zero-gravity
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NASA's new sleeping bags could prevent eyeball 'squashing' on the ISS
Researchers from have developed a sleeping bag that that could prevent or reduce vision problems by effectively sucking fluid out of astronauts' heads.
ISS ready for new zero-g experiments, students asked to float ideas
Those secret space experiments you've been scheming? They may never happen if you try to go it alone. Fortunately, the space science group NCESSE can get you a ride, having started the countdown for its fifth wave of microgravity experiments aboard the International Space Station. US and international students from grade 5 up to university level can submit ideas until September 12th, 2012, with final culling by December 7. The mini-labs -- which can include experiments in seed germination or crystal growth, for example -- are set to be ferried aboard a SpaceX flight in April 2013. Three similar missions have flown nearly 60 student experiments already, with a fourth set as soon as the Falcon 9 craft deigns to go. If you've got a flat-out good idea being prevented by big G, hit the source to see how you could get it fired off to the ISS.
Virgin Galactic, XCOR land suborbital contracts with NASA
Have $200,000 to spare for a ticket to space? NASA does, apparently, a few times over. Following the retirement of its Space Shuttle program, the US agency just announced two-year contracts with seven space flight companies, worth a combined $10 million. NASA will partner with Virgin Galactic, XCOR, and five other companies to bring engineers, scientists, and equipment to space, for a variety of experiments in low-gravity environments. The contract provides few financial implications for Virgin, which has already collected $55 million in deposits from future space tourists, but the company did acknowledge it as an "important milestone" in its efforts to grow beyond initial consumer offerings. Space Adventures, which serves as a low-cost carrier of sorts in the industry with its $102,000 flight, may be represented as well, through its partner Armadillo Aerospace -- so it's probably safe to assume that NASA won't be paying two large huge a pop to blast its personnel to space.
