Another great space race

Recently another great space race has started, except this time it's as a private industry. One of the top contenders is SpaceX, which has hugely benefited from the recent shift in American around privatizing routine mission. SpaceX will be used to transport supplies and later on people to the ISS kn a rocket which has reusable first and second stage rockets. Their goal is to drastically reduce the cost of space travel with these reusable crafts. In the past few years SpaceX had estimated a quick relaunch turn around with a price tag of between 5 to 7 million, which is much, much less the current shuttle launches cost. NASA will also benefit as it will reduce there rountine costs which will let them more so focus their resources on other mission. As it currently sits each launch of the falcon 9 has cost NASA 166 million, this is still much cheaper then the max of $1.5 billion the development and building of shuttles used to cost. As it sits SpaceX is also much cheaper than any other private company, even the banned long march rockets from China are more expensive. Although the payload is small there is room for improvement with the upcoming heavy falcon9 although the current 140,000-pound-thrust Merlin 1D, designated the production model for Falcon 9, has the highest thrust-to-weight ratio of any rocket engine ever made so far.

Source:

http://www.airspacemag.com/space/is-spacex-changing-the-rocket-equation-132285884/?c=y&page=4

http://www.zmescience.com/space/spacex-reusable-rocket-100-times-cheaper-0432423/

http://www.space.com/17556-giant-nasa-rocket-space-launch-cost.html

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/04/14/launch-of-space-x-rocket-illustrates-nasas-growing-use-of-private-companies/

The implications of space technology

What is a cochlear implant?

A cochlear implant is an electronic medical device that replaces the function of the damaged inner ear. Unlike hearing aids, which make sounds louder, cochlear implants do the work of damaged parts of the inner ear (cochlea) to provide sound signals to the brain.

Who can they help?

Cochlear implants can help people who:

• have moderate to profound hearing loss in both ears
• have profound hearing loss in one ear with normal hearing in the other ear
• receive little or no benefit from hearing aids
• score 65% or less on sentence recognition tests done by hearing professional in the ear to be implanted

Many people have cochlear implants in both ears (bilateral). Listening with two ears can improve your ability to identify the direction of sound and separate the sounds you want to hear from those you don’t.

How do they work?

Many people suffer hearing loss because their hair cells in the inner ear or (or cochlea) are damaged. The cochlear implant enables the sound to be transferred to your hearing nerves and enables you to hear. The process is described below:

A sound processor worn behind the ear or on the body, captures sound and turns it into digital code. The sound processor has a battery that powers the entire system.

The sound processor transmits the digitally-coded sound through the coil on the outside of your head to the implant.

The implant converts the digitally-coded sound into electrical impulses and sends them along the electrode array placed in the cochlea (the inner ear).

The implant's electrodes stimulate the cochlea's hearing nerve, which then sends the impulses to the brain where they are interpreted as sound.

Many adults with cochlear implants report that they:

• Hear better with a cochlear implant than with a hearing aid
• A previous study has shown that people with cochlear implant achieve an average of 80% sentence understanding, compared with 10% sentence understanding for hearing aids1.
• Can focus better when in noisy environments
• This allows them to have conversations with people across meeting tables, in restaurants and other crowded places.
• Reconnect with missed sounds that they could not hear before their cochlear implant.
• Feel safer in the world as they can hear alarms, people calling out and approaching vehicles.
• Talk and hear on the phone
• Enjoy music

The benefit of cochlear implants is often different for different individuals. This difference is often due to:

• how long they have had hearing loss before receiving a cochlear implant
• how severe their hearing loss is
• condition of their cochlea (inner ear)
• other medical conditions
• how much practice they include in everyday life when using their cochlear implant system.

Most of this information was gotten from here

Canadian technology in space

Dexter, part of the mobile servicing system onboard the ISS, was designed to work on routine upkeep work of the ISS meaning there is less need for spacewalks which carry a decent amount of risks. It is a part of Canada’s contribution to the ISS along with the Canadarm2 and Canadarm 1, both also part of the mobile servicing system. The mobile servicing system is attached to the mobile base system which runs along 108 meters of rail on one of the stations main trusses. This base has four grapple fixtures that can all be used by either Canadarm2 or Dextre, it also has two other systems in place to attach payloads to. To discuss Dextre a little more, it is a highly dexterous two armed robot  which means the upkeep it can do includes assembling tasks as well as changing out the orbital replacement units. Orbital replacement units are parts of the main system or subsystem such as pumps, storage tanks, controller boxes, antennas, and battery units. Dextre has made waves here on earth too as the technology behind dextre is the bases of the Kidsarm. The Kidsarm is still being developed and is currently in a prototyping stage. However it is the first image guided robotic surgical arm in the world. It’s purpose is to assist in pediatric surgeries and it is guided by hand controls. It uses high precision, real time imagining technology along with multiple miniaturized tools to cut, coagulate, apply suction, or use a laser. The kidsarm is 10 times faster and it is more accurate than the hands of a surgeon. It has huge potential for performing intricate procedures in a less invasive and less painful way.  It is promising for neurological, cardiatric, and urological procedures.

Canada's part in space

What space launches has Canada played a part in? What was our purpose in joining? Between 1984 and today Canada has sent ten different astronauts up it space sixteen times. We have used six different shuttles to get there so far too. The shuttles so far have included the Soyus spacecraft, the space shuttle Endeavour, Atlantis, Discovery, Columbia, and the tragic Challenger. As none of them have launched within Canada, the common goals for space exploration have caused a lot of collaboration unlike during the great space race.

Most of the tasks Canadian astronauts had were scientific research, deliveries, and assembly. Chris Hadfield had also taken up the role of the commander of the ISS recently. Canadian have also taken part on space walks, controlling the Canadarm and we even had a astronaut live at the ISS for six month.

Source:

http://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/missions/

The human need of water

No matter who you are or where you are water is a necessity. Some places suffer from a lack of it, so technology created for one such as space can be transferred to another such as disaster zones. This is the reality of advanced water filtration and purification systems. Non-profit organizations have used these technology around the world in places such as Malaysia, Iraq, and Indonesia. In one Iraqi village a well failure caused many people to die, those surviving had to drink from a unsafe creek by shifting the water. Years later a mission went out to help these people, The solution came after a familar connection put a person high within the mission group in touch with a NASA engineering working on providing clean water aboard the ISS. They noticed a interesting relation to the CFKs water filtration system and NASA, with there joint collaboration they showed how effectively space research can contribute world affairs.

Sources:
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/nasalife/pure_water.html
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/research/benefits/water_purification.html