In Maslow's hierarchy of human needs, food comes just below water, a little above shelter and sex. In the hierarchy of curiosity about what really goes on in space, food comes in right after how they use the toilet. In other words...really important.

When you think of manned space flight, what comes to mind? For some, it’s images of astronaut candidates being tested for the “right stuff:” getting poked and prodded in myriad medical exams, climbing in and out of mock space capsules, and undergoing training in jungles and deserts...as well as being strapped into large centrifuges and subjected to crushing g-forces.

Sadly, the NASA Authorization Act of 2010, which determines NASA’s policy, was passed by the senate today, heavily altered from Obama’s proposal in February in one key crucial area. Section 403 highlights the problem with the act--there will be no commercial crew development of space in 2011; commercial development of space is limited to cargo, but only in 2012:

by Peter Wainwright and Carol Pinchefsky

On 3 June 2010, six volunteers, all men, walked confidently through the door into what will be their home for the next 520 days, the length of time it will take to reach Mars and back, plus spend 30 days in a “Mars orbiting” phase. This simulation, known as Mars500, is a joint project between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Russian and Chinese governments. This experiment will study the effect of long-term physical and mental stresses similar to those expected on the long round trip to the Red Planet.

Last month's Issac Asimov Memorial Debate, hosted as usual by Hayden Planetarium Director Neil deGrasse Tyson, tackled a subject close to Space Future's heart – the future of manned spaceflight. Or, to be strictly accurate, “The Moon, Mars, and Beyond: Where next for the manned spaced program?”

November 13, 2009, is the day the Moon changed—or at least, our perception of it did.

The first Teacher in Space program began in 1984, with teachers Christa McAuliffe and Barbara Morgan chosen from 11,000 applicants as the first to fly. Unfortunately for all concerned, McAuliffe lost her life with other six astronauts when the space shuttle Challenger blew up 74 seconds into its flight. NASA shelved the program, and for the next twenty years no teacher/educator has made it across the threshold of the next frontier until Barbara Morgan finally flew in 2007.

On Thursday, 2009 March 12, a tiny piece of space debris from an old rocket motor caused the three astronauts aboard the International Space Station ( ISS) to don their space suits and hustle to the attached Soyuz spacecraft just in case—just in case the 13-centimeter-diameter (about five inches wide) poked a hole in their home away from home.

We never hear about it, but when the wagon trains were working their way West, the folks must have had to find some way to, well, take care of their bodily functions. The men, of course, because of their somewhat different physiques, might not have had much trouble taking care of business, but for the women it was a different story. Crossing the vast plains of what is now Texas, Kansas, Nebraska, and then the great deserts of the West with nary a tree or bush in sight must have caused some concern. But we never hear about it, so those hardy folk must have found some way to preserve their dignity and their privacy.