Archive: Science and technology | Universe Universe
Czech spaceship architect who is going where no Czech has gone before, to NASA, the asteroids, Mars and beyond.
In this month‘s edition of Science Journal: the final frontier. These are
the voyages of Tomáš Rousek, a Czech spaceship architect who is going
where no Czech has gone before, to NASA, the asteroids, Mars and beyond.
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Science Journal
The most exciting story of the month: Czech psychologists help set the
stage for one of the greatest journeys of the mind imaginable. The scene is
a parking lot in Moscow, where six scientists have been locked away in a
mock spaceship for a 520-day-long mission to Mars.
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Astronomer Jiří Grygar on a life of promoting stargazing and scepticism
It’s pretty fair to say that anybody in the Czech Republic who knows
anything about astronomy has learned at least some of it from Dr. Jiří
Grygar. Something of a Czech Carl Sagan, Dr. Grygar has been a frequent
personality of Czech and Slovak television screens since his popular
programme “Windows Wide Open to Space” in the late 1970’s. He was the
chairman of the Czech Astronomical Society and is one of the founding
members of the Czech club of sceptics, Sisyfos, which battles pseudoscience
and charlatanism in the Czech media. I met Dr. Grygar in his tiny office at
the Physics Institute of the Academy of Sciences, and asked him to tell me
about how he first became interested in his life’s passion.
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First lunar landing warmly remembered
Monday marks exactly 40 years since the moment man first set foot on the
moon. At that time, in 1969, Czechoslovakia was one of the only Soviet
satellite states broadcasting the event. Among those relaying history live
to the nation of 15 million on national TV was Antonín Vítek, one of the
country’s leading experts in cosmology. He recalled the day for me in his
office in the Academy of Sciences.
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Czech researchers map crew’s behaviour on simulated Mars flight
On Tuesday, six volunteers in Moscow began a 105-day simulated trip to
Mars, a project organised by the European and Russian space agencies. The
aim of Mars-500, as the project is called, is to study how well humans cope
in long isolation and cramped conditions, necessary on any real flight to
the Red Planet. Czech researchers from the Tomáš Baťa University in
Zlín are among those contributing to Mars-500: they are monitoring
relationships and communication among the crew as well as potential points
of conflict.
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International Year of Astronomy due to kick off in Prague
The year 2009 has been designated as the International Year of Astronomy,
as it marks exactly 400 years since Galileo first used an astronomical
telescope to study the skies. As the presiding head of the European Union,
the Czech Republic has been chosen to launch the Year of Astronomy with an
official celebration taking place this coming Wednesday on Prague’s Old
Town Square. One of the organizers of the events here in the Czech Republic
is the Czech Academy of Sciences. Earlier today, I spoke to its director
Václav Pačes:
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Czech Republic becomes first post-communist state to join European Space Agency
The Czech Republic is set to join the European Space Agency, after its
council approved Czech membership this week. Once that is ratified by the
Czech Parliament, the country will become the first post-communist state to
join the prestigious space research institution. But what will membership
mean for the Czech Republic? That’s a question Radio Prague put to the
director of Czech Space Office Jan Kolář.
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US astronaut of Czechoslovak descent recalls moon landings and pioneering spacewalk
Retired US astronaut Eugene Cernan is one of only three people to have
landed on the moon twice. In fact, he is the last human being to have
walked on the moon: as commander of the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, he was
the last astronaut to re-enter the Apollo Lunar Module before the crew
returned to Earth. As the name might suggest, Mr Cernan is of Czechoslovak
descent. Indeed, he carried Czechoslovakia’s flag with him on his final
space flight. He told me why:
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Business News
In Business News this week: the Czech finance minister puts forward plans
for a radically simplified “super tax”; the Czech tractor maker Zetor
sees a 14-percent rise in sales; the Ministry of Agriculture launches a
huge organic food promotion campaign; there is speculation the country’s
biggest search engine could go on the block; and a Czech travel agency is
offering flights in space on Virgin Galactic. More
Amateur astronomer takes unique photos of U.S. space shuttle Atlantis
Libor Šmíd, an amateur astronomer in Plzeň, western Bohemia, took some
unique photos of the U.S. space shuttle Atlantis approaching the
International Space Station in February. Taken within just four minutes of
the Atlantis flyover of the Plzeň area, the pictures won the Photo of the
Month contest of the Czech Astronomical Society.
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