MAIN ARTICLE: New Research on Space Viruses Seeding life on Earth.
Page 2: NASA Launches Human Space Flight Review Web Site for Public Use
Poll Results: The poll yesterday had a lower than average turnout but members want to see private enterprise and the federal government work together to solve this problem.
Star Trek: In the News. Star Trek Ads Under CARU's Watch
Yesterday's Comments: "My question on the Luna delay is it because the engineers are trying to get it right or are they just polishing a turd?" - jck
Today's Poll: Panspermia and Space Rocks.
Long odds on space viruses seeding life
"LIFE on Earth is unlikely to have come from space, says a new study on viruses. If life is ever found on another planet, however, the findings could help us judge whether it arrived from space or not.
Panspermia is the idea that life was seeded by extraterrestrial microbes in the form of hardy bacterial spores that hitched a ride on a space rock and landed on Earth. Jaana Bamford of the University of Jyväskylä in Finland and her colleagues say the key to testing this theory lies with viruses, which are thought to be tied to key steps in the evolution of complex life on Earth.
To find the likelihood of viruses stowing away in spores, the team induced a colony of bacteria hosting the Bam35 virus to form spores. Of the 83 spores that were revived to create new bacterial colonies, only 23 contained the virus (International Journal of Astrobiology, DOI: 10.1017/s1473550409004479).
This result suggests that, whatever the odds of a spore-laden meteoroid going from one planet to another, the odds of viruses hitchhiking within the bacterial spores are much longer, says team member Matti Jalasvuori.
Even if the odd virus did come along from space, it does not explain the huge diversity of viruses on Earth. Unlike cellular organisms, which are all thought to have had one ancestor, viruses are descended from more than one ancestral strain, so it is unlikely that enough virus-laden meteorites landed to seed the "virosphere" we know today. It also makes it unlikely that life on Earth itself came from space. "If life on Earth was because of panspermia, we would probably see a less diverse virosphere," says Jalasvuori."
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Panspermia
"Panspermia (Greek: πανσπερμία from πᾶς/πᾶν (pas/pan) "all") and σπέρμα (sperma) "seed") is the hypothesis that "seeds" of life exist already all over the Universe, that life on Earth may have originated through these "seeds", and that they may deliver or have delivered life to other habitable bodies.
The related but distinct idea of exogenesis (Gk. ἔξω (exo, outside) and γένεσις (genesis, origin)) is a more limited hypothesis that proposes life on Earth was transferred from elsewhere in the Universe but makes no prediction about how widespread it is. Because the term "panspermia" is more well-known, it tends to be used in reference to what should strictly speaking be called exogenesis."
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PAGE 2:
NASA Launches Human Space Flight Review Web Site for Public Use
"WASHINGTON -- NASA is inviting the public to make its voice heard as a panel of experts undertakes an independent review of planned U.S. human space flight activities.
NASA has created a Web site for the Review of U.S. Human Space Flight Plans Committee to facilitate a two-way conversation with the public about the future direction of the agency's space flight programs. In addition to providing documents and information, the site will allow the public to track committee activities, receive regular updates and provide input through Web 2.0 tools such as Twitter, Flickr, user-submitted questions, polls and RSS feeds. Additional features and content may be added as the committee's activities continue."
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You can visit and leave comments at the NASA Human Space Flight Website along with other webtools for the Augustine panel.
POLL RESULTS:
Star Trek Ads Under CARU's Watch
Better Business Bureau's Advertising Unit Questions Whether Commercials Should Be Placed In Broadcast Fare Aimed At Kids
"The Children's Advertising Review Unit (CARU) of the Better Business Bureau has referred ads for Star Trek to the Motion Picture Association of America for its determination of whether they should have been placed in broadcast programming targeted to children.
The film is rated PG-13 for "sci fi action and violence, and brief sexual content."
CARU has interpreted the PG-13 as meaning the ads are not appropriate for shows targeting kids, while the MPAA says that may not necessarily be the case
Under an agreement with MPAA, CARU refers such ads to the association for a determination of whether the ad meets MPAA's guidelines, after CARU first finds out whether the ad was placed in the kids show by mistake. CARU says it contacted the advertiser, in this case Paramount, which said the Star Trek ad was "intentionally placed" in the programming."
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YESTERDAY'S COMMENTS:
"I just don't see how private enterprise can handle it given the cost and the need for profit in the private sector. Why pay for a system we could develop and deploy as a nation? It is not like the problem of junk in space is a one time event.
Maybe sometime in the future there will be a place for private enterprise but I don't think it is now." - Something the Dog Said
"Of course it might be less expensive to collect the recyclable space junk (like metals), and process it in orbit. Parts for the ISS, powersats, deep space probes, etc., could be fabricated using captured metal and solar energy." - Jeff W
"Robert Block who wrote the Sentinel article is well-known for his pro-Big Aerospace bias. He has consistently wrote articles favoring Boeing and Lockheed Martin, and has consistently attacked or criticized New Space companies and NASA's Constellation. Virtually all of the delays he mentioned in the article were well-known. So nothing really new here. Just trying to sling some more muck to score points." - NellaSelim
"Uh oh... In retrospect, looks like buying lunar land claims from that guy online wasn't such a great idea, huh?
I really shouldn't have used a 5/1 ARM on it, but couldn't resist getting shorefront property on the Sea of Tranquility.
Oh, well. Still a better investment than Las Vegas real estate." - That Anonymous Guy
TODAY'S POLL:
There are more than a few researchers who believe life can sit on or in a rock traveling through space and when a planetary body sucks it into their gravity well the life forms can hop off and seed life.
This researcher says that scenerio is not very likely. How about your view, do you believe life can travel around on space rocks seeding worlds or adding to a world's lifeforms?
Read other NASA and Space diaries on DKOS.
