Space Tourism, Space Transport and Space Exploration News

July 29, 2014

Alien Atmospheres - Methane, CFCs and other signs of smart ETs
Moffet Field CA (NASA) Jul 29, 2014
Sometimes we get lucky: an exoplanet many light-years away passes in front of its star at the perfect angle. This transit allows us to read certain features of that planet's atmosphere. The resulting spectra - lines made by molecules like oxygen and methane - allow us a peek into that planet's chemical anatomy. Certain features of those atmospheres make it more likely that something, or someone, inside is breathing. In the last few months, we've found even better ways of looking for these signs of ... read more

Previous Issues

Jul 28

Jul 25

Jul 24

Jul 23

Jul 22

NASA's Mars Spacecraft Maneuvers to Prepare for Close Comet Flyby NASA is taking steps to protect its Mars orbiters, while preserving opportunities to gather valuable scientific data, as Comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring heads toward a close flyby of Mars on Oct. 19. ... more		Bepicolombo Integration Testing Completed At Thales Integration and functional testing activities for the protoflight models of the BepiColombo Mercury Planetary Orbiter, Mercury Transfer Module, and Magnetospheric Orbiter Sunshield and Interface Str ... more		Hubble Finds Three Surprisingly Dry Exoplanets Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have gone looking for water vapor in the atmospheres of three planets orbiting stars similar to the sun - and have come up nearly dry. The thre ... more
				NASA Long-Lived Mars Opportunity Rover Passes 25 Miles of Driving NASA's Opportunity Mars rover, which landed on the Red Planet in 2004, now holds the off-Earth roving distance record after accruing 25 miles (40 kilometers) of driving. The previous record was held ... more		Putting It All Together The New Horizons mission will provide the first in situ investigation of objects in the Kuiper belt, making it a unique voyage of discovery. And it's unlikely we'll see a similar venture into the so ... more

CubeSats, SmallSats and MicroSats

William Cress Corporation - We Build To Last

Startup in the Land of the Rising Sun; A Japanese Solar Venture - by Bradley L. Bartz

Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison & Memory Foam Mattress Review

Timely arrival of Pharao space clock ESA has welcomed the arrival of Pharao, an important part of ESA's atomic clock experiment that will be attached to the International Space Station in 2016. Delivered by France's CNES space ag ... more		Virgin Galactic Announces Todd Ericson As Space Pilot Virgin Galactic, the privately-funded space company owned by Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Group and Abu Dhabi's aabar Investments PJS, has announced that Todd 'Leif' Ericson, former Operations and M ... more		HawkEye 360 expands signals intelligence network with operational deployment of Cluster 12 York confirms successful deployment and health of 21 satellites for SDA Tranche 1 mission Spain faces uphill battle to cut Israel military ties: experts		A New Approach to SETI: Targeting Alien Polluters Humanity is on the threshold of being able to detect signs of alien life on other worlds. By studying exoplanet atmospheres, we can look for gases like oxygen and methane that only coexist if replen ... more
				Biomarkers of the Deep Tucked away in the southwest corner of Spain is a unique geological site that has fascinated astrobiologists for decades. The Iberian Pyrite Belt (IPB) in Spain's Rio Tinto area is the largest known ... more		Astronomers come up dry in search for water on exoplanets A team of astronomers has made the most precise measurements yet of water vapour in the atmospheres of Jupiter-like planets beyond our Solar System and found them to be much drier worlds than expect ... more

Hubble Finds Three Surprisingly Dry Exoplanets Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope have gone looking for water vapor in the atmospheres of three planets orbiting stars similar to the sun - and have come up nearly dry. The thre ... more		The Most Precise Measurement of an Alien World's Size Thanks to NASA's Kepler and Spitzer Space Telescopes, scientists have made the most precise measurement ever of the radius of a planet outside our solar system. The size of the exoplanet, dubbed Kep ... more		Climate change causing havoc with global water cycle: UN Schools shut, flights cancelled as Typhoon Ragasa nears Hong Kong Over 60,000 Europeans died from heat during 2024 summer: study		MIPT-based researcher models Titan's atmosphere A researcher from MIPT, Prof. Vladimir Krasnopolsky, who heads the Laboratory of High Resolution Infrared Spectroscopy of Planetary Atmospheres, has published the results of the comparison of his mo ... more
NASA Explores Additional Undersea Missions With NEEMO Projects 18 and 19 NASA's Extreme Environment Mission Operations (NEEMO) is gearing up for two underwater projects, 18 and 19, during the months of July and September. Aquanauts participating in the NEEMO project will ... more		NASA's Next Giant Leap The first humans who will step foot on Mars are walking the Earth today. It was 45 years ago that Neil Armstrong took the small step onto the surface of the moon that changed the course of history. ... more		Astronauts to Test Free-Flying "Housekeeper" Robots Inspired by science fiction, three bowling ball-size free-flying Synchronized Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites (SPHERES) have been flying inside the International Space Stati ... more		Magnets for fusion energy The National Institute for Fusion Science (NIFS), of the National Institutes of Natural Sciences (NINS) in Japan, has achieved an electrical current of 100,000 amperes, which is by far the highest i ... more

	NASA Awards Construction Contract at Kennedy Space Center NASA has awarded a two-year contract to Hensel Phelps Construction Co. of Orlando to build a new multi-story headquarters building at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The maximum ... more		Japanese leader proposes first-ever 'Robot Olympics' Nations of the world will be sending their most talented athletes to Tokyo in 2020 for the Olympic Games - but if Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe gets his way, they might also be pitting robots a ... more

Tariff uncertainty delays World Cup orders for China's merch makers

EU business lobby head says China rare earths snag persists

IEA feels the heat as Washington pushes pro-oil agenda

NASA Seeks Proposals for Commercial Mars Data Relay Satellites		'Challenges' in quest to find water on Earth-like worlds: study		Russian Cargo Craft Launches for 6-Hour Trek to ISS		Sierra Nevada Completes Major Dream Chaser NASA CCiCap Milestone		Emirates paves way for Middle East space program with mission to Mars
NASA Partners Punctuate Summer with Spacecraft Development Advances		ISS Crew Opens Cargo Ship Hatch, Preps for CubeSat Deployment		China to launch satellite for Venezuela		China to launch HD observation satellite this year		End dawns for Europe's space cargo delivery role

SpaceX releases video of rocket splashing into the ocean

Geckos at risk as Russia loses control of satellite

Russian cargo craft docks with ISS, science satellite fails

SpaceX Soft Lands Falcon 9 Rocket First Stage

China's biggest moon challenge: returning to earth

Highly charged ions

Transiting Exoplanet with Longest Known Year

New Fort Knox: A means to a solar-system-wide economy

Seeing Earth As An Exoplanet: What Signs Of Life Are Visible?

Voyager Spacecraft Might Not Have Reached Interstellar Space

UEA research shows oceans vital for possibility of alien life

ATV-5: loaded and locked

Federal auditors say NASA doesn't have funds for big rocket

Are we alone? Alien pollution might reveal the answer

Curiosity's images show Earth-like soils on Mars

Lunar rock collisions behind Yutu damage

This time for the PLA: Chinese army shows off dancing robots

Wake up, robot

Next ISS Cargo Spacecraft Rolls Out to Pad

India could return to Mars as early as 2017

Free Newsletters - Space - Defense - Environment - Energy

Buy Advertising

Media Advertising Kit

Editorial & Other Enquiries

Privacy statement

The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement All images and articles appearing on Space Media Network have been edited or digitally altered in some way. Any requests to remove copyright material will be acted upon in a timely and appropriate manner. Any attempt to extort money from Space Media Network will be ignored and reported to Australian Law Enforcement Agencies as a potential case of financial fraud involving the use of a telephonic carriage device or postal service.