#Amazon s Zocalo Cloud Service Casts a Shadow over Startups In the 1990s Microsoft became identified with the Death Star partly by enticing developers to build applications (such as Wordperfect
#How to Build an Evryscope One problem with telescopes is that they can only peer at a tiny piece of sky at any one time.
Astronomers have attempted to get around this by combining many images, each just a few degrees wide, that cover different areas of the sky.
But astronomers very well know that many interesting events occur on much shorter timescales, such as the transit of exoplanets across other stars, binary stars that eclipse, gamma ray bursts and so on.
Capturing the changes associated with these events requires a much more rapid way of photographing the entire sky.
Indeed, this instrument represents an entirely new type of telescope which Law and co call the Evryscope, from the Greek for ide-seeing.
It consists of 23 small telescopes mounted on a hemispherical dome that can rotate to track the sky.
Each small telescope has a 7 cm aperture and a field of view of a few hundred square degrees.
so that the fields of view of each of the small telescopes overlap to cover around 10,000 square degrees of sky simultaneously
The small telescopes themselves are simplessentially camera lenses sitting on top of CCD chips. Law and co have been experimenting with Canon 50mm and 85mm F/1. 2 lenses.
And theye had two telescopes with these lenses operating automatically in the Arctic over the last two winters.
Law and co say their Evryscope should be able to search for exoplanets around nearby bright stars
and even look for rocky planets in the habitable zones around nearby M dwarf stars. And because Law and co intend to store all the data produced by the Evryscope,
This will allow astronomers to examine the relevant area of sky in the days, weeks or even months before supernovas or gamma ray bursts, looking for interesting precursor events.
That will be an interesting piece of kit. vryscope systems o er a new capability: a continuously recorded image of a large fraction of the visible sky, with the ability to follow individual events
But in the online world, you have to worry about criminals who may be located anywhere on the planet.
#Sharp Demonstrates Ultra-Efficient Solar cells The best solar cells convert less than one-third of the energy in sunlight into electricity
when sunlight strikes a solar cell it produces some very high-energy electrons but within a few trillionths of a second those electrons shed most of their energy as waste heat.
It s far from a practical device it s too thin to absorb much sunlight
Its stated aim is to bring affordable Internet access to everyone on the planet an effort that could incidentally supply Facebook with many new customers (see acebook Two Faces.
or satellite (see acebook Drones Will Battle Google Balloons to Spread Internet Accessand ow Google Could Disrupt Global Internet access by Satellite.
Its reported entry into the satellite Internet business could do the same globally by providing increased competition and better service than existing satellite technologies.
This week the Wall street journal reported that Google will spend more than $1 billion to launch a fleet of 180 satellites.
The company has four satellites in orbit and plans to launch another four next month.
But O3b s satellites already offer a superior and cheaper way to deliver high-speed Internet than conventional satellite services.
Satellite Internet is provided traditionally by geostationary satellites that stay over a given point On earth. These satellites orbit at 35000 kilometers often adding a 600 millisecond delay to the radio signals going back and forth.
Such a delay is considered generally excessive for business use. O3b satellites orbit at a relatively low altitude of about 8000 kilometers and the company says this means a more-tolerable 150-millisecond delay coverage to latitudes up to 45 degrees north
or south of the equator a swath of territory inhabited by 70 percent of the world s population.
and separating rare earth oxides from other materials in the ore (other new processes are being developed to address those issuesee he Rare-Earth Crisis. But for metals such as aluminum and magnesium,
In addition to founding Tesla, he started his own rocket company, Spacex, which now delivers supplies to the International space station.
But even for him the igafactory, as he calls it, seems audacious. First, Tesla sold 23,000 cars last year.
they shouldn expect what they get on an iphone or a Galaxy phone. GM expects to provide just 10 apps initially, most of them mapping, news,
as a result of increased exposure to the sun in younger generations who have benefitted from easier access to sunnier climates on holiday.
as a result of increased exposure to the sun in younger generations who have benefitted from easier access to sunnier climates on holiday.
Professor Wass and his team have been working with aerospace engineers at the university, who wanted to know
which are used widely in the aerospace industry but also have many other applications.**The BMW i8 electric sports car has a carbon fibre passenger compartment to make up for the weight of its heavy battery.
Professor Wass and his team have been working with aerospace engineers at the university, who wanted to know
which are used widely in the aerospace industry but also have many other applications.**The BMW i8 electric sports car has a carbon fibre passenger compartment to make up for the weight of its heavy battery.
the miracle material that promises to transform everything from smartphones and computers to cars, buildings and satellites.
the miracle material that promises to transform everything from smartphones and computers to cars, buildings and satellites.
The plane was designed by Shenyang Aerospace University and Liaoning general aviation academy in the northeastern Liaoning Province.
while also providing protection from the sun during the course of the day. Each of the 94 modules were 3d printed using a 6-axis robot arm in the Robotic Fabrication Lab at the nearby College of Architecture and Environmental design at Kent State university in Ohio, USA.
Each module was 3d printed with translucent plastic to allow the structure to filter sunlight during the day
Additionally, the arch of the structure follows the path of the sun spanning from East to West for the most amount of solar exposure each day.
and sustainable energy sources including the sun. triving towards a brighter future, (our) innovative technology aims to increase solar cell efficiency
and require large amounts of sunlight to be efficient. According to Scott Watkins, the director of the unit for overseas business at Korean firm Kyung-In Synthetic, these 3d printed solar cells have already been used in India. e witnessed firsthand how the technology has enabled urban poor communities in India
but also pave the way for more complex optical fiber structures that are able to host a variety of applications for industries ranging from telecommunications and aerospace to biotechnologies and more."
physics and astronomy, to bioengineering, pathology and laboratory medicine. The Californa Nanosystems Institute and the Johnsson Comprehensive Cancer Center also contributed, with support from the National Science Foundation and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
#New 3d printed Ceramic Thruster Could Give a Boost to Space travel After watching Space X explode 27 miles in the air over Cape canaveral as it went supersonic,
believe that their new 3d printed ceramic thruster could significantly affect the longevity and the efficiency of space travel.
Now, with funding from the ESA (European space agency), it looks like the University of Birmingham is on the forefront again of manufacturing technology,
but, this time, they have enhanced 3d printed catalyst bed thrusters that could launch us out of orbit.
and creating a new generation of rocket engines. Through years of research into 3d printing practices, the research team has developed a new technique
This 3d printed catalyst bed and all of the additive manufactured parts that are making their way through trials will certainly impact the space industry by encouraging innovative design and material use
and look forward to seeing it make high impacts on the space industry. s
#joimax Receives FDA Approval for 3d printed Spinal Implants 3d printing has begun already to disrupt the medical space,
The team has been working on the technology over the past three years in partnership with aerospace engineers.
#Aerojet Rocketdyne trials power system for solar electric propulsion spacecraft Aerojet Rocketdyne has completed tests on a prototype Powertrain system designed to improve power capabilities of solar electric propulsion (SEP) spacecraft.
It will enhance power transmission from solar arrays to the high-power electric thrusters on the spacecraft,
The trial is part of an effort to demonstrate the system's capabilities of achieving improved efficiency, over existing power management and distribution (PMAD) approaches on satellites.
"For high-power SEP modules such as those that Nasa envisions for transporting cargo to Mars, it will be critical to efficiently process
and deliver the power from the advanced solar arrays to the high-power electric propulsion thrusters on spacecraft."
Aerojet Rocketdyne develops the majority of International space station power-system hardware at its Los angeles facility. Earlier this month, the company completed initial on-orbit validation testing of XR-5a Hall Thruster on the unmanned X-37 spacecraft t
#NASA Microsoft collaboration will allow scientists to#work on Mars#NASA and Microsoft have teamed up to develop software called Onsight,
a new technology that will enable scientists to work virtually on Mars using wearable technology called Microsoft Hololens.
Developed by NASA Jet propulsion laboratory in Pasadena, Calif, . Onsight will give scientists a means to plan and,
along with the Mars Curiosity rover, conduct science operations on the Red planet. nsight gives our rover scientists the ability to walk around
and explore Mars right from their offices, said Dave Lavery, program executive for the Mars science laboratory mission at NASA Headquarters in Washington. t fundamentally changes our perception of Mars,
and how we understand the Mars environment surrounding the rover. Onsight will use real rover data
and extend the Curiosity mission existing planning tools by creating a 3-D simulation of the Martian environment where scientists around the world can meet.
Program scientists will be able to examine the rover worksite from a first-person perspective, plan new activities and preview the results of their work firsthand. e believe Onsight will enhance the ways in
which we explore Mars and share that journey of exploration with the world, said Jeff Norris, JPL Onsight project manager.
Until now rover operations required scientists to examine Mars imagery on a computer screen, and make inferences about
what they are seeing. But images, even 3-D stereo views, lack a natural sense of depth that human vision employs to understand spatial relationships.
which surrounds them with images from the rover Martian field site. They then can stroll around the rocky surface
and engineers looking to interact with Mars in a more natural, human way. reviously, our Mars explorers have been stuck on one side of a computer screen.
This tool gives them the ability to explore the rover surroundings much as an Earth geologist would do field work here on our planet,
said Norris. The Onsight tool also will be useful for planning rover operations. For example scientists can program activities for many of the rover science instruments by looking at a target
The JPL team responsible for Onsight specializes in systems to control robots and spacecraft. The tool will assistesearchers in better understanding the environment
and workspace of robotic spacecraft something that can be quite challenging with their traditional suite of tools.
Future applications may include Mars 2020 rover mission operations and other applications in support of NASA journey to Mars. JPL manages the Mars science laboratory Project for NASA Science Mission Directorate in Washington,
and built the project Curiosity rover t
#Raytheon acquires Tucson-based Sensintel Inc. Raytheon has acquired privately-held Sensintel, Inc.,a leading provider of unmanned aircraft systems solutions to the intelligence and special operations markets.
Located in Tucson, Ariz. with approximately 50 employees, Sensintel will become part of Raytheon Company Missile Systems business.
#NASA Cubesat initiative aids in testing of technology for solar sails in space With help from NASA, a small research satellite to test technology for in-space solar propulsion launched into space May 20 aboard an Atlas v
rocket from Cape canaveral Air force station, Fla. as part of the agency Cubesat Launch Initiative. The Atlas v sent the U s. Air force X-37b space plane on its fourth mission,
which also is carrying NASA Materials Exposure and Technology Innovation in Space (METIS) investigation that will expose about 100 different materials samples to the space environment for more than 200 days.
The Planetary Society Lightsail satellite is a technology demonstration for using solar propulsion on Cubesats, a class of research spacecraft called nanosatellites.
Using the momentum transferred from solar photons as they strike a large, thin, reflective sail would allow a spacecraft to accelerate continuously using only the sun energy.
NASA is considering the use of solar sails on future exploration mission secondary payloads and data from this mission will advance understanding of this form of propulsion.
This first Lightsail mission specifically is designed to test the spacecraft critical systems, including the deployment sequence for the Mylar solar sail,
which measures 32 square meters (344 square feet). The Planetary Society is planning a second, full solar sailing demonstration flight for 2016.
NASA selected Lightsail as part of the agency Cubesat Launch Initiative, which provides opportunities for small satellites to fly as auxiliary payloads on planned missions.
It was assigned to a launch as part of as the 11th installment of the Educational Launch of Nanosatellite (ELANA) mission.
The upper stage of the Atlas v included the National Reconnaissance Office third auxiliary mission to launch Cubesats.
The Ultra Lightweight Technology and Research Auxiliary Satellite (ULTRASAT) carried 10 Cubesats including Lightsail from five organizations.
It was made possible through agreements between NASA the Air force Space and Missile Systems Center and the National Reconnaissance Office to work together on Cubesat integration and launch opportunities.
The cube-shaped satellites measure about four inches on each side, have a volume of about one quart
and weigh less than three pounds each. Lightsail consists of three Cubesats bundled together. Individual Cubesat research projects may address science, exploration, technology development or education.
During the next month, the Lightsail team will receive data from the satellite in space. As part of its agreement with NASA, the Planetary Society will provide the agency a report on outcomes and scientific findings.
Since its inception in 2010 the Cubesat Launch Initiative has selected 110 Cubesats primarily from educational
and government institutions around the United states. NASA will announce the next call for proposals in August 2015
#NASA Chandra captures x-ray echoes pinpointing distant neutron star Astronomers using NASA Chandra X-ray Observatory have discovered the largest and brightest set of rings from X-ray light echoes ever observed.
These extraordinary rings, produced by an intense flare from a neutron star, provide astronomers a rare chance to determine how far across the Milky way galaxy the star is from Earth.
The rings appear as circles around Circinus X-1, a double star system in the plane of our galaxy containing a neutron star,
the dense remnant of a massive star pulverized in a supernova explosion. The neutron star is in orbit with another massive star
and is shrouded by thick clouds of interstellar gas and dust. Circinus X-1 is also the source of a surprisingly powerful jet of high-energy particles. t really hard to get accurate distance measurements in astronomy
and we only have a handful of methods, said Sebastian Heinz of the University of Wisconsin in Madison,
who led the study. ut just as bats use sonar to triangulate their location, we can use the X-rays from Circinus X-1 to figure out exactly where it is.
The light echo shows that Circinus X-1 is located about 30 700 light years from Earth,
and settles the difference in results published in prior studies. The detection and characterization of the rings required the unique capabilities of Chandra the ability to detect fine details combined with sensitivity to faint signals.
Researchers determined that the rings are echoes from a burst of X-rays emitted by Circinus X-1 in late 2013.
The burst reflected off intervening clouds of dust, with some reflected X-rays arriving to Earth from different angles at a time delay of about one to three months,
creating the observed rings. By comparing the Chandra data to prior images of dust clouds detected by the Mopra radio telescope in Australia
the researchers determined that each ring was created by the X-ray reflections off a different dust cloud.
The radio data provides the distance to the different clouds and the X-ray echo determines the location of Circinus X-1 relative to the clouds.
An analysis of the rings with the combined radio data allows researchers to use simple geometry to accurately determine the distance of Circinus X-1 from Earth. e like to call this system the ord of the Rings,
but this one has nothing to do with Sauron, said co-author Michael Burton of the University of New south wales in Sydney,
Australia. he beautiful match between the Chandra X-ray rings and the Mopra radio images of the different clouds is really a first in astronomy.
This new distance estimate means that Circinus X-1 is inherently much brighter in X-rays
and other types of light than some scientists previously thought, and indicates that the star system has passed repeatedly a key threshold for brightness where the outward pressure from radiation by the system is balanced by the inward pull of gravity.
This behavior is something astronomers generally see more often in systems containing black holes than in systems like Circinus X-1 that contain a neutron star.
The researchers also determined that the speed of the jet of high-energy particles produced by the system is at least 99.9%of the speed of light.
This extreme velocity is associated usually with jets produced by a black hole. ircinus X-1 acts in some ways like a neutron star
and in some like a black hole, said co-author Catherine Braiding, also of the University of New south wales. t extremely unusual to find an object that has such a blend of these properties.
Circinus X-1 is thought to have originally become an X-ray source about 2, 500 years ago,
as seen from Earth. This makes Circinus X-1 the youngest so-called X-ray binary known.
The new Chandra data allows astronomers to make a detailed three-dimensional map of the dust clouds between Circinus X-1 and us, providing a valuable probe of the structure of the galaxy.
NASA Marshall Space flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. manages the Chandra program for the agency Science Mission Directorate in Washington.
The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Massachusetts, controls Chandra science and flight operations a
#4d printing: A Process of Transformation in Structures The research team can now turn 3d printed objects into dynamic structures,
Sponsored by the National Science Foundation and NASA the research will be published as the cover story in Volume 54, Issue 23 of the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition.
who is also director of the NSF-NASA Center for Chemical Evolution and associate director of the Parker H. Petit Institute of Bioengineering and Bioscience,
while also having applications in nanotechnology. his research was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the NASA Astrobiology Program under the NSF Center for Chemical Evolution (CHE-1004570).
and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation or NASA. CITATION:
and aerospace engineering department. e chose the athletic logo to fill that need.?Unlike the printing process of an inkjet or laserjet printer, where mixed color pigments are used,
an assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Missouri S&t and a co-author of the paper.
these plates can slide across each other bit like geological plates that form the earth crust allowing for high sensitivity
These unique thermal properties allow us to heat the suspended graphene up to half of temperature of the sun,
co-lead author and professor in the department of physics and astronomy at Seoul National University said,
In the natural world, chirality is an inherent property of many objects that range from spiral galaxies to elementary particles.
"To predators, the bioluminescence is very similar to the light coming from the moon and stars at night,
While nothing travels faster than the speed of light in a vacuum, light isn't always in a vacuum.
which not only changes sunlight into an electrical charge, but also splits the water, acting as a form of solar fuel cell.
what the telescope did for space exploration. In the first demonstration of how the technology works, published July 30 in the journal Cell, the researchers look inside the brain of an adult mouse at a scale previously unachievable, generating images at a nanoscale resolution.
The inventors'long-term goal is to make the resource available to the scientific community in the form of a national brain observatory."
#Exelis-Built Crosstrack Infrared Sounder Ready for Integration onto NOAA JPSS-1 Spacecraft The Cris is advanced an sounder that provides detailed atmospheric temperature and moisture observations for weather and climate applications.
The first version of the sounder is currently operational on the NOAA/NASA Suomi-National Polar-orbiting Partnership (Suomi NPP) satellite, a bridge between NOAA's legacy polar satellite fleet,
NASA's Earth observing missions and NOAA JPSS constellation. ris is proven technology that is already providing high-quality environmental data to the meteorological and climate communities on Suomi NPP,
It also provides a vital tool for NOAA to continually take the planet pulse to assist in understanding major climate shifts t
Air and Upper atmosphere Researchers from Arizona State university School of Earth and Space exploration have combined their sensors,
soil and the upper atmosphere. The machine, which was highlighted recently in a Nature Methods article, is portable, exceptionally low-power,
Developed by a team led by experimental physicist Cody Youngbull, assistant research professor in the School of Earth and Space exploration,
lander or orbiter to seek out extant DNA in the water on Mars, the oceans of Europa,
the ice plumes of Enceladus or wherever scientist-explorers one day hope to discover and quantify nucleic acid sequences.
Near-Earth satellites, which are equipped with such a sensor and which orbit the Earth at a speed of 26,000 kilometers per hour, could take color photographs of the earth surface with a resolution of 3 centimeters.
The market launch of the new sensor which is at the heart of the AIT test camera is scheduled for the end of 2015.
#Planetiq Commences Testing of"Pyxis"Satellite Weather Sensor Technology"Weather has an immense human and societal impact and affects businesses on a daily if not hourly basis,
"Pyxis will track GPS signals traveling through Earth's atmosphere and convert them into dense, precise measurements of global temperature,
Pyxis is the only GPS-RO sensor in such a small package that is powerful enough to routinely probe down into the lowest layers of the atmosphere where severe weather occurs.
Planetiq's microsatellite constellation, with an initial set of 12 satellites launching in 2016 and 2017, will deliver over 8 million observations per day of temperature, pressure and water vapor,
or more than 10 times the amount of data available from GPS-RO sensors currently on orbit.
who was instrumental in designing the sensors on the U s.-Taiwan Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere,
and Climate (COSMIC), the world's first and only satellite constellation of proven GPS-RO sensors."
"The Earth's atmosphere is sampled radically under at present especially over the oceans which cover 70%of the Earth's surface.
These functionalities can lead to a variety of unique applications for radio astronomy and stealth technology.
which can create an atmosphere conducive to terrorism and can popularise views which terrorists exploit,
Is jet travel becoming the dirtiest way to cross the planet? The search for aviation biofuels broke on to the public stage in the late 2000s
and you get rid of that vegetation by burning it then you are putting a big pulse of CO2 into the atmosphere."
#Airbus to build giant satellite network European aerospace giant, Airbus, is going to build the world's largest satellite constellation.
The company will produce 900 spacecraft for Oneweb, a British Channel Islands-registered concern that aims to broaden internet access to the underserved.
More than 600 satellites will initially be launched, with the rest held as spares. The deal was announced at the Paris Airshow.
The multi-billion-dollar Oneweb constellation will dwarf any previous commercial network in the sky by a factor of 10.
Airbus will be the"industrial partner"on the project. And the role represents an immense challenge
Each satellite is expected to be about 150kg is size, and Oneweb was reportedly looking for a price per unit of less than half a million dollars.
Airbus says it will make the first 10 spacecraft at its Toulouse manufacturing facility before shifting work to a dedicated plant in the United states. Many rockets will be required to get the constellation in orbit
As well as sitting on Oneweb's board, Sir Richard is also developing a satellite launch system based on his tourist spaceplane concept.
said François Auque. eaming with Oneweb with a requirement to produce several small satellites each day has inspired us to develop innovative designs
This is a 12-spacecraft constellation providing ackhaultelecommunications services, also in broadband-underserved countries. But Mr Wyler Oneweb venture is a step-change in thinking.
The plan envisages 20 planes of low-orbiting satellites connecting to small user terminals on the ground.
Satellite constellations, it has to be said, have chequered a rather history. Even some of today big players, like satphone service providers Iridium and Globalstar, got themselves into enormous financial trouble when building their first-generation networks.
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