Before she set off on her space flight, the world’s first woman astronaut Valentina Tereshkova exclaimed: “Hey, sky, take your hat off!” She took off aboard a Vostok spaceship in June 1963 and flew around Earth 48 times in three days. Today, on the 6th of March, holder of the Hero of the Soviet Union gold star, Major-General, honorary citizen of many countries and MP Valentina Tereshkova is turning 75.

The day before the take-off, she told her family that she was going to a skydiving competition. They only learned about her space flight later when they heard it on the radio. Before the flight, Valentina underwent an intensive training programme. At that time, the training programme for cosmonauts was unnecessarily tough. The most trying test was not a centrifuge or a thermal camera but the psychological test which required the future cosmonaut to spend a week in an enclosed space which was a white completely empty room. According to Valentina, she smiled and sang songs there.

Before joining the cosmonauts’ team, Tereshkova worked at a tyre factory, did skydiving at a flying club in Yaroslavl and was a technical school apprentice, holder of two Hero of the Soviet Union titles, cosmonaut Vladimir Dzhanibekov says.

“This Russian woman has had an amazing life, she managed to overcome all the obstacles in her way. She was a factory worker to start with, then went to a flying school and went into space which brought her world fame and a lot of public work. She may have had problems in her private life, but this beautiful Russian woman endured everything with dignity.”

Informally, the Vostok-6 spaceship was called a ‘tin can’. It was so small that a cosmonaut had to assume a reclining position to fit in. She had to stay in that position for three days. Besides, there was a fault in the spaceship’s control programme, Valentina Tereshkova recalls.

“I kept this secret for 30 years. Instead of ensuring safe landing, the programme actually caused the spaceship to ascend from orbit instead of descending.”

She noticed this fault in good time and reported to the Mission Control Centre. After receiving the necessary data, Tereshkova entered it into the descent system and ensured a safe landing. At the time, both in the USSR and the US space equipment had not been rigorously tested, observer of the Space News journal Igor Lisov says.

“In those days, every space flight was a great feat, both here and in the US. There was no clear understanding of how the human system would behave in space and there were no medicines which could help the situation. Space flights were indeed very difficult and very dangerous ventures. At that time, Tereshkova was seen as someone who had done a heroic deed and this view has not changed with time.”

After completing her space flight, Tereshkova graduated from the Air Force Academy with honours. She is a professor and the author of over 50 scientific articles. She worked at the Cosmonaut Training Centre for a long time and did a lot of international public work.

Valentina Tereshkova is the only woman on Earth who has made a solo space flight. All the subsequent female astronauts only went to space as part of a crew.

Scientists are confident that they are only a step away from unraveling the many mysteries surrounding Mars. The very first photograph showed a huge loosely-shaped dark spot. Bloggers immediately came up with a multitude of guesses as to what that could be – from a lens flare to retreating Martians. The suspicions were allayed when the Curiosity research team explained that the ghost-like spot was nothing more than a cloud of dust created by the rover upon landing – a disappointing peace of news for those who believe that Mars is inhabited by small green creatures.

Astronomer Yuri Karash, a correspondence member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, thinks that even if Mars proves to be completely lifeless as may well be the case, it will still be of great use to humanity.

"Among all the planets of the solar system, Mars has conditions that bear the closest resemblance to those of the Earth. Besides, it’s a planet that may be colonized and developed to a point where it will be a life-friendly human habitat. The current rover is fitted out with the latest technology and universal devices that will supply enough evidence shedding light on whether life is possible on Mars and whether it had ever existed there."

A unique “sky crane” technology was developed to maneuver the massive rover into a safe landing. Curiosity was lowered on cables until all of its six wheels hit the Martian surface. Russian cosmonaut Sergei Zhukov does not see why humans should not be dropped on Mars in much the same way.

"I am sure that the rover will cope with the task. This is a kind of landing that is fit for man as well. The previous three rovers – Pathfinder, Spirit and Opportunity – landed in inflatable bags. And here we see a normal landing, although it may take many a rover before man sets foot on Mars."

At least 900,000 web users have visited Curiosity’s official blog on Twitter (twitter.com/MarsCuriosity). The smart rover shares its impressions and provides a fine gallery of Mars views and its own self-portraits.

The majority of people with higher education are engineers and computer programmers. Dmitry Kosov, the press secretary of the Kelly Services recruitment firm, says that many graduates of Russian technical universities have no problem finding a job at home or abroad because their high professional training.

"Russia has a well-developed higher education system and the majority of employees are people with diplomas. These are research and technological staff, experts in information technologies, and so on - people who really possess the necessary knowledge and can speak a foreign language, which makes them the most sought-after specialists in almost any country."

Gleb Lebedev, the head of the HeadHunter research form, echoes that many foreign companies hire Russians because of their non-standard style of thinking, particularly in high-tech spheres.

"Technical education is traditionally Russia’s strong point. Our programmers are appreciated all over the globe, we are beyond competition here thanks to international standards of programming. Our mathematicians and physicists are also in demand."

Mentality is what Russia’s success relies on. Practically every school graduate tries to enter a university or a college to gain knowledge and profession, says Yefim Rachevsky, a deputy at the Russian Public Chamber.

"Our children want to study. Teachers still influence them greatly. And what is also important here is that everyone in Russia has access to education which remains mostly free despite commercial schemes already existing in many universities."

As a rule, Russian students study for several hours a day and from the very first year in a university can start building a career. As a result, by the time of their graduation they can be viewed as experiences and highly-qualified specialists.

The first team consisting of four astronauts from various countries that will be selected in 2013 will engage in a seven-month flight from the Earth to Mars. There they will build the first dwellings for the colonists and stay for an indefinite period of time.

Every two years a new team will join the settlement. It is planned that by 2033 the number of Mars dwellers will be over twenty people. The colonists will be primarily engaged in scientific work as well as geological exploration. They all will live and work in autonomous units specifically designed for the expedition to Mars.

The Mars One team started working on its project back in early 2011. The founders of the project – Bas Lansdorp and Arno A. Wielders – are confident that Mars One will definitely pay for itself. Truly, the concept of the mission is interesting: the financing will be raised with the help of a TV reality-show. It is believed that the opportunity to watch the journey and the life of the first Mars settlers will attract a huge number of viewers and the mass media. Bas Lansdorp does not exclude that the first colonist team will include professional astronauts. He points out that what will be especially valuable is the experience of the Russian project Mars-500, during which six volunteers from various countries including an Italian astronaut spent 520 days in an Earth based simulator of a Mars-bound space ship.

The developers of the new project together with numerous specialists and organizations have conducted large-scale research of the feasibility of settlements on Mars. The analysis included not only technical issues, but also financial, psychological, and ethical aspects of the future expedition.

Despite the fact that Mars One is a very costly and risky project, many international aerospace companies that could develop and supply the key equipment components for the expedition to Mars are very interested in the project. Mars One has attracted an impressive list of people who support the mission to Mars. Among them is Gerard ‘t Hooft, a 1999 Nobel Prize winner in physics:

“My first impression of the Mars One project was that it was something absolutely extraordinary. As many people who first hear about it, I thought that the idea of settlements on Mars was not more than a pure fantasy. But having studied the materials given to me, I gradually came to understand that perhaps it was not just somebody’s crazy idea. It is an idea that can in reality be implemented. I believe that the launch of Mars One can become one of the most captivating and impressive media projects ever seen by humankind.”

The fact that the expedition will be a non-political and commercial manned flight only makes it more attractive for equipment suppliers and future sponsors. This is because if the flight does take place and the colony is established, one will be able to talk about an independent state on Mars. In turn that state will be headed by those who sponsor the Mars One project.

Yet who will be able to try their hand at becoming one of the first colonists on Mars? “Anyone who feels that he can manage that task can become a candidate for that job,” says Arno A. Wielders.

Of course, he is being optimistic. Only people with excellent physical and psychological training, good health, high stress-resistance, and conflict-resistance – as well as an education in engineering, mathematics, biology, and medicine – are likely to become Mars colonists. In addition, only people under the age of 35 can apply. In total about 40 astronauts will participate in the project.

Mars One will build a copy of the future Mars settlement that will allegedly be located in the deserts of Gobi and the Sahara. It will prepare the future colonists as the terrain is similar to the Martian desert, as well as taking into account the temperature conditions in order to test the necessary equipment. The selection of the astronauts and their further training will be broadcast on TV and the Internet. In 2013, the first selection of astronauts will take place. Those willing still have a chance to enter their names in the history of the Mars exploration.

Earlier reports said that if found, methane could indicate the presence of life.

However, data provided by the previous rover missions to Mars demonstrated that the Red Planet’s atmosphere contained methane and that methane’s concentrations depended on seasonal fluctuations.

NASA says that searches for methane on the Red Planet will continue. Scientists say that methane, if it is really there, is present in small quantities.

Curiosity explores Martian atmosphere

NASA’s Curiosity Rover has carried out the first complete analysis of the Red Planet’s atmosphere.

The results of the analysis show that the Martian atmosphere has a high content of heavy isotopes of carbon and argon.

Even though the Red Planet’s atmosphere is 100 times thinner than Earth’s, researchers believe that it used to be much denser billions of years ago so the climate on the planet was much softer.

Curiosity, which landed on Mars on August 6th, is on a mission to search for water and organic compounds on the planet.

Curiosity completes first studies of Martian soil

Initial experiments completed by NASA's Mars rover Curiosity show that Martian soil’s minerals are similar to those in weathered volcanic-origin basaltic soils in Hawaii, NASA reported.

Curiosity recently ingested the first sample of the Red Planet’s soil. The rover used its Chemistry and Mineralogy tool (CheMin) to study the sample. The results obtained “provide refined and in some cases new identifications of the minerals in this first X-ray diffraction analysis on Mars,” a NASA researcher said.

Identification of minerals in rocks and soil is a key activity for the mission to assess past environmental conditions on Mars, NASA said.

Voice of Russia, RIA, Interfax

The Queensland state government expects up to 60,000 visitors will witness on Wednesday the alignment of the sun, moon and earth which creates one of the most spectacular sights in nature, essentially turning day into night.

On November 14, Australians and scores of tourists could witness a full solar eclipse.