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February 12, 2015

Talking Japanese space robot back on Earth
Tokyo (AFP) Feb 12, 2015
A pint-sized Japanese robot that became the first android to converse with an astronaut in space has returned to Earth after 18 months in orbit, project organisers said Thursday. "Kirobo" - roughly the size of a chihuahua - hitched a ride back from the International Space Station (ISS) on a cargo supply spacecraft that splashed down in the Pacific Ocean, sponsors including Toyota Motor and advertising firm Dentsu said. Kirobo, which left Earth in August 2013, was programmed to communicate in J ... read more

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NASA's Curiosity Analyzing Sample of Martian Mountain The second bite of a Martian mountain taken by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover hints at long-ago effects of water that was more acidic than any evidenced in the rover's first taste of Mount Sharp, a lay ... more		Octopus robot makes waves with ultra-fast propulsion Scientists have developed an octopus-like robot, which can zoom through water with ultra-fast propulsion and acceleration never before seen in man-made underwater vehicles. Most fast aquatic a ... more		Tiny robotic 'hands' could improve cancer diagnostics, drug delivery Many people imagine robots today as clunky, metal versions of humans, but scientists are forging new territory in the field of 'soft robotics.' One of the latest advances is a flexible, microscopic ... more
				Human insights inspire solutions for household robots People typically consider doing the laundry to be a boring chore. But laundry is far from boring for artificial intelligence (AI) researchers like Siddharth Srivastava, a scientist at the United Tec ... more		HAPTIX Starts Work to Provide Prosthetic Hands with Sense of Touch Despite recent advances in technology for upper-limb prostheses, artificial arms and hands are still unable to provide users with sensory feedback, such as the "feel" of things being touched or awar ... more

Nuclear Decommissioning Conference Europe May 2015

Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison & Memory Foam Mattress Review

Mars Rover Nearing Marathon Achievement NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is nearing a location on Mars at which its driving distance will surpass the length of a marathon race. A drive on Feb. 8, 2015, put the rover within 220 ya ... more		Cool clocks pave the way to new measurements of the earth We all like to know our watches keep the time well, but Hidetoshi Katori, of RIKEN's Quantum Metrology Laboratory and the University of Tokyo's Graduate School of Engineering, is taking precision to ... more		U.S. defense in free fall Saudi Arabia and Pakistan sign mutual defense pact Brazil, Chile sign defense agreement		IBM brings Watson supercomputer to Japan via SoftBank IBM announced plans Tuesday to bring its Watson supercomputer to Japan with mobile telecom group SoftBank, in a deal aimed at developing new applications for robotics and other services. ... 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		Number of Known Accessible Near-Earth Asteroids Doubles Since 2010 NASA performed the first Near-Earth Object Human Space Flight Accessible Targets Study (NHATS) in September/October of 2010, and 666 of the known near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) were identified as meeti ... more

NASA's Curiosity Analyzing Sample of Martian Mountain The second bite of a Martian mountain taken by NASA's Curiosity Mars rover hints at long-ago effects of water that was more acidic than any evidenced in the rover's first taste of Mount Sharp, a lay ... more		SSC expands at the Inuvik Satellite Station Facility The Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) is increasing its capacity at the Inuvik Satellite Station Facility in Inuvik, Canada, with the addition of a new multi-mission antenna. The expansion is driven b ... 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		US Issuing Licenses for Mineral Mining on Moon The United States government is taking a new and early approach to spur commercial development of space. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has started issuing companies licenses to own land ... more
NASA Spacecraft Completes 40,000 Mars Orbits NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter passed a mission milestone of 40,000 orbits on Feb. 7, 2015, in its ninth year of returning information about the atmosphere, surface and subsurface of Mars, from ... more		Researchers determine how the brain controls robotic grasping tools Grasping an object involves a complex network of brain functions. First, visual cues are processed in specialized areas of the brain. Then, other areas of the brain use these signals to control the ... more		NASA releases video of the far side of the Moon NASA has released a video showing what it looks like on the side of the moon humans can't see from Earth. ... more		Scientists predict earth-like planets around most stars Planetary scientists have calculated that there are hundreds of billions of Earth-like planets in our galaxy which might support life. The new research, led by PhD student Tim Bovaird and Asso ... more

	Dawn Gets Closer Views of Ceres NASA's Dawn spacecraft, on approach to dwarf planet Ceres, has acquired its latest and closest-yet snapshot of this mysterious world. The image of Ceres, taken on Feb. 4, 2015, from a distance of ab ... more		New Horizons snaps new images of Pluto en route to historic flyby NASA's New Horizons spacecraft returned its first new images of Pluto on Wednesday, as the probe closes in on the dwarf planet. Although still just a dot along with its largest moon, Charon, the ima ... more

Ohio State scientists advance focus on nuclear propulsion

Mixing neutrinos of colliding neutron stars changes how merger unfolds

China launches experimental satellites to enhance mobile space internet

LRO finds lunar hydrogen more abundant on Moon's pole-facing slopes		Mars Orbiter Spies Curiosity Rover at Work		Fixed astronomical clock vital for galactic history		Spacecraft Power Systems		U.S. Navy unveils firefighting robot SAFFiR
SMAP Satellite utilizes Northrop Grumman's AstroMesh Reflector		Fajr satellite serves no military purpose		"Vulcan Planets" - Inside-Out Formation of Super-Earths		Meteorite may represent 'bulk background' of Mars' battered crust		Eyes In The Sky: Britain's GCHQ Sets Sights on Space

Robot acquires chef skills via YouTube instructional vids

Vanguard Delivers Advanced EHF Bus Structure Assembly

Smaller Gas Giants Could Support Life

Habitable Evaporated Cores

Cassini Catches Titan Naked in the Solar Wind

Dawn ahead!

Kepler astronomers discover ancient star with 5 Earth-size planets

Several Drives This Week Put Opportunity Near Marathon Distance

Gully patterns document Martian climate cycles

Will NASA's TESS Spacecraft Revolutionize Exoplanet Hunting?

Surface composition of BL86 studies during Earth flyby

The two faces of Mars

Ancient star system has Earth-sized planets forming near start of universe

Something Special in the Air

Canadian students design robotic sailboat for Atlantic challenge

Integral manoeuvres for the future

More Astronauts for China

New research re-creates planet formation in the lab

Planetary Society announces test flight for LightSail

Asteroid That Flew Past Earth Has Moon

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