This time for the PLA: Chinese army shows off dancing robots
Beijing (AFP) July 22, 2014 -
To the sound of Shakira's Waka Waka (This Time for Africa) robots demonstrated their dance steps, screaming recruits drilled with bayonets and tanks rolled as China's military offered a rare moment of openness Tuesday.
The exposition, held at the Armoured Forces Engineering Academy in Beijing, was touted by senior People's Liberation Army (PLA) officials as an opportunity to burnish civilian ...
more
Report: drone market to remain strong
Farnborough, England (UPI) Jul 18, 2013 -
A new study on the unmanned aerial vehicle market forecasts increased spending on the systems and increased civil sector use of the aircraft.
The Teal Group, an aerospace and defense market analysis firm, said it estimates UAV spending will nearly double over the next decade - from $5.7 billion annually to $9.9 billion annually.
It also predicts changes in usage.
"The UAV ...
more
IBM's Watson advises US soldiers on life after service
San Francisco (AFP) July 23, 2014 -
IBM's Watson supercomputer is putting its real-world smarts to work helping US soldiers transition back to civilian lives.
Virtual intelligence created by IBM and proven in a victorious run on trivia television game show "Jeopardy" has been woven into a Watson Engagement Advisor application to counsel members of the military and their families how to smartly manage shifting to life after sti ...
more
Global warming 'pause' reflects natural fluctuation
Montreal, Canada (SPX) Jul 23, 2014 -
Statistical analysis of average global temperatures between 1998 and 2013 shows that the slowdown in global warming during this period is consistent with natural variations in temperature, according to research by McGill University physics professor Shaun Lovejoy.
In a paper published this month in Geophysical Research Letters, Lovejoy concludes that a natural cooling fluctuation during ...
more
The X-Gen Men at 1600 and Number 10
Washington DC (UPI) Jul 22, 2014 -
U.S. President Barack Obama and Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron have a great deal in common. They come from the same generation born in 1961 and 1966 respectively. They both shared the best education available.
Obama attended the elite Punaho Private School in Honolulu, receiving his undergraduate degree from Columbia University and an LL.D. from Harvard Law School. Cameron atten ...
more
Has Antarctic sea ice expansion been overestimated?
Munich, Germany (SPX) Jul 23, 2014 -
New research suggests that Antarctic sea ice may not be expanding as fast as previously thought. A team of scientists say much of the increase measured for Southern Hemisphere sea ice could be due to a processing error in the satellite data. The findings are published in The Cryosphere, a journal of the European Geosciences Union (EGU).
Arctic sea ice is retreating at a dramatic rate. In c ...
more
DARPA picks SSL for space hardware integration
Palo Alto, Calif. (UPI) Jul 22, 2013 -
The U.S. military has chosen Space Systems/Loral to integrate space flight hardware for small science and technology missions.
The award, for which no dollar value was disclosed, was issued by the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
SSL said its work for DARPA will support the completion of the design and integration of the first Payload Orbital Delivery system accomm ...
more
NASA Starts Campaign To Probe Ocean Ecology, Carbon Cycle
Washington DC (SPX) Jul 23, 2014 -
NASA embarks this week on a coordinated ship and aircraft observation campaign off the Atlantic coast of the United States, an effort to advance space-based capabilities for monitoring microscopic plants that form the base of the marine food chain.
Phytoplankton, tiny ocean plants that absorb carbon dioxide and deliver oxygen to Earth's atmosphere, play a major role in the global cycling o ...
more
ATV-5: loaded and locked
Paris (ESA) Jul 25, 2014 -
ESA's fifth Automated Transfer Vehicle is now scheduled for launch to the International Space Station at 23:44 GMT on 29 July (01:44 CEST 30 July) on an Ariane 5 rocket from Europe's Spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.
ATV-5 will deliver more than six tonnes of cargo to the Station, again breaking the record for the heaviest spacecraft launched on Ariane. Everything has been loaded and the ...
more
China to launch HD observation satellite this year
Beijing (XNA) Jul 25, 2014 -
China will launch Gaofen-2, a high-definition Earth observation satellite, to space this year, according to the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (SASTIND).
As one of China's major science and technology projects, the Gaofen satellite series will help in geographic and resources surveys, environment and climate change monitoring, precision agricu ...
more
China to launch satellite for Venezuela
Beijing (XNA) Jul 25, 2014 -
The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) has signed an agreement with Venezuela for in-orbit delivery of a second remote sensing satellite for the country, the company said on Tuesday.
CASC subsidiary Great Wall Industry Corporation will be the major contractor of the project, the corporation said.
But the corporation did not give a specific timeframe for the pro ...
more
ISS Crew Opens Cargo Ship Hatch, Preps for CubeSat Deployment
Washington DC (SPX) Jul 25, 2014 -
The six-person Expedition 40 crew enjoyed an abbreviated workday Thursday, having worked late the previous night to welcome the arrival of a Russian cargo craft a little less than six hours after its launch from Kazakhstan.
The ISS Progress 56 resupply spacecraft, packed with almost three tons of food, fuel and supplies, automatically docked to the station's Pirs docking compartment at 11: ...
more
NASA Partners Punctuate Summer with Spacecraft Development Advances
Washington DC (SPX) Jul 25, 2014 -
Spacecraft and rocket development is on pace this summer for NASA's aerospace industry partners for the agency's Commercial Crew Program as they progress through systems testing, review boards and quarterly sessions under their Space Act Agreements with the agency.
NASA engineers and specialists continue their review of the progress as the agency and partners move ahead with plans to devel ...
more
Emirates paves way for Middle East space program with mission to Mars
London, UK (SPX) Jul 25, 2014 -
The United Arab Emirates has announced plans to launch a mission to Mars by 2021. A first for the Arab world, the mission and accompanying Space Agency are a big deal for the UAE - scientifically and politically.
Investing in space activities is not new territory for the UAE. Its investments in space-related technology has already exceeded some US$5.4 billion, developing satellite data, mo ...
more
Earth survived near-miss from 2012 solar storm: NASA
Washington (AFP) July 24, 2014 -
Back in 2012, the Sun erupted with a powerful solar storm that just missed the Earth but was big enough to "knock modern civilization back to the 18th century," NASA said.
The extreme space weather that tore through Earth's orbit on July 23, 2012, was the most powerful in 150 years, according to a statement posted on the US space agency website Wednesday.
However, few Earthlings had any ...
more
Sierra Nevada Completes Major Dream Chaser NASA CCiCap Milestone
Sparks NV (SPX) Jul 25, 2014 -
Sierra Nevada has announced it has successfully passed Milestone 9, the Risk Reduction and Technology Readiness Level (TRL) Advancement Testing milestone, for several critical Dream Chaser systems under NASA's Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) agreement. Milestone 9 culminated in a major comprehensive review of various hardware systems. To date, SNC has received 92 percent of the to ...
more
Russian Cargo Craft Launches for 6-Hour Trek to ISS
Washington DC (SPX) Jul 25, 2014 -
The unpiloted ISS Progress 56 resupply spacecraft, packed with nearly three tons of cargo for the Expedition 40 crew, launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 5:44 p.m. EDT Wednesday (3:44 a.m. Thursday, Kazakh time) to begin a 6-hour, 4-orbit flight to the International Space Station.
At the time of launch, the station was flying about 260 miles above northeast Kazakhstan, having passed d ...
more
Beyond GPS: 5 Next-Generation Technologies
Washington DC (SPX) Jul 25, 2014 -
It is difficult to imagine the modern world without the Global Positioning System (GPS), which provides real-time positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) data for countless military and civilian uses. Thanks in part to early investments that DARPA made to miniaturize GPS technology, GPS today is ubiquitous.
It's in cars, boats, planes, trains, smartphones and wristwatches, and has enabled ...
more
'Challenges' in quest to find water on Earth-like worlds: study
Paris (AFP) July 24, 2014 -
A study of unprecedented detail has revealed astonishingly little water on three distant planets, hinting at potential obstacles in the search for Earth-like worlds rich in H2O, astronomers said Thursday.
Using the Hubble Space Telescope, a team conducted detailed measurements of the atmospheres of three gas giants orbiting stars similar to our Sun, expecting to find "lots of water".
Bet ...
more
NASA Seeks Proposals for Commercial Mars Data Relay Satellites
Pasadena CA (JPL) Jul 25, 2014 -
NASA has issued a Request for Information (RFI) to investigate the possibility of using commercial Mars-orbiting satellites to provide telecommunications capabilities for future robotic missions to the Red Planet.
"We are looking to broaden participation in the exploration of Mars to include new models for government and commercial partnerships," said John Grunsfeld, associate administrato ...
more
Israel onslaught weakens Hamas, but demilitarisation far off
Jerusalem (AFP) July 24, 2014 -
As diplomatic efforts to end the Gaza bloodshed gain pace, Israel may have managed to weaken Hamas's firepower, but it is far from achieving a full demilitarisation of the Palestinian enclave, experts say.
After 17 days of an unrelenting offensive against Hamas in Gaza, Israel is facing a race against time to complete their stated mission of destroying the tunnels which allow Hamas fighters ...
more
Chinese billionaires criticised for giving Harvard $15m
Beijing (AFP) July 24, 2014 -
A Chinese billionaire couple have faced a deluge of criticism for donating $15 million to one of the richest and most prestigious universities in the US, with Internet users saying it would be better spent on students in China.
Pan Shiyi and Zhang Xin, the husband-and-wife duo behind real estate giant SOHO China, are giving $100 million to fund disadvantaged Chinese students at top universit ...
more
Peruvian Navy receiving logistics ship from the Netherlands
La Perla, Peru (UPI) Jul 24, 2013 -
The Dutch Navy's logistics support ship HNLMS Amsterdam is being transferred to the Navy of Peru under a recently signed agreement.
The ship, which came into service in the 1990s, is 544 feet long, displaces 17,040 tons and has a speed of 21 knots.
"This vessel, displacing over 17,000 tons, will become the largest logistic support ship in the navy, and its large transport capacit ...
more
Syria chemicals being destroyed abroad: watchdog
The Hague (AFP) July 24, 2014 -
Around 700 tonnes of Syria's chemical agents have been delivered to specialised destruction facilities in Britain, Finland and the US, the watchdog in charge of the mission said Thursday.
"All 1,300 metric tonnes of chemicals removed from Syria by the international maritime operation have been delivered to destruction facilities outside the country," the Organisation for the Prohibition of C ...
more
Iraq prison convoy ambush kills 60 as UN chief visits
Baghdad (AFP) July 24, 2014 -
An onslaught on a convoy transferring inmates north of Baghdad left dozens dead Thursday, as visiting UN chief Ban Ki-moon said Iraq's survival hinged on a more inclusive government.
Most of the 60 killed in the spectacular pre-dawn ambush were prisoners convicted of terrorism charges being transferred from Taji prison, barely 25 kilometres (15 miles) north of the capital.
Explosions fro ...
more
