Well here’s a story worth following up on. Last summer a six man crew embarked on a simulated journey to Mars, in Moscow, Russia. On Friday November 4, the Mars500 experiment concluded and all six crew members returned “home” healthy, safe and sound. For 520 days the team essentially pretended to fly to the distant Red Planet, explore its features, and return to Earth. Their objective was to simulate the psychological and physiological stresses of a real space mission to Mars, and according to the latest reports the data collected from this experiment will indeed be useful for further space exploration. When he stepped out of hatch of the Mars500 spacecraft, European Space Agency participant Diego Urbina said this: ”On the Mars500 mission, we have achieved on Earth the longest space voyage ever so that humankind can one day greet a new dawn on the surface of a distant, but reachable, planet.” And for that we are all thankful and truly impressed, might I add. Though weightlessness was not experienced for obvious reasons, the team was forced to wear space suits and endure many other symptoms of a space mission including communication delays. Even though they were stationed on Earth, messages sent to and from the Mars500 simulator could sometimes take up to 25 minutes to reach its destination. During their trip, stress and hormone levels, sleep patterns and moods were monitered closely and dietary supplements were tested. For science! And the future of real space exploration! Watch the crew return to Earth in a video embedded after the break.

[Via BBC News; Engadget] (Click here for more…)

Come tomorrow, Robonaut 2 will become the first humanoid robot to enter space. R2 will initially operate inside a space laboratory for operational testing, but eventually its territory and its applications could expand, says NASA. The long-term goal for R2 is for it to assist astronauts during space walks and to work alongside engineers in the space station. Once it leaves Earth tomorrow on the STS-133, NASA does not plan on bringing him back to our blue speck. Go boldly where no humanoid robot has ever gone before, little buddy. Bon voyage! (Cue the overly dramatic liftoff trailer embedded above.)

[Via Engadget]

We’ve all seen beautiful time-lapse videos before.  But photographer Mike Flores went the extra mile by editing his spacey time-lapse to match up with Hans Zimmer’s epic ”Dream is Collapsing” track from Inception.  Crank up the volume, sit back and enjoy the show.

[Via Gizmodo]

“The area covered by the image is 245 kilometers (152 miles) wide.”  Damn.

[Via Gizmodo; NASA]

After receiving the most votes at NASA’s website, actor Stephen Colbert won the contest to put his last name on the next ISS module to launch into space.  After deeming the situation inappropriate, NASA decided to name the module “Tranquility” and gave Colbert a consolation prize.  After all, he did give the International Space Station a boost in popularity on his show “The Colbert Report.”  His prize?  NASA came up with this acronym: C.O.L.B.E.R.T. is the Combined Operational Load Bearing External Resistance Treadmill.  Better than nothing, I guess.  Check out his response video above.

[Via Gizmodo]

!INTERESTING ALERT!  WATCH THESE VIDEOS AND YOUR BRAIN WILL GROW AND EXPAND EXPONENTIALLY.

Well, maybe it won’t, but still.  These two videos are highly interesting and worth watching.  The first one features astrophysicist Janne Levin explaining her model of the Big Bang theory and the potential ways it may have occured.  The second video discusses the ten dimensions in great detail, integrating the notions of space and time.  Although it is explained in layman’s terms with situational examples, the concepts can be difficult to entirely grasp.  I’m telling you, though, it is worth the 11 minute trip.  Sit back, relax, and get learn’d.

[Via Gizmodo]

User tdarnell: I’ve recently discovered an animation that was rendered using the measured redshift of all 10,000 galaxies in the Hubble Ultra Deep Field image.

A very interesting watch.  Enjoy.

On June 20th, 1969, forty years ago today, the Apollo 11 mision resulted in the first successful manned mission to land on the moon.  Mission commander Neil Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Michael Collins, and Lunar Module Pilot Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin, Jr. comprised the spacecraft that landed on the moon.  Armstrong and Aldrin became the first humans to walk on the moon (Collins orbited above).  Check out the all-new Google Moon site to see “a mosaic of landing site images and a tour of the Apollo landings.”  Check out AOL’s We Choose the Moon interactive deployment of Apollo 11 from Earth to the moon (make sure you have Flash enabled, and give it a minute to load).  Also, take a look at this YouTube video, “First Moon Landing 1969.”  Celebrate by watching these videos, viewing the images, and remembering the famous sentence spoken by Neil Armstrong when he stepped off the spacecraft: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

[Via Wiki]