Wednesday 15 May 2013

Space Tourism's Black Carbon Problem

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But some scientists say carbon dioxide emissions are irrelevant to measuring the greenhouse gas footprint of the nascent space tourism industry. The big threat from the scaling-up of space travel, they say, comes from something called black carbon—a ...

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NASA Probe Counts Space Rock Impacts On Mars

Scientists using images from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) have estimated that the planet is bombarded by more than 200 small asteroids or bits of comets per year forming craters at least 12.8 feet (3.9 meters) across.

via NASA Breaking News

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2013/may/HQ_13-142_Mars_MRO_Craters.html

Graphene paves way for better digital storage

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Graphene, a one-atom thick lattice of graphite, is a synthetic material with diverse applications ranging from solar cells to diagnostics. It is simple to synthesise and deploy, and allows scientists to manipulate its properties at the atomic level ...

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Catching graphene butterflies - Science News

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Graphene is the world's thinnest, strongest and most conductive material, and promises a vast range of diverse applications; from smartphones and ultrafast broadband to drug delivery and computer chips. It was first demonstrated at The University of ...

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Space flights from UAE in 3 years for Dh734,000: Richard Branson

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Sir Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Galactic space-tourism company, who was in Dubai recently, told a gathering that Virgin Galactic's first commercial flight will be launched into space by the end of 2013 from a space port in New Mexico. The ...

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UAE-backed Virgin Galactic names date for first flight

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Abu Dhabi-backed Virgin Galactic, the space tourism arm of Richard Branson's Virgin Group, said 529 would-be astronauts have put down deposits to travel into space. Abu Dhabi-backed Virgin Galactic, the space tourism arm of Virgin Group, will stage its ...

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NASA Hosts Kepler Spacecraft Status Teleconference Today

NASA will host a news teleconference at 4 p.m. EDT, today, May 15, to discuss the status of the agency's Kepler Space Telescope.

via NASA Breaking News

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2013/may/HQ_M13-078_Kepler_Status.html

Oatmeal Theory (non-singularity) - Explains gravity, time, dark matter ...

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The following is a gravitational theory I devised after learning of Einstein's Equivalence Principle regarding inertial and gravitational mass. Space...

www.ted.com/.../18286/oatmeal_theory_non_singularit.html



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Will Quantum Computer up-end Moore's Law?

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Moore's Law famously states that the number of transistors on a microchip doubles every year. This has roughly proven true, with computing power doubling on that approximate schedule. Catherine McGeoch, a professor of computer science at Amherst ...

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Quantum Mechanics Is a Hell of a Way To Run a Universe

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Quantum physics is weird and difficult enough without having to explain not just what it is--"I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics," Richard Feynman famously said--but why it is as well. Why did nature write rules for the ...

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Deputy Administrator Tours NASA's Northeast Ohio Facilities, Meets Media Thursday

Media representatives are invited to join NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver as she visits the agency's Glenn Research Center in Cleveland on Thursday, May 16 and tours facilities advancing future spaceflight missions. The locations include Lewis Field and the Plum Brook Station in Sandusky, Ohio.

via NASA Breaking News

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2013/may/HQ_M13-077_Garver_Visits_Glenn.html

NASA Administrator Visits Houston, Meets Media

NASA Administrator Charles Bolden will be at the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston on Thursday, May 16, to discuss the future of human space exploration and the critical role the International Space Station performs in support of those efforts.

via NASA Breaking News

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2013/may/HQ_M13-076_Bolden_JSC.html

NASA Honors Sally Ride with a National Tribute at Kennedy Center

NASA and Sally Ride Science are inviting the general public and journalists to "Sally Ride: A Lifetime of Accomplishment, A Champion of Science Literacy," an educational tribute to America's first woman in space on Monday, May 20. The special event will be held at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, 2700 F Street, N.W., Washington, D.C., at 7 p.m. EDT.

via NASA Breaking News

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2013/may/HQ_M13-072_Ride_Tribute.html

NASA's Google+ Hangout Connects Space Station, "Star Trek Into Darkness" Crews

The director and some actors in the film "Star Trek Into Darkness" will join NASA as it hosts a Google+ Hangout from noon to 12:45 p.m. EDT, May 16, about how work aboard the International Space Station is turning science fiction into reality.

via NASA Breaking News

http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2013/may/HQ_13-139_ISS-Star_Trek_Google_Hangout.html

Water-Loving, Jelly-Like Materials may Help Test Biological Effects of ...

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One set of hydrogels was populated with rat cells containing ultrasmall semiconducting materials known as quantum dots. When exposed to light, quantum dots emit strong fluorescent signals that enabled the researchers to track the fate of treated cells ...

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Orbital welding on the Large Hadron Collider



(Video: Noemi Caraban Gonzales/CERN)


In the video above, Said Atieh of the Engineering department explains some of the unique challenges of welding on the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).


The interconnection regions between adjacent cryomagnets consist of a number of lines spanning from one machine element to another, and each line requires several welds.


With a radial clearance of only 45 millimetres, a machine called an automatic orbital welder closes three main busbars - lines whose main purpose is to conduct electricity. The machine makes two automatic welds to create a leak-tight assembly.


Technicians then check the leak rate between the cold mass of the magnet and the insulation vacuum. The acceptable value is so low that such a leak over 31 years would fill only a cubic centimetre.


Over 10,000 welds will be made on the LHC over the coming year.





via CERN updates

http://home.web.cern.ch/about/updates/2013/05/orbital-welding-large-hadron-collider

Abu Dhabi's Space Oddity is Becoming a Reality

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However, within three years, the capital of the United Arab Emirates will be at the forefront of travel when it launches a port to ferry passengers into space, according to Sir Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Galactic space-tourism company. The ...

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Planets that hate each other mug

D-Wave wins the quantum-classical horse race, kind of

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It's official, it seems: the D-Wave isn't a “real” quantum computer, but it does handle some classes of problems a lot faster than a classical desktop computer. That's the result of the first attempt to benchmark the company's adibiatic quantum ...

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Since Dwave 512 qubit Quantum computer is 10000 times faster than a 420 ...

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There was an attempt to approximate the computing power of the Dwave quantum computer by using multiples of performance against the Linpack capabilities of the workstation. The classical [regular] computer used for most tests was powered by a cluster ...

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Startup GridCOM uses photons and quantum physics for smart grid ...

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Can quantum computing be the key to a much safer power grid? A California startup, GridCOM, plans to show just how quantum encryption could be a nearly ...

gigaom.com/.../startup-gridcom-uses-photons-and-quantum-p...

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Space Mining is NOT Science Fiction | Ian Somerhalder Foundation

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Space Mining is NOT Science Fiction. The next gold rush may be out of this world --literally. In April of last year, a US company called Planetary Resources ...

www.isfoundation.com/node/1120

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CalBattery Selected for TechConnect National ... - Graphene Times

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Virtual-Strategy Magazine (press release)Advanced. California Lithium Battery is proud to announce its selection as a 2013 TechConnect National Innovation ...

graphenetimes.com/.../calbattery-selected-for-techconnect-nati... via Google Alert