SciByte

The new mosaic from NASA shows illumination effects from variations in the time of day for pieces of the mosaic. It also shows variations in the clarity of the atmosphere due to variable dustiness during the month while the images were acquired

In September 2032, the European spacecraft will arrive at Ganymede, becoming the first probe to enter orbit around the moon of another planet

Equipped with radar, a mapping camera and other instruments, JUICE will measure the thickness of global ice sheets covering Jupiter's moons and produce terrain and mineral maps of Ganymede

Russia's plan is to implement a Ganymede Lander

Russian mission planners initially proposed the lander to target Europa, another of Jupiter's moons with a frozen crust thinner than the ice cap covering Ganymede

After a NASA mission to orbit Europa never materialized, Russia retooled the project to focus on Ganymede, falling in line with the goals of Europe's Jupiter mission

advantages of landing on Ganymede as opposed to Europa

The radiation environment at Ganymede is less severe than at Europa, which lies closer to Jupiter

this is one of the reasons ESA picked Ganymede as the destination for JUICE

Russian scientists say mapping and reconnaissance of Ganymede are required before any attempted landing

If Russia becomes a full partner in Europe's JUICE mission, the development of the lander will need to be accelerated to launch in 2022, if managers want the Russian craft to ride to Jupiter as a piggyback payload.

The three crewmembers are slated to spend a total of 15 days in orbit, which would make their Shenzhou 10 mission the longest manned spaceflight in China's history.

According to a statement from the China National Space Administration, the nation carried out a 40-day ground test to mimic the lunar environment, in an attempt to make sure that Chang’e 3 can endure the extreme temperatures on the moon

Chang'e 3 lunar probe consists of two main parts: a service module and a lunar landing vehicle

Dragon in Space, a website that monitors China's space program

the mission will be launched this December

The probe would land softly on the moon’s surface and deploy a six-wheeled rover to explore the areas surrounding the landing spot

Ready to watch the Chinese moon landing and rover action from above is NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO

Looking further into the future, China's step-by-step robotic moon effort also includes a return to Earth of lunar surface materials

head of the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and chief scientist of the lunar exploration program, said some lunar materials would be scooped up from the moon’s surface, while other material would be acquired from a depth of about 6.6 feet (2 meters).

triple-junction compound solar cells use a proprietary technology that enables the efficient conversion of sunlight into electricity by means of a stack of three photo-absorption layers

o achieve a concentrating conversion efficiency of 44.4%, Sharp worked to widen the effective concentrator cell surface and ensure uniformity of width at the interface of the connecting concentrator cell and electrodes.

Because of their high conversion efficiency, compound solar cells have thus far been used primarily on space satellites

shows that NitroMemantine can restore synapses, representing the connections between nerve cells (neurons) that have been lost during the progression of Alzheimer's in the brain

These findings actually mean that you might be able to intercede not only early but also a bit later

Alzheimer's patient may be able to have synaptic connections restored even with plaques and tangles already in his or her brain.

study, conducted in animal models as well as brain cells derived from human stem cells,

team mapped the pathway that leads to synaptic damage in Alzheimer

found that amyloid beta peptides, which were once thought to injure synapses directly

actually induce the release of excessive amounts of the neurotransmitter glutamate from brain cells called astrocytes that are located adjacent to the nerve cells.

Normal levels of glutamate promote memory and learning, but excessive levels are harmful

Alzheimer's disease, excessive glutamate activates extrasynaptic receptors, designated eNMDA receptors

which get hyperactivated and in turn lead to synaptic loss

lab had previously discovered how a drug called memantine can be targeted to eNMDA receptors to slow the hyperactivity seen in Alzheimer's.

memantine's effectiveness has been limited.

memantine—a positively charged molecule—is repelled by a similar charge inside diseased neurons

memantine gets repelled from its intended eNMDA receptor target on the neuronal surface.

FDA approval of memantine in 2003

a fragment of the molecule nitroglycerin—a second FDA-approved drug commonly used to treat episodes of chest pain or angina in people with coronary heart disease—could bind to another site that the Lipton group discovered on NMDA receptors.

memantine rather selectively binds to eNMDA receptors, it also functions to target nitroglycerin to the receptor

by combining the two, Lipton's lab created a new, dual-function drug

researchers developed 37 derivatives of the combined drug before they found one that worked

By shutting down hyperactive eNMDA receptors on diseased neurons, NitroMemantine restores synapses between those neurons

NitroMemantine brings the number of synapses all the way back to normal within a few months of treatment in mouse models of Alzheimer's disease. In fact, the new drug really starts to work within hours

black pitted rock immediately struck him as something bizarre

didn’t register as metallic to his metal detector, but Mr. Green kept it in his backyard for about five years until it was noticed by a friend

Green told local reporters that the rock was sent off for analysis, only to be returned to him just a few weeks ago

The media quickly ran with the “Man finds a piece of Mir” story

The analysis

stated that the vitreous material “shows a composition similar to that used in ballast by the Soviet space program starting in the mid-1980s

There are

problems with

Mir reentered in 2001, six years before the 2007

Mir ended its career in the “so-called spacecraft cemetery of the southern Pacific Ocean

possibility of a reentry of a Progress resupply vehicle being a potential source, or perhaps an unrelated Russian space vehicle.

problem of the certification

Several articles state that the piece of debris coming from Mir was “confirmed by NASA.”

NASA Chief Scientist for Orbital Debris

that no such NASA validation exists

NASA Orbital Debris Program Office has not been presented with any claim regarding debris from the Mir space station

it is not possible for debris from the Mir reentry to have landed in the U.S.”

the find does look like something interesting. The pitting and the melted fusion crust are all reminiscent of reentry

MARDI, or the Mars Descent Imager,

is the camera mounted on the end of the arm, and that takes close-up, high-resolution color photos

MAHLI

hazard avoidance cameras, or the HazCams. There are four of these in the front and four in the back, and they're used to take pictures of the terrain near the wheels and nearby the rover

Mast Cameras, which are color imagers, which are used to do geology investigations

Navigation Cameras, which take pictures that are used to drive the rover

the remote microscopic imager, which is part of the ChemCam laser instrument. And that's used to document the laser spots, that the rover makes on the surface

Many of the black and white images that come back from the rover are

black and white, or gray scale as we call it, is because that's all the rover really needs in order to detect rocks and other obstacles

Other cameras are color, such as the Mastcam imager, and the reason that they're color is because the scientists use the color information to learn about the soil and the rocks

There are 1-megapixel black and white imagers for the engineering cameras and 2-megapixel color imagers for the science cameras

In addition to the video that we took when the rover descending on to the surface, we've taken movies of the soil being shaken in the scoop.

files are pretty large and because we have a limited downlink each day, the scientists prefer to take still images of new targets

The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) Curiosity rover will be the fifth model in the LEGO CUUSOO line and the second to feature a space theme

In March 2012, LEGO released a model of Japan's Hayabusa asteroid-sampling probe as designed and suggested by LEGO fan Daisuke Okubo

is a physicist by training and currently is serving as co-founder and Chief Technology Officer for Quantum Opus

Victor J. Glover

is an F/A-18 pilot and graduate of the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School

currently is serving as a Navy Legislative Fellow in the U.S. Congress

Tyler N. Hague

currently is supporting the Department of Defense as Deputy Chief of the Joint Improvised Explosive Device Defeat Organization

Christina M. Hammock

currently is serving as National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Station Chief in American Samoa

Nicole Aunapu Mann

Lt. Colonel, U.S. Air Force

Lt. Commander, U.S. Navy

Major, U.S. Marine Corps

is an F/A 18 pilot, currently serving as an Integrated Product Team Lead at the U.S. Naval Air Station, Patuxent River

Anne C. McClain

Major, U.S. Army

is an OH-58 helicopter pilot, and a recent graduate of U.S. Naval Test Pilot School at Naval Air Station, Patuxent River

currently is an Assistant Professor of Anesthesia at Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston

Andrew R. Morgan, M.D

Jessica U. Meir, Ph.D.

Major, U.S. Army

has experience as an emergency physician and flight surgeon for the Army special operations community, and currently is completing a sports medicine fellowship

The new astronaut candidates will begin training at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston in August