Sunita Williams, the Indian American astronaut made headlines last week for becoming the second woman in history to command the International Space Station. She also holds the current record for maximum hours in space walks. However it obviously wasn’t enough because she set her mind to creating yet another first record for space.

She completed a triathlon in space by running, biking and even “swimming”  with athletes during the Nautica Malibu Triathlon held in Southern California over the weekend. She used used exercise equipment that included a stationary bike, treadmill and strength-training machine specially formulated for weightlessness to simulate the triathlon experience in space.

Running and cycling one can imagine, even if its done in gravity less space, but how did she swim? To simulate the swimming portion of the race, Williams used the Advanced Resistive Exercise Device (ARED) to do weightlifting and resistance exercises that approximate swimming in micro-gravity.Talk about advanced science projects.

At the end of the triathlon Sunita Williams thanked the astronaut strength and conditioning folks back in California for all their help. She stressed the importance of health and fitness of astronauts who took on long-duration spaceflights. Williams finished the triatholon with a time of one hour, 48 minutes and 33 seconds.

Most astronauts tend to be male for the simple reason that the task is as physically demanding as it is mentally challenging. However from time to time we hear of a woman who has made her mark on the system. One such woman is the new commander of the International Space Station, Sunita Williams.

The Indian-American lady already holds the record for the longest space walk timings for women, and now is heading Expedition 33 on the International Space Station. She took over from Commander Gennady Padalka Expedition 32 which ended Sunday, 16 September.

A Russian-made Soyuz capsule took Commander Padalka, Flight engineer Joe Acaba of NASA, and flight engineer Sergei Revin of the Russian Federal Space Agency back to earth on Monday, 17 September.They orbited earth 2,000 times and traveled 52,906,428 miles before finally touching down successfully in central Kazakhstan steppe region. Padalka is now fourth in rank for the most days spent in space, which includes a total of 711 days during four flights.

Commander Sunita Williams will share space with veteran Russian cosmonaut Yuri Malenchenko and Japanese astronaut Akihiko Hoshide. They will be joined in the month of October by NASA astronaut Kevin Ford and three more astronauts to bring the crew up to its full operational number. The scientific expedition is to last three months.

Stem Cell research is one of the most fascinating ongoing science research projects. These are the cells that produce blood during postnatal life. The nature of stem cells is such that they can be manipulated into becoming any kind of cell that you may need to regenerate for a person.

As you can imagine the potential for stem cell research is unmatched for medical treatments developed so far. It is thus easy to understand the excitement of researchers as they make breakthrough after breakthrough in the different fields related to human health. It is also easy to understand why critics are worried about researchers playing god in the laboratories.

As with anything the technology can be used for good as well as bad. In the latest experiments on gerbils there has been some good. The scientists have now generated ear cell progenitors that can help restore auditory response in the animals. While the research is still ages away from solving deafness in human beings, it is indeed a major step forward in that direction.

Imagine what the repercussions of this science project would be in the future, if every one who has lost their hearing could take this stem cell based treatment and regain auditory responses.

With the concerns for our planet’s well being running high there is considerable anxiety about what we humans will do if the Earth finally is unable to support the teeming billions who inhabit it. Naturally there was considerable excitement when astronomers discovered a new super Earth planet in the habitable area of the star Gliese.

The red dwarf star  has a exoplanet which is 6.9 times the size of the Earth, but which tends to have all the life supporting conditions that Earth has. the planet called Gliese 163c has an orbital period of 26 days. It is loacted 49 light years away from our Solar System.

Gliese 163c was discovered in the Dorado constellation orbiting the red dwarf star by astronomers working on the European Southersn Observatory HARPS telescope. the discovery gave scientists hope that there may be life sustained on the planet that is similar to what developed on Earth, although no signs of life have been seen so far.

Naturally shifting planets for the entire billion plus population of Earth to another planet is not something that can be undertaken right now, but in the future, who knows what will transpire.  Perhaps what seems like science fiction today may become scientific fact tomorrow.

Having the residual Olympic fever in our systems helps when we hear of new records being broken. However this one has nothing to do with a global sports meet and everything to do with the largest cooperative science project being run out of this world.

On 6 September 2012 NASA announced that Sunita Williams, an astronaut currently located on the International Space Station, has broken the Space Walk record for longest time spent in space. The previous record was held by Peggy Whitson who has a total of 39 hours and 46 minutes in space walking time.

Thursday Sunita Williams spent 6 hours 28 minutes outside the International Space Station with Japanese astronaut, Akihiko Hoshide. The two were effecting repairs on the main power unit switching mechanism and installing a camera on the robotic arm of the space station.

Adding this latest space walk to Sunita William’s previous total sent her time on space walks to 44 hours and 2 minutes, beating Peggy’s old record. On hearing the news Peggy responded by saying “You go girl!” The congratulatory message was relayed to Sunita who responded by saying “Anybody could be in these boots.”

Well, we know it could not be just anybody in those boots. It took a lot of hard work and dedication to science space projects to get her the opportunity to set this record.