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February 18, 2015

Dawn Captures Sharper Images of Ceres
Pasadena CA (JPL) Feb 18, 2015
Craters and mysterious bright spots are beginning to pop out in the latest images of Ceres from NASA's Dawn spacecraft. These images, taken Feb. 12 at a distance of 52,000 miles (83,000 kilometers) from the dwarf planet, pose intriguing questions for the science team to explore as the spacecraft nears its destination. "As we slowly approach the stage, our eyes transfixed on Ceres and her planetary dance, we find she has beguiled us but left us none the wiser," said Chris Russell, principal investi ... read more

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NASA Team Develops New Ka-Band Communications System to Break Through the Noise The radio frequency band that many NASA missions use to communicate with spacecraft - S-band - is getting a bit crowded and noisy, and likely to get more jammed as science missions demand higher and ... more		SSL-Built High-Throughput Satellite For Telenor Ready For Launch Space Systems/Loral (SSL) has announced that the THOR 7 satellite, designed and built for Telenor Satellite Broadcasting (TSBc), is ready for launch and will ship to the European Spaceport in Kourou ... more		Life on other planets: Alternative chemistries of life Ideas about directing evolution of life forms on Earth and finding life on other planets are rapidly morphing from science-fiction fantasy into mainstream science, says David Lynn, a chemist at Emor ... more
				Mars One cuts list of potential colonists to 100 Dutch interplanetary exploration startup Mars One has further narrowed down the list of potential colonists from over 202,000 to just 100. ... more		Scientists fail to explain strange plumes spotted on Martian surface In 2012, dozens of amateur astronomers spotted large plumes of dust rising off the surface of Mars. More than two years later, scientists still don't have a suitable explanation for the phenomenon. ... more

Nuclear Decommissioning Conference Europe May 2015

Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison & Memory Foam Mattress Review

NASA wants to send a submarine to Saturn's moon Titan The seas of Titan, Saturn's largest moon, are no place for astronauts. The frigid bodies of liquified natural gas are a study in inhabitability. But scientists suggest its possible some strange forms of life exist under the of icy surface of Kraken Mare, Titan's largest sea. ... more		The View from New Horizons: A Full Day on Pluto-Charon This time-lapse "movie" of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon, was recently shot at record-setting distances with the Long-Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) on NASA's New Horizons spacecraft. The ... more				A New Way to View Titan: 'Despeckle' It During 10 years of discovery, NASA's Cassini spacecraft has pulled back the smoggy veil that obscures the surface of Titan, Saturn's largest moon. Cassini's radar instrument has mapped almost half o ... more
				Application of laser microprobe technology to Apollo samples refines lunar impact history It's been more than 40 years since astronauts returned the last Apollo samples from the moon, and since then those samples have undergone some of the most extensive and comprehensive analysis of any ... more		DSCOVR: Mission Success for Moog Engines Over a Decade Later Moog Space and Defense Group supported NOAA's Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) satellite that launched today from Cape Canaveral, F.L., atop a Falcon 9 launch vehicle. DSCOVR is a partn ... more

Talking Japanese space robot back on Earth 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. ... 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				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
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		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		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		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

Octopus robot makes waves with ultra-fast propulsion		Tiny robotic 'hands' could improve cancer diagnostics, drug delivery		Human insights inspire solutions for household robots		Cool clocks pave the way to new measurements of the earth		US Issuing Licenses for Mineral Mining on Moon
NASA Spacecraft Completes 40,000 Mars Orbits		Researchers determine how the brain controls robotic grasping tools		NASA releases video of the far side of the Moon		Scientists predict earth-like planets around most stars		Dawn Gets Closer Views of Ceres

New Horizons snaps new images of Pluto en route to historic flyby

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

Gully patterns document Martian climate cycles

Several Drives This Week Put Opportunity Near Marathon Distance

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