NotesAmateur radio enthusiasts using a restored dish antenna in Germany say they have successfully picked up telemetry from NASA's Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft, now outward bound for Mars carrying a one-ton nuclear powered robot rover named Curiosity towards a date with destiny in the Elysium Planitia.FeedUnfurl
NotesSince being redirected away from Bush-era plans for a base on the Moon towards a manned Mars mission, NASA has realigned its nuclear-tech-in-space efforts away from a Moonbase powerplant and towards an atomic-powered rocket able to get astronauts to the red planet quickly, without receiving dangerous exposure to cosmic radiation.FeedUnfurl
Notes"Send someone to NASA Ames Research Center, and they're sure to expect rocket scientists and spaceships. But on a recent rainy morning, more than 100 budding engineers raced around Moffett Field on bikes for the annual Human Powered Vehicle Challenge."Unfurl
Notes"The re-establishment of contact half an hour later was met with jubilation from the mission team at the US space agency's (Nasa) Jet Propulsion Laboratory, in Pasadena, California."Unfurl
Notes'"I have never been told to censor science, to squelch anything or to insert religion into any issue, absolutely not," said the former Bush campaign worker.' Oh, poor baby. You may not have been asked explicitly, but you did it anyway.Unfurl
Notes"George C. Deutsch, the young presidential appointee at NASA who told public affairs workers to limit reporters' access to a top climate scientist and told a Web designer to add the word "theory" at every mention of the Big Bang, resigned yesterday, agencUnfurl
Notes"Through my own investigations I have just discovered that George Deutsch, the Bush political appointee at the heart of administration efforts to censor NASA scientists (most notably to prevent James Hansen from speaking out about global warming), did notUnfurl
NotesFinally waking up from the shuttle disaster? (The whole program, that is.) "Building on the best of Apollo and shuttle technology, NASA's creating a 21st century exploration system that will be affordable, reliable, versatile, and safe."Unfurl
Notes"As tempting as it is to picture a blood-spattered Canadarm flinging goat carcasses into the void, we know that the Shuttle is the fruit of what was supposed to be a rational decision making process."Unfurl
Notes"...the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) will also snap the first close-range pics of Apollo relics we've seen for three decades." But, of course, they still won't believe we've been to the moon...Unfurl
Radio hams pick up Mars rover Curiosity's signals • The Register