Argentine Land Registry Launches Territorial Information System

The Dirección General del Catastro Territorial (General Directorate of Cadastre Land [DGCT]) of the Province of Formosa, Argentina, is responsible for managing, maintaining, and updating the geographic information and legal valuation of approximately 160,000 parcels that make up the province, contributing to traffic safety, secure land tenure, land-use planning, and urban financing through property taxes. To continue to fulfill these responsibilities, it was necessary to have reliable, high-quality land information that could be accessed easily and efficiently.

The territorial information system's management module links to digital documents, such as these scanned cadastral surveys and the legal document that validates the transaction.

Officials implemented a new GIS to address these needs and realize their vision of having a digital cadastre that is open and allows citizens easy access to the provincial land registry information. This project involved new technological advances within the provincial administration.
http://www.esri.com/news/arcnews/fall12articles/argentine-land-registry-launches-territorial-information-system.html

Math formula gives new glimpse into the magical mind of Ramanujan

Srinivasa Ramanujan.

December 22 marks the 125th anniversary of the birth of Srinivasa Ramanujan, an Indian mathematician renowned for somehow intuiting extraordinary numerical patterns and connections without the use of proofs or modern mathematical tools. A devout Hindu, Ramanujan said that his findings were divine, revealed to him in dreams by the goddess Namagiri.
"I wanted to do something special, in the spirit of Ramanujan, to mark the anniversary," says Emory mathematician Ken Ono. "It's fascinating to me to explore his writings and imagine how his brain may have worked. It's like being a mathematical anthropologist."
Ono, a number theorist whose work has previously uncovered hidden meanings in the notebooks of Ramanujan, set to work on the 125th-anniversary project with two colleagues and former students: Amanda Folsom, from Yale, and Rob Rhoades, from Stanford.
The result is a formula for mock modular forms that may prove useful to physicists who study black holes. The work, which Ono recently presented at the Ramanujan 125 conference at the University of Florida, also solves one of the greatest puzzles left behind by the enigmatic Indian genius.

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Math_formula_gives_new_glimpse_into_the_magical_mind_of_Ramanujan_999.html

ESA's powerful new tracking station ready for service

Forty metres tall and with a moving antenna assembly weighing 610 tonnes, the station strikes a starkly beautiful pose 1500 m up on an arid Argentinian plain, where high tech meets the high Pampas.

A new satellite tracking station at Malargue, Argentina, will be formally inaugurated on Tuesday, completing the trio of deep-space stations and confirming ESA as one of the world's most technologically advanced space organisations.
The massive radio reflector dish of ESA's new station is the most visible indication of the impressive technology that will soon track missions voyaging hundreds of millions of kilometres deep in our Solar System.
Forty metres tall and with a moving antenna assembly weighing 610 tonnes, the station strikes a starkly beautiful pose 1500 m up on an arid Argentinian plain, where high tech meets the high Pampas.
In addition to tracking missions at Mars and Venus, it can also conduct radio science experiments, allowing scientists in Europe and Argentina to study the matter through which the spacecraft-ground communication signals travel.

http://www.spacemart.com/reports/ESAs_powerful_new_tracking_station_ready_for_service_999.html

CU-Boulder team develops swarm of pingpong ball-sized robots by Staff Writers

Assistant Professor Nikolaus Correll hopes to create a design methodology for aggregating the droplets into more complex behaviors such as assembling parts of a large space telescope or an aircraft.

University of Colorado Boulder Assistant Professor Nikolaus Correll likes to think in multiples. If one robot can accomplish a singular task, think how much more could be accomplished if you had hundreds of them.
Correll and his computer science research team, including research associate Dustin Reishus and professional research assistant Nick Farrow, have developed a basic robotic building block, which he hopes to reproduce in large quantities to develop increasingly complex systems.







http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/CU_Boulder_team_develops_swarm_of_pingpong_ball_sized_robots_999.html

Beating Heart of J-2X Engine Finishes Year of Testing by Staff Writers

The powerpack assembly burned millions of pounds of propellants during a series of 13 tests totaling more than an hour and a half in 2012. The testing team set several records for hot-firing duration at Stennis test stands during the summer.

NASA on Thursday took another step toward human exploration of new destinations in the solar system. At the agency's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, engineers conducted the final test-firing of the J-2X powerpack assembly, an important component of America's next heavy-lift rocket.
The J-2X engine is the first human-rated liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen engine developed in the United States in decades. Designed and built by NASA and industry partner Pratt and Whitney Rocketdyne of Canoga Park, Calif., the engine will power the upper stage of NASA's 143-ton (130-metric-ton) Space Launch System (SLS) rocket. The powerpack is a system of components on top of the engine that feeds propellants to the bell nozzle of the engine to produce thrust.

http://www.space-travel.com/reports/Beating_Heart_of_J_2X_Engine_Finishes_Year_of_Testing_999.html

Exploding star missing from formation of solar system

Scientists in the University of Chicago's Origins Laboratory have published the latest in a series of papers about the origin of the solar system. Infant stars glow reddish-pink in this infrared image of the Serpens star-forming region, captured by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope. Four and a half billion years ago, the sun may have looked much like one of the baby stars deeply embedded in the cosmic cloud of gas and dust that collapsed to create it. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/L. Cieza (University of Texas at Austin).

A new study published by University of Chicago researchers challenges the notion that the force of an exploding star forced the formation of the solar system. In this study, published online last month in Earth and Planetary Science Letters, authors Haolan Tang and Nicolas Dauphas found the radioactive isotope iron 60 - the telltale sign of an exploding star-low in abundance and well mixed in solar system material.

As cosmochemists, they look for remnants of stellar explosions in meteorites to help determine the conditions under which the solar system formed.

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Exploding_star_missing_from_formation_of_solar_system_999.html

ISS Orbit Raised Ahead of Crew Arrival

International Space Station Expedition 34 will perform two spacewalks under the Russian and US space programs.

The International Space Station's orbit has been increased by almost 2.5 kilometers in a test of the station's new emergency debris avoidance system, Mission Control told RIA Novosti.

The new system, known as the Pre-Determined Debris Avoidance Maneuver (PDAM), addresses the situation where dangerous debris is detected with little advance warning, down to as little as three hours from the approach.

The reboost was originally scheduled for Thursday, but had been postponed "after encountering some challenges latching down one of the Beta Gimbal Assemblies that rotate the station's huge solar arrays," NASA said on its website.

http://www.space-travel.com/reports/ISS_Orbit_Raised_Ahead_of_Crew_Arrival_999.html

Enabling ChemCam to Measure Key Isotopic Ratios on Mars and Other Planets

ChemCam is a science instrument on the mast of the Curiosity rover (Photo: NASA JPL).

On August 6th, 2012 the automatic rover "Curiosity" landed on Mars. One of the scientific instruments on board is ChemCam, which has a pulsed laser capable of ablating a focused spot on a remote sample to create a glowing plasma plume of target's material. Light from plasma is collected by rover's telescope on a mast, and the optical spectra are then analyzed by an internal spectrometer.

ChemCam can take thousands spectra per day from a distance of about 7 meters, thus making chemical analyses on the surface of Mars with unprecedented speed. ChemCam has become the most frequently used instrument on the rover because of simplicity of its stand-off operation.

http://www.marsdaily.com/reports/Enabling_ChemCam_to_Measure_Key_Isotopic_Ratios_on_Mars_and_Other_Planets_999.html

Station Crew Does Maintenance as Soyuz Rolls to Launch Pad

The Soyuz spacecraft that will carry Marshburn, Hadfield and Romanenko to the station was transported by railcar to the launch pad Monday after its three stages were mated together Sunday.

Final launch preparations are under way at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan as three Expedition 34 flight engineers get ready for their launch to round out the standard six-person crew on the International Space Station.

The three Expedition 34 crew members currently living and working aboard the station were busy with a variety of maintenance duties and science experiments Monday as they wait for the launch and arrival of their crewmates.

Commander Kevin Ford unpacked medical kit supplies brought to the station aboard the ISS Progress 49 cargo craft and packed trash and other unneeded items aboard the ISS Progress 48 cargo craft for disposal.

http://www.space-travel.com/reports/Station_Crew_Does_Maintenance_as_Soyuz_Rolls_to_Launch_Pad_999.html

GRAIL Lunar Impact Site Named for Astronaut Sally Ride

The final flight path for NASA's twin GRAIL mission spacecraft to impact the moon on Dec. 17. GRAIL's MoonKAM is the signature education and public outreach program led by Sally Ride Science-founded by Dr. Sally Ride, America's first woman in space.

NASA has named the site where twin agency spacecraft impacted the moon Monday in honor of the late astronaut Sally K. Ride, who was America's first woman in space and a member of the probes' mission team.

Last Friday, Ebb and Flow, the two spacecraft comprising NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission, were commanded to descend into a lower orbit that would result in an impact Monday on a mountain near the moon's north pole. The formation-flying duo hit the lunar surface as planned at 2:28:51 p.m. PST (5:28:51 p.m. EST) and 2:29:21 p.m. PST (5:29:21 p.m. EST) at a speed of 3,760 mph (1.7 kilometers per second).

http://www.moondaily.com/reports/GRAIL_Lunar_Impact_Site_Named_for_Astronaut_Sally_Ride_999.html

UI-led team confirms 'gusty winds' in space turbulence

Imagine riding in an airplane as the plane is jolted back and forth by gusts of wind that you can't prove exist but are there nonetheless. Similar turbulence exists in space, and a research team led by the University of Iowa reports to have directly measured it for the first time in the laboratory.

"Turbulence is not restricted to environments here on Earth, but also arises pervasively throughout the solar system and beyond, driving chaotic motions in the ionized gas, or plasma, that fills the universe," says Gregory Howes, assistant professor of physics and astronomy at the UI and lead author of the paper to be published Dec. 17 in the online edition of Physical Review Letters, the journal of the American Physical Society.

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/UI_led_team_confirms_gusty_winds_in_space_turbulence_999.html

Major climate change report draft leaked online: IPCC

A major report on climate change being compiled by the United Nation's climate science panel was on Friday leaked online in what appeared to be an attempt by a climate sceptic to discredit the panel. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said the full draft of its Fifth Assessment Report, which is not set for official publication until next September, had been published online by one of 800 experts contributing to the report. The climate body did not identify the culprit, but a climate sceptic named Alec Rawls announced in a blog posting that he had posted the report in what appeared to be a bid to discredit it. The IPCC is a favoured target for sceptics, who stirred a scandal in the run up to a UN climate summit in Copenhagen in 2009 by pointing out flaws in the panel's landmark Fourth Assessment Report.
http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Major_climate_change_report_draft_leaked_online_IPCC_999.html

No plans of sending an Indian on moon

India has no plans to put an astronaut on the moon, as of now. Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office V Narayanasamy in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday said this.

The minister also said that the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) had no plans in the immediate future to launch space labs and manned spaceships or set up space stations.

"However, ISRO has undertaken the development critical technologies required for manned missions in the Earth's orbit," he said in a written statement.

http://www.moondaily.com/reports/No_plans_of_sending_an_Indian_on_moon_999.html

NASA Progressing Toward First Launch of Orion Spacecraft

This past week, engineers at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., received materials to begin manufacturing the adapter that will connect the Orion capsule to a United Launch Alliance Delta IV heavy-lift rocket for EFT-1.

Recent engineering advances by NASA and its industry partners across the country show important progress toward Exploration Flight Test-1 (EFT-1), the next step to launching humans to deep space.

The uncrewed EFT-1 mission, launching from NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida in 2014, will test the re-entry performance of the agency's Orion capsule, the most advanced spacecraft ever designed, which will carry astronauts farther into space than ever before.

"These recent milestones are laying the foundation for our first flight test of Orion in 2014," said Dan Dumbacher, deputy associate administrator for exploration systems development at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

http://www.space-travel.com/reports/NASA_Progressing_Toward_First_Launch_of_Orion_Spacecraft_999.html

Asteroid Toutatis Slowly Tumbles by Earth

Watch a video of asteroid Toutatis as captured by NASA's Goldstone Solar System Radar

Scientists working with NASA's 230-foot-wide (70-meter) Deep Space Network antenna at Goldstone, Calif., have generated a series of radar data images of a three-mile-long (4.8-kilometer) asteroid that made its closest approach to Earth on Dec. 12, 2012.

The images that make up the movie clip were generated with data taken on Dec. 12 and 13, 2012. On Dec. 12, the day of its closest approach to Earth, Toutatis was about 18 lunar distances, 4.3 million miles (6.9 million kilometers) from Earth. On Dec. 13, the asteroid was about 4.4 million miles (7 million kilometers), or about 18.2 lunar distances.

The radar data images of asteroid Toutatis indicate that it is an elongated, irregularly shaped object with ridges and perhaps craters. Along with shape detail, scientists are also seeing some interesting bright glints that could be surface boulders.

http://www.moondaily.com/reports/Rocket_Burn_Sets_Stage_for_Dynamic_Moon_Duos_Lunar_Impact_999.html

China Makes First Asteroid Fly By

Chang'e-2 came as close as 3.2 km from Toutatis and took pictures of the asteroid at a relative velocity of 10.73 km per second.

China's space probe Chang'e-2 has successfully conducted a maneuver in which it flew by the asteroid Toutatis, about seven million km away from the Earth.

Travelling in deep space, Chang'e-2 made the flyby on Dec. 13 at 16:30:09 Beijing Time (08:30"09 GMT), the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (SASTIND) announced on Saturday.

The flyby was the first time an unmanned spacecraft launched from Earth has taken such a close viewing of the asteroid, named after a Celtic god.

It also made China the fourth country after the United States, the European Union and Japan to be able to examine an asteroid by spacecraft.

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Chinese_Spacecraft_Conducts_Successful_Encounter_Asteroid_Toutatis_999.html

Rocket Burn Sets Stage for Dynamic Moon Duos' Lunar Impact

"NASA wanted to rule out any possibility of our twins hitting the surface anywhere near any of the historic lunar exploration sites like the Apollo landing sites or where the Russian Luna probes touched down," said David Lehman, GRAIL project manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

The lunar twins of NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission have each completed a rocket burn that has sealed their fate. The burns modified the orbit of the formation-flying spacecraft. Over the next three days, this new orbit will carry the twins lower and lower over the moon's surface.

On Monday afternoon, Dec. 17, at about 2:28 p.m. PST (5:28 p.m. EST), their moon-skimming will conclude when a portion of the lunar surface - an unnamed mountain near the natural satellite's north pole - rises higher than their orbital altitude.

http://www.moondaily.com/reports/Rocket_Burn_Sets_Stage_for_Dynamic_Moon_Duos_Lunar_Impact_999.html

Apple Maps glitch could be deadly: Australian police

Apple Maps glitch could be deadly: Australian police

Australian police Monday warned motorists about using Apple Maps on the iPhone's latest operating system after rescuing several people left stranded in the wilderness, saying the errors could prove deadly.

Victoria state police said drivers were sent "off the beaten track" in recent weeks while attempting to get to the inland town of Mildura, being directed instead to the middle of a national park.

"Police are extremely concerned as there is no water supply within the park and temperatures can reach as high as 46 degrees Celsius (114 F), making this a potentially life threatening issue," police said in a statement.

Authorities said tests on the mapping system had confirmed that it lists Mildura, around 500 kilometres (310 miles) northwest of Melbourne, as being in the heart of the Murray Sunset National Park.

This is about 70 kilometres (43 miles) from its actual location.

http://www.spacemart.com/reports/Apple_Maps_glitch_could_be_deadly_Australian_police_999.html

Seeing stars, finding nukes: Radio telescopes can spot clandestine nuclear tests

File image: Very Large Array (VLA).

In the search for rogue nukes, researchers have discovered an unlikely tool: astronomical radio telescopes. Ohio State University researchers previously demonstrated another unlikely tool, when they showed that South Korean GPS stations detected telltale atmospheric disturbances from North Korea's 2009 nuclear test.

Both techniques were born out of the discovery that underground nuclear explosions leave their mark-on the outer reaches of Earth's atmosphere.

Now, working with astronomers at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), they have analyzed historical data from the Very Large Array (VLA), a constellation of 27 radio telescopes near Socorro, New Mexico-and discovered that the VLA recorded a very similar pattern of disturbances during the last two American underground nuclear tests, which took place in Nevada in 1992.

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Seeing_stars_finding_nukes_Radio_telescopes_can_spot_clandestine_nuclear_tests_999.html

First-ever hyperspectral images of Earth's auroras

The aurora as seen as a color composite image from the NORUSCA II camera. Three bands were combined to make the image. Each band was assigned a different color - red, green, and blue - to enhance the features of the aurora for analysis. Credit: Optics Express.

Hoping to expand our understanding of auroras and other fleeting atmospheric events, a team of space-weather researchers designed and built NORUSCA II, a new camera with unprecedented capabilities that can simultaneously image multiple spectral bands, in essence different wavelengths or colors, of light.

The camera was tested at the Kjell Henriksen Observatory (KHO) in Svalbard, Norway, where it produced the first-ever hyperspectral images of auroras-commonly referred to as "the Northern (or Southern) Lights"-and may already have revealed a previously unknown atmospheric phenomenon.

Details on the camera and the results from its first images were published in the Optical Society's (OSA) open-access journal Optics Express.

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/First_ever_hyperspectral_images_of_Earths_auroras_999.html

Skybox Imaging Completes Significant Testing Milestone Preceding its First Satellite and Product Launch

Skybox Imaging (has successfully completed the simulated space environmental test of its first high-resolution imaging microsatellite. During the 16-day test campaign conducted at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., the satellite was placed in a thermal vacuum chamber that accurately simulated the thermal and environmental conditions of low Earth orbit. Skybox evaluated the spacecraft's performance in a variety of operational modes.

This included a "day-in-the-life" test where the Skybox operations team simulated flying the spacecraft for 20 orbits. The test data collected was used to accurately correlate the detailed spacecraft thermal and power models and verify that all subsystems performed as expected.

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Skybox_Imaging_Completes_Significant_Testing_Milestone_Preceding_its_First_Satellite_and_Product_Launch_999.html

Boeing's Reusable, Unmanned X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle Begins Second Flight

Building upon the inaugural mission from April to December 2010, this second flight will demonstrate that the vehicle is capable of multiple missions and can provide affordable access to space. A second vehicle, OTV-2, broke records in June 2012 when it completed a 469-day mission. Photo credit: Photo courtesy of ULA.

Boeing has successfully returned an unmanned U.S. Air Force X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle to orbit, continuing to demonstrate how the system provides responsive, reusable access to space. An Atlas V rocket launched OTV-1, the first of two vehicles in the program, into a low Earth orbit at 1:03 p.m. Eastern time from Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 41.

The X-37B, which combines the best of aircraft and spacecraft design in an unmanned test platform, is testing reusable vehicle technologies dealing with space experimentation, risk reduction and concept-of-operations development.

http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Boeings_Reusable_Unmanned_X37B_Orbital_Test_Vehicle_Begins_Second_Flight_999.html

N. Korea's satellite 'orbiting normally': South

N. Korea's satellite 'orbiting normally': Southby Staff WritersSeoul (AFP) Dec 13, 2012

S. Korea seeks to recover N. Korea rocket debrisSeoul (AFP) Dec 13, 2012 - South Korea's navy has launched a salvage operation in the Yellow Sea to retrieve debris from North Korea's long-range rocket launch, military officials said Thursday.The first stage of the North's Unha-3 rocket launched on Wednesday fell in the sea off the Korean peninsula, while the second splashed down east of the Philippines. "Our navy discovered what appeared to be a part from the first stage of North Korea's rocket in the Yellow Sea Wednesday afternoon," a defence ministry spokesman told AFP. "A salvage operation is now under way to retrieve it," he said, declining to give details. The chunk of the debris was found on the sea bed, some 160 kilometers (100 miles) west of the southwestern port of Gunsan, Yonhap news agency said, at a depth of around 80 meters (260 feet). Before its last rocket launch attempt in April -- which ended in failure -- North Korea had warned both Japan and South Korea that any effort to salvage debris from the rocket would be considered an "act of war". The warning was not repeated before Wednesday's launch. Pyongyang said its latest launch was a purely scientific mission aimed at placing a polar-orbiting earth observation satellite in space. Most of the world saw it as a disguised ballistic missile test that violates UN resolutions imposed after the North's nuclear tests in 2006 and 2009. The UN Security Council has condemned the launch and warned of possible measures over what the US called a "highly provocative" act.

The satellite launched by North Korea's long-range rocket is in operational orbit, South Korea's defence ministry said Thursday, confirming the apparent success of Pyongyang's stated space mission.

The satellite sent into space by the North's Unha-3 rocket on Wednesday, is "orbiting normally", ministry spokesman 

http://www.spacewar.com/reports/N_Koreas_satellite_orbiting_normally_South_999.html

Raytheon wins DARPA contract to design new military imaging satellites

by Staff WritersTucson, AZ (SPX) Dec 14, 2012

For this contract, Raytheon has teamed with Sierra Nevada Corporation, University of Arizona and SRI International to assist with design work and eventually production. Next year, in phase two of the SeeMe program, the Raytheon team would build six satellites for ground testing.

Raytheon was awarded a $1.5 million Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) contract for phase one of the agency's Space Enabled Effects for Military Engagements (SeeMe) program.

During the next nine months, the company will complete the design for small satellites to enhance warfighter situational awareness in the battlespace.

The SeeMe program will provide useful on-demand imagery information directly to the warfighter in the field from a low-cost satellite constellation launched on a schedule that conforms to Department of Defense operational tempos.

http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Raytheon_wins_DARPA_contract_to_design_new_military_imaging_satellites_999.html

rare discovery of a species of animal

Leicester UK (SPX) Dec 14, 2012

This shows the ventral view of the fossil Pauline avibella. Credit: David J. Siveter, Derek E. G. Briggs, Derek J. Siveter, Mark D. Sutton and Sarah C. Joomun.

'It is exciting to discover that a common group of fossils that we thought we knew a lot about may well have been hood-winking us as to their true identity, which we now realise because we have their beautifully fossilised soft-parts. A case of a 'wolf in sheep's clothing''- Professor David Siveter, University of Leicester
An international team of researchers have made an extremely rare discovery of a species of animal - related to crabs, lobsters and shrimps - that is new to science.
Scientists from the universities of Leicester, Oxford, Imperial and Yale have announced their discovery of a new and scientifically important fossil species of ostracod in the journal, Proceedings of The Royal Society B. The research was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council.

http://www.terradaily.com/reports/Discovery_of_tiny_fossil_new_to_science_999.html

Secretive X-37B space plane ready for next flight

It's round three for the mysterious X-37B space plane.
An Atlas V rocket carrying the unmanned craft, which looks like a miniature space shuttle, has gotten clearance for a planned liftoff tomorrow at just after 10 a.m. PT from the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. [Update, December 11 at 10:21 a.m. PT: The Associated Press reports that the rocket carrying the X-37B has launched.]
If the previous two trips into space are any indication, don't expect the X-37B to come home anytime soon -- or for the U.S. Air Force to say … Read more

Locata wants to fill holes in GPS location, navigation

It's a common affliction: you're using your smartphone to navigate in a city with a bunch of big buildings and your phone misplaces your location.
Often the problem often is that the GPS location system just doesn't work well where the satellite radio signals can be blocked or reflected. A company called Locata says it's got an answer.
Locata does what the GPS system does, but it replaces satellites in orbit with radio transmitters on the ground. The result is location services with high precision, better reliability, and indoor coverage, said Paul Benshoof, global business development … Read more

Charitum Montes: a cratered winter wonderland

The high-resolution stereo camera on ESA’s Mars Express imaged the Charitum Montes region of the Red Planet on 18 June, near to Gale crater and the Argyre basin featured in our October and November image releases. The brighter features, giving the image an ethereal winter-like feel in the colour images, are surfaces covered with seasonal carbon dioxide frost.

Charitum Montes are a large group of rugged mountains extending over almost 1000 km and bounding the southernmost rim of the Argyre impact basin. They can be seen from Earth through larger telescope and were named by Eugène Michel Antoniadi (1870–1944) in his 1929 work La Planète Mars. 

Annotated image

The images in this release all show the region’s old and highly-sculpted terrain, pockmarked with many large craters, all of which have been substantially filled in. The whole region is dusted with brighter carbon dioxide frost. 

Perspective view

Numerous smaller ‘pedestal craters’ can also be seen in the 3D and 2D images. These are impact craters where the ejecta have formed a higher relief above the surroundings. One striking example is visible on the smooth plain to the lower right in the annotated image (Box A). 

Topographic view

The ejecta surrounding pedestal craters form erosion-resistant layers, meaning that the immediate vicinity around the crater erodes more slowly than the surrounding terrain. The resistant ejecta layer is largely untouched, forming the pedestal. 

Perspective view

Another well-preserved example of a pedestal feature surrounding an impact crater can be seen within the large, old and heavily-degraded crater on the lower-left side of the annotated image (Box B). In the centre of the 2D images and dominating the perspective images is a crater some 50 km wide filled with thick sedimentary deposits.

These deposits appear to have been introduced through one of several breaches in the northern crater rim (Box C in the annotated image). Dendritic channels appear to emanate from a completely filled-in crater in this region (Box D), at the periphery of the large crater’s northern edge.

Within the large crater, near to where the breach (C) in the crater wall occurred, though unconnected to this event, we can also see a small dune field (Box E). A region of significant interest to scientists lies within the large crater towards the top left of the first image (Box F). This crater shows a diverse range of filling material, with layers of varying colour and texture. 

Charitum Montes in context  

The uppermost layer appears to be bright and smooth, taking on the appearance of a relatively thin blanket with some impact craters. This layer interfaces with the underlying darker layer via some very sharply defined edges, possibly as a result of erosion. The underlying darker material has a much rougher and mottled appearance, and planetary geologists are still studying possible causes. To the left of the crater interior, another layer of sediments clearly sets itself apart from the underlying strata, partly forming flat-topped structures (Box G). 

3D view

The complexity and diversity of some areas in this winter wonderland would doubtless give Father Christmas a hard time in finding somewhere safe to land, but images like these are giving planetary geologists yet another fascinating region of the Red Planet to study.

For further information visit: http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEMH7W2ABAH_index_2.html

Third Galileo satellite begins transmitting navigation signal

Europe’s third Galileo satellite has transmitted its first test navigation signals back to Earth. The two Galileo satellites launched last October have reached their final orbital position and are in the midst of testing. The third Galileo Flight Model, known as FM3, transmitted its first test navigation signal in the E1 band on 1 December, the band being used for Galileo’s freely available Open Service interoperable with GPS.

Then, on the morning of 4 December, the satellite broadcast signals across all three Galileo bands – E1, E5 and E6. Galileo is designed to provide highly accurate timing and navigation services to users around the world. So the testing is being carried out in addition to the standard satellite commissioning to confirm that the critical navigation payloads have not been degraded by the violence of launch.   

Galileo satellites

While the satellites are run from Galileo’s Oberpfaffenhofen Control Centre near Munich in Germany and their navigation payloads are overseen from Galileo’s Mission Control Centre in Fucino, Italy, a separate site is used for the in-orbit testing.

Located in the heart of Belgium’s Ardennes forest, Redu is specially equipped for Galileo testing, with a 15 m-diameter S-band antenna to upload commands and receive telemetry from the satellite, and a 20 m-diameter L-band dish to monitor the shape and quality of navigation signals at high resolution. “This marked the very first time that a Galileo payload was activated directly from ESA’s Redu centre in Belgium,” explained Marco Falcone, overseeing the campaign effort as Galileo’s System Manager. 

First FM3 test navigation signal  

“We have now established an end-to-end setup in Redu that allows us to upload commands generated from Fucino’s Galileo Control Centre to the satellite payload whenever the satellite passes over the station, while at the same time directly receiving the resulting navigation signal through its main L-band antenna.

“The result is our operations are much more effective, shortening the time needed for payload in orbit testing.” Operating at an altitude of 23 222 km, the Galileo satellites take about 14 hours to orbit our planet, typically coming into view of Redu for between three to nine hours each day.   

FM3's test team

The fourth Galileo flight model, FM4, was launched together with FM3 on 12 October. The two satellites shared the same Soyuz launcher from French Guiana. Both have now been manoeuvred into their operational orbits: at the same altitude but in a different orbital plane to the first two Galileos, launched in 2011, in order to maximise the global coverage.

Now that FM3’s payload has been activated, FM4 is set to begin transmitting test navigation signals later this month. The first two satellites have already passed their in-orbit testing.

For further information visit: http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEM2R5F16AH_index_2.html

Where is NASA going? Expert panel says space agency isn’t quite sure, needs clear goals

 WASHINGTON — NASA, the agency that epitomized the “Right Stuff,” looks lost in space and doesn’t have a clear sense of where it is going, an independent panel of science and engineering experts said in a stinging report Wednesday.

The report by a panel of the distinguished National Academy of Sciences doesn’t blame the space agency; it faults the president, Congress and the nation for not giving NASA better direction. At the same time, it said NASA is doing little to further the White House’s goal of sending astronauts to an asteroid. In one withering passage, the panel said NASA’s mission and vision statements are so vague and “generic” that they “could apply to almost any government research and development agency, omitting even the words ‘aeronautics’ or ‘space.’”

The space shuttles were retired in 2011 and are now museum pieces. Few people are paying attention to the International Space Station, and American astronauts have to rely on Russian spaceships to get there and back. Meanwhile, rocket-building is being outsourced to private companies, and a commercial venture plans to send people to the moon by the end of the decade.

Academy panel member Bob Crippen, a retired NASA manager and astronaut who piloted the first space shuttle mission, said he has never seen the space agency so adrift. He said that includes the decade between the end of the Apollo moon landings in the early 1970s and the beginning of the shuttle program. “I think people (at NASA) want to be focused a little more and know where they are going,” Crippen told The Associated Press.

NASA spokesman David Weaver defended the agency, saying in an emailed statement that it has clear and challenging goals. He listed several projects, including continued use of the International Space Station and efforts to develop a heavy-duty rocket and crew capsule capable of taking astronauts into deep space. John Logsdon, a space policy expert who advised the Obama campaign in 2008, said the panel’s report, which is more strongly worded than usual for the academy, “rather fairly points its fingers at the White House.”

 “There’s a general sense of disappointment that the administration has not been more bold and visionary in setting out a path for the program,” said Logsdon, who was not on the panel.

For further information visit: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/where-is-nasa-going-expert-panel-says-space-agency-isnt-quite-sure-needs-clear-goals/2012/12/05/a30b125a-3f21-11e2-8a5c-473797be602c_story.html

Year in space challenging but doable, astronaut says

Spending a full year in the cramped confines of the International Space Station poses psychological and physical challenges, but two crewmen set for launch in 2015 are ready to go. When astronaut Scott Kelly told his 9-year-old daughter he was going to spend a full year aboard the International Space Station, she exclaimed "awesome!"

When cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko told his wife the same thing, "she started crying."But both men said Wednesday they were looking forward to blasting off in March 2015 and spending a full year in orbit, serving as medical guinea pigs to help scientists learn more about the long-term physical and psychological impacts of extended, confined flights in the weightless environment of space.

Astronaut Scott Kelly, floating in the multiwindow cupola during a previous long-duration stay aboard the International Space Station. Kelly and cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko plan to spend a full year aboard the outpost in 2015-16.

 (Credit: NASA)

"I personally think our ultimate destination, at least for a long time in our planet's future, is getting to Mars," Kelly told CBS News. "And I look at this as a step towards that." Alexey Krasnov, director of manned space operations for Roscosmos, the Russian federal space agency, agreed, saying through a translator "I hope this one-year duration expedition will help us achieve these tasks."A flight to Mars, possibly in the 2030s, is expected to take seven to 10 months, followed by a lengthy stay in the reduced gravity of the Red Planet and then an equally long trip back to Earth.

Space station astronauts and cosmonauts typically spend up to six months aboard the international lab complex, and researchers are eager to find out how the adaptation process might change -- and what might need to be done about it -- for longer-duration missions.

The spaceflight duration record holder is cosmonaut Valery Polyakov, who spent 438 days aboard the Russian Mir space station in 1994 and 1995. The U.S. record for the longest single spaceflight is held by astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria, who spent 215 days in space aboard the International Space Station in 2006-07.

But the upcoming flight with Kelly and Kornienko will set a new record for NASA and it will be the first to employ the full range of modern medical protocols and research procedures over a 12-month period.

Igor Ushakov, a senior medical researcher with the Russian space program, said astronauts and cosmonauts already run a 7 percent risk of having a problem that requires medical care after a six-month flight."So the risk will double, so for at least one of the two it will be 14 percent for the yearlong expedition," he said. "I would like to knock on wood that it won't happen, the worst scenario. But the risk is increased, that's for sure."

Even so, he reassured reporters, "the cosmonauts who were in space for a year or more, they all are alive and well today."

For further information visit: http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57557327-76/year-in-space-challenging-but-doable-astronaut-says/

Countdown begins to the next generation of satellites

Iridium NEXT is expected to begin launching in 2015 and to be fully operational in 2017.  Leading technology design and development firm Cambridge Consultants has been selected by Iridium Communications Inc. to play a key role in the deployment of Iridium NEXT, the company's second-generation satellite constellation and the world's most significant commercial space programme, which is expected to begin launching in early 2015.

Cambridge Consultants will spearhead subscriber equipment technology development for the constellation, which will cover the entire globe. It will also provide input into the broader satellite and ground infrastructure system design upon which Iridium NEXT is being built.

The Iridium network is the world's largest commercial satellite constellation. Covering the 90% of the Earth that cellular and terrestrial networks don't cover, Iridium is extending connectivity in places and ways never before imagined - from aircraft tracking in Alaska to the rescue of a trapped mountaineer in Antarctica.

Iridium enables two-way, real-time, low-latency voice and data communications services through small, reliable devices and applications that change the way organisations and people are able to operate and live. Building on a decade of innovative design and technology collaboration, Cambridge Consultants is contributing to the Iridium NEXT technology roadmap through its unique knowledge of the current system, as well as its experience in leading-edge mainstream wireless technologies.

The roadmap will provide Iridium customers with a new generation of feature enhancements and other product benefits as the Iridium NEXT project moves toward completion and beyond."The Iridium NEXT system will enable unmatched wireless connectivity for people in every corner of the globe and with such a significant undertaking comes a myriad of technology challenges," said Scott Smith, executive vice-president, Technology Development and Satellite Operations, at Iridium.

"It is uncommon in this industry to find such an effective long-term design partnership as the one we have with Cambridge Consultants, and we are pleased to have them as a part of the Iridium NEXT Mission Team that is collaborating to move this ambitious project from the design phase into reality."

With the preliminary design phase of Iridium NEXT satellites completed earlier this year, Cambridge Consultants is now embarking on the construction of prototype communications equipment that will be used to verify the design and performance of the Iridium NEXT system prior to the anticipated start of full construction in 2013. Iridium NEXT is expected to begin launching in 2015 and to be fully operational in 2017.

"We're proud of our long history with Iridium, and our input to the Iridium NEXT programme will help the company scale its business by maximising its return on investment in this next-generation satellite network," said Richard Traherne, head of the Wireless division at Cambridge Consultants.

"By applying knowledge acquired through our years of work with Iridium, we will ensure not only that the ground terminals and infrastructure for Iridium NEXT are effective, but that performance and user experience take a significant step forward and that flexibility is built in to enable exciting new features for future users."

With one of the largest independent wireless development teams in the world, Cambridge Consultants has a proven track record in implementing professional wireless systems based on standardised radio protocols such as GSM, WCDMA, LTE, TETRA, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and DECT, as well as proprietary protocols developed for custom applications.

For further information visit: http://www.spacemart.com/reports/Countdown_begins_to_the_next_generation_of_satellites_999.html

NASA-NOAA Satellite Reveals New Views of Earth at Night

 WASHINGTON -- Scientists unveiled today an unprecedented new look at our planet at night. A global composite image, constructed using cloud-free night images from a new NASA and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) satellite, shows the glow of natural and human-built phenomena across the planet in greater detail than ever before.

Many satellites are equipped to look at Earth during the day, when they can observe our planet fully illuminated by the sun. With a new sensor onboard the NASA-NOAA Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (NPP) satellite launched last year, scientists now can observe Earth's atmosphere and surface during nighttime hours.

The new sensor, the day-night band of the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS), is sensitive enough to detect the nocturnal glow produced by Earth's atmosphere and the light from a single ship in the sea. Satellites in the U.S. Defense Meteorological Satellite Program have been making observations with low-light sensors for 40 years. But the VIIRS day-night band can better detect and resolve Earth's night lights. The new, higher resolution composite image of Earth at night was released at a news conference at the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco. This and other VIIRS day-night band images are providing researchers with valuable data for a wide variety of previously unseen or poorly seen events.

"For all the reasons that we need to see Earth during the day, we also need to see Earth at night," said Steve Miller, a researcher at NOAA's Colorado State University Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere. "Unlike humans, the Earth never sleeps." The day-night band observed Hurricane Sandy, illuminated by moonlight, making landfall over New Jersey on the evening of Oct. 29. Night images showed the widespread power outages that left millions in darkness in the wake of the storm. With its night view, VIIRS is able to detect a more complete view of storms and other weather conditions, such as fog, that are difficult to discern with infrared, or thermal, sensors. Night is also when many types of clouds begin to form.

"The use of the day-night band by the National Weather Service is growing," said Mitch Goldberg, program scientist for NOAA's Joint Polar Satellite System. For example, the NOAA Weather Service's forecast office in Monterey, Calif., is now using VIIRS day-night band images to improve monitoring and forecasting of fog and low clouds for high air traffic coastal airports like San Francisco. According to Goldberg, VIIRS images were used on Nov. 26, the Monday after Thanksgiving, to map the dense fog in the San Francisco Bay area that resulted in flight delays and cancellations.

"It's like having three simultaneous low-light cameras operating at once and we pick the best of various cameras, depending on where we're looking in the scene," Miller said. The instrument can capture images on nights with or without moonlight, producing crisp views of Earth's atmosphere, land and ocean surfaces. "The night is nowhere as dark as we might think," Miller said. And with the VIIRS day-night band helping scientists to tease out information from human and natural sources of nighttime light, "we don't have to be in the dark anymore, either."

"The remarkable day-night band images from Suomi NPP have impressed the scientific community and exceeded our pre-launch expectations," said James Gleason, Suomi NPP project scientist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

For further information visit: http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2012/dec/HQ_12-422_Earth_at_night.html

GIS NEWS: MapSpeller, the Innovative ArcGIS Spell-Checker, Now Proofs in 11 Languages

-- Glen Allen, Virginia - The recently released version 4.0 of MapSpeller, the world's first GIS spell-checker, offers many new features including support for 11 languages, an unmatched level of integration with Arc Map, easier sharing of proofing resources and the extended ability to correct maps and GIS data geographically.  

Supported Languages

The supported languages are English, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, Italian, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish. English is available in three cultures: Canadian, British and American; Portuguese is available in the Portuguese and Brazilian cultures. More languages are under consideration. The new Multilingual Edition is able to proof maps in multiple languages simultaneously. This is of great benefit when proofing maps containing words in multiple languages, as correctly spelled words in one language will not appear as errors in another language.  

Unmatched Arc Map IntegrationMapSpeller detects and corrects spelling and/or positional errors in an unmatched number of GIS objects, including map, layout and Geodatabase annotations, legends, dynamic text, scale objects, layer labels, and data-driven pages. MapSpeller also provides full support for Arc Map and XML format tags.  

On-the-Fly Geographic Proofing

The patented ability to spell-check geographically has been enhanced to support radius proofing of text in geographic coordinate systems by projecting it on the fly in memory. 

Easy Sharing of Dictionaries

Version 4.0 simplifies dictionary customization and sharing. It also supports a variety of dictionaries including system, personal, corporate and spatial dictionaries, Microsoft Office and Windows Mail personal dictionaries, as well as danger dictionaries (containing correctly spelled words to be flagged).  

About Edgetech America, Inc.

MapSpeller is developed by Edgetech America, Inc., a cutting-edge Esri Partner since 1995. Commercial services and technical support are provided in English and French.

For further information visit: http://www10.giscafe.com/nbc/articles/view_article.php?section=CorpNews&articleid=1143455

GIS NEWS: OGC and CRCSI working together to make data widely available

-- The Australian Cooperative Research Center for Spatial Information (CRCSI) has joined forces with the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) through the signing of a memorandum of understanding. The relationship with OGC will be especially strong with the CRCSI’s Spatial Infrastructures research program.

“We’ll be using OGC and other open standards in our research to help direct development of the next generation of spatial infrastructure in Australia and New Zealand”, says Dr Geoff West, Science Director of the CRCSI’s Spatial Infrastructures research program.CRCSI input to the OGC will inform the direction of research for existing and new OGC standards. Dr West explained, “By using OGC standards, we ensure our research communicates directly with other systems.”

The agreement will leverage the collective expertise of many of the CRCSI’s partnering organisations to position research outputs for rapid utilization. Further to the linked research goals, CRCSI and OGC will share outreach and marketing materials to increase awareness of the increasing influential role of open standards in location based research. Joint activities may include introduction of interoperability requirements into the OGC consensus process, and the sponsorship/funding of CRCSI research interoperability and compliance testing requirements in OGC’s Interoperability Program testbed and pilot initiatives.

“We are particularly pleased with this new partnership. It will expand our reach internationally and accelerate the rate at which we learn about and contribute to international standards developments” says Peter Woodgate, CEO of the CRCSI.Mark Reichardt, President and CEO of the OGC noted, “We are delighted to have CRCSI’s participation and leadership in the OGC international process.  The impact of research organisations like CRCSI in the OGC international process is significant.  Research organisations understand the power of open standards to support the rapid transition of research results into broad community application.  They also benefit by partnering with other OGC public and private sector members to cooperatively advance important research objectives. ”

About CRCSI

The Australian and New Zealand Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information (CRCSI) conducts research and development projects that involve collaboration between government, corporate and academic resources. CRCSI creates new wealth for its participants and the nation through innovative research and application and commercialization of spatial information technologies; through education; and through building collaborative partnerships. CRCSI currently has around 95 partner organisations.

About OGC

The OGC is an international consortium of more than 475 companies, government agencies, research organizations, and universities participating in a consensus process to develop publicly available geospatial standards. OGC standards support interoperable solutions that "geo-enable" the Web, wireless and location-based services, and mainstream IT. OGC standards empower technology developers to make geospatial information and services accessible and useful with any application that needs to be geospatially enabled.

For further information visit: http://www10.giscafe.com/nbc/articles/view_article.php?section=CorpNews&articleid=1143128&printerfriendly=1