Nasa

Private firms may travel to lunar surface: NASA report

London: A study of future human missions has indicated corporate researchers could be living on the moon by the time NASA astronauts head off to visit an asteroid in the 2020s. The study by Bigelow Aerospace, commissioned by NASA, shows "a lot of excitement and interest from various companies" for such ventures, Daily Mail quoted Robert Bigelow, founder and president of the Las Vegas-based firm, as saying.

The projects range from pharmaceutical research aboard Earth-orbiting habitats, to missions to the Moon's surface, he said on Thursday, citing a draft of the report due to be released in a few weeks.

NASA intends to follow the International Space Station programme with astronaut visits to an asteroid by 2025 and to Mars about a decade later.

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'Gas deal a mega scam, favours Ambani's RIL'

New Delhi: CPI MP Gurudas Dasgupta has asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to intervene in a gas deal that he says deliberately favours Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Limited (RIL). Dasgputa also called for Oil Minister Veerappa Moily to step down for favouring RIL. He said if RIL's sale price of gas to the government is accepted, the government's subsidy burden would rise by Rs 36,000 crore. He said the corresponding...  

First meeting of GoM on CBI autonomy today

New Delhi: The first meeting of the Group of Ministers (GoM) to ensure greater independence for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) will take place on Thursday in the Finance Minister's office. The government had set up the GoM after the Supreme Court had pulled it over the lack of functional autonomy to the CBI. The Supreme Court in its order has asked the government to bring a law which...  

NASA's Mars rover examines rock altered by water

Washington: NASA's Mars rover, Opportunity, has finished examining a fractured rock on the red planet intensely altered by water, providing evidence about a wet ancient environment possibly favourable for life. Opportunity is now driving to a new study area after a dramatic finish to 20 months on "Cape York." The fractured rock, called "Esperance," provides evidence about a wet ancient environment possibly favourable for life, mission's principal investigator, Steve Squyres...  

Gigantic asteroid to fly past Earth on May 31

Washington: A gigantic asteroid will fly by Earth at the end of this month, making its closest approach for at least the next two centuries. On May 31, asteroid 1998 QE2, believed to be about 2.7 kilometres or nine Queen Elizabeth 2 ship-lengths in size, will sail serenely past Earth, getting no closer than about 5.8 million kilometres, or about 15 times the distance between Earth and the Moon. "Asteroid...  

Meteoroid impact triggers bright flash on lunar surface

Cape Canaveral: An automated telescope monitoring the moon has captured images of an 88-pound (40 kg) rock slamming into the lunar surface, creating a bright flash of light, NASA scientists said on Friday. The explosion on March 17, 2013 was the biggest seen since NASA began watching the moon for meteoroid impacts about eight years ago. So far, more than 300 strikes have been recorded. "It exploded in a flash...  

Meteoroid impact triggers bright flash on the moon

Cape Canaveral: An automated telescope monitoring the moon has captured images of an 88-pound (40 kg) rock slamming into the lunar surface, creating a bright flash of light, NASA scientists said on Friday. The explosion on March 17 was the biggest seen since NASA began watching the moon for meteoroid impacts about eight years ago. So far, more than 300 strikes have been recorded. "It exploded in a flash nearly...  

Govt forms GoM to review SC directives on CBI autonomy

A week after the Supreme Court pulled up the Government over its control on the functioning of the CBI, the Prime Minister on Tuesday constituted a Group of Ministers to review the SC's directives on CBI autonomy. The GoM is headed by Finance Minister P Chidambaram and will include V Narayanasamy, Kapil Sibal, Salman Khurshid and Manish Tewari. ...

Astronaut's music video aboard ISS goes viral

Cape Canaveral, Florida: A music video shot aboard the International Space Station went viral on Monday, turning an astronaut into an overnight music sensation with his zero-gravity version of David Bowie's hit "Space Oddity." As the first Canadian to command the space station, a $100 million project of 15 nations, Chris Hadfield had already earned himself a place in the history books. But as he prepared to return home on...  

Snapshot: NASA astronaut records the world's first music video from space

This image provided by NASA shows astronaut Chris Hadfield recording the first music video from space Sunday May 12, 2013. The song was his cover version of David Bowie's Space Oddity. Hadfield and astronaut Thomas Marshburn are scheduled to return to earth. ...  

Astronauts conduct spacewalk to fix ammonia leak on ISS

Miami: Two astronauts aboard the International Space Station took a hurriedly arranged spacewalk on Saturday to try to fix an ammonia leak in a cooling system on one of the station's solar arrays that provide electricity to the orbital outpost. The astronauts used a pistol-shaped screwdriver to remove a panel, install a spare pump and add new ammonia coolant, and were to spend several more hours outside the station troubleshooting...  

Spacewalk planned to fix ammonia leak on space station

Miami: NASA plans to send two astronauts aboard the International Space Station out on a spacewalk on Saturday to try to fix an ammonia leak in a cooling system on one of the station's solar arrays, the US space agency said on Friday. The crew spotted a steady stream of small, white frozen ammonia flakes floating away from a coolant line outside the orbital outpost on Thursday. Mission managers reviewed...  

BJP has double standards, doesn't want Parliament to function: Narayanasamy

Taking on the BJP for repeatedly asking for the resignation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Law Minister Ashwani Kumar and Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal, Congress MP V Narayanasamy on Monday said that the main Opposition party has double standards and it doesn't want Parliament to function. ...

NASA invites public to send names, poems and messages to Mars

Washington: Want to be a part of space exploration history? NASA is inviting public to submit their names, short poems and personal messages online for a DVD to be carried aboard a spacecraft that will study the Martian atmosphere. The DVD will carry every name submitted. The public also is encouraged to submit a message in the form of a three-line poem, or haiku, NASA said. However, only three haikus...  

Sonia was upset, but did not instigate MPs against Sushma: MoS PMO

New Delhi: There seems to be a spat between the top two women in the Indian political establishment. Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj's all out attack against Congress President Sonia Gandhi has drawn severe criticism from the Congress and even the Samajwadi Party. Congress leaders say Sonia is upset after Sushma Swaraj accused her of subverting democratic institutions. Criticising Sushma for her comments on Sonia,...  

NASA gets close-up views of large hurricane on Saturn

Washington: NASA's Cassini spacecraft has provided scientists the first close-up, visible-light views of a behemoth hurricane swirling around Saturn's North Pole. In high-resolution pictures and video, scientists see the hurricane's eye is about 2,000 kilometres wide, 20 times larger than the average hurricane eye on Earth. Thin, bright clouds at the outer edge of the hurricane are travelling 150 meters per second. The hurricane swirls inside a large, mysterious, six-sided...  

China join rush to live on Mars, 600 apply for project

Beijing: Over 600 Chinese have applied to join an ambitious Dutch aerospace project that plans to send humans on a one-way trip to Mars for permanent settlement. The Dutch project, while triggering enthusiasm to explore outer space, is also under fire with the trip being viewed by some as a suicide mission, with applicants being shipped to a planet that is uninhabitable by humans. The project, Mars One, is being...  

BJP, CPI question Narayanasamy, CBI chief meeting

New Delhi: The opposition on Friday raised questions over the meeting between Minister of State in PMO V Narayanasamy and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) director Ranjit Sinha and said the probe agency is being "politicised". But the Union Minister has said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is making an "issue out of nothing". "On the eve of the submission and such an important date if he (Narayanasamy) has...  

Ready to discuss every issue in Parliament: PMO

The Budget Session of Parliament resumes on Monday. Despite the fact that Vice President Hamid Ansari on Sunday sent out a strong message against MPs disrupting Parliament, the scene is unlikely to be any different. ...

NASA sees distant planets that seem ideal for life

Washington: NASA's planet-hunting telescope has discovered two planets that seem like ideal places for some sort of life to flourish. And they are just the right size and in just the right place. One is toasty, the other nippy. The distant duo are the best candidates for habitable planets that astronomers have found so far, said William Borucki, the chief scientist for NASA's Kepler telescope. And it's got astronomers thinking...