With economic survival foremost in the thoughts of most Americans nowadays, survivability in outer space is the last thing on our minds. But for six scientists in Moscow, all the problems here on earth won’t matter for the next 105 days.

Today, the first stage toward realization of the Russian-led Mars-500 project is taking place as six Russian cosmonauts lock themselves in a research lab at the Institute of Biomedical Problems of the Russia Academy of Sciences in Moscow. The project is designed to simulate the conditions of a manned space flight to Mars, including eating dehydrated food, breathing recycled air, and being physically isolated from everyone other than fellow crew members. The 105-day mission is a dress rehearsal for a planned 520-day simulated Mars mission to take place next year, a time frame that would span launching to landing on Mars and return back to earth.

The Mars-500 project involves scientists from the European Space Agency and the National Space Biomedical Research Institute in Houston as well as Russian space agencies. The project is designed to test the physical and psychological ability of humans to live in confined quarters for extended periods, under relatively primitive conditions. It would test human ability to resolve interpersonal conflicts in outer space, as well as test the effectiveness of telemedicine and other facets of space travel.

The Mars-500 project should serve as an effective screening test for anyone who thinks he or she can withstand the rigors of manned interplanetary space missions, if and when they should ever occur. Think you can function in a weightless environment for long periods of time? Not be able to take a clean shower? Not be able to eat your favorite foods? Be out of touch with family and friends? Have to tolerate the habits of a group of relative strangers for endless days and nights?

Call me a wimp or whatever, but no thanks. Let me get back to more pressing earth-bound matters like trying to work on my income taxes.

The economy and the Internet have combined to hit newspapers hard. Between fewer advertisers and the proliferation of online news sites, the traditional printed newspaper is suffering a reduction in both revenue and subscribers. But that could change with the help of a Bala Cynwyd, PA-based company. The answer, it says, is taste.

First Flavor wants newspaper publishers to include flavored strips on the paper so readers can taste the products being advertised. If you’re advertising a food product or restaurant, what better way to let readers sample your wares than licking their local newspaper?

Their product is called Taste-It Notes, which are flavored strips sealed in pouches and stuck onto newspaper advertisements. Each note costs about 30 cents, and the peel-and-taste strips already have been used by Welch’s Foods to promote their grape juice.

Mmmm, newspaper. Delicious.

The next time you gaze up into the heavens and imagine the International Space Station orbiting high above the Earth, think of Stephen Colbert. Seriously.

Fans of “The Colbert Report” star made “Colbert” the number-one choice to become the name of the newest wing of the International Space Station. In a NASA contest to name the module, more than 230,539 of the 1.1 million submissions were for “Colbert”. NASA’s choice for the wing name, “Serenity,” finished second. NASA does reserve the right to ultimately choose the name, and will make a final decision sometime next month.

Think about this for a moment. NASA asks the nation to help them designate a proper moniker for an important piece of an internationally built and managed space science environment, and what do we do? We decide to name it after a TV personality.

Hey, it could be worse. It could be the “Oprah” wing.

Ada Lovelace Day is an international day of blogging – which takes place today, March 24th, 2009 – to draw attention to women excelling in technology. Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace was born in 1815, the only child of Lord Byron and his wife, Annabella. Now known simply as Ada Lovelace, she wrote a description of Charles Babbage’s early mechanical general-purpose computer – the analytical machine. Ada Lovelace is valued today as the “first programmer” since she was writing programs (manipulating symbols according to rules) for a machine Baggage had not yet built.

One woman excelling in technology, and reinventing the way people manipulate it, is Leah Buechley. Buechley is a computer scientist, crafter, and Assistant Professor at the MIT Media Lab, where she directs the High-Low Tech research group. Just started in January 2009, the High-Low Tech group explores the integration of high and low technology from cultural, material, and practical perspectives, with the goal of engaging diverse groups of people in developing their own technologies.

An expert in the field of electronic textiles (e-textiles), Buechley developed a method for creating cloth printed circuit boards (fabric PCBs) using a laser cutter from conductive cloth and a heat activated adhesive. This technique can also be used to quickly build multi-layered PCBs on a variety of substrates. Buechley designed the commercially available LilyPad Arduino toolkit, which lets users sew together electronic components to build their own interactive, custom design wear. The deluxe kit contains a mainboard, accelerometer, button board, buzzer, power supply, vibration motor, conductive thread, LEDs, sensors, and more. Users program their constructions using a modified version of the Arduino software. The toolkit gives younger people a chance to develop long-term interest in computing and engineering in a fun, creative setting. Other popular projects of Buechley’s include the LED Tank Top, E-Sewing Kit, and Turn Signal Bike Jacket.

Last week, President Barack Obama announced the availability of $2.4 billion to provide much-needed funding to produce next-generation hybrid-electric vehicles and the advanced battery components used in them. Under the measure, the Department of Energy will offer $1.5 billion in grants to U.S. companies to produce advanced batteries, $500 million to companies manufacturing electric motors and other related components for hybrid vehicles, and $400 million to demonstrate plug-in hybrid and other electric infrastructure concepts, such as charging stations.

The initiative would reportedly create thousands of jobs and also provide a tax credit of up to $7,500 to a buyer of a plug-in hybrid vehicle. It is part of the President’s goal to put one million plug-in hybrid vehicles on the road by 2015 to reduce gasoline use and lower greenhouse emissions.

This news will not alone lift the U.S. auto industry out of its deep economic malaise, but it can’t hurt. Several recent online news reports noted that sales of hybrid-electric cars – one of the few bright spots in the U.S. automotive industry over the past year – have slumped dramatically in recent months as gas prices fell below $2 per gallon. With the $4 per gallon fuel prices of last summer now seemingly a distant memory, the few car buyers out there are not exactly rushing out to buy hybrid-electric vehicles, given their price premium over gas-powered counterparts. Even the once hot-selling Toyota Prius has languished on dealer lots in recent months, forcing Toyota to offer price incentives.

But the fact is that gas prices will likely rise again – in the New York City area for instance, average fuel prices have crept back over $2 per gallon in recent days. The specter of higher gas prices along with stringent future regulations on fuel economy and greenhouse emissions dictate that automakers must stay on course developing electric and hybrid-electric vehicles. Helping cash-strapped U.S. automakers continue to design and manufacture these next-generation vehicles is a welcome move.