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January 24, 2013

NASA Beams Mona Lisa to Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter at the Moon
Greenbelt MD (SPX) Jan 21, 2013
As part of the first demonstration of laser communication with a satellite at the moon, scientists with NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) beamed an image of the Mona Lisa to the spacecraft from Earth. The iconic image traveled nearly 240,000 miles in digital form from the Next Generation Satellite Laser Ranging (NGSLR) station at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., to the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) instrument on the spacecraft. By transmitting the image piggybac ... read more

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Titan Gets a Dune "Makeover" Titan's siblings must be jealous. While most of Saturn's moons display their ancient faces pockmarked by thousands of craters, Titan - Saturn's largest moon - may look much younger than it really is ... more		US, Europe team up for moon fly-by The US and European space agencies announced a new partnership Wednesday pairing a European cargo module with NASA's Orion space capsule, which aims to take astronauts into deep space. ... more		China to launch 20 spacecrafts in 2013 China plans to launch 20 spacecrafts this year, including the country's third lunar probe Chang'e-3 and manned spacecraft Shenzhou-10, China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) annou ... more
				Russia to Launch Lunar Mission in 2015 Russia will launch a robotic lunar station in 2015, Federal Space Agency Roscosmos chief Vladimir Popovkin said on Tuesday. Luna-Glob will lift off from the Vostochny space port in Russia's Fa ... more		US, Europe team up for moon fly-by The US and European space agencies on Wednesday announced a new partnership pairing a European cargo module with NASA's Orion space capsule, which aims to take astronauts into deep space. ... more

CubeSats, SmallSats and MicroSats

Raytheon's Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite on the Suomi NPP satellite lauded for "truly new" weather data Raytheon's Visible Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite was the focus of a high-profile panel discussion at this week's annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society. The consensus among the pan ... more		Do Pockmarks on the Moon Hold the Key to Our Origins The cavernous splotches that help give our moon its shape could be much more than a product of celestial aging. According to research conducted by roboticist Red Whittaker at Carnegie Mellon Univers ... more		US missile defense still plagued by technical doubts Northrop Grumman, US Navy Complete Triton Unmanned Aircraft's First Flight Lockheed Martin Completes Milestone for Training Element of United States Ballistic Missile Defense System General Dynamics to Deliver U.S. Army's Newest Tactical Ground Station Intelligence System Lockheed Martin Conducts First EMD Flight Test of New GMLRS Warhead Defense Acquisition Board approves Standard Missile-6 full-rate production DARPA Seeks Technology to Radically Improve Dismounted Squad Situational Awareness, Communication Effectiveness		Cassini Suggests Icing On A Lake It's not exactly icing on a cake, but it could be icing on a lake. A new paper by scientists on NASA's Cassini mission finds that blocks of hydrocarbon ice might decorate the surface of existing lak ... more
				The syzygy season of 2012 The end of the world - mis-predicted from the Mayan calendar for December 2012 - failed to live up to expectations, but the year was still a memorable one for celestial alignments. In this one ... more		Mission would drag asteroid to the moon NASA is considering a mission to capture an asteroid and drag it into the moon's orbit for study, researchers in California have confirmed. ... more

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CubeSats, SmallSats and MicroSats

Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison & Memory Foam Mattress Review

Stanford researchers develop acrobatic space rovers to explore moons and asteroids Stanford researchers, in collaboration with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, have designed a robotic platform that could take space exploration to new ... more		Russia designs manned lunar spacecraft Russian space company Energia has completed the technical design of a manned spacecraft whose flight tests would be initiated in 2017, company officials say. ... more		Volcanoes Cause Climate Gas Concentrations to Vary Allosaurus fed more like a falcon than a crocodile Study reveals how fishing gear can cause slow death of whales Research offers promising new approach to treatment of lung cancer A Local Footprint's Global Footprint A Roadmap for the Future of Astrobiology Small but speedy: Short plants live in the evolutionary fast lane		Cassini Instrument Learns New Tricks For seven years, a mini-fridge-sized instrument aboard NASA's Cassini spacecraft reliably investigated weather patterns swirling around Saturn; the hydrocarbon composition of the surface of Saturn's ... more
				Quadrantids Create Year's First Meteor Shower A little-known meteor shower named after an extinct constellation, the Quadrantids will present an excellent chance for hardy souls to start the year off with some late-night meteor watching. ... more		Health Concerns Could Ground Citizen Astronauts A group of former NASA executives plans to offer excursions to the moon to anyone who can afford the $1.4-million-dollar-per-couple ticket price. Golden Spike Co. is the latest private company ... more

Possible Clues to Ancient Subsurface Biosphere on Mars

NASA's Veteran Mars Rover Ready to Start 10th Year

Opportunity Investigating Light-toned Veins in Rock Outcrop

Titan Gets a Dune "Makeover"

Cassini Suggests Icing On A Lake

Frozen hydrocarbon ice on Titan's oceans?

The PI's Perspective: The Seven-Year Itch

New Horizons Gets a New Year's Workout

Halfway Between Uranus and Neptune, New Horizons Cruises On

US, Europe team up for moon fly-by

Russia to Launch Lunar Mission in 2015

US, Europe team up for moon fly-by

	NASA probes crash into the moon Two NASA probes crashed into the moon on Monday after spending months gathering data by orbiting miles above the lunar surface, the US space agency said. ... more		GRAIL Lunar Impact Site Named for Astronaut Sally Ride NASA has named the site where twin agency spacecraft impacted the moon Monday in honor of the late astronaut Sally K. Ride, who was America's first woman in space and a member of the probes' mission ... more		Rocket Burn Sets Stage for Dynamic Moon Duos' Lunar Impact The lunar twins of NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission have each completed a rocket burn that has sealed their fate. The burns modified the orbit of the formation-flying ... more		No plans of sending an Indian on moon India has no plans to put an astronaut on the moon, as of now. Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office V Narayanasamy in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday said this. The minister also said ... more

Solar Industry Capital Spending Hits Seven-Year Low in 2013

Innovation could bring flexible solar cells, transistors, displays

More emphasis needed on recycling and reuse of Li-ion batteries

Israel eyes Syrian missile threat to gas fields

Sempra U.S. Gas and Power, Consolidated Edison Development announce solar partnership

Areva, world's 2nd uranium company heavily present in Niger

Magnetic fingerprints of superfluid helium-3

Asteroid Toutatis Slowly Tumbles by Earth		NASA Gravity Probes Prepare to Hit the Moon		Cassini Spots Mini Nile River on Saturn Moon		Apollo's Lunar Dust Data Being Restored		To the moon and back for less than 2 billion dollars
What trends will take upper hand in space exploration?		NASA's GRAIL Creates Most Accurate Moon Gravity Map		Chinese astronauts may grow veg on Moon		NASA's Cassini Sees Abrupt Turn in Titan's Atmosphere		WSU researchers use 3-D printer to make parts from moon rock

Cassini Finds a Video Gamers' Paradise at Saturn

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