Ahh! Abduction!

Hundreds of people have claimed to have been abducted by aliens. Victims claim a vast degree of trauma resulting from the abductions including having foreign objects implanted in them and bodily "probing." One possible explanation for these claims involves the creation of false memories.

Psychologist Stephen Jay Lynn conducted a simulated hypnosis experiment in 1994, asking patients to imagine they had seen bright lights and experienced lost time. The results of the experiment revealed that 91% of subjects who had been primed with questions about UFOs stated that they had interacted with aliens.

The implications of this experiment are illustrated by research from Harvard University professor Richard McNally. McNally found that many Americans who believed they had been abducted by aliens had important commonalties in personality traits such as New Age beliefs and episodes of sleep paralysis accompanied by hypnopompic hallucinations. The sleep paralysis and hallucinations prompted these individuals to seek therapy. In some cases, suggestion of alien abduction as the cause led the individuals to accept this as a true explanation. Subsequently, these individuals began to exhibit stress symptoms similar to post-traumatic stress disorder.

While an individual very well may believe they have been abducted, and even experience stress symptoms, it is much more likely that the individual is suffering from a combination of afflictions including sleep paralysis, hallucinations, and false memories.

Outline for manned Mars mission

A 30-month round trip to Mars iwth a minimal crew as been planned by NASA. After following President G.W. Bush's idea of sending humans back to the Moon by 2010, they also decided to send humans to Mars. The ship for Mars would be put together in low-Earth orbit using Ares V rockets. The mission would take place in 2031 and take 6 to 7 months to make it to Mars. But before then a cargo lander and a surface habitat would be sent separatley in 2028 and 2029. When the astronauts arrive in 2031 they would spend 16 months on the surface living in their habitat using nuclear power to power it. There is small chance that supplies could be sent, but most of the astronauts would need to be self sufficient as to taking care of their habitat as well as making new parts. Air and water would be recycled in their spacecraft. Plants would be grown on board to feed the crew. The real challenge is making sure the crew makes it there okay.

Donde Esta Mars Opportunity Rover?

Here is a cool link to the Mars Institute page where you can observe where Mars Rover Opportunity is currently located. The page has image posts which are updated every 30 minutes from NASA JPL. The images are views from Opportunity “Looking Down on the Sun”, “Mars as seen from Opportunity”, “The Earth as seen from Opportunity”, “Looking down on Opportunity”, and “Looking down on Earth”.
http://www.marsinstitute.info/epo/merwhere.html

How to Beat the Ban of Humans on Mars

An interesting article written by Michael Huang of the Space Review was posted today discusses how the legislation that is being proposed to ban humans on Mars may be beat. The House of Representative version of HR 3093, the bill that determines NASA's funding for 2008 prohibits funding of any research, development, or demonstration activities related exclusively to the human exploration of Mars. The primary motivation behind the ban is the old, predictable, anti-human-spaceflight routine. The bill is still in Congress and hasn't been made into a law yet. If the bill is passed, there are still ways for NASA to continue its human spaceflight research and development without breaking the law. The law says nothing about orbiting Mars. If the law is passed, it should also include a ban on the human exploration of Mars' moons. As long as astronauts do not land on Mars, they can explore the moons as much as they want. The law also does not ban the use of a humanoid robot, or android. If NASA sent an android to Mars, the robot could be equipped with biochemical functions to test the mission's life support systems. If legislators decided to lift the ban, then NASA could simply swap the android with an actual human and immediately begin a manned mission. If this bill is passed and the government really does want to ban the human exploration of Mars, Huang believes the wording may need changing. As of right now, there are many loopholes in the legislation and this will not stop NASA from pursuing their ultimate goal of putting a man on Mars.