Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Northwest Passage - August 2010 with Bear Grylls

August 2010: Bear Grylls is leading a team of 5 in a RIB through 2,500 miles of the icy North West Passage, linking the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans via the Arctic. The trip is sponsored by Future Capital Partners and Future Fuels and is raising for charity while raising awareness about climate change.

North West Passage expedition with Bear Grylls from GlobalAngels.TV on Vimeo.

FCP North West Passage with Bear Grylls - TRAILER from GlobalAngels.TV on Vimeo.

Iceland Volcano Eyjafjallajokull - Spectacular Pictures on Boston.com

(click image for larger size)

Click link for more spectacular images:
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2010/04/more_from_eyjafjallajokull.html

Posted using ShareThis

Friday, April 16, 2010

Obama predicts expedition to Mars in his lifetime

2010-04-16 04:14:58 (GMT) (WiredPRNews.com - News, Technology)

The President declared on Thursday that he expected to see an expedition to Mars in his lifetime.
Florida (WiredPRNews.com) – President Barack Obama declared on Thursday that he expected to see an expedition to Mars in his lifetime. As reported by the Associated Press (AP), the president spoke at the Kennedy Space Center regarding his new space exploration plans.
Obama is quoted by the AP as stating that a new spacecraft would be developed by 2025 that is “designed for long journeys to allow us to begin the first-ever crewed missions beyond the moon into deep space.”
Obama is further quoted in the report as stating, “We’ll start by sending astronauts to an asteroid for the first time in history… By the mid-2030s, I believe we can send humans to orbit Mars and return them safely to Earth. And a landing on Mars will follow. And I expect to be around to see it.”

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Expedition to find Gas Hydrates as a fuel source

Gas hydrates have scientists excited. They are naturally occurring fuel sources found at the bottom of the sea. It is thought to exist in great abundance in nature and has the potential to be a significant new energy source to meet future energy needs. However, prior to this report made public by DOE, there was little documentation that gas hydrate occurred in resource-quality accumulations in U.S. waters. This could be a game changer.

The worldwide amounts of carbon bound ingas hydrates is conservatively estimated to total twice the amount of carbon to be found in all known fossil fuels on Earth. Extraction of methane from hydrates could provide an enormous energy and petroleum feedstock resource. Future production volumes are speculative because methane production from hydrate has not been documented beyond small-scale field experiments.

One fact scientists will have to deal with before they get too excited is that Methane, a "greenhouse" gas, is 10 times more effective than carbon dioxide in causing climate warming.

The Gulf of Mexico gas hydrates Joint Industry Project (“The JIP”), is a cooperative research program between the U.S. Department of Energy and an international industrial consortium under the leadership of Chevron.

Development of alternative sources of natural gas, such as methane hydrate, can help to guard against potential supply interruptions or shortages and improve energy security.

The U.S. R&D program is focused on the two major technical constraints to production: 1) the need to detect and quantify methane hydrate deposits prior to drilling, and 2) the demonstration of methane production from hydrate at commercial volumes. Recent and planned research and field trials should answer these two issues.

In recent field tests, researchers have demonstrated the capability to predict the location and concentration of methane hydrate deposits using reprocessed conventional 3-D seismic data, and new techniques, including multi-component seismic, are being tested. Modeling of small-volume production tests in the U.S. and Canadian Arctic suggest that commercial production is possible using depressurization and thermal stimulation from conventional wellbores.

Ref: http://www.examiner.com/x-43343-Energy-Policy-Examiner~y2010m4d2-DOE-issues-report-on-reservoir-quality-gas-hydrate-discovery-in-gulf-of-mexico

Better mousetrap? But would you pay the asking price?

Here's a better Swiss Army knife (and compass watch)

By Dan A. Nelson

The Swiss know gadgets!

Though they maintain their neutrality in international politics, the Swiss aggressively battle for dominance in outdoor gadgetry.

The new Mike Horn Knife from Wenger presents a new take on an old design. South African adventurer Mike Horn worked with Wenger to develop this modern Swiss Army knife. Horn's four-year Pangaea Expedition a sailing and hiking adventure around the wildest parts of the globe puts gear to the ultimate test (www.mikehorn.com).

The Mike Horn Knife includes many of the tools you'd find in a collapsible multitool, but in a more functional design. The hefty tool sports two locking knife blades: a 4-inch straight and a 4-inch serrated blade. A hole in the butt of the composite handle accepts standard hex-bits (straight and Phillips screwdriver bits are included in a storage slot in the knife's nylon sheath). The Mike Horn also includes a reamer/awl, metal saw, file and pliers.

The knife weighs 9 ounces, well below many full-sized tools. It also proved far more comfortable and easier to use than any multitool we've experienced. The tool helped us adjust snowboard bindings while riding at Crystal Mountain. We also used it to fix a cranky stove while snow camping on Mount Rainier.

Priced at $175, the Mike Horn Knife is an investment that could serve you for decades. Horn told me he is still using his original version after years of hard adventuring around the globe, with no issues. So the rest of us should expect the knife to last us through a lifetime of "normal" adventures.

As much as they know about knives, the Swiss know more about watches. Wenger's Nomad LED compass watch offers a stylish design with outdoor performance. At first glance, the Nomad is a simple analog watch, with a dark face and steel case. But the four buttons around the perimeter suggest there is more to this watch. The buttons turn on bright red LED lights over the dial face. One brings up the time, another the date, the day and, finally, your compass bearing. The Nomad allows you to set declination so you can establish your bearing on true north rather than magnetic north.

The Nomad proved one of the most accurate and easy-to-use digital compasses we've ever tested, and its rugged watch-based housing makes it multifunctional, too. The fact that its stylish enough for daily wear in the poshest office means you'll never have to take it off. The Nomad runs $375. See www.wengerna.com.

Freelancer Dan A. Nelson, of Puyallup, is a regular contributor to Backpacker magazine, and an author of outdoor guides with The Mountaineers Books. For the purpose of review, gear manufacturers lend products, which are returned after a typical use of six to eight weeks. There is no payment from manufacturers and they have no control over the content of reviews. Contact Dan with gear-related questions at gearguy@adventuresnw.net.

Courtesy of Wenger
The Mike Horn Swiss Army Knife
created for the adventure's
Pangaea Expedition

Courtesy of Wenger
Wenger's Nomad LED compass watch
has both analog face and digital readouts

Scientists launch mock expedition to Mars

Russian and European scientists are locking a team of enthusiasts in a module to find out if an expedition to Mars can become a reality. The volunteers are to spend 520 days in compete isolation.

Participants are being carefully chosen out of several hundred candidates from Russia and Europe. Only six people out of twelve semi-finalists sent to Moscow will take part in the final project.

“One of our main goals is to figure out how to recruit crew members for a possible flight to Mars, so that during the real thing we will have a better chance of preventing conflicts that may sabotage the mission,”

explains Valery Yesin, the project’s chief specialist.All candidates had to complete over a thousand psychological tests and must have a degree, but smarts alone might not be enough to live locked up face-to-face with others for one-and-a-half years.

Participants will conduct around 100 experiments and will even have to deal with some conditions of a real space flight, such as a 20-minute delay in connection with mission control and real space food.

“I had doubts at first but the more I got involved the more interested I became. We're going to have a great time here,” says candidate Sukhrob Kamolov enthusiastically.

The spaceship used in the experiment is made up of living, utility and medical modules. It also has a steam sauna, a gym and a small greenhouse.

There is even a simulator of the Martian landing capsule and a special room that simulates the Martian surface. Walking here will be part of the test.

Earlier another crew lived in the same module for 105 days without incident, but the upcoming project may take much more out of the participants as it will last almost five times longer.