Perfect orientation in the city with the smallest GPS-Navi

In a strange city reliable way back to the car, which allowed according to the company the world's smallest GPS cardless "mini homer 2.4" by Navin. When leaving the car just press the mark button and the device stores the coordinates. And on the way back, the device leads unerringly back to the vehicle. The navigation system is only about the size of a matchbox and fits in a shirt pocket or on your keychain. Its battery capacity is sufficient for 14 hours of operation.

X-ray photos show bright ring of black holes

A pair of galaxies like Arp 147 ", taken by space telescopes Hubble, is in itself a rarity. For it is not often that a spiral galaxy (a disk-shaped galaxy with a pronounced spiral pattern) with an elliptical galaxy (a galaxy with uniform light distribution without conspicuous structures) collided. What's left of the clash in 430 million light years away from Earth remained is a giant, mostly blue ring.

The case of moon rocks dating thieves will be brought to the screen

I have a problem. Well, two actually. I want to impress a girl to sleep with her and I need some money. What I can do? Perhaps the example of Thad Roberts, who with a similar problem and the help of his girlfriend decided to steal some moon rocks from his job at NASA, to serve. Clearly, both ended up in jail ...more

NASA Satellite Spots Oil At Mississippi Delta Mouth

On May 24, 2010, the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument on NASA's Terra spacecraft captured this false-color, high-resolution view of the very tip of the Mississippi River delta. Ribbons and patches of oil that have leaked from the Deepwater Horizon well offshore appear silver against the light blue color of the adjacent water. Vegetation is red.

In the sunglint region of a satellite image--where the mirror-like reflection of the sun gets blurred into a wide, bright strip--any differences in the texture of the water surface are enhanced.

Oil smoothes the water, making it a better "mirror." Oil-covered waters are very bright in this image, but, depending on the viewing conditions (time of day, satellite viewing angle, slick location), oil-covered water may look darker rather than brighter.

The relative brightness of the oil from place to place is not necessarily an indication of the amount of oil present. Any oil located near the precise spot where the sun's reflection would appear, if the surface of the Gulf were perfectly smooth and calm, is going to look very bright in these images.

The cause of the dark patch of water in the upper left quadrant of the image is unknown. It may indicate the use of chemical dispersants, skimmers or booms, or it may be the result of natural differences in turbidity, salinity or organic matter in the coastal waters.

With its 14 spectral bands from the visible to the thermal infrared wavelength region and its high spatial resolution of 15 to 90 meters (about 50 to 300 feet), ASTER images Earth to map and monitor the changing surface of our planet. ASTER is one of five Earth-observing instruments launched December 18, 1999, on NASA's Terra. The instrument was built by Japan's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. A joint U.S./Japan science team is responsible for validation and calibration of the instrument and the data products.

The broad spectral coverage and high spectral resolution of ASTER provides scientists in numerous disciplines with critical information for surface mapping and monitoring of dynamic conditions and temporal change. Example applications are: monitoring glacial advances and retreats; monitoring potentially active volcanoes; identifying crop stress; determining cloud morphology and physical properties; wetlands evaluation; thermal pollution monitoring; coral reef degradation; surface temperature mapping of soils and geology; and measuring surface heat balance.

The ASTER U.S. science team is located at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. The Terra mission is part of NASA's Science Mission Directorate, Washington, D.C.

Owner: US Cable Service Unhurt by Rogue Satellite

The owner of a satellite that transmits programming to all U.S. cable systems says it avoided interference from another, out-of-control satellite that was drifting into its path.

SES World Skies says programming transmitted by its AMC 11 satellite was not affected by the Galaxy 15 satellite, which is drifting out of control thousands of miles above the Earth and had threatened to wander into AMC 11's orbit.

Galaxy 15 was expected to move into the second satellite's orbit around May 23.

SES had been weighing whether to move AMC 11 in its orbit, along with other protective measures it declined to specify.

Various U.S. cable companies contacted Monday by the Associated Press, including Comcast, Time Warner and Cablevision Systems Corp., said they had had not experienced any disruption or outages.

Samsung Behold II not Getting 2.x

In a video released to youtube on November 7, 2009, Samsung promises Behold II owners that they will get upgraded to Android 2.x when it arrived. These same users are still sitting at 1.6. They have waited patiently as updates rolled out hoping they would be next. Well it turns out their patience may be in vain after all.

The response received by one owner when he inquired about the problem and then forced their hand was as such:

“Dear Matthew,
Thank you for your inquiry. The SGH-T939 will never qualify for the Android 2X update.

Your continued interest in Samsung products is appreciated.

Sincerely,

Technical Support”

Going through and looking at owners statements on their experience with Samsung in trying to get info on the upgrade, every answer appears to be the same, “no upgrade”. So when looking at Samsung’s promotional video for the Behold II, they specifically state that it will get the 2.x update. Enter the Galaxy S. It appears, this is speculation however, that the upgrade has been dropped to push Behold II users to upgrade to this phone. There isn’t whole lot unusual about this, however let’s look at the facts. In the first place the upgrade was “promised”, second of all the Behold II was only released in November of 2009. We are barely over one half of a year past the release date and they have already stopped supporting this phone with updates. To make matters worse, even if your phone is rooted you cant upgrade, because the devs don’t have all of the source code for the phone, thus they cant even develop a 2.1 ROM that you can run on the phone.

Now after the disappointment and frustration of buying a phone that was promised an update that will never come, owners are now looking for some type of compensation. Questions are being asked and this is the direction the questions are headed:

“Ok i want to know if Samsung really doesn’t give updates to the behold 2, what’s our options legally? They lied to us all and we paid more for this phone than many other android phones out there! im willing to take a stand cuz i can’t root and the whole reason i got this phone was the promises Samsung gave us in videos hyping this phone up;( so if anybody knows anything about law i want to know if strength in numbers and legal pressure would force them to put out an update to at least yesterday standard”

This truly is the question of the hour. These owners signed a two year contract, should they not be entitled to at least 18 months of support? Well, ethically, yes. Legally? Probably not. They created the phone and it appears to have been a failure for them. As a matter of ethics, it was their blunder they should have to live with it, not their customers. But in big business it isn’t about that it is about legality and profit. Unless it was in their contract that they would receive certain updates, for a certain period of time, then there is no legal action that could be taken, except maybe on a technicality. If the video that was release doesn’t have a disclaimer (it doesn’t appear to) then it could all come down to phraseology. How they said what they said about the phone could give grounds for compensation, or it could just as well be, as one owner put it, “a case of mileage may vary”.

It is becoming quite apparent even with all of the complaints by phone and email and even Twitter, that Samsung is set on ending support for this device. Owners will be left with another year of old fashioned Android before they can upgrade or even simply jump ship from T-Mobile, as it appears that they aren’t interested in helping their customers in this fight either.

One of the beauties of Android is that it is utterly customizable. However due to all of the customizations the manufacturers make, there is an unprecedented level of complexity added to the upgrade process. Everything must be updated to work on and take advantage of the latest version of Android before it can be released. I’m not against customization. However, if a manufacturer is going to customize the OS they need to realize they are taking responsibility to maintain these customizations and still provide timely updates to the latest versions as they are released. I have yet to find a user who would prefer to have their OEM customization over the latest update. These users would much prefer a stock ROM with the latest version. An idea….Make the customizations available to your customers as market downloads or as downloads from the Manufacturer’s website.

It does appear however that this debacle could wind up costing Samsung and even T-Mobile a lot of customers because of their lack of regard for their users in this situation. Can this be pursued legally? It remains to be seen. Should this have an impact on your decision to purchase a Samsung phone? Well we hope this is an isolated incident, but to borrow the colloquialism, “proceed with caution”.

If you have an opinion or are in the same situation as these owners you may want to check out what is happening among their ranks and possibly even join them. Hop on over here, here, and here and take a look at what is happening. And my sincere regret if you are one of the owners wishing for the update that is to never come.

Russia Announces Participants In Mars Flight Simulation Mission

The names of the participants in a 520-day simulation of an expedition to Mars were announced on Tuesday. Six main participants plus one reserve will take part in the experiment in the Mars-500 module, which will simulate all aspects of a journey to the Red Planet, with a 250-day outward trip, a 30-day stay on its surface, and a 240-day return flight.

"The crew is likely to be headed by a Russian participant," the project's director, Boris Morukov, said, adding that there will be also a flight engineer and a doctor. Three other crew members will be researchers.

During nearly two years of isolation, the crew members will experience many of the conditions likely to be encountered by astronauts on a real space flight, except for radiation and weightlessness.

The Mars-500 project started in the Moscow Institute of Medical and Biological Problems and included 11 candidates: seven candidates from Russia and one each from China, France, Italy and Belgium.

The institute has already held a 105-day experiment to simulate a flight to Mars, which ended last July. Six people - four Russians and two Europeans - spent over three months in a lab that simulated life on board a spaceship.

The list of participants includes two Russian engineers, 37-year-old Mikhail Sidelnikov and 38-year-old Alexei Sitev, Russian surgeon Sukhrob Kamolov, 32 and Russian general practitioner Alexander Smolevsky, 33, as well as Italian Diego Urbina, 27, China's Wang Yue, 27, and 31-year-old Roman Charles from France.

The reserve has not yet been named.

Morukov added that the experiment is scheduled to begin on June 3 this year and the participants will be paid 3 million rubles ($100,000).

Mars Rovers Set Surface Longevity Record

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Project will pass a historic Martian longevity record on Thursday, May 20. The Opportunity rover will surpass the duration record set by NASA's Viking 1 Lander of six years and 116 days operating on the surface of Mars. The effects of favorable weather on the red planet could also help the rovers generate more power.

Opportunity's twin rover, Spirit, began working on Mars three weeks before Opportunity. However, Spirit has been out of communication since March 22. If it awakens from hibernation and resumes communication, that rover will attain the Martian surface longevity record.

Spirit's hibernation was anticipated, based on energy forecasts, as the amount of sunshine hitting the robot's solar panels declined during autumn on Mars' southern hemisphere. Unfortunately, mobility problems prevented rover operators from positioning Spirit with a favorable tilt toward the north, as during the first three winters it experienced. The rovers' fourth winter solstice, the day of the Martian year with the least sunshine at their locations, was Wednesday, May 12.

"Opportunity, and likely Spirit, surpassing the Viking Lander 1 longevity record is truly remarkable, considering these rovers were designed for only a 90-day mission on the surface of Mars," Callas said. "Passing the solstice means we're over the hump for the cold, dark, winter season."

Unless dust interferes, which is unlikely in the coming months, the solar panels on both rovers should gradually generate more electricity. Operators hope that Spirit will recharge its batteries enough to awaken from hibernation, start communicating and resume science tasks.

Unlike recent operations, Opportunity will not have to rest to regain energy between driving days. The gradual increase in available sunshine will eventually improve the rate of Opportunity's progress across a vast plain toward its long-term destination, the Endeavour Crater.

This month, some of Opportunity's drives have been planned to end at an energy-favorable tilt on the northern face of small Martian plain surface ripples. The positioning sacrifices some distance to regain energy sooner for the next drive. Opportunity's cameras can see a portion of the rim of Endeavour on the horizon, approximately eight miles away, across the plain's ripples of windblown sand.

"The ripples look like waves on the ocean, like we're out in the middle of the ocean with land on the horizon, our destination," said Steve Squyres of Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y. Squyres is the principal investigator for Opportunity and Spirit. "Even though we know we might never get there, Endeavour is the goal that drives our exploration."

The team chose Endeavour as a destination in mid-2008, after Opportunity finished two years examining the smaller Victoria Crater. Since then, the goal became even more alluring when orbital observations found clay minerals exposed at Endeavour. Clay minerals have been found extensively on Mars from orbit, but have not been examined on the surface.

"Those minerals form under wet conditions more neutral than the wet, acidic environment that formed the sulfates we've found with Opportunity," said Squyres.

"The clay minerals at Endeavour speak to a time when the chemistry was much friendlier to life than the environments that formed the minerals Opportunity has seen so far. We want to get there to learn their context. Was there flowing water? Were there steam vents? Hot springs? We want to find out."

Launched in 1975, Project Viking consisted of two orbiters, each carrying a stationary lander. Viking Lander 1 was the first successful mission to the surface of Mars, touching down on July 20, 1976. It operated until Nov. 13, 1982, more than two years longer than its twin lander or either of the Viking orbiters.

The record for longest working lifetime by a spacecraft at Mars belongs to a later orbiter: NASA's Mars Global Surveyor operated for more than 9 years after arriving in 1997.

NASA's Mars Odyssey, in orbit since in 2001, has been working at Mars longer than any other current mission and is on track to take the Mars longevity record late this year. Science discoveries by the Mars Exploration Rover have included Opportunity finding the first mineralogical evidence that Mars had liquid water and Spirit finding evidence for hot springs or steam vents and a past environment of explosive volcanism.

Unique Eclipsing Binary Star System Discovered

Santa Barbara CA (SPX) May 19, 2010 Astrophysicists at UC Santa Barbara are the first scientists to identify two white dwarf stars in an eclipsing binary system, allowing for the first direct radius measurement of a rare white dwarf composed of pure helium.

The results will be published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters. These observations are the first to confirm a theory about a certain type of white dwarf star.

The story began with observations by Justin Steinfadt, a UCSB physics graduate student who has been monitoring white dwarf stars as part of his Ph.D. thesis with Lars Bildsten, a professor and permanent member of UCSB's Kavli Institute for Theoretical Physics, and Steve Howell, an astronomer at the National Optical Astronomy Observatory (NOAO) in Tucson, Ariz.

Brief eclipses were discovered during observations of the star NLTT 11748 with the Faulkes Telescope North of the Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope (LCOGT), a UCSB-affiliated institution. NLTT 11748 is one of the few very low-mass, helium-core white dwarfs that are under careful study for their brightness variations.

Rapid snapshots of the star - about one exposure every minute - found a few consecutive images where the star was slightly fainter. Steinfadt quickly realized the importance of this unexpected discovery. "We've been looking at a lot of stars, but I still think we got lucky!" he said.

Avi Shporer, a postdoctoral fellow at UCSB and LCOGT, assisted with the observations and quickly brought his expertise to the new discovery. "We knew something was unusual, especially as we confirmed these dips the next night," Shporer said. The scientists observed three-minute eclipses of the binary stars twice during the 5.6-hour orbit.

The excitement of the discovery and the need to confirm it rapidly led to the use of the 10-meter Keck Telescope, located on Mauna Kea in Hawaii, just five weeks after the first observation. The team also brought in David Kaplan, a Hubble Fellow and KITP postdoctoral fellow. Bildsten and Kaplan arranged for use of the Keck by swapping time they had reserved for another project with Geoff Marcy at UC Berkeley.

During that night, the scientists were able to measure the changing Doppler shift of the star NLTT 11748 as it orbited its faint, but more massive, white dwarf companion. "It was amazing to witness the velocity of this star change in just a few minutes," said Kaplan, who was present at the Keck telescope during the observations.

These observations led to the confirmation of an important theory about white dwarf stars. Stars end their lives in many ways. "The formation of such a binary system containing an extremely low mass helium white dwarf has to be the result of interactions and mass loss between the two original stars," said Howell.

White dwarf stars are the very dense remnants of stars like the sun, with dimensions comparable to the earth. A star becomes a white dwarf when it has exhausted its nuclear fuel and all that remains is the dense inner core, typically made of carbon and oxygen.

One of the stars in the newly discovered binary is a relatively rare helium-core white dwarf with a mass only 10 to 20 percent of that of the sun. The existence of these special stars has been known for more than 20 years. Theoretical work predicted that these stars burn hotter and are larger than ordinary white dwarfs.

Until now, their size had never been measured. The observations of the star NLTT 11748 by this research group have yielded the first direct radius measurement of an unusual white dwarf that confirms this theory.

The other star in the binary is also a white dwarf, albeit a more ordinary one, composed of mostly carbon and oxygen with about 70 percent of the mass of the sun. This star is more massive and also much smaller than the other white dwarf. The light it gives off is 30 times fainter than that of its partner star in the binary.

Bildsten credits the scientific collaborations at UCSB for the success of this work, noting that the original team was expanded to include KITP, the Physics Department, and LCOGT to quickly respond to the new discovery.

"A particularly intriguing possibility to ponder is what will happen in 6 to 10 billion years," said Bildsten. "This binary is emitting gravitational waves at a rate that will force the two white dwarfs to make contact. What happens then is anybody's guess."

The National Science Foundation, LCOGT, and NASA supported this work.

Fly Your Thesis! 2011 Call For Proposals

ESA's Education Office is again offering European students the flights of a lifetime with the third call for proposals for the 'Fly your Thesis!' programme.

This exciting programme enables university students to fly their experiments in microgravity in a series of parabolic flights on the Airbus A300 Zero-G aircraft.

'Fly your Thesis!' requires each team of students to design a scientific or technology experiment to be performed in microgravity, as part of their master's or PhD thesis or research programme.

Interested teams should register on ESA's Education Office's Projects Portal and upload their outline proposals using the letter of intent template, by 12 July 2010.

A letter of endorsement from a professor or academic supervisor is required. Proposals by teams from ESA's Cooperating States are also encouraged.

In a new move, medical research proposals will now be accepted under certain conditions.

A review board will select up to 20 teams who will be invited to elaborate on their scientific proposal, with the support of a scientific mentor. The teams will present their projects to a review board during a dedicated workshop at an ESA centre in February 2011.

After this initial workshop, up to four teams will be selected to develop and carry out their experiment at an ESA Microgravity Research Campaign that will take place in Bordeaux, France, during the spring of 2012. There, the student teams will work in close contact with renowned European scientists carrying out their own research.

During the campaign, the students will accompany their experiments for three flights of 30 parabolas, experiencing about 20 seconds of microgravity during each parabola.

During the 'Fly your Thesis!' programme, the teams will be supported by ESA's Education Office, ESA microgravity experts and members of the European Low Gravity Research Association (ELGRA). ESA will offer financial support to cover part of the cost of the experiments, travel and accommodation.

Aerojet And Florida Turbine Technologies To Develop NASA's New Rocket Engines

Aerojet and Florida Turbine Technologies (FTT) have announced that the companies have entered into a strategic partnership to compete for research, development and production on NASA's new hydrocarbon engine and advanced upper stage engine.

This expands the very successful teamwork that Aerojet and FTT have underway on the U.S. Air Force Hydrocarbon Boost Technology Demonstrator (HBTD) and Upper Stage Engine Technology (USET) programs.

The HBTD program is developing key, high-impact components and enabling technology for a world-class hydrocarbon engine. Aerojet and FTT will provide the innovation to expand this effort into a comprehensive engine development program that provides transformational propulsion capability for NASA, DoD and commercial launch vehicles.

In 2007, Aerojet and FTT competed and won the HBTD program which is the only U.S. engine development program working on an advanced rocket engine cycle.

"NASA's plans for innovative propulsion R and D on a new hydrocarbon engine are critical to America's leadership in space launch," said Aerojet CEO Scott Seymour.

"Winning the opportunity to work on these new NASA investments will allow Aerojet and FTT to expand and employ a whole new generation of engineers and scientists in developing the world's best hydrocarbon engine - and then to produce these engines in a new facility located in the United States. Aerojet is excited about joining in a strategic partnership with the innovative professionals at FTT to compete for and win this very important work."

"We look forward to growing our relationship with Aerojet, and the opportunity to build on our Air Force hydrocarbon engine technology with NASA," said FTT CEO Shirley Brostmeyer. "We are also proud of the opportunity to help build new high technology R and D engineering and manufacturing positions within the state of Florida."

Aerojet and FTT are the premier hydrocarbon engine team in the United States.

Aerojet continues to be a pioneer in developing world-class U.S. hydrocarbon engine capabilities. Aerojet is providing the AJ26 engine (derived from the NK-33, the world's first oxidizer-rich, staged-combustion, oxygen/kerosene rocket engine, which achieves very high performance in a lightweight, compact package) for Orbital Sciences Corporation's Taurus II launch vehicle.

This summer Aerojet will begin acceptance testing of the AJ26 engine at NASA Stennis Space Center leading to a planned first flight of the Taurus II in June 2011.

Aerojet also just successfully hot-fire tested a 5,500 lbf liquid oxygen - liquid methane engine at NASA White Sands Test Facility under a contract with NASA Glenn Research Center with support from NASA Marshall Space Flight Center.

Florida Turbine Technologies is working closely with AFRL, NASA, and Aerojet to develop state-of-the-art technologies for next generation turbopumps which provide extremely high pressure fuel to the rocket's engine.

These technologies include cavitation models, bearing and seal components, flowpath design, and health management sensors, which are being developed and tested as part of the USET, HBTB and other R and D programs

Australian Defence Force Extends Hosted Payload Contract On Intelsat 22

Intelsat has announced an expansion of its April 2009 agreement for UHF hosted payload services with the Australian Defence Force (ADF). The ADF exercised its option to purchase the remainder of the specialized UHF communications payload that Intelsat is integrating within its Intelsat 22 satellite, scheduled for launch in the first quarter of 2012.

This announcement follows the historic Memorandum of Understanding signing between the Commonwealth of Australia and the United States, under the terms of which UHF communications resources will be shared between the two countries.

"Our growing partnership with the ADF is an example of the long-term capabilities that can be provided by commercial satellite operators to government and military users. As a result of our direct partnership with the ADF, we are building a payload that will serve the ADF's growing communication requirements for the next two decades," said Don Brown, Vice President for Hosted Payload Programs at Intelsat General Corp., an indirect, wholly owned subsidiary of Intelsat.

"This agreement extends Intelsat's ongoing commitment to the Australian government and exemplifies the powerful tool that hosted payloads offer government users for SATCOM augmentation."

The Intelsat 22 satellite, which will be positioned at 72 degrees East longitude, will provide optimal coverage for growing opportunities for enterprise networks, mobility and defense-related applications.

Scientists Finds Evidence Of Water Ice On Asteroid's Surface

Asteroids may not be the dark, dry, lifeless chunks of rock scientists have long thought.

Josh Emery, research assistant professor with the earth and planetary sciences department at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, has found evidence of water ice and organic material on the asteroid 24 Themis. This evidence supports the idea that asteroids could be responsible for bringing water and organic material to Earth.

The findings are detailed in the journal "Nature."

Using NASA's Infrared Telescope Facility on Hawaii's Mauna Kea, Emery and Andrew Rivkin of Johns Hopkins University in Laurel, Md., examined the surface of 24 Themis, a 200-kilometer wide asteroid that sits halfway between Mars and Jupiter.

By measuring the spectrum of infrared sunlight reflected by the object, the researchers found the spectrum consistent with frozen water and determined that 24 Themis is coated with a thin film of ice. They also detected organic material.

"The organics we detected appear to be complex, long-chained molecules. Raining down on a barren Earth in meteorites, these could have given a big kick-start to the development of life," Emery said.

Emery noted that finding ice on the surface of 24 Themis was a surprise because the surface is too warm for ice to stick around for a long time.

"This implies that ice is quite abundant in the interior of 24 Themis and perhaps many other asteroids. This ice on asteroids may be the answer to the puzzle of where Earth's water came from," he said.

Still, how the water ice got there is unclear.

24 Themis' proximity to the sun causes ice to vaporize. However, the researchers' findings suggest the asteroid's lifetime of ice ranges from thousands to millions of years depending on the latitude.

Therefore, the ice is regularly being replenished. The scientists theorize this is done by a process of "outgassing" in which ice buried within the asteroid escapes slowly as vapor migrates through cracks to the surface or as vapor escapes quickly and sporadically when 24 Themis is hit by space debris.

Since Themis is part of an asteroid "family" that was formed from a large impact and the subsequent fragmentation of a larger body long ago, this scenario means the parent body also had ice and has deep implications for how our solar system formed.

The discovery of abundant ice on 24 Themis demonstrates that water is much more common in the Main Belt of asteroids than previously thought.

"Asteroids have generally been viewed as being very dry. It now appears that when the asteroids and planets were first forming in the very early Solar System, ice extended far into the Main Belt region," Emery said.

"Extending this refined view to planetary systems around other stars, the building blocks of life - water and organics - may be more common near each star's habitable zone. The coming years will be truly exciting as astronomers search to discover whether these building blocks of life have worked their magic there as well."

The scientists' discovery also further blurs the line between comets and asteroids. Asteroids have long been considered to be rocky and comets icy. Furthermore, it was once believed that comets could have brought water to Earth. This theory was nixed when it was discovered comets' water has different isotopic signatures than water on Earth.

Now, due to Emery and Rivkin's findings, many wonder if asteroids could be responsible for seeding Earth with the ingredients for life.

Giant NASA balloon crashes in Australia

A giant NASA science balloon crashed during take-off in Australia Thursday, destroying its multi-million-dollar payload, toppling a large car and narrowly missing frightened observers.

Dramatic footage of the incident showed the balloon's large undercarriage coming loose from its moorings, smashing through a fence and knocking a four-wheel-drive car on its side before coming to rest.

"We were sitting in our car and preparing to move it out of the way and we actually were within a foot (30 centimetres) of being wiped out," a relieved bystander said, on footage relayed by public broadcaster ABC.

"If it hadn't been for the other gentleman's car being there, we'd be somewhere else by now, I think."

The balloon, the size of a football field when inflated and designed to float up to 40 kilometres (25 miles) high, deep in the stratosphere, fluttered back down to the Alice Springs launch site after it came loose.

Witnesses said they were asked to move out of the way before the payload, containing expensive scientific instruments, was suddenly dragged across the launch site.

"We started moving the cars and just barely made it out without getting smashed," one witness said.

"(There was) debris flying through the air everywhere," said another. "That was it, just an instance of chaos outside."

Scientists last week completed a similar balloon flight to measure X-rays and gamma rays sent out by various stars and galaxies from deep in the Earth's atmosphere.

Ravi Sood, director of the Alice Springs Balloon Launching Centre, said scientists involved in the NASA-sponsored project were extremely disappointed.

"Ballooning, that's the way it happens on occasions but it is very, very disappointing. Gut-wrenching actually," he told ABC.

Sanswire Awarded Contract For Skysat UAV

Sanswire has announced that defense contractor Global Telesat Corp. (GTC) has agreed to purchase a 50% interest in one SkySat airship for $250,000, with an option to purchase the remaining 50% for an additional $750,000.

The SkySat is Sanswire's mid-altitude, lighter-than-air, UAV platform. The airship was initially designed for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) missions performed at altitudes up to 45,000 ft. Sanswire and Global Telesat intend to upgrade the airship to improve its viability for multipurpose defense and communications operations.

More specifically, the two companies plan to develop a flexible platform allowing the SkySat to accommodate a range of customer requirements.

The agreement states that Sanswire will initially receive $250,000 from Global Telesat in exchange for a 50% interest in one SkySat airship.

Sanwire will immediately deliver the existing airship to a facility designated by Global Telesat, whereupon GTC will make a first payment of $50,000 within three days of inspection. This payment will be followed by four additional payments of $50,000, each at 30-day intervals.

Sanswire also granted Global Telesat the option to acquire the remaining 50% interest in the airship for an additional $750,000. GTC must make an initial payment of $250,000 within ten business days upon exercising the option, followed by two additional payments of $250,000, each at 30-day intervals. The option expires on December 31, 2010.

Global Telesat agreed to the purchase following recent meetings with potential customers, strategic partners and defense contractors. GTC requires that Sanswire utilize the $250,000 in proceeds to complete development work that will enable the airship to be tested and demonstrated to potential customers.

The companies plan to work closely together, as well as with third-party US government-certified defense contractors, to integrate approved ground station controls and electronics packages into the airship.

GTC has already partnered with Sanswire to develop the STS-111 UAV, a flexible multi-segmented airship that began flight-testing in December 2009.

Sanswire's Chairman of the Board, Major General Wayne P. Jackson (US Army, Ret.), stated: "We are keenly focused on leveraging our existing airships and technologies to generate near-term revenue. We also are expanding our product portfolio of integrated, near-space UAV designs. Our goal is to offer a broad range of low-cost, long-duration surveillance solutions for our customers that can be delivered in a timely and cost-efficient manner."

Indian rocket flops, crashing into sea

An Indian rocket showcasing domestically built booster technology crashed soon after take-off on Thursday in a blow to the country's space ambitions, officials said.

The launch of the first Indian-made cryogenic powered rocket, a complex technology mastered by just five countries, failed soon after lift-off from India's space centre at Sriharikota in the southeastern state of Andhra Pradesh.

"The rocket along with the satellite tumbled from space and plunged into the Bay of Bengal," Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) director S. Satish told AFP from Sriharikota.

Satish said controllers lost contact with the 50-metre (165-foot) rocket, named GSLV and carrying a 2.2-tonne satellite, and it plunged into the sea eight minutes after the launch.

ISRO chairman K. Radhakrishnan told reporters that it appeared the cryogenic engines "did not ignite" but added that data analysis was required to pinpoint the reasons for the failure.

It took ISRO scientists 18 years to develop cryogenic motors after its bid to import the technology from Russia in 1992 failed because of opposition from the United States.

The powerful booster technology using supercooled liquid fuel is designed to put heavier satellites into high orbits, about 36,000 kilometres (22,000 miles) from Earth.

"We will confirm if the main cryogenic engines ignited and then we would put all our efforts to ensure we have the next flight with an indigenous cryogenic engine within an year from now," Radhakrishnan added.

Cryogenic boosters have only been successfully developed by the United States, Russia, France, Japan and China.

In the past decade, India has bought cryogenic engines from Russia and five of them have been used on missions, but the country wanted to showcase its ability to develop the technology itself, the ISRO said before the launch.

India aims to launch its first manned space mission in 2016 and wants to grab a larger share of the multi-billion-dollar market for launching commercial satellites.

Last August India's first unmanned moon mission, launched amid much fanfare in 2008, came to an abrupt end when controllers lost contact with the country's lunar craft.

But gloom turned to delight in September, when data collected from the mission showed water on the moon, boosting India's credibility.

India began its space programme in 1963 and has developed its own satellites and launch vehicles to cut dependence on other countries.

Government funding of around 2.8 billion dollars has been secured for an attempt at the country's first manned space mission in 2016.

Shuttle Discovery leaves space station, heads for Earth

Astronauts aboard the space shuttle Discovery embarked Saturday on their journey back to Earth after undocking from the International Space Station (ISS), NASA said.

The shuttle, after its delicate detachment from the outpost at 8:52 am (1252 GMT), completed an over 90-minute fly around of the station to take photos of the complex before heading on its deorbit flight path, the US space agency said on its website.

The crew will end their 14-day mission on Monday, officials said, with an expected landing at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida at 8:51 am (1251 GMT).

It has been a landmark mission in space exploration in a number of different ways: the first shuttle trip with three female crew members, who joined four male astronauts on the flight, and when they arrived at the ISS, it was the first time four women were in orbit at the same time.

The mission also marked the first time there were two Japanese astronauts in space at once, with Discovery mission specialist Naoko Yamazaki joining Soichi Noguchi of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, who arrived at the station on December 22.

Discovery and its crew delivered nearly eight tonnes of cargo, including spare bunks for the occupants of the space station, a large tank of ammonia coolant and seven racks filled with science experiments.

Among the gear hauled into space was a freezer to preserve samples of blood, urine, saliva, plants or microbes used in micro-gravity experiments for later analysis back on Earth.

The shuttle also brought up to the ISS an exercise machine designed to study the effects of weightlessness on the body's musculoskeletal system. Muscles can atrophy during long sojourns in space so astronauts have to exercise regularly.

During the shuttle's stay at the orbiting outpost, US President Barack Obama visited Kennedy Space Center to set a bold new course for the future of space travel ahead of the 30-year-shuttle fleet's retirement at the end of this year.

Among the goals set for the US space effort, Obama on Thursday announced plans to send US astronauts into the orbit of Mars within the next three decades.

He also sought to quell a storm of outrage caused by earlier administration plans, vowing before NASA staff that he was "100 percent committed" to their mission and to the future of the US space agency.

"I believe that space exploration is not a luxury, it's not an afterthought in America's quest for a brighter future. It is an essential part of that quest," he said.

Just three more space flights remain for shuttles Atlantis, Discovery and Endeavour, with a launch to the ISS in September scheduled to be the last of 134 total flights for the program before the three remaining orbiters are retired. The first shuttle flew in April 1981.

After the shuttle fleet is grounded, US astronauts will be left to hitch rides on Russian spacecraft to the orbiting station until a replacement program is developed.

The ISS, which orbits 220 miles (350 kilometers) above Earth, is a 100-billion-dollar project begun in 1998 with the participation of 16 countries, financed mainly by the United States.

Soyuz Ready For French Guiana Launch This Year

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov on Tuesday confirmed plans to launch a Soyuz carrier rocket from the Kourou space center in French Guiana later this year.

The launches have repeatedly been postponed, with the latest deadline set for April 2010.

"This year, I hope, a milestone rocket and space industry event will take place: a modernized Soyuz carrier rocket will blast off from the French Kourou space center," Ivanov told the Rossiya 24 news channel.

He added that Russia would "gradually increase" funding for its space programs, which currently stands at approximately $2.7 billion.

Parts of two Soyuz-ST rockets, modernized versions of the Soyuz-2 rocket developed specifically for launches from the Kourou space center in South America, were delivered to French Guiana last year.

The Kourou launch site is intended mainly for the launch of geostationary satellites. Its proximity to the Equator will enable the Soyuz-ST to put into orbit heavier satellites than those launched from Baikonur in Kazakhstan and Plesetsk in northern Russia.

Russia's Federal Space Agency Roscosmos and French satellite launch firm Arianespace signed a contract in 2008 to launch 10 Russian Soyuz-ST carrier rockets from a separate launch pad in French Guiana near Sinnamari, a village 10 kilometers (6 miles) north of the site used for the Ariane-5, the main European-made booster.

Discovery Crew Wraps Up Final ISS EVA

The third STS-131 spacewalk ended at 8:38 a.m. EDT, a six-hour, 24-minute outing for Mission Specialists Rick Mastracchio and Clayton Anderson.

The spacewalkers fell behind the timeline when an alignment issue delayed the stowage of the depleted Ammonia Tank Assembly on a carrier in space shuttle Discovery's cargo bay. Some planned tasks had to be deferred.

Before wrapping up, the spacewalkers relocated a portable foot restraint and prepared cables on the Zenith 1 truss for a spare Space to Ground Ku-Band antenna, two chores required before space shuttle Atlantis' STS-132/ULF-4 mission in May.

This was the final STS-131 spacewalk, the 236th conducted by U.S. astronauts, and the sixth for both Mastracchio and Anderson. It was the 143rd in support of International Space Station assembly and maintenance, totaling 893 hours, 33 minutes. It was the 115th spacewalk based out of the space station, totaling 706 hours, 18 minutes.

Mastracchio's six spacewalks total 38 hours, 30 minutes and Anderson's six spacewalks total 38 hours, 28 minutes. The pair now ranks 21st and 22nd on the list of cumulative spacewalk time. Final Spacewalk for STS-131 Completed, Cargo Transfers Continue

Spacewalkers Rick Mastracchio and Clayton Anderson completed the third and final spacewalk of the STS-131 mission at 8:38 a.m. EDT. They finished the installation of a new ammonia tank for the International Space Station's cooling systems during the 6-hour, 24-minute excursion.

The spacewalk was replanned because of some difficulties bolting down the new ammonia tank on Sunday. Mastracchio wore a suit with red stripes around the legs and Anderson wore an unmarked suit. Mission Specialist Dorothy Metcalf-Lindenburger coordinated the spacewalk from inside the complex.

Transfer activities resumed inside the station. With about three-quarters of the science rack, equipment, food and supply moves complete, the shuttle and station crews are working to get all the items into their final locations.

Sandcastles On The Moon

Robots are coming to a Moon near you very soon. Aside from a new fleet of orbiters, some will be landing within three years. There will be rovers deployed on the Moon, and sample return missions. This new wave of missions is brought to you by the governments of the USA, China, India and a collection of private ventures.

With so much attention focused on revisiting the Moon, it's time to re-explore a basic task that's never really been practiced before. Can we work effectively with the lunar regolith?

Any serious talk of working or staying on the Moon includes ways of using lunar materials to our advantage. In its most crude form, this means shoveling lunar soil on top of a lunar base, to protect it from radiation and meteorite impacts. Other uses would be more sophisticated, such as making concrete from the soil, or refining the soil to extract metals, oxygen and other useful things.

Landing areas for spacecraft would need to be built, free from the debris that's normally kicked up by rocket exhaust. Berms of lunar soil would protect fragile structures from nearby launches and landings. We may even want to dig deep underground, to bury certain items.

All of this sounds simple in theory. Just take a big shovel or some type of construction gear, and dig. But is it really this straightforward? We don't properly understand the mechanical properties of the regolith, dust and rocks. We don't know how well equipment and techniques that work well on Earth will perform on the Moon.

During the Apollo missions, astronauts were surprised by the behavior of the lunar soil. It adhered quickly to their spacesuits and equipment. The regolith was also more difficult to penetrate than mission planners had suspected. Planting a rod for a flag was tricky.

During an attempt to drill a core sample, Apollo 15 astronaut James Irwin apparently suffered a minor cardiac problem, according to biometric telemetry.

We will need to gather more data on the handling of lunar soil if we want to do anything ambitious on the Moon, and the best way to do it is with machines, long before astronauts return.

Some private companies are already proposing small robotic lunar dump trucks, which could excavate and move the soil. Over a long period of time, these could steadily build up large structures. But how long would it take, and how effective would it be? That's not known right now.

Doing something as simple as getting a robot to build sandcastles on the Moon would be a step forward. It would be an exercise in mechanical engineering, and a test of how disturbed regolith behaves.

Can we make lunar bricks by fusing the soil with heat? Is it better to build up a berm of raw soil, then "cook" the exterior for strength? These are also unresolved issues.

Other tests we need to perform include placing radiation dosimeters under artificial lunar mounds, to test their shielding properties. Firing mortar shells or pellets at structures would also simulate meteorite strikes.

These questions can only be answered with a lot of missions, and a lot of testing. It will take time, but it needs to be done. Without this knowledge, we will never be able to use the Moon to its full advantage.