Lifeboat Foundation

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — NASA is sending a robotic geologist to Mars that will dig deeper than ever before.

The Mars InSight spacecraft is set to launch this weekend from California.

The lander has a slender probe designed to burrow nearly 16 feet into the Martian soil. That’s for taking the planet’s temperature. To take the planet’s pulse, a quake-measuring seismometer will operate directly on the Martian surface.

Continue reading “NASA sending robotic geologist to Mars to dig super deep” »

Michael Marshall attended the UK’s annual gathering of people who share the unshakeable belief that the Earth is flat.

The central role of public spaces in the social, cultural, political and economic life of cities makes it crucial that they’re accessible to everyone. One of the most important qualities of accessible public spaces is safety. If people do not feel safe in a public space, they are less likely to use it, let alone linger in it.

Perceptions of safety are socially produced and socially variable. It is not simply the presence of crime – or “threatening environments” – that contributes to lack of safety or fear.

All sorts of measures are put in place to make public spaces safer, from design to policing. But when we consider the effectiveness of these measures, we always have to ask: whose safety is being prioritised?

All good things must come to an end, and Juno— NASA’s $1-billion mission to study Jupiter like never before — is no exception. The probe launched from Earth in August 2011, reached Jupiter in July 2016, and is scheduled to make its last two of 14 high-speed flybys around the gas giant in May and July.

But that doesn’t mean Juno is finished beaming back astounding new photos of Jupiter. At least not yet but it will soon.

Berlin 26th April 2018 – The first full scale model of the European Medium-Altitude Long-Endurance Remotely Piloted Aircraft (MALE RPAS) was unveiled today during a ceremony held at the 2018 ILA Berlin Air Show, which opened its gates at Schönefeld airport.

The reveal ceremony, led by Dirk Hoke, Airbus Defence and Space Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Eric Trappier, Dassault Aviation Chairman and CEO and Lucio Valerio Cioffi, Leonardo’s Aircraft Division Managing Director, confirms the commitment of the four European States and Industrial partners to jointly develop a sovereign solution for European Defence and Security.

The unveiling of the full scale model and the reaffirmed commitment comes after a nearly two-year definition study launched in September 2016 by the four participating nations Germany, France, Italy and Spain and follows the Declaration of Intent to work together on a European MALE unmanned aerial system signed by the countries in May 2015.

Continue reading “Airbus, Dassault Aviation and Leonardo reaffirm their total commitment in the first fully European MALE programme” »

As i said the other day on here. No money for science. Plenty of money for war war war. And, the knucklehead public is out zonked out to whatever mindless BS they screwing off with this minute.

In a move that shocked lunar scientists, NASA has cancelled the only robotic vehicle under development to explore the surface of the Moon, despite President Donald Trump’s vow to return people there.

Scientists working on the Resource Prospector (RP) mission, a robotic rover that had been in development for about a decade to explore a polar region of the Moon, expressed astonishment at the decision.

Continue reading “Scientists shocked as NASA cuts only moon rover” »

Final preparations being carried out in the week before the VLT UT1 First Light. Following successful optical alignment tests, the 8.2-m primary mirror was removed from the first Unit Telescope (UT1). This image shows preparations to move it into the Mirror Maintenance Building (MMB) to be coated with a thin, highly reflective aluminium layer. The cell with the 8.2-m mirror has been detached from the lower part of the telescope tube. (Photo obtained on May 17, 1998).

Nashville, Tenn. (WKRN) — If you saw the moon Saturday night, you know how bright it was!

Technically, it will be a full moon Sunday at 7:58 p.m. There is something else that is special about Sunday’s night sky.

There is a “conjunction” of the moon with Jupiter Sunday and Monday evenings just after sunset in the southeastern sky. Sunset is at 7:32 p.m.

Continue reading “Full moon tonight & conjunction with Jupiter” »

BERLIN (AP) — The European Space Agency has released the first image taken by its Trace Gas Orbiter showing the ice-covered edge of a vast Martian crater.

Scientists combined three pictures of the Korolev Crater taken from an altitude of 400 kilometers (249 miles) on April 15.

Lead researcher Nicolas Thomas said Thursday the colors in the resulting image were also adjusted to best resemble those visible to the human eye.

Continue reading “European Space Agency releases 1st image from Mars orbiter” »