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Biotech

Submission + - 'Lazarus Project' Ressurects Extinct Frog Species (popsci.com) 1

Submitted by AbsoluteXyro
AbsoluteXyro writes: Extinct since 1983, the Gastric Brooding Frog (the only frog to give birth through it's mouth) has been given a new lease on life. The 'Lazarus Project' at the University of Newcastle has achieved a major milestone by successfully cloning a living embryo of the long dead frog. Unfortunately, the embryo didn't survive long. Using somatic-cell nuclear transfer with genetic material from well preserved specimens and the deactivated eggs of a related species of frog, the researchers believe it won't be long until this unique frog is hopping again.
ISS

Submission + - Sarah Brightman's ISS Trip in Peril

Submitted by
RocketAcademy
RocketAcademy writes: "Actress/singer Sarah Brightman's trip to the International Space Station may not happen in 2015 as scheduled.

Space Adventures works with the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) to fly private citizens like Brightman on Soyuz taxi flights. Those taxi missions normally last eight days, but NASA and Roscosmos are considering a plan to extend the 2015 taxi flight to one month, so it can carry a scientist to perform some additional research aboard ISS. If that happens, Brightman will lose her seat.

This situation points to the need for more flexible transportation options and new orbital facilities which are not subject to the same operational restrictions as ISS. SpaceX, Boeing, and Sierra Nevada are working on the transportation problem, while Bigelow Aerospace expects to begin launching its Space Station Alpha in 2015. So, the era of citizen astronauts visiting ISS may be drawing to a close."
Space

Submission + - FCC Guidance on Radio for Commercial Space Operations Falls Short

Submitted by
RocketAcademy
RocketAcademy writes: "The Federal Communications Commission has issued a Public Notice to help commercial space companies obtain use of communications frequencies for launch, operations, and reentry.

Commercial space companies can obtain the use of government frequencies on a temporary, non-interference basis through the FCC's Experimental Authorization process. Experimental Authorizations are valid for a six-month period from the date of grant and are renewable, but applicants must obtain a new authorization for each launch and must apply 90 days in advance.

Unfortunately, this requirement does not meet the needs of suborbital launch providers who expect to fly several times per day and schedule launches as needed, on very short notice."
Space

Submission + - Spaceport Development Picks Up Steam in Texas

Submitted by
RocketAcademy
RocketAcademy writes: "The Lone Star State is moving to become a leader in spaceport development.

The Houston Airport System is officially moving ahead with plans to turn Ellington Airport, near NASA’s Johnson Space Center, into an FAA-licensed commercial spaceport. The airport system has completed a feasibility study for turning the field into a spaceport for suborbital spacecraft such as Virgin Galactic's SpaceShip Two and XCOR's Lynx. In the longer term, spacecraft could link Houston to Singapore in as little as three hours, according to airport system director Mario Diaz.

Meanwhile, state Representative Rene Oliveira (D-Brownsville) introduced a bill that would allow county commissioners to close a local beach for launches from the proposed SpaceX launch site in Cameron County. The bill is part of a flood of spaceport-related legislation that has been introduced recently in the Texas legislature."
Intel

Submission + - Apple and Intel discussing partnership regarding A-series processor production (networkworld.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Apple has for a while now been in a thorny predicament given its relationship with Samsung. On one hand, Samsung supplies all of the processors that power Apple's wildly profitable lineup of iOS devices. And yet, on the other hand, Samsung has quickly emerged as Apple's chief competitor in the smartphone space. What's more, Apple has accused Samsung of "slavishly copying" Apple's own products and innovations instead of coming up with its own. Consequently, the two companies are currently engaged in a slew of intellectual property lawsuits across the globe.

That said, it's no secret that Apple is actively seeking to lessen its reliance on Samsung. It's been rumored for a while that Apple is hoping to move its AX processor production to TSMC sometime in the near future. And now comes a report that Apple has also engaged in discussions with Intel whereby they would become a significant supplier of Apple's A-series processors.
Mars

Submission + - Dennis Tito Proposes "A Mission for America": Two Humans to Mars

Submitted by
RocketAcademy
RocketAcademy writes: "Dennis Tito, the first citizen space explorer to visit the International Space Station, has created the Inspiration Mars Foundation to raise funds for an even more dramatic mission: a human flyby of the planet Mars.

Tito, a former JPL rocket scientist who later founded the investment firm Wilshire Associates, proposes to send two Americans — a man and a woman — on a 501-day roundtrip mission which would launch on January 5, 2018. Technical details of the mission can be found in a feasability analysis which Tito is scheduled to present at the IEEE Aerospace Conference in March.

Former NASA flight surgeon Dr. Jonathon Clark, who is developing innovative ways of dealing with radiation exposure during the mission, called the flight “an Apollo 8 moment for the next generation.""

Comment Re:Good and Bad (Score 0) 205

by RocketAcademy (#42577891) Attached to: Nuclear Rocket Petition On White House Website

A failure on launch could result in releasing radioactive fission products over large areas.

That's why it's unlikely until we start to mine uranium on the Moon. (Not so much the chances of an accident but the perception.) I had a discussion about that with engineers at JSC, and everyone in the room agreed with that statement. Fortunately, finding uranium on the Moon is not out of the question. We know it's there.
Space

Submission + - AXE and Buzz Aldrin Announce Apollo Space Sweepstakes 1

Submitted by
RocketAcademy
RocketAcademy writes: "Apollo 11 lunar-module pilot Buzz Aldrin joined AXE, a personal-grooming brand of Unilever, to announce the AXE Apollo Sweepstakes, which will select 22 winners to become astronauts on the XCOR Lynx Mk II spacecraft.

“Space travel for everyone is the next frontier in the human experience,” Aldrin said. “I’m thrilled that AXE is giving the young people of today such an extraordinary opportunity to experience some of what I’ve encountered in space.”

According to XCOR Aerospace, AXE will select one winner following the Super Bowl on February 3. Twenty-one additional winners will be selected later on. 100 early-stage winners will attend the AXE Apollo Space Academy in Orlando, Florida in December 2013.

Private citizens can also earn a chance to fly on the Lynx through Citizens in Space, a non-profit project of the United States Rocket Academy, which has purchased 10 flights for citizen astronauts."
NASA

Submission + - Nuclear Rocket Petition on White House Website

Submitted by
RocketAcademy
RocketAcademy writes: "A petition on the White House website is calling for the United States to rapidly develop a nuclear thermal rocket engine.

Technically, nuclear rockets are a promising technology, but unless NASA develops a deep-space exploration ship such as Johnson Space Center's Nautilus X, a nuclear rocket would be wasted.

Launching nuclear rockets may pose regulatory and political problems as well. Practical applications may depend on mining uranium or thorium on the Moon."
Space

Submission + - Astronomer Clowes discovers a group of quasars 4 billion light years across (newscientist.com)

Submitted by
mal0rd
mal0rd writes: "The NewScientist reports "A collection of galaxies that is a whopping four billion light years long is the biggest cosmic structure ever seen. The group is roughly one-twentieth the diameter of the observable universe – big enough to challenge a principle dating back to Einstein, that, on large scales, the universe looks the same in every direction."

For reference, Andromeda is only 2 million light years away."
The Military

Submission + - DARPA wants to dot ocean floor with network of robotic pods that can spy, explor (networkworld.com)

Submitted by
coondoggie
coondoggie writes: "This plan sounds a bit like a science fiction scenario where alien devices were planted in the ground thousands of years ago only to be awoken at some predetermined date to destroy the world. Only in this case it’s the scientists at Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency who want to develop a system of submersible pods that could reside in the world’s oceans (presumably not in anyone’s territorial waters) and be activated for any number of applications days, months or even years later."

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