Washington (AFP) March 25, 2017 -
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will meet with NATO members next week in Brussels, officials said Friday, as alliance diplomats worked to nail down the date.
"We are currently planning to hold the meeting of NATO foreign ministers on 31 March. Consultations on scheduling among Allies are ongoing," a NATO official in Brussels said.
The NATO foreign ministers meeting had been planned f ...
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Miami (AFP) March 24, 2017 -
A French and an American astronaut floated outside the International Space Station Friday for a spacewalk to upgrade the orbiting outpost for the arrival of future space crews.
The spacewalk by France's Thomas Pesquet, 39, and American Shane Kimbrough, 49, officially began at 7:24 am (1124 GMT) when the duo switched their spacesuits to internal battery power.
Pesquet and Kimbrough worked ...
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Canberra, Australia (SPX) Mar 27, 2017 -
The Australian National University (ANU) is launching a search for a new major planet within our solar system, inviting anyone around the world with access to the Internet to help make the historic discovery.
Anyone who helps find the so-called Planet X will work with ANU astronomers to validate the discovery through the International Astronomical Union.
ANU astrophysicist Dr. Brad T ...
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Sunnyvale CA (SPX) Mar 27, 2017 -
From its final orbit location 22,000 miles above the equator, the third Lockheed Martin-built Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) satellite recently sent its first images back down to Earth, a milestone known as "first light."
The satellite was launched on Jan. 20 aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket and is the third in a series of Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO) satellites that ...
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Greenbelt MD (SPX) Mar 23, 2017 -
For 15 days starting on March 7, 2017, NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, or SDO, returned visible light images of a yolk-like spotless sun.
This is the longest stretch of spotlessness since the last solar minimum in April 2010, indicating the solar cycle is marching on toward the next minimum, which scientists predict will occur between 2019-2020.
The sun goes through a natural 11-y ...
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Osaka, Japan (SPX) Mar 13, 2017 -
Music, more than any art, is a beautiful mix of science and emotion. It follows a set of patterns almost mathematically to extract feelings from its audience. Machines that make music focus on these patterns, but give little consideration to the emotional response of their audience. An international research team led by Osaka University together with Tokyo Metropolitan University, imec in Belgiu ...
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Washington (Sputnik) Mar 13, 2017 -
Has this ever happened to you? You're drifting through the vacuum of space, millions of miles from Earth, when suddenly you have a craving for pizza. To satisfy this probable demand, a startup has raised $1 million in seed funding to create a 3D printer that they hope can be used as a spaceship's pizza oven.
The company, BeeHex, intends to build "3D printing robots that prepare food faster ...
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Moffett Field Ca (SPX) Mar 15, 2017 -
Due to its extreme dryness, the Atacama Desert in Chile is one of the most important environments on Earth for researchers who need to approximate the conditions of Mars.
Working in 90-plus-degree heat in arguably the driest place on Earth, the team behind NASA's Atacama Rover Astrobiology Drilling Studies, or ARADS, project just completed its second season of tests. The project aims to sh ...
moreMars Rover Tests Driving, Drilling and Detecting Life in Chile's High Desert
Moffett Field Ca (SPX) Mar 15, 2017 -
Due to its extreme dryness, the Atacama Desert in Chile is one of the most important environments on Earth for researchers who need to approximate the conditions of Mars.
Working in 90-plus-degree heat in arguably the driest place on Earth, the team behind NASA's Atacama Rover Astrobiology Drilling Studies, or ARADS, project just completed its second season of tests. The project aims to sh ...
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3D Pizza Printer to Feed Hungry Astronauts in Deep Space
Washington (Sputnik) Mar 13, 2017 -
Has this ever happened to you? You're drifting through the vacuum of space, millions of miles from Earth, when suddenly you have a craving for pizza. To satisfy this probable demand, a startup has raised $1 million in seed funding to create a 3D printer that they hope can be used as a spaceship's pizza oven.
The company, BeeHex, intends to build "3D printing robots that prepare food faster ...
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Songs that make robots cry
Osaka, Japan (SPX) Mar 13, 2017 -
Music, more than any art, is a beautiful mix of science and emotion. It follows a set of patterns almost mathematically to extract feelings from its audience. Machines that make music focus on these patterns, but give little consideration to the emotional response of their audience. An international research team led by Osaka University together with Tokyo Metropolitan University, imec in Belgiu ...
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DARPA robotic servicing program has become stalled 
Bethesda MD (SPX) Mar 07, 2017 -
DARPA has been developing a program that will leverage successes in space robotics in order to accelerate in-orbit servicing of satellites. Of particular interest are the satellites that populate the geosynchronous orbit at about 36,000 km above Earth. There are hundreds of these vehicles that operate as military, civil and commercial satellite assets.
However, once launched, there is no w ...
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 'Global startup' vows autonomous car by 2020 in US 
Washington (AFP) March 10, 2017 -
A "global startup" which makes electric racing vehicles unveiled plans Friday to sell a fully autonomous electric car in the US market by 2020.
The company called Nio, founded by Chinese entrepreneur William Li and with offices in Silicon Valley, Europe and China, unveiled a prototype of the vehicle called Eve at the South by Southwest tech conference in Austin, Texas.
According to a Nio ...
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Rafael completes test firing with Protector USV 
Tel Aviv (UPI) Mar 8, 2017 -
Rafael Advanced Defense Systems completed a test firing demonstration using its Protector unmanned surface vehicle, or USV.
During the demonstration, the vehicle conducted a series of launches with a variety of munitions, including the Spike missile. The event marked the first missile test firing with a fully operational, remotely-controlled Protector platform.
In a video release ...
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Robot uses social feedback to fetch objects intelligently 
Providence RI (SPX) Mar 07, 2017 -
If someone asks you to hand them a wrench from a table full of different sized wrenches, you'd probably pause and ask, "which one?" Robotics researchers from Brown University have now developed an algorithm that lets robots do the same thing - ask for clarification when they're not sure what a person wants.
The research, which will be presented this spring at the International Conference o ...
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Shape-shifting molecular robots respond to DNA signals 
Sendai, Japan (SPX) Mar 03, 2017 -
A research group at Tohoku University and Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology has developed a molecular robot consisting of biomolecules, such as DNA and protein. The molecular robot was developed by integrating molecular machines into an artificial cell membrane. It can start and stop its shape-changing function in response to a specific DNA signal.
This is the first time t ...
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Switzerland taps Kongsberg for Protector weapon system 
Washington (UPI) Mar 2, 2017 -
Norwegian company Kongsberg received a $15 million contract to deliver updated Protector remote weapon systems to the government of Switzerland.
The weapon system was ordered by Armasuisse, Switzerland's federal procurement office. According to Kongsberg, the Protectors to be delivered will be modified to integrate with modern platforms.
"Kongsberg has delivered Protector remote ...
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Tracking the movement of cyborg cockroaches 
Raleigh, NC (SPX) Feb 28, 2017 -
New research from North Carolina State University offers insights into how far and how fast cyborg cockroaches - or biobots - move when exploring new spaces. The work moves researchers closer to their goal of using biobots to explore collapsed buildings and other spaces in order to identify survivors.
NC State researchers have developed cockroach biobots that can be remotely controlled and ...
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Washington DC (SPX) Mar 17, 2017 -
Self-driving taxis. Cell phones that react appropriately to spoken requests. Computers that outcompete world-class chess and Go players. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is becoming part and parcel of the technological landscape-not only in the civilian and commercial worlds but also within the Defense Department, where AI is finding application in such arenas as cybersecurity and dynamic logistics ...
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Boston MA (SPX) Mar 21, 2017 -
Trees and other plants, from towering redwoods to diminutive daisies, are nature's hydraulic pumps. They are constantly pulling water up from their roots to the topmost leaves, and pumping sugars produced by their leaves back down to the roots. This constant stream of nutrients is shuttled through a system of tissues called xylem and phloem, which are packed together in woody, parallel conduits. ...
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Washington (AFP) March 26, 2017 -
Are robots coming for your job?
Although technology has long affected the labor force, recent advances in artificial intelligence and robotics are heightening concerns about automation replacing a growing number of occupations, including highly skilled or "knowledge-based" jobs.
Just a few examples: self-driving technology may eliminate the need for taxi, Uber and truck drivers, algorith ...
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Washington (UPI) Mar 22, 2017 -
Kraken Sonar Systems' underwater robotics program is receiving funding from the Canadian government's research organization.
The monetary support is in the form of an unrefundable contribution of about $1.4 million from the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program, the company announced this week.
The first phase of Kracken's underwater robotics ...
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Moscow (Sputnik) Mar 27, 2017 -
The US Air Force's super-secret Boeing X-37B mini space shuttle just broke its own orbital record of 674 days in space. The landing date for the apparatus remains undetermined. The X-37B robotic space plane's current machine incarnation, OTV-4, just broke its own record by staying in orbit for 675 days, at least one day longer than its predecessor, OTV-3.
The fourth of the X-37B unmanned s ...
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Pasadena CA (JPL) Mar 21, 2017 -
The next rovers to explore another planet might bring along a scout. The Pop-Up Flat Folding Explorer Robot (PUFFER) in development at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, was inspired by origami. Its lightweight design is capable of flattening itself, tucking in its wheels and crawling into places rovers can't fit.
Over the past year and a half, PUFFER has been tested ...
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