Январь 2000 г.

Российская наука и мир (по материалам зарубежной электронной прессы)

CONTENTS / ОГЛАВЛЕНИЕ


• Science Under Siege
• Talbott Says Putin's Goals Unclear
• JEVS Opens Doors for Russian
• Isonics Announces $2M Cooperative R&D Agreement With Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
• Russia's growing health crisis
• Russia and China 'are developing super-fast missile'
• NASA staff joining North Pole ozone study
• Co-operation is essential to success
• Brainlike signals from space show science outdoes fiction
• Russians Receive Money for Mir
• Life on Earth got you down? Here's a pick-me-up: Two weeks on Mir

НАСА приняла участие в совместном исследовании озонового слоя на Северном полюсе. В исследованиях участвуют 350 ученых из Японии, Германии, России, Великобритании и США и других стран. Ученые ищут ответы на вопросы, каким образом искусственное излучение уменьшает озоновый слой над Северным Полярным Кругом, и какие могут быть последствия.

HAMPTON, Va. – Thirteen scientists and technicians from the NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., are participating in what organizers call the most comprehensive study of ozone losses over the North Pole.
Holes in the ozone layer over the South Pole have been long documented. More recently, though, researchers have turned their attention to the cold stratosphere above the North Pole, where ozone thinning also is being observed.
The study - called SOLVE, short for SAGE III Ozone Loss and Validation Experiment - is a collaboration of 350 researchers from Japan, Germany, Russia, Britain, the United States and other countries. It seeks answers to questions about how man-made emissions are thinning the protective ozone layer above the Arctic Circle and what the consequences might be. NASA is spending about $15 million on the effort, which will continue through March.
January and February are the best times to observe the formation of unique ribbed ice clouds that help convert chlorine gases into a form that destroys ozone, said Larry Thomason, a senior scientist at Langley.
Ozone depletion worries scientists on several fronts. The problem is this: Without a thick blanket of ozone wrapped around Earth, more ultraviolet rays from the sun can directly strike the globe, potentially influencing climate, weather, marine life, plant growth and human health.
Lamont Poole, a senior research scientist at Langley, spent nearly two years planning the international gathering at the top of the world.
This month, he is in Kiruna, Sweden, which is inside the Arctic Circle. Poole said ozone thinning is worse at the South Pole but that pockets of ozone have significantly decreased above the Arctic Circle in recent winters.
"The concern is the buildup of greenhouse gases, which could increase surface temperatures," Poole said.
NASA Langley loaned two high-tech aircraft to the effort, including an overhauled U-2 spy plane that now gathers scientific data.
A Langley-developed satellite called SAGE III is scheduled to be launched this summer atop a Russian rocket. It will measure environmental conditions within the Arctic stratosphere.

Сотрудничество в космосе не только способствует успешному осуществлению космических полетов, но и предлагает широкие возможности для промышленного развития на Земле.

MONTREAL, (CP) -- A big problem confronting space programs is better co-operation between astronauts and the myriad technical people on Earth, says a former Montrealer working on European space programs.
And James Kass said in an interview on Tuesday that his experience with the Russian and German space programs as well as in other European countries shows teamwork is not only key to successful space flights but offers abundant possibilities for industry on Earth.
"We have to learn to co-operate," said the adjunct associate professor at Concordia University's department of applied human sciences. "We can save a tremendous amount of time and money. Today, we're constantly searching for information. A team gets things off the ground."
The results can be disastrous when teamwork breaks down, he said. Kass pointed to the recent loss of a $125-million Mars Climate Orbiter because of a mixup over metric and imperial measures -- essentially a failure in communication.
The Munich-based Kass is currently working with his sister, Rachel, who is an associate professor of applied human sciences at Concordia, on a project simulating the effects of space travel on human behaviour.
The work is being done in Moscow, where two groups of astronauts are being confined to two capsules for periods of four and eight months.
One of those in the four-month part of the project is Judith Lapierre, a Montrealer who hopes to be an stronaut one day, Kass said.
She's the only woman of the eight people in the two capsules -- and that makes the scientists pay attention even more, Kass said.
A mix of sexes in space can have both positive and negative effects, he said. In one simulation conducted in Germany, the presence of a woman had a calming effect on the rest of the male crew. Their language improved and they co-operated better, he said.
"She brought the 'womanliness' that they needed," he said. Yet in another simulation, the presence of a "very competitive-type" woman brought out the worst in the men and caused them to stop talking about, and dealing with, their problems, he said.
As for Lapierre, "my first analysis is that she will have a positive effect," said Kass, who is in Montreal for a lecture today.
Along with three other astronauts, Lapierre entered the isolation of the simulation capsule at the beginning of December and will be out at the end of March.
"The main purpose of the study is to observe interpersonal relations," Kass said, in advance of manning the international space station in the next few years.
Kass, 54, was born in Alexandria, Egypt, but moved to Montreal in 1962. He did undergraduate work at Sir George Williams University (now Concordia) before doing a master's degree in physics at the University of Michigan and doctoral work at the University of Leeds in England.
From there, it was on to Germany in the mid-1970s and work in the physiology of space travel. One of Kass's specialties is the study of motion sickness, which affects 30 to 40 per cent of astronauts.
Space programs are often criticized as costly extravagances in an age when people are still going hungry, Kass said, but "it's very little compared to what's being thrown out by every government."
And Kass said there's other benefits beyond the technological advances that can come from exploring space -- teamwork on an international level.
"You can get countries working together, working peacefully. That's what's most important."

Fans of strange science have two choices these days: reading science fiction or browsing the Web.
Both range far beyond standard textbook science. Both present possibilities that may turn out not to be true.
But hey. If the '90s was the decade of entertainment without substance, maybe the zeros will be the era of entertainment with sophistication. And there's no better source of entertaining sophistication than science on the Web. Especially if you know where to look.
So point your browser to the Los Alamos archive at xxx.lanl.gov, where you'll find science that makes fiction envious - such as evidence for an object deep in space that behaves like a brain.
It isn't really a brain. It's a double star system, designated MXB 1720-335. It lives in a clump of stars called a globular cluster known as Liller 1, roughly 30,000 light-years from Earth.
Like many such star systems, MXB 1720-335 spits out bursts of X-rays. But no other system produces such frequent, repetitive patterns of X-ray activity. So MXB 1720-335 is known as the Rapid Burster.
This burster probably consists of a star revolving around a dense "dead" star known as a neutron star; material falling onto the neutron star from its companion explodes, generating bursts of X-rays. "The extremely complicated variations of the Rapid Burster display regularities of a kind which have never been found in natural physical systems," write Vladimir Lefebvre and Yuri Efremov in paper astro-ph/9808057 on the Los Alamos Web site. But such regularities do have something in common with human brains, the researchers' analysis suggests. By measuring the time intervals between peaks of intensity during a burst, and the declining level of those peaks during a burst, the researchers find patterns that match a simple model of connected steam engines. The work produced by each engine, using heat produced by the preceding engine, diminishes in the same way as the intensity of the X-ray burst peaks. Nobody thinks that the Rapid Burster is powered by steam engines, of course. But the infalling star material might arrange itself in such a way (in rings, perhaps) as to mimic the action of engines working in concert. Or maybe something more mysterious is going on. (Insert X-Files background music here.) It turns out that math similar to that describing the steam engines can also describe patterns in psychological processes operating inside a human brain - in particular, consecutive acts of self-reflection. A chain of engines can represent a series of self-images generated by introspection, say Lefebvre, of the School of Social Sciences at the University of California, Irvine, and Efremov, of Moscow State University in Russia.
In their picture, work performed by the first engine corresponds to an emotion. The work of the second engine represents the mental state of self-reflection about that emotion. The next represents self-reflection about the initial self-reflection. And soon, generating a hierarchy of inner self-images.
Presumably such introspection might be used in making important decisions, such as choosing between two possible actions. Some people might flip a coin, but the steam engine model implies that the odds aren't really even. "The model predicts that a subject in this state will not choose between two alternatives with random, that is equal probabilities," the researchers write. It turns out that the likelihood of one of the choices is about 62 percent, the other more than 37 percent.
"This theoretical finding allows us to explain various phenomena of asymmetry in human choice," the researchers say in their paper, published recently in Astronomical and Astrophysical Transactions.
So, if human thought operates with the same patterns as a string of steam engines, and the Rapid Burster spits out X-rays with the same pattern as a string of steam engines, a syllogism suggests itself. And Drs. Lefebvre and Efremov can't resist it.
"Our conclusion," they write, "opens the possibility of an intrinsic similarity between the Rapid Burster activity and human cognition."
Just what they mean by that isn't obvious. But they provide some possibilities to ponder. Since the Rapid Burster sometimes behaves just like other X-ray emitting double stars, some experts conclude that it contains one extra ingredient that occasionallyturns on the rapid bursting.
"May this ingredient have something to do with cognition in a non-biological system formed by plasma and governed by a magnetic field?" write Lefebvre and Efremov. (OK, so this sounds like a conscious cloud of plasma, and science fiction writers did get to that one first.) But Lefebvre and Efremov also go on to suggest maybe some sort of "cosmic civilization" is at work here. Other scientists have suggested that an extraterrestrial culture might try to send X-ray signals into space by dropping rocks (weighing about 10 billion tons) onto a neutron star surface. "Thus, the idea of regarding the Rapid Burster as potentially a `cognitive object' or even cosmic civilization seems to have come of age," the researchers write.
Or maybe not. But perhaps a future Star Trek mission should head for Liller 1. Something strange might be going on inside that globular cluster.

Российское космическое агентство сообщило в четверг, что от британской компании получено 7 миллионов долларов для проведения научных экспериментов на космической станции Мир.

MOSCOW (AP) -- Russian space officials said Thursday that they have received $7 million from a British company to carry out a scientific experiment on the Mir space station -- a desperately needed cash infusion that will extend its lifetime.
Mir has been flying unmanned since its last crew left in August, and the cash-strapped Russian government had decided to abandon the nearly 14-year-old station around March unless private investors came up with funds.
The state-controlled RKK Energia company, which built and has run Mir since its launch in February 1986, repeatedly tried to attract foreign investments. Until Thursday, no major foreign investments had been reported. Energia deputy chief Valery Ryumin said the British company Golden Apple had transferred $7 million to Energia's account with another installment to follow after a cargo ship to Mir is launched on Jan. 31.
The cargo ship is to carry supplies for a crew set to blast off on March 30 for a Mir mission that would last at least 45 days. The Russian Space Agency approved the mission Wednesday, but it still needs final endorsement by the Cabinet, which plans to take up the issue next Thursday.
According to the ITAR-Tass news agency, a Golden Apple representative in London said the company plans to spend $20 million on the Mir mission. The representative, Walt Anderson, was quoted as saying that Golden Apple intends to eventually sublet Mir from Energia and overhaul the station.
Ryumin said Energia and Golden Apple are planning to set up a joint venture that would sell the station's resources.
Golden Apple is registered in the British Virgin Islands and focuses on high-technology investments, ITAR-Tass said.
No telephone number for Golden Apple could be found in Britain. The British Virgin Islands company registration office said nine offshore investment funds including the name "Golden Apple" were recorded there.
Speaking on the Echo of Moscow radio, Ryumin said Golden Apple had delivered the money to carry out a pioneering scientific experiment. He wouldn't elaborate, but Mission Control spokesman Valery Lyndin said that it would involve a five-mile-long tether supposed to help maneuver the station fuel-free. Further details were not available.
NASA has long urged Russian space officials to abandon the aging Mir and commit their scarce resources to the International Space Station, a 16-nation project that has been behind schedule due to Russia's failure to provide a crucial crew compartment.
Ryumin said the segment won't be launched until mid-August at the earliest because officials need to fix flaws in a booster rocket that is supposed to carry it into space.

Американский бизнесмен Уолт Андерсон собирается подписать договор аренды с Российской ракетно-космической корпорацией "Энергия", владеющей необитаемой орбитальной станцией Мир, чтобы использовать станцию уже до конца месяца. У.Андерсон, "Энергия" и другие инвесторы создают корпорацию Mir Corp. Ltd. Они надеются, что это будет первая "прибыльная" космическая станция во Вселенной.

WASHINGTON -- A reclusive American telecommunications tycoon is spending millions of dollars to renovate Mir, the defunct Russian space station, into a commercial lab, advertising gimmick, and out-of-this-world vacation spot for his fellow millionaires.
The price to visit Mir? About $40 million to be the first space tourist, but a mere $25 million for those who follow. Two of six American astronauts who have lived there said it would be worth the price, but a third said life on Mir, which turns 14 in February, was no luxury cruise and didn't recommend a visit.
Unlike other space-tourism schemes, which all went nowhere, usually cynical space experts say this one has a good chance of success. That is because it involves a destination that is already in orbit (Mir), proven rockets (the Russian Soyuz), and cash flowing to a money-starved Russian space program. The cash, at least $21.2 million, is coming from Washington venture capitalist Walt Anderson, 46, who started his fortune after the breakup of AT&T.
Anderson expects to sign a lease to use the orbital outpost by the end of the month. He will do so in partnership with the Russian space company Energiya, which owns the empty station. Anderson, Energiya and other investors are forming Mir Corp. Ltd. in Bermuda to run what they hope will be the first for-profit space station in the universe.
Anderson, who has already given the Russians $7 million and plans to invest $14.2 million more soon, said converting Mir into a moneymaking venture would be the biggest rehab job in human history.
"The Mir, which was about to be thrown away, was a huge opportunity," Anderson said in an interview with the Inquirer Washington Bureau. "Yes, it's old, and yes, it has a few problems. Yet any old building has that. You don't tear down an old building because it has a few heating and air-conditioning problems. You renovate it."
Anderson made his money buying and selling parts of telecommunications companies, including WorldxChange, Esprit Telecom, USWats, Telco and Mid Atlantic Telecom.
Now, through his Bermuda-based holding company, Gold & Appel, Anderson is the biggest of the project's financiers from around the world, said Jeffrey Manber, managing director of Energiya's U.S. division and the man who will be president of Mir Corp. Ltd.
Anderson and his space adviser, Rick Tumlinson, president of the nonprofit Space Frontier Foundation, approached the Russians about saving Mir after the Russian space agency announced last year that the defunct station would be steered into the ocean this year.
Instead, an unmanned rocket will now boost Mir into a stable orbit at the end of this month. In early spring, a Russian crew will fly there to see whether the station can be resuscitated, officials said.
Two cosmonauts and perhaps a movie actor are to blast off for Mir on March 30, the Russian space agency said this week. Their mission will last at least 45 days, provided the Russian cabinet approves, according to reports from Moscow quoting space agency officials.
"This is a serious venture from serious people who understand business . . . and are prepared to commit vast sums of money to keep Mir in business," Manber said.
Anderson and his partners envision not just cleaning up and patching Mir, which in 1997 suffered a near-deadly fire and a crippling crash that punctured the hull of a now-sealed-off section. They also envision adding rooms, making it even larger than NASA's oft-delayed, football-field-sized, $76 billion International Space Station.
Manber calls this "the world's greatest renovation project. It's the 21st-century version of the Suez Canal or Eiffel Tower."
But even their grand plans may not be enough, Manber admits. No one has been on Mir since Aug. 27. It already had a slow air and pressurization leak from the June 25, 1997, crash with an unmanned cargo rocket.
How bad the leak is and whether Mir can be returned to use "is a very big unknown," Manber concedes. "There's a lot of blind faith. . . . There is a general feeling that with the skill of Energiya, [Mir] can be fixed."
There are lots of problems with Mir beyond the leaks - corrosion on the hull, metal fatigue and chemical contamination. These hazards will only worsen as Mir ages, said James Oberg, a Houston engineer who has written books about the Russian space program and warned NASA about problems with Mir before the 1997 accidents.
Despite all the problems, Anderson's plan "is feasible because I think the hazards are manageable," Oberg said.
The Russians were able to resuscitate a dead and frozen Salyut space station in the 1980s and could do the same with Mir, said Norman Thagard, the first American astronaut to live on Mir.
But Jerry Linenger, a NASA astronaut who lived on Mir during the fire and then wrote the book Off the Planet, said NASA engineers looked at using Mir as part of the international station and found it was too old and fatigued. Linenger said Mir should stay retired.
But Anderson, Manber and other Mir alumni think multimillionaires will pay to play in space for a week or so. Thagard recalled that the late singer John Denver once talked with NASA and Russia about paying $10 million to fly on Mir.
"I would tell anybody it would be the most significant thing they would ever do in their lives," said John Blaha, the third American to live on Mir.
Anderson said he had talked to potential space tourists and hoped the first "citizen-explorer" would launch within the year.
These people would fly into space atop the Russian three-person Soyuz rockets, which have a history of safety and reliability. Manber said one to two tourists could fly at a time with a certified Russian pilot.
Anderson also envisions marketing the Mir name and selling lab space to pharmaceutical companies and others that could take advantage of near-zero gravity.
NASA spokesman Dwayne Brown declined to comment on the plans, saying: "This is not a done deal. We've seen many, many things come up, and they've fallen to the wayside."
Eventually, Anderson himself plans to blast off from prying public eyes; he says he is going to buy a seat on Mir.

Tish Wells of the Inquirer Washington Bureau contributed to this article.

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