Six taikonauts have been divided into two groups - one group of three will fly the mission, the other three will be the backup team.

Shenzhou 7 will orbit the Earth for five days, with a one-hour long spacewalk to take place during the flight, as well as the launching of a small satellite. Also, during the trip, the taikonauts will do experiments using new satellite communications technologies.

The spacecraft has been transported to the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center. Technicians there are busily checking and double-checking the readiness of the craft.

Regarding the spacewalk, the Shenzhou 7 has been outfitted with two air-lock doors in a special module imbedded between the craft’s return module and its orbital module. According to the radio report, the taikonauts will seal the first door and discharge air pressure in the orbital module. When the air pressure inside and outside that module matches, then the spacewalk can proceed. A reverse procedure will permit a spacewalker to reenter the module.

For the spacewalk, Chinese space engineers have readied two kinds of spacesuits. One design makes use of China’s own technologies…the other was purchased from Russia. Space program officials will make the final suit choice as the Shenzhou 7 mission draws closer.

The radio report explained that the upcoming mission will be the first flight of a second phase human space program. Establishing a space station is the next step for China’s space planners.

Meanwhile, the Xinhua news agency in China reported July 19 that the Long March 2F rocket to be used in the Shenzhou 7 sendoff will be sent to the launch center in a few days. An official with the China Academy of Launch Vehicle Technology (CALT) said that the group of 200 launch team members are dedicated to having a safe and successful launch of the Shenzhou 7.

The project, to cost at least $3 billion, will include significant new transmission lines to get power from windy areas, where the turbines will be, to urban areas. Texas electric customers will pay about $4 more per month on their electric bills to help cover the costs of investment.

State officials aren’t just blowing hot air.

According to MSNBC: Texas is already the national leader in wind power, and wind supporters say Thursday’s move by the Public Utility Commission will make the Lone Star State a leader in moving energy to the urban areas that need electricity.

“We will add more wind than the 14 states following Texas combined,” said PUC Commissioner Paul Hudson. “I think that’s a very extraordinary achievement. Some think we haven’t gone far enough, some think we’ve pushed too far.”

Meantime, one town in Missouri is entirely powered by wind.

Not everyone is hot on wind. Some argue the giant turbines (not windmills anymore) are noisy and can kill birds. And one study suggested the drag o turbines could actually alter the climate.

• Whatever Happened to Wind Energy?

“As a matter of technical capability, it absolutely can,” he told the BBC News in London.

But one little nugget of newness caught my eye from Griffin. That is, some early scientific partnerships between the two space powers are being eyed.

I contacted NASA public affairs officer, Mike Braukus, for a little more info.

Turns out that there’s been some recent NASA chat with China following Griffin’s September 2006 space trek to that country - the first time a NASA administrator had visited there.

Discussions between NASA and China National Space Administration (CNSA) leaders concern the establishment of Earth and space science working groups, Braukus advised.

“The areas of discussion centered on complementary measurements and data exchange on missions that are already being pursued in each country in the fields of Earth and space science,” Braukus said. “It could be beneficial to NASA to cooperate with CNSA in these areas to share data, reduce mission cost and duplication, and advance scientific knowledge,” he added.

This all reminds me of U.S.-Soviet Union Cold War thawing in the space arena - steps that led to an Apollo-Soyuz docking, shuttle visits to the Mir space station, and open airlock policy that led to the International Space Station.

Small science steps can lead to giant leaps of collaboration.

Schweickart is at the 37th Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) in Montreal, Canada giving a special luncheon talk today on the asteroid threat to Earth and international decisions that are forthcoming.

Speaking as Chairman of the Association of Space Explorers (ASE) Committee on Near-Earth Objects, Schweickart is spotlighting several items, such as:

– Presently, about 3,000 NEOs have been identified and are being tracked that are of a size capable of destroying a major city on impact.

– Within the next 10-15 years, the orbits of over 300,000 such objects will be tracked.

– Based on current data, 97 percent of these objects will have NO chance of impact over the next century. However, of the remaining three percent, there are likely to be many that will appear menacing enough to seriously consider deflection.

A key message from Schweickart is that, given adequate early warning, a NEO deflection campaign can be initiated using existing space technology. Furthermore, the international community will shortly be confronted with the decision of whether action should be taken, when it should be taken, and who should take such action.

It’s Schweickart’s view that for those pondering whether or not the threat of NEO impacts is “a real issue” and whether it needs to be dealt with now, the proper answer to both queries is “yes” and “yes.”

To move the NEO impact on Earth issue down the political and global court, ASE and its panel on Asteroid Threat Mitigation are wrapping up a two year effort - a decision program for asteroid threat mitigation to be submitted to the United Nations in 2009 labeled: “Asteroid Threats: A Call for Global Response.”

Reuters reports today: “Obesity levels in China are rising fast, with more than a quarter of the adult population overweight or obese, as people add more meat and dairy products to their diet, causing serious health problems.”

Other studies have found similar rising rates of obesity in other countries in recent years. The World Health Org now calls obesity a global epidemic. It seems everyone’s trying to get in on our game.

“Increased consumption of more energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods with high levels of sugar and saturated fats, combined with reduced physical activity, have led to obesity rates that have risen three-fold or more since 1980 in some areas of North America, the United Kingdom, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, the Pacific Islands, Australasia and China.The obesity epidemic is not restricted to industrialized societies; this increase is often faster in developing countries than in the developed world.”

As here, people in China don’t have to work as hard as they used to (that’s a gross averaging of the masses, of course) and so cancer and heart disease are on the rise, too. Delightful progress, eh?

“What’s happening in China should be seen as a marker for what is going to hit the rest of the developing world if we fail to act,” said researcher Barry Popkin of the University of North Carolina.

Also out today, a comprehensive study of studies that finds good diet and exercise promote healthier brains.

So why doesn’t everyone eat better? I guess a) we don’t have to, and b) it’s easy not to, and c) for some it’s very challenging culturally and economically, and d) our species is not really all that smart (see “promote healthier brains” above for tips on how to improve in this area).

And before the hate mail starts, this is not about aesthetics. Obesity kills friends, spouses, grandparents and children, and it is expensive for a society as it fuels diabetes and other diseases that we all pay for in skyrocketing health care costs. It makes us less competitive at work and less able-bodied as a nation. Poor diet choices are costing modern humans a fortune in body repair bills, pain and agony, and reduced years of life (the last few of which tend to be less enjoyable than they would be otherwise).

Slightly less seriously, some even argue that if everyone trimmed down a little, we’d save gas as our vehicles toted lighter loads. Clearly at the personal level, eating less would allow household budgets to draw in a notch. And for anyone planning to be a grandparent some day: Scientists now know that if you eat fewer calories (simply substitute veggies for a daily desert), you will likely have more time to bounce those grandkids on your knee.

Okay, none of that matters to you? Then it’s about sex.

“The imminent emergence of human suborbital flight for commercial purposes offers an opportunity for a new mode of research for the scientific community: human-tended suborbital investigations for cases where having a human in-the-loop would increase the scientific return of flight experiments,” according to NASA’s Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences (ROSES) release - a “New Proposal Opportunity for Concept Studies for Human Tended Suborbital Science.”

NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD) is soliciting research investigation concept studies to help shape the possible new program. The solicitation is for concept studies to identify areas of SMD-sponsored science that can benefit from the capabilities that stem from piloted suborbital vehicles over traditional means of hurling payloads on suborbital trajectories.

Several private space firms are pursuing piloted suborbital craft, such as Scaled Composites, XCOR Aerospace, as well as Rocketplane Global.

The notice of intent to propose are due August 6, 2008, with proposals due October 8, 2008.

If it’s a go from NASA, a pilot research program of suborbital flight operations would be implemented in 2010-2011.

The evidence can be seen in several ways the new energy crisis is changing American life, often with good side effects for the planet and the nation, at least in the long run: People are driving less, driving slower and shopping smarter (which means consuming less of stuff that’s often produced or shipped inefficiently or imported unnecessarily).

Three new developments this week suggest a broadening of the trends:

1. In Korea shoppers of appliances and electronics are asking about energy use. American shoppers will wake to this soon, too. Americans spend about $1 billion a year, by one estimate, on “vampire electricity,” powering devices even when they’re off; you’ve seen the orange “I’m ready to go” lights on stereo equipment, etc. (how you can save a buck).

The dawning awareness will have a trickle-up effect as smart manufactures ramp up investment and development of products that use less energy. The shift in computer displays from conventional cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFLs) to light emitting diode (LED) displays is one example already well underway, but now there’s incentive to build more energy efficient appliances, from clothes dryers to toasters.

2. Another interesting and long-awaited development, or at least rumor of it: The Toyota Prius will get an optional and not overly useful solar panel, because the car company thinks consumers demand even token efforts at solar as part of the overall package to wean ourselves from oil. One small step toward the 100 mpg car that’s going to sell like gangbusters soon as some car company makes the not-so-difficult leap.

3. Some politicians continue to push for smart, futuristic thinking where the White House won’t: New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg said this week the city will spend $2.3 billion to cut greenhouse gas emissions from municipal buildings and operations by 30 percent in 30 years. “The city is doing its part, I hope the private sector follows our example and finds conservation savings of their own,” Bloomberg said. Interesting he had no advice for the federal government.

Meantime, the U.S. and global leaders vowed this week to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2050 in one of the most empty promises ever to come out of the political arena. The G8 meeting would have been better spent deciding to don eight Jimmy Carter sweaters this winter.

Point being: For now, natural economic pressures and personal decisions rooted in strong morals and economic necessity are the primary drivers of change in how we manage the planet’s resources.

Gotta toss this in: Time Magazine’s Joe Klein wrote an obvious yet illuminating piece on air conditioners, and how stupidly obsessed we’ve become with them. He bemoans those who cool homes and businesses to 75 and lower, especially on delightful spring days. I’m with him on this. We keep our AZ home at around 83 on summer days — not to save the world but because it’s quite pleasant. Not everyone has the same taste for warmth, but it’s insane that on a 110-degree day the movie theaters, restaurants and stores are so chilled I need a sweater.

Here’s one: Hypermilers fear a backlash as wannabies latch on to their most dangerous techniques such as drafting.

Huh?

Hypermilers are, as I learned today, people who try to squeeze every mile out of a gallon of gas. There are the sensible tricks: driving slower; coming off stop lights without laying rubber; and keeping your engine fit as a fiddle. Then there’s rolling through stop signs, driving way too slow, and drafting like Kyle Busch.

The classic hypermilers are worried that idiots picking up on their tactics (at sites like leanmpg.com, hypermiling.com and hypermilers.com) will take the dangerous ones to extreme, giving all hypermilers a bad name. “Now that the general public keeps hearing this falsehood that hypermiling is all about drafting, a lot of idiots are going to start trying it — and we’re going to get the blame.” Well, sure, now that we’ve exposed the frontlash, the backlash should go into high gear. I’m going to look for some of these idiots this afternoon when I hit the road, in fact.

I suspect the rapidly changing economy in America will set up all kinds of frontlashes (I don’t expect the term to catch on, however).

Another example: Hypermiling is to me today what stripping was a few weeks back. We learned of a backlash among local real estate agents to stripping, which we then learned is rampant in our town. People who are peeved that they’re losing their homes to foreclosure are taking everything with them, leaving the houses largely unsaleable. The backlash gained steam last week when a guy in Pennsylvania went to jail for stripping a $1.2 million home of everything AND the kitchen sink.

Bids are currently being accepted and will be opened on July 18, with the winning “bidee” to start initial work on that piece of infrastructure on or around September 2008 - depending on weather and other factors.

Once that improved road — now a distinct but dusty and winding trail — is completed, construction of the spaceport can move forward more swiftly. The project will involve improving the road and applying a temporary chip and seal road surface. The hope is to have that work completed by year’s end.

According to the New Mexico Spaceport Authority, the current projection for completion of Spaceport America’s terminal and hangar facility should be wrapped up by 2010.

Keeping an eye on all of this are early adopters of Spaceport America’s promise as the nation’s first purpose-built commercial space facility: Virgin Galactic, Lockheed Martin, as well as Up Aerospace.

From The St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

“In March, the Madison County Sheriff’s Department arrested three people for stealing 40 vases from two Metro East cemeteries. The owner of a Granite City scrap recycling center turned them in. … The scrap value of a bronze vase is about $10, according to cemetery operators; the replacement price often tops $300.”

Similar thefts have been reported in numerous locales this month, including Kansas City, Sweet Home, Oregon, and a spree in Cook County, Illinois that affected nearly 1,500 families.

Grave-digging isn’t always about cash. In Texas, a trio apparently dug up a corpse earlier this year only to smoke pot out of the skull. And as a total aside, scientists earlier this year announced advancements in sniffing out corpses to speed up the process of finding graves.

• Boomers Seek ‘Green’ Death
• Top 10 Weird Ways We Deal With the Dead
• Beyond the Grave: Death Gets More Interesting