Wednesday, August 2, 2000
Page 3
tnot
team
il choice to replaceD®
e Shaquille O'Neal,fe
nwavering in hisstani
not wish to play forilt
n this summer,
agent, Leonard Armato,
nediately be reachedfe:
esday.
;sible choices—assii’
ion committee would®
after another bi'
man — include Ar,-
tonio McDyess o:
Denver, Datid
Robinson of SanAa
tonio and Karl Mal
one of Utah.
The Olympic®
•ter does not havet
be finalized unit
Sept. 15, two davsb
fore the United State
plays its first gamt
against China, al
though the selectior
committee wouldr-
place Duncan wel
before that date ilk
'lay.
I know, he hasn't madt
ion yet," Granik said
ive to wait and see."
is expected to re-sign
i Antonio Spurs in the
s. Duncan, a free agent,
i an offer from the Or-
■ in favor of signing a
■al with the Spurs,
rar-old forward led the
r only NBA title in 1999,
st season's playoffs with
: t knee.
M 2818
stridge
ries:
i
FACILITIES
DENTS
) A&M
OM CAMPUS)
IEE
iitor
)r
Editor
Editor
aster
1 University in the
3 are in 014 Reed
Thebattalion@hof
lorsement by The
)r classified advet
j hours are 8 a.m
tdent to pick up 2
ations are $60 pe'
month. To cha^ |
luring the fall
ept University ho!
College Station,?'
srsity, 1111 TAM?
-J
l f Martian...
A&M scientists work to develop Mars station agriculture
Patrice Pages
The Battalion
The world population is expected
to grow by 20 percent in the next 20
years according to the U.S. Census Bu
reau. More animal and plant species
are placed on the endangered species
list every year, and Earth's atmosphere
is getting more and more polluted.
"The earth has a finite number of
resources and a finite land area," said
Robert Spanarkel, a postdoctoral re
search associate in horticulture at Texas
A&M. "We are using up
those resources and that fA
land area very quickly. This
is not something that we will
have to think about next year
or 10 years from now, but
maybe 100 years from now.
"We know that there are
resources in space that we can
use here on the earth
Spanarkel said. "To get to
those resources, and to get
those resources back to the
earth, you have to have ...
colonies in space."
A group of A&M scientists
is working with NASA's John
son Space Center to develop
life support systems for a Mar
tian base that will use plants
and other physical chemical
systems for air and water recy
cling and for food production.
Low-atmosphere plant growth
Plants from Earth will be shipped
to Mars to grow there in specially de
signed greenhouses.
To determine how plants will grow
under the extreme Martian conditions,
A&M scientists have set up an experi
ment in which they control plant
growth conditions in each of two clear
chambers.
"In each chamber, we are able to
control the total pressure, so that we can
monitor the relative humidity, the wa
ter loss of plants, how fast plants grow,
how much food they produce, how
much oxygen they give off and how
much carbon dioxide they consume,"
said Ron Lacey, associate
professor of agricul
tural engineering at
A&M.
By reducing the
air pressure to 70
percent of the at
mospheric pressure,
A&M scientists have
shown that plants
grow faster under Mart-
j ian conditions than un
der nqrmal conditions.
"Besides showing
that the plants would
grow and develop well,
we saw no differences in
photosynthesis and the
amount of oxygen pro
duced by the plants,"
Spanarkel said.
"We also found some
thing very interesting. At
nighttime, plants take in oxygen and
give off carbon dioxide. For some rea
son, under lower atmospheric pres
sure, at nighttime, plants give off more
carbon dioxide. So we can grow plants
under continuous light, they can con
tinuously be giving off oxygen, and
you actually get the plants to produce
more food in a shorter period of time."
A&M scientists are now setting up
a larger experiment, made of six cham
bers, to study plant growth in six dif
ferent atmospheres. The plants used in
these chambers are selected by NASA
based on their nutritional values, the
percentage of the plant that is edible
and their photosynthesis rates.
Based on previous missions to
Mars, scientists have found that Mart
ian soil, in large part, is of volcanic ori
gin. Spanarkel tried to grow plants us
ing an artificial reproduction of the soil.
"Interestingly enough, plants grow
quite well," he said.
Humans and plants on Mars
During the mid-1990s, humans par
ticipated in two tests simulating life
conditions in a greenhouse at NASA's
Johnson Space Center.
In the first test, a person was placed
with plants for 30 days at a normal at
mospheric pressure.
During a second test, performed
two years ago, four people stayed in
side a chamber connected to an inde
pendent plant-growth chamber, shar
ing the atmosphere for three months.
Within their own habitat, they also
grew lettuce.
"NASA discovered, to their sur
prise, that there was a large psycholog
ical benefit to having these green plants
growing in their habitat and providing
them fresh food," Spanarkel said.
"Nearly all the components re
quired for human life support were
being recycled," said Malcolm Drew,
a professor of horticulture at A&M.
"There was regeneration of oxygen,
human waste was recycled, and wa
ter was recycled and resupplied as
drinking water to the people in
volved in the test."
This experiment also tested the abil
ity of humans to psychologically with
stand confinement in an artificial at
mosphere for a long periods. Drew
said. Though the four people could not
leave the chambers for three months,
they had computer connections with
the outside world and access to televi
sion and books.
NASA is planning a 425-day test by
2005. The new setup will use five cylin
ders, each about 45 feet long and 30
feet in diameter.
"The aim is to have a test running
for more than a year to prove that the
whole system is robust," said Drew.
"Also, from the viewpoint of human
psychology, it is important for people
to withstand these conditions."
NASA is extending the duration of
each new experiment because the first
crew on Mars might stay there for as
long as 18 months.
Water on Mars
A recent discovery of possible liquid
water underneath the Martian surface
has been important to the scientists
working on future missions to Mars.
Planetary geologists Michael C.
Malin and Kenneth S. Edgett, both of
the Malin Space Science Systems in San
See Mars on Page 4.
Above: Three possible de
signs for Mars stations
and greenhouses,
Left: Low atmosphere
simulation chamber con
taining a 30-day-old head
of lettuce grown at 70
kilopascals (30 kilopas-
cals below ambient room
pressure).
Web registration poses technological challenge
Stuart Hutson
The Battalion
For Texas A&M students who are tired of dialing in their class
selections and being denied by the choppy electronic voice of the
computerized telephone registration system, an easy-to-read Web
page may seem a better method of adding or dropping classes.
But for A&M Computing and Information Services (CIS), mak
ing that method a possibility is far from easy.
"Frankly, I would like to see Web-based registration initiated,
but there are a lot of problems that have to be dealt with before
that can happen," said Tom Putnam, director of CIS.
Putnam said the first and most significant step toward de
veloping Web-based registration is getting money from the
administration.
Universities Ulith Web Registration
Auburn
Florida
Florida State
Georgia Tech
Iowa State
Kansas State
UC - Berkeley
• iHinnesota
• north Carolina
• Ohio State
• Penn State
• Texas
• Texas Tech
• ucm
• UC - San Diego
tjt
"We currently have a proposal for a plan that would cost $1
million that is up for review by the administration," he said. "But
it is hard to convince someone to give $1 million for one thing
when it could just as easily go to any one of a dozen worthwhile
projects."
Under the current phone registration system, a student dials
into a computerized telephone registration terminal. The ter
minal then exchanges the entered information (i.e. adds, drops
and fee options) with the central mainframe computer that
houses the student information management system (SIMS).
SIMS is a database that contains all student records, such as
course schedules, transcripts and fiscal records.
See Registration on Page 4.
Question-. If
clouds are made
of water, then
why do they ap
pear white or
even black at
times?
— Rudy Sali
nas, junior envi
ronmental design major
Answer: As you may know, light
can be red, orange, yellow, green,
blue, indigo and violet. When all of
these are combined, you get white
light. Take all these away, or block
out all light completely, and you get
black light.
This is best demonstrated by a
prism scattering light into a rainbow.
According to the state climatol
ogist, John Nielson-Gammon, wa
ter is really good at scattering aiad
bouncing around all of the elements
of light. Therefore, white clouds are
thinner clouds that have just blend
ed the colors coming through the at
mosphere like a nice daiquiri —
thus, white light.
As for dark clouds, I personally
used to believe that since dark clouds
usually mean rain, their color came
from the dust particles which water
collects around to form raindrops. Of
course, I was just plain wrong.
Nielson-Gammon said the clouds
appear gray or black'because they
are so thick that the light that usual
ly passes through gets blocked off.
Rain usually occurs when a mass
of cold air hits a mass of warm air.
Clouds carried with the cold air
mass are usually more dense be
cause the clouds' water is condensed
by the cold temperature. These
dense clouds block out more light.
This is why dark clouds are as
sociated with rain.
■ It's that simple.
If you have a question about why,
when, or how things happen, just
email me at scifyi@hotmail.com
with your question, name, classifi
cation and major, and I'll see if I can
serve up an answer.
A
SM'yf IH
Watch your mailbox!
OPAS Season 28 small
ticket packages and priority
individual tickets will be
available soon! You'll want
to hurry before the best
seats are gone.
Call 845-1661
• •
r
2000-2001 Season Media Partners
#|
KBTX
WDUtr
tM-Ofie. PneqnatuM GenteSiA.
' " *OF BRAZOS VALLEY
I CANT POSSIBLY BE PREGNANT,
BUT WHAT IF I AM?
Pregnancy Peer Counseling Service
Complete Confidentiality
Full Information on Abortion Risks
Pre and Post Abortion Counseling
Free Pregnancy Test
Mon., Tues. & Thurs. 9-8 • Wed. & Fri. 9-5 • Sat. 8-12
846-1097
3620 E. 29TH ST • BRYAN
www.rtis.com/hope
Want Gifts & Ca$h?
Then NOW is the time to order your
GRADUATION ANNOUNCEMENTS!
• We accept orders until July 3T‘
• Aggieland Printing can get you ready
to mail announcements in one week
• We have our own unique design
Licensed by A&M Don't miss it - see them
on the web www.aggielandprinting.com
We sell
• Graduation Announcements • Graduation Remembrance Displays
• Thank You Notes • Personalized Graduate Notepads
Order & pay online: www.aggielandprinting.com
Aggieland Printing
1801 Holleman, C.S.
693-8621 M-F 8:30-5:30