The Sky Tonight

August 27, 2014

Regulating Asteroid Mining
Bethesda MD (SPX) Aug 26, 2014
The idea of mining asteroids is definitely in vogue. In the past few years commercial space advocates have been pursuing new private-sector space business activities. Profiting from orbital operations is not a new idea. Commercial space activities started in the early 1960s, with the launch of the first geosynchronous communications satellites. Many thought these early commercial space ventures were just the beginning of a vast array of other commercially viable space applications. Literally hundr ... read more

Previous Issues

Aug 26

Aug 25

Aug 23

Aug 22

Aug 21

Russia Considers Meteor Impact Prevention Project A project to protect people and economic facilities from the impact of space objects could be launched in Russia this year, Russian Emergencies Ministry has announced. "The Emergencies Ministr ... more		Officials expand space-tracking website Defense Department officials announced additions to its space situational awareness program's Space-Track.org website. In a recent telephone interview with DOD News, Maj. Gen. David D. Thompso ... more		Landing site search for Rosetta narrows Using detailed information collected by ESA's Rosetta spacecraft during its first two weeks at Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, five locations have been identified as candidate sites to set down the ... more
				How Titan's Haze Help Us Understand Life's Origins Where did life on Earth come from? There are several theories as to what might have happened. Maybe comets came bearing organic material, or life was transported from another planet such as Mars, or ... more		25 Years After Neptune: Reflections on Voyager Neptune is in view. It is the middle of the night and everything is happening fast at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. Voyager team members have had little or no sleep. Vice ... more

CubeSats, SmallSats and MicroSats

Startup in the Land of the Rising Sun; A Japanese Solar Venture - by Bradley L. Bartz

Tempur-Pedic Mattress Comparison & Memory Foam Mattress Review

Scientists confirm array of microorganisms in buried Antarctic lake Scientists have confirmed the presence of an array of microorganisms, including an extensive family of rock-eating bacteria, living in a subglacial lake in Antarctica. The discovery gives hope to scientists who suggest life could still be lurking deep under the surface of Mars. ... more		Europe sees five possible sites for comet landing The European Space Agency (ESA) on Monday said it had drawn up a shortlist of five possible sites for carrying out the first-ever landing on a comet. ... more		Sierra Space clears design milestone for missile tracking satellites in SDA Tranche 2 Top diplomats of North Korea, China agree to oppose 'hegemonism' Elbit secures 120 million order for Hermes 900 maritime surveillance UAS		Roscosmos Intends to Spend About $298 Million on Removing Orbital Clutter The Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) is planning to spend 10.8 million rubles to develop a new spacecraft that would be used to remove space debris which is locked in a geostationary orbit, ... more
				Russia to develop scavenger to collect cosmic debris by 2025 The Russian space agency is allocating around $297 million to design and construct a spacecraft that would clean circumterrestrial space of disabled communication satellites and upper-stage rockets ... more		Scientists Say They Discovered Traces of One of Universe's Oldest Stars A team of American and Japanese astronomers claims it has found a chemical signature of one of the first stars in the universe embedded in another old star, BBC reports. According to the study publi ... more

Hubble Sees a Silver Needle in the Sky This stunning new image from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope shows part of the sky in the constellation of Canes Venatici (The Hunting Dogs). Although this region of the sky is not home to ... more		Hot-spring bacteria reveal ability to use far-red light for photosynthesis Bacteria that grow in environments enriched in far-red light use a previously unknown process for harvesting energy. This discovery lays the foundation for further research aimed at improving plant ... more		The first animals on Earth may have been sea sponges, study suggests Small Satellite Contracted to Probe Climate Effects of Space Radiation Fengyun satellite strengthens China global weather forecasting capacity		Scientists observe quantum vortices in cold helium droplets An international research team including DESY scientists has observed tiny quantum vortices in cold droplets of liquid helium. The team reports in the journal Science that the exotic vortices arrang ... more
Removing the outcome unpredictability of ultracold atomic reactions Findings from a physics study by a Kansas State University researcher are helping scientists accurately predict the once unpredictable. Yujun Wang, research associate with the James R. Macdona ... more		Electric Sparks May Alter Evolution of Lunar Soil The moon appears to be a tranquil place, but modeling done by University of New Hampshire (UNH) and NASA scientists suggests that, over the eons, periodic storms of solar energetic particles may hav ... more		Spectacular supernova's mysteries revealed New research by a team of UK and European-based astronomers is helping to solve the mystery of what caused a spectacular supernova in a galaxy 11 million light years away, seen earlier this year. ... more		First LOFAR observations of the "Whirlpool Galaxy" Using a radio telescope with frequencies just above those of commercial FM radio stations, a European team of astronomers has obtained the most sensitive image of a galaxy below 1 GHz. The team view ... more

	Has sea plankton been discovered on the ISS outer hull Russian scientists say they made a "unique" discovery while analyzing samples from the exterior of the International Space Station - traces of tiny sea creatures on the station's windows and walls. ... more		First Indirect Evidence of So-Far Undetected Strange Baryons New supercomputing calculations provide the first evidence that particles predicted by the theory of quark-gluon interactions but never before observed are being produced in heavy-ion collisions at ... more

Worlds most powerful centrifuge begins operations in China

Breakthrough in UAV swarm intelligence as SRI redefines topology mapping

China factory activity shrinks in September for sixth straight month

Voyager Map Details Neptune's Strange Moon Triton		Spare Off-the-Shelf Instrument Continues Solar Output Data with Excellent Results		A Spectacular Landscape of Star Formation		A study of possible extended symmetries of field theoretic systems		Disney tops and yo-yos with stable spins despite asymmetric shapes
500 million year reset for the immune system		As Seen by Rosetta: Comet Surface Variations		ISS Spacewalkers Deploy Nanosatellite, Install and Retrieve Science		China's first private rocket firm aims for market		Orbital Completes Third Cargo Delivery Mission to ISS for NASA

Lockheed taps GenDyn unit for Space Fence ground equipment structures

Fascinating rhythm: light pulses illuminate a rare black hole

NASA's RXTE Satellite Decodes the Rhythm of an Unusual Black Hole

Next gen satellite to be tested during Arctic Shield 2014

3 SOPS bids farewell to oldest DSCS satellite

NASA, Partners Reveal California Meteorite's Rough and Tumble Journey

New Milky Way maps help solve stubborn interstellar material mystery

Seven tiny grains captured by Stardust likely visitors from interstellar space

Stardust Team Reports Discovery of First Potential Interstellar Particles

Monitoring Meteor Showers from Space

Hubble Revisits a Globular Cluster's Age

Cisco to cut 6,000 jobs in streamlining

Stardust grains may reveal first look at interstellar space

Cassini Prepares For Its Biggest Remaining Burn

All-You-Can-Eat at the End of the Universe

Electrons moving in a magnetic field exhibit strange quantum behavior

Follow the radio waves to exomoons

NASA's NuSTAR Sees Rare Blurring of Black Hole Light

Monitoring Solar Activity with SDO

Sun sets for a NASA solar monitoring spacecraft

Free Newsletters - Space - Defense - Environment - Energy

Buy Advertising

Media Advertising Kit

Editorial & Other Enquiries

Privacy statement

The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement All images and articles appearing on Space Media Network have been edited or digitally altered in some way. Any requests to remove copyright material will be acted upon in a timely and appropriate manner. Any attempt to extort money from Space Media Network will be ignored and reported to Australian Law Enforcement Agencies as a potential case of financial fraud involving the use of a telephonic carriage device or postal service.