ISS cosmonauts detect smoke in Zvezda Service Module

The crew of the International Space Station (ISS) has been alerted to a little smoke coming from the Russian module, NASA website reported Wednesday.

The smoke was coming out of a vent in the Zvezda Service Module, according to the US space agency.

The Russian segment's ventilation system was isolated by flight controllers at the mission control center in Houston, RIA Novosti report.

"Expedition 40 Commander Steve Swanson reported that the smoke quickly subsided and the crew was not in any danger,"NASA added.

Russian flight controllers determined that the smoke was most likely caused by a heater for the Russian segment's water reclamation unit used for cooking.

JLENS: Military multi-intelligence blimps to fly over East Coast US - Video

A new hi-tech, Helium-filled, inflatable, surveillance blimp is scheduled to be flown over the East coast of the US in October 2014.

JLENS, or Joint Land Attack Cruise Missile Defence Elevated Netted Sensor System is costing $2.7 billion in total (that's around English £1.64 billion).

The new state-of-the-art blimps will patrol the shoreline and give the US administration early warning of any cruiser missiles headed towards the border.

Currently anchored to army property in Maryland, these spy blimps claim to have some of the world's most advanced surveillance equipment on board.

The JLENS system, has been designed to spot missiles carrying explosive warheads and electromagnetic pulse (EMP) capabilities, launched from as far away as the Arctic or the Gulf of Mexico.

Deceptive capability
To give you an idea of the capabilities of these blimps and the radar technology they utilise, the floating airships can spot an object from a distance of 340 miles — that's further than the driving distance between London and Newcastle.

Flying in pairs, the blimps will offer "360 degree 24/7 surveillance for 30 days at a time" according to contractors Raytheon.

Each JLENS blimp measures 74m from front to back and hovers at an elevation of 10,000 feet, with two blimps working in tandem, one can watch out for threats while the other coordinates the interception process, should it be needed.

Missile guidance
If the US Army had to respond to an incoming missile, for example, then the blimps can be used to help guide fighter jets and their on-board arsenals towards the target, neutralising the threat much earlier and more quickly than when using conventional tracking and intercept methods.

Similar technology is used to protect American bases in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Army has assured the public that there's nothing to worry about, but privacy groups have expressed concern about the potential for the JLENS ships to track the movements of citizens.

"The primary mission... is to track airborne objects," Army officials said. "Its secondary mission is to track surface moving objects such as vehicles or boats. The capability to track surface objects does not extend to individual people."

According to the experts, details such as individual faces or car registration plates cannot be seen by the blimps even with specialised cameras fitted.

Built-in resilience
The blimps are known as aerostats, airships that are essentially lighter than air and which require tethering to the ground.

Even a well-aimed rifle shot would not be enough to bring one of the blimps down: the pressure of the helium inside is very close to the pressure of the outside air, which means rapid deflation is not possible.

"When you need persistent surveillance in a particular area, there is no better solution than the aerostat because it's there all the time,” said Ron Bendlin of TCOM, who have helped manufacture the new series of blimps.

The tethers that tie the blimps down are interesting too: they provide power to the airships and control communications to and from them via fibre optic cabling.

Each line is protected by Kevlar and an insulated sleeve. Most of the functionality of each of the blimps is managed down on the ground from the command centres.

STEREO, SOHO and SDO detect an Earth-facing CME from the Sun

A combined view of the coronal mass ejection, or CME, that occurred on May 17, 2013, at 5:36 EDT. 

The center yellow image was captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) and shows the sun as seen in UV light, in the 171 Angstrom wavelength. 

The SDO image is superimposed on top of an image from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) showing the CME propagating into space. 

Credit: NASA /SDO /Goddard, ESA and NASA SOHO

On 5:24 a.m. EDT on May 17, 2013, the sun erupted with an Earth-directed coronal mass ejection or CME, a solar phenomenon that can send billions of tons of solar particles into space that can reach Earth one to three days later and affect electronic systems in satellites and on the ground.

Experimental NASA research models, based on observations from NASA's Solar Terrestrial Relations Observatory (STEREO), show that the CME left the sun at speeds of around 745 miles per second.

The solar material in CMEs cannot pass through the atmosphere to affect humans on Earth.

Not to be confused with a solar flare, a CME can cause a space weather phenomenon called a geomagnetic storm, which occurs when they connect with the outside of the Earth's magnetic envelope, the magnetosphere, for an extended period of time.

The CME may also pass by Spitzer and its mission operators have been notified. If warranted, operators can put spacecraft into safe mode to protect the instruments from the solar material.

Can Your X-Box Detect Heart Disease?

Heartworks, the first fully functioning virtual heart to help train cardiologists and doctors

A computer scientist at the University of Warwick in England has devised a way to use an Xbox 360 to detect heart defects and help prevent heart attacks.

The new tool has the potential to revolutionize the medical industry because it is both faster and cheaper than the computer systems that are currently used by scientists to perform complex heart research.

The system, detailed in a study in the August edition of the Journal of Computational Biology and Chemistry, is based on a video-game demo created by Simon Scarle two years ago when he was a software engineer at Microsoft's Rare studio, the division of the U.S.-based company that designs games for the Xbox 360.

Scarle modified a chip in the console so that instead of producing graphics for the game, it now delivers data tracking how electrical signals in the heart move around damaged cardiac cells.

This creates a model of the heart that allows doctors to identify heart defects or conditions such as arrhythmia, a disturbance in the normal rhythm of the heart that causes it to pump less effectively.