MAVEN launch NASA s Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution (MAVEN) spacecraft is on its way to study the upper atmosphere of the red planet.
a constellation of satellites that will study Earth s magnetic field for four years. go. nature. com/rxaaur24-27 november Science for global sustainable development is the theme of the sixth World Science Forum,
Currently on leave from the University of Maryland in College Park, Williams has been chief scientist for oil-and-gas giant BP since 2010.
18 november NASA s MAVEN mission to Mars is scheduled to launch. See page 178 for more. 19-21 november In Paris,
which the planet warmed, says research published today in Nature Geoscience1. Francisco Estrada, an ecological economist at the Free University in Amsterdam,
and the Sun-shielding effect of pollution emitted by European industries, as they recovered after the Second world war.
Sun Jianghua and his colleagues at the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Zoology in Beijing have identified a fungus that has a crucial role in the worm s life cycle,
says Sun."A burning question is what makes an alien species invasive in some habitats but not the others.
Sun thinks that he now has the answer, at least as far as the pine-wood nematode is concerned.
In an eight-year survey, at six sites in southern China, Sun and his colleagues found that tree infestation was higher in the presence of a previously unknown species of tree fungus,
says Sun. Â To examine the fungi s role in the relationship, the team fed nematodes and beetles with different types of fungus in a Petri dish.
says Sun. The researchers found that Sporothrix sp. 1 also increased the trees'production of diacetone alcohol,
 In an earlier study, Sun and his team found that a chemical compound produced by beetle pupae,
Sun says
Shrub genome reveals secrets of flower powera shrub with cream-coloured flowers that is the closest living descendant of Earth s first flowering plants has had its genome decoded.
or an area the size of Poland and is more than three times the area estimated in 2009 by the United nations Food and Agricultural organization mainly on the basis of land-use observations from space.
Such satellite-derived land-cover maps can lack accuracy. So Florian Schierhorn a geographer at the Leibniz Institute of Agricultural Development in Central and Eastern europe in Halle, Germany,
Food fuelled with fungiwith the planet s population booming and climate change threatening traditional breadbasket regions,
Students and staff at the University of London Observatory discovered the exploding star in the Ursa major constellation during a telescope lesson on 21 Â January.
the supernova (pictured) is expected to reach peak brightness in early February. It belongs to the type  Ia class of supernovae,
formed when one star loses enough mass to a companion white-dwarf star to cause the white dwarf to explode.
type  Ia supernovae played a key part in the discovery of the Universe s accelerating expansion.
Rabbit rescue China s moon rover has run into major trouble, according to a report on 25 january from state-run news agency Xinhua.
since landing on the Moon last month (see Nature 504, 336; 2013. Scientists are working to resolve the problem,
These differences could help to explain why the Universe contains more matter than antimatter. Who s who More than half a million researchers have registered now for a scheme to provide authors of scientific publications with a unique identifier.
The images from NASA s Hubble Space Telescope are part of the Frontier Fields programme which harnesses the phenomenon of gravitational lensing (see Nature 497,554-556;
Abell  2744 (pictured) distorts space, enhancing the visibility of more-distant galaxies. Abell  2744,
Space station stays As space-agency leaders from around the world gathered in WASHINGTON DC to discuss the future of space exploration
including planned human missions to an asteroid and Mars. Power-plant rules The US Environmental protection agency (EPA) published a controversial rule on 8 Â January governing greenhouse-gas emissions from new power plants.
Advanced natural-gas power plants are poised to meet the standards but the rule would effectively require new coal-fired plants to capture
the comet 67p/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The mission will be the first to land a probe on a comet s surface.
See page 269 for more. go. nature. com/ivxmmo22 January The European union is set to unveil a package of long-term climate and energy goals and proposals
or other online mapping tools to zoom in on high-resolution satellite images of the planet taken just hours or days ago.
This is the vision of two Californian start-up companies that are set to launch swarms of small imaging satellites,
and photograph huge swathes of the planet as often as several times each day a frequency much higher than that achieved by current Earth-observing satellites.
San francisco-based Planet Labs founded in 2010 by three former NASA scientists, is scheduled to launch 28 of its Doves on 8 Â January.
At Skybox Imaging in nearby Palo alto, plans are afoot for a swarm of 24 Â satellites, each weighing about 100 Â kilograms,
Skybox launched its first satellite on 21 Â November and plans to launch another this year,
In a first at least for civilian satellites Skybox s devices will also stream short segments of near-live high-resolution video footage of the planet So,
'Companies plan to stream near-live high-resolution video of the planet from space. The International Space station is set to host an unusual external component.
In the coming days, a 32-centimetre-aperture video camera will be bolted to the side of one of its modules and pointed not into space,
The device, one of the first of its kind to be launched in space, will then begin streaming high-definition colour videos of Earth on the Web in near-real time.
It is one of two companies aiming to deliver up-to-date video footage of Earth from space for the first time.
California, will deliver panchromatic video from its planned swarm of 24 satellites (see main text).
it launched its first satellite in November and has made since public videos taken by the craft.
For example, one can imagine the global interest there would have been had regular space video footage of the Fukushima nuclear disaster been available
Other applications of space video include the monitoring of floods, post-earthquake zones and other natural disasters and humanitarian crises,
Urthecast will help to do just that through an agreement reached with the United nations Operational Satellite Applications programme (UNOSAT),
Potential scientific applications of space video include observing volcanic eruptions, forest fires, hurricanes and the movement of wildlife,
although the scientific potential of space video is not yet clear. People will use these tools in ways we haven t even thought of yet
Skybox Imaging's satellite and the space station hurtle along at thousands of kilometres an hour in their low Earth orbits,
Satellites are therefore no match for high-altitude drones, which can circle and provide continuous video footage of the same location.
Conventional imaging satellites, which are the size of a van and weigh tonnes, cost hundreds of millions of dollars to build
and the commercial world fleet comprises fewer than 20 satellites. Commercial satellites also tend to take pictures mainly
when their operators receive orders from customers. By contrast, the swarm satellites cameras will always be on,
photographing everything in their path and, owing to their numbers, will pass over the same points On earth with a frequency of hours to a few days, depending on latitude.
The biggest customers of conventional commercial imaging satellites are governments, in particular intelligence agencies and the military.
Planet Labs and Skybox Imaging use off-the-shelf technologies from the automotive, smartphone and other consumer industries including low-cost electronics,
continuous development of better and better satellites, says Will Marshall, chief executive of Planet Labs. And miniaturizing satellites reduces launch costs.
Because the swarms are still to be launched, scientists have yet to fully assess the quality of the imagery.
But the satellites spatial resolutions of 1-5 Â metres are much higher than those of most scientific satellites.
"These very small satellites should not be expected to provide data that are similar or in competition with full-blown Earth-observing satellites,
Stitching together such frequent-repeat imagery from so many satellites will be challenging, because performance will probably differ between satellites
and vary over time, he argues. But he is excited nonetheless at the prospect of constantly updated fresh imagery."
ESAPLANET hunter The European space agency announced on 19  February that it will launch a space-based observatory to hunt for planets around nearly one  million stars outside the Solar system.
The Plato (Planetary Transits and Oscillations of stars) mission (pictured) will launch in 2024. It will use an array of 34 Â telescopes
and cameras to search for Earth-sized planets and super-Earths at distances from their parent star that would allow them to be habitable.
The aim is to study possible conditions for planet formation and the emergence of life.
The Numi Off-Axis Electron Neutrino Appearance (NOVA) experiment also hopes to shed light on why the Universe has more matter than antimatter.
Xinhua/Xinhua Press/Corbisrover resurrected China s first Moon rover, Yutu (Jade Rabbit, pictured), may yet be saved.
China is only the third country in the world to land on the Moon, after the United states and the former Soviet union.
Tests of the network s first four satellites showed that the system could accurately determine positions across the planet.
which will eventually consist of 30 Â satellites. The system is planned as a rival to the US-owned Global Positioning System,
The miniature craft, containing 100 Â tiny satellites, is owned by schoolchildren and space enthusiasts. The Kicksat mission was funded by the crowdsourcing website Kickstarter. go. nature. com/gzd6ni
Study revives bird origin for 1918 flu pandemicthe virus that caused the 1918 influenza pandemic probably sprang from North american domestic and wild birds, not from the mixing of human and swine viruses.
Contrasto/eyevineitalian space head  The president of the Italian Space agency resigned on 7  February following allegations of bribery and corruption.
Inflation evidence A telescope at the South pole has revealed strong evidence that the Universe went through a period of rapid inflation just after the Big bang. To great excitement,
at the European space agency s European Space Astronomy Centre near Madrid. The mission plans to land a rover on the red planet in 2018. go. nature. com/i5n5r2
Water returns to arid Colorado river deltaone of North america s most iconic rivers is about to undergo an unprecedented experiment in ecological engineering.
The satellite was built by NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), and the data it will collect could aid the accuracy of forecasts of severe weather, estimates of freshwater supplies and projections of climate change.
We need to learn to leave the animals alone and deal with the fact that we are sharing this planet with them.
We act like we own the planet and are letting them exist out of the kindness of our hearts.
or sleep under the stars on the ground in the middle of a popular National Forest campground in a place known to be trafficked highly by humans as well as wildlife?
I ended up at the Rawah Lakes just west of Fort Collins. The sun just went down.
and wildlife officials construct a documentary aired on PBS Animal Planet Discovery and the like telling the TRUTH about wolves conservation
Earth will continue to rotate about the sun and change as it has for billions of years.
What happens if a small meteor explodes over that natural reserve? It doesn't need to be a global killer
and more known for covering space robots green energy and futuristic gadgets you might mistake for props in a science fiction movie.
Science denial is just something we have to deal with like moon hoaxers birthers and truthers.
Frosttty If you read two article you will find the cycles of the sun effect global warming with the alignment of the planetsand the cycles of Earths polar flip reduce magnetic field allowing more solar radiation to create cloud cover warms the planet. http://www
If you read two article you will find the cycles of the sun effect global warming with the alignment of the planets
and the cycles of Earths polar flip reduce magnetic field allowing more solar radiation to create cloud cover warms the planet.
Can I Buy The Moon? Can I buy the moon? For now at least the moon is like the sea:
everyone can use it but no one can own it. In 1967 the U s. and the Soviet union negotiated the Outer space Treaty
which states that no nation can own a piece of the moon or an asteroid.
You have a right to go up and take the lunar soil but you don't have any right to draw a square on the surface of the moon
and say'That square is mine'says Stephen E. Doyle a retired lawyer who served as NASA's Deputy Director of Internal Affairs.
If the Space Settlement Institute which lobbies for private industry to develop land on other planets has its way new laws will allow space colonists to stake moon claims
and start a colony. Alan Wasser the Space Settlement Institute's chairman says that a private company should build a spaceline similar to an airline between the Earth and moon.
And because a corporation is not a nation the Outer space Treaty would not apply. Corporations have settled new worlds before.
The London Company was a joint stock enterprise that established the Jamestown Settlement in 1607providing transportation to pioneers in return for seven years of labor in America where they cultivated tobacco and other crops for the company's profit.
and the promise of profits based on it is a necessary incentive to invest in space settlement.
He is lobbying for legislation that would commit the U s. government to honor future moon claims.
But anyone can buy a deed to land on the moon right now. The Lunar Registry (Earth's leading lunar real-estate agency) sells such deeds on its website for about $20 an acre.
Doyle says that future moon settlers could look to the Antarctic Treaty which designates the continent as a scientific preserve
Anybody who understands the implications of imposing a national law on celestial bodies Doyle says understands we are better to treat it like Antarctica
and extend them to outer space. Have a science question you've always wondered about? Send an email to fyi@popsci. comthis article originally appeared on Popularscience. com September 1 2011. yeah agreed...
lets go mine the stars...i think treating the moon like the Antartic is a terrible idea
I think the Manhattan scenario is much mroe ideal. If there becomes a valuable commodity (ie.
Helium 3 or whatever it is there will be significant interest in the moon and then maybe asteriods in the belt for metal and material. having a lucrative reason for space is the only way we will start to colonize it.
Anyone want to start a venture? Bull crap. If you can go there and defend it.
U s. and the Soviet union negotiated the Outer space Treaty...I would guess countries like Japan China India
and have their ideas of the recourses of the moon. It should be really interesting as more countries venture
and establish themselves in space. The GOLD RUSH will be on! so to speak. With this logic the moon will have a Jamestown effect more than an Antartic one.
There are people who truly desire to live on an extraterrestrial world or in space. For this they would definitely wish to lay claim to land
and control it. If comapnies buy land it will be to the benefit of those companies
This will in turn cause the formation a of moon based sovereignty or sovereignties that no longer adhere to the global authority of Earth.
Treating the moon like Antartica would denote that people only go there to work and not to live.
While the moon is a harsh environment (like the arctic) it is also the first base ground for expanding human civilization due to the increased number of humans in existence (we all eventually will not be able to fit on this one world.
That's why eventually the moon will be its own sovereignty (in due time) along with whatever other worlds we populate.
Coming soon to a planet near you. Avatar or Warhammer 40k anyone?@@Wolff Laarcencivilization is imperialism.
The Fact that there is not a governing body on the moon telling you buy land from it pretty much makes it where you dont have to buy land on it.
It is not the world's land it's the moon's. The only reason the idea that we would have to buy such land is to claim that land for a nation.
If I went to the moon and had the affordability to do so to colonize it
The moon colony would become its own nation and maybe it would become allies with the world's most importantly the most resourceful.
Boka we are civilized a little more than playing firsties with the moon. There should have to be established some sort of public area before any land can be handed out for private use.
I doubt there will be lot of demand for outdoor space...at firstfrom the movie RIDICK YOU CAN KEEP
Since living in space has not really truly been established. I think if you can plot you acre
or more on the moon and live there say 1 year it s your land.
FOR a cheap 5$ an acre price I can sell you any plot of land on the moon you desire!!
If you visit the moon and come back to earth you can't own it. But if you send a robot to mine the surface
@trout007 Sir there is no life on the moon as I sure you know. If a human lives there for say 1 year;
Really 1 year on the moon. That would truly be an accomplishment yes. In the history of settling the west barb wire came later and many a homestead had no such wire but simple stakes in the ground.
Luckily the cattle are not a consideration for the land of the moon. I think the real goal would be to mine Helium3 if possible.
But if the homesteaders find water somewhere in the depths of the moon too I feel water found on the moon would be worth like gold
. i think i would rather buy land underwater lol faster to get to cheaper to get done lots of unused space
I'm setting up a nice little vacation spot on the moon. Any takers? I wonder if other readers found this article amusing
I would love to own a piece of the moon! Its seems as I step out of the shower and pass the mirror
Do you know why the crack in your moon goes up and down. Well if it went side ways as a child you would go Blub-de-blub-de-blug all the way down the slide...
But if the homesteaders find water somewhere in the depths of the moon too I feel water found on the moon would be worth like gold...
I have heard in other science articles of water being trapped in the minerals of the moon.
if the conditions pressure and maybe having some depth in the ground of the moon there could be a underground lake of sorts trapped pool of water.
Part of the point of the article is about use of land of the moon and the descussion of ownership.
Some scientist have suggested in theory that life could have been brought to earth via its falling asteroids. I have also read that in the early days of the earth being formed it had smaller companion in orbit around the sun
and in one of these cycles these two objects collided and made the earth and the moon.
Upon inspection of the material of the moon it seems its material is identical to the surface minerals to the earth.
So taking all this into consideration perhaps in the depth of the moon deep down in its mineral stricter is contained a pool of trapped water protected from the vacuum of the space.
This pool trapped water being also in the depths of the moon is fluid in nature
and also because of the depth pressure and gravity of the moon it is warm water.
Combine that the moon is made of the same material as the earth and has been around for billions of years.
If there existed a pool of water in the depths of the moon it also possible it may contain life in it.
Now go 100 years into the future when extreme many countries of our earth are working in space and on the moon.
Take a country of the same leadership as say the leaders of North korea. This country is very successful in technology
and wants to establish a business and base on the moon. The take a very advance satellite and find a gigantic pool of water deep in the moon.
So the make a base station on the moon and begin drilling to tap this water.
The leaders of this country first goal are greed of and they just want to exploit the recourses they find on the moon.
So they drill to the lake and quickly start making good use of this water.
The workers of the moon eventually come back home to earth and spread across the earth these new bacteria.
The idea of who owns the moon and how it is exploited also sets the ideas of Mars
and any other recourse we find in the skyã¢Â# This really does affect the entire human race on earth. $20 an acre is way too cheap.
I imagine Astroboy enjoys science and the stars though; probably have lots of energy as well. I'm 98%sure the moon landings were faked.
They could not get there in the 60's because the technology did not exist to shield astronauts from the solar wind.
We might be able to go to the moon one day soon technology has increased vastly since the 60's especially force field tech.@
when they said they sent humans to orbit the moon. Everything on the moon the rovers the flag the mirror could have been placed there by probes.
although no earth based telescopes have observed them) I repeat the Apollo missions were the only missions to leave LEO (low earth orbit).
They can t the radiation in space is DEADLY. Not just the Van allen belts the Van allen belts protects us from the sun
. As soon as you leave the belts (which are deadly in themselves) you would be faced with the deadly solar wind.
and cannot go to the moon. But in the future space travel to the moon and mars will be possible.
With the invention of a working force field (electromagnetic) also bladders filled with water or slush in the structure of spacecraft to reduce the impact of the solar wind.
This is the future of space crafthttp://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Nautilus-XNOW compare that with the pod that was sent not to the moon.
That s why we will be able to travel to the moon in the future and why they couldn t do it in the 60 saight Aldron
I don't think you understand the universe that we live in. I'm working on a physics degree right now and
And we DID in fact land on the moon the proof is in the retroreflectors that we can use on a regular basis to measure (with extreme precision) with lasers the distance between Earth and the moon.
But you have to realize that the heliosphere of our sun is gigantic. And in order for a solar wind to be deadly it requires whats called a coronal mass ejection
and while these happen quite frequently on the sun's surface the biggest ones that have the ability to do damage to us here as far away as we are On earth do not happen all the time.
if it was more of our satellites would have been raped on their way out of our magnetosphere.
more likely than a scifi fantasy universe where creatures who feed on emotions come out of portals in reality
if only one or 2 nations poseess the capability for advanced space flight and precious resources are discovered.
#How NASA Is Developing Fresh Space Saladearly in the history of the U s. space program space ice cream caught the imagination of American youngsters.
Now NASA and other researchers are developing a different kind of space food space-grown vegetables
Modern Farmer has a feature today covering ongoing research into growing edible plants in space.
There's a NASA effort to send romaine lettuce planters to the International Space station programs investigating crop production in Mars-like environments
Such space-farmed produce could save on the weight of the supplies astronauts need to bring with them;
Modern Farmer Just needs a space rabbit and a space Elmer Fudd lol. I read The High Frontier:
Human Colonies in Space by Gerald O'neill (Very Good Book) and it had talked about using Rabbits in space as the prime candidate for meat.
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