Swiss firm plans robotic mini-shuttle

Payerne, Sweden (UPI)
Apr 1, 2013

A Swiss firm says it intends to construct a robotic rocket plane that will launch satellites into orbit off the back of a modified jetliner.

Swiss Space Systems -- S3 -- says its unmanned suborbital shuttle could be traveling to launch height atop an Airbus A300 jetliner by 2017.

"S3 aims to develop, build, certify and operate suborbital space shuttles dedicated to launching small satellites, enabling space access to be made more democratic thanks to an original system with launching costs up to four times less than at present," the company, which has headquarters in Payerne, said in a statement.

While it will concentrate on launching unmanned satellites at first, it has plans beyond that, a company spokesman said.

"Our first priority is the launch of small satellites until 2018," Gregoire Loretan, S3's head of communications, told SPACE.com. "And the goal for S3 is to establish certification process and standards to help the development of manned flight afterwards."

The carrier aircraft would lift the robot rocket plane to a lunch altitude of about 33,000 feet, S3 said, at which point the rocket plane will utilize a liquid oxygen and kerosene rocket engine to reach an altitude of around 50 miles, high enough to put a satellite equipped with its own small rocket into orbit about 434 miles above Earth.

After deploying the satellite the robotic space plane would glide to Earth and land at a spaceport S3 said it will build in Payerne.

Source: Space-Travel.
Link: http://www.space-travel.com/reports/Swiss_firm_plans_robotic_mini-shuttle_999.html.

Young, hot and blue

Munich, Germany (SPX)
Mar 29, 2013

The Universe is an old neighborhood -- roughly 13.8 billion years old. Our galaxy, the Milky Way, is also ancient -- some of its stars are more than 13 billion years old (eso0425). Nevertheless, there is still a lot of action: new objects form and others are destroyed. In this image, you can see some of the newcomers, the young stars forming the cluster NGC 2547.

But, how young are these cosmic youngsters really? Although their exact ages remain uncertain, astronomers estimate that NGC 2547's stars range from 20 to 35 million years old. That doesn't sound all that young, after all.

However, our Sun is 4600 million years old and has not yet reached middle age. That means that if you imagine that the Sun as a 40 year-old person, the bright stars in the picture are three-month-old babies.

Most stars do not form in isolation, but in rich clusters with sizes ranging from several tens to several thousands of stars. While NGC 2547 contains many hot stars that glow bright blue, a telltale sign of their youth, you can also find one or two yellow or red stars which have already evolved to become red giants.

Open star clusters like this usually only have comparatively short lives, of the order of several hundred million years, before they disintegrate as their component stars drift apart.

Clusters are key objects for astronomers studying how stars evolve through their lives. The members of a cluster were all born from the same material at about the same time, making it easier to determine the effects of other stellar properties.

The star cluster NGC 2547 lies in the southern constellation of Vela (The Sail), about 1500 light-years from Earth, and is bright enough to be easily seen using binoculars. It was discovered in 1751 by the French astronomer Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille during an astronomical expedition to the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, using a tiny telescope of less than two centimeters aperture...

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Young_hot_and_blue_999.html.

Croatians to vote on golf in historic referendum

April 27, 2013

DUBROVNIK, Croatia (AP) — In 1991, Croatians voted for independence and then last year to join the European Union.

Now, in only the third referendum ever in the country, the residents of the postcard-pretty Adriatic sea resort of Dubrovnik will vote on the construction of a massive golf complex on a hill above their ancient walled tourist city. The implications could be just as enduring.

Although the Sunday vote focuses on local issues, backers hail it as an unprecedented citizen referendum giving voters in post-communist Croatia a direct say in their democracy. But the project's investors warn it could have serious consequences on future foreign investment in the economically struggling Balkan country, which is to formally become EU's 28th member this summer.

Backers say the 1.1-billion-euro ($1.4 (€1.08) -billion) golf course designed by Australian golfing legend Greg Norman — which includes villas, hotels, tennis courts, a horse-riding club and restaurants — will be a tourist boon and the source of hundreds of jobs.

But others worry that the club will endanger their scenic city of red-roofed stone houses and aquamarine sea, dubbed the Pearl of the Adriatic. Foreign investors have already paid some 100,000 euros ($130,000) to buy the largely barren rocky land from private owners, but opponents say the construction would choke the old town, would represent an environmental hazard and would not bring financial gains for Dubrovnik residents.

"First and foremost, this is not a golf project at all," said Enes Cerimagic, a member of the group campaigning against the project, whose makeshift pro-referendum stand stood out on the city's main street of white stone 17th-century palaces and churches.

"Golf here serves just as excuse for a big real estate development," he said, that at 300 hectares (740 acres) dwarfs the area of the old walled town, would overburden the city's infrastructure and penalize taxpayers.

The private investors say the project would provide 1,000 new jobs in Dubrovnik, would bring wealthier golf-playing tourists to the area and stretch the main tourist season, which currently last only two summer months.

Maja Frenkel, the head of Razvoj Golf, the main Israeli investor group behind the project, insisted that the referendum and the opposition to the project is sending the wrong signal to other foreigners planning to invest in Croatia, which will enter the EU on July 1.

"Unfortunately, the message has already been sent," Frenkel said. "No matter the outcome of this referendum, I think that any other investor will be very carefully watching the development of our project and will think twice before entering the country, which has relatively unclear investment procedures."

Croatia split from Yugoslavia in the wars of the 1990s, and is currently going through a painful transition into a market economy. The privatization and the closure of once prosperous factories led to mass unemployment.

Its economy relies heavily on tourism, which brings some 7 billion euros ($9.1 billion) a year to the nation of 4.2 million, blessed with a spectacular Adriatic coast and stunning islands. The rocky 415-meter (1,360-feet) Srdj hill currently has only a cable car from the old town to the Napoleon-era Imperial fortress on its top, a large stone cross, a restaurant, a souvenir shop and the small village of Bosanka, with some 30 homes. The Bosanka residents are in favor of the golf park.

"We locals are all against the referendum," said Luko Paskojevic, as he pointed toward the stretch of dry bushes where the project is planned. "We are against someone else deciding what we are to do with our land. They are saying 'Srdj is ours,' but this is all a private land," he said. "We hope people will see that this golf project is good and that the referendum will fail."

Referendums in the Balkans have in the past been organized by ruling elites and dealt with issues such as secession of their countries from Serb-led Yugoslavia, or joining the EU or NATO. This is the first time that a referendum has been called by a group of citizens to deal with everyday issues.

Dubrovnik mayor Andro Vlahusic says that the Sunday referendum is a sign of Croatia's democratic development. But, he said he hoped Dubrovnik will vote for the golf park. "That area has been neglected for 15 centuries," Vlahusic said. During that period, there were two ideas of what to build there, he said.

"One was a railway station, the other was golf. Between the railway station and golf, golf is much better."

British Embassy in Somalia opens

April 25, 2013

MOGADISHU, Somalia, April 25 (UPI) -- The reopening of the British Embassy in Somalia is a sign of the country's hard-fought road to recovery, visiting British Foreign Secretary William Hague said.

Hague arrived Thursday in Somalia to open the British Embassy for the first time since it was evacuated in 1991.

Somalia last year established a functioning central administration for the first time since the 1990s. It's struggled to extend its authority beyond Mogadishu, however, because of separatist threats from al-Shabaab, a militant group aligned with al-Qaida.

Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for an April bombing of a courthouse in Mogadishu. The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights estimates more than 50 civilians were killed in the attack.

"Somalia has been through a dramatic shift over the last year but continues to face huge challenges," Hague said in a statement. "We should be under no illusions as to the sustained efforts that will be required, in Somalia and from its international partners, to ensure that Somalia continues to make progress."

Somali Foreign Minister Fawzia Yusuf Adam said last month "the road to full recovery will be long."

An international meeting on Somalia is to convene in May in London.

Source: United Press International (UPI).
Link: http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Special/2013/04/25/British-Embassy-in-Somalia-opens/UPI-90421366899887/.

Thousands to demonstrate during Putin's visit to Amsterdam

Monday 08 April 2013

Russian president Vladimir Putin is due in the Netherlands on Monday afternoon, on a whirlwind visit to mark 400 years of friendship between the two countries.

Putin’s visit has angered gay rights activists, and several thousand are planning to protest outside Amsterdam’s Maritime museum, where he will attend a state banquet on Monday evening.

Russia is poised to bring in new legislation which will make it a criminal offence to hold public events or spread information about homosexuality to minors.

Flags

So far over 3,300 people have said they will take part, making it ‘one of the biggest demonstrations’ in the history of gay rights lobby group COC.

During the demonstration Amsterdam drag queen Dolly Bellefleur will perform a version of the Bony M hit Rasputin, re-written to target Putin.

On Sunday, former Amsterdam mayor Job Cohen symbolically lowered a rainbow flag to half-mast outside a famous gay bar on the city’s Zeedijk. Campaigners have called for all rainbow flags – symbols of the gay rights movement - to be flown at half-mast throughout the city during the visit.

Human rights

Amnesty International has also written to Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte urging him to tackle Putin about the deterioration in Russia’s human rights record.

Putin is due in the Netherlands at around 14.00 hours. He will visit the Peter the Great exhibition at the Hermitage museum with queen Beatrix before holding talks with Rutte and various ministers.

The visit ends with dinner at the Maritime museum which will also be attended by Russian and Dutch business representatives.

© DutchNews.nl

Source: DutchNews.nl.
Link: http://www.dutchnews.nl/news/archives/2013/04/thousands_to_demonstrate_durin.php.

Snow ties up European planes, trains, roads

March 12, 2013

PARIS (AP) — Frankfurt's airport closed, trains stopped running under the English Channel, and the French army was ordered to help clear roads — all because of a sudden dump of oddly late snowfall on Western Europe.

Less prepared for the kind of heavy snow that regularly hits northern and eastern neighbors, France, Germany, Britain and Belgium struggled Tuesday to keep moving amid the frosty, blustery conditions.

Instead of enjoying the onset of spring, travelers shivered in stranded cars, packed onto icy train platforms, or languished in airport waiting halls. Thousands of schoolchildren stayed home. Tens of thousands of homes were without electricity.

Frankfurt airport, Europe's third busiest, closed at midday after recording about 12 centimeters (5 inches) of snow. More than 355 flights had been canceled by mid-afternoon. The airport reopened one of its four runways only for takeoffs after a brief respite in the snowfall — but the snow then resumed. And it's unclear how much longer the other three runways would remain closed.

North of Frankfurt, the A45 autobahn was shut down after more than 100 cars and trucks crashed in a pileup near Muenzenberg. Police said dozens of people were injured but that no deaths were reported.

At Paris' Orly Airport, a Tunisair jet skidded off the runway because of icy conditions, according to the airport authority. No one was injured, but the incident caused even further delays at an airport that has suffered cancellations and problems all day.

Air France — the country's largest passenger airline — warned via Twitter that anyone planning to travel to Europe or France via Paris on Tuesday should delay their trip. Airport screens flashed with red warnings after the French civil aviation authority ordered about 300 flights — a quarter of the day's total — canceled out of Paris' Charles de Gaulle Airport. Other airports in northern France were closed, and Brussels' airport was operating on a single runway.

Service on the Eurostar trains that go under the English Channel was suspended mid-morning because severe weather in northern France and Belgium forced operators to close sections of the railway, said Eurostar spokeswoman Lucy Drake. As the snow continued to fall in the afternoon, service was suspended for the rest of the day, Eurostar later confirmed on its website. Other high-speed train services around the region were also halted.

The French army was called in to help as civilian authorities struggled to clear roads and rescue people stuck in cars and buses on snowed-in roads, notably in Normandy, Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said on RTL radio.

With up to 50 centimeters (19 inches) of snow in some areas of northern France, the government urged people to stay home unless absolutely necessary. The French housing ministry, meanwhile, said it will prolong until the end of March the winter-long ban on tenant evictions — owing to the biting weather conditions.

Office buildings in the French capital — like those in Brussels, the European Union's capital — were only partly full. The French train network SNCF urged commuters in the Paris region to stay home Tuesday instead of trying to reach downtown "because of the unfavorable evolution of weather conditions."

In southeastern England, snow and ice stranded hundreds of motorists as temperatures plunged as low as minus 3 Celsius (27 Fahrenheit), and many motorists abandoned their cars. Traffic backed up for 30 miles (50 kilometers) in some areas, with reports of people being stranded for 10 hours or more.

Among those stuck was a group of 120 German students who had to stay overnight in the town hall at Hastings on the south coast of England when families set to pick them up could not reach them. Police in Sussex reported responding to more than 300 auto collisions in 24 hours because of slippery roads but no serious injuries were reported.

Belgium had a record 1,600 kilometers (995 miles) of traffic jams during morning rush hour as snowdrifts turned roads slippery and reduced vision. A strong wind made conditions even tougher. Thousands of commuters were left stranded on snowed-in platforms after many trains around the region were canceled.

Snow affected even the workings of government and the royal palace: The start of budgetary negotiations within Belgium's governing coalition was delayed, and Prince Lorenz was unable to travel to Maastricht, the Netherlands, to visit a historical exhibition.

The U.S. Embassy in Brussels closed for the day "due to the continued weather conditions." Under the Eiffel Tower, two Canadian tourists were among those braving the soggy chill. "It's cold. Really cold," Heidi Nelson of Toronto said.

A fellow visitor from Toronto, Laura Martin, added: "Yes, kind of like Canada."

AP writers Raf Casert, Juergen Baetz and Don Melvin in Brussels, David Rising in Berlin, Thomas Adamson and Sohram Monemi in Paris and Danica Kirka in London contributed to this story.

Comet to Make Close Flyby of Red Planet in October 2014

Pasadena CA (JPL)
Apr 15, 2013

New observations of comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) have allowed NASA's Near-Earth Object Office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. to further refine the comet's orbit.

Based on data through April 7, 2013, the latest orbital plot places the comet's closest approach to Mars slightly closer than previous estimates, at about 68,000 miles (110,000 kilometers).

At the same time, the new data set now significantly reduces the probability the comet will impact the Red Planet, from about 1 in 8,000 to about 1 in 120,000.

The latest estimated time for close approach to Mars is about 11:51 a.m. PDT (18:51 UTC) on Oct. 19, 2014. At the time of closest approach, the comet will be on the sunward side of the planet...

Source: Space Daily.
Link: http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Comet_to_Make_Close_Flyby_of_Red_Planet_in_October_2014_999.html.