LIFE
sundAY, June 17, 2012
China sends first woman into space
Who is China’s first female astronaut?
Compiled by Al Watan Daily
JIUQUAN, China: China launched its most ambitious space mission yet on Saturday, carrying its first female astronaut and two male colleagues in an attempt to dock with an orbiting module and work on board for more than a week. The Shenzhou 9 capsule lifted off as scheduled at 6:37 p.m. (1037 GMT) from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on the edge of the Gobi Desert. All systems functioned normally and, just over 10 minutes later, it opened its solar panels and entered orbit. The launch was declared a success by space program chief Chang Wanquan, a People’s Liberation Army general who sits on the ruling Communist Party’s powerful central military commission - underscoring the program’s close military ties. Female astronaut Liu Yang, 33, and two male crew members - mission commander and veteran astronaut Jing Haipeng, 45, and newcomer Liu Wang, 43 - are to dock the spacecraft with a prototype space lab launched last year in a key step toward building a permanent space station. All three are experienced pilots and officers in the Chinese air force. Two of the astronauts will live and work inside the module to test its life-support systems while the third will remain in the capsule to deal with any unexpected emergencies. China is hoping to join the United States and Russia as the only countries to send independently maintained space stations into orbit. It is already one of just three nations to have launched manned spacecraft on their own. Another manned mission to the module is planned later this year, while possible future missions could include sending a man to the moon. The space program is a source of enormous national pride for China, reflecting its rapid economic and technological progress and ambition to rank among the world’s leading nations. The selection of the first female astronaut is giving the program an additional publicity boost. On a state visit in Denmark, President Hu Jintao congratulated everyone connected with the mission. “I urge you to carry forward the spirit ... and make new contributions to advance the development of our country’s manned space mission,” Hu said in a statement read to technicians at Jiuquan. The astronauts are expected to reach the module, called Tiangong 1, on Monday. Now orbiting at 343 kilometers (213 miles) above Earth, the module is only a prototype, and plans call for it to be replaced by a larger permanent space station due for completion around 2020.
FILE - Liu Yang, China’s first female astronaut, waves during a departure ceremony at Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, Gansu province, June 16, 2012. (Reuters)
That station is to weigh about 60 tons, slightly smaller than NASA’s Skylab of the 1970s and about one-sixth the size of the 16-nation International Space Station. China has only limited cooperation in space with other nations and its exclusion from the ISS, largely on objections from the United States, was one of the key spurs for it to pursue an independent space program 20 years ago. China first launched a man into space in 2003 followed by a two-man mission in 2005 and a three-man trip in 2008 that featured the country’s first space walk. In November 2011, the unmanned Shenzhou 8 successfully docked twice with Tiangong 1 by remote control. Shenzhou 9 is to first dock with the module by remote control, then separate and dock again manually in order to fully test the reliability of the system. The astronauts are to conduct medical tests and various other experiments before returning to Earth after more than 10 days. -AP
Voyager space probe reaches edge of solar system LONDON: The Voyager 1 space probe has reached the edge of the solar system, extending its record for being the most distant man-made object in space. According to a statement from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, the spacecraft is sending back data to Earth showing a sharp increase in charged particles that originate from beyond the solar system. “Voyager scientists looking at this rapid rise draw closer to an inevitable but historic conclusion - that humanity’s first emissary to interstellar space is on the edge of our solar system,” NASA said in the statement. Voyager 1, along with its sister spacecraft Voyager 2, was launched in 1977 and is now about 18 billion kilometers from the Sun. It is moving at a speed of about 17 km per second and it currently takes 16 hours and 38 minutes for data to reach NASA’s network on Earth. Voyager 2 is about 15 billion kilometers from the Sun. Between them, the probes have explored all the giant planets of the solar system; Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, as well as 48 of their moons. They both carry a greeting for any extraterrestrial life they may bump into, a phonograph record and 12-inch gold-plated copper disk with sounds and images of life and culture on Earth selected by a group chaired by the famous space scientist Carl Sagan. The charged particles hitting Voyager 1 originate from stars that have exploded elsewhere in the gal-
axy. They have been steadily rising as it approaches interstellar space but that trend has become sharper in recent months. “From January 2009 to January 2012, there had been a gradual increase of about 25 percent in the amount of galactic cosmic rays Voyager was encountering,” said Ed Stone, Voyager project scientist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. “More recently, we have seen very rapid escalation in that part of the energy spectrum. Beginning on May 7, the cosmic ray hits have increased five percent in a week and nine percent in a month.” The exact position of the edge of the solar system is unclear but another indicator that Voyager has entered interstellar space is expected to be a change in the direction of the magnetic fields around the space craft. NASA scientists are looking at data from the craft to see if this predicted change has occurred. “The laws of physics say that someday Voyager will become the first human-made object to enter interstellar space, but we still do not know exactly when that someday will be,” said Stone. “The latest data indicate that we are clearly in a new region where things are changing more quickly. It is very exciting. We are approaching the solar system’s frontier.” The plutonium power sources on the Voyager probes are designed to last until 2025. When they die, the probes will keep hurtling through space towards other stars in the Milky Way but they will no longer transmit data back to Earth. -Reuters
Vitamin D plus calcium tied to longer life NEW YORK: Older adults who take vitamin D and calcium supplements may live a bit longer than their peers, a new research review suggests. Researchers found that older adults who were given vitamin D and calcium supplements were 9 percent less likely to die over three years than those given placebo pills. Vitamin D on its own, however, showed no effect on death rates. The findings are based on data from eight past clinical trials -- where people were randomly assigned to take vitamin D (with or without calcium) or get inactive placebos for comparison. Those types of studies offer the strongest kind of evidence on whether the supplements have health effects or not, said Dr. Lars Rejnmark, the lead researcher on the review. A 9 percent dip in death risk over a three-year period might sound small. To put it in context, Rejnmark’s team -- some of whom have connections to supplement makers that market vitamin D and calcium products -- estimates that to prevent one death, 151 older adults would have to take vitamin D and calcium for three years. But that effect is “at least as pronounced” as the benefits linked to cholesterol-lowering statins and blood pressure drugs, said Rejnmark, an associate professor at Aarhus University in Denmark. “In my view, a 9 percent reduced mortality in the general population of elderly is of major impor-
tance,” Rejnmark told Reuters Health by email. “Except for stopping smoking,” he added, “there are not many other known interventions that are capable (of) such a reduction in the risk of death.” Supplements May Carry Risks
For now, Rejnmark said the findings support getting the recommended amounts of vitamin D and calcium. But that doesn’t mean supplements don’t carry any risks. In particular, Rejnmark noted, some research has linked calcium supplements (not calcium-rich food) to an increased risk of heart attack in older adults -though it’s not clear if the supplement is to blame. As for known side effects, calcium supplements may boost a person’s risk of kidney stones. And very high levels of vitamin D can cause symptoms like nausea, vomiting, constipation and poor appetite. In the US, the Institute of Medicine says people should get no more than 100 micrograms, or 4,000 IU, of vitamin D each day. The upper limit for calcium in older adults is 2,000 milligrams. People can, of course, get calcium and vitamin D through food too. Dairy foods are rich in calcium; other sources include greens like broccoli and kale, and fortified juices and breakfast cereals. Food sources of vitamin D are relatively few, but include fatty fish like salmon and tuna, plus fortified milk, juice and cereals. -Reuters
The Shenzhou-9 -- China’s fourth manned space mission -- blasts off at 1037 GMT from the Jiuquan space base, northwest China’s Gansu province in the remote Gobi desert on June 16, 2012. (AFP)
Who is Yang, and how - from among half a billion Chinese women - was she chosen to be the country’s first space heroine? Yang lives in Beijing, but hails from the central Chinese province of Henan, a relatively poor but heavily populated agricultural region. According to Xinhua, the official state news agency, she is an eloquent speaker, an avid reader and a lover of cooking. She is also married, as per the China space program’s requirements. According to the newspaper China Daily, female Chinese astronauts must be married and preferably be mothers, because of concerns that higher levels of radiation in space would “harm their fertility.” Yang began reaching for the skies just after high school, when a teacher persuaded her to enroll in an aviation school. Since enlisting in the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Air Force in 1997, she has logged 1,680 hours of flight time, earning the rank of major and deputy head of a flight unit. State media once praised her courage after she safely landed her fighter jet following a collision with a bird that covered the cockpit glass with blood, Reuters reported. She also won first place in a military speech contest. Yang was recruited into China’s second class of prospective astronauts in May 2010. After two years of arduous training, she excelled in testing - Chinese astronauts must score perfectly on a series of tough examinations - and was selected this March as a candidate to crew the Shenzhou-9. Her selection quickly became the most trending subject on the country’s Twitter-like microblogging service Sina Weibo, with 33 million posts. One user wrote, “Liu Yang, on the eve of becoming our first woman is space, is the pride of Henan.” [7 Notable American Astronauts] At Friday’s press conference, Yang addressed her fans: “I am grateful to the motherland and the people. I feel honored to fly into space on behalf of hundreds of millions of female Chinese citizens.” Wu Ping, spokeswoman for China’s manned space program, said having Yang on board will not only help the country’s aspiring space program test equipment designed for women in preparation for the building of an orbiting space station, but it will also expand the social impact of human space missions. Echoing a famous Chinese proverb, Ping said, “Women hold up half the sky. Human space missions without women are incomplete.”
Experts lament poor ocean progress in 20 years PARIS:World governments have made little progress in the past 20 years when it comes to their pledges to protect marine life and reduce overfishing, experts said over the weekend. With ocean health among the top 10 issues at the Rio 20 summit on sustainable development June 20-22, international experts called for concrete action to avoid “empty ocean commitments.” Targets set at UN summits in 1992 and 2002 have largely gone unmet, and implementation “has been difficult, ineffective or practically nonexistent,” the authors wrote in the US journal Science. Contributors came from the Zoological Society of London, Simon Fraser University in Canada, the Pew Environment Group in the United States, the University of British Columbia and the University of Oxford. “Our analysis shows that almost every commitment made by govern-
ments to protect the oceans has not been achieved,” said Jonathan Baillie, director of conservation at ZSL. “If these international processes are to be taken seriously, governments must be held accountable and any future commitments must come with clear plans for implementation and a process to evaluate success or failure.” An international action plan to end illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing remains voluntary and has not put a stop to the $23 billion per year industry, the article said. While local level protections of marine biodiversity have improved in some places, the global picture is “bleak” for many forms of sea life, it said. “Even the most closely watched species -- such as turtles, sharks, and coral reef fisheries -- are not safe.” Problems and politics have compli-
cated efforts to meet the goals that world leaders have set in the past, and so future efforts should be “more nuanced and context-specific to be realistic and achievable,” the authors said. The team made three recommendations: to bring global fishing in line with resources in domestic and international waters, redirect harmful subsidies and instead use the money to fund efforts to halt illegal fishing, and implement “even a minimal” ecosystems approach to protect vulnerable species. “Rio+20 is a unique opportunity for governments to collectively show courage and leadership to reverse the worsening state of the world’s ocean, and to take action to protect the largest reservoir of biodiversity left on our planet,” said Susan Lieberman, deputy director of Pew Environment Group’s International Policy team. -AFP
New crustacean species discovered off Spain NEW YORK: A new species of crustacean has been discovered in the underwater mountains off the northwest coast of Spain, scientists recently announced according to LiveScience. The squat lobster is orange and a little over 2 inches (5 centimeters) long. Squat lobsters are more closely related to porcelain and hermit crabs than true lobsters. It was discovered at a depth of 4,626 feet (1,410 meters) in August 2011 by the INDEMARES research group and lives among deep corals and sea fans, according to a study published in the March issue of the journal Zootaxa. The shy crustaceans are abundant in submarine mountains in areas that haven’t been heavily fished; the corals and sea fans amid which they live tend to disappear in trawling zones, researchers said in a statement. Given the scientific name Uroptychus cartesi, the species’ closest relative can be found in the Caribbean Sea, and both species likely have a shared ancestor “who invaded the Atlantic from the Pacific and Indian Ocean a few million years ago,” said study co-author Enrique Macpherson, a researcher at Spain’s Centre for Advanced Studies of Blanes. The squat lobsters are homebodies and do not spread far, since their larvae spend only a few days in the free-swimming planktonic stage. They feed on smaller crustaceans and particulate matter. The crustacean is different from other European species mainly because of its shape and the number of thorns on its shell.
Researchers named it after the scientist Joan Cartes, from Barcelona’s Institute of Marine Sciences, who was the first to notice that something about these creatures looked different. The six specimens captured were handed over to Barcelona’s Institute of Marine Sciences and the National Museum of Natural History in Paris.
FILE - A drawing of the newly discovered squat lobster. (Agencies)
Natives occupy Amazon dam construction site PARIS: Around 300 indigenous and green activists occupied this weekend the construction site of a huge hydro-electric dam across the Xingu River, a tributary of the Amazon, protest organizers said. The demonstration at the Belo Monte dam sought to draw attention to the project at the UN Conference on Sustainable Development taking place in Rio de Janeiro, more than 3,500 kilometers (2,200 miles) to the south.“We call on the world to let our river live,” Antonia Melo, head of the Xingu River Forever Alive Movement, said in a statement.
The protesters said they dug a channel at the construction site using shovels and hoes to symbolically restore the natural flow of the river, while some used their bodies to spell out a message reading “Pare Belo Monte” (Stop Belo Monte). The third largest dam in the world, the 11,200-megawatt scheme is one of several hydro projects billed by Brazil as providing clean energy for a fast-growing economy. Work began a year ago, despite fierce opposition from local people and green activists. Indigenous groups fear the dam will
harm their way of life while environmentalists have warned of deforestation, greenhouse-gas emissions and irreparable damage to the ecosystem. The Belo Monte is expected to flood an area of 500 square kilometers (200 square miles) along the Xingu and displace 16,000 people, according to the government, although some NGOs put the number at 40,000 displaced. The UN conference, which opened Wednesday, is set to climax in a summit of an expected 116 leaders, running June 20-22. -AFP