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