A couple of recent reports from Interfax highlight the growing cooperation between Ukraine and rising economic power Brazil. The two nations are working on the Tsyklon-4 (Cyclone-4), which is set to launch from Brazil at the end of next year.
A taikonaut emerges from China's Shenzhou 7 spacecraft after a successful orbital flight
Aviation Week has an update on the Chinese space program:
China is laying the groundwork to land astronauts on the moon, which would follow an ambitious lunar robotic precursor program that also could pave the way for the country’s first unmanned probe to Mars.
For all my friends in the Bay Area, a special Star Trek exhibit is opening at the Tech Museum of Innovation on Friday. You’ll be able to sit in Captain Kirk’s chair and see all sorts of gadgets and memorabilia from 40 years of the series.
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There’s a bit of a tug-of-war between ISRO and the Indian Air Force over who will be aboard the nation’s first human space vehicle in 2015:
CALIFORNIA SPACE AUTHORITY PRESS RELEASE
MOUNTAIN VIEW – Nineteen teams pushed their robotic competitors to the limit and three teams claimed a total of $750,000 in NASA prizes for their hard work and innovation at this year’s Regolith Excavation Challenge held at NASA’s Ames Research Center on Moffett Field.
After two days of intense competitive drama, organizers conferred Paul’s Robotics of Worcester, MA, with the first place title, second went to Terra Engineering of Gardena, CA, and Team Braundo of Rancho Palos Verde, CA, took home third.
Monday, Oct. 19, 2009; 2-3:30 PM PDT: Part One of a discussion on the Futron 2009 Space Competitiveness Index with David Vaccaro and Jacob Gullish. Tuesday, Oct. 20,2009, 7-8:30 PM PDT: Part Two of the Futron 2009 Space Competitiveness Index discussion. Friday, October 23, 2009, 9:30-11:30 AM PDT : Doris Hamill of NASA talks about her recent Space Review article addressing space vision and missions for NASA and the industry. […]
An artist's conception of a planet orbiting Gliese 667 C. The 6 Earth-mass exoplanet circulates around its low-mass host star at a distance equal to only 1/20th of the Earth-Sun distance. The host star is a companion to two other low-mass stars, which are seen here in the distance. Credit: ESO/L. Calçada
ESO PRESS RELEASE
Today, at an international ESO/CAUP exoplanet conference in Porto, the team who built the High Accuracy Radial Velocity Planet Searcher, better known as HARPS, the spectrograph for ESO’s 3.6-metre telescope, reports on the incredible discovery of some 32 new exoplanets, cementing HARPS’s position as the world’s foremost exoplanet hunter. This result also increases the number of known low-mass planets by an impressive 30%. Over the past five years HARPS has spotted more than 75 of the roughly 400 or so exoplanets now known.
The final results from the Regolith Excavation Challenge, which finished up on Sunday evening at NASA Ames: Paul’s Robotics – Worcester, Massachusetts – 439 kilograms – $500,000 Terra Engineering – Gardena, California – 270.6 kilograms – $150,000 Braundo Rancho – Palos Verdes, California – 263.75 kilograms – $100,000
Terra Engineering has lept into second place in the Lunar Excavation Challenge, guaranteeing that this year’s $750,000 prize purse will be full claimed.
Results as of 7 p.m. PDT.
- 18 teams competed
- 2 teams still to compete – Terra Engineering and Moon Diggers B
- 6 teams excavated soil
- 2 teams qualified for prize money – Paul’s Robotics and Braundo Rancho
- 11 teams excavated no soil
- 1 team disqualified during set up – Moon Diggers A
Video of the E-REX regolith excavator in action. The rover deposited 75 kilograms of simulated lunar soil before it got stuck in the sand.
Time lapse photography shows the assembly of the Ares I-X from November 2008 to August 2009.