Astronauts | Futurismic

Virus on space station searched for video game logins

Tomas Martin @ 28-08-2008

USB drives transported viruses into space... NASA revealed today that some of the laptops used by astronauts on the International Space Station were infected with the computer virus Gammima.AG. The laptops, which were carried to the station in July for nutritional programs and email, were believed to be infected when they arrived.

Gamminma.AG is a year old virus that steals logins for online computer games for sale by software pirates. Computer experts say the astronauts should have disabled the ‘autorun’ command from the laptops as the virus travels by USB stick. NASA may have been caught out but there are instructions to prevent such malware automatically subverting your computer.

I wonder if the virus managed to steal any of the astronauts logins to World of Warcraft or Sins of A Solar Empire? Are avatars worth more if their user has travelled into space?

[via Google News, picture by Caro's Lines]

Space Diver

Arun Jiwa @ 10-06-2008

How does this sound for a headline:

A retired French army colonel is preparing to make a record-breaking attempt…to complete a 1000mph skydive from the edge of space.

So far, to my knowledge, he’s been unable to make this jump because of poor weather conditions, but you can’t blame him, considering how he’s going to go about doing it:

The mission involves ascending in a pressurised capsule suspended from a helium balloon for two and a half hours to the edge of the stratosphere.

and the risks involved:

A re-enforced crash helmet will protect his ears from the thunderous sonic boom he will create as he breaks the sound barrier.

I hope this turns out well, and maybe sets a precedent for astronauts and extreme sports adventurers. If it does work out, it seems like a definite trend for the future.

Postpone shuttle’s retirement?

Tobias Buckell @ 19-12-2007

That’s what one politician wants, saying NASA should keep flying the shuttle to avoid depending on Russia to fly astronauts up.

That could be a disaster, much better to take that average cost of $450 million per shuttle launch and offer $450 billion to the first private company to launch someone to the space station by, say 2011.

Or better yet, for eye-catchiness, take the cost of 2 shuttle launches and round up slightly. $1 billion ought to turn heads, don’t you think?

Self-sufficient space station proposed

Paul Raven @ 10-10-2007

Yet another classic science fiction trope that real-world science is reaching towards: a team of scientists have come up with a design for a space station named "Luna Gaia" that works on similar principles to a biosphere - a "closed-loop" ecology where almost all waste products are recycled by the system. [Image credited to NASA]

The ISS runs on a type of closed-loop system already, but the recycling processes are largely based on chemical reactions; the biosphere design would use plants and algae instead, as far as is practically possible, and should be theoretically capable of sustaining twelve astronauts for three years. The diet sounds a bit dull, though …