgusted message back to her human NASA project manager caretakers back in 2006 http://www.akgmag.com/article/Little_Rover_Hates_Her_Job.htm Mon, 09 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0600 http://www.akgmag.com/article/Little_Rover_Hates_Her_Job.htm By Nancy L. Young-Houser. Over five years ago this month, the two NASA rovers—Opportunity and Spirit—began what was planned as a 90-day journey on Mars to investigate the surroundings. Beyond everyone's hopes and dreams they have made this small journey into one that has surpassed NASA's expectations. But quite recently, the little rover Spirit had begun to exhibit some unusual behavior that had its engineers questioning what it is doing. http://www.akgmag.com/article/The_Zapping_of_the_Spirit_Rover_on_Mars.htm Mon, 09 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0600 http://www.akgmag.com/article/The_Zapping_of_the_Spirit_Rover_on_Mars.htm By Nancy L. Young-Houser. Big names in space tourism are Virgin Galactic, Space Exploration, Blue Origin, Aerospace, and Rocketplane Kistler. Beginning in April 2001, Dennis Tito was considered the first traveler to pay for a space trip out of his own money, with Space Adventures setting up more trips for the average citizen to travel in space. There is room for space markets regarding space tourism at a cost of $20,000 per trip, with trips becoming more popular as the cost will decrease over time. http://www.akgmag.com/article/Space_Travel_in_2009.htm Sun, 08 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0600 http://www.akgmag.com/article/Space_Travel_in_2009.htm By Nancy L. Young-Houser. According to recent findings by NASA scientists on Mars, there may be the possibility of life on the Red Planet because of an existence of methane gas. This find was published in the journal Science, stating that a seasonal variations in methane was found in the planet's atmosphere. This find demonstrated evidence of geological or biological processes to back this statement, with astrophysicist Geronimo Villaneuva stating, "Mars could be more active than we have long believed". http://www.akgmag.com/article/Renewed_Hope_of_Life_on_Mars.htm Sat, 07 Feb 2009 00:00:00 -0600 http://www.akgmag.com/article/Renewed_Hope_of_Life_on_Mars.htm