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September 08, 2016

NASA launches first asteroid dust-retrieval mission
Miami (AFP) Sept 8, 2016
The US space agency Thursday launched its first mission to collect dust from an asteroid, the kind of cosmic body that may have delivered life-giving materials to Earth billions of years ago. The unmanned spacecraft, known as OSIRIS-REx, blasted off at 7:05 pm (23:05 GMT) atop an Atlas V rocket in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The $800 million mission will travel for two years on a journey to Bennu, a near-Earth asteroid about the size of a small mountain. ... read more

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Asteroid Mission Will Carry Student X-Ray Experiment At 7:05pm (EDT), Thursday, Sept. 8, NASA plans to launch a spacecraft to a near-Earth asteroid named Bennu. Among that spacecraft's five instruments is a student experiment that will use X-rays to h ... more		NASA Searches for Big Idea from Students for In-Space Assembly of Spacecraft In the 2017 Breakthrough, Innovative, and Game-changing (BIG) Idea Challenge, NASA is engaging university-level students in its quest to reduce the cost of deep space exploration. NASA's Game Changi ... more		A first for direct-drive fusion Scientists at the University of Rochester have taken a significant step forward in laser fusion research. Experiments using the OMEGA laser at the University's Laboratory of Laser Energetics (LLE) h ... more
				Titan's Dunes and Other Features Emerge in New Images New scenes from a frigid alien landscape are coming to light in recent radar images of Saturn's largest moon, Titan, from NASA's Cassini spacecraft. Cassini obtained the views during a close f ... more		New knowledge about the building blocks of life A study of an enzyme that helps build and repair DNA in living organisms increases our understanding of how these processes are controlled and how we can use this to combat infections. Chemist ... more

Transition from Operations to Decommissioning by Preparing a Safe, Cost-Effective Shut Down and Waste Management Strategy

Tiangong 2 is coming soon, real soon China's Tiangong 2 space laboratory will launch soon. At the time of writing, there is no official word on a launch date, but the launch is expected well before the end of September. There has been ... more		Proxima b Could Be a Life-Friendly Planet, Says One of the Co-Discoverers When in late August this year, the European Southern Observatory (ESO) broke the news, announcing the discovery of Proxima b, the closest exoplanet to us, it fueled hopes of finding an Earth-like pl ... more		Sidekick autonomy software guides YFQ-42A test mission for CCA program Infleqtion lists shares on NYSE as neutral atom quantum firm Top Chinese gaming companies continue to challenge		OSIRIS-REx Prepared for Mapping, Sampling Mission to Asteroid Bennu The first U.S. mission to travel to an asteroid, retrieve samples and return them to Earth is targeted for a Sept. 8 launch atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Force ... more
				Scientists discover what extraordinary compounds may be hidden inside Jupiter and Neptune Using computer modeling, chemists from MIPT and Skoltech (the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology) have found out which molecules may be present in the interiors of Uranus, Neptune, and the ... more		Life-altering science moves fast, sparking debate Scientific techniques that can wipe out invasive species or alter mosquitoes' ability to carry disease are pushing ahead, raising concerns about the ethics of permanently changing the natural world, experts say. ... more

2nd Integrated Air and Missile Defense - Securing the Complex Air Domain: Requirements for Sustainable, Global, and Reliable Solutions to Next Generation Air & Missile Threats - 28-30 September, 2016 | Washington D.C.

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

Asteroid named for Freddie Mercury on 70th birthday Rock legend Freddie Mercury's legacy is living on as an asteroid, named after him on what would have been the Queen singer's 70th birthday. ... more		New light on the complex nature of 'hot Jupiter' atmospheres Fascinating new light could be shed on the complex atmospheres of planets which orbit stars outside our own solar system, thanks to pioneering new research. A team of international researchers, led ... more		Solar-driven ionosphere charges may nudge stressed faults toward rupture Stable black carbon in mangrove soils boosts coastal climate role Low crystallinity iron minerals show promise for chromium cleanup and carbon storage		Ice Not a Major Factor of Dwarf Planet Ceres' Surface Features Although there is significant evidence of ice on the surface of the dwarf planet Ceres, the largest object in orbit between Mars and Jupiter, an analysis of the surface geology indicates that ice is ... more
NASA Approves 2018 Launch of Mars InSight Mission NASA is moving forward with a spring 2018 launch of its InSight mission to study the deep interior of Mars, following final approval this week by the agency's Science Mission Directorate. The ... more		Ceres: The tiny world where volcanoes erupt ice Ahuna Mons is a volcano that rises 13,000 feet high and spreads 11 miles wide at its base. This would be impressive for a volcano on Earth. But Ahuna Mons stands on Ceres, a dwarf planet less than 6 ... more		The Genesis Project: New life on exoplanets Can life be brought to celestial bodies outside our solar system which are not permanently inhabitable? This is the question with which Professor Dr. Claudius Gros from the Institute of Theoretical ... more		Dawn spacecraft at Ceres: Craters, cracks, and cryovolcanos Six studies highlight new and unexpected insights into Ceres, a dwarf planet and the largest object in the asteroid belt (between Mars and Jupiter). The results, derived from data from the Dawn spac ... more

	Coming to your solar system soon: A rendezvous with an asteroid A group of University of Colorado Boulder researchers is readying for NASA's Sept. 8 launch of a spacecraft to a near-Earth asteroid named Bennu, thought to harbor primordial material left over from ... more		China's newly-launched quantum communication satellite in good shape China's quantum communication satellite, launched in August, is in good shape and scientific experiments can begin this month, according to the chief scientist of the project on Thursday. All ... more

AALTO plans Zephyr stratospheric hub in northern Australia and seeks local payload partners

Ancient guano drove Chincha coastal power

UAH lands first DARPA award for biological sciences department

Laundry-folding washing machine: eye-catching gizmos at IFA fair		NASA set to launch near-Earth asteroid mission		Sulfur, Sulfur Dioxide and Graphitized Carbon Observed on Asteroid For First Time		Storm Reduces Available Solar Energy on Opportunity		China Sends Country's Largest Carrier Rocket to Launch Base
Discovery one-ups Tatooine, finds twin stars hosting three giant exoplanets		Copernicus Sentinel-1A satellite hit by space particle		New Horizons Spies a Kuiper Belt Companion		Pluto's Methane Snowcaps on the Edge of Darkness		Dawn Sets Course for Higher Orbit

'Heavenly Palace': China to Launch Two Manned Space Missions This Fall

Researchers unveil ciliated microbots

First DNA Sequencing in Space a Game Changer

Could Proxima Centauri b Really Be Habitable

Anomalous grooves on Martian moon Phobos explained by impacts

Hunt For Ninth Planet Reveals New Extremely Distant Solar System Objects

The evolution and future of automation

Fusion facilities at PPPL and Culham, England, could provide path to limitless energy

Test for damp ground at Mars' seasonal streaks finds none

'Strong signal' stirs interest in hunt for alien life

Boredom was hardest part of yearlong dome isolation

Year-long simulation of humans living on Mars ends in Hawaii

NASA Awards Launch Services Contract for Mars 2020 Rover Mission

NIST's compact gyroscope may turn heads

More to rainbows than meets the eye

Where does AlphaGo go

New 10-foot dish will connnect ASU researchers directly with satellites

Northrop Grumman to Provide Navigation System for German Satellite

Science set to upstage fiction with Fantastic Voyage

China unveils Mars probe, rover for ambitious 2020 mission

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