Rapid Download Squad

The first astronauts went along stuffed into capsules barely large enough for their bodies, eating squeezetube food and peering out at Earth through tiny portholes. Their flights lasted only a matter of hours. Today, we routinely launch seven people at a time to spend a week living, working, and exploring aboard the Space Shuttle. In addition to regular launches, crew members from various nations keep a permanent human presence aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

The history of spaceflight has seen not only an increase in the numbers of people traveling into orbit, but also marked improvements in their vehicles. Each successive spacecraft, from Mercury through Apollo and the Space Shuttle, has been larger, more comfortable, and more capable. Scientists working inside the Shuttle’s Spacelab have many of the comforts of a laboratory on Earth, none of which were available when human spaceflight first began.

Some projects, like Apollo, produced stunning firsts or explored new territory. Others— notably, Skylab and the Space Shuttle—advanced our capabilities by extending the range and sophistication of human operations in space. Both kinds of activity are vital to establishing a permanent human presence off Earth.

Almost 50 years after the dawn of the age of spaceflight,we are learning not just to travel into space, but also to live and stay there.That challenge ensures that the decades to come will be just as exciting as the past decades have been. [more...]

Cells are the smallest form of life—the functional and structural units of all living things. Your body contains trillions of cells, organized into more than 200 major types.

At any given time, each cell is doing thousands of jobs. Some of these tasks are so essential for life that they are carried out by virtually all cells. Others are done only by cells that are highly skilled for the work, whether it is covering up your insides (skin cells), preventing you from sloshing around like a pile of goo (bone cells), purging your body of toxic chemicals (liver cells), or enabling you to learn and remember (brain cells). Cells also must make the products your body needs, such as sweat, saliva, enzymes, hormones, and antibodies.

In Chapter 1, "An Owner's Guide to the Cell," we'll explore some of the basic structures that allow cells to accomplish their tasks and some of the ways scientists study cells. In Chapter 2, "Cells 101: Business Basics," we'll focus on the functions shared by virtually all cells: making fuel and proteins, transporting materials, and disposing of wastes. In Chapter 3, "On the Job: Cellular Specialties," we'll learn how cells specialize to get their unique jobs done. In Chapters 4, "Cellular Reproduction: Multiplication by Division," and 5, "The Last Chapter: Cell Aging and Death," we'll find out how cells reproduce, age, and die.

Much of the research described in this booklet is carried out by cell biologists at universities and other institutions across the nation who are supported by U.S. tax dollars, specifically those distributed by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) a component of the National Institutes of Health. NIGMS is keenly interested in cell biology because knowledge of the inner workings of cells underpins our understanding of health and disease.

Although scientists daily learn more about cells and their roles in our bodies, the field is still an exciting frontier of uncharted territory and unanswered questions. Maybe someday, you will help answer those questions.

Much has been written in the West on the history of the Soviet space program, but few Westerners have read direct first-hand accounts of the men and women who were behind the many Russian accomplishments in exploring space. The memoir of academician Boris Chertok, translated from the original Russian, fills that gap.

Chertok began his career as an electrician in 1930 at an aviation factory near Moscow. Thirty years later, he was deputy to the founding figure of the Soviet space program, the mysterious "Chief Designer" Sergey Korolev. Chertok's 60-year-long career and the many successes and failures of the Soviet space program constitute the core of his memoirs, Rockets and People. In these writings, spread over four volumes (volumes two through four are forthcoming), academician Chertok not only describes and remembers, but also elicits and extracts profound insights from an epic story about a society's quest to explore the cosmos.

One of the most memorable gifts was a toy helicopter that was designed by the French aeronautical experimenter Alphonse Pénaud. Milton gave his sons this gift in 1878, and, though it was a simple device with a stick bound to a four-blade rotor set in a spindle, it had the intended effect—it caused them to dream.

Twenty-five years separated the gift of this toy and their invention of the airplane, yet the Wright brothers were convinced it had exerted an important influence. Tom Crouch argued in The Bishop’s Boys that toys like these perfectly illustrated the significance of play for technological innovation. He wrote, “rotary-wing toys were to intrigue and inspire generations of children, a few of whom would, as adults, attempt to realize the dream of flight for themselves.”

If the first powered flight on 17 December 1903 represented a childhood dream realized, it was only the first step in the rapid evolution of the airplane from their flimsy kite-like contraption of wood and cloth to jet airliners and rockets in space. And, as extraordinary as the achievement of powered flight seemed in 1903, before the end of the century, space travel also would become a dream realized. Soviet astronaut Yuri Gagarin first circumnavigated Earth in April 1961, and, eight years later, American astronauts took the first steps for humankind on the Moon.

This is a technical exposition, written at the undergraduate physics and engineering level that could serve either as a text book or as a reference text for technical practitioners. The text addresses Kinetic Energy Weapons in addition to Lasers, Microwaves and Particle Beams.

About the Author:

Philip E. Nielsen is a director and senior technical advisor for MacAulay-Brown, Incorporated, a defense engineering services firm headquartered in Dayton, Ohio. Prior to joining MacAulay-Brown, Dr. Nielsen served on active duty with the U.S. Air Force (USAF) for 26 years, retiring as colonel.

During this period, he served in a variety of positions related to the research, development, and acquisition of advanced weapon systems. He received the USAF Research and Development Award for contribution to high energy laser physics in 1975.