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December 19, 2016
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MOON DAILY
Lunar sonic booms



Ames IA (SPX) Dec 14, 2016
The sonic boom created by an airplane comes from the craft's large, speeding body crashing into molecules in the air. But if you shrank the plane to the size of a molecule, would it still generate a shock wave? Scientists such as University of Iowa physicist Jasper Halekas hope to answer that question by studying miniature shock waves on the moon. These sonic boomlets, physicists believe, are being generated by protons in the solar wind--moving at supersonic speed--colliding with pockets of magnet ... read more

MOON DAILY
India Inc joins hands to bid for moon mission
An Indian aerospace start-ups's plans to send a mission to moon as part of the Google's Lunar XPRIZE challenge has received a major boost in funding from local corporate houses and entrepreneurs. A ... more
MOON DAILY
TeamIndus signs contract with ISRO for lunar mission
Domestic space technology startup TeamIndus on Thursday signed a first-of-its-kind contract with the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) to send a TeamIndus robot to the Moon. TeamIndus will l ... more
MOON DAILY
Moonwalker Buzz Aldrin stable after South Pole health scare
Retired astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the Moon, was recovering in a New Zealand hospital Friday after being medically evacuated from the South Pole while on a tourist trip, his management said. ... more
MOON DAILY
Russian Space Agency Confirms Plans to Implement Lunar Sample-Return Mission
Russia's space agency said that Roscosmos does not intend to abandon the implementation of the Luna-Grunt (Lunar Sample-Return) project aimed at delivering lunar soil to the Earth. Roscosmos does no ... more
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MOON DAILY
Skygazers gawp at extra bright 'supermoon'
Skygazers took to high-rise buildings, observatories and beaches Monday to get a glimpse of the closest "supermoon" to Earth in almost seven decades, and snap dramatic pictures. ... more
MOON DAILY
There's an 'extra-super' Moon on the rise
An unusually large and bright Moon will adorn the night sky next Monday - the closest "supermoon" to Earth in 68 years and a chance for dramatic photos and spectacular surf. Weather permitting ... more
MOON DAILY
November 14th's Super-Close Full Moon
The full Moon on Monday, November 14th, will be a little bigger and brighter than normal, because on that day the Moon will be closer to Earth than it's been in nearly 69 years. At 6:23 a.m. E ... more
MOON DAILY
China "well prepared" to launch Chang'e-5 lunar probe in 2017: top scientist
China is well prepared to launch the Chang'e-5 lunar probe in 2017 to collect and bring back moon rock samples for scientific research, a leading Chinese scientist said Sunday. Chief Scientist ... more
MOON DAILY
Switch Flipped on LAMP in Lunar Orbit to Improve Data
A Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) team successfully opened a "failsafe" door on the Lyman-Alpha Mapping Project (LAMP) instrument in lunar orbit, improving the quality of ultraviolet (UV) data i ... more


New Model Explains the Moon's Weird Orbit

MOON DAILY
New Theory Explains How the Moon Got There
Earth's moon is an unusual object in our solar system, and now there's a new theory to explain how it got where it is, which puts some twists on the current "giant impact" theory. The work is publis ... more
MOON DAILY
NASA Moon Mission Shares Insights into Giant Impacts
New results from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission are providing insights into the huge impacts that dominated the early history of Earth's moon and other solid worlds, ... more


Bremen robot team successfully simulates Mars mission in Utah
A major challenge in the exploration of Mars by robots is its uneven surface, which is marked by trenches and craters. Whether the systems can withstand the rough terrain on the Red Planet, they have to prove it on the earth first - for example, in the rocky deserts of the American state of Utah. There, scientists from the Robotics Innovation Center of the German Research Center for Artifi ... more
First detection of boron on the surface of Mars

All eyes on Trump over Mars

A Promising Spot for Life on Mars

Saturn's bulging core implies moons younger than thought
Freshly harvested data from NASA's Cassini mission reveals that the ringed planet's moons may be younger than previously thought. "All of these Cassini mission measurements are changing our view of the Saturnian system, as it turns our old theories upside down," said Radwan Tajeddine, Cornell University research associate in astronomy and a member of the European-based Encelade scientific team t ... more
Cassini Makes First Ring-Grazing Plunge

Cassini Beams Back First Images from New Orbit

NASA Saturn Mission Prepares for 'Ring-Grazing Orbits'

Juno Captures Jupiter 'Pearl'
This image, taken by the JunoCam imager on NASA's Juno spacecraft, highlights the seventh of eight features forming a 'string of pearls on Jupiter - massive counterclockwise rotating storms that appear as white ovals in the gas giant's southern hemisphere. Since 1986, these white ovals have varied in number from six to nine. There are currently eight white ovals visible. The image was ta ... more
Juno Mission Prepares for December 11 Jupiter Flyby

Research Offers Clues About the Timing of Jupiter's Formation

New Perspective on How Pluto's "Icy Heart" Came to Be

Space Network upgrade to double data rates on ISS
The Space Network, the wireless communication system connecting astronauts inside the International Space Station to their colleagues on the ground, is getting an upgrade. The boost will double data rates. Currently, astronauts aboard ISS are limited by a connectivity threshold of 300 megabits per second, about twice the speed of most home WiFi networks. "Fundamentally, this upgr ... more
Trump sits down with tech execs, including critics

NASA Tech - it's all around us

NASA Communications Network to Double Space Station Data Rates



Nanocubes simplify printing and imaging in color and infrared
Duke University researchers believe they have overcome a longstanding hurdle to producing cheaper, more robust ways to print and image across a range of colors extending into the infrared. As any mantis shrimp will tell you, there are a wide range of "colors" along the electromagnetic spectrum that humans cannot see but which provide a wealth of information. Sensors that extend into the in ... more
New aspect of atom mimicry for nanotechnology applications

ANU demonstrates 'ghost imaging' with atoms

Supersonic spray yields new nanomaterial for bendable, wearable electronics

Ultra-Cold Storage - Liquid Hydrogen may be Fuel of the Future
When NASA saved a shuttle-era storage facility at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Florida from demolition five years ago, engineers already had future in mind for what to do with the building. Some three years later, NASA transformed the hangar and installed test equipment at an adjacent field for testing a new ground operations demo unit for liquid hydrogen. The testing has come to a succe ... more
Technical glitch postpones NASA satellite launch

After glitch, NASA satellite launch set for Wednesday

China develops non-toxic propellant for orbiting satellites



Chinese missile giant seeks 20% of a satellite market
China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp, the largest missile maker in the country, is taking aim at 20 percent or more of the small-satellite launch contracts in the world by 2020, company executives said. "We estimate that from 2017 to 2020, we will send aloft at least 10 solid-fuel carrier rockets each year, to send about 50 small satellites into orbit," said Guo Yong, president of the ... more
China-made satellites in high demand

Space exploration plans unveiled

China launches 4th data relay satellite

Researchers discovered elusive half-quantum vortices in a superfluid
Researchers in Aalto University, Finland, and P.L. Kapitza Institute in Moscow have discovered half-quantum vortices in superfluid helium. This vortex is a topological defect, exhibited in superfluids and superconductors, which carries a fixed amount of circulating current. 'This discovery of half-quantum vortices culminates a long search for these objects originally predicted to exist in ... more
Amazon aims to blur lines between game, real life

Raytheon to produce additional Air and Missile Defense Radar equipment

U.S. State Dept. approves Sea Giraffe 3D radars for the Philippines



LISA Pathfinder's pioneering mission continues
On 7 December, LISA Pathfinder started the extended phase of its mission, an additional six months during which scientists and engineers will push the experiment to its limits in preparation for ESA's future space observatory of gravitational waves. LISA Pathfinder, a demonstration mission to validate important technologies to observe gravitational waves - fluctuations in the fabric of spacetime ... more
Magnetic mirror could shed new light on gravitational waves

A population of neutron stars can generate gravitational waves continuously

Verlindes new theory of gravity passes first test

Mystery of super flash solved
When astronomers and astrophysicists observe flashes of light in the dark sky, they assume they have seen a supernova. Possibly a star has burnt up its supply of nuclear fuel and collapsed, throwing off its outer layers into space; or maybe a dense white dwarf siphoned off material from a companion star until it exploded from excess weight. But a flash of light observed on June 14, 2015 did not ... more
Newly formed stars shoot out powerful whirlwinds

Young, thin and hyperactive: That's what outlier galaxies look like

A new light on stellar death



Russia to face strong competition from China in space launch market
In the decade to come Russia will face strong competition from China for the commercial launch of satellites for developing countries, according to Ivan Moiseev, director of the Institute of Space Policy."China is trying to expand its space launching services, developing new boosters for different segments of the market," Moiseev told RIA Novosti. "It has constructed a new spacecraft launc ... more
Vega And Gokturk-1A are present for next Arianespace lightweight mission

Antares Rides Again

Four Galileo satellites are "topped off" for Arianespace's milestone Ariane 5 launch from the Spaceport

Chinese missile giant seeks 20% of a satellite market
China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp, the largest missile maker in the country, is taking aim at 20 percent or more of the small-satellite launch contracts in the world by 2020, company executives said. "We estimate that from 2017 to 2020, we will send aloft at least 10 solid-fuel carrier rockets each year, to send about 50 small satellites into orbit," said Guo Yong, president of the ... more
China-made satellites in high demand

Space exploration plans unveiled

China launches 4th data relay satellite



Preparing for the August 2017 Total Solar Eclipse
On Monday, Aug. 21, 2017, a total eclipse will cross the entire country, coast-to-coast, for the first time since 1918. Weather permitting, the entire continent will have the opportunity to view an eclipse as the moon passes in front of the sun, casting a shadow on Earth's surface. And plans for this once-in-a-lifetime eclipse are underway - scientists are submitting research proposals, NASA is ... more
Giving the Sun a brake

Perspectives on magnetic reconnection

GREGOR first results published in special issue of Astronomy and Astrophysics

Intel acquires ESA incubator company
There are thousands of drone companies out there, but Intel has chosen to acquire Mavinci, a start-up from one of ESA's business incubators in Germany that has developed an easy-to-use system for land surveillance. "They focus on precision payloads for construction and inspections," noted Anil Nanduri, heading Intel's drone business. "They have best-in-class mission planning software ... more
UAE launches national space policy

Air New Zealand signs contract for Inmarsat's GX Aviation

European ministers ready ESA for a United Space in Europe in the era of Space 4.0

Daily Newsletters - Space - Military - Environment - Energy

Where is the Ice on Ceres
At first glance, Ceres, the largest body in the main asteroid belt, may not look icy. Images from NASA's Dawn spacecraft have revealed a dark, heavily cratered world whose brightest area is made of highly reflective salts - not ice. But newly published studies from Dawn scientists show two distinct lines of evidence for ice at or near the surface of the dwarf planet. Researchers are presen ... more
Rosetta's last words: science descending to a comet

Ceres: Water ice in eternal polar night

NASA mission to search for rare asteroids

Artificial intelligence creeps into daily life
Mark Zuckerberg envisions a software system inspired by the "Iron Man" character Jarvis as a virtual butler managing his household. The Facebook founder's dream is about artificial intelligence, which is slowly but surely creeping into our daily lives, no longer just science fiction. Artificial intelligence or AI is getting a foothold in people's homes, starting with the Amazon devices l ... more
Research shows people can control a robotic arm with only their minds

A skillful rescue robot with remote-control function

Internal sensors help soft robot hand feel the world like a human



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