SciByte

reportedly the goal with Grasshopper is to eventually create a reusable first stage for its Falcon 9 rocket

would be able to land safely instead of falling back into the ocean and not being usable again

Grasshopper test program is to have three phases of test launches

SpaceX’s facility in McGregor, Texas

Phases 1 and 2 would consist of very low test fires

with the rocket rising to not more than 73 meters (240 feet) during Phase 1 and

204 meters (670 feet

Both Phase 1 and 2 flights would last up to 45 seconds.

Phase 3 tests have the goal of increasingly higher altitudes with higher ascent speeds and descent speeds

altitude test sequence likely would be 366 meters (1,200 feet); 762 meters (2,500 feet); 1,524 meters (5,000 feet); 2,286 meters (7,500 feet); and 3,505 meters (11,500) feet

maximum test duration would be approximately 160 seconds. If all goes well

Grasshopper would land back on the launch pad

A laser beam is projected towards a target, but before reaching it, is split into three separate beams

three beams are broadcast onto the edges of the object to be manipulated

as the beams are moved the object is caused to move in lockstep

, fine tuning control of the laser to cause the movement of an object has been less than ideal

researchers to continue looking for alternative means

In this new research, the team connected a Microsoft Kinect device to the tweezers and then demonstrated an ability to move microscopic sized objects by moving their hands around in the air.

connecting a Kinect device to their virtual tweezers, the researchers found that they were able to define the space in which they wished to work by using simple hand movements and then to connect, virtually to a particular tiny object

The Kinect

is not precise enough to capture subtle movements however

doesn't allow for force-feedback, or the ability to feel the resistance of an object as its being moved

HoloHands, is not sophisticated enough to allow for serious research work

being used as a tool for educational purposes, either as a tool, or implemented as a learning game.

two Micro-Rover prototypes, at 40 kg and 30 kg., are designed to be operated in conjunction with larger rovers, and can be tethered to them and lowered into otherwise inaccessible areas.

On the Moon, permanently shadowed craters provide many interesting areas to find water and other volatiles

craters have steep slopes making it difficult and risky for a large rover

sending a micro-rover tethered to its mother one gives us the ability to explore the bottom of these craters with a minimum risk.

they are very slow so it is more efficient to have them on a larger rover to cover long distance and deploy them when needed.

The micro-rovers can also be used to work alongside astronauts, to gain access to small spaces like caves

e rovers should be mission-ready by about 2020, and NASA is already interested.

designs are intended to fit in with those types of activities.

NASA has an experiment under consideration that entails digging up soil on the Moon and making hydrogen and oxygen out of it

Canadarm was a fixture on the Space Shuttles and made it possible to do things like deploying satellites like the Hubble Space Telescope

instrumental in building the International Space Station

CSA also built the huge Canadarm 2 and Dextre, the highly dexterous dual-armed robot, both of which reside on the International Space Station

CSA contributed a robotic arm and other equipment to Curiosity

e CSA doesn’t anticipate any other rover designs, these 5 prototypes could be focused “on more specific applications such as in-situ resource utilization or science,

d three sets of experiments

Two involved human cells and the other involved mice

tests on human cells involved using hair follicles growing in organ culture as well as those take directly from the human scalp.

both of these experiments, the scientists found that bimatoprost led to hair growth.

third set of experiments involved applying bimatoprost to the skin of bald spots on mice. As was the case with human cells, the drug caused hair to regrow.

the drug is already approved for human use and its safety profile is generally understood

near side of the moon,

, is quite different from the far side,

the moon's dark side (this side does in fact get sunlight — it simply never faces Earth

, widespread plains of volcanic rock called "maria" (Latin for seas) cover nearly a third of the near side, but only a few maria are seen on the far one.

hers have posed a number of explanations for the vast disparity between the moon's near and far sides. Some have suggested that a tiny second moon may once have orbited Earth before catastrophically slamming into the other moon, spreading its remains mostly on the moon's far side

Others have proposed that Earth's pull on the moon caused distortions that were later frozen in place on the moon's near side.

Mars' northern and southern halves are also stark contrasts from one another, and researchers had suggested that a monstrous impact may have been the cause

scientists in Japan say that a giant collision may also explain the moon's two-faced nature, one that gave rise to the Ocean of Storms

researchers analyzed the composition of the moon's surface using data from the Japanese lunar orbiter Kaguya/Selene

data revealed that a low-calcium variety of the mineral pyroxene is concentrated around Oceanus Procellarum and large impact craters such as the South Pole-Aitkenand Imbriumbasins.

type of pyroxene is linked with the melting and excavation of material from the lunar mantle, and suggests the Ocean of Storms is a leftover from a cataclysmic impact.

This collision would have generated "a 3,000-kilometer (1,800-mile) wide magma sea several hundred kilometers in depth

that collisions large enough to create Oceanus Procellarum and the moon's other giant impact basins would have completely stripped the original crust on the near side of the moon

crust that later formed there from the molten rock left after these impacts would differ dramatically from that on the far side

Some researchers had speculated that the Procellarum basin was the relic of a gigantic impact

this idea was hotly debated because there were no definite topographic signs it was an impact basin

neighboring Earth likely experienced similar-sized impacts around the same period

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has completed initial experiments showing the mineralogy of Martian soil is similar to weathered basaltic soils of volcanic origin in Hawaii

used its Chemistry and Mineralogy instrument (CheMin)

quantitative results provide refined and in some cases new identifications of the minerals in this first X-ray diffraction analysis on Mars."

identification of minerals in rocks and soil is crucial for the mission's goal to assess past environmental conditions

mineral records the conditions under which it formed.

composition of a rock provides only ambiguous mineralogical information,

X-ray diffraction

minerals diamond and graphite, which have the same chemical composition, but strikingly different structures and properties.

CheMin uses X-ray diffraction,

reads minerals' internal structure by recording how their crystals distinctively interact with X-rays

provides more accurate identifications of minerals than any method previously used on Mars

The sample was processed through a sieve to exclude particles larger than 0.006 inch (150 micrometers), roughly the width of a human hair.

soil material CheMin has analyzed is more representative of modern processes on Mars

"We now know it is mineralogically similar to basaltic material

significant amounts of feldspar, pyroxene and olivine, which was not unexpected

Roughly half the soil is non-crystalline material, such as volcanic glass or products from weathering of the glass

ancient rocks, such as the conglomerates, suggest flowing water, while the minerals in the younger soil are consistent with limited interaction with water

"So far, the materials Curiosity has analyzed are consistent with our initial ideas of the deposits in Gale Crater recording a transition through time from a wet to dry environment

By observing

we can learn a lot more about the formation and evolution of not only our galaxy, but also spiral galaxies in general

To help analyze this huge catalogue, the brightness of each star is plotted against its color for about 84 million stars to create a color–magnitude diagram

plot contains more than ten times more stars than any previous study

can then be used for early detection of disease, treatment monitoring, recurrence prediction and other translational assessments.

Research

has shown that saliva, as a medium for health screening is just as useful as blood and other bodily fluids

it has been shown that 20 percent more Americans visit their dentists more regularly than their physicians, there will be substantial opportunities for dentists to engage in primary health care by taking saliva samples from their patients and, based on the medical findings of those samples