Kepler Finds Two Water Worlds 1200 Lights Years Away

Cambridge, MA (SPX)
Apr 17, 2013

In our solar system, only one planet is blessed with an ocean: Earth. Our home world is a rare, blue jewel compared to the deserts of Mercury, Venus and Mars. But what if our Sun had not one but two habitable ocean worlds?

Astronomers have found such a planetary system orbiting the star Kepler-62. This five-planet system has two worlds in the habitable zone - the distance from their star at which they receive enough light and warmth for liquid water to theoretically exist on their surfaces.

Modeling by researchers at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) suggests that both planets are water worlds, their surfaces completely covered by a global ocean with no land in sight.

"These planets are unlike anything in our solar system. They have endless oceans," said lead author Lisa Kaltenegger of the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy and the CfA.

"There may be life there, but could it be technology-based like ours? Life on these worlds would be under water with no easy access to metals, to electricity, or fire for metallurgy. Nonetheless, these worlds will still be beautiful blue planets circling an orange star - and maybe life's inventiveness to get to a technology stage will surprise us."

Kepler-62 is a type K star slightly smaller and cooler than our Sun. The two water worlds, designated Kepler-62e and -62f, orbit the star every 122 and 267 days, respectively.

They were found by NASA's Kepler spacecraft, which detects planets that transit or cross the face of their host star. Measuring a transit tells astronomers the size of the planet relative to its star.

Kepler-62e is 60 percent larger than the Earth while Kepler-62f is about 40 percent larger, making both of them "super-Earths." They are too small for their masses to be measured, but astronomers expect them to be composed of rock and water, without a significant gaseous envelope.

As the warmer of the two worlds, Kepler-62e would have a bit more clouds than Earth according to computer models. More distant Kepler-62f would need the greenhouse effect from plenty of carbon dioxide to warm it enough to host an ocean. Otherwise, it might become an ice-covered snowball.

"Kepler-62e probably has a very cloudy sky and is warm and humid all the way to the polar regions. Kepler-62f would be cooler, but still potentially life-friendly," said Harvard astronomer and co-author Dimitar Sasselov.

"The good news is - the two would exhibit distinctly different colors and make our search for signatures of life easier on such planets in the near future," he added.

The discovery raises the intriguing possibility that some star in our galaxy might be circled by two Earth-like worlds - planets with oceans and continents, where technologically advanced life could develop.

"Imagine looking through a telescope to see another world with life just a few million miles from your own. Or, having the capability to travel between them on a regular basis. I can't think of a more powerful motivation to become a space-faring society," said Sasselov.

Kaltenegger and Sasselov's research has been accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal.

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Kepler_Finds_Two_Water_Worlds_1200_Lights_Years_Away_999.html.

Ukraine aims to accelerate space industry development

Kiev, Ukraine (XNA)
Apr 16, 2013

President Viktor Yanukovych on Friday highlighted progress in Ukraine's aerospace industry in recent years and said his country would continue to develop its space projects.

"Our state has made a significant contribution to the development of cosmonautics and continues to cooperate with many countries of the world," Yanukovych said during his meeting with National Space Agency chairman Yuriy Alekseyev and Aerospace Society president Vitaly Zholobov.

Ukraine was implementing a number of space projects with Russia and Kazakhstan and was working with Brazil to jointly launch Cyclone-4 rockets from Brazil's Alcantara base.

In 2011, Ukraine joined China, the EU, Russia, and the U.S. as one of the top five space rocket-launching countries in the world.

Since 1991, Ukraine has grown into a significant player in the space industry, having launched 128 rockets and delivered into orbit 250 satellites for 19 countries.

This year, Ukraine has allocated about 322 million U.S. dollars to promote its aerospace industry over the next five years.

April 12 is observed in many countries as Space Day and celebrates the first manned space flight by Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.

Source: Space-Travel.
Link: http://www.space-travel.com/reports/Ukraine_aims_to_accelerate_space_industry_development_999.html.

Syrian rebels shoot down regime helicopter in east

May 06, 2013

BEIRUT (AP) — Syrian rebels shot down a military helicopter in the country's east, killing eight government troops on board as President Bashar Assad's troops battled opposition forces inside a sprawling military air base in the north for the second straight day, activists said Monday.

In the past months, rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Assad have frequently targeted military aircraft and air bases in an attempt to deprive his regime of a key weapon used to target opposition strongholds and reverse rebel gains in the 2-year-old conflict.

The fighting inside the Mannagh air base in northern Syria came a day after Israeli warplanes struck areas in and around the capital, Damascus, setting off a series of explosions as they targeted a shipment of highly accurate, Iranian-made guided missiles believed to be bound for Lebanon's Hezbollah militant group, officials and activists said.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Monday posted a video online showing several armed men standing in front of the wreckage. One of the fighters in the footage says it's a helicopter that the rebels shot down late Sunday in the eastern province of Deir el-Zour, along Syria's border with Iraq.

As the man speaks, the camera shifts to a pickup truck piled with bodies. The fighter is then heard saying that all of Assad's troops who were aboard the helicopter were killed in the downing. He says Islamic fighters of the Abu Bakr Saddiq brigade brought down the helicopter as it was taking off from a nearby air base in the provincial capital of Deir el-Zour.

The Observatory, which relies on a network of activists on the ground, said eight troops were killed. On Sunday, rebels occupied parts of the Mannagh military air base after weeks of fighting with government troops who have been defending the sprawling facility near the border with Turkey for months, the Observatory said.

Assad's warplanes were pounding rebel positions inside the Mannagh air base Monday as clashes between rebels and government forces raged on, the Observatory said, adding there was an unknown number of casualties on both sides.

The rebels moved deep into the air base on Sunday despite fire from government warplanes, capturing a tank unit inside the base and killing the base commander, Brig. Gen. Ali Salim Mahmoud, according to another activists group, the Aleppo Media Center.

The Israeli airstrike on Sunday, the second in three days and the third this year, signaled a sharp escalation of Israel's involvement in Syria's civil war. Syrian state media reported that Israeli missiles hit a military and scientific research center near Damascus and caused casualties. The reports did not specify the number or say if the casualties were civilians or troops.

State-run SANA news agency made no mention of the fighting inside the Mannagh air base. But the agency reported that government troops on Monday regained control of villages along the highway that links the northern city of Aleppo to its civilian airport, the country's second largest.

Syrian "armed forces restored security and stability to (six) villages" south of the city and along the airport highway, SANA said, calling it a "major strategic victory in the north." Much of the north has been in rebel hands since the opposition fighters last summer launched an offensive in the area, capturing army bases and large swaths of land along the border with Turkey and whole neighborhoods inside Aleppo, Syria's largest city.

The rebels have for months battled regime troops over the airport complex that includes army bases and a military air field. They've captured village and towns along the strategic highway and earlier this year advanced within a few kilometers (miles) miles of the airport, cutting the main road the army has been using to ferry troops and supplies to its bases at the airport.

But last month government troops recaptured the village of Aziza on a strategic road that links Aleppo with its airport and military bases, dealing a huge setback to the rebels unable to hold on to the territory in the face of Assad's superior fire power.

The Syrian conflict started with largely peaceful protests against Assad's regime in March 2011, but eventually turned into a civil war that has killed more than 70,000 people according to the United Nations.

More than one million Syrians have fled their homes during the fighting and sought shelter in neighboring countries such as Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. Millions of others have been displaced inside Syria.

In Geneva, former war crimes prosecutor Carla Del Ponte said a U.N. commission has indications that Syrian rebel forces used nerve agent sarin as a weapon in their fight against Assad's regime — but no evidence that government forces also used sarin as a chemical weapon.

Del Ponte is on the U.N.'s four-member independent human rights panel probing alleged war crimes and other abuses in Syria. She told Italian-language Swiss public broadcaster SRI in an interview broadcast Sunday night that the indications are based on interviews with victims, doctors and field hospitals in neighboring countries.

The panel's investigators have "strong, concrete suspicions but not yet incontrovertible proof of the use of sarin gas, from the way the victims were treated," said del Ponte.

Associated Press Writer John Heilprin contributed to this report from Geneva.

Reports say 15 killed in Bangladesh clashes

May 06, 2013

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — At least 15 people died in clashes Monday between police and Islamic hardliners demanding that Bangladesh implement an anti-blasphemy law, police said.

A police official, speaking on customary condition of anonymity, said eight people, including two policemen and a paramilitary soldier, were killed in clashes in Kanchpur just outside the capital, Dhaka.

Another seven people died in Motijheel, a commercial area of Dhaka, the official said. The protesters blocked roads in the area with burning tires and logs during more than five hours of clashes, television footage showed.

The private United News of Bangladesh reported that the violence erupted after security forces fired tear gas and rubber bullets in the central commercial district. The Islamic activists have been protesting to demand that the government enact an anti-blasphemy law.

The government in the Muslim-majority nation has rejected the groups' demands, saying Bangladesh is governed by secular liberal laws. Dhaka Metropolitan Police said in a statement that all rallies and protests have been banned in the city until midnight Monday for fear of more clashes.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's ruling Awami League and an alliance of 18 opposition parties led by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia had planned rallies in Dhaka later Monday. There was no immediate comment from the parties.

India and China withdraw troops from Himalayan face off

By Fayaz Bukhari and Satarupa Bhattacharjya
SRINAGAR/NEW DELHI, Indian | Mon May 6, 2013

(Reuters) - India and China simultaneously withdrew troops from camps a few meters apart in a Himalayan desert on Sunday, apparently ending a three-week standoff on a freezing plateau where the border is disputed and the Asian giants fought a war 50 years ago.

The two sides stood down after reaching an agreement during a meeting between border commanders, an Indian army official told Reuters, after the tension threatened to overshadow a planned visit by India's foreign minister to Beijing on Thursday.

But it was not immediately clear how far China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) soldiers had withdrawn - Delhi had claimed they were 19 km (12 miles) beyond the point it understands to be the border with China, a vaguely defined de facto line called the Line of Actual Control, which neither side agrees on.

Defense and foreign ministry spokesmen did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

"Our troops have moved one kilometer backwards from the position they were on since April 16," said the officer, from the Indian army's Northern Command, which oversees the disputed region on the fringes of India's Jammu and Kashmir state.

"Chinese troops have also moved away from their position they were holding on since April 15 when they intruded in Indian territory. It is not clear yet how (far) the PLA moved back."

India considered it the worst border incursion for years.

New Delhi often appears insecure about relations with its powerful neighbor, despite slowly warming relations between Asia's largest countries. China is India's top trade partner, but the unresolved border sours the friendship.

India's opposition and much of the media has been critical of the government's handling of the standoff, drawing parallels with a 1962 war which ended in its humiliating defeat. On Friday, parliament was adjourned after members shouted "Get China out, save the country".

"YOU ARE IN CHINESE TERRITORY"

India says Chinese troops intruded into its territory on the western rim of the Himalayas on April 15. Some officials and experts believe the incursion signaled Chinese concern about increased Indian military activity in the area.

A group of about 30 Chinese soldiers, backed by helicopters, had pitched several tents near a 16th century Silk Road campsite called Daulat Beg Oldi, close to an air strip New Delhi uses to support troops on the Siachen glacier.

Each day since, Indian and Chinese soldiers and border guards left their camps and stood about 100 meters (330 feet) apart on the Depsang Plain, a 5,000 meter (16,400 feet) high desert ringed by jagged peaks of the Karakoram range.

Winter temperatures can drop to minus 30 degrees centigrade, and the area is lashed by icy strong winds all year round.

A photograph released by a source in the Indian army showed a group of six Chinese soldiers on a rock-strewn landscape holding a bright orange banner that read, in English and Mandarin, "This is the Line of Actual Control, You are in Chinese territory".

Delhi reopened the Daulat Beg Oldi airstrip in 2008. Two other runways, out of use since the war, have been opened and Daulat Beg Oldi has been upgraded since.

Siachen, at the north of the disputed region of Kashmir, is claimed by both India and Pakistan and has the dubious distinction of being the world's highest battlefield.

Tensions are likely to persist given India and China's increased presence in an area that for centuries was largely unclaimed and criss-crossed with caravan routes. Now the land abuts the Karakoram Highway joining Pakistan to China, which Beijing hopes to develop further as trade route linking it to the Arabian Sea port of Gwadar.

Speaking before Sunday's resolution, Srikanth Kondapalli, an Indian analyst who specializes in China studies, said the dispute lay close to large hydroelectric projects and an ambitious plan to expand the Karakoram highway.

He said the lack of agreement about where the border lies, combined with increased military and infrastructure activity meant more flashpoints were likely.

"It is a no-man's land," said Kondapalli, who considers the current standoff to be more serious than the usual cross-border incidents. "Even if the (present) issue is resolved, this will only flare up."

(Writing by Frank Jack Daniel; Editing by Jon Hemming)

Source: Reuters.
Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/06/us-india-china-idUSBRE9440B220130506.

Malaysia PM faces limited future after worst electoral showing

By Niluksi Koswanage and Stuart Grudgings
KUALA LUMPUR | Mon May 6, 2013

(Reuters) - Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak may have to step down by the end of the year, ruling party sources said on Monday, after his coalition extended its 56-year rule but recorded its worst-ever election performance.

Najib, 59, had staked his political future on strengthening the ruling coalition's parliamentary majority in Sunday's general election on the back of a robust economy, reforms to roll back race-based policies and a $2.6 billion deluge of social handouts to poor families.

But he was left vulnerable to party dissidents after his Barisan Nasional coalition won only 133 seats in the 222-member parliament, seven short of its tally in 2008 and well below the two-thirds majority it was aiming for.

It also lost the popular vote, underlining opposition complaints that the electoral system is stacked against it. Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim's People's Alliance won 89 seats, up 7 from 2008 but still incapable of unseating one of the world's longest-serving governments.

Anwar, a former deputy prime minister, said in a statement on Monday that he would not accept the result because it was marred by "unprecedented" electoral fraud. He has called for a rally in the capital Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday.

Undermined by the result, Najib now faces a difficult task persuading his dominant United Malays National Organization (UMNO) to press ahead with economic reforms and phase out policies favoring majority ethnic Malays over other races.

"We could see Najib step down by the end of this year," said a senior official in UMNO, which leads the coalition.

"He may put up a fight, we don't know, but he has definitely performed worse. He does not have so much bargaining power," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, still a powerful figure in UMNO, told Reuters last year that Najib must improve on the 140 seats won in 2008 or his position would be unstable.

Kuala Lumpur's stock market surged nearly 8 percent in early trade to a record high on investor relief that the untested opposition had failed to take power, but later gave up some gains to close 3.38 percent higher. The Malaysian ringgit jumped to a 20-month high.

Ethnic Chinese, who make up a quarter of Malaysians, continued to desert Barisan Nasional, accelerating a trend seen in 2008. They have turned to the opposition, attracted by its pledge to tackle corruption and end race-based policies, undermining the National Front's traditional claim to represent all races in the nation of 28 million people.

MCA, the main ethnic Chinese party within the ruling coalition, only won seven seats, less than half its 2008 total.

Najib, the son of a former prime minister, said he had been taken by surprise by the extent of what he called a "Chinese tsunami." Alarmingly for Najib, support from ethnic Malays also weakened, particularly in urban areas, a sign that middle-class Malays are agitating for change.

Najib, who polls show is more popular than his party, could face a leadership challenge as early as October or November, when UMNO members hold a general assembly and elect the party leader.

"In the next round of elections within UMNO, you will see some dissidents emerging and asking for Najib to resign," said the official, who has held cabinet positions in government. He said Mahathir would be among those who back the dissidents.

ANWAR CRIES FOUL

Barisan Nasional also failed to win back the crucial industrial state of Selangor, near the capital Kuala Lumpur, which Najib had vowed to achieve.

"Najib is now leading a coalition that lost the popular vote, a coalition that will really struggle to prove its legitimacy," said Wan Saiful Wan Jan, head of the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs in Kuala Lumpur.

"My feeling is it's not going to be very easy for him."

Investors had hoped that a strong mandate for Najib would enable him to push ahead with planned reforms such as subsidy cuts and a new consumption tax to reduce Malaysia's budget deficit, which is relatively high at around 4.5 percent of GDP.

Those reforms now seem in doubt, Credit Suisse said in a report on Monday, although Najib is expected to push ahead with $444 billion Economic Transformation Program aimed at boosting private investment and doubling per capita incomes by 2020.

For Anwar, the election was likely the last chance to lead the country after a tumultuous political career that saw him sacked as deputy prime minister in the 1990s and jailed for six years after falling out with his former boss, Mahathir.

His three-party opposition alliance had been optimistic of a historic victory, buoyed by huge crowds at recent rallies, but faced formidable obstacles including the government's control of mainstream media and a skewed electoral system.

Anwar, 65, had accused the coalition of flying up to 40,000 "dubious" voters, including foreigners, across the country to vote in close races. The government says it was merely helping voters get to home towns to vote.

"My heart is with every Malaysian who does not accept the results," Anwar said in his statement.

Malaysia's Bersih (clean) civil society movement, which has held large rallies to demand electoral reform, joined Anwar in withholding recognition of the result, saying it needed to study numerous reports of fraud.

(Additional reporting by Yantoultra Ngui and Siva Sithraputhran in Kuala Lumpur and Saeed Azhar in Singapore; Writing by Jason Szep and Stuart Grudgings.; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)

Source: Reuters.
Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/06/us-malaysia-election-idUSBRE9430B720130506.

Landslides and lava flows at Olympus Mons on Mars

Paris (ESA)
May 06, 2013

Giant landslides, lava flows and tectonic forces are behind this dynamic scene captured recently by ESA's Mars Express of a region scarred by the Solar System's largest volcano, Olympus Mons. The image was taken on 23 January by the spacecraft's high-resolution stereo camera, and focuses on a region known as Sulci Gordii, which lies about 200 km east of Olympus Mons.

Sulci Gordii is an 'aureole' deposit - from the Latin for 'circle of light' - and is one of many that form a broken ring around the giant volcano, as hinted at in the context map.

The aureoles tell the story of the catastrophic collapse of the lower flanks of Olympus Mons in its distant past. Today, it stands with steep cliff edges that rise 2 km above the surrounding plains.

The collapse was brought about by weakening in the rocks supporting the volcanic edifice, perhaps influenced by subsurface water. During the collapse, rocky debris slid down and out over hundreds of kilometers of the surrounding volcanic plains, giving rise to the rough-textured aureole seen today.

Similar avalanches of debris are also seen surrounding some volcanoes on Earth, including Mauna Loa in Hawaii, which, like Olympus Mons, is a smooth-sided 'shield' volcano built up from successive lava flows.

The smooth plains surrounding Sulci Gordii suggest that the massive landslide was later partially buried by lava flows. Indeed, faint outlines of ancient lava flows can be seen by zooming into the upper center left portion of the lead high-resolution image

The characteristic corrugated appearance of the 'sulci' - a geological term used to describe roughly parallel hills and valleys on Mars - likely resulted during the landslide as material slid away from the volcano and became compressed or pulled apart as it traveled across the surface. Over time, erosion of weaker material between the peaks accentuated this effect.

The corrugated effect is best seen in the close-up perspective views. Zooming in on these images reveals that the hills and ridges are also covered by fine wind-blown dust, and that many small-scale landslides have occurred down the sides of the valleys between them.

Similarly, on close inspection of the smooth plains, subtle ripples in the martian dust blanket can be seen. Here, thin undulating dunes have been whipped into shape by the prevailing wind.

Numerous sinuous channels and jagged fracture networks also crisscross the scene, in particular at the southern (left) end of the main image and in close-up in the perspective view above. The channels range in length from around 50 km to 300 km and were probably widened by short-lived lava flows, or perhaps even by water.

An impressive sight on the left side of the perspective view is a sinuous channel that is suddenly truncated by a tectonic fault. Another channel running across the center foreground clearly has a complex fracturing history.

In rougher terrain towards the south, tectonic forces have torn apart the martian crust, most clearly visible in the color-coded topography map.

By studying complex regions like this - and by comparing them to similar examples here on Earth - planetary scientists learn more about the geological processes that dominated ancient Mars, when it was an active planet.

Just as on Earth, the scene at Sulci Gordii tells us that volcanoes can suffer dramatic collapses that transport vast quantities of material across hundreds of kilometers  where it is subsequently sculpted by wind, water and tectonic forces.

Source: Mars Daily.
Link: http://www.marsdaily.com/reports/Landslides_and_lava_flows_at_Olympus_Mons_on_Mars_999.html.

Dream of Mars exploration achievable, experts say

Washington (AFP)
May 5, 2013

NASA and private sector experts now agree that a man or woman could be sent on a mission to Mars over the next 20 years, despite huge challenges.

The biggest names in space exploration, among them top officials from the US space agency and Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the moon, will discuss the latest projects at a three-day conference starting Monday in the US capital.

Renewed interest in the red planet has triggered the launch of several initiatives in recent months, including one proposing a simple one-way trip to cut costs.

The American public also favors sending astronauts to Mars, according to a survey by non-profit group Explore Mars and aerospace giant Boeing.

The poll in March of more than a thousand people published in March found that 71 percent of Americans expect that humans will land on Mars by 2033.

Seventy-five percent say NASA's budget should be doubled to one percent of the federal budget to fund a mission to Mars and other initiatives.

NASA receives only 0.5 percent of the US federal budget, compared to four percent during the Apollo project to conquer the moon in the 1960s.

The US space agency's chief Charles Bolden has stressed that "a human mission to Mars is a priority."

But the US financial crisis is a major obstacle to such a project.

"If we started today, it's possible to land on Mars in 20 years," said G. Scott Hubbard of Stanford University.

"It doesn't require miracles, it requires money and a plan to address the technological engineering challenges," added Hubbard, who served as NASA's first Mars program director and successfully restructured the entire Mars program in the wake of mission failures.

Placing a mass of 30-40 tonnes -- the amount estimated to be necessary to make a habitat on the red planet -- would be one of the greatest challenges, along with the well-known problem of carrying or producing enough fuel to get back, Hubbard stressed.

The Curiosity rover took a nail-biting seven minutes in August to make its descent on Mars. But it only weighed one tonne.

The $2.5 billion Curiosity mission, which is set to last at least two years, aims to study the Martian environment and to hunt for evidence of water in preparation for a possible future manned mission.

Robotic missions will therefore be necessary to prove the system works before scientists can even contemplate sending humans aboard.

NASA is developing a Space Launch System and the Orion capsule for distant space exploration.

Hubbard said a nuclear engine should be developed for any vehicle headed to Mars because it would provide a continuous thrust and thus reduce travel time by about three months, as well as reduce the risk of radiation.

The distance between Earth and Mars varies between 35 million and 250 million miles (56 million and 400 million kilometers), depending on the planets' position.

In addition to the technological challenges, the negative impact of long space journeys on the human body are not yet well known, especially with respect to cosmic radiation.

"Space radiation exposure is certainly a human risk we need to address and understand," said Stephen Davison, manager of NASA's Space Biology and Physical Sciences Program at Johnson Space Center where astronauts are trained.

Davison said it was important to understand "both the cancer risk to our crew members in more detail and also the effects on the central nervous system."

He added that more than half of crew members at the International Space Center have experience some degree of change in their vision, and also have experienced intra-cranial pressure.

Other physiological changes, such as reduced bone density and muscle loss, can be mitigated by exercise.

The third major challenge is a psychological one, for isolated astronauts who spend long periods of time confined in cramped spaces.

Davison said scientists need a "minimum" of 10 years to complete research about the trip's impact on the human body before going to Mars.

Source: Mars Daily.
Link: http://www.marsdaily.com/reports/Dream_of_Mars_exploration_achievable_experts_say_999.html.

Want to visit Mars? Applications being taken

By Claudine Zap | Compass
Mon, Apr 29, 2013

At least 20,000 really adventurous people have applied for a crack at a permanent trip to the red planet.

After only one week, submissions to the Mars One project are pouring in -- 600 from China alone.

Although the trip and training sound daunting, the requirements for candidates are wide open: If you show resilience, adaptability, and curiosity, you might qualify. Scientific and astronaut's skills, however, are not required.

We might add that patience is a plus, since this particular one-way ticket to the red planet, offered by the Dutch organization Mars One, won't be available until 2023.

That doesn't seem to be deterring potential Mars explorers. In the last year, 10,000 people from 100 countries have expressed interest in the program, and now many applicants who have ponied up the application fee have submitted and shared their one-minute videos, which have been made public on the Mars One website.

The organization plans to have people vote on TV for the candidates they like the best. So yes, this process seems more reality show than "Right Stuff." In fact, over the span of a two-year televised competition, viewers will help sift through the candidates until 24 are chosen.

"Gone are the days when bravery and the number of hours flying a supersonic jet were the top criteria," said Norbert Kraft, Mars One's chief medical director and a former NASA senior researcher, in a statement.

He added, "For this mission of permanent settlement, we are more concerned with how well each astronaut lives and works with others and their ability to deal with a lifetime of challenges."

These lucky chosen colonists -- who must be at least 18 years old, be 157 cm (roughly 5-foot-2) tall, and have 20/20 vision -- will then endure six to eight years of training and will be grouped into teams of four, who will train together in simulated living conditions of the planet. And yes, an audience decides who will be the first four to settle on Mars.

Only four people at a time will travel to Mars. Then the plan is to launch four more settlers every two years.

The outfit behind this ambitious adventure is Mars One, which describes itself as a "not for profit" organization that plans on funding this pricey journey -- estimated to cost $6 billion -- to Mars with the proceeds from an interactive, global TV show the likes of which the world has never seen, from astronaut selection to training to, finally, liftoff.

Mars One co-founder Bas Lansdorp explained to Yahoo! News last year, "This would be 'real' reality TV -- adventure is automatically included; we don't have to add fake challenges." He continued, "By sending a new crew every two years, Mars will have a real, growing settlement of humans -- who would not like to follow that major event in human history?"

Solar-powered plane wraps first leg of flight across U.S.

Sat May 4, 2013

May 4 (Reuters) - The flight from San Fransisco to Phoenix took 18 hours and 18 minutes on Saturday - and didn't use a drop of fuel.

A solar-powered airplane that developers hope eventually to pilot around the world landed safely in Phoenix on the first leg of an attempt to fly across the United States using only the sun's energy, project organizers said.

The plane, dubbed the Solar Impulse, took 18 hours and 18 minutes to reach Phoenix on the slow-speed flight, completing the first of five legs with planned stops in Dallas, St. Louis and Washington on the way to a final stop in New York.

The spindly-looking plane barely hummed as it took off Friday morning from Moffett Field, a joint civil-military airport near San Francisco.

It landed in predawn darkness at Sky Harbor International Airport in Phoenix, according to a statement on the Solar Impulse's website.

The flight crew plans pauses at each stop to wait for favorable weather. It hopes to reach John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York in about two months.

Swiss pilots and co-founders of the project, Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg, will take turns flying the plane, built with a single-seat cockpit. Piccard was at the controls for the first flight to Arizona.

The lightweight carbon fiber Solar Impulse has a wingspan of a jumbo jet and the weight of a small car and from a distance resembles a giant floating insect.

The plane was designed for flights of up to 24 hours at a time and is a test model for a more advanced aircraft the team plans to build to circumnavigate the globe in 2015. It made its first intercontinental flight, from Spain to Morocco, last June.

The aircraft is propelled by energy collected from 12,000 solar cells built into the wings that simultaneously recharge four large batteries with a storage capacity equivalent to a Tesla electric car that allow it to fly after dark.

The lightweight design and wingspan allow the plane to conserve energy, but make it vulnerable. It cannot fly in strong wind, fog, rain or clouds.

The plane can climb to 28,000 feet (8,500 meters) and flies at an average of 43 miles per hour (69 km per hour).

The project began in 2003 with a 10-year budget of 90 million euros ($112 million) and has involved engineers from Swiss escalator maker Schindler and research aid from Belgian chemicals group Solvay.

Source: Reuters.
Link: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/05/04/usa-plane-solar-idUSL2N0DL0AE20130504.

Five-Planet System With Most Earth-Like Exoplanet Yet Found

Seattle WA (SPX)
Apr 18, 2013

A University of Washington astronomer has discovered perhaps the most Earth-like planet yet found outside the solar system by the Kepler Space Telescope. Eric Agol, a UW associate professor of astronomy, has identified Kepler 62f, a small, probably rocky planet orbiting a Sun-like star in the Lyra constellation.

The planet is about 1.4 times the size of Earth, receives about half as much solar flux, or heat and radiation, as Earth and circles its star in 267.3 (Earth) days.

It's one of two "super-Earth" planets discovered in the star Kepler 62's habitable zone, that swath of space the right distance from the star to potentially allow liquid water to exist on a planet's surface, thus giving life a chance. A super-Earth is a planet greater in mass than our own but still smaller than gas giants such as Neptune.

Kepler 62's other super-Earth, nearby 62e, is 1.61 times Earth's size, circles the star in 122.4 days and gets about 20 percent more stellar flux than the Earth. The two are the smallest exoplanets - planets outside the solar system - yet found in a host star's habitable zone.

"The planets this small that we have found until now have been very close to their stars and much too hot to be possibly habitable. This is the first one Kepler has found in the habitable zone that satisfies this small size," Agol said.

"Kepler 62f is the smallest size and the most promising distance from its star, which by these measures makes it the most similar exoplanet to Earth that has been found by Kepler."

Agol is the second author of a paper documenting the discovery published April 18 by Science Express, the online edition of the journal Science.

While the sizes of Kepler 62e and 62f are known, Agol said, their mass and densities are not - but every planet found in their size range so far has been rocky, like Earth.

"Based on its size, our best guess is that it's rocky and has some atmosphere, but not a thick gaseous envelope, like Neptune," Agol said.

The Kepler telescope was launched in 2009 with the aim of finding Earth-like planets beyond the solar system. It detects planets by "transits" that cause their host stars to appear fainter when the planets pass in front as they orbit.

Kepler 62f was a late-arrival in terms of its discovery. Its planetary siblings were found by a team of researchers led by William Borucki of the NASA Ames Research Center, principal investigator for the Kepler Space Telescope. Kepler 62 b, c and d are 1.31, 0.54 and 1.95 times the size of the Earth, respectively, but orbit the star too close to be in the habitable zone.

Borucki and some 45 co-authors were preparing to publish their findings in August 2012 when Agol contacted them that he had found an additional planet orbiting Kepler 62 that he identified in work with UW postdoctoral researcher Brian Lee.

Despite the extraordinary number of planets found by the Kepler team, they had overlooked 62f due to a sort of coincidence. Three transits are usually necessary to confirm a planet's existence, but the Kepler software recognized only two.

Agol pinpointed three transits for 62f with a process developed with Lee that takes into account the slight variation of stellar brightness in the vicinity of a transit. That enabled him to confirm 62f as an actual planet - and made him a leading author of the paper.

Though the mass and densities of Kepler 62e and f are not yet known, Agol has pioneered a process called transit timing variations that may in the future show the mass of such planets by the gravitational effect they have on each other.

"This type of discovery is the reason we launched the Kepler spacecraft - to find small, Earth-sized, potentially Earth-temperature planets," Agol said.

"At the same time, though, it isn't exactly the same as Earth. It is slightly larger and cooler than Earth. It tells me how special the Earth is and how it may take some time - hopefully not too long - to find its exact twin."

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Five_Planet_System_With_Most_Earth_Like_Exoplanet_Yet_Found_999.html.