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| January 03, 2014 |
 Chang'e-3 satellite payload APXS obtained its first spectrum of lunar regolith Beijing, China (SPX) Jan 03, 2014 - The Active Particle-induced X-ray Spectrometer (APXS), carried by the Yutu rover of the Chang'e-3 satellite got its first X-ray fluorescence spectrum of lunar regolith around the landing site on December 25, 2013. An initial analysis indicates that eight major rock-forming elements (Mg, Al, Si, K, Ca, Ti, Cr and Fe) and at least 3 minor elements (Sr, Y and Zr) of the Moon can be identified ... more |  |
 Wall-Crawling Gecko Robots Can Stick In Space Too Paris (ESA) Jan 03, 2014 - Climbing robots that mimic the stickiness of gecko lizard feet could work in space as well as on Earth, ESA has shown, raising the prospect of hull-crawling automatons tending future spacecraft. Robots crawling across spacecraft surfaces are a common sight in science fiction films from Silent Running to Wall-E. But, in reality, how might they stick in place while still remaining mobile? ... more |  |
 More than 1,000 chosen for one-way Mars reality-TV mission The Hague (AFP) Jan 02, 2014 - More than 1,000 candidates - from 200,000 hopefuls - have been chosen to train for a private Mars colonisation mission to be partly funded by a reality-TV show following their training and subsequent steps, organisers said Thursday. They are to be whittled down to just 24, who will be sent over six launches starting in 2024, according to Mars One, the Dutch-based non-profit group behind th ... more |  |
 NASA's Hubble Sees Cloudy Super-Worlds With Chance for More Clouds Baltimore MD (SPX) Jan 01, 2014 - Scientists using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have characterized the atmospheres of two of the most common type of planets in the Milky Way galaxy and found both may be blanketed with clouds. The planets are GJ 436b, located 36 light-years from Earth in the constellation Leo, and GJ 1214b, 40 light-years away in the constellation Ophiuchus. Despite numerous efforts, the nature of the atmo ... more |  |
 Two Solar Flares Say Goodbye 2013 and Welcome 2014 Greenbelt MD (SPX) Jan 03, 2014 - The sun ushered out 2013 and welcomed 2014 with two mid-level flares on Dec. 31, 2013 and Jan. 1, 2014. Solar flares are powerful bursts of radiation. Harmful radiation from a flare cannot pass through Earth's atmosphere to physically affect humans on the ground, however - when intense enough - they can disturb the atmosphere in the layer where GPS and communications signals travel. ... more |  |
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 First Asteroid Discovered in 2014 Has Little Impact Pasadena CA (JPL) Jan 03, 2014 - Early Wednesday morning January 1st, while New Year's 2014 celebrations were still underway in the United States, the Catalina Sky Survey near Tucson, AZ, collected a single track of observations with an immediate follow-up on what was possibly a very small asteroid 2-3 meters in size on a potential impact trajectory with the Earth. Designated 2014 AA, which would make it the first asteroi ... more |  |
 MAM produces plasma cavity for Helicon Double Layer Thruster Engine Berkshire, UK (SPX) Jan 03, 2014 - Morgan Advanced Materials has provided a prototype plasma cavity for the Helicon Double Layer Thruster (HDLT), a new gas plasma space engine for use on satellites being developed by the Australian National University (ANU). Gas plasma engines are used in electric propulsion, a technology becoming more and more popular, because it uses "greener" propellants, rather than more toxic chemicals. ... more |  |
 Watch the 2014 Quadrantid Meteor Shower Live on Ustream Huntsville AL (SPX) Jan 03, 2014 - Peaking in the wee hours of Jan. 3, a little-known meteor shower named after an extinct constellation, the Quadranids, will present an excellent chance for hardy souls to start the year off with some late-night meteor watching. The Quadrantids have a maximum rate of about 80 per hour, varying between 60-200. The very young moon will set early, presenting an excellent opportunity for meteor ... more |  |
 New Studies Give Strong Boost to Binary-Star Formation Theory Charlottesville VA (SPX) Jan 01, 2014 - Using the new capabilities of the upgraded Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA), scientists have discovered previously-unseen binary companions to a pair of very young protostars. The discovery gives strong support for one of the competing explanations for how double-star systems form. Astronomers know that about half of all Sun-like stars are members of double or multiple-star systems, b ... more |  |
Dawn passes halfway mark to Ceres Pasadena CA (JPL) Jan 03, 2014 - Now more than halfway through its journey from protoplanet Vesta to dwarf planet Ceres, Dawn is continuing to use its advanced ion propulsion system to reshape its orbit around the sun. Now that the ship is closer to the uncharted shores ahead than the lands it unveiled astern, we will begin looking at the plans for exploring another alien world. In seven logs from now through August, we w ... more |  |
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 More BARREL Balloons Take to the Skies Greenbelt MD (SPX) Jan 03, 2014 - The second year of an unprecedented balloon campaign in Antarctica has just begun. The NASA-funded mission - called the Balloon Array for Radiation belt Relativistic Electron Losses, or BARREL - is led by Dartmouth College in Hanover, N.H. The mission is unique, as it relies not on one gigantic balloon, but on many smaller ones, 20 in total. BARREL's job is to help unravel the mysterious r ... more |  |
Geckos in space: Novel robot takes a step to cosmos Paris (AFP) Jan 02, 2014 - A wall-crawling robot inspired by the gecko has taken a small but important step towards a future in space, scientists said on Thursday. The tiny legged prototype could be the forerunner of automatons which crawl along the hulls of spacecraft, cleaning and maintaining them, the European Space Agency (ESA) said. Its footpads are covered with dry microfibres modelled on the toe hair of the ... more |  |
 China to upgrade homegrown GPS to improve accuracy Beijing (UPI) Dec 30, 2013 - China says it will have 30 satellites in its Beidou navigation system by 2020 to improve accuracy to within inches to better compete with the U.S.GPS. The Beidou network, with 16 satellites serving the Asia-Pacific region, currently has an accuracy of about 15 feet but Chinese officials say they want to upgrade it to compete with the U.S. global positioning system, the most widely used ... more |  |
 Expedition 38 Sends New Year's Greetings on Off-Duty Day Houston TX (SPX) Jan 01, 2014 - On the last day of 2013, the six station residents had off-duty time on orbit while still conducting some science, maintenance work and exercise. The Expedition 38 crew also sent down messages in their native languages to bring in the New Year. The international crew of six will also have New Year's Day off. Commander Oleg Kotov and his fellow cosmonauts Sergey Ryazanskiy and Mikhail Tyuri ... more |  |
 Large-aperture planar lens antennas with gradient refractive index Beijing, China (SPX) Jan 01, 2014 - It was recently shown that large-aperture lens antennas can be designed by using gradient-index (GRIN) metamaterials and that higher directivity and gain can be obtained than with traditional dielectric lens antennas. This provides an effective method to design high-performance lens antennas. A paper titled "Three-dimensional large-aperture lens antennas with gradient refractive index," pu ... more |  |
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Mission to test laser communications across space distances a success Greenbelt, Md. (UPI) Dec 31, 2013 - NASA says tests using spacecraft in orbit around the moon confirm the potential of using lasers to communicate across space. The Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration mission was designed to show laser communication is possible from a distance of almost a quarter-of-a-million miles, the space agency said. The LLCD, orbiting the moon aboard NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Envir ... more |  |
Potential Martians: Mars One selects 1,058 hopefuls among 200,000 applicants Moscow (Voice of Russia) Jan 01, 2014 - The Mars One project has announced the selection of 1,058 hopefuls from over 200,000 applicants to become potential "human ambassadors" on the Red Planet. Eventually, no more than 40 people will be selected to go Mars to never return. "We're extremely appreciative and impressed with the sheer number of people who submitted their applications," Mars One Co-Founder and CEO Bas Lansdorp said, ... more |  |
Sun 'flips upside down' while reversing magnetic poles Moscow (Voice of Russia) Jan 01, 2014 - The sun has undergone a "complete field reversal," with its north and south poles changing places as it marks the midpoint of Solar Cycle 24. "A reversal of the sun's magnetic field is, literally, a big event," NASA's Dr. Tony Phillips said in a statement issued on the space agency's website. "The sun's polar magnetic fields weaken, go to zero and then emerge again with the opposite ... more |  |
Researchers use Hubble Telescope to reveal cloudy weather on alien world Chicago IL (SPX) Jan 01, 2014 - Weather forecasters on exoplanet GJ 1214b would have an easy job. Today's forecast: cloudy. Tomorrow: overcast. Extended outlook: more clouds. A team of scientists led by researchers in the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Chicago report they have definitively characterized the atmosphere of a super-Earth class planet orbiting another star for the first time. ... more |  |
 Earth's crust was unstable in the Archean eon and dripped down into the mantle Mainz, Germany (SPX) Dec 31, 2013 - Earth's mantle temperatures during the Archean eon, which commenced some 4 billion years ago, were significantly higher than they are today. According to recent model calculations, the Archean crust that formed under these conditions was so dense that large portions of it were recycled back into the mantle. This is the conclusion reached by Dr. Tim Johnson who is currently studying the evo ... more |  |
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