The International Space Station (ISS) is an engineering marvel and a true example of what countries of the world can accomplish when working together. The International Space Station is a joint project among the countries of the USA, Russia, Japan, Canada, and several European countries.

The research facility is a satellite, being assembled in stages about 219 miles above the earth's surface. It is traveling at the speed of 17,240 miles per hour and makes nearly sixteen orbits around the Earth each day. The ISS was launched on November 20, 1998. The first permanent crew of astronauts arrived on the International Space Station on November 2, 2000. Since then, there have always been at least two people on board, giving humans a permanent presence in space. Shuttles to resupply the Space Station and rotate astronauts have occurred about every six months since the year 2000. To date, the astronauts that have manned the station have been either Russian or American. However, the Space Station has been visited by astronauts from fourteen countries.

The next visit to the Space Station is scheduled for Thursday, October 25, 2007. The launch of a space shuttle named Discovery is a scheduled event in Florida for Tuesday, October 23, 2007. Discovery's seven-astronaut crew will deliver a new connecting node to the ISS that will serve as the foundation for the future arrival of its international laboratories. The astronauts will also move an older solar array segment and test shuttle heat shield repair techniques during the five space walks planned during their 14-day mission.

The purpose of the International Space Station is to provide experimentation in space. The ISS has had minimal experimentation to date, but that is about to change with the addition of the Columbus module (with the STS-122 Shuttle launch) on December 6, 2007. This space laboratory is Europe's single biggest contribution to the station. It is built to last ten years and will enable thousands of space experiments. It should provide a generic laboratory as well as facilities designed for specialized research in biology, biomedical research, fluid/quantum physics, and cosmology. A major goal of the research is to improve our understanding of the effect of long-term space exposure on the human body. Areas such as muscle atrophy, bone loss, and fluid shifts are scheduled to be studied with the intention to utilize this data so space colonization and lengthy space travel can become feasible.

Columbus will be followed by the Japanese Experiment Module also known as Kib%u014D. It is scheduled to be in installed as part of the International Space Station (after the STS-127 launch) around January, 2009. This module is being developed to function as an observatory and to measure various astronomical data.

The ExPRESS Logistics Carrier, developed by NASA, is set to be launched for the ISS (with the STS-129 mission), in the fall of 2009. This module allows experiments to be deployed and conducted in the vacuum of space and will provide the necessary electricity and computing to locally process data from experiments.

The Multipurpose Laboratory Module is expected to launch for the ISS in late 2009. It will supply the proper resources for general micro gravity experiments and complete the facility. The International Space Station's orbital platform is then scheduled to provide ongoing experimentation from these various laboratories until the year 2015.

What happens after 2015 has led to a disagreement among the project's partners. The United States insists it will pull out of the station at the end of 2015. However, Russia and Europe want its life prolonged. NASA administrator Michael Griffin has told Space Station partners that the US agency has no plans for "utilization and exploitation" of the science research lab for more than five years after it is completed. NASA, which argues that the time has come to look beyond the station to other platforms including a base on the moon, contributes nearly seventy percent of the bill for the orbital platform. The U.S. space agency has projected its own annual bill for the project to reach 2.3 billion dollars by 2010. That may well limit the station's life to the five years the partners agreed to keep it running after it is fully operational.

The development of the International Space Station is entering its final phase over the next two years. The Discovery mission in October 2007 will provide the final construction prior to the launch of the Columbus laboratory module on December 6, 2007. All future laboratory modules will be attached to the ISS by the end of 2009.

It will be interesting to track the progress of the International Space Station as each of the laboratory modules are launched and attached to the orbital platform. The attachment of these laboratories to the ISS will lead to various experiments that will provide a better understanding of the next frontier, outer space.

(For a video on the ISS, click on the story link below)

The problem with the true believer is that an issue becomes black and white. There is no room for discussion. The true believer is right and if you do not agree with him/her, you are dead wrong. The fact is the true believer is not satisfied just with the knowledge that they are right. They need you to acknowledge that they are right as well. They need to convert you. There can be no dissension. There can be no discourse. Facts do not really matter if they do not fit into the true believer's argument.

In extreme and violent terms we have seen this behavior manifest itself throughout history. The Crusades and the misguided horrors of Nazi Germany in the Second World War are examples. Today the violent true believer mentality can be seen in the extreme elements of Islam.The true believer mentality also exists in less dramatic and more subtle ways throughout our society. It can be seen in ethnic, racial or gender discrimination. It can be seen in religious intolerance. Unfortunately, it was also be seen in the United Nations sponsored climate change event in Bali in December 2007.

The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) panel's chairman, Rajendra Pachauri, said: Climate change imperils "the most precious treasures of our planet," and the effects are "so severe and so sweeping that only urgent global action will do.

In fact, the United Nations reports that global warming is "unequivocal". It estimates that as early as the year 2020 between 75 and 250 million people in Africa will suffer water shortages. It goes on to state that residents of Asia's largest cities will be at great risk of river and coastal flooding. Europeans can expect extensive species loss. North Americans will experience longer and hotter heat waves and greater competition for water.

The world's scientists have spoken clearly and with one voice," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, "I expect the world's policy makers to do the same."

According to the United Nations true believers, global warming is "unequivocal" and the world scientists "have spoken clearly and with one voice". There is no discussion. There is no dissent. All knowledgeable people now have been converted to this crusade. The reality, of course, is that global warming consensus is not the case in the scientific community. ( See article: The Secret Scientific Debate On Global Warming ).

Indeed for the Nobel winning United Nations panel (IPCC) and Nobel Prize winner Al Gore, fundamental problems with their global warming argument have already started to appear. As true believers in their global warming crusade, they will probably rationalize or ignore all facts that do not advance the cause. For the rest of us, as objective observers of the issue of global warming, the following facts should be carefully considered.

Global warming was supposed to cause frequent and violent hurricanes. The fact is that neither the intensity nor the frequency of hurricanes has increased. The 2007 season was the third quietest since 1966. In 2006 not a single hurricane made landfall in the U.S..

Since the mid 19th century, the mean global temperature has increased by 0.7 degrees Celsius. This slight warming is not unusual, and lies well within the range of natural variation. Carbon dioxide continues to increase in the atmosphere, but the mean planetary temperature hasn't increased significantly now for the last nine years.

In fact , 2007 provides anecdotal evidence that the Earth is, in effect, cooling. Antarctica is getting colder. Snow fell for the first time in Buenos Aires since 1918. Australia had the coldest June in its history this year. It snowed in South Africa for the first time in 15 years. South America experienced one of its coldest winters in the last three decades.

The truth is that the entire southern hemisphere experienced bitter cold weather in 2007. In addition, the Canadian government has just warned that this winter is likely to be its coldest in at least 15 years. Already, this winter has been very cold in many other parts of the Northern Hemisphere as well.

We have heard about global warming causing the rapidly melting Arctic Ice Cap in the last several years. In fact, advocates of man made global warming point to the rapidly melting Arctic ice as a sign that global warming is occurring even faster than expected.

However, the facts as reported by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California last month indicate a quite different conclusion. The melting of the Arctic sea ice in this study has nothing to do with global warming. It was a natural phenomenon caused by unusual winds and atmospheric pressure.

The project studied trends in Arctic Sea Ice using satellite data , computer models and buoy observations of sea ice drift. The conclusion of the study was as follows: "The rapid decline in winter perennial ice the past two years was caused by unusual winds. Unusual atmospheric conditions set up wind patterns that compressed the sea ice, loaded it into the Transpolar Drift Stream, and then sped its flow out of the Arctic. When that sea ice reached lower latitudes, it rapidly melted in the warmer waters. The winds causing this trend in ice reduction were set up by an unusual pattern of atmospheric pressure that began at the beginning of this century".

Global warming proponents have pointed out that records showed that 1998 was the hottest year on record in the United States. Several of the years surrounding 1998 were very warm and near the record as well. It certainly appeared that the climate was warming due to these historical records. However, it has just been discovered that the records were erroneous. A Canadian blogger named Steve McIntyre audited the NASA records and found errors. When he reported his findings to NASA scientists, they conducted a review that showed he was correct.

This led NASA to recently revise the data published on its website. The errors change the historical facts concerning the global warming argument. The hottest year in the United States is no longer 1998, but 1934. 2001 is no longer in the Top Ten. Instead, four of the top ten hottest years are in the 1930s.

Global warming is an issue that needs to be looked at objectively. It is an issue for rational discourse concerning science and facts. However, it has become a crusade for environmental true believers. Despite the United Nations rhetoric, scientists do not speak with "one voice" and man-made global warming is not "unequivocal".

The danger in blindly following the United Nations global warming crusaders is that we become far removed from the facts of the issue. Indeed, these same United Nations true believers could one day be wearing winter coats in tropical Bali asking Gaia, (the goddess of nature), for increased global warming. Such perversity happens when an issue becomes a crusade.

Mars is a planet that has received considerable attention from Hollywood over the years. For decades, in the mid to late 20th century, Hollywood would produce movie after movie depicting Martians as little green men who were nasty Earth invaders. Sometimes men from Mars simply sported green face paint, but they almost always wore a jumpsuit of some type.

Occasionally, though, Martians were not small or green. In movies called "Flying Disc Man From Mars" (1950) and "Flight to Mars" (1951), Martians looked just like us. However, in a 1960s movie called "The Angry Red Planet." there's no shortage of scary Martian creatures. Martian Monsters included giant green bat-spiders, man-eating plants, amorphous slithering blobs with one eye, and three-eyed Martians with devil horns.

In "The War of the Worlds," the classic 1898 H.G. Wells novel, invading Martians are described as having a quivering, V-shaped mouth, huge brains with tentacles, intense eyes, and an oily brown skin. Martians used robots for their manual labor.

In the 1953 movie, "Invaders From Mars," Hollywood shows Martians for the first time in color. While the Martian Master is more akin to Wells' literary creature, the workers are humanoid, with ping-pong eyeballs and three fingers. And they're unique in their oversized hoodies with zippers running up the backs.

However, in the 1960s, television would provide a much more positive impression of Martians. In 1963, in the comedy series "My Favorite Martian", lovable actor Ray Walston was only made distinct from humans by the retractable antennae sitting on top of his otherwise normal human head.

I was thinking about how all of this Hollywood science fiction and hype has shaped our thinking of Mars, as I watched the successful landing of NASA's robotic spaceship on the planet's surface the other day. I wondered if the late 20th century Hollywood science fiction writers could ever imagine a day when a spacecraft from Earth would actually enter the Martian atmosphere. They could certainly never envision a spaceship that would be traveling at a speed of 13,000 miles per hour just seven short minutes before actually landing on a planned spot on the Martian surface.

In fact the entry into Mars' atmosphere and landing on the planet's surface were thought to be the most dangerous part of the Phoenix mission by NASA scientists. However, the spacecraft would land perfectly in the Vastitas Borealis Plains within the Martian Arctic Circle. This mission had been planned since the Mars Odyssey detected frozen water below the planet's surface in 2002. The Phoenix Mars landing is at a latitude comparable to that of northern Alaska on Earth.

The purpose of the Phoenix mission is to discover not only the history of the planet's water and ice, but also whether the region could support microbial life. Crucial to this question will be tests for complex, carbon-based chemicals (organics) in the soil and signs that the ice periodically melts. Other soil tests will determine abundances of different minerals, and the laboratory will also subject dust grains to microscopic examination.

Phoenix will be stationary for three months on Mars as it carries out these scientific operations on the planet's surface. Phoenix's stereo camera, located on its 2-meter (6.6-foot) mast, will use two "eyes" to reveal a high-resolution perspective of the landing site's geology. It will also provide range maps for use in choosing where to dig. Multi-spectral capability will enable the identification of local minerals.

The solar-powered craft will deploy a robotic arm to dig down vertically through the soil toward the planet's icy crust. The arm was designed to deliver samples of Martian soil to the spacecraft's wet chemistry lab and tiny ovens for scientific analysis. The samples will be heated to release volatiles that can be examined for their chemical composition and other characteristics. One goal is to check whether subsurface samples hold carbon-containing compounds that are essential ingredients of life.

To increase scientific understanding of Martian atmospheric processes, Phoenix will scan the atmosphere up to twelve miles in altitude, obtaining data about the formation, duration, and movement of clouds, fog, and dust plumes. It also carries temperature and pressure sensors.

A better understanding of Mars is important to scientists since the planet is a primary long-term target for human exploration. Current plans are for a colonization of the Moon by NASA during the next decade. An outpost on the lunar surface would make a future launch of a manned spacecraft to Mars a distinct possibility in the decades that follow.

The next ninety days will determine the ultimate success of the first robotic spacecraft to land on Mars in over a decade. The Phoenix will surely become a trailblazer for future missions that will continue to explore the planet's surface. As far as all those movies about little green men and other creatures from Mars are concerned, real science is now about to replace science fiction. Indeed, NASA's Phoenix spacecraft has arrived on the surface of Mars. Its arrival marks the end of Martians as portrayed in Hollywood fiction.