The Malaysian Insider :: Features
The Malaysian Insider :: Features |
| Mars crew ‘lands’ after 520 days in isolation Posted: 04 Nov 2011 08:36 AM PDT  Mars500 experiment crew members react after leaving the mock spaceship in Moscow on November 4, 2011. ― Reuters pic The US$15 million (RM46.8 million) Mars500 experiment aims to answer one of the big unknowns of deep-space travel: Could people stay healthy and sane during more than six months rocketing to the Red Planet? In a study set to recreate the psychological strain of a real Mars mission as closely as possible, the six male volunteers will briefly embrace friends and family before being ushered directly into a three-day quarantine period. Clothed in blue jumpsuits, the would-be astronauts from Europe, Russia and China flashed waves to onlookers as the heavy metal door was shut on their home of the last 17 months in a 550-cubic-meter mock spaceship at a Moscow research institute. "It's really, really great to see you all again, rather heartwarming," said shaky and red-eyed Diego Urbina, an Italian-Colombian participant. "On this mission we've achieved the longest isolation ever so that humankind can go to a distant but reachable planet." Psychologists fear a return to the noise and activity of ordinary life will come as a shock. "Time seems to have flown by since we closed the hatch last year. But how time really felt to the crew we'll soon know. Probably we'll have a very big difference of opinion," said Igor Ushakov, head of the Russian Institute for Biomedical Problems, which runs the "spaceship." The crew were firmly anchored by gravity, despite the pretence of long months shuttling through space. But that did not stop them from feeling thousands of miles from home. "I really felt a physical distance between our crew and the people in Mission Control. My reason knows that they're just 20m away from us but my mind can't accept it," Frenchman Romain Charles wrote to Reuters on the eve of his return. The men have fed on rations like those of real astronauts, rarely showered, taken daily urine and blood samples all while under constant, 24-hour surveillance in all but toilets ― earning the study comparisons to a reality TV show. More than 100 different experiments crowded in on the Mars500 project, with researchers of every stripe interested in scrutinising the men. Halfway through, three crew members even donned 32-kg spacesuits to clomp about in a dark, sand-filled room pretending to imitate the surface of Mars. A previous 420-day experiment ended in drunken disaster in 2000, when two participants got into a fistfight and a third tried to forcibly kiss a female crew member. Space officials say technology is still decades away from being able to protect astronauts from cosmic radiation, land them at least 56 million km across the solar system and bring them home again. But Charles said flying to Mars is "the next logical step for human expansion." "If any catastrophic threat is targeting the Earth, we should be able to seek for a safe haven in another celestial body." What advice would he give real Marsonauts to survive the monotony? "Always stay busy" and "don't forget your e-book reader!" Charles said. ― Reuters Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
| Hong Kong toast of wine world amid global woes Posted: 04 Nov 2011 03:06 AM PDT
Even with Europe's debt crisis and continued fragility in the U.S. economy continuing to weigh on consumer demand, Hong Kong's wine trade has grown steadily, with imports surging 57 per cent in the first nine months, year on year, to US$940 million (RM8.441 billion). Since the teeming former British colony scrapped wine duties from 40 per cent to zero in 2008, wine imports have almost quadrupled to US$898 million in 2010 with the mushrooming of wine merchants, auctioneers, distributors and storage cellars. Auction houses such as Christie's and Sotheby's, along with specialised wine sellers such as Acker, Merrall & Condit, helped propel wine auction sales in the city to US$164 million in 2010, according to industry figures, making it the world's leading wine auction hub over London and New York. In the first three quarters this year, the city recorded US$940 million of wine imports from all major wine-growing regions including France, Italy, Australia and South America, many of the best vintages being channeled to meet growing demand from affluent and regular buyers. "China is the fastest growing wine consumption market in the world," said K.C. Chan, Hong Kong's secretary for financial services and the treasury. "Strong economic growth, increasing prosperity and an improving lifestyle have led to continuing increase in demand for wine in Mainland China." At Asia's largest wine and spirits fair in Hong Kong's harbour-front convention and exhibition centre, some old world wine producers said that while the financial uncertainty was hurting business, China remained an important new sales frontier. "The only source of growth we have for the time being is the US and the Chinese market," said Denis Stevens, the head of the French pavilion at the fair, which this year attracted a record 934 exhibitors from 37 countries. "For the time being, Bordeaux is still the big winner of growth but more and more, all the regions are getting in the spotlight." Despite the bullishness there have been signs of more discerning buying by the Chinese, with Bordeaux prices coming down from record highs and a growing focus on Burgundy vintages. "Bordeaux (wine) has levelled and maybe a few wines have come down a stick or two, but overall the market is stable," John Kapon, the head of Acker, Merrall & Condit, the veteran U.S.-based wine auctioneers, told Reuters. "China is very important, it's almost 60 per cent of our revenues ... and we expect this to continue for many, many years," added Kapon, whose firm's four auctions in Hong Kong this year have already netted around US$45 million. ― Reuters Full content generated by Get Full RSS. |
HONG KONG, Nov 4 ― Hong Kong's wine imports have remained strong even as global economic uncertainty cuts demand for luxury goods, underscoring the city's credentials as a preeminent wine hub buoyed by strong demand from mainland Chinese buyers.| You are subscribed to email updates from The Malaysian Insider :: Features To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
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