SciByte

The Soviet Union's remote-controlled Lunokhod 2 rover traveled 23 miles (37 km) on the moon in 1973.

golf-cart-size Opportunity

landed on Mars in January 2004 on three-month missions to search for signs of past water activity on the Red Planet

Spirit stopped communicating with Earth in 2010 and was declared dead a year later

Opportunity had been working at a section of the rim dubbed "Cape York" since the middle of 2011

this week it began trekking toward an area called Solander Point, which lies 1.4 miles (2.2 km) away

Opportunity's handlers have said they'd like to add this milestone to the rover's resume, though science remains the mission's top priority

Kepler

needs at least three reaction wheels to be able to point precisely enough to hunt for planets orbiting distant stars

that doesn’t require such precise pointing abilities

Last year, NASA had approved an extended mission for Kepler through 2016

Initially, they did see some movement on the wheel

but it quickly went back

have a few things to try

get wheel #4 working again

they are currently using thrusters to stabilize the spacecraft, and in its current mode, the onboard fuel will last for several months

a “Point Rest State,”

would extend the fuel to last a period of several years

where we can park the vehicle

Point Rest State is a loosely-pointed, thruster-controlled state that minimizes fuels usage while providing a continuous X-band communication downlink

software to execute that state was loaded to the spacecraft last week

the team completed the upload of the parameters the software will use

there is the possibility of the wheel running in the opposite direction, but running the wheel backward would mean they would need to use more thruster fuel

reaction wheels try to balance the forces from the solar pressure, that’s what forces a wheel to run

Earlier this year, elevated friction was detected in reaction wheel #4

even if the Kepler spacecraft is unable to make more observations, there are still terabytes of data to pore over

have two years of data that has yet to be searched through

described as a topical, UVB-activated compound called PC-KUS (a modified pseudocatalase).

the study also shows that the same treatment works for the skin condition, vitiligo

To achieve this breakthrough, Schallreuter and colleagues analyzed an international group of 2,411 patients with

vitiligo

They found that for the first time, patients who have

a certain nerval distribution involving skin and eyelashes show the same oxidative stress as observed in the much more frequent general

associated with decreased antioxidant capacities including catalase, thioredoxin reductase, and the repair mechanisms methionine sulfoxide reductases

Previously, researchers have suggested some strategies

That typically happens between a 2D sheet of electronics and a surface of the tissue

our work suggests a new approach—to build and grow the biology up with the electronics synergistically and in a 3D interwoven format

Last year, a research effort

resulted in the development of a "tattoo" made up of a biological sensor and antenna that can be affixed to the surface of a tooth

This project, however, is the team's first effort to create a fully functional organ: one that not only replicates a human ability, but extends it using embedded electronics

Creating organs using 3D printers is a recent advance; several groups have reported using the technology for this purpose in the past few months

this is the first time that researchers have demonstrated that 3D printing is a convenient strategy to interweave tissue with electronics

Ear reconstruction "remains one of the most difficult problems in the field of plastic and reconstructive surgery

the team turned to a manufacturing approach called 3D printing

The finished ear consists of a coiled antenna inside a cartilage structure

Two wires lead from the base of the ear and wind around a helical "cochlea" – the part of the ear that senses sound – which can connect to electrodes

further work and extensive testing would need to be done before the technology could be used on a patient

the ear in principle could be used to restore or enhance human hearing.

electrical signals produced by the ear could be connected to a patient's nerve endings, similar to a hearing aid

The current system receives radio waves, but he said the research team plans to incorporate other materials, such as pressure-sensitive electronic sensors, to enable the ear to register acoustic sounds

researchers used an ordinary 3D printer to combine a matrix of hydrogel and calf cells with silver nanoparticles that form an antenna. The calf cells later develop into cartilage

This second drilling is intended to confirm results from the first drilling, which indicated the chemistry of the first powdered sample from John Klein was much less oxidizing than that of a soil sample the rover scooped up before it began drilling.

Cumberland and John Klein are very similar, Cumberland appears to have more of the erosion-resistant granules that cause the surface bumps

concretions, or clumps of minerals, which formed when water soaked the rock long ago

Mission engineers

recently finished upgrading Curiosity's operating software following a four-week break

rover continued monitoring the Martian atmosphere during the break, but the team did not send any new commands