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Saturday, October 6, 2007

Mars Science Laboratory: Tough Love, Mad Scientists



Not all mad scientists are evil or villains. Some are protagonists (or at least positive forces), such as Dexter in the animated series Dexter's Laboratory. Occasionaly there are self parodies of mad scientists making fun of the steriotype


The nuclear-powered Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) has escalated in cost. It's now an outlay of loot hovering at $1.7 billion.


NASA senior Mars management has directed the project to - among a suite of actions - expend no additional funds on a remote-sensing laser instrument called ChemCam, take off a descent imaging camera, and cost-cap a couple of other instruments at their current budgets.


The MSL "required some focused and prudent reductions in scope in order to better ensure project success," according to a NASA statement on the large Mars rover project.


From higher-ups at NASA Headquarters, the marching order is for the MSL project team to dig into their collective science and engineering pockets and cover the $75 million cost overrun to "clean up the mess" so as not to "slaughter the innocent," I've been advised.


Translation, and in tough love language: MSL gets no more money from NASA Headquarters.


Those actions have incensed some Mars scientists, particularly the implementation of measures so late in the launch game of the one-of-a-kind MSL - headed for liftoff in 2009.


"It's especially fMars, Science ,Laboratory:, Tough ,Love, Mad ,Scientistsrustrating to see such far-reaching cuts to the scientific payload made so late in the development process," notes Jim Bell, a space scientist and Mars exploration expert at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.


"Many of the instruments that are being cut back or removed are nearly complete. NASA's planned cuts have a 'penny wise, pound foolish' feel to them, which is extremely frustrating and surprising," Bell told me.


Bell said that NASA officials discuss the MSL hits as relatively minor cuts that will only have small effects on science, but "the reality is that these proposed cuts will have a large and negative influence on Martian science and on the rover's ability to achieve mission success."


Bell added that "it's a sad situation that the next Mars rover appears to be getting cut back towards having less scientific capability than a single MER (Mars Exploration Rover - Spirit or Opportunity), but still at four times the price!"


Some scientists angrily point to a new add-on to the MSL - a sample cache device now being designed to be placed on the rover. That gear is being touted as a way to kick-start a larger effort to collect bits and pieces of Mars for return back to Earth by robotic means.


Cash for the cache hardware for MSL comes from a different pot of NASA money, not from the robotic Mars program. That device is under development at NASA Ames Research Center. Basically, it's a single chamber container with open mesh sides so that dust can fall out.


Initially, the add-on gear was priced at some $2 million, but sources now tell me that its cost has dropped substantially - down to roughly $1 million.


Bottom line to all of this - MSL now means Money, Sanity, and Leftovers. But stay tuned.


MORE NEWS.....ABOUT mAD SCIENTIST.



A mad scientist is generally a stock character of popular fiction, more specifically Science Fiction, either villainous, benign or neutral. Whether insane, eccentric, or simply bumbling, mad scientists are often working with fictional technology in order to forward their schemes. Alternatively, they fail to see the evil that will ensue from the hubris of "playing god". Not all mad scientists are evil or villains. Some are protagonists (or at least positive forces), such as Dexter in the animated series Dexter's Laboratory. Occasionaly there are self parodies of mad scientists making fun of the steriotype.


Though the archetypes often overlap, a mad scientist need not be an evil genius. A mad scientist is simply a scientist who has become obsessively involved with their studies and has begun to develop eccentricities by normal standards; an evil genius is a genius who uses their gift for explicitly, consciously evil purposes. For example, while a mad scientist would test the bounds of science to create an army of zombies, he may do it to see if - or prove that - he could, or out of boredom, to impress women, to help clean up his house, or many other such reasons. By contrast, an evil genius would construct his army with a purpose, such as taking over the world - in addition to being evil, such characters tend to have large-scale ambition (see Megalomania in fiction). A mad scientist may be a naive pawn of an evil genius, the evil genius often promising the scientist the funds and resources to conduct his research. Mad scientists also, whilst definitely being intelligent, usually fail to think things through to their conclusion while an evil genius is usually a clever planner and would have a diabolical use for the army of zombies as well as a plan to avoid being killed by them.


Occasionally a Mad Scientist may be an Evil Genius, using their creations for evil reasons. To quote one movie, the president asks "Why did we hire this insane homicidal maniac to develop our weapon system?" A general replies, "Because sane people don't create multibillion dollar death satellites capable of destroying entire countries."







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The next Space Age


The next Space Age


Will the next Space Age simply retrace the steps of the past 50 years with cooler gizmos, or will we find a way to realize the science-fiction dreams that were floating around even before 1957?


Cheap energy from space … tourists circling the moon … industrial resources on other worlds: Those are some of the promises for the next Space Age. But the debate over China's anti-satellite test demonstrates that the world's nations also have to keep peace on the space frontier. That may be the biggest reason for pushing onward - just as it was in 1957.


Today's 50th anniversary of the start of the Space Age provides one of the occasions for looking forward as well as backward.


Another occasion is the successful release of "In the Shadow of the Moon," a documentary that retells the story of America's space effort, using the voices of the astronauts themselves. One of those astronauts is Apollo 17's Harrison Schmitt, whose name is the very last on a chronological list of humans who have walked on the moon. After his stint at NASA, Schmitt went on to become a one-term Republican senator representing New Mexico. Today, at the age of 72, he serves as chairman of the NASA Advisory Council.


Schmitt cautions that it's going to take more than a movie - or a golden anniversary - to push the world into a new Space Age.


"It's going to come from circumstances, and a more general understanding of just how important space is in the future of humankind," he told me. "Unfortunately, our educational system is not teaching history, much less providing the kind of information to the general electorate that is necessary to understand why space and other major projects ... are important to the future of the country, and the future of humankind."


OK, so what are the whys and wherefores for the next 50 years? Here are five E's that come to mind, in roughly chronological order if not in order of importance:


1. Exploration
This is NASA's oft-stated reason for heading back to the moon and setting its sights on Mars and beyond. Even though the first space race was primarily a clash of empires (see No. 4 below), Schmitt said the space effort's scientific and technological benefits are still underappreciated, 35 years after the last moon mission.


The trips to the moon marked the first time humans ever explored a "second planet," and studying the lunar surface shed light on Earth's hidden origins as well, Schmitt said. "To have that contextual information about what the nature of the environment was here on Earth, during the first almost billion years of Earth history ... is extremely important scientifically, and philosophically as well," he said.


But is exploration alone enough of a reason to spend tens of billions, even hundreds of billions of dollars on spaceflight? To sustain that outward push, and justify the risks to humans, weightier reasons are needed.


2. Entertainment
Entertainment may not sound like a weighty reason for expanding the space age. But it already has a proven economic payoff. And you don't even have to go into space. Even our "Space Shots" slide show is an example of space-themed entertainment with financial benefits (in the form of ad revenue). Space camps, tourist destinations and zero-gravity airplane flights are other examples of earthbound entertainment with space themes. To celebrate the Sputnik anniversary, nine students from around the world will be taking a zero-gravity flight from Las Vegas on Saturday, thanks to the sponsors of World Space Week.


Even Schmitt has space-based entertainment on his mind. For years, he's been working with retired professor Ron Wells on the concept for a virtual-reality simulation of lunar landing sites. Players would put on VR headsets and walk around a modeled moonscape, seeing high-resolution lunar vistas in a 3-D setting.


In a series of e-mails, Wells told me that he's looking into the financial as well as the technical aspects of the project. The plans could heat up after next year's scheduled launch of NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter.


"A major inroad to really seeing what the moon looks like as the astronauts themselves saw it will occur when the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter starts sending back extremely high resolution images of the lunar surface," Wells said. "I hope to be in a position by that time to be able to do something more than just talk about it."


Schmitt said the project could take on a more serious purpose in the years ahead.


"It will provide not only that opportunity for the public to visit at least the last three mission landing sites ... but it also is going to be something that will be very useful, I think, in training future explorers of the moon as well as future settlers of the moon."


Meanwhile, on the high end of the entertainment spectrum, five people have paid up to $25 million each to buy Russian rides to the international space station. A sixth "private space explorer" (also known as space tourist) made himself known just last week. Virginia-based Space Adventures brokered all those trips - and the company's president and chief executive officer, Eric Anderson, told me that many more such trips could be on the way.


"Within five years' time we could be signing up 10 people per year on orbital flights," he said today.


Anderson said his company has proved that private enterprise can make space travel profitable.


"We've created a new market," he said. "People before Dennis Tito's flight did not believe that someone would pay $20 million, let alone $30 million or $40 million, to go to orbit. ... I think that the work that we've done here on the eve of the next 50 years in space will certainly be a huge motivator."


Space Adventures' next giant leap would be a $100 million-per-seat tour around the moon, which the company is offering in cooperation with the Russian space agency. "I love that mission, but I'm still working on it," Anderson told me. "We're just going to have to see."


Sustaining the private space travel trend will require cheaper flights, for suborbital as well as orbital excursions. Several companies are aiming to fill that need, including SpaceX and Rocketplane Kistler, PlanetSpace and t/Space, SpaceDev, Constellation Services International and Spacehab.


It's worth noting that in addition to the Sputnik anniversary, today marks the third anniversary of SpaceShipOne's prize-winning launch. But it's also worth noting that the picture for private-sector spaceflight is still hazy. Rocketplane's current troubles, most recently documented on NASASpaceFlight.com and Space Fellowship, illustrate how difficult the job can be.


3. Energy
If there's ever going to be a space gold rush, it will take more than entertainment. After all, Christopher Columbus didn't sail to America 500 years ago just to take passengers on tours of the ocean blue. He was looking for trade advantages, and riches as well.


Anderson expects that the payoffs from space exploration will become more attractive in the decades ahead. "In 100 years or more, or even sooner, space will be far more critical to our welfare on Earth even than it is now," he said. "Being able to use the resources in space, and perfect transportation systems that can take us to space, is something we have to do."


When Anderson talks about resources in space, he's not necessarily talking about shipping space rocks back to Earth. Sure, some folks may put their faith in asteroid mining, but the bigger prize would be cheaper energy from space.


One oft-mentioned option is electrical power collected by space satellite systems and then beamed down to Earth, perhaps as microwaves. A Pentagon study recently said the idea was interesting enough to pursue further - and next week, space advocates and Apollo 11 moonwalker Buzz Aldrin will be announcing the formation of a new alliance to push for space solar power.


Schmitt has another energy strategy in mind: extracting helium-3 from lunar soil and transporting it to Earth for use in future fusion reactors. Helium-3 is a substance that's rare on Earth but much more abundant on the moon, and Schmitt argues that it would make an environmentally clean, economically affordable fuel once the fusion process is perfected.


"The economics are competitive with the current price of coal, and as energy prices go up, they just become increasingly competitive with those other energy sources that we use today on Earth," he said.


Commercial fusion power may sound as much like science fiction as affordable moon travel, but Schmitt insists that researchers at the University of Wisconsin at Madison and elsewhere are making progress toward a workable reactor that would use helium-3.


"It's not pie in the sky," Schmitt told me. "These things are happening. Of course, break-even is a long way away, but it still is something that has gone forward with very, very little funding."


Would it still be worth the risk and expense to ferry helium-3 from the moon to Earth? If the fusion dream really does come to pass, and if the ore extraction and delivery could be done robotically, Schmitt's calculations could conceivably make sense. For more on the concept, you can delve into his book, "Return to the Moon."


4. Empire building
When enthusiasts gush about moon tours, space solar power and fusion fuel, it's sometimes easy to forget that we already have a huge economic stake in keeping the peace on Earth's satellite frontier. Over the past 50 years, satellites have revolutionized daily life - and if further space exploitation can yield even higher returns, that just raises the stakes for defending against an orbital "Pearl Harbor" attack.


This January, China sparked a mini-Sputnik spat when it fired a rocket to shoot down one of its own satellites. Other countries feared that such test shots could eventually open the way to space warfare - although Chinese officials said that wasn't their intent. Nevertheless, the old concerns about national competitiveness have been reawakened by recent developments, including NASA Administrator Michael Griffin's view that Chinese astronauts could well set foot on the moon before American astronauts return there.


"For the United States to sit back and let other nations move forward in this arena would be extraordinarily detrimental to our self-esteem, as well as to our ability to compete in other arenas on this planet," Schmitt said. "Whether we think we have a choice or not, we do not - particularly with respect to China."


Of course, the world has changed since Sputnik in 1957 and Apollo in 1969. Washington and Moscow aren't the only ones with space programs anymore - and NASA can no longer presume to speak "for all mankind."


To keep the peace, Russia, China, Japan, India, Europe and other space players will have to have a piece of the action. Just this week, the Secure World Foundation issued a call for a global space action plan, complete with an international space traffic management system and cooperative space surveillance system.


Some parts of the plan may sound too utopian, but an international approach to managing satellites, orbital debris and potential threats from near-Earth objects is already taking shape. After all, in the long run, we're all in this together.


5. Extinction avoidance
In the long run, we're all dead. But we still hope that civilization will endure even after our own bodies have turned back into stardust. Underlying the next phase of the space age is the idea that the human species will have to extend itself outward to new frontiers, if it is to survive a future cataclysm like the asteroid strike that killed off the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.


Sure, the chances of a civilization-killer - or even a "cosmic Katrina" caused by a smaller space rock - are astronomically low. But now is as good a time as any to start the outward push, Space Adventures' Anderson said.


"All of this is something that is very long term, but of critical need to humanity," he told me. "Commercial human spaceflight is a small part. Maybe it's not such a small part. Maybe it's a big part."




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Earth- or Mars-like body likely forming in HD 113766 star system


Earth- or Mars-like body likely forming in HD 113766 star system


A planetesimal that could look very closely like Earth or Mars is forming around one of the stars of a binary star system called HD 113766, which is about 424 light-years away from us. It was found with the use of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope.


The article confirming the discovery was written by Dr. Carey M. Lisse, a research scientist in the Space Department of the Applied Physics Laboratory, at The Johns Hopkins University, Laurel, Maryland. It is called "Circumstellar Dust Created by Terrestrial Planet Formation in HD 113766." The article will be published in a future issue of Astrophysical Journal.



Lisse's finding will also be presented at the 39th annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Sciences (DPS) in Orlando, Florida, which will be held between October 7 to 12, 2007.


According to Lisse, the star system is ten to sixteen million years old, which makes it ideal for forming a rocky planet like Earth or Mars. The planetesimal, a body that is likely to evolve into a planet, is within the system's terrestrial habitable zone-that is, a region (with regards to distance and temperature) around a star where liquid water could exist on surfaces of any of the rocky planets that might eventually develop. Earth, by comparison, is centrally located within the Sun's terrestrial habitable zone. Such regions around stars are likely areas for life to eventually develop.


One of the stars of the HD 113766 system has a large warm dust belt around it that looks to be forming planets. The materials in the dust belt have yet to totally separate into distinct areas of heavy metals and rocks, which is expected in early development of planets.


In fact, Lisse states, "The timing for this system to be building an Earth is very good. If the system was too young, its planet-forming disk would be full of gas, and it would be making gas-giant planets like Jupiter instead. If the system was too old, then dust aggregation or clumping would have already occurred and all the system's rocky planets would have already formed."



The HD 113766 star system is located in the direction of the Scorpio-Centaurus (Sco-Cen) Association-that is, an association means that it is classified as a moving group, or a very loosely based star cluster. It is visible on Earth from the southern hemisphere. The HD 113766 system is specifically one of the outer members of the Scorpio-Centaurus Association.


Both stars in the system are somewhat hotter, larger, and more luminous, than Earth's Sun-but, generally very similar to it.




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Brighter supernovae make dark energy even murkier


Brighter supernovae make dark energy even murkier


Long-term changes in the average supernova's brightness may interfere with measurements of dark energy made by future missions like the proposed Supernova Acceleration Probe (SNAP) (Illustration: SNAP)


The average brightness of stellar explosions that astronomers rely on to measure dark energy - the mysterious force causing our universe to expand faster and faster - has actually changed over time, a new study reports. The authors say uncertainties in gauging the brightness might throw off future measurements of dark energy in unpredictable ways.


To measure the expansion of the universe and discern the effects of dark energy, scientists rely on explosions called type Ia supernovae, which are thought to signal the deaths of white dwarf stars.


These explosions can vary in brightness, but their brightness is correlated with how long they last. That means astronomers can theoretically distinguish between bursts that are bright but distant and those that are faint but close, allowing them to be used as 'standard candles' whose brightness can be used to estimate astronomical distances.


But even though researchers knew their brightness could vary, they assumed that the overall ratio of different 'wattages' remained constant over the history of the universe. Now, a new study led by Andrew Howell of the University of Toronto in Canada suggests that explosions in the early universe were brighter on average than those occurring today, casting doubt on their use as accurate distance gauges.


High precision


The team pored over data from the Supernova Legacy Survey and the Higher z Supernova Search. They found that brighter supernovae, which last longer than dimmer ones, were more common further back in time than they are today - a finding that may lend support to the notion that there are multiple ways to create the explosions.


The researchers calculate that supernovae were on average 12% brighter 8 billion years ago than they are now.


The effect is not large enough to prompt scientists to question the existence of dark energy. But it suggests that the corrections that have been used in the past to calculate a supernova's intrinsic brightness from its duration may limit the precision of future supernova surveys.


That could severely hinder cosmologists' understanding of dark energy, since high-precision observations are needed to find out whether the strength of dark energy has changed over time - a key to determining whether it is an unchanging property of space itself or a varying energy field.


Large samples


Adam Riess of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, US, who led one of the two teams that independently discovered dark energy in 1998 using supernovae, says the shift in the average supernova brightness could affect dark energy measurements.


But only if the corrections that are already in use are not quite right. "We don't know that there are inaccuracies in the corrections," he told New Scientist. "The problem is if after the corrections there are still errors."


Howell says it is unclear whether precise enough corrections can be made. "If we are going to make the next leap to measuring changes in dark energy with time, it requires a correction to better than 2%," Howell told New Scientist. "We don't have enough supernovae discovered yet to be able to tell if that kind of precision is achievable."


Stellar birthrates


Even if this produces errors, there are ways to combat them, Riess says. For example, with enough supernovae, one could do separate calculations using either the brighter supernovae or the dimmer ones. If the results agreed, then it would be safe to conclude that the corrections are working properly and the dark energy calculations are sound.


Alternative methods of measuring dark energy - such as looking at the large-scale distribution of galaxies in space - could also provide an independent test of supernovae studies.


Why the early universe had more of the brighter type 1a supernovae remains a mystery. But one clue comes from observations showing that the brighter ones seem to occur more often where stars are forming at a high rate - and stellar birthrates were higher in the early universe




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Social networking helps drive server sales


Social networking helps drive server saleso


SOcial networking is pushing up server sales despite the increasing adoption of server-efficient virtualization technology, according to Sun Microsystems.



Virtualization squeezes more computing muscle out of fewer physical servers, so as its use becomes more widespread, it should help slow server sales.


But Richard Green, executive vice president of software at Sun, said there is no shortage of demand for hardware because of data-heavy applications such as social-networking Web sites demanding more storage space, resulting in server counts "going through the roof."


Sun has been bringing virtualization into its business for the past few years to help it build revenue, after struggling in the post-dot-com crash period.


But the marrying of virtual and physical tools is causing "real havoc" in data centers with ad hoc, internally developed management tools not doing the job effectively, according to Green.


"The whole idea of any innovation (such as virtualization) is to give you the tools to throw at a set of problems," he said. "But with that comes increasing complexity."


Sun said it will launch an open-source virtualization management tool this December, which will be able to run on any operating system.


Earlier this month Sun's chief executive, Jonathan Schwartz, announced the company would be merging its server and storage teams into a converged system team, with the aim of putting a stronger focus on virtualization.




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Ig Nobel awards celebrate the sillier side of science


Ig Nobel awards celebrate the sillier side of science


Good news for your Viagra-using hamster: On his next trip to Europe, he'll bounce back from jet lag faster than his unmedicated friends.


The researchers who revealed that bizarre fact earned one of 10 Ig Nobel prizes awarded Thursday night for quirky, funny and sometimes legitimate scientific achievements, from the mathematics of wrinkled sheets to U.S. military efforts to make a "gay bomb."


The recipients of the annual award handed out by the Annals of Improbable Research magazine were honored at Harvard University's Sanders Theater.


A team at Quilmes National University in Buenos Aires, Argentina, came up with the jet-lag study, which found that hamsters given the anti-impotence drug needed 50 percent less time to recover from a six-hour time zone change. They didn't fly rodents to Paris, incidentally -- they just turned the lights off and on at different times.


Odd as it might be, that research might have implications for millions of humans. The same cannot be said for another winning report, "Sword Swallowing and its Side Effects," published in the British Medical Journal last year.


It was the world's first comprehensive study of sword-swallowing injuries, said co-author Dan Meyer of Antioch, Tennessee, one of only a few dozen active sword swallowers in the world. Not surprisingly, throat abrasions, perforated esophagi and punctured blood vessels were the most common injuries.


"Most sword-swallowing injuries happen either after another smaller injury when the throat is tender and swollen, or while doing something out of the ordinary, like swallowing multiple swords," said Meyer, who went a month without solid food after doing the latter in 2005.



The Ig Nobel for nutrition went to a concept that sounds like a restaurant marketing ploy: a bottomless bowl of soup.


Cornell University professor Brian Wansink used bowls rigged with tubes that slowly and imperceptibly refilled them with creamy tomato soup to see if test subjects ate more than they would with a regular bowl.


"We found that people eating from the refillable soup bowls ended up eating 73 percent more soup, but they never rated themselves as any more full," said Wansink, a professor of consumer behavior and applied economics. "They thought 'How can I be full when the bowl has so much left in it?' "


His conclusion: "We as Americans judge satiety with our eyes, not with our stomachs."


Harvard professor of applied mathematics L. Mahadevan and professor Enrique Cerda Villablanca of Universidad de Santiago in Chile won for their studies on a problem that has vexed anyone who ever made up a bed: wrinkled sheets.


The wrinkle patterns seen on sheets are replicated in nature on human and animal skin, in science and in technology.


"We showed that you can understand all of them using a very simple formula," Mahadevan said.


His research, he says, shows that "there's no reason good science can't be fun."


Other winners include a Dutch researcher who conducted a census of all the creepy-crawlies that share our beds, and a man who patented a Batman-like device that drops a net over bank robbers.


This year's planned Ig Nobel program included a two-minute speech by keynote speaker Doug Zongker consisting only of the word "chicken," and a mini-opera entitled "Chicken versus Egg," performed by professional mother-daughter opera singers Gail Kilkelly and Maggie McNeil.


Most winners are more than happy to accept their awards from real Nobel laureates at the typically rowdy ceremony, including seven of the 10 winners this year. But there are still a few sticks-in-the-mud, magazine editor Marc Abrahams said.


The U.S. Air Force won the Ig Nobel Peace Prize this year for its proposal to develop a "gay bomb" -- a chemical weapon that would make enemy soldiers want to make love with each other, not war with the enemy.


Abrahams talked to a number of retired and active Air Force personnel to try and get someone to accept the prize in person on behalf of the military. None would.


"Who in their right mind would turn something like this down?" Wansink said




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NASA chief: China will beat us back to the moon


The Soviets beat the United States at getting a satellite, and a man, into space. Now, the Chinese may get to the moon before the U.S. can make a return visit.
Fifty years after Sputnik became the world's first artificial satellite, a new race is under way with the finish line on the moon. NASA, the former lunar champion, already is predicting defeat.


"I personally believe that China will be back on the moon before we are," NASA Administrator Michael Griffin said in a low-key lecture in Washington two weeks ago, marking the space agency's 50th anniversary, still a year away.


"I think when that happens, Americans will not like it. But they will just have to not like it."


Griffin's candor startled many in the space community, but insiders acknowledge the reality. China has pulled off two manned spaceflights with its own rockets and is eager to head for the moon.


NASA has a 2020 deadline for returning Americans to the moon. China would like to beat that.


It has a probe poised for a launch to the moon, supposedly before year's end. The lunar orbiter is to be followed by a lander and then, by 2017, a robotic mission to return moon rocks. Whether China could land one of its "taikonauts" there before American astronauts arrive is uncertain.


The U.S. is "more technically advanced. We certainly could be back on the moon faster than the Chinese, but we don't have the political will and therefore the resources to do it," said Joan Johnson-Freese, head of the Naval War College's national security decision-making department.


Russia -- the early day winner with the launch of Sputnik on October 4, 1957, and the first spaceman, Yuri Gagarin, on April 12, 1961 -- is no longer the competitor it was under the Soviet Union banner.


Although Russia is a key player in the international space station, with its Soyuz rockets regularly ferrying crews and cargo, it's figuring to team up with the United States in the moon arena.


It was just four years ago that China became only the third country in the world to launch its own rockets with people on board. Now it is aiming to build its own space station to orbit Earth, as well as a mission to the moon in 10 to 15 years.


Unlike the intense, cash-heavy days of the late 1950s and 1960s, budget constraints have slowed NASA's previous rocket-fast pace. It will be 16 years from the time President Bush set the lunar goal in 2004 -- if NASA even gets to the moon by 2020.


That's twice as long as it took after President Kennedy issued the challenge in 1961; Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin fulfilled it in July 1969.


"Apollo was a Cold War program. It was as much a war-fighting program as any tank or plane," and both the U.S. and Soviet Union were starting from the same place, Johnson-Freese said. The Chinese, on the other hand, started halfway up the learning curve, she noted, having borrowed their spacecraft design from the Russians.


NASA insists it's not a race anymore, with grander, longer-range goals than Apollo's flags and footprints. Think lunar bases, with encapsulated minivans for transporting astronauts.


"The U.S. has to get over this feeling that it has to be a competition," said White House science adviser John Marburger.


Competition or no, the prize will encompass more than any lunar treasures.


"I think we will see, as we have seen with China's introductory manned space flights so far, we will see again that nations look up to nations that appear to be at the top of the technical pyramid and they want to do deals with those nations," Griffin said.


"That's one of the things that made us the world's greatest economic power. So I think we'll be reinstructed in that lesson in the coming years."





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'Old fuddy-duddy -- Brian Reid ' age discrimination suit against Google

Brian Reid will get his chance to prove Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) fired him because he was too old.

The California Sixth District Court of Appeal ruled Thursday that the Santa Clara County Superior Court erred in siding with Google and rejecting Mr. Reid’s claims.

Mr. Reid was sacked in 2004 after working for the Internet search giant for nearly two years as its director of engineering and director of operations.

He was 54 at the time.

A tech industry legend who claims Google fired him because he was too old to fit into the company "culture" has just won another shot at making his case in court.

A California state appeals court in San Jose on Thursday threw out a lower court's decision to dismiss a lawsuit brought by Internet pioneer Brian Reid. He's best known for helping to create the first firewall, the pioneering AltaVista Internet search engine and the alt.* hierarchy of newsgroups in Usenet.

Reid, who was 54 when he filed his lawsuit in 2004, came to Google as its director of operations and director of engineering in June 2002. He was ultimately fired in February 2004, when he was told by his supervisor that he was not a "cultural fit," according to court filings. For those keeping score, that was not long before Google announced its initial public offering, which Reid's attorneys argued deprived him of millions of dollars in potential stock earnings.

According to court papers, Reid's Google colleagues frequently to him as "old man," "old guy," and "old fuddy-duddy" during his time with the search giant. His boss, then 38-year-old Urs Hoelzle, also made age-related remarks about his performance every few weeks, dismissed his opinions and ideas as "obsolete" and "too old to matter," and called him "fuzzy," "lethargic," and other energy-lacking descriptors, the court filings said. Google, for its part, argued it let Reid go because it eliminated the department, an in-house graduate degree program, to which he had recently been reassigned.

The appeals court said a jury should have been allowed to consider a number of pieces of evidence that Reid presented in support of his case. In addition to the "ageist" comments Reid cited, he also commissioned a statistical analysis, which found younger Google employees typically received better performance ratings and higher bonuses
Google spokesman Jon Murchison said the company doesn't comment on ongoing litigation, "but as our court filings have stated, we believe this complaint to be unfounded and will vigorously defend against

Canada Changes Course -attempt to curb greenhouse gases that cause climate change.

Time has come to think newer for the environment and climate ,have to think about global warming effect .
Canada is changing course when it comes to dealing with climate change. Under Prime Minister Stephen Harper, it will quit participating in the Kyoto Protocol when it expires in 2012 and will join the Asia-Pacific partnership.
Ken Silverstein
EnergyBiz Insider
Editor-in-Chief

The two treaties both attempt to curb greenhouse gases that cause climate change. But the Kyoto Protocol is mandatory with definite timetables whereas the Asia-Pacific Partnership does not set any rigid requirements. The Canadian prime minister, a long time skeptic of Kyoto, made his announcement last week at a United Nations conference to extend and redefine Kyoto's requirement beyond 2012.

Canada must balance its obligations to the environment with those of its own economy, Harper says. And the nation cannot be disadvantaged if other major emitters are not willing to agree to compulsory cuts in greenhouse gases. With that in mind, Canada will join the United States, Australia, Japan, China, India and Korea in the alternative alliance - a group that accounts for half the world's greenhouse gas emissions.

"These are discussions we want to get involved in because these are the people that have to get involved in an effective international protocol, or we won't have such a protocol," Harper told reporters after the UN conference. "This will be another international forum where Canada can pursue its objectives in terms of fighting climate change."

Canada will remain a party to the Kyoto pact through 2012. That agreement, ratified by 173 nations in 2004, calls on developed nations to cut their greenhouse gas emissions by 6 percent from 1990 levels. They are to do so by 2012.

Canada and the European Union were instrumental in the effort to get the protocol ratified. The United States had refused to join it while major developing countries like China and India were exempted from early emissions. The agreement was initially signed by Canada's liberal government. Conservatives, however, protested it and said it would cost jobs and have little effect on emissions. They now point out that Canada's annual greenhouse gas releases are about 25 percent higher than they were in 1990.

The nations that joined Kyoto are required to submit reports that detail their progress. Beside Canada, Finland, New Zealand and Spain are at least 20 percent off target. Any country that fails to meet its 6 percent goal by 2012 must then increase its obligation by 30 percent during the next commitment period. Such nations also have to develop a blueprint that outlines their future plan of action.

Ironically, the purpose of the UN conference had been to galvanize support for Kyoto and to refine the climate change pact going forward. UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon is a strong backer of the international protocol and definitive action to control carbon emissions, saying "the time for doubt has passed."

Critics Speak

In making his announcement at the UN conference, Prime Minister Harper had hoped to portray his government as conciliatory and concerned when it comes to combating climate change. Like others, he called on nations to curb their heat trapping emissions by 50 percent by 2050, although he said that binding targets are unwise.

Critics of Harpers actions, such as Sierra Club of Canada, said that the prime minister not only undercut the UN secretary general but that he also embarrassed his fellow countrymen. Other high profile participants at the UN conference did not take direct shots at Harper but they did at his ideas. Among those present were former U.S. Vice President Al Gore and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who have referred to the Asia-Pacific Partnership as "Kyoto Lite."

Kyoto's backers say that its provisions will have a nominal effect on Canada's economy, noting that growth is expected to occur, but at 0.4 percent less than it would otherwise. Any economic risks pale in comparison to the environmental consequences of doing nothing, they add. Rising sea levels and massive floods present an even greater danger and would cause trillions in economic damages.

Canada's new position is a blow to Kyoto's backers and comes amidst a summit to be held in Bali, Indonesia in December. That's when the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change will work to stretch Kyoto's lifespan beyond 2012. All signatories of the protocol are now figuring out how to minimize their use of fossil fuels and to increase their use of wind, solar and energy conservation.

By comparison, the Asia-Pacific Partnership is voluntary and relies entirely on free market approaches to fighting climate change. Like Kyoto's participants, it also would use trading exchanges to accomplish the standards it sets. Participants, for example, could establish non-binding limits on emission levels. Those nations that exceed their goals could sell credits to those that are unable to meet their obligations.

At the same time, this alternative alliance would promote the use of new technologies by easing the transfer of them to nations around the globe. Indeed, the development of new technologies is at the heart of the battle against global warming. Along those lines, Canada is working on carbon capture and storage technologies. Before any carbon emissions would be released, they would be sequestered and buried. "Canada is working on a variety of strategies," says Harper.

In expressing his skepticism of the Kyoto Protocol, the prime minister makes valid arguments. Nevertheless, the push to improve air quality will remain a constant and by extension, the concerns surrounding global warming will not fade. The international community will pressure Canada and other nations to create more definitive plans on how they expect to reduce their emission levels and the subsequent greenhouse gases.

Tidal Energy summit- 28th & 29th NOVEMBER 2007

Tidal energy, it's more predictable than wind energy or solar power. It's capable of capturing four times MORE energy than anything air based. Increasing the commercial adoption rate of tidal technology requires increasing the availability of proven technology components via adoption of mass production and persistent government support to enable this technology to constantly evolve. Meeting the true needs of society without comprising the economy or the environment.

Naturally, there are challenges such as regulation, security of supply, supply chain issues, grid connection and network capacity. And no-one is minimising the difficulties that lie ahead. Nevertheless, tidal energy seems to be on course to meet the power needs of 1,600,000 UK homes by 2020 – a figure that equates to three per cent of the country's total electricity supply.

Not bad going for a technology that is barely out of R&D and poised to enter the make-or-break innovation cycle. Moreover, with Wave Hub and EMEC fully booked, it's clear that prototype testing is really taking off - and with the launch of NaREC, realistic simulation for large-scale tidal testing is now available.

Add to this the Government's one-stop shop for offshore renewables planning applications to speed up the process of making marine technology an everyday reality – a clear indication of support to this embryonic yet hugely exciting space – and the time is right for tidal energy to take centre stage at a Summit that's dedicated to the practicalities of moving from ‘great idea' to ‘business reality'.

Be part of the event that will help set the agenda for the next phase of tidal energy development – and bring innovators face to face with industry trail-blazers and serious potential investors

With more than twenty devices set to go onto the market, competition is about to get fierce – and inevitably, the funding available is already regarded as limited, making the demand for proven results critical.

All of which spells perfect timing for the UK's first tidal-dedicated event to examine the specific challenges currently being faced by all who work within the tidal industry and the solutions you need to ensure success over the next 12 months

Quite simply, we aim to get you into the water, help you gain genuine technical experience offshore, build confidence within the investment world and ultimately be able to deliver a commercially viable product that will revolutionise the way tidal energy generation is perceived.

Such is the importance of the Tidal Energy Summit that we have already attracted speakers of the very highest calibre. Giving you the opportunity to meet and talk business with the MDs and CEOs of companies like Marine Current Turbines, Lunar Energy, Pulse Generation and BWEA. You'll hear from the BERR, Greenpeace and the International Energy Council. And have the opportunity to talk numbers with Barclays, Econnect and Black and Veatch. Others that can play an important role in your success include NaREC, EMEC, SeaRoc, ecofly (E-concern) and One NorthEast. Hear academic advances from Edinburgh University and Trailblazer Business Futures and this is just for starters!

Over the past few months we've spoken to more than fifty of your peers, in order to identify – and address – the business-critical challenges you've identified. Which means that if you consider yourself a pioneer, innovator or visionary, you won't feel out of place at the Tidal Energy Summit.

In a nutshell, here's what you've told us:
"The market needs to deliver a machine in the water that satisfies the needs of the end user and hence stimulates the supply chain to mobilise. We need to act now in order to create a market and create competition. Only from this will a direct route to market become evident. But first we need to address four specific challenges..."

Four business-critical issues that are at the top of your professional agenda right now – with the solutions that can help you achieve a well-rewarded, market-leading position in the months ahead

THE TECHNOLOGY: Survivability, reliability and maintenance are essential core components that have to measure up to the most exacting of high standards. While testing centres allow monitoring, they are only part of the process. Your prototypes must survive outside of the test centre – even full-scale models will fail to capture any serious money. But scaling is a difficult process that requires you to reshape your workforce. At the Tidal Energy Summit, you'll discover how to drive down the cost of production by looking in-depth at processes used by production engineers to find the optimum size for your turbine.
FINANCE: The Marine Renewable Deployment Fund can help get your projects started – but what then? Key sessions of the Summit will address financial mechanisms such as equity, grant funding, debt funding and access. You'll be crystal clear on what's needed to make our fledgling industry viable, commercial and competitive – and meet valuable contacts who could help you secure the extra funding that's so vital.
COST-EFFECTIVE DEPLOYMENT AND INSTALLATION: It's often a daunting, costly process – which is why this is your chance to leverage the experience of oil, gas and ship-building companies that have overcome these barriers, installed large devices to the sea floor and established cost-efficient operation and maintenance strategies. At present, vessels deemed suitable are in short supply, therefore they can dictate the price. But with experts like SeaRoc present, we'll show you the full extent of options available to make your project more cost effective – without comprising performance.
LICENSING: The system of proposals being dealt with in chronological order is hugely frustrating – and costly, too. While there's much to consider – including potential conflicts with other water users and estimates of potential environmental damage – this is further compounded when you consider that the electricity you generate will need to be connected to the land to serve a community. Would looking at pre-commercial proposals first in parallel with banding be better? Or still unnecessarily expensive? During what promises to be a controversial Summit session, we've gathered together senior people who have a real hand in deciding your licensing fate.
A powerful – and unique – forum for networking with people who can help you take your business to the next level – and beyond

When you come to examine the full Summit Agenda, you'll see how the sessions mesh together to help you make the vital leap from the lab to the water. This is an event where practicalities are at the forefront. No classroom talk or empty theory. Instead, we guarantee to deliver strategies, techniques and methods that will help boost your return on investment – and give you a competitive edge when it comes to taking devices from the lab to the sea.

You can be sure that if you attend this event you will gain a wealth of knowledge and intelligence on core issues. No matter whether your prime need is to; scale your device, understand the essentials of operation and maintenance, learn tactics that will enable you to successfully deployment and install your device whilst avoiding costly pitfalls or guarantee yourself a consenting license without any hold ups then this is for you!

By the time the Summit ends, you'll be armed with the knowledge and information you need to refine your business strategy and ensure you're ready to claim your share of a green industrial revolution that's going to be worth £600 million.

Bat and mouse game -the Informational Graphics category of the 2007 International Science and Technology Visualization Challenge


This image by MIT researchers, based on a computer model of a bat in flight, won first place in the Informational Graphics category of the 2007 International Science and Technology Visualization Challenge.

"When viewed in slow motion, bat flight is beautiful and complex. The goal of this illustration is to capture that beauty while also adding scientific merit," David J. Willis, a research scientist in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, told Science magazine. The competition is sponsored by Science, published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the National Science Foundation.

Willis created the winning image with Professor Jaime Peraire of aeronautics and astronautics and several colleagues from Brown University led by Professor Kenneth Breuer.

For the contest, illustrators, photographers, computer programmers, and graphics specialists from around the world were invited to submit visualizations that would intrigue, explain and educate. More than 200 entries were received from 23 countries, representing every continent except the Arctic and Antarctica.

"Breakthroughs in science and engineering are often portrayed in movies and literature as 'ah-ha!' moments. What these artists and communicators have given us are similar experiences, showing us how bats fly or how nicotine becomes physically addictive," said Jeff Nesbit, director of NSF's Office of Legislative and Public Affairs. "We look at their visualizations, and we understand."

Bat and mouse game -the Informational Graphics category of the 2007 International Science and Technology Visualization Challenge


This image by MIT researchers, based on a computer model of a bat in flight, won first place in the Informational Graphics category of the 2007 International Science and Technology Visualization Challenge.

"When viewed in slow motion, bat flight is beautiful and complex. The goal of this illustration is to capture that beauty while also adding scientific merit," David J. Willis, a research scientist in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, told Science magazine. The competition is sponsored by Science, published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and the National Science Foundation.

Willis created the winning image with Professor Jaime Peraire of aeronautics and astronautics and several colleagues from Brown University led by Professor Kenneth Breuer.

For the contest, illustrators, photographers, computer programmers, and graphics specialists from around the world were invited to submit visualizations that would intrigue, explain and educate. More than 200 entries were received from 23 countries, representing every continent except the Arctic and Antarctica.

"Breakthroughs in science and engineering are often portrayed in movies and literature as 'ah-ha!' moments. What these artists and communicators have given us are similar experiences, showing us how bats fly or how nicotine becomes physically addictive," said Jeff Nesbit, director of NSF's Office of Legislative and Public Affairs. "We look at their visualizations, and we understand."

Affordable Solar Power On The Horizon


Affordable Solar Power On The Horizon


Environmentally friendly solar panels may be an affordable alternative to conventional power sources within the next ten years, as a result of a new initiative launched this week.


The project, funded by the Carbon Trust, will be led by the University of Cambridge's Cavendish Laboratory in collaboration with The Technology Partnership.


Currently solar panels are made from silicon, which makes them expensive to manufacture and therefore cost prohibitive for many. However, new technology being researched at Cambridge uses plastic to create solar cells, a much more cost effective and energy efficient method.


The scientists have already developed a small prototype solar panel that can power a calculator. The next step will be to advance this technology so that it can be easily applied on a much larger scale and ultimately be manufactured in large sheets of plastic. These sheets will be able to sit on a wide range of surfaces, including windows or building roofs, to capture solar energy. Simple applications could also include chargers for mobile telephones or laptop computers.


If the project succeeds in its aim to deploy more than 1 gigawatt of power using the new solar panels by 2017, it could deliver CO2 savings of more than 1 million tonnes per year.


Sir Richard Friend, Cavendish Professor of Physics in the University of Cambridge, said:


"We are delighted to work with The Technology Partnership and the Carbon Trust on solar energy. This is a timely opportunity to build on technology developed in the University, and we will capitalise on the local Cambridge strengths in taking science to manufacturing."


For further information, please contact the University of Cambridge Office of Communications on 01223 332300.



MORE NEWS......

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Regardless of what people believe about Global Warming--the fact is that the population is growing and we need affordable clean renewable energy sources. Many do not want more nuclear plants built and most renewable energy systems available for purchase are approximately $40,000 or more. NOW There is a better solution on the horizon.


Several Fortune 500 companies have teamed up with a Delaware Company to invest over $650 Million into a solar panel rental program that is targeting to "solarize" 25% of American single family homes. Rental fees will consist of the locked current electricity rate guaranteed not to increase over the time of the contract (up to 25 years). Only a small refundable security deposit is required.


Renewable Energy Credits will help to support this project. The latest technology in photovoltaic solar panels will be rolling off the assembly lines later 2007. Applications are currently being accepted for qualifying U.S. residential homes. It is prudent to reserve a system early if interested in affordable alternative energy.
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The Wireless Revolution is Here


While it is certainly wise to implement the robust, agile capabilities of a modern Network Monitoring Solution, the biggest and most expensive in not necessarily the best. Learn the truth, critical mistakes, and best practices in choosing the best fit and system functionality for your business.




Motorola acquired Good Technology in January 2007 to form the Motorola Good Technology Group, a leader in enterprise wireless handheld computing software and services, delivering critical corporate information to the handhelds users choose, over the networks they prefer. Our Good Mobile Messaging and Good Mobile Intranet solutions extend enterprise applications - including Microsoft Outlook, Lotus Domino, intranets and certain web-enabled corporate applications - to mobile employees when and where they need them, using end-to-end AES encrypted, FIPS 140-2 certified security, and cradle-free, real-time two-way wireless synchronization.



New... Learn to address security risks in wireless handheld computing systems with a solution that provides end-to-end security.
Maintaining security while providing mobile workers with access to the information they need when and where they need it is complex. Protecting enterprise IT infrastructure requires a deep understanding of the risks associated with mobile applications, handhelds and wireless networks. This paper outlines how the Good wireless handheld computing system provides end-to-end security and how the Good System places security completely in the hands of IT managers and does not require users to set security parameters or make any security decisions.




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OB10 achieved a ranking of 33rd - the leading global B2B e-Invoicing network


OB10 is the leading global B2B e-Invoicing network. Customers of all sizes optimise their invoice processes with OB10 and benefit from improved efficiency and transparency within the Financial Supply Chain;



  • Founded in 2000

  • Regional Centres in London, Atlanta, Kuala Lumpur

  • Supporting Offices in Germany, Sofia and Bangalore

  • Compliant with the requirements of purchase tax and e-Invoicing legislation

  • A global trading network - thousands of companies across 90 countries


OB10 typically reduces the cost of paper invoice processing by 60% and delivers an ROI in less than a year.


Uniquely, to use OB10 neither buyers nor their suppliers need to implement any hardware or software. And with OB10's ANY-TO-ANY-DATA-FORMATTING, there is no need to change the file formats used at either end - OB10 takes care of the complex reformatting processes.


To enjoy the full benefits of e-Invoicing, usage is essential. OB10 ensures this by providing an unrivalled and rapid supplier enrolment service to take suppliers through the implementation process. These services are provided using our multi-national teams in one of our regional centres, providing local support with a global reach.


OB10, the global e-Invoicing network, has today announced that it has achieved a ranking of 33rd place in this year's The Sunday Times Microsoft Tech Track 100, the highly regarded league table of Britain's 100 fastest-growing private technology companies.

OB10 enables organisations to exchange electronic invoices, which increases efficiency, reduces costs, and helps to improve financial management. OB10 is also a "green" technology, helping to reduce the environmental impact caused by the manual production and distribution of paper invoices. The company now boasts members in over 90 countries and across six continents, making it the most comprehensive network of its kind.

"We are delighted to be included in The Sunday Times Microsoft Tech Track 100, and to see that our hard work and commitment to our customers is really making a difference for the company," says Jamie Gunn, CEO, OB10. "We truly believe in what we are doing - for our customers - and will continue to grow and develop through additional Research & Development, a number of new and enhanced services, and by forging even stronger relationships with our customers and business partners."

Tech Track 100 ranks Britain's fastest-growing private tech companies based on sales growth over the latest two years. This year, growth ranged from 52% pa to 514% pa, with sales typically between £3m and £25m. Companies on the league table have developed a diverse range of products and services, including synthetic bone graft material and e-commerce software.

Tech Track 100 is compiled by Fast Track and published in The Sunday Times each September, with an awards event in November. The companies featured in this year's The Sunday Times Microsoft Tech Track 100 have increased their sales by an average of 124% a year over a two-year period, to their latest available accounts.

Since its inception in 2000, OB10 has doubled its growth year on year, largely due to an increased number of buying organisations adopting its e-Invoicing solution, as well as an increase in the number of suppliers joining the network. As a result, the Company has continued to expand its operations with an increased presence in Germany, as well as expanded operations in Kuala Lumpur and Sofia, and moved its US Headquarters to bigger premises in Atlanta, Georgia.

In order to complement its e-Invoicing offering and offer even broader benefits to its customers, OB10 has also recently introduced a number of new enhanced services, including a range of Purchase Order Services which will allow buyers and suppliers to close the transaction loop in the purchase to invoice cycle. Likewise, a new Supplier Payment scheme will allow customers to combine advance supplier payment with carefully controlled cash flow management, whilst Invoice Status Checks will allow suppliers to see the status of their invoices after they have been delivered by OB10.

Japan probe succesfully approaches moon; who's next?



Japan's first lunar satellite successfully moved into orbit Friday on what officials call the most ambitious mission to study Earth's nearest neighbor since the U.S. Apollo project.


Japan's space agency said the probe, named after a folklore princess, was in high orbit over the moon and all was going well as it began a yearlong project to map and study the lunar surface.


The announcement marks a major step forward for Japan, which was once considered the leading space-faring nation in Asia but is now struggling to keep up with rival China.


In an increasingly heated Asian space race, both China and India plan lunar probes of their own _ China's could be launched in the next few months, while India's is to blast off next April. Friday's announcement, ironically, came one day after the 50th anniversary of the launch of the Russian Sputnik satellite, which marked the beginning of the race to the moon between the Soviet Union and the United States.


Japanese officials claim the 32-billion yen (US$279 million; euro201 million) Selenological and Engineering Explorer _ or SELENE _ is the largest lunar mission since the U.S. Apollo program of the 1960s and 70s in terms of overall scope and ambition, outpacing the former Soviet Union's Luna program and NASA's Clementine and Lunar Prospector projects.


``We believe this is a big step,'' said project manager Yoshisada Takizawa. ``Everything is going well and we are confident.''


The mission, which was delayed for four years, involves placing the main satellite _ called ``Kaguya,'' after a legendary moon princess _ in a circular orbit at an altitude of about 100 kilometers (60 miles) and deploying two smaller satellites in elliptical orbits, according to the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA.


The data they send back will be used for mapping the moon and studying its origin and evolution. Takizawa said it will begin its observation phase in mid- to late-December.


``The timing was very delicate,'' he said at a news conference in JAXA's Tokyo headquarters via a video link from the mission command center south of the capital. ``It was important to the completion of the mission, and it was successful.''


Japan launched its first satellite in 1970 and has marked several major scientific coups in space _ including a probe that made a rendezvous with an asteroid. Its domestically produced H-2A rocket is one of the world's most advanced and consistent.


But it has also been beset by delays and mishaps.


Earlier this year, one of its four spy satellites became unresponsive due to apparent electrical problems. The other three satellites were functioning normally, but the failure left its multibillion dollar (euro), long-awaited spy network with a significant hole.


Two years ago, a mission to Mars had to be abandoned after the probe moved off course, and a probe that neared an asteroid was supposed to bring back surface samples but is now lost in space. In January, JAXA gave up on a mission to land on the moon's surface. The Lunar-A probe, originally scheduled to lift off in 1995, was to plant two seismic sensors on the lunar surface, but development of the penetrator probes took so long the mission's mother ship fell into disrepair.


China, meanwhile, has made major gains.


Though no date has been formally set, China is planning to launch its own lunar ``by the end of the year.'' The Chang'e 1 orbiter will use stereo cameras and X-ray spectrometers to map three-dimensional images of the lunar surface and study its dust.


China sent shock waves through the region in 2003, when it became the first Asian country to put its own astronauts into space. More ominously, China also blasted an old satellite into oblivion with a land-based anti-satellite missile, the first such test ever conducted by any nation, including the United States and Russia.


That test was widely criticized for its military implications. A similar rocket could be used to shoot military satellites out of space, and create a dangerous haze of space debris.


India, meanwhile, also plans a manned space mission by 2015, using indigenous systems and technology. That will be preceded by an unmanned moon mission, Chandrayaan-1, next April.


Japan launched a moon probe in 1990, but that was a flyby mission.


The long-delayed SELINE was launched on Sept. 14 aboard an H-2A from Tanegashima, the remote island where the agency's space center is located. The probe carries sheets engraved with messages from 412,627 people around the world in a ``Wish upon the Moon'' publicity campaign.


The Kaguya spacecraft, aka Selene, was launched September 14 by the Japanese Space Agency and is expected to reach lunar orbit Thursday. This is the first of many planned trips to the moon by a new cast of space explorers.


China is expected to launch its first lunar exploration satellite later this month; India has plans for a moon launch in April 2008; the next U.S. moon mission is slated for 2008; and Russia could be flying private citizens around the moon and back as early as 2009. All of those countries are making plans to land a spacecraft on the moon by 2012--with astronauts and cosmonauts to follow soon after. Reports say Germany is also interested in joining the space community. Meanwhile, Google is offering $30 million to encourage private teams to land a rover on the moon by December 2012.


JAXA and the Japanese Broadcasting Corporation released the furthest high-definition image of the earth (left)--from about 68,000 miles away. It was taken by the Kaguya explorer from the halfway point of its journey to the moon.





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Halo' Creator Bungie to Become Independent


Microsoft will retain an undisclosed equity interest in Bungie. The announcement, made Friday, follows a post on the 8BitJoystick blogfrom earlier this week that leaked the news.


Microsoft Corp. confirmed that it will spin off Bungie Studios, developer of the "Halo 3" video game that recently set records for opening day sales


Practically speaking, not much will change, said Frank O'Connor, writing lead at Bungie. While he said that the move is "fiscally prudent" for Bungie because it will get a better share of profits, the company will continue to work closely with Microsoft on developing games for the Xbox console.


He left open the answer to a burning question from fans of other gaming platforms: Will Bungie write games for non-Xbox consoles? "In theory, yes," he said. But for a while the relatively small staff of 120 will continue to work on Xbox 360 games, he said. Projects for the midterm are already lined up and they're all based on the Microsoft console, he said.


"Honestly, we're really happy working on the 360," he said. "It's our platform of choice."


Bungie was once an independent company. Not quite 10 years ago it was acquired by Take 2 Interactive Software Inc. Later, Microsoft took a share in Bungie and then bought it outright.


Microsoft owns the intellectual property for "Halo," a series that just released its third and final game. "Halo 3" brought in sales of US$170 million in the U.S. the first day it became available. Microsoft says that's the best video game and entertainment launch in history. "Halo 3" sales reached $300 million globally on the first weekend.


Microsoft `Halo' Creator Bungie to Become Independent


Microsoft Corp.'s Bungie Studios, creator of the best-selling ``Halo'' video games, will become an independent company to build on the success of the alien-shooting title.


Microsoft, the world's biggest software maker, will maintain a stake in the company, which also developed the ``Marathon'' trilogy and the first two ``Myth'' games. Bungie will stay focused on games for Microsoft's Xbox system, according to a statement today. Terms of the agreement weren't disclosed.


Bungie, acquired in 2000, sought more independence from Microsoft as its ``Halo'' games drew millions of players to the Xbox system. The game's latest installment brought in sales of $300 million in the week after its Sept. 25 debut, making it the fastest-selling video game ever.


``The success of the `Halo' franchise gave us the kind of leverage where we could keep hedging further away from Microsoft,'' Frank O'Connor, the lead writer at Bungie Studios, said in an interview from Kirkland, Washington. ``Microsoft realized the best thing for our creativity and for Microsoft's profitability was to let us spread our wings.''


Microsoft, based in Redmond, Washington, will continue to support Bungie's development of ``Halo'' games. The company is banking on future editions to help make its Xbox unit profitable and close a gap with Nintendo's best-selling Wii system.


Bungie, founded in 1991, has been in spinoff talks with Microsoft for about a year, O'Connor said.


`Best Interest'


``It was in our best interest to support Bungie's desire to return to its independent roots,'' Shane Kim, corporate vice president of Microsoft game studios, said in an interview. ``There's really no change except Bungie's employees work for Bungie instead of Microsoft, and that's important to them.''


Microsoft shares rose 23 cents to $29.94 at 3:08 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The stock was little changed this year before today.


The success of ``Halo 3'' in its first week propelled sales of the Xbox 360 machine to double their weekly average, Microsoft said.


``It was a nit in the back of employees' minds that they just wanted to be independent,'' said Harold Ryan, Bungie's studio head. ``The idea of being independent was something they were all romantically attached to.''


Chasing the Wii


Microsoft has pledged to make the Xbox division profitable this fiscal year, which ends next June. The business has lost $7 billion since the game machine first went on sale in 2001. Microsoft cut the price of the console by $50 to $349.99 to compete with the Wii, which sells for $249.


Nintendo's Wii sold about 400,000 units in August, compared with 277,000 for the Xbox 360, according to Port Washington, New York-based NPD Group Inc. Since its debut in November 2006, the Wii has sold 4 million units in the U.S. The Xbox, which came out a full year earlier than the Nintendo system, has sold 6.3 million. .




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Halo' Creator Bungie to Become Independent


Microsoft will retain an undisclosed equity interest in Bungie. The announcement, made Friday, follows a post on the 8BitJoystick blogfrom earlier this week that leaked the news.


Microsoft Corp. confirmed that it will spin off Bungie Studios, developer of the "Halo 3" video game that recently set records for opening day sales


Practically speaking, not much will change, said Frank O'Connor, writing lead at Bungie. While he said that the move is "fiscally prudent" for Bungie because it will get a better share of profits, the company will continue to work closely with Microsoft on developing games for the Xbox console.


He left open the answer to a burning question from fans of other gaming platforms: Will Bungie write games for non-Xbox consoles? "In theory, yes," he said. But for a while the relatively small staff of 120 will continue to work on Xbox 360 games, he said. Projects for the midterm are already lined up and they're all based on the Microsoft console, he said.


"Honestly, we're really happy working on the 360," he said. "It's our platform of choice."


Bungie was once an independent company. Not quite 10 years ago it was acquired by Take 2 Interactive Software Inc. Later, Microsoft took a share in Bungie and then bought it outright.


Microsoft owns the intellectual property for "Halo," a series that just released its third and final game. "Halo 3" brought in sales of US$170 million in the U.S. the first day it became available. Microsoft says that's the best video game and entertainment launch in history. "Halo 3" sales reached $300 million globally on the first weekend.


Microsoft `Halo' Creator Bungie to Become Independent


Microsoft Corp.'s Bungie Studios, creator of the best-selling ``Halo'' video games, will become an independent company to build on the success of the alien-shooting title.


Microsoft, the world's biggest software maker, will maintain a stake in the company, which also developed the ``Marathon'' trilogy and the first two ``Myth'' games. Bungie will stay focused on games for Microsoft's Xbox system, according to a statement today. Terms of the agreement weren't disclosed.


Bungie, acquired in 2000, sought more independence from Microsoft as its ``Halo'' games drew millions of players to the Xbox system. The game's latest installment brought in sales of $300 million in the week after its Sept. 25 debut, making it the fastest-selling video game ever.


``The success of the `Halo' franchise gave us the kind of leverage where we could keep hedging further away from Microsoft,'' Frank O'Connor, the lead writer at Bungie Studios, said in an interview from Kirkland, Washington. ``Microsoft realized the best thing for our creativity and for Microsoft's profitability was to let us spread our wings.''


Microsoft, based in Redmond, Washington, will continue to support Bungie's development of ``Halo'' games. The company is banking on future editions to help make its Xbox unit profitable and close a gap with Nintendo's best-selling Wii system.


Bungie, founded in 1991, has been in spinoff talks with Microsoft for about a year, O'Connor said.


`Best Interest'


``It was in our best interest to support Bungie's desire to return to its independent roots,'' Shane Kim, corporate vice president of Microsoft game studios, said in an interview. ``There's really no change except Bungie's employees work for Bungie instead of Microsoft, and that's important to them.''


Microsoft shares rose 23 cents to $29.94 at 3:08 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The stock was little changed this year before today.


The success of ``Halo 3'' in its first week propelled sales of the Xbox 360 machine to double their weekly average, Microsoft said.


``It was a nit in the back of employees' minds that they just wanted to be independent,'' said Harold Ryan, Bungie's studio head. ``The idea of being independent was something they were all romantically attached to.''


Chasing the Wii


Microsoft has pledged to make the Xbox division profitable this fiscal year, which ends next June. The business has lost $7 billion since the game machine first went on sale in 2001. Microsoft cut the price of the console by $50 to $349.99 to compete with the Wii, which sells for $249.


Nintendo's Wii sold about 400,000 units in August, compared with 277,000 for the Xbox 360, according to Port Washington, New York-based NPD Group Inc. Since its debut in November 2006, the Wii has sold 4 million units in the U.S. The Xbox, which came out a full year earlier than the Nintendo system, has sold 6.3 million. .




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