First Phase To Certify New US Space Transport System Completed
Washington DC (SPX) Jun 03, 2014 -
NASA's Commercial Crew Program and industry have completed the first step in the certification process that will enable American-made commercial spacecraft safely to ferry astronauts from U.S. soil to and from the International Space Station by 2017. The completion of the Certification Products Contracts (CPC) marks critical progress in the development of next-generation American space transport ...
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Huge tooth fossil shows marine predator had plenty to chew on
Edinburgh, UK (SPX) Jun 02, 2014 -
A fossilised tooth belonging to a fearsome marine predator has been recorded as the largest of its kind found in the UK, following its recent discovery. A team of palaeontologists have verified the tooth, which was found near Chesil Beach in Dorset, as belonging to a prehistoric relative of modern crocodiles known as Dakosaurus maximus.
The tooth, which has a broken tip, is approximately 5 ...
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Solving the puzzle of ice age climates
Boston MA (SPX) Jun 03, 2014 -
The paleoclimate record for the last ice age - a time 21,000 years ago called the "Last Glacial Maximum" (LGM) - tells of a cold Earth whose northern continents were covered by vast ice sheets. Chemical traces from plankton fossils in deep-sea sediments reveal rearranged ocean water masses, as well as extended sea ice coverage off Antarctica. Air bubbles in ice cores show that carbon dioxide in ...
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New Method of Wormlike Motion Lets Gels Wiggle through Water
Cincinnati OH (SPX) Jun 03, 2014 -
Next time you spot an earthworm sliding through fresh dirt, take a closer look. What you're seeing is an organic movement called peristaltic locomotion that has been meticulously refined by nature. Jarod Gregory, an undergraduate student in the University of Cincinnati's College of Engineering and Applied Science, used a worm's contracting and expanding motion to provide a way for gels to swim i ...
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Breakthrough in energy storage: Electrical cables that can store energy
Orlando, FL (SPX) Jun 03, 2014 -
Imagine being able to carry all the juice you needed to power your MP3 player, smartphone and electric car in the fabric of your jacket? Sounds like science fiction, but it may become a reality thanks to breakthrough technology developed at a University of Central Florida research lab.
So far electrical cables are used only to transmit electricity. However, nanotechnology scientist and pro ...
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Combat robots to become Russian army new recruits
Moscow (Voice of Russia) Jun 03, 2014 -
Russia's newly established military robot design lab has finally gone into operation, Oleg Bochkarev, deputy head of Russia's governmental Military-Industrial Commission told ITAR TASS news agency. Russia's deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin was the first to have announced plans to set up a new laboratory at the Degtyarev arms factory in Kovrov last year planning to attract private investors t ...
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UAV Series Sets Record for Mission Hours Flown in One Week
San Diego CA (SPX) Jun 03, 2014 -
Northrop Grumman's High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) series, which includes the U.S. Air Force RQ-4 Global Hawk, set a new record for mission hours flown in one week, logging 665 hours flying operational and exercise missions during the week ending Feb. 23.
In 2013, Global Hawk flew an average of 433.8 hours a week. The weekly record of 665 hours set in Feb ...
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GPS sites in Russia can't be used now for 'military purposes'
Moscow (Voice of Russia) Jun 03, 2014 -
Russia has "taken under control" the operation of 11 American GPS sites and ensured they cannot be used for military purposes, as Washington and Moscow show no progress in negotiations on setting up Russian GLONASS stations on US territory. May 31 was the last day when Russia and the US could have reached a deal on the issue.
"In compliance with the Russian government's instruction, Roscos ...
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Galaxy possibly teeming with 100 million life-sustaining planets
Moscow (Voice of Russia) Jun 03, 2014 -
Forget close encounters of a third kind. Imagine galactic encounters with millions of planets in the Milky Way galaxy, each of them overflowing with complex life forms. A new study says it's a possibility.
Although researchers are nearly unanimous in the belief that some other life forms exist in the great expanse of outer space, the worlds that any intelligent life forms inhabit are proba ...
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Because you can't eat just one: Star will swallow two planets
Boston MA (SPX) Jun 03, 2014 -
Two worlds orbiting a distant star are about to become a snack of cosmic proportions. Astronomers report that the planets Kepler-56b and Kepler-56c will be swallowed by their star in a short time by astronomical standards. Their ends will come in 130 million and 155 million years, respectively.
"As far as we know, this is the first time two known exoplanets in a single system have a predic ...
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A Growth Industry in Space
Bethesda MD (SPX) Jun 03, 2014 -
Over the past 50+ years the space industry has matured and many space-based applications have been developed. Uses of space can be categorized into three types: civil, national security and commercial. Civilian government agencies are interested in scientific exploration, technology demonstrations and certain services to the general public that would not otherwise be available.
Defense and ...
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US may lose 'star wars' to Russia
Moscow (Voice of Russia) Jun 03, 2014 -
Cooperation with private firms will benefit the US space industry but cannot replace cooperation with Russia. Washington risks seeing its space projects hit hard if it abandons cooperation with Moscow, Bloomberg says.
NASA has been actively promoting commercial projects to develop new-generation space rockets, supply vehicles and spaceships capable of carrying astronauts to low-Earth orbit ...
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Satellites improving lives in rural Africa
Paris (ESA) Jun 03, 2014 -
An ESA-supported project is showing how satcoms can help farmers, voters and educators in rural Africa. The three elements of the Sway4edu project are helping to run elections, educate teachers and improve radio programming. Satellite terminals provide Internet connectivity, with solar panels and batteries (where needed), laptops, tablets, a projector with screen, and loudspeakers.
Sway4ed ...
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Gannet sat nav reveals impact of fishing vessels
Exeter UK (SPX) Jun 03, 2014 -
Fishing vessels have a far bigger ecological footprint than previously thought, according to research which tracked the movement and behaviour of seabirds using GPS devices.
A team of scientists led by the University of Exeter discovered that northern gannets change their behaviour in response to the presence of large vessels such as trawlers, suggesting each boat can significantly influen ...
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International team replicates amplification of cosmic magnetic fields
Chicago IL (SPX) Jun 03, 2014 -
have established that cosmic turbulence could have amplified magnetic fields to the strengths observed in interstellar space.
"Magnetic fields are ubiquitous in the universe," said Don Lamb, the Robert A. Millikan Distinguished Service Professor in Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Chicago. "We're pretty sure that the fields didn't exist at the beginning, at the Big Bang. So ...
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Fourth in history Russian female astronaut to travel to ISS in September
Moscow (Voice of Russia) Jun 03, 2014 -
Preparations for the Soyuz TMA-14M spacecraft flight, which will carry the new crew to the International Space Station (ISS), including Russian female member Yelena Serova, have started at Baikonur. "Launch of Soyuz TMA-14M is planned for September 25, 2014. Three crew members of Expedition ISS-41/42 will travel to ISS.
There will be two Russian crew members - Aleksandr Samokutyayev and Ye ...
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Harsh space weather may doom potential life on red-dwarf planets
Boston (SPX) Jun 03, 2014 -
Life in the universe might be even rarer than we thought. Recently, astronomers looking for potentially habitable worlds have targeted red dwarf stars because they are the most common type of star, comprising 80 percent of the stars in the universe. But a new study shows that harsh space weather might strip the atmosphere of any rocky planet orbiting in a red dwarf's habitable zone.
"A red ...
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Astronomers find a new type of planet: The 'mega-Earth'
Boston MA (SPX) Jun 03, 2014 -
Astronomers have discovered a new type of planet - a rocky world weighing 17 times as much as Earth. Theorists believed such a world couldn't form because anything so hefty would grab hydrogen gas as it grew and become a Jupiter-like gas giant. This planet, though, is all solids and much bigger than previously discovered "super-Earths," making it a "mega-Earth."
"We were very surprised whe ...
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To Catch a Comet by the Tail
Moffett Field CA (SPX) Jun 03, 2014 -
The European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft has been traveling for a decade to meet comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko (C-G). Rosetta is expected to finally catch up with C-G in August. Then in November, Rosetta will eject a lander called Philae onto the comet's surface: a one-way trip to a totally unknown landscape.
You might be wondering: How does one build a lander for an unknown land? ...
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'Neapolitan' exoplanets come in three flavors
Boston MA (SPX) Jun 03, 2014 -
The planets of our solar system come in two basic flavors, like vanilla and chocolate ice cream. We have small, rocky terrestrials like Earth and Mars, and large gas giants like Neptune and Jupiter. We're missing the astronomical equivalent of strawberry ice cream - planets between about one and four times the size of Earth. NASA's Kepler mission has discovered that these types of planets are ve ...
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Colombia peace talks to resume though future in doubt
Havana (AFP) June 02, 2014 -
Colombia's government and the FARC rebel group will resume peace talks on Tuesday, officials said, even though the country's presidential election has placed the process in doubt.
A source in the FARC delegation told AFP the talks would continue for about two days, instead of the 11 days that past rounds have typically lasted.
It would be their first session since Colombian President Jua ...
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Iraq attacks and shelling kill 35
Baghdad (AFP) June 03, 2014 -
Violence across Iraq, including shelling of the conflict-hit city of Fallujah, killed 35 people Tuesday, as politicians haggle over forming a new governing coalition after April elections.
Iraq is going through its worst protracted spell of violence since it emerged from a brutal Sunni-Shiite conflict that killed tens of thousands in 2006 and 2007, with near-daily attacks plaguing Baghdad an ...
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Mikros to enhance electronic test equipment used by Navy
Princeton, N.J. (UPI) Jun 3, 2013 -
The U.S. Navy has selected Mikros Systems Corporation for equipment enhancement and support and for designing a new maintenance system.
The work comes under four awards with a combined total value of $975,000.
Mikros develops and manufactures test and maintenance equipment for the Navy, including a test workstation known as ADEPT, and a networked based system for condition-based ...
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Obama defends deal with Taliban to free US soldier
Warsaw (AFP) June 03, 2014 -
President Barack Obama Tuesday defended a prisoner swap with the Taliban to free an American soldier, saying his "sacred" trust as commander-in-chief outweighed claims he broke the law and set a dangerous precedent.
Obama is facing rising questions about the deal to secure the release of US Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl after five years, in return for the transfer of five Taliban prisoners fro ...
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White House apologizes to lawmakers over prisoner swap
Washington (AFP) June 04, 2014 -
The White House apologized for keeping lawmakers in the dark regarding the exchange of an American soldier for five Taliban fighters, senators said Tuesday, as controversy grew over the issue.
Administration officials plan a classified briefing for the full 100-member chamber Wednesday, with lawmakers from both parties fuming over the trade, which saw captured soldier Bowe Bergdahl released ...
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