Terraforming the Red Planet: Nuclear Blasts Could Warm Mars for Humans?
Moscow (Sputnik) Oct 06, 2015 -
Elon Musk, the head of aerospace manufacturer SpaceX, who had earlier come up with the idea of dropping two thermonuclear bombs on Mars, explained that this step could make the colonization of the Red Planet a reality.
The multi-billionaire founder of SpaceX Exploration Company detailed his plan to detonate nuclear bombs on Mars, stressing that it wouldn't be as disastrous for the Red Plan ...
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AIDA Double Mission to Divert Didymos Asteroid's Didymoon
Paris (ESA) Oct 02, 2015 -
An ambitious joint US-European mission, called AIDA, is being planned to divert the orbit of a binary asteroid's small moon, as well as to give us new insights into the structure of asteroids. A pair of spacecraft, the ESA-led Asteroid Impact Mission (AIM) and NASA-led Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), will rendezvous with the Didymos asteroid and its small natural satellite, known inform ...
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NASA CubeSats to test laser communication, tandem orbit
Lompoc, Calif. (UPI) Oct 2, 2015 -
NASA is preparing to launch a CubeSat to test laser communications, a departure from radio wave-based satellite communication technologies.
"Laser communications is very important, not just for NASA but for other U.S. government agencies as well," NASA scientist Andres Martinez said in a press release. "This little mission is a huge achievement for STMD and for small satellites in gener ...
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Space startup confirms plans for robotic moon landings
Mountain View, Calif. (UPI) Oct 3, 2015 -
California-based space exploration startup Moon Express has signed a deal with Rocket Lab to commence a series of lunar launches starting in 2017.
CEO Bob Richards announced the partnership between his company, known as MoonEx, and the lab on Thursday. The contract marks the beginning stages of three consecutive robotic lunar landings set to take place two years from now. The company's ...
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SwRI awarded NASA contract to develop Jupiter Trojan asteroid mission
Boulder CO (SPX) Oct 05, 2015 -
A Southwest Research Institute proposal to study primitive asteroids orbiting near Jupiter that could give insights into the origins of the solar system is one of five science investigations selected as a possible future NASA mission.
Dr. Harold F. Levison, an Institute scientist at SwRI, is the principal investigator for Lucy, a science mission aimed at "Surveying the diversity of Trojan ...
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Curiosity's Drill Hole and Location are Picture Perfect
Pasadena CA (JPL) Oct 05, 2015 -
On Tuesday, Sept. 29, NASA's Curiosity Mars rover drilled its eighth hole on Mars, and its fifth since reaching Mount Sharp one year ago.
The drilling of the hole 2.6-inches (65 millimeters) deep in a rock the team labeled "Big Sky" is part of a multi-day, multi-step sequence that will result in the analysis of the Martian rock's ingredients in the rover's two onboard laboratories - the Ch ...
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Students Advance Mars Airplane Concept
Edwards AFB CA (SPX) Oct 05, 2015 -
When you're designing an airplane that could one day be the first to fly on Mars, the answer cannot be found in the back of the book.
That's one of many conclusions groups of students in two NASA-funded programs at NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center in California realized last summer. They worked on the Preliminary Research Aerodynamic Design to Land on Mars, or Prandtl-m aircraft. If t ...
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NASA Selects Investigations for Future Key Planetary Mission
Pasadena CA (JPL) Oct 05, 2015 -
NASA has selected five science investigations for refinement during the next year as a first step in choosing one or two missions for flight opportunities as early as 2020. Three of those chosen have ties to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. The submitted proposals would study Venus, near-Earth objects and a variety of asteroids.
Each investigation team will receive ...
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Devas Wins USD 672 Million for Contract Cancellation by ISRO Arm
Bengaluru, India (IANS) Oct 02, 2015 -
A international tribunal has awarded $672 million (Rs.4,434 crore) to Devas Multimedia Services Ltd for the cancellation of a satellite contract by the Indian space agency arm Anrix Corporation in 2011.
"The International Criminal Court (ICC) tribunal ruled in our favour and found Anrix liable for unlawfully terminating our agreement in February 2011," the city-based company said in a stat ...
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Rock samples from Western US teach how to hunt for life on Mars
Lawrence KS (SPX) Oct 02, 201 -
The search for life beyond Earth is one of the grandest endeavors in the history of humankind - a quest that could transform our understanding of our universe both scientifically and spiritually. With news coming this week that NASA has confirmed the presence of flowing saltwater on the surface of Mars, the hunt for life on the Red Planet has new momentum.
"One of the many reasons this is ...
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Asteroids found to be the moon's main 'water supply'
Moscow, Russia (SPX) Oct 02, 2015 -
Water reserves found on the moon are the result of asteroids acting as "delivery vehicles" and not of falling comets as was previously thought. Using computer simulation, scientists from MIPT and the RAS Geosphere Dynamics Institute have discovered that a large asteroid can deliver more water to the lunar surface than the cumulative fall of comets over a billion year period. Their research is di ...
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Dalai Lama brushes off health fears after cancelling US tour
Dharamsala, India (AFP) Oct 3, 2015 -
The Dalai Lama said he was in "excellent" health Saturday after doctors told him to scrap a tour of the United States as he returned to his home in northern India.
The 80-year-old Tibetan spiritual leader walked unaided from his plane after it landed at Dharamsala airport and spoke with a small group of followers who had gathered to welcome him back, before telling reporters that there was n ...
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17 dead as heavy flooding hits French Riviera
Nice, France (AFP) Oct 4, 2015 -
Violent storms and flooding along the French Riviera have killed at least 17 people and another four are still missing in what were described as "apocalyptic" scenes, local officials said Sunday.
Up to 180 millimetres (seven inches) of rain fell in just three hours overnight, transforming the glitzy streets of Cannes, Nice and Antibes into debris-strewn rivers.
In Cannes - home of the ...
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7.5 million going hungry as Ethiopia crisis worsens
Addis Ababa (AFP) Oct 2, 2015 -
The number of hungry Ethiopians needing food aid has risen sharply due to poor rains and the El Nino weather phenomenon with around 7.5 million people now in need, aid officials said Friday.
That number has nearly doubled since August, when the United Nations said 4.5 million were in need - with the UN now warning that without action some "15 million people will require food assistance" nex ...
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Record-setting rains submerge parts of US Southeast
Charleston, United States (AFP) Oct 4, 2015 -
Record rainfall left large areas of the US southeast under water Sunday as roads were closed and residents were warned to stay indoors.
The states of North and South Carolina have been particularly hard hit by heavy flooding, but the driving rain in recent days has spared almost none of the US East Coast.
The wild weather was blamed for at least four deaths in the Carolinas since Thursda ...
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Four dead as southern China battered by Typhoon Mujigae
Hong Kong (AFP) Oct 4, 2015 -
Four people were killed Sunday as Typhoon Mujigae ploughed into southern China with forecasters warning it was packing winds of up to 180 km/h (112 mph), state news agency Xinhua reported.
One fisherman died and 16 were missing after the typhoon slammed into the coastal city of Zhanjiang, Guangdong, on Sunday afternoon. Some 117 fishermen were rescued according to local maritime authorities, ...
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The 'water mafias' that suck Karachi dry
Karachi (AFP) Oct 4, 2015 -
The moment they saw the city water tanker stop in their neighbourhood, Mohammed and Nayla rushed towards it. That day, the water was free - a rare event in Karachi, where organised gangs siphon it off to sell to thirsty residents.
In Sadiqabad and other Karachi slums, water barely flows through the pipe meant to supply the shacks packed along the rutted earth lanes.
The shortage doesn't ...
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At least 131 killed in Guatemala landslide, hundreds missing
Santa Catarina Pinula, Guatemala (AFP) Oct 5, 2015 -
At least 131 people were killed in mudslides that smashed into a village outside Guatemala City, officials said Sunday, three days after the disaster struck the Central American nation.
"Unfortunately, a new count shows that there are 131 confirmed dead and recovered," and still about 300 people missing and unaccounted for, said volunteer fire brigade spokesman Julio Sanchez.
He told rep ...
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France's Fabius urges stragglers to publish emissions data
Paris (AFP) Oct 4, 2015 -
French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who will chair December's UN-led climate talks in Paris, on Sunday urged countries which have yet to publish greenhouse gas emissions data to do so as soon as possible.
"I invite all countries who have not yet submitted their contribution, notably the large-scale contributors, to do so as soon as possible to contriute to an ambitious and fully successf ...
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Conservationists: Smog disrupting migratory birds in Malaysia
Johor Bahru, Malaysia (UPI) Oct 2, 2015 -
Conservationists say worsening haze in Malaysia and elsewhere in Southeast Asia is causing problems for animals, especially migratory birds.
Now is the time when birds move from their breeding grounds to their wintering grounds. Their trips are made using a combination of navigational skills - innate mental maps, as well as visual, electromagnetic and astronomical cues.
Heavy sm ...
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UN slams 'inexcusable' Afghan hospital air strike that killed 19
Kabul (AFP) Oct 4, 2015 -
A suspected US air strike on a charity hospital in the Afghan city of Kunduz killed 19 people Saturday, a bombardment US President Barack Obama said was a "tragic incident" but which the UN condemned as "inexcusable".
Washington has promised a "full investigation" into the bombing at the facility, a key lifeline that has been running beyond capacity during fighting that saw the Taliban seize ...
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New battle over academic freedom in Hong Kong
Hong Kong (AFP) Oct 2, 2015 -
Pro-democracy protesters have retreated from the streets of Hong Kong but education is increasingly becoming a political battleground as students and teachers say academic freedoms are under threat.
China's central government and the Hong Kong authorities were unswayed by last year's pro-democracy rallies - sparked when Beijing insisted on vetting candidates before a public vote on the city ...
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Indonesia forest fires could become worst on record: NASA
Jakarta (AFP) Oct 2, 2015 -
The forest fires blanketing Southeast Asia are on track to become the worst on record, NASA has warned, in a crisis that has seen thousands of people seek medical treatment, flights grounded, and schools closed.
Malaysia, Singapore and large expanses of Indonesia have suffered for weeks from acrid smoke billowing from fires on Indonesian plantations and peatlands that are being illegally cle ...
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Hurricane Joaquin weakens as it heads towards Bermuda
Miami (AFP) Oct 4, 2015 -
Joaquin was downgraded to a Category Two hurricane Sunday as it headed towards Bermuda, where it is expected to dump rain and generate damaging winds as it swirls nearby, forecasters said.
The hurricane's center is expected to pass west of Bermuda in the afternoon and continue past the north of the island nation Sunday night, the US National Hurricane Center said in its latest statement.
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Scientists model the inside of an active volcano
Seattle (UPI) Oct 2, 2015 -
Currently, volcano prediction models rely on external cues - tremors, gas emissions and lava flows, past and present.
But researchers at the University of Washington are trying their hand at simulating an active volcano's innards, what they call a volcano's "magma mush."
The model's aim is to better predict the behavior of magma inside a volcano's unique plumbing system. This is ...
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