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| January 17, 2014 |
 Countdown to Pluto Huntsville AL (SPX) Jan 17, 2014 - Are we there yet? One of the fastest spacecraft ever built - NASA's New Horizons - is hurtling through the void at nearly one million miles per day. Launched in 2006, it has been in flight longer than some missions last, and it is nearing its destination: Pluto. "The encounter begins next January," says Alan Stern, of the Southwest Research Institute and the mission's principal investigato ... more |  |
 Comet-chasing probe to be roused from sleep Paris (AFP) Jan 16, 2014 - One of the most ambitious missions in the history of space goes into high-risk mode on Monday when Europe rouses a comet-chasing probe from years of hibernation. "The most important alarm clock in the Solar System" will end the scout Rosetta's long slumber, gearing it for a historic rendezvous in deep space, the European Space Agency says. Launched almost a decade ago, Rosetta is a billi ... more |  |
 NASA Space Launch System Could Make 'Outside the Box' Science Missions Possible Huntsville AL (SPX) Jan 17, 2014 - When it comes to scientific probes exploring the far reaches of our solar system, the rules could be changing. The human spaceflight community joined the space science community Jan. 13-14 at the Outer Planets Assessment Group (OPAG) meeting in Tucson, Ariz. There, scientists heard from the Space Launch System (SLS) Program about the capabilities and progress being made on the rocket, and ... more |  |
 Boeing Space Surveillance System Reduces Risk of Satellite Loss by 66 Percent El Segundo CA (SPX) Jan 17, 2014 - Boeing Space-Based Space Surveillance (SBSS) system has helped the U.S. Air Force cut the danger of satellites being lost by two-thirds in the past year by detecting potential threats more quickly and enabling operators to take earlier action if needed. "Averaging 12,000 deep-space observations per day, SBSS provides a major advantage to satellite operators who need to protect these valuab ... more |  |
SpaceShip Two Into Serious Flight Testing Bethesda, MD (SPX) Jan 17, 2014 - Virgin Galactic's adventure into space tourism moves closer to operational flight status. Just last week the second stage of its two-stage suborbital vehicle, SpaceShipTwo, reached its highest altitude so far in a rocket-powered test flight over the Mojave test site. This vehicle was designed and built by Scaled Composites as its Model 339 air-launched spaceplane. It has been specifically ... more |  |
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Commercial Spaceflight Federation Applauds Passage of Bill Providing Funding for Commercial Programs Washington DC (SPX) Jan 17, 2014 - The Commercial Spaceflight Federation thanks the Members of the House of Representatives for the passage of H.R. 3547. The bill provides critical funding for NASA's Commercial Crew Program and extends government risk-sharing for U.S. commercial launch companies until December 31, 2016. The previous law that provided this risk-sharing expired on December 31, 2013. The bill funds NASA's Comm ... more |  |
 The Cyborgs Era Has Started Karlsruhe, Germany (SPX) Jan 17, 2014 - Medical implants, complex interfaces between brain and machine or remotely controlled insects: Recent developments combining machines and organisms have great potentials, but also give rise to major ethical concerns. In their review entitled "Chemie der Cyborgs - zur Verknupfung technischer Systeme mit Lebewesen" (The Chemistry of Cyborgs - Interfacing Technical Devices with Organisms), KI ... more |  |
 Searching for life in strange places Paris (ESA) Jan 17, 2014 - Last year schoolchildren were invited to dig up some earth in search of creepy-crawlies and underground life. Astronauts taking part in ESA's underground training course CAVES joined the worldwide experiment from deep under Sardinia, Italy, and the results from their survey have revealed new habitats and rare species. The 'Catch that bug!' experiment taught procedures for sampling and reco ... more |  |
NASA Sets Coverage Schedule for TDRS-L/Atlas V Launch Events Kennedy Space Center FL (SPX) Jan 17, 2014 - NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite-L (TDRS-L) is scheduled to launch aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V 401 rocket Thursday, Jan. 23, from Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. The 40-minute launch window extends from 9:05 p.m. to 9:45 p.m. EST. Prelaunch media briefings and launch commentary coverage will be carried live on NASA Television and ... more |  |
 The Star That Should Not Exist Munich, Germany (SPX) Jan 17, 2014 - A team of European astronomers has used ESO's Very Large Telescope (VLT) to track down a star in the Milky Way that many thought was impossible. They discovered that this star is composed almost entirely of hydrogen and helium, with only remarkably small amounts of other chemical elements in it. This intriguing composition places it in the "forbidden zone" of a widely accepted theory of star for ... more |  |
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 China tested hypersonic missile vehicle: US officials Washington (AFP) Jan 16, 2014 - China for the first time has tested a hypersonic missile vehicle designed to travel several times the speed of sound, the Pentagon said Wednesday. The test makes China the second country after the United States to conduct experimental flights with hypersonic vehicles, a technology that could allow armies to rapidly strike distant targets anywhere around the globe. "We're aware of the tes ... more |  |
Japan scientists test tether to clear up space junk Tokyo (AFP) Jan 16, 2014 - Japanese space scientists are set to trial a tether they hope will help pull junk out of orbit around Earth, clearing up tonnes of planetary clutter, they said Thursday. Researchers at The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) have developed what they called an electrodynamic tether made from thin wires of stainless steel and aluminium. The idea is that one end of the strip will be a ... more |  |
 Climate change: How does soil store CO2? Munich, Germany (SPX) Jan 17, 2014 - Global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions continue to rise - in 2012 alone, 35.7 billion tons of this greenhouse gas entered the atmosphere*. Some of this CO2 is absorbed by the oceans, plants and soil. As such, they provide a significant reservoir of carbon, stemming the release of CO2. Scientists have now discovered how organic carbon is stored in soil. Basically, the carbon only binds to ce ... more |  |
 Study explains origins of giant underwater waves Boston MA (SPX) Jan 17, 2014 - Their effect on the surface of the ocean is negligible, producing a rise of just inches that is virtually imperceptible on a turbulent sea. But internal waves, which are hidden entirely within the ocean, can tower hundreds of feet, with profound effects on the Earth's climate and on ocean ecosystems. Now new research, both in the ocean and in the largest-ever laboratory experiments to inve ... more |  |
Towards perfect control of light waves Garching, Germany (SPX) Jan 17, 2014 - A team at the Laboratory for Attosecond Physics (LAP) in Garching (Germany) has constructed a detector, which provides a detailed picture of the waveforms of femtosecond laser pulses (1 fs = 10-15 seconds). Knowledge of the exact waveform of these pulses enables scientists to reproducibly generate light flashes that are a thousand times shorter - lasting only for attoseconds - and can be used to ... more |  |
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 Weighing particles at the attogram scale Boston MA (SPX) Jan 17, 2014 - MIT engineers have devised a way to measure the mass of particles with a resolution better than an attogram - one millionth of a trillionth of a gram. Weighing these tiny particles, including both synthetic nanoparticles and biological components of cells, could help researchers better understand their composition and function. The system builds on a technology previously developed by Scot ... more |  |
Viewing macro behaviors of ultra-cold quantum gases through the micro-world Barcelona, Spain (SPX) Jan 17, 2014 - Understanding collective behavior of ultra-cold quantum gases is of great interest since it is intimately related to many encountered systems in nature such as human behavior, swarms of birds, traffic jam, sand dunes, neutron stars, fundamental magnetic properties of solids, or even super-fluidity or super-conductivity. In all of these everyday life examples, collective behavior plays a crucial ... more |  |
 Extraordinary sensors pushed to their boundaries Lausanne, Switzerland (SPX) Jan 17, 2014 - Last year, Tobias Kippenberg and his team from the Laboratory of Photonics and Quantum Measurements (LPQM1) presented a new-generation sensor capable of detecting very small forces with unprecedented efficiency. These devices, developed and fabricated at the Center of MicroNanofabrication (CMi) at EPFL have already opened new frontiers in both applied and fundamental science. However the p ... more |  |
No nano-dust danger from facade paint Zurich, Switzerland (SPX) Jan 17, 2014 - After 42 months the EU research project "NanoHouse" has ended, and the verdict is a cautious "all clear" - nanoparticles in the paint used on building facades do not represent a particular health risk. In the course of a "Technology Briefing" Empa researchers discussed these results with specialists from the construction industry. Five Empa laboratories were involved in the EU "NanoHouse" ... more |  |
Understanding secondary light emissions by plasmonic nanostructures Urbana IL (SPX) Jan 17, 2014 - "Plasmonic nanostructures are of great current interest as chemical sensors, in vivo imaging agents, and for photothermal therapeutics," explained David G. Cahill, a Willett Professor and head of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering at Illinois. "Applications in imaging and sensing typically involve the emission of light at a different wavelength than the excitation, or 'sec ... more |  |
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