ESA Raises Safety Levels in Peru: El Brocal Mine

Like astronauts, heavy-equipment operators in remote mines can benefit from long-distance monitoring using space technology.

An ESA spin-off company has raised safety for dozens of drivers at the El Brocal mine in Peru by predicting their fatigue.

In far-flung mining operations around the world, drivers typically work 12-hour shifts, driving trucks and loaders of 160-180 tonnes - the size of a small apartment block.

Combine the gruelling schedule with even a small mistake, and you have a recipe for disaster.

"Sixty-five percent of serious accidents are caused by fatigue," says Jean Verhardt, founder and CEO of EstrellaSat.

Jean Verhardt

Truck driving made safer in Peru mine
Following an extensive high-altitude field trial of the Driver Fatigue Management System, in November 2012 EstrellaSat recently closed its first contract, and is now setting up the system covering 30 drivers operating 10 vehicles at a high-altitude mine in the Peruvian Andes.

"We saw during the field trial that keeping drivers aware of their fatigue status in real time substantially reduced fatigue levels," says Steve Dixon, Chief Operating Officer, Stracon GyM S.A.

"We expect that the fully operational fatigue service will result in a long-term reduction in driver fatigue levels at our mines,"

The next version of the system will draw even more on space technology.

Steve Dixon

Working with ESA's human spaceflight directorate, EstrellaSat is now developing a vest with sensors that measure temperature, heart rate and other physiological data to pinpoint risky fatigue in drivers even more accurately, and in time get them out from behind the wheel.

ESA's Technology Transfer Programme Office's Business Incubation Centres (BICs) have been set up to support the spin off of space technology to non-space applications and to foster new European business based on research and development in European space programmes.

The seven BICs in the Netherlands, Italy, Germany, the UK and Belgium are supporting over 60 start-ups every year, totalling more than 180 to date.

NASA ISS Spacestation water problem: Calcium levels in Urine too high

The £62 billion space station project involving 16 nations has been under construction 220 miles above the Earth for more than a decade Photo: AP

Engineers investigating a problem with the system, which processes urine into clean water for drinking, said they believed the cause for the back-up was a high concentration of calcium in the astronauts' urine.

Scientists do not yet know if the high calcium concentration is due to bone loss, a consequence of living in a zero-gravity environment, or other factors.

"We've learned a lot more about urine than we ever needed or wanted to know - some of us anyway," said David Korth, the station flight director.

The £62 billion space station project involving 16 nations has been under construction 220 miles above the Earth for more than a decade.

Before the urine recycler was started up in November 2008, it was fully tested by Nasa.

"Folks had good knowledge of the content of the urine going in, but the chemistry changes as it works through the processor are not always understood," said Julie Robinson, a scientist working on the project. "There are a lot of parameters including urine calcium and pH (acidity) that everyone is looking at."

Engineers at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, are hoping to come up with a fix in time to fly replacement parts out on the shuttle Endeavour, which is scheduled for launch on Feb 7 on a construction mission

Kenya ivory seizure reflects disappointing rise in poaching levels

Wildlife officials here Monday displayed more than half a tonne of recently-seized ivory, reflecting a rise in poaching they said was prompted by the controversial sale of stockpiled tusks last year.

The seizures in Kenya were part of what officials said was the largest-ever anti-poaching operation in East Africa, involving authorities in six states.

"Tons of illegal ivory have been seized and hundreds of people arrested in the largest-to-date international operation targeting wildlife crime across Eastern Africa," the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) said.

KWS official Patrick Omondi said the seizures showed an increase in poaching in Kenya and elsewhere, and highlighted a clear link with the UN-authorised one-off sale of more than 100 tonnes of stockpiled ivory by four southern African countries in 2008.

"We've seen an increase in poaching in the country and one of the factors is the sale," said Omondi.

"Kenya opposed it on the grounds it would stimulate illegal killing," Omondi said.

An official from Interpol's wildlife crime unit said: "The argument was that if we sold those stockpiles it would satisfy demand and put an end to poaching.

"That argument was false. When that ivory was sold, poaching was stimulated," the official said.

Interpol and other regional and international organisations were involved in the seizure operations that also included Burundi, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda.

Detailed results from those countries have not yet been released.

The 568 kilos (1,252 pounds) put on display by Kenyan authorities in Nairobi on Monday was in addition to 532 kilos seized in the initial phase of the operation some three months ago.

The wildlife service's security chief, Peter Leitoro, claimed the seizures were a serious blow to poachers who were increasingly sophisticated and dangerous.

"We have seen the criminals getting more organised. In the past the charcters you were dealing with had bows and arrows. Today they are individuals with firearms," he told reporters.

The wildlife service used sniffer dogs to detect much of the ivory on display.

The ivory trade was banned in 1989 because poachers were wiping out elephant populations.

Kenya's elephant population shrank from 160,000 in 1973 to one tenth of that by the time the ban was introduced.

The ban on the international trade in ivory, the establishment of the KWS and anti-poaching measures have enabled the population to climb back up to some 35,000 currently.

The controversial UN-approved auction in October last year involved Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe and was conducted under the supervision of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).