Since the Apollo era, sample return missions have been primarily limited to asteroid sampling. More comprehensive sampling could yield critical information on the formation of the solar system and the potential of life beyond Earth. Hard landings at hypervelocity (1-2 km/s) would enable sampling to several feet below the surface penetration while minimizing the Delta …
Researchers at MIT, working with partners at NASA, have developed a new concept for a microscope that would use neutrons — subatomic particles with no electrical charge — instead of beams of light or electrons to create high-resolution images. The device could open up new areas of research on materials and biological samples at tiny …
Interstellar travel breakthrough propulsion concepts for 50 or more years in the future at the 2013 Icarus Interstellar Congress, dated the last Saturday August 17th 2013: A summary of the day from to zero minutes to 4 minutes. Looking at spacewaps, wormholes, megascale spacetime engineering, Kardashev level 2 energy Nothing from 4 minutes to 12 …
Big data analysis additionally is driving the demand for even faster, more effective, and also energy-saving computer clusters. The number of processors per system has now reached the millions and looks set to grow even faster in the future. Yet something has remained largely unchanged over the past 20 years and that is the programming …
This National Highway Traffic Safety administration document: • Provides a description of developments in automated driving and explains the levels of automation defined by NHTSA. • Provides an overview of NHTSA’s automated research program. • Provides recommended principles that States may wish to apply as part of their considerations for driverless vehicle operation, especially with …
D-Wave, the small company that sells the world’s only commercial quantum computer, has just bagged an impressive new customer: a collaboration between Google, NASA and the non-profit Universities Space Research Association. The three organizations have joined forces to install a D-Wave Two (512 qubit), the computer company’s latest model, in a facility launched by the …
Cameco Corp. is just months away from opening its Cigar Lake uranium project, the world’s second-largest high-grade uranium deposit, more than thirty years after it was discovered and just as global prices for the nuclear fuel show promise of a rebound. “We’re on track with Cigar Lake. We said we’d be starting the mining in …
The Chinese economy is known for its industrial might. Manufacturers, miners, utilities and builders accounted for over 45% of China’s GDP in 2012. In America, by contrast, they typically contribute less than 20%. Manufacturing’s share of China’s GDP was more than 18 percentage points above the global norm in 2005. Services, in contrast, were almost …
NBC News – Researchers trying to find a way to treat multiple sclerosis think they’ve come up with an approach that could not only help patients with MS, but those with a range of so-called autoimmune diseases, from type-1 diabetes to psoriasis, and perhaps even food allergies. So far it’s only worked in mice, but …
Cordis – Two researchers funded by the EU have succeeded in developing and testing a state-of-the-art HIV detection test. The Imperial College London, United Kingdom duo says the test is 10 times more sensitive than other methods used to identify this disease, and it is inexpensive. The potential to bring this innovative technique to market …
Bloomberg – The International Monetary Fund cut its global growth forecasts as the euro area’s debt crisis intensifies and warned of even slower expansion unless officials in the U.S. and Europe address threats to their economies. The world economy will grow 3.3 percent this year, the slowest since the 2009 recession, and 3.6 percent next …