Space Tourism, Space Transport and Space Exploration News

April 12, 2016

How to reach Alpha Centauri in just 20 years
New York (AFP) April 12, 2016
Billionaire Russian investor Yuri Milner and British cosmologist Stephen Hawking on Tuesday announced an ambitious new space initiative for a mission to Alpha Centauri, the nearest star system to Earth. Milner and Hawking are spearheading the "Breakthrough Starshot" team of scientists working on the bold research program to create a fleet of super-compact, ultra-light space vehicles or "nanocraft." The goal is to send the light-propelled mini-space vehicles - each no bigger than a cell phone - ... read more

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Artificial comet holds clues to the origin of life Researchers have for the first time shown that ribose, a sugar that is one of the building blocks of genetic material in living organisms, may have formed in cometary ices. To obtain this result, sc ... more		New tool refines exoplanet search Planet-hunting is an ongoing process that's resulting in the discovery of more and more planets orbiting distant stars. But as the hunters learn more about the variety among the tremendous number of ... more		Cooked planets shrink due to radiation Astrophysicists at the University of Birmingham have used data from the NASA Kepler space telescope to discover a class of extrasolar planets whose atmospheres have been stripped away by their host ... more
				Lunar lava tubes could help pave way for human colony Scientists have found evidence that the Moon's underground could have long tunnels of volcanic origin, which could potentially be repurposed to house human colonies. These channels (also called "lav ... more		More accurately measuring distances between planetary nebulae and Earth A way of estimating more accurate distances to the thousands of so-called "planetary nebulae" dispersed across our Galaxy has just been announced by a team of three astronomers based at the Universi ... more

Glass beads, meteorite fragments hold secret to working on asteroids The secret to planetary formation and working on asteroids lies in a handful of glass beads and meteorite fragments. These materials are the main component for the Astromaterials Research and ... more		Stars strip away atmospheres of nearby super-Earths Even a super-Earth can fly too close to the sun, according to a new study. An international team of astronomers has found a new category of planets beyond our solar system whose atmosphere has been ... more		North Korea declares nuclear statehood 'permanently enshrined' Iran says enriched nuclear material 'under rubble' of facilities hit during Israel war ArianeGroup to develop next-generation M51.4 missile for French nuclear deterrent		Saturn spacecraft not affected by hypothetical Planet 9 Contrary to recent reports, NASA's Cassini spacecraft is not experiencing unexplained deviations in its orbit around Saturn, according to mission managers and orbit determination experts at NASA's J ... more
				Young, unattached Jupiter analog found in solar neighborhood A team of astronomers from Carnegie and the University of Western Ontario has discovered one of the youngest and brightest free-floating, planet-like objects within relatively close proximity to the ... more		New plasma source favorable for hydrogen negative ion beam is developed Researchers at Tohoku University have discovered a new plasma wave phenomenon, leading to the development of a negative ion source for fusion plasma heating. Led by Associate Prof K. Takahashi and P ... more

Human 2 Mars Conference May 17-19 2016 - Washington DC

Military Network Modernization 2016 - Washington DC - April 25-27

Space Tech Expo - Design - Build - Test - Pasadena CA - May 24-26, 2016

The World's Largest Commercial Drone Conference and Expo - Sept 7-9 - Las Vegas

Directed Energy And Next Generation Munitions - 20-22 June - Washington DC

GenDyn completes Space Fence radar array structure The construction and walk-through of a 7,000 square-foot ground radar array structure for the Space Fence system has been completed by General Dynamics. ... more		The 'R' in RNA is likely abundant in space, scientists say By simulating conditions in space, scientists in France say they found ribose - the 'R' in RNA - is potentially present throughout the universe. ... more		Ozone layer 'healing', on track to recover by mid-century: UN How mowing less lets flowers bloom along Austria's 'Green Belt' Oldest practice of smoke-dried mummification traced to Asia Pacific hunter gatherers		Lessons learned from Tiangong 1 The recent telemetry failure from China's Tiangong 1 space laboratory has lessons for the whole space community. This analyst has previously reported on the issue of Tiangong 1's eventual uncontroll ... more
Icy 'Spider' on Pluto Sprawling across Pluto's icy landscape is an unusual geological feature that resembles a giant spider. "Oh, what a tangled web Pluto's geology weaves," said Oliver White, a member of the New Horizon ... more		Planet X takes shape Astrophysicists at the University of Bern have modelled the evolution of the putative planet in the outer solar system. They estimate that the object has a present-day radius equal to 3.7 Earth radi ... more		Multitasking New Horizons observed solar wind changes on journey to Pluto In addition to its history-making encounter with Pluto last July, the New Horizons spacecraft also recorded significant changes in how the solar wind behaves far from the Sun. The Solar Wind A ... more		Searching for Far Out and Wandering Worlds Astronomers have made great strides in discovering planets outside of our solar system, termed "exoplanets." In fact, over the past 20 years more than 5,000 exoplanets have been detected beyond the ... more

	Touching a robot can elicit physiological arousal in humans On the scale of the "uncanny valley," the humanoid robot registers a positive response with humans just before the dip into repulsion. Its resemblance hovers between C-3PO and Wall-E, a familiar but ... more		ALMA's most detailed image of a protoplanetary disc The star TW Hydrae is a popular target of study for astronomers because of its proximity to Earth (only about 175 light-years away) and its status as an infant star (about 10 million years old). It ... more

'A better future is possible': Youths sue Trump over climate change

Hollywood giants sue Chinese AI firm over copyright infringement

Google says to invest 5bn pound in UK ahead of Trump visit

Private equity firm acquires iRobot defense business		China launches SJ-10 retrievable space science probe		Record-breaking steel could be used for body armor, shields for satellites		How deep does life go?		Gestures improve communication - even with robots
Mars Longevity Champion Launched 15 Years Ago		New Horizons fills gap in space environment observations		Opportunity's Devilish View from on High		Asteroid-Hunting Spacecraft Delivers a Second Year of Data		Planet formation in Earth-like orbit around a young star

Help keep heat on Mars Express through data mining

Ancient Mars bombardment likely enhanced life-supporting habitat

Scientists study gypsum to better understand water on Mars

Scientists find Mars surface replica in India

NASA funds UH research on astronauts' loss of muscle strength

One year on station at Ceres

Researchers demonstrate a new way to characterize twisted light

Pluto's bladed terrain in 3-D

Martian winds slowly build enormous mounds over billions of years

NASA's Spitzer Maps Climate Patterns on a Super-Earth

Rover takes on steepest slope ever tried on Mars

Robot Technology Set to Invade Earth

'Smoothed' light will help search for Earth's twins

Has Tiangong 1 gone rogue

The Moon thought to play a major role in maintaining Earth's magnetic field

'Mixed Reality' Technology Brings Mars to Earth

Moving microswimmers with tiny swirling flows

A frozen pond on Pluto

No plans for killer US military robots... yet

Moon Mission: A Blueprint for the Red Planet

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