Synopsis: Space:

while the Google universe seems to be expanding with the announcement by CEO Larry page of a new umbrella company called Alphabet,

#Astronauts chow down on space harvest for the first time The International space station (ISS) was the scene of an historic lunch this week with the crew members of Expedition 44 dining on the first meal harvested in space.

which consisted on leaves of"Outredgeous"red romaine lettuce grown in NASA's"Veggie"zero-gravity greenhouse,

is part of the space agency's effort to find ways to feed tomorrow's deep-space travelers.

which was eaten on Monday by US astronauts Scott Kelly, Kjell Lindgren, and Japanese astronaut Kimiya Yui, was a very informal affair.

For preparation the lettuce was harvested and treated with a citric acid-based, food safe sanitizing wipe. Since the yield consisted of only a few leaves,

The main purpose of Veg-01 is to test technology that may one day allow astronauts to grow gardens aboard spaceships

space stations, or planetary outposts. It isn't possible to carry enough food, water, and air to make manned voyages lasting months or years feasible with current rocket technology.

However, a carefully selected crop of plants can cut the supply list by recycling air and waste to produce fresh air, water,

According to NASA, crew morale is another factor in the experiment. Deep space missions, such as a mission to Mars, will mean small crews working in close confinement with very little to do for long periods of time a prime recipe for disaster.

Recreational activities such as gardening, combined with the presence of growing plants and periodic fresh food can be a surprisingly effective morale boost

Wisconsin and was delivered to the ISS by a Spacex cargo ship in April 2014. In addition to the greenhouse

and returned to Earth in October of last year for safety analysis at the Kennedy space center in Florida.

and preserved for later transportation to Earth, where they will be subjected to scientific analysis. According to NASA,

the main concern is microbial contamination, but the results from the first crop have been positive.

In addition, NASA is working on how to increase the system's yield, so it produces more than a few mouthfuls at a time.

#New 3d printer should work in the vacuum of outer space Last November, California-based Made in Space grabbed headlines

when one of its specially-designed 3d printers became the first such device to print an object in outer space...

that was within the protective confines of the International space station, however. Now, the company is working on a printer that will work outside the station, in the cold vacuum of actual outer space.

Made in Space has created already vacuum-compatible extrusion heads for its existing Additive Manufacturing Facility (AMF) 3d printer,

which is the full version of the demo system that was used on the ISS in 2014 plans call for the AMF to travel to the ISS later this year.

Those heads were tested over the course of a week in a vacuum chamber where they successfully printed a variety of objects using aerospace-grade thermopolymers.

Those items will be analyzed later this month, to see if they're structurally different from similar objects printed by the AMF at Earth atmosphere.

If all goes according to plan, the company hopes to be conducting on-orbit tests of its new technology within as little as 18 months."

"Soon, structures will be produced in space that are much larger than what could currently fit into a launch fairing,

"Complete structural optimization is now possible in space. c

#Beerbots demonstrate robotic collaboration by serving drinks in a makeshift bar Staffing bars and restaurants with machines sure sounds convenient,

but it won't impress astronomers now that the US Department of energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory has given the green light to start construction of the world's largest digital camera.

the new camera is at the heart of the 8. 4-meter (27.5-ft) Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) now under construction atop Cerro Pachón in Chile.

the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope's 3. 2-gigapixel camera will capture an area of the sky 40 times the size of the full moon

In 2022, the camera and the LSST will begin a 10-year mission to take digital images of the entire Southern sky every few nights as part of a program to catalog the largest number of visible stars and galaxies yet,

It's hoped that this will help astronomers to gain a better understanding of galaxy formations, aid in tracking potentially dangerous asteroids,

and provide a better understanding of dark matter and dark energy, which is believed to make up 95 percent of the Universe."

"Wee been working hard for years to get to this point, said Nadine Kurita, camera project manager at SLAC."

and 300 fully entangled qubits can manipulate as many classical bits of information as there are atoms in the Universe.

and 300 fully entangled qubits can manipulate as many classical bits of information as there are atoms in the Universe.

or the detection of NOX leaks in automotive or industrial areas where exhaust fumes from engines containing the gas can prove lethal in confined spaces.

trackers can be used to allow the panels to follow the sun throughout daylight hours. The advantages of trackers are dramatic,

presenting a basic question--should the utility go with a fixed mounted PV system or a system that tracks the sun during the day?

which would diffuse the sunlight. That raises an issue with a fixed system versus one with trackers--in cloudy areas

the benefits of trackers can be diminished due to the sunlight being scattered from clouds. Source: PV Watts Trackers will typically add additional upfront costs of 2 percent to 10 percent on large utility-scale projects.

Developed over a decade of work in the marine engine and off-grid power space, the 600-kilowatt units combine a high-efficiency engine from Rolls royce-owned manufacturer MTU, a permanent magnet

who previously held similar positions at aerospace giant Northrop grumman and inverter maker Advanced Energy. Innovus is looking to maintain high fuel efficiency

Solarcity is already selling Tesla behind-the-meter batteries with its solar systems, and has been testing their ability to work in concert as an aggregated grid resource.

#Insanely Fuel efficient Engine Could Go to Mars And Back On One Tank Of Fuel An ion engine that smashes the fuel efficiency record has been registered for an innovation patent.

and back on a tank of fuel but its first application may be shunting networks of small satellites around in Earth orbit.

The existing record is NASA's High Power Electric Propulsion (Hipep) with 9, 600 seconds,

So you would need more fuel to get to Mars, but could get there faster. Neumann says metal fuels have advantages besides efficiency.

enon is hard to source away from Earth. Magnesium is found as olivine in asteroids,

but Neumann has achieved promising results with titanium, aluminium and other widely used metals. Spaceships using his drive might find capturing fuel made from a dead satellite a handy way to refuel,

cleaning up the space junk problem at the same time. Ion thrusters such as the one that took Dawn to Ceres are only suitable for use in vacuums

and Neumann says even getting off the Moon or larger asteroids will remain a job for rockets.

However, he says his drive could be suitable for lifting a spacecraft from low gravity objects like Mars'moons Phobos

and Deimos. sing very rough, very early calculations we think 20 kilograms 44 pounds of magnesium could get a 100 kilogram 220 pound ship to Mars and back.

It would take three to five years and there will be some weight for the craft, solar panels and communications,

but we think there would be 20 kilograms left over for the payload, Neumann told IFLSCIENCE. ith a higher thrust fuel in a Neumann Drive you could do it in nine to 11 months,

but the fuel tank would be empty when you got there. In the second case a return journey would require either scavenging material locally

or parking fuel in Mars orbit, or on a refuelling station established at Phobos or Deimos, preparatory to the voyage.

Neumann says experiments with pulsed electric arcs on metals go back to the 1920s, and some of the data collected was useful to him in assessing

what to test. This work was done with less than half the current he uses and no one before him had tried using high current pulsed arcs for thrust u

and will help scientists better understand the laws of our Universe. The team used ALICE an instrument known for its high-precision tracking

"After the Big bang, for every particle of matter an antiparticle was created. In particle physics, a very important question is

There are many theories regarding the fundamental laws of the universe and the measurements of mass and charge conducted in this experiment are an integral part that will help physicists determine which theory reigns supreme.

and likely exponentially more existing on the planet today. Determining an accurate number would require billions more dollars

or biofuels when exposed to the sun. Oxman said, uch functions will in the near future augment the wearer by scanning our skins,

They need to 100 square meters of green space. E-Kaia satisfied with a single plant.

#Concept the translucent battery, that charging from the sun A group of Japanese engineers at the University of Kogakuin developed translucent lithium-ion battery that can be recharged in the sun. Solar rays are converted into electricity, the fact

When the battery fall into the sun rays, it becomes slightly tinted: light transmission drops to 30%.

They will not only automatically obscure the sunlight, but also store energy for the consumer devices r

rather than changing the entire space. Wristify emits soft blue light when cooling you and warm orange light

No one wants the aircraft engine that is holding them 35,000 feet above the earth to shatter like a vase.

NASA wanted to use them in supersonic aircraft. The U s. military hoped they could be used in a new fighter jet.

Right now, devices are built with extra space on the viewing end for people wearing glasses.

using just the power of the sun. Chemists at the University of Reading say a new catalyst,

which mimics the way plants absorb energy from the sun, could make the energy-sapping job of splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen relatively easy.

scientists use a photocatalyst-a material that absorbs light from the sun and uses it to excite electrons to higher energy levels.

and the empty spaces they leave behind, are then capable of driving forward the two half-reactions required to split water into oxygen and hydrogen.

which allow plants to convert sunlight into chemical energy, "said Grau-Crespo.""The challenge now is to incorporate these wonderful natural catalysts into materials capable of doing the specific chemical job we need.

and adventure races across some of Earth's harshest terrain, including to the south Pole. He would learn to make a meaningful life using a wheelchair

Odd Effects of Kathmandu Temblor European space agency's (ESA) Sentinel-1a radar satellite passed over Kathmandu, Nepal, Wednesday (April 29.

ESA SEOM Insarap Study Norut/PPO. labs/Univ Leeds) Mountains shift Nepal Insar The German Aerospace Center (DLR) used the satellite radar data

and regions that dropped down (away from the satellite) are coded yellow and red. In additional to vertical movements, the researchers also detected north-south horizontal shifts of nearly 7 feet (2 meters.

The colors show deformation in the earth caused by the 7. 8-magnitude earthquake. The eastest"fringes"cross the city,

Contains Copernicus data (2015)/ ESA/Norut/PPO. labs/COMETSA SEOM INSARAP study) Grading map Based on imagery from the Worldview-3 satellite acquired on April 28,

Based on imagery from the Worldview-3 satellite acquired on April 28, this"grading map"shows topographic features and crisis information around Kathmandu, Nepal,

and clouds over Everest, according to NASA. The April 23 photo was captured by Landsat 8, which is operated by NASA

and the United states Geological Society (USGS). The April 28 image was taken by NASA's Earth Observing-1 satellite.

Image Credit: NASA Earth Observatory) Emitted light Kathmandu Satellite Image-Emitted Light This satellite image shows the city of Kathmandu and its surrounding areas after the April 25 earthquake.

The Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership satellite, operated by NASA and the National oceanic and atmospheric administration, detected a decrease in emitted light over Kathmandu, based on a comparison between images taken pre-earthquake, on April 22, 2015,

and after the earthquake, on April 26, 2015. The red and yellow colors indicate areas with the largest decrease in emitted light possibly because of electrical outages and damage to key infrastructure

according to NASA. Image Credit: Short-term Prediction Research and Transition (SPORT) team/Marshall Space flight Center) Nepal districts affected Satellite Photo of Nepal Districts After Earthquake This satellite image shows 11 districts in Nepal

that were affected by the earthquake. The Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Partnership satellite was used to compare image of the region before and after the earthquake,

and detected a decrease in emitted light over Kathmandu and its surrounding region. Image Credit:

Short-term Prediction Research and Transition (SPORT) team/Marshall Space flight Center F

#Major 7. 3-Magnitude Earthquake Aftershock Hits Nepal A 7. 3-magnitude earthquake struck Nepal this morning (May 12), toppling buildings and killing at least a dozen people.

The temblor was centered 11 miles (18 kilometers) southeast of Kodari, Nepal, and 47 miles (76 km) east-northeast of the Nepalese capital of Kathmandu.

Earth scientists had anticipated major aftershocks and even larger earthquakes in the area. In fact, a recent study found that smaller aftershocks strike within the main earthquake rupture,

Computer simulations showed that the polythiophenes could indeed fit into a space found on one end of a prion,

#Perseid Meteor shower: Best Places to See'Shooting stars'This Week The annual Perseid meteor shower is typically the most spectacular"shooting star"display for people in the Northern hemisphere,

and this week, skywatchers could be in for a remarkable show. The meteor shower peaks during the overnight hours tomorrow (Aug 12) and Thursday (Aug 13),

and weather permitting, stargazers can expect to spot an average of one meteor per minute radiating from the constellation Perseus in the northern sky, somewhat near the North pole.

At the meteor shower's peak, skywatchers could see as many as 100 meteors per hour according to NASA.

Meteor showers occur when the Earth, on its orbital path through space, collides with particles from a comet or an asteroid.

The Perseids come from the tail of Comet Swift-Tuttle, which last made its closest approach to Earth in 1992.

This week marks the peak of the Perseid meteor shower, but the sky show will continue through Aug 24.

Here are some of the best ways to enjoy the celestial show. Your own backyard You don't need any special equipment to see the Perseids.

For the best viewing experience, face northeast under dark skies and make sure to get as far away from city lights as you can,

because light pollution will wash out the fainter meteors. And be sure to give your eyes time to adjust to the dark.

This year, there will be a new moon, providing maximum darkness for stargazers. If you must look at a star map,

use a flashlight with red paper over it to preserve your night vision. National or State Parks If you're looking for a place far away from light pollution,

a National or State Park is a great start. Those locations are usually rural enough for stargazing

and some of them even offer astronomy events during the summer. Parks in the western United states, in particular including Great basin national park (in Nevada) and Bryce canyon national park (in Utah) host astronomy events year-round.

The National park service website has listings of all U s. National and State Parks. Public observatories Although most astronomical observatories are reserved for professional research,

some have museums or outreach programs that host astronomy nights for the public. In Los angeles, Griffith Observatory is dedicated solely to public education.

Even though a telescope is needed not to view a meteor shower your local observatory might have people on hand to tell you more about skywatching.

You may even get a chance to look at other celestial objects through a telescope. Check with local observatories for details.

Online If bad weather threatens to spoil your view of the Perseids, fear not! You can catch all the action live online.

NASA'S MARSHALL SPACE FLIGHT CENTER in Huntsville, Alabama, will be livestreaming views of the meteor shower from 10 p m. EDT tomorrow to 2 a m. EDT on Thursday (Aug 13.

Meteor experts Bill Cooke, Danielle Moser and Rhiannon Blaauw, all from NASA Meteoroid Environment Office at the Marshall Space flight Center, will also provide onair commentary.

You can tune in to the NASA TV webcast on Space. com . If you miss the Perseids this time around,

though, meteor showers do occur throughout the year. Other prominent showers include the Leonids (in November) and the Quadrantids (in January) u

#'Exercise Hormone'Irisin Really Does Exist The"exercise hormone"irisin has generated controversy among scientists some say it's produced

when humans work up a sweat, and holds promise as a weight-loss treatment, but others contend that irisin doesn't even really exist in people.

Now, one research team says it has proven the existence of irisin in humans once and for all,

sunlight and insects can ravage the texts, while storing them at temperatures that are too high

when there isn't enough sunlight. Additionally, when conditions in the container are just right, the device will automatically power down,

cold or even the vacuum of space.""When you remove the water, they quickly coat themselves in large amounts of glassy molecules,"Juan de Pablo,

it will allow experiments with multiple animals in the same space to better understand social interaction in the treatment of chronic pain and mental disorders, for example."

and the number-crunching processors in the same tiny space, said Max Shulaker, one of the designers of the chip,

#Thermal'Invisibility Cloak'Could Keep People Cool A new thermal"invisibility cloak"that channels heat around whatever it is trying to hide may one day help keep people and satellites cool,

Other applications may include shielding satellites that need to change shape over time, he added say, by unfolding antennas.

Teleporting an object from one point in the universe to another without it moving through the space in between may sound like science fiction pulled from an episode of"Star trek,

which finds that the fundamental building blocks of the universe can essentially exist in two or more places at once.

"However, the experiment at the Canary islands involved a telescope on top of one mountain and a telescope on top of another mountain,

with the telescopes pointed at each other at night, since background light during the day would interfere with the experiment,

#Salty Water Flows on Mars Today, Boosting Odds for Life Liquid water flows on Mars today,

boosting the odds that life could exist on the Red planet, a new study suggests. The enigmatic dark streaks on Mars called recurring slope lineae (RSL) that appear seasonally on steep,

relatively warm Martian slopes are caused likely by salty liquid water, researchers said.""Liquid water is a key requirement for life On earth,

of the Georgia Institute of technology in Atlanta, told Space. com via email.""The presence of liquid water on Mars'present-day surface therefore points to environment s that are more habitable than previously thought."

"Ojha was part of the team that first discovered RSL in 2011, by studying images captured by the High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment (Hirise) camera aboard NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO).

These dark, narrow, 100 meter-long streaks (called recurring slope lineae) are flowing downhill on Mars,

and are inferred to have been formed by contemporary flowing water. Recently, planetary scientists detected hydrated salts on these slopes at Hale crater,

RSL occur in many different locations on Mars, from equatorial regions up to the planet's middle latitudes.

Ojha and his colleagues scrutinized data gathered about four different RSL locations by another MRO instrument, the Compact Reconnaissance Imaging Spectrometer for Mars (CRISM."

we can deduce the mineralogical makeup of surface materials on Mars, "Ojha said.""What we found was that at times

and places when we see biggest RSL on the surface of Mars, we also found spectral evidence for hydrated salts on the slopes where RSL form."

CRISM observes the Red planet at the driest time of the Martian day, about 3 p m,

No planet is steeped more in myth and misconception than Mars. This quiz will reveal how much you really know about some of the goofiest claims about the red planet."

"Due to that, I do not think we will ever find the RSL still in their liquid form at 3: 00 p m,

a class of chlorine-containing substances that are widespread on Mars. These salts lower the freezing point of water from 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 degrees Celsius) to minus 94 F (minus 70 C),

"This property vastly increases the stability of brine salty water on Mars, "he said. Perchlorates can absorb atmospheric water,

if Mars'air is the source of the brine flows. Other possibilities include melting of surface or near-surface ice or discharges of local aquifers."

"It is conceivable that RSL are forming in different parts of Mars through different formation mechanisms,

Observations by NASA's Curiosity rover and other spacecraft have shown that, billions of years ago, the Red planet was a relatively warm and wet world that could have supported microbial life, at least in some regions.

Mars is extremely cold and dry today, which is why the discovery of RSL sites has generated so much excitement over the past four years:

The features point to the possibility that simple life-forms could exist on the planet's surface now.

But the new results don't imply that life thrives on Mars today, or even that this is a likely proposition, Ojha stressed.

Perchlorate brines have a very low water activity, "he said, meaning that the water within them is not easily available for potential use by organisms."

which could help it cram into the tiny space of a cell's nucleus n

when he flew too close to the sun. The mythological character fell into the sea and drowned.

000 suns The latest in solar power comes to us from Swiss inventors working for Airlight Energy, Dsolar (a subsidiary of Airlight),

it tracks the sun and cools itself by pumping water through its veins like a plant.

this method entails using reflectors to concentrate the sun, as well as highly efficient photovoltaic cells (known as gallium arsenide photovoltaic cells) to convert that concentrated solar energy into electricity.

According to Gianluca Ambrosetti, Airlight's head of research, the Solar Sunflower's reflectors concentrate the sun"to about 5, 000 suns."

000 suns. To counteract this, the Sunflower makes use of a hot water cooling system invented by the project's IBM collaborators.

#This whiskey glass was designed for imbibing in space If you're one of the many whiskey drinkers who has put off journeying into space simply

because there's no good way to enjoy your favorite beverage, today is your day. Scottish distiller Ballantine's, in partnership with Open Space agency James Parr, has designed the world's first whiskey glass optimized for drinking in the microgravity of space."

"Our brief was to develop a whisky glass that worked under the conditions of microgravity,

"It was important that we focused on creating a ritual around how you drink from the Ballantine Space Glass to ensure a familiarity of what we are used to here On earth?

and vision into coming up with the Space Glass, studying everything from the ways various liquids behave in microgravity to the special distilling process necessary On earth to bring out the smells

and flavors that might otherwise be lost in space. n space, you do not experience the sense of smell

explained. his meant I had to make the Ballantine Space Whisky more heightened in flavor

Astronauts miss the taste of home so crafting a fruitier, stronger, more floral blend is a way they can keep the taste of home with them.

and distilling for a whiskey beverage in space, check out Ballantine's in depth chronicle on Medium.

#There's water on Mars, NASA confirms There's water on Mars, and it flows there today.

In an eagerly anticipated news event, NASA revealed this morning the evidence of liquid, flowing seasonal water on the Red planet.

Water often signals life, so this new discovery gives hope to the search for life in our solar system.

Data from various probes and rovers like Curiosity and the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter have provided researchers with evidence concluding that there is flowing water on present-day Mars. Scientists understand that Mars was once Earthlike with large

amounts of water on the surface. Something unknown happened in the planet's history causing it to change.

However today's revelation confirms that Mars has harbored water in the past, and that water exists there today.

Now, scientists can pursue the implications of what flowing water means in relation to the planet's history

and what it could also mean for the potential for life. Michael Meyer of the Mars Exploration Program at NASA explained,

"We found the active process on Mars today that shows that water was a likelihood."

"He continued with a description of the geological features that caused scientists to suspect water prior to the confirmation of its presence.

which shows how scientists were able to study the RSLS on the planet's surface.

However, recently scientists found a way to analyze data from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter by extracting data from the pictures on a per pixel level.

This allows scientists to study smaller details on the Red planet's surface and those details provided the new information.

Findings show that hydrated salts are present on the surface of Mars. Hydrated salts would mean that the water on Mars is briny.

Mary Beth Wilhelm of NASA's Ames Research center explained that the evidence of water means many things,

Also, water on Mars could aid in the human exploration of the planet. Water on Mars would be a crucial resource for astronauts visiting the planet or for long-term colonists.

Of course scientists will need to study the nature of the water to know the full implications.

Researchers note that there is potential for the Curiosity rover to travel to an RSL and analyze a sample of the liquid.

Another possibility is the future Mars 2020 rover or other rovers designed for the task.

The discovery of liquid water on Mars leads to more intriguing questions and mysteries. If there has been did life on mars,

These new findings about liquid water on Mars make scientists and space exploration enthusiasts thirsty for more information n

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