1) SIMULATING (HUMAN) LIFE ON MARS
A mission to Mars means surviving confinement, isolation, and extreme conditions. To better understand how to operationally and psychologically prepare astronauts for a punishing three-year extraterrestrial excursion, crew members of the NASA-funded Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) project have been living in a 100-square meter dome at about 2,500 meters above sea level on the northern slope of Mauna Loa, a nonexplosive volcano in Hawaii that is the largest on Earth. Physics Today’s Toni Feder reports.
"'Imagine hiking up a 30-degree incline covered in loose basaltic rock in a fully loaded EVA [extra vehicular activity] suit, which weighs up to 50 pounds. You are likely carrying tools and equipment, and your visibility is poor. The suit fans circulate some air, but often not enough to keep the suit cool while hiking and carrying a load. It’s a challenge, one that will have to be addressed for a real Mars mission.’ Sheyna Gifford is speaking from experience. She’s one of six people taking part in a simulation of a year-long stay on the Martian surface."
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2) THE NEUTRINO MYSTERY THAT WON THE NOBEL PRIZE
In this Search and Discovery story, Physics Today’s Johanna Miller discusses the difficulty of detecting neutrinos and the groundbreaking result that the elusive particles can change their identities, which won Takaaki Kajita and Arthur McDonald this year’s Nobel Prize in physics.
"Kajita led the data analysis team of the Super-Kamiokande experiment … when, in 1998, the collaboration clinched the case for oscillation of neutrinos created in Earth’s upper atmosphere. McDonald was the director of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) … which in 2001 and 2002 revealed the oscillation of neutrinos coming from the Sun.
“The discoveries resolved the mystery of several earlier experiments that detected neutrinos in unexpectedly small numbers. In fact, the neutrinos were rendering themselves invisible by transforming into a different flavor. The results also imply that neutrinos have mass: For neutrinos to change their flavor unprovoked, they must be superpositions of propagating states of different mass."
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3) THE BEAUTY OF A HEATED IONOSPHERE
In this Quick Study, U.S. Air Force research physicist Todd Pedersen discusses the origins and atmospheric probing of the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP). Since 1999, the facility has stimulated and investigated the gas of electrons and and ions which envelopes our planet, often to breathtaking effect.
“During the past 15 years, HAARP has produced many interesting and unexpected results, perhaps most spectacularly the production of an artificial ionospheric plasma generated by radio waves. …
“The HAARP beam is broad like a flashlight’s, not narrow like a laser’s, but it can be electronically steered anywhere within 30° of zenith — that is, local vertical — and it can operate at 3-10 MHz. Its powerful radio waves drive ionospheric electrons back and forth in what are called plasma waves. As those driven electrons collide with each other and with background species, their temperature goes up, which is why HAARP is called a heater.”
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4) EXPERTS KEEPING AN EYE AS THE CENTRIFUGES WIND DOWN
Physics Today’s David Kramer reports on the surveillance methods the International Atomic Energy Agency will employ to ensure that Iran scales back its nuclear program by eliminating the plutonium pathway to a nuclear weapon.
"Experts are confident the agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), is sound. In a statement released in August, 77 non- proliferation specialists wrote, ‘The JCPOA is effectively verifiable. The agreement will put in place a multi-layered monitoring regime across Iran’s entire nuclear supply chain, including centrifuge manufacturing sites for 20 years, uranium mining and milling for 25 years, and continuous monitoring of a larger number of nuclear and nuclear-related sites.”
MORE: http://bit.ly/1SAqcLm
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