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| November 20, 2013 |
 NASA Commercial Crew Partner SpaceX Achieves Milestone in Safety Review Washington DC (SPX) Nov 20, 2013 - Engineers and safety specialists from NASA and Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) met in late October to review the safety of the Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket being developed to launch humans into low-Earth orbit later this decade. The detailed overview of safety practices the company is implementing was a major milestone for SpaceX under a funded Space Act Agreement with NAS ... more |  |
 Czechs ink deal with US space tourism firm Prague (AFP) Nov 19, 2013 - Czech universities and firms have received the go-ahead to conduct scientific research on board an American space tourism aircraft, the Czech Space Office (CSO) said Tuesday. The CSO inked the deal Monday with the firm XCOR Aerospace, which is putting the final touches on its Lynx aircraft designed to shuttle tourists to the brink of outer space. "The partnership with XCOR Aerospace, a ... more |  |
 New Roscosmos head calls for end to ordering communication satellites abroad Moscow (Voice of Russia) Nov 20, 2013 - Head of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) Oleg Ostapenko has sent a letter to Vice Premier Dmitry Rogozin suggesting giving up the practice of ordering civilian communication and broadcasting satellites abroad, Kommersant daily reported on Friday. The new head of Roscosmos regards it as a form of covert subsidizing of foreign manufacturers. As a result Europe's EADS may lose par ... more |  |
 NASA launches fleet of student-built satellites into orbit Wallops Island, Va. (UPI) Nov 19, 2013 - A satellite designed, built, tested and operated by students at Saint Louis University was launched on a rocket from Virginia Tuesday, NASA said. The students' satellite, dubbed COPPER, will test the effectiveness of a commercial infrared camera for in-space navigation and object detection, as well as observing Earth in the infrared spectrum, the university reported Tuesday. The ... more |  |
Swarm on the launch pad Plesetsk, Russia (ESA) Nov 20, 2013 - Preparations for Friday's launch of ESA's magnetic explorer have reached an important milestone - the constellation is now in the Plesetsk launch tower. The team in northern Russia said farewell to the three Swarm satellites at the weekend as they sealed them from view within the rocket's fairing, which protects them from the rigours of launch. This marks the culmination of two months of w ... more |  |
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 MicroObservatory Catches Comet ISON Boston MA (SPX) Nov 20, 2013 - Hopes are high for Comet ISON, which has the potential to become the most spectacular comet seen in years. ISON is speeding through the inner solar system at about 120,000 miles per hour, on its way to a close approach to the Sun on November 28th. Assuming it survives its close encounter, it could become easily visible to the unaided eye in dawn skies. Comet ISON recently brightened and is ... more |  |
 NASA-led Firefly Mission to Study Lightning Greenbelt MD (SPX) Nov 20, 2013 - Somewhere on Earth, there's always a lightning flash. The globe experiences lightning some 50 times a second, yet the details of what initiates this common occurrence and what effects it has on the atmosphere - lightning may be linked to incredibly powerful and energetic bursts called terrestrial gamma ray flashes, or TGFs - remains a mystery. In mid-November, a football-sized mission cal ... more |  |
 Satellites to probe Earth's strange shield Paris (AFP) Nov 18, 2013 - Europe next week will launch a trio of hi-tech satellites to explore something that may seem utterly mundane: Earth's magnetic field. After all, magnetism has been with us for billions of years. We harness it in innumerable ways, in navigation and electrical devices. What's new? Well, plenty, actually. If all goes well, the 230-million-euro ($276-million) Swarm mission will expla ... more |  |
Success of 'New Space' era hinges on public's interest Tempe AZ (SPX) Nov 20, 2013 - Capturing the public's interest is a key component for "New Space," where commercial companies are filling in some of the roles that had been traditionally played by NASA, and education has an important role to play, said Ariel Anbar, a professor in Arizona State University's School of Earth and Space Exploration. This new role for academia is "a deeper, more authentic relationship than pr ... more |  |
 Iran unveils attack drone 'with 2,000 km range' Tehran (AFP) Nov 18, 2013 - Iran on Monday unveiled a missile-equipped drone with a range of 2,000 kilometres (1,200 miles), the official IRNA news agency reported. "The Fotros drone has an operational range of 2,000 kilometres and can fly at an altitude of 25,000 feet, with a flight time of 16 to 30 hours," Defence Minister Mohammad Dehgan was quoted as saying. Dehgan said the new drone could carry out reconnaissa ... more |  |
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 US has time to boost bid for Turkey missile system: FM Washington (AFP) Nov 18, 2013 - Turkey would look again at a US bid for a multi-billion-dollar contract for the country's first long-range anti-missile system providing Washington agrees to produce it jointly, a top Turkish official said Monday. A "final decision has not been taken," Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told reporters, after meeting in Washington with US Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Secretary of ... more |  |
 Manpack Radios in Arctic Connect with MUOS Satellites Orbiting Equator Scottsdale AZ (SPX) Nov 19, 2013 - Two General Dynamics C4 Systems-developed AN/PRC-155 two-channel Manpack radios successfully completed secure voice and data calls from Alaska and the Arctic Circle, using the Mobile User Objective System (MUOS) waveform to connect with the MUOS satellite and ground communications network. The demonstration's success is a significant operational milestone for the PRC-155 Manpack radio. " ... more |  |
 Microbiologists reveal unexpected properties of methane-producing microbe Amherst MA (SPX) Nov 19, 2013 - For 40 years, scientists thought they understood how certain bacteria work together to anaerobically digest biomass to produce methane gas, important in bioenergy and the major source of greenhouse gas. But now microbiologists in Derek Lovley's lab at the University of Massachusetts Amherst show for the first time that one of the most abundant methane-producing microorganisms on earth makes dire ... more |  |
 Scientists invent self-healing battery electrode Stanford CA (SPX) Nov 19, 2013 - Researchers have made the first battery electrode that heals itself, opening a new and potentially commercially viable path for making the next generation of lithium ion batteries for electric cars, cell phones and other devices. The secret is a stretchy polymer that coats the electrode, binds it together and spontaneously heals tiny cracks that develop during battery operation, said the team fr ... more |  |
 Scientists create a low-cost, long-lasting water splitter made of silicon and nickel Stanford CA (SPX) Nov 18, 2013 - Stanford University scientists have created a silicon-based water splitter that is both low-cost and corrosion-free. The novel device - a silicon semiconductor coated in an ultrathin layer of nickel - could help pave the way for large-scale production of clean hydrogen fuel from sunlight, according to the scientists. Their results are published in the journal Science. "Solar cells only wor ... more |  |
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 Could volcanoes be causing Antarctic ice loss? Paris (AFP) Nov 17, 2013 - Accelerating ice loss from the Antarctic icesheet could be due in part to active volcanoes under the frozen continent's eastern part, a study said on Sunday. From 2002 to 2011, the average annual rate of Antarctic icesheet loss increased from about 30 billion tonnes to about 147 billion tonnes, the UN's panel of climate scientists reported in September. The icesheet is a mass of glacial ... more |  |
 Nature: Single-atom Bit Forms Smallest Memory in the World Karlsruhe, Germany (SPX) Nov 19, 2013 - One atom equals one bit: According to this design principle, we would like to construct magnetic data memories in the future. Presently, a compound of several million atoms is needed to stabilize a magnetic bit in a way that hard disk data are secure for several years. However, researchers from KIT have just made a big step towards a single-atom bit: They fixed a single atom on a surface such th ... more |  |
 Russia 'offers Egypt MiG-29s in $2B arms deal' Cairo (UPI) Nov 15, 2013 - Russia has reportedly offered to sell Egypt MiG-29 interceptor jets, helicopters and air-defense systems worth at least $2 billion as Moscow moves to exploit the U.S. rift with the Arab world's most populous nation and regain the regional influence it had during the Cold War. The offer emerged from two days of talks in Cairo between Egypt's de facto ruler, Defense Minister and army chi ... more |  |
Pressure Cooking to Improve Electric Car Batteries Riverside CA (SPX) Nov 19, 2013 - Batteries that power electric cars have problems. They take a long time to charge. The charge doesn't hold long enough to drive long distances. They don't allow drivers to quickly accelerate. They are big and bulky. Researchers at the University of California, Riverside's Bourns College of Engineering have redesigned the component materials of the battery in an environmentally friendly way ... more |  |
 New hologram technology created with tiny nanoantennas West Lafayette IN (SPX) Nov 19, 2013 - Researchers have created tiny holograms using a "metasurface" capable of the ultra-efficient control of light, representing a potential new technology for advanced sensors, high-resolution displays and information processing. The metasurface, thousands of V-shaped nanoantennas formed into an ultrathin gold foil, could make possible "planar photonics" devices and optical switches small enou ... more |  |
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