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December 18, 2014

Australian university students aim to generate first 'breathable' air on Mars
Melbourne, Australia (XNA) Dec 18, 2014
A Mars One astronaut candidate and a team of Western Australian students aiming to generate the first breathable air on Mars have reached the finals of the international competition that will land vital experiments on the Red Planet. Josh Richards, a physicist from Perth, plans to send a system that produces oxygen from water to the Martian surface, as part of the Mars One project that aims to establish a human colony on Mars. Alongside 60 University of Western Australia students, Richards d ... read more

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Super-Earth spotted by ground-based telescope, a first For the first time, a ground-based telescope has observed a super-Earth alien planet passing in front of its host star. The exoplanet, roughly twice the size of Earth, is 55 Cancri e. Its host star is 55 Cancri, a Sun-like star 40 light-years away that can be spied with the naked eye in the Cancer constellation. ... more		First steps for Hector the robot stick insect A research team at Bielefeld University has succeeded in teaching the only robot of its kind in the world how to walk. Its first steps have been recorded in a video. You can watch them in Bielefeld ... more		Tag Heuer changes tune, now looking at smartwatches Barely a few months after dismissing Apple's smartwatch, the new chief executive of luxury Swiss watchmaker Tag Heuer conceded Tuesday that such a hi-tech gadget might after all have a place in his firm's line-up. ... more
				Goddard instrument makes first detection of organic matter on Mars The team responsible for the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument suite on NASA's Curiosity rover has made the first definitive detection of organic molecules at Mars. Organic molecules are the ... more		NASA Rover Finds Active and Ancient Organic Chemistry on Mars NASA's Mars Curiosity rover has measured a tenfold spike in methane, an organic chemical, in the atmosphere around it and detected other organic molecules in a rock-powder sample collected by the ro ... more

Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison & Memory Foam Mattress Review

Oil-dwelling bacteria are social creatures in Earth's deep biosphere Oil reservoirs are scattered deep inside the Earth like far-flung islands in the ocean, so their inhabitants might be expected to be very different, but a new study led by Dartmouth College and Univ ... more		Spike seen in methane on Mars, but source unknown Methane, a gas that on Earth comes mainly from living organisms, has been measured for the first time making a sudden spike on Mars, leaving scientists puzzled about its origin. ... more		U.S. defense in free fall Saudi Arabia and Pakistan sign mutual defense pact Brazil, Chile sign defense agreement		NASA is letting people name the craters of Mercury The team behind NASA's Mercury orbiter, MESSENGER, has begun a competition to name the craters of Mercury. ... more
				Robot named 'Athena' becomes first humanoid robot to pay for a seat on a flight A robot named "Athena" has officially become the first humanoid robot to pay for a seat on a flight. ... more		MAVEN Identifies Links in Chain Leading to Mars Atmospheric Loss Early discoveries by NASA's newest Mars orbiter are starting to reveal key features about the loss of the planet's atmosphere to space over time. The findings are among the first returns from ... more

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

Moon Express testing compact lunar lander at Kennedy NASA is working with U.S. industry to develop the capabilities and cutting-edge technologies that will help send astronauts beyond low-Earth orbit. To achieve this goal, space travelers will need th ... more		Opportunity Flash-Memory Resets Continue Opportunity is on the west rim of Endeavour Crater heading towards 'Marathon Valley,' a putative location for abundant clay minerals only about a mile (about 1 kilometer) to the south. Because ... more		GUARDIAN Tsunami Detection Tech Catches Wave in Real Time Galileo daughter mission named Celeste to strengthen navigation resilience How quantum computers can be validated when solving unsolvable problems		Mars Mountain was All Wet Observations by NASA's Curiosity Rover indicate Mars' Mount Sharp was built by sediments deposited in a large lake bed over tens of millions of years. This suggests ancient Mars maintained a climate ... more
Soyuz Installed at Baikonur, Expected to Launch Wednesday The Soyuz-2.1A carrier rocket has been successfully installed at the launch site at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and is scheduled for launch on October 29, the press service of the Russian ... more		Opportunity In No-Flash Mode: Kludge Ready To Radiate Persistent computer resets and "amnesia" events on NASA's Mars Exploration rover Opportunity that have occurred after reformatting the robot's flash memory have prompted a shift to a working mode th ... more		Signs of Ancient Mars Lakes and Quakes Seen in New Map Long ago, in the largest canyon system in our solar system, vibrations from "marsquakes" shook soft sediments that had accumulated in Martian lakes. The shaken sediments formed features that n ... more		Observing Solar System Worlds as if They Were Distant Exoplanets "It takes one to know one," as the old truism goes. When it comes to unraveling the mysteries of far-off exoplanets, the same holds true - one more reason why astronomers want to thoroughly understa ... more

	ESA and Omega: a watch for astronauts Swiss watchmaker Omega has announced a new version of its historic space watch, tested and qualified with ESA's help and drawing on an invention of ESA astronaut Jean-Francois Clervoy. Jean-Fr ... more		MESSENGER Data Suggest Recurring Meteor Shower on Mercury The closest planet to the sun appears to get hit by a periodic meteor shower, possibly associated with a comet that produces multiple events annually on Earth. The clues pointing to Mercury's ... more

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Asteroid 2014 UR116 Represents No Threat to the Earth

Mars is a Four-Letter Word

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Engineer Applies Robot Control Theory to Improve Prosthetic Legs

Curiosity finds clues to how water helped shape Mars

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China's ardor for a red planet

Ancient lava flows could explain pie-shaped landform on Mars

New Horizons Wakes Up on Pluto's Doorstep

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The first X-ray diffraction measurements on Mars

Giving Thanks for Opportunity's Great Work!

Red Planet's Mystery

NASA craft to probe Pluto after nine-year journey

Asteroid Explorer Hayabusa2 Completion of Critical Operation Phase

Queen's scientist leads study of 'Super-Earth'

European astronomers spot faint asteroid

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