Time for another brief update

- Chapters 2 and 3 are now out for internal review. Current page count is 170 including 9 Appendices. Looks like the final document will be, at least, twice that length.
- Journal paper #2 is back from internal review #1. I should be able to complete the editing this week and get it out for internal review #2.
- I have another conference paper due Sept 15th, but have been effectively told to take 4 days vacation*, so I will be out-of-the-office between 31-Aug and 10-Sep. As a result, the paper will need to be written and out for internal review before I leave.
- Next week: I will be at 3DIM in Montreal so I will be offline between 20 and 23 August.
- Chapter 4 of the thesis** will be started this week or immediately after I return from the conference. This is the last large chapter and once it is done the thesis is, effectively, 90% complete.

Speaking of conferences, here is my North American tour tentative schedule:
20-23 August: Montreal, PQ (3DIM 2007)
12-14 October: Ottawa, ON (RObotics and Sensors Environments 2007)
26-31 January: San Jose, CA (Electronic Imaging 2008)
12-15 May: Victoria, BC (I2MTC 2008)
11-12 June: Seattle, WA (American Control Conference 2008)


[* my status at NRC renewed for 4-month terms. At each transition they try to give me a week's vacation, which I have, until now, generally responded with "No thanks" and had the terms follow back-to-back. This time I was not quick enough off the draw and I'm stuck with the vacation. Oh well, I have plenty of projects to keep me busy]

[** the thesis will have 5 chapters. The intro and conclusion are the shortest sections and will be written once Chapters 2, 3 and 4 have gone through one or more internal review passes.]

Life in Space and Shuttle troubles

EurekAlert! - Space and Planetary Science

Comet probes reveal evidence of origin of life, scientists claim - Recent probes inside comets show it is overwhelmingly likely that life began in space, according to a new paper by Cardiff University scientists. Professor Chandra Wickramasinghe and colleagues at the University’s Centre for Astrobiology have long argued the case for panspermia - the theory that life began inside comets and then spread to habitable planets across the galaxy. Now the team claims that findings from space probes sent to investigate passing comets reveal how the first organisms could have formed.

Cities incite thunderstorms, researchers find - Summer thunderstorms become much more fierce when they collide with a city than they would otherwise be in the open countryside, according to research led by Princeton engineers. While thunderstorms are thought of as being purely forces of nature, the Princeton research suggests that man’s built environment can radically alter a storm’s life cycle.

Physics Org

Conventional plowing is 'skinning our agricultural fields' - Traditional plow-based agricultural methods and the need to feed a rapidly growing world population are combining to deplete the Earth's soil supply, a new study confirms. In fact, long-established practices appear to increase soil erosion to the point that it is not offset by soil creation, said David Montgomery, a University of Washington professor of Earth and space sciences. No-till agriculture, in which crop stubble is mixed with the top layer of soil using a method called disking, is far more sustainable, he said.

U.S. Icebreaker to Map Arctic Sea Floor - A U.S. Coast Guard icebreaker is headed to the Arctic to map the sea floor off Alaska, as Russia, Denmark and Canada assert their claims in the polar region, which has potential oil and gas reserves. Russian media assert that the Healy's mission signals that the United States, along with Canada, is actively joining the competition for resources in the Arctic. Melting ice could open water for drilling or create the long-sought Northwest Passage for shipping. A Russian submarine dropped that nation's flag Aug. 2 on the floor of the Arctic Ocean under the North Pole.

SPACE.com

Bigelow Aerospace Fast-Tracks Manned Spacecraft - Following the successful launch and deployment of two inflatable space modules, on Monday the owner and founder of Bigelow Aerospace announced plans to move ahead with the launch of its first human habitable spacecraft, the Sundancer. The decision to fast-track Sundancer was made in part to rising launch costs as well as the ability to test some systems on the ground, company CEO Robert Bigelow said in a press statement. The Sundancer module will provide 180 cubic meters of habitable space and will come fully equipped with life-support systems, attitude control and on-orbit maneuverability, as well as reboost and deorbit capability. This larger module – sporting a trio of windows – could support a three-person crew and be on orbit in the second half of 2010, Bigelow told Space News in March of this year.

NASA Performs Tests on Shuttle Tile Damage - NASA engineers are running a battery of tests to determine whether Endeavour shuttle astronauts will have to repair a deep gouge on their orbiter's underbelly, while a separate team weighs the best of three options for any fix required, mission managers said Monday. A piece of fuel tank debris struck Endeavour's belly-mounted tiles 58 seconds after launch on Aug. 8, carving the 3 1/2-inch by 2-inch (9-centimeter by 5-centimeter) gouge. The debris did penetrate through the tile to expose a small strip of felt about one inch (2.5 centimeters) wide and 0.2 inches (0.5 centimeters) long. This image depicts tile damage to the space shuttle Endeavour during its Aug. 8, 2007 launch, as well as its location near the starboard landing gear door. Side note: ABC News has a better image of the gouge, for those that are interested. The robot arm and the laser scanner, used to examine the damage, were designed and built in Canada.

Hot Gas in Space Mimics Life - Electrically charged specks of interstellar dust organize into DNA-like double helixes and display properties normally attributed to living systems, such as evolving and reproducing, new computer simulations show. But scientists are hesitant to call the dancing dust particles "alive," and instead say they are just another example of how difficult it is to define life.

Newfound Planet Has Earth-Like Orbit - A planet outside our solar system with a year roughly equal to Earth's has been discovered around a dying, red giant star. The discovery could help astronomers understand what will happen to our sun's brood of planets when it exhausts its store of hydrogen fuel and its outer envelope begins to swell. When that happens in an estimated 5 billion years, our sun will be so big that it will engulf the inner planets and most likely Earth. But long before that happens, life on our planet will have perished and its seas will have boiled away.

Tech photos

( Tech photos under the cut )