Goddard releases open source core flight software suite to public
Greenbelt MD (SPX) Apr 01, 2015 -
The Innovative Technology Partnerships Office at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, announced the release of its core Flight System (cFS) Application Suite to the public. The cFS application suite is composed of 12 individual Command and Data Handling (C and DH) flight software applications that together create a reusable library of common C and DH functions.
The cF ...
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IXV test flight total success says operations manager
Los Angeles CA (SPX) Apr 01, 2015 -
European Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV) was launched on a Vega rocket from Europe's Spaceport in French Guiana on Feb. 11. The spacecraft was then released into a suborbital trajectory, and flew autonomously, reentering and splashing down into the Pacific Ocean after 100 minutes. This crucial test for ESA has exceeded scientists' expectations as IXV behaved flawlessly, responding to con ...
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Stop blaming the moon
Los Angeles CA (SPX) Apr 01, 2015 -
"It must be a full moon" is a common refrain when things appear more hectic than usual. The moon is even blamed when things get crazy at hospital emergency rooms or birth wards. "Some nurses ascribe the apparent chaos to the moon, but dozens of studies show that the belief is unfounded," said Jean-Luc Margot, a UCLA professor of planetary astronomy.
Of course, the moon does not influence t ...
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Comet dust: Planet Mercury's 'invisible paint'
Providence RI (SPX) Apr 01, 2015 -
A team of scientists has a new explanation for the planet Mercury's dark, barely reflective surface. In a paper published in Nature Geoscience, the researchers suggest that a steady dusting of carbon from passing comets has slowly painted Mercury black over billions of years.
Mercury's dark surface has long been a mystery to scientists. On average, Mercury is much darker than its closest a ...
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Flash Reformatted and Marathon Completed
Pasadena CA (JPL) Apr 01, 2015 -
The Opportunity mission is now the first human enterprise to exceed marathon distance of travel on another world.
Opportunity is on the west rim of Endeavour Crater near 'Marathon Valley', a putative location for abundant clay minerals. The rover is approaching a feature called 'Spirit of St. Louis Crater' at the entrance to Marathon Valley.
On Sol 3964 (March 19, 2015), the flash-me ...
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Super sensitive measurement of magnetic fields
Copenhagen, Denmark (SPX) Mar 31, 2015 -
There are electrical signals in the nervous system, the brain and throughout the human body and there are tiny magnetic fields associated with these signals that could be important for medical science. Researchers from the Niels Bohr Institute have just developed a method that could be used to obtain extremely precise measurements of ultra-small magnetic fields. The results are published in the ...
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Electric vehicles may be more useful than previously thought
Berkeley CA (SPX) Mar 31, 2015 -
In the first study of its kind, scientists at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) quantitatively show that electric vehicles (EVs) will meet the daily travel needs of drivers longer than commonly assumed.
Many drivers and much prior literature on the retirement of EV batteries have assumed that EV batteries will be retired after the battery has l ...
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Engineers speed up simulations in computational grand challenge
San Diego CA (SPX) Mar 31, 2015 -
Engineers at the University of California, San Diego, have developed a new family of methods to significantly increase the speed of time-resolved numerical simulations in computational grand challenge problems. Such problems often arise from the high-resolution approximation of the partial differential equations governing complex flows of fluids or plasmas.
The breakthrough could be applie ...
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Atomic Experts to Visit Fukushima in April to Check Contaminated Water
Moscow (Sputnik) Mar 31, 2015 -
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) experts are set to visit Japan from April, 17 to April, 21, 2015 to obtain detailed data on contaminated water management at the crippled Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station, an IAEA press release said Monday.
"The Japanese government requested the visit in order to provide the IAEA with further explanations on measures against contaminated wat ...
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Roll up your screen and stow it away
Tel Aviv, Israel (SPX) Mar 31, 2015 -
From smartphones and tablets to computer monitors and interactive TV screens, electronic displays are everywhere. As the demand for instant, constant communication grows, so too does the urgency for more convenient portable devices - especially devices, like computer displays, that can be easily rolled up and put away, rather than requiring a flat surface for storage and transportation.
A ...
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