Space News From SpaceDaily.Com

August 14, 2013

Researchers Slow Light to a Crawl in Liquid Crystal Matrix
Washington DC (SPX) Aug 14, 2013
Light traveling in a vacuum is the Universe's ultimate speed demon, racing along at approximately 300,000 kilometers per second. Now scientists have found an effective new way to put a speed bump in light's path. Reported in The Optical Society's (OSA) open-access journal Optics Express, researchers from France and China embedded dye molecules in a liquid crystal matrix to throttle the group velocity of light back to less than one billionth of its top speed. The team says the ability to slow light ... read more

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SSBV Aerospace and Technology Group expands space activities into Poland SSBV Aerospace and Technology Group has announced at the IAAA / Utah State University Small Satellite Conference and Exhibition the creation of a new SSBV daughter company based in Poland. As ... more		ATK Awarded Contract by Orbital Sciences to Support Stratolaunch System ATK (ATK) has received a contract from Orbital Sciences Corporation (ORB) to provide first and second stage propulsion for the Air Launch Vehicle (ALV) that Orbital is designing and building for Str ... more		Challenges and Practices for Space Mechanisms - Part 2 Release and Deployment Mechanism Challenges. Challenges associated with release and deployment systems often include the impracticality of complete and independent redundancy and difficulties in sim ... more
				Cosmology in the lab using laser-cooled ions Scientists would love to know which forces created our universe some 14 billion years ago. How could - due to a breaking of symmetry - matter, and thus stars and galaxies, be created from an origina ... more		SOFIA in New Zealand - Much Attempted, Much Achieved Fly 6,900 miles each way, deploy a cadre of flight and ground crew members along with an international science team for three weeks, and during that time fly three nights per week, 10 hours per flig ... more

Avionics: The Central Nervous System of NASA's Space Launch System The nervous system in the human body controls everything a person does, including walking, thinking and feeling. Avionics is much like that complex collection of nerves and cells, only instead of a ... more		ISS Boosting Biological Research in Orbit Studying the science of biology in microgravity opens a world of possibilities! Research ranges from plant growth to cell growth and from bacterial virulence to strength in human bones. The scope of ... more		Canada willing to join US 'Iron Dome' missile shield: minister Israeli officers warned against criticising Trump's Gaza plan; Israel hits Hamas weapons facility in Syria Trump will cry wolf once too often		Russian rocket pioneer Soldatenkov dies at 86 Alexander Soldatenkov, a top Russian rocket designer who worked on the mission that made Yury Gagarin the first man in space, has died at 86, the space industry plant where he worked said. ... more
				Thales Alenia Space announces satellite deal in Brazil French-Italian group Thales Alenia Space (TAS) said on Tuesday it had won a contract worth about 300 million euros ($400 million) to build a satellite for Brazil's developing space programme. ... more		Researchers identify 12 'easy' candidates for asteroid mining Researchers in Scotland say they have identified 12 easily retrievable asteroids that could be moved close enough to Earth for them to be mined. ... more

CubeSats, SmallSats and MicroSats

Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison & Memory Foam Mattress Review

MRO Swapping Motion-Sensing Units NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is switching from one motion-sensing device to a duplicate unit onboard. The veteran orbiter relies on this inertial measurement unit (IMU) for information about changes in orientation. ... more		NASA spacecraft on journey to Jupiter hits halfway point NASA's Juno spacecraft is halfway to Jupiter. The Jovian-system-bound spacecraft reached the milestone today (8/12/13) at 5:25 a.m. PDT (8:25 a.m. EDT/12:25 UTC). ... more		What Elon Musk's Twitter tactics may bode for US government Fukushima nuclear plant operator to dismantle water tanks next week New Zealand says 'blindsided' by Cook Islands' China overture		Ice ages only thanks to feedback Ice ages and warm periods have alternated fairly regularly in the Earth's history: the Earth's climate cools roughly every 100,000 years, with vast areas of North America, Europe and Asia being buri ... more
				'Digging up' 4-billion-year-old fossil protein structures to reveal how they evolved Modern proteins exhibit an impressive degree of structural diversity, which has been well characterized, but very little is known about how and when over the course of evolution 3D protein structure ... more		Reconstructed proteins give clues to first life on Earth -- or Mars Reconstructions of 4 billion-year-old proteins have provided insights into the habitat and origins of life on Earth, Spanish and U.S. researchers say. ... more

NASA Selects Launch Services Contract for OSIRIS-REx Mission

Environmental Controls Move Beyond Earth

Bad night's sleep? The moon could be to blame

MRO Swapping Motion-Sensing Units

Opportunity Reaches Base of 'Solander Point'

NASA launches new Russian-language Mars website

Space to become tourist destination in the future

College of Law launches doctorate in space law

HI-SEAS Mission Now in its Final Days

China launches three experimental satellites

Medical quarantine over for Shenzhou-10 astronauts

China's astronauts ready for longer missions

	Battery Design Gets Boost from Aligned Carbon Nanotubes Researchers at North Carolina State University have created a new flexible nano-scaffold for rechargeable lithium ion batteries that could help make cell phone and electric car batteries last longer ... more		An infallible quantum measurement For quantum physicists, entangling quantum systems is one of their every day tools. Entanglement is a key resource for upcoming quantum computers and simulators. Now, physicists in Innsbruck/Austria ... more		Newly discovered bacterial partnership changes ocean chemistry In a discovery that further demonstrates just how unexpected and unusual nature can be, scientists have found two strains of bacteria whose symbiotic relationship is unlike anything seen before. ... more		The temperature tastes just right Call it the Goldilocks Principle - animals can survive and reproduce only if the temperature is just right. Too hot and they will overheat. Too cold and they will freeze. To stay in their comf ... more

Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison & Memory Foam Mattress Review

Micro-Machines for the Human Body		Heterogeneous nanoblocks give polymers an edge		Size matters in nanocrystals' ability to adsorb release gases		Altering organic molecules' interaction with light		Large Area Picosecond Photodetectors push timing envelope
Seeing depth through a single lens		New Technique Allows Closer Study of How Radiation Damages Materials		Wonders of nature inspire exotic man-made materials		3D IR Images Now in Full Color		Carbon emissions to impact climate beyond the day after tomorrow

Understanding Interface Properties of Graphene Paves Way for New Applications

Arctic sea-ice loss has widespread effects on wildlife

A layer of tiny grains can slow sound waves

New NASA Mission to Help Us Learn How to Mine Asteroids

Reading a Message from ET

Space to become tourist destination in the future

Japanese Cargo Craft Captured, Berthed to ISS

Opportunity Reaches Base of 'Solander Point'

HI-SEAS Mission Now in its Final Days

NIRSpec's European adventure

EUTELSAT spacecraft ready for integration to Ariane 5

College of Law launches doctorate in space law

Twin astronauts to be studied 'as one' in space research

Skywatchers readying for cosmic light show from meteor shower

Japanese Cargo Spacecraft Docks with ISS

Is Europa habitable?

The Sun's Magnetic Field is about to Flip

Looming weak solar max may herald frosty times

Hubble Space Telescope finds source of Magellanic Stream

US nuclear missile unit deemed 'unsatisfactory'

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