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