Space News from SpaceDaily.com
January 10, 2017
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RAY GUNS
U.S. Air Force issues RFP for aircraft laser weapons



Washington (UPI) Jan 6, 2017
The U.S. Air Force has issued a request for proposal to develop laser protection systems for its fleet of tactical fighter aircraft. The competitive request aims to solicit research for the Air Force Research Laboratory's Laser Advancements for Next-generation Compact Environments project, or LANCE. Under the program, researchers will investigate laser-based solutions for defending pilots from a variety of anti-aircraft threats. "The objective of LANCE is to perform research and developm ... read more

RAY GUNS
U.K. Defense Ministry finalizes laser weapon system contract
Britain's Ministry of Defense has awarded MBDA and other industry partners a $36 million contract to produce a Laser Directed Energy Weapon demonstrator. ... more
FAST TRACK
Cities vie to hop on super-speedy hyperloop rail
US startup Hyperloop One on Friday disclosed a list of locations around the world vying to put near-supersonic rail transit system to the test. ... more
ROCKET SCIENCE
GMV invests in PLD Space
The International Tech Company GMV, with an important presence in the global space sector, has decided to trust in the PLD Space project and will take part in the ownership of the young space compan ... more
EARTH OBSERVATION
First colour image for joint UK and Algerian CubeSat
AlSat Nano, a UK-Algeria CubeSat mission, has captured its first full colour image following its launch in September 2016. The image was taken by the Open University C3D2 instrument's wide field cam ... more
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MOON DAILY
How the Moons That Came Before Collided to Form the Moon
The Moon, and the question of how it was formed, has long been a source of fascination and wonder. Now, a team of Israeli researchers suggests that the Moon we see every night is not Earth's first m ... more
EARTH OBSERVATION
Newly proposed reference datasets improve weather satellite data quality
"Traffic and weather, together on the hour!" blasts your local radio station, while your smartphone knows the weather halfway across the world. A network of satellites whizzing around Earth collecti ... more
TIME AND SPACE
LIGO expected to detect more binary black hole mergers
The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) broke the news almost one year ago when the first-ever direct observation of gravitational waves was announced. Now LIGO scientists hop ... more
OUTER PLANETS
How a moon slows the decay of Pluto's atmosphere
Pluto's relationship with its moon Charon is one of the more unusual interactions in the solar system due to Charon's size and proximity. It's more than half of Pluto's diameter and orbits only 12,0 ... more
ROCKET SCIENCE
China's carrier rocket puts 3 satellites in space in first commercial mission
China's solid-fueled carrier rocket Kuaizhou-1A (KZ-1A) put in space on Monday three satellites as part of its first commercial launch, Xinhua news agency reported. The carrier rocket with JL- ... more


Michoud complete stand for testing SLS main fuel tank

EXO WORLDS
VLT to Search for Planets in Alpha Centauri System
ESO has signed an agreement with the Breakthrough Initiatives to adapt the Very Large Telescope instrumentation in Chile to conduct a search for planets in the nearby star system Alpha Centauri. Suc ... more
SPACEWAR
SecAF highlights progress at AFA breakfast
Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James addressed the Air Force Association's Air Force Breakfast Series Jan. 6, at the Key Bridge Marriot in Arlington, Virginia. James began her presentation by ... more

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Two US astronauts complete spacewalk to upgrade ISS
Two American astronauts ventured outside the International Space Station on Friday to upgrade the orbiting outpost's electrical system. Americans Shane Kimbrough, the 49-year-old commander of the six-person crew aboard the ISS, and flight engineer Peggy Whitson, 56, officially ended their expedition at 1855 GMT. During their approximately six-and-a-half hour spacewalk, the pair installed ... more
Hubble provides interstellar road map for Voyagers' galactic trek

The hidden artist of the Soviet space programme

Emerging tech aims to improve life for handicapped

Michoud complete stand for testing SLS main fuel tank
Major construction is complete on NASA's largest new Space Launch System structural test stand, and engineers are now installing equipment needed to test the rocket's biggest fuel tank. The stand is critical for ensuring SLS's liquid hydrogen tank can withstand the extreme forces of launch and ascent on its first flight, and later on the second flight, which will carry up to four astronaut ... more
Weather delays resumption of SpaceX's rocket launches

Arianespace to launch Intelsat 39

Arianespace to launch JCSAT-17 for SKY Perfect JSAT



New Year yields interesting bright soil for Opportunity rover
Opportunity is located on the rim of Endeavour crater, heading south along the rim. The near-term plan is to reach a valley called "Willamette" where grooves are seen in orbital imagery. Just before the holidays, the rover encountered some difficult, steep terrain. As the rover tried to advance up 20-degree slopes, the wheels began to dig up the soil and progress slowed to a near stop. ... more
Hues in a Crater Slope

3-D images reveal features of Martian polar ice caps

Odyssey recovering from precautionary pause in activity

China Space Plan to Develop "Strength and Size"
China wants to develop "strength and size" in its space program, a China National Space Administration official said last week. In the next five years, the country plans to speed up the development of its space program. China wants to become the first country to carry out a controlled landing of a probe on the far side of the moon in 2018. China also has plans to launch its first probe to the pl ... more
Beijing's space program soars in 2016

China Plans to Launch 1st Mars Probe by 2020 - State Council Information Office

China to expand int'l cooperation on space sciences

OneWeb announces key funding from SoftBank Group and other investors
OneWeb reports it has secured $1.2 billion in funded capital from SoftBank and existing investors, of which $1 billion will come from SoftBank. The $1.2 billion fundraising round announced will support OneWeb's revolutionary technological development and the construction of the world's first and only high volume satellite production facility. The new facility, based in Exploration Park, Fl ... more
Airbus DS and Energia eye new medium-class satellite platform

Space as a Driver for Socio-Economic Sustainable Development

SoftBank delivers first $1 bn of Trump pledge, to space firm

Lockheed Martin to build NASA's trojan asteroid explorer Lucy
Lockheed Martin has been selected to design, build and operate the spacecraft for NASA's Lucy mission. One of NASA's two new Discovery Program missions, Lucy will perform the first reconnaissance of the Jupiter Trojan asteroids orbiting the sun in tandem with the gas giant. The Lucy spacecraft will launch in 2021 to study six of these exciting worlds. The mission is led by Principal Invest ... more
MIT scientists create super strong, lightweight 3D graphene

APL provides key instruments for NASA dual Discovery Missions

RADA contracted for high energy laser radars



Hubble detects 'exocomets' taking the plunge into a young star
Interstellar forecast for a nearby star: Raining comets! NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has discovered comets plunging onto the star HD 172555, which is a youthful 23 million years old and resides 95 light-years from Earth. The exocomets - comets outside our solar system - were not directly seen around the star, but their presence was inferred by detecting gas that is likely the vaporized r ... more
Between a rock and a hard place: can garnet planets be habitable

VLT to Search for Planets in Alpha Centauri System

Could dark streaks in Venusian clouds be microbial life

Lowell Observatory to renovate Pluto discovery telescope
The instrument at Lowell Observatory used by Clyde Tombaugh to discover Pluto will soon undergo renovation. The year-long project, set to begin on January 12, will include restoration of both the historic telescope and the wooden dome that houses it. While the telescope will be removed from the dome during this work, the dome will be open from time to time for public tours as work allows. ... more
Flying observatory makes observations of Jupiter previously only possible from space

How a moon slows the decay of Pluto's atmosphere

York U research identifies icy ridges on Pluto



DARPA's networks of the sea enter next stage
DARPA's Tactical Undersea Network Architecture (TUNA) program recently completed its initial phase, successfully developing concepts and technologies aimed at restoring connectivity for U.S. forces when traditional tactical networks are knocked offline or otherwise unavailable. The program now enters the next phase, which calls for the demonstration of a prototype of the system at sea. TUN ... more
Defense Dept. orders upgraded underwater drones

Study finds potential instability in Atlantic Ocean water circulation system

Study confirms steady warming of oceans for past 75 years

China to offer global satellite navigation service by 2020
China plans to form a BeiDou network consisting of 35 satellites for global navigation services by 2020, said a white paper released by the State Council Information Office on Tuesday. The country plans to start providing basic services to countries along the Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st-century Maritime Silk Road in 2018, said the document titled "China's Space Activities in 2016." ... more
Austrian cows swap bells from 'hell' for GPS

Russia, China Making Progress in Synchronization of GLONASS, BeiDou Systems

Alpha Defence Company To Make Navigation Satellites For ISRO



Solar storms could spark soils at moon's poles
Powerful solar storms can charge up the soil in frigid, permanently shadowed regions near the lunar poles, and may possibly produce "sparks" that could vaporize and melt the soil, perhaps as much as meteoroid impacts, according to NASA-funded research. This alteration may become evident when analyzing future samples from these regions that could hold the key to understanding the history of the m ... more
How the Moons That Came Before Collided to Form the Moon

China plans probes to far side, poles of Moon

Lunar sonic booms

White House releases strategy in case of 'killer asteroid'
The White House has published a 25-page report on 'National Near-Earth Object Preparedness Strategy,' detailing preparations in the event that a celestial object such as a 'killer asteroid' is found to be on a collision course with Earth.The report was written by the Interagency Working Group (IWG) for Detecting and Mitigating the Impact of Earth-bound Near-Earth Objects (DAMIEN). The docu ... more
NASA Selects Two Missions to Explore the Early Solar System

Psyche to offer unique look at early terrestrial planet formation

ASU Spectrometer to Fly on New Nasa Mission to Distant 'Trojan' Asteroids



First colour image for joint UK and Algerian CubeSat
AlSat Nano, a UK-Algeria CubeSat mission, has captured its first full colour image following its launch in September 2016. The image was taken by the Open University C3D2 instrument's wide field camera on 3rd December, 2016, over the Arkhangelsk Oblast region, on the North West coast of Russia. It was captured under twilight conditions at dawn, showing the coastline to the top, and a brief winte ... more
Newly proposed reference datasets improve weather satellite data quality

Are we exploring in the wrong direction

Fossil fuel formation: Key to atmosphere's oxygen?

NASA moon data provides more accurate 2017 eclipse path
On Monday, Aug. 21, 2017, millions in the U.S. will have their eyes to the sky as they witness a total solar eclipse. The moon's shadow will race across the United States, from Oregon to South Carolina. The path of this shadow, also known as the path of totality, is where observers will see the moon completely cover the sun. And thanks to elevation data of the moon from NASA's Lunar Reconnaissan ... more
Moore Foundation provides libraries with a millione solar-eclipse viewers

Preparing for the August 2017 Total Solar Eclipse

Giving the Sun a brake



Scientists close on on the true mass of Milky Way
It's a problem of galactic complexity, but researchers are getting closer to accurately measuring the mass of the Milky Way Galaxy. In the latest of a series of papers that could have broader implications for the field of astronomy, McMaster astrophysicist Gwendolyn Eadie, working with her PhD supervisor William Harris and with a Queen's University statistician, Aaron Springford, has refin ... more
Astronomer predicts red nova explosion to light up the sky in 2022

The Mystery of Part-Time Pulsars

How far away is that galaxy

LIGO expected to detect more binary black hole mergers
The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO) broke the news almost one year ago when the first-ever direct observation of gravitational waves was announced. Now LIGO scientists hope that this year could yield even more breakthrough findings in astronomy. On November 30, LIGO resumed its search for gravitational waves when it was switched from engineering test runs to scie ... more
Arecibo Observatory Casts New Light on Cosmic Microwave Background

Deepest X-ray image ever reveals black hole treasure trove

Venerable Radio Telescope Sets Standard for Universal Constant

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