ISS: Space station's cooling system leaking ammonia

FROM BBC NEWS: 

NASA

Astronauts on the International Space Station are dealing with a leak in the orbiting platform's cooling system.

The crew spotted particles of ammonia drifting away from the laboratory on Thursday.

Liquid ammonia is used to extract the heat that builds up in electronic systems, dumping that excess energy to space through an array of radiators.

Nasa says the crew is in no danger, but that a spacewalk may be needed to inspect the site of the leak.

The seepage is coming from the station's port side, at the far end of the backbone, or truss, structure that holds one of the laboratory's huge sets of solar arrays.

Commander Chris Hadfield reported seeing "a very steady stream of flakes".

"They were coming out cleanly and repeatedly enough that it looked like it was a point source they were coming from," he added.

Cameras were trained on the location so that engineers on the ground could get a better idea of what was happening.

Hadfield later tweeted: "It is a serious situation, but between crew and experts on the ground, it appears to have been stabilized."

Nasa believes the problem is associated with the 2B power channel, one of eight fed by the station's solar arrays.

It is not the first time that the station's cooling systems have caused problems.

A very small leak was identified in 2007, and in 2010 a complete failure of an ammonia pump led to three spacewalks to replace it.

In 2012, a spacewalk was organised to reconfigure coolant lines and isolate the problem of leaks.

Nasa said in a statement that the rate of loss of ammonia on Thursday meant the cooling loop would very likely have to be shutdown, although it stressed this would not cause the station or its occupants any difficulty.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-22478364

The Morning Report -- Tuesday March 5, 2013

Vote Counting Begins In Kenya -- Queen Elizabeth Leaves Hospital -- Cardinals Meet Today, Conclave Due -- U.S. Cardinals Express Concerns -- Venezuela's Chavez Health Worsens -- CA GOP Looks To Rebuild -- House Republicans Propose Shutdown Fix -- Vegas Strip Shooting Fights Extradition -- Menendez Accuser Backs Off Claims -- US Ambassador Asks UN Colleagues To Remain Sober - White House Favors Unlocking Cellphones - Comet Aims For Mars

KENYA ELECTION: VOTE COUNTING BEGINS IN CRUCIAL ELECTION 

Polls were due to close at 17:00 (14:00 GMT) but officials said those in queues at that time would be allowed to vote.

Earlier attacks by machete-wielding gangs around the port city of Mombasa killed at least 15 people.

With more than 10% of votes counted, the two presidential front-runners were well ahead of the other candidates.

The partial preliminary results, from areas where polling ended on time, gave Uhuru Kenyatta a lead over Prime Minister Raila Odinga, although analysts cautioned that these results came from Kenyatta strongholds.

QUEEN ELIZABETH II LEAVES HOSPITAL AFTER STOMACH FLU

Queen Elizabeth II left the London hospital where she'd been treated for the symptoms of a stomach infection Monday, following a brief and rare hospitalization for the 86-year-old head of state.

A smiling Elizabeth walked unassisted out of King Edward VII Hospital Monday afternoon before saying goodbye to staff. She was then driven away in a motorcade.

CARDINALS MEET TODAY, COULD SET CONCLAVE DATE

Cardinals will meet again in secret today at the Vatican, where they may target a date for the formal conclave to select a new pope and hash out the agenda they’d like to see the next pontiff address, including the clergy sex scandals and Vatican management that continue to dominate pre-conclave headlines.

The process is playing out behind closed doors and under an oath of secrecy, though some of the princes of the Church are still making themselves available to the media hordes on hand.

US CARDINALS SEEK ANSWERS ON ABUSE, CORRUPTION ALLEGATIONS BEFORE CONCLAVE

VATICAN CITY — Cardinals said Monday they want to talk to Vatican managers about allegations of corruption and cronyism within the top levels of the Catholic Church before they elect the next pope, evidence that a scandal over leaked papal documents is casting a shadow over the conclave and setting up one of the most unpredictable papal elections in recent times.

The Vatican said 107 of the 115 voting-age cardinals attended the first day of pre-conclave meetings, at which cardinals organize the election, discuss the problems of the church and get to know one another before voting.

CHAVEZ'S BREATHING PROBLEMS WORSEN, HAS SEVERE NEW INFECTION

(Reuters) - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's breathing problems have worsened and he is suffering from a "severe" new respiratory infection as he struggles to recover from cancer surgery, the government said in a somber medical update on Monday.

The 58-year-old socialist leader has not been seen in public nor heard from in almost three months since undergoing the operation in Cuba. It was his fourth surgery since the disease was detected in mid-2011.

CALIFORNIA GOP TO REBUILD STEP-BY-STEP

Borrowing a theme from Democrat Jerry Brown's first term as governor, California Republicans are embracing a "small is beautiful" philosophy as they seek to rebuild their party from its nadir.

The California GOP has entered an era of diminished expectations.

As the emaciated party wrapped up its three-day statewide convention Sunday, there is little buzz about a 2014 challenge to unseat Brown. There's little hope of picking up more than a seat or two in the Legislature. There's no rush behind a ballot measure.

HOUSE REPUBLICANS PROPOSE MEASURE TO AVERT SHUTDOWN

WASHINGTON -- House Republicans on Monday introduced a bill that would avoid a government shutdown at the end of March, but that also could mitigate some of the most striking effects of the across-the-board federal spending cuts enacted last week.

Although the proposed shifts would make the sequester slightly less indiscriminate -- particularly for the military -- the measure would leave in place the $85 billion spending reduction, locking in the cuts through Sept. 30, the end of the fiscal year.

SUSPECT IN VEGAS STRIP SHOOTING FIGHTS EXTRADITION FROM CALIFORNIA

(Reuters) - A man accused of fatally shooting an aspiring rapper as he drove a Maserati along the Las Vegas Strip, touching off a fiery car crash that killed two other people, challenged his extradition back to Nevada from California on Monday.

The man insisted through his defense lawyer that police or other authorities from Nevada be summoned to Los Angeles to identify him in court as the fugitive they seek in the February 21 shooting, 26-year-old Ammar Harris.

ESCORT SAYS MENENDEZ PROSTITUTION CLAIMS WERE MADE UP

A woman who said on tape that Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) paid her for sex is now backing off those claims, telling police in the Dominican Republican that she was paid to make them, according to documents and two people familiar with the case.

The woman, one of two women who claimed Menendez hired them as prostitutes, now says she has never met the senator.

US AMBASSADOR POLITELY ASKS UN COLLEAGUES TO STOP SHOWING UP DRUNK TO MEETINGS

The United Nations is a pretty fun place. The headquarters hosts all kinds of cultural events. Everyone's open-minded about the dress code. Delegates can even show up hammered to budget negotiations. Or at least they used to be able to.

At a General Assembly budget committee meeting on Monday, the United States ambassador for management and reform at the UN stood up to scold his colleagues for always showing up drunk to negotiations. "There has always been a good and responsible tradition of a bit of alcohol improving a negotiation, but we're not talking about a delegate having a nip at the bar," said Joseph "The Fun Police" Torsella. "We make the modest proposal that the negotiating rooms should in future be an inebriation-free zone."

WHITE HOUSE: IT'S TIME TO LEGALIZE CELL PHONE UNLOCKING 

The White House on Monday came out in support of the rights of consumers to unlock their cellphones once they have fulfilled the terms of the contract.

Responding to a petition on WhiteHouse.gov, the executive branch stated, “The White House agrees with the 114,000+ of you who believe that consumers should be able to unlock their cell phones without risking criminal or other penalties.”

They went further, saying that the same right should also extend to other mobile devices, namely tablets.

COMET SETS AIM FOR MARS

A PAIR of middle-aged tourists (see previous post) are not the only thing headed for Mars. Comet C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) is also on its way. Discovered on January 3rd, some calculations of its orbit, according to Phil Plait, the rather good “Bad Astronomer”, have it passing 37,000km above the surface of the planet in October 2014—roughly the height at which communication satellites orbit Earth, and a remarkably close shave by cosmic standards. An official NASA website puts the most likely “close-approach” distance between the comet and Mars at something more like 100,000km.

But the minimum close-approach distance is zero. Comets do not move smoothly on their tracks like ball bearings or planets. The gases that blow off their surfaces as the sun warms them up push them hither and yon, changing their trajectories. So, though the odds are strongly against it (how strongly no one can yet say) the comet has a real if small chance of actually hitting the planet.

The Morning Report -- Monday February 18, 2013

Egyptian Sheikh Says Rape Is 'Halal' -- NASA's New ATLAS Program -- BofA Get's Bailed Out...Quietly -- At Facebook: Make $1BN Profit, Get $429m Refund -- "VatiLeaks" Reveals Fractured Vatican -- 'Maker's Mark' Learns Painful Lesson -- Mississippi Ratifies 13th Amendment...149 Years Later -- Tiger Woods Joins Obama

DETAINED EGYPTIAN SHEIKH SAYS IT IS 'HALAL' TO RAPE WOMEN

Reuters

Egypt has issued an arrest warrant on Sunday against the Salafi preacher, who recently said it was “halal” (permissible) to rape female protestors, charging him with the defamation of religion, an Al Arabiya correspondent reported. 

Ahmad Mahmoud Abdullah, known as “Abu Islam” owner of the private television channel of “al-Ummah,” sparked further controversy after he attacked women and Christianity. 

POPE BENEDICT XVI 'LEAKED' DOCUMENTS SHOW FRACTURED VATICAN

New  York  Times

VATICAN CITY — Guests at the going-away party for Carlo Maria Viganò couldn’t understand why the archbishop looked so forlorn. Pope Benedict XVI had appointed Viganò ambassador to the United States, a plum post where he would settle into a stately mansion on Massachusetts Avenue, across the street from the vice president’s residence.

“He went through the ordeal making it very clear he was unhappy with it,” said one former ambassador to the Vatican, who attended the Vatican Gardens ceremony in the late summer of 2011. “And we just couldn’t figure out, us outsiders and non-Italians, what was going on.”

AN ASTEROID ALERT SYSTEM

PopSci

In the realm of potential planetary disasters, asteroids are among the ones to fear -- like the meteorite that hit Russia, they can inflict serious damage on Earth. 

With the aid of a $5-million grant from NASA, a University of Hawaii team of astronomers is developing ATLAS, a system to identify dangerous asteroids before their final plunge to Earth. 

The team is on track to build and operate an asteroid detection system that will patrol the visible sky twice a night looking for faint objects moving through space. 

BLINK AND MISS THE NEXT BANK BAILOUT

MANY people became rightfully upset about bailouts given to big banks during the mortgage crisis. But it turns out that they are still going on, if more quietly, through the back door.

The existence of one such secret deal, struck in July between the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and Bank of America, came to light just last week in court filings.

That the New York Fed would shower favors on a big financial institution may not surprise. It has long shielded large banks from assertive regulation and increased capital requirements.

FACEBOOK PAYS NO TAX FOR 2012

Bloomberg News

Facebook will not pay any tax for 2012 despite making $1.1 billion in pre-tax profits from U.S. operations, according to a report released on Thursday.

But Mark Zuckerberg's company will also get a multimillion dollar tax refund of around $429 million according to Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ).

The refunds reportedly come from tax deductions on executive stock options and share awards.

MAKER'S MARK LEARNS A PAINFUL SOCIAL LESSON

Associated Press

The reversal speaks to how brands often misjudge their relationship with customers, who can now vote more powerfully with their Twitter accounts than with their wallets. “What we’ve learned is that this is the customer’s brand,” Maker’s Mark COO Rob Samuels, grandson of the bourbon’s creator, said today in an interview. “It was an overwhelming response, we listened all week, and tomorrow morning we’ll immediately return Maker’s Mark to 90 proof.”

The company had emailed loyal customers on Feb. 9 to say it was lowering its proof to 84, or 42% alcohol, in order to address a supply shortage driven by bourbon’s surging popularity in the United States and certain other markets like Australia, Germany, and Japan. The announcement, first reported by Quartz, spread quickly in social media, rising from a small firestorm to an all-out backlash. The companydefended itself in interviews, saying the taste wouldn’t change, but it didn’t help.

HISTORIC OVERSIGHT CORRECTED: 'LINCOLN' INSPIRES LOOK INTO SLAVERY VOTE

Oscar-nominated “Lincoln,” which depicts the political fight to pass the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery, played a role in Mississippi officially ratifying the amendment this month — a century and a half later.

The story opens, not surprisingly, in a movie theater.

Last November, Dr. Ranjan Batra, associate professor of neurobiology and anatomical sciences at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, saw the Steven Spielberg film and wondered afterward what happened when the states voted on ratification.

TIGER WOODS JOINS VACATIONING OBAMA

PALM CITY, Fla. (AP) - President Barack Obama played golf Sunday with Tiger Woods, the White House said.

Continue reading

Once the sport's dominant player before his career was sidetracked by scandal, Woods joined Obama at the Floridian, a secluded and exclusive yacht and golf club on Florida's Treasure Coast where Obama is spending the long Presidents Day weekend. The two had met before, but Sunday was the first time they played together.

The White House, which has promised to be the most open and transparent in history, has prohibited any media coverage of Obama's golf outing.

The Morning Report -- Sunday February 17, 2013

Pope Nears Retirement -- Dorner Hid In Unoccupied Condo -- Mother Presses Congress -- Obama Gets Golf Lessons -- Draft Bill For Illegal Legal Immigrants -- Russian Meteor Largest Since 1908 -- Apple/Samsung Plans 'Smartwatch' -- Google To Open Retail Stores -- Rubio Beats Obama To Israel

POPE NEARS RETIREMENT, SAYS "PRAY FOR ME AND NEXT POPE"

Reuters

(Reuters) - Pope Benedict asked the faithful to pray for him and for the next pope, addressing a crowded St. Peter's Square in his penultimate Sunday address before becoming the first pontiff in centuries to resign.

The crowd chanted "Long live the pope!," waved banners and broke into sustained applause as he spoke from his window. The 85-year-old Benedict, who will resign on February 28, thanked them in several languages.

DORNER WAS HIDING IN UNOCCUPIED CONDO DURING MANHUNT

Associated Press

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. -- It didn't take ingenuity for Christopher Dorner to elude authorities for six days. He simply opened an unlocked door.

As law enforcement swarmed a mountain neighborhood searching for the fugitive ex-cop, Dorner hid in a condo 100 feet across the street from a command post and a short distance from where he left his burned-out truck.

SLAIN TEEN'S MOM PRESSES CONGRESS

Associated Press

The mother of a 15-year-old Chicago girl slain a week after performing at President Barack Obama’s inauguration is appearing in a new gun control public service announcement that calls on Congress to enact “common-sense reforms.”

“When my daughter Hadiya performed at the President’s inauguration, it was the happiest day of her life,” Cleopatra Cowley-Pendelton says in the commercial, paid for by Mayors Against Illegal Guns. “A week later, she was murdered. Gunned down near her school. A piece of my heart is gone. Congress is debating how to fix our gun laws. They can start with background checks for all gun sales. Tell Congress to support common-sense reforms so no more innocent children are killed. And no parent has to go through this heartbreak.”

PRESIDENT OBAMA GETS GOLF LESSONS FROM TIGER WOODS' OLD COACH

PALM CITY, Fla. — President Obama is spending his President’s Day weekend in this upscale coastal community for a golf getaway with friends. But he isn’t spending his three days in the Sunshine State idly teeing off: The president received golf lessons today from the former coach of none other than Tiger Woods himself: Butch Harmon.

A veteran of the PGA Tour, Harmon is renowned today for his series of “Ultimate Golf” training videos. He flew to the area with his son, Claude III, to give the president personal tips.

OBAMA DRAFT BILL WOULD CLEAR PATH TO CITIZENSHIP

Reuters

(Reuters) - A draft of a White House immigration proposal would allow illegal immigrants to become legal permanent residents within eight years, USA Today reported on Saturday.

The plan, obtained by the newspaper, also would provide for more security funding and require businesses to check the immigration status of new hires within four years. Illegal immigrants could also apply for a newly created "Lawful Prospective Immigrant" visa, under the draft bill, it said.

RUSSIAN METEOR IS LARGEST SINCE 1908

A meteor that exploded in the skies above Russia’s Ural Mountains was the largest since the Tunguska blast in Siberia in 1908 and released about 33 times the energy of the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima.

Before hitting the Earth’s atmosphere yesterday, the object was about 17 meters (55 feet) and had a mass of about 10,000 tons, the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration said in a statement.

SAMSUNG PLANS SMARTWATCH

Above: Apple's Potential iWatch

Apple and Samsung may extend their smartphone and tablet battle to the wrist. New images have appeared online that are believed to be screenshots of the Samsung Altius, a smartwatch that will arrive later this year. The Altius could go head-to-head with Apple's own iWatch. Have the smartwatch wars begun?

The Altius screenshots leaked less than a week after both The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal ran articles suggesting that Apple -- Samsung's main competitor in a variety of markets -- is working on a wearable product, probably a watch.

APPLE'S NEW iAD CAMPAIGN PROMOTES 300,000 APPS

Apple's initial ad campaign for the new iPad mini simply presented it next to the full size iPad both playing a duet in GarageBand, or alone in a user's hand to highlight its smaller size. 

The new ads present both a full size iPad and iPad mini, depicting both running one of a series of creative applications. Each ad has a simple headline that highlights a particular category or type of apps, such as "Ear Opening" for music related titles, "Elementary" for educational titles, "Well Versed" for music notation and ebooks and "Mind watering" for visually graphic apps.

RUMOR: GOOGLE PLANNING TO OPEN RETAIL STORES

Google opening up a retail store or two? That's this weekend's big rumor, with a few unknown sources letting slip that the search giant might be looking to open up stand-alone shops around the U.S. in a bid to get more Google products — tablets, phones, and all the other fun things cooking at Google HQ (glasses, anyone?) — into consumer hands.

It's a move that makes complete sense, given that competitors Microsoft and Apple both have retail stores of their own for pushing out product. And while Google's tested the retail waters a bit with some "store-within-a-store" setups at various Best Buy locations across the United States, the company has yet to go the full nine yards and establish broader retails presences that could focus more on selling instead of showing, as9to5google's Seth Weintraub suggests.

AHEAD OF OBAMA, MARCO RUBIO HEADS TO ISRAEL

As President Obama prepares for his first trip to Israel since assuming office, the man some hope will succeed him leaves Saturday for his own visit to the Jewish state.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and an oft-mentioned potential 2016 presidential candidate, departed for Israel and Jordan.

The Morning Report -- Wednesday February 13, 2013

Obama Lays Out Vision -- Pope To Appear -- Dorner Manhunt Results In Standoff -- Senate Panel Approves Hagel -- Shooting Suspects Come Clean -- Senate Reauthorizes VAWA -- Asteroid To Miss Earth

OBAMA URGES ACTION ON EXPANSIVE AGENDA

Getty Images

WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama outlined an ambitious agenda in his State of the Union address Tuesday that included raising the minimum wage, increasing spending on infrastructure, attacking climate change and passing gun-control legislation.

Mr. Obama repeated his earlier calls for reducing the budget deficit through a mix of tax increases and spending cuts. He also said he would support "modest reforms" in programs including Medicare, as long as wealthy Americans contribute as well. And he said he would reduce troop levels in Afghanistan by half over the next year, an acceleration of the U.S. departure and an effort to wind down America's longest war.

POPE TO APPEAR FOR FIRST TIME SINCE BOMBSHELL ANNOUNCEMENT OF RESIGNATION

Getty Images

VATICAN CITY –  Pope Benedict XVI is making his first public appearance since his bombshell announcement of his resignation, presiding over his weekly general audience and Ash Wednesday services.

Thousands of people are expected to fill the Vatican audience hall on Wednesday morning for the audience, which will be his second to last public audience before stepping down Feb. 28.

EX-LAPD OFFICER BELIEVED TO BE DEAD

KABC-TV PHOTO

BIG BEAR LAKE, Calif. (AP) — The manhunt for a former Los Angeles police officer suspected of going on a killing spree converged Tuesday on a mountain cabin where authorities believe he barricaded himself inside, engaged in a shootout that killed a deputy and then never emerged as the home went up in flames.

A single gunshot was heard from within, and a law enforcement official told The Associated Press Tuesday evening that officials had found a charred body. Later, San Bernardino County sheriff's spokeswoman Jodi Miller said that the remains had been found inside the burned-out cabin.

SENATE PANEL APPROVES HAGEL NOMINATION

WASHINGTON — After a combative two-hour debate, the Senate Armed Services Committee approved the nomination of former Sen. Chuck Hagel as defense secretary Tuesday, sending it to the full Senate.

But the 14-11 vote, which broke down along partisan lines, was just the beginning of a process this week that seemed certain to further expose a deep rift between Republicans and Democrats over President Barack Obama's foreign policy prerogatives.

At times, the hearing slipped into an accusatory and bitter back-and-forth, with Republicans such as Ted Cruz of Texas going as far as to suggest that Hagel had accepted money from enemy nations such as North Korea, while Democrats like Bill Nelson of Florida said Republicans had undermined the integrity of both Hagel and the committee.

CHICAGO SUSPECTS IN MURDER CONFESS TO SLAYING TEEN

Chicago Police Department

The two men charged in the January shooting death of Chicago teenager Hadiya Pendleton were gang members who were looking for revenge when they opened fire on the 15-year-old and a group of her friends in a South Side park, according to a statement one of them has given to Chicago police.

Michael Ward, 18 and Kenneth Williams, 20 were both charged with first degree murder Monday in the Jan. 29 homicide, which took the life of the honors student who had just days before performed as a majorette in the presidential inauguration parade with her school. Additional charges include attempted murder and aggravated battery with a firearm. At a Tuesday hearing, both were ordered held without bail.

SENATE VOTES TO REAUTHORIZE VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN ACT

Associated Press

The Senate has agreed to reauthorize the Violence Against Women Act, showing bipartisan support for a measure that would revamp domestic violence programs and extend the law’s protections to gays and lesbians and women on tribal reservations.

The 78-to-22 vote puts pressure on the GOP-held House to also act to renew the 19-year-old measure, which Congress has twice reauthorized but which lapsed in 2011 amid partisan disputes over key provisions.

ASTEROID TO MISS EARTH BY "15 MINUTES"

This coming Friday, Feb. 15, asteroid 2012 DA14 will pass within 17,200 miles—or 15 minutes—of Earth, according to scientist Bill Nye.

While the asteroid, which Nye said is comparable in size to the one responsible for the 1908 Tunguska event, is expected to pass harmlessly by, Nye said it is a very close shave relatively speaking.

"This one will miss us by about 15 minutes," Nye explained. "Fifteen minutes difference and that's it."

If it were not for those 15 minutes, life for millions of people could end.

"If such a meteor were to hit Atlanta or New York City or Boston, that would be it for those municipalities," Nye said.

As much as 1,200 square miles would be destroyed, Nye added.

According to Nye, there are approximately 100,000 "Earth-crossing" asteroids and, for the first time in human history, the possibility exists that something could be done should one threaten Earth.

"It is something that we as humans all over the world ought to get involved in," he said.

What If Friday's Asteroid Flyby Hit Earth?

NASA

On Friday (Feb. 15), an asteroid half the length of a football field will buzz close by Earth. It won't hit the planet, but if it did, the collision would create an impact large enough to level 80 million trees — or the entire city of Washington, D.C., and its suburbs.

Scientists know this because an impact by an object the size of Friday's flyby asteroid has happened in human memory. In 1908, a 220-million-pound (100-million-kilogram) hunk of meteoroid or comet fragment hurtled into the atmosphere over Tunguska, Siberia, setting the sky ablaze and releasing the same amount of energy as 185 Hiroshima bombs.

Fortunately, the impact occurred over remote, forested land, taking the lives of hundreds of reindeer but no humans. At about 130 feet (40 meters) in diameter, the Tunguska space rock is similar in size to 2012 DA14, the asteroid en route for a Friday flyby, which is estimated to be about 150 feet (45 m). For comparison, that's about the size of the White House, said Mark Boslough, a physicist at Sandia National Laboratories in New Mexico who has used computer modeling to recreate the Tunguska impact.

Asteroid 2012 DA14 will approach as close as 17,200 miles (27,700 kilometers) from Earth at approximately 2:24 p.m. Eastern Standard Time on Friday, the closest-ever predicted flyby for an object this large. The approach isn't close enough to threaten Earth, though it will pass within the zone where satellites are orbiting. Siberia in 1908 wasn't so lucky.

To read more go to: http://www.livescience.com/27000-flyby-asteroid-da14-tunguska.html

NASA Curiosity Rover Collects First Martian Bedrock Sample

NASA

PASADENA, Calif. -- NASA's Curiosity rover has, for the first time, used a drill carried at the end of its robotic arm to bore into a flat, veiny rock on Mars and collect a sample from its interior. This is the first time any robot has drilled into a rock to collect a sample on Mars.

The fresh hole, about 0.63 inch (1.6 centimeters) wide and 2.5 inches (6.4 centimeters) deep in a patch of fine-grained sedimentary bedrock, can be seen in images and other data Curiosity beamed to Earth Saturday. The rock is believed to hold evidence about long-gone wet environments. In pursuit of that evidence, the rover will use its laboratory instruments to analyze rock powder collected by the drill.

"The most advanced planetary robot ever designed is now a fully operating analytical laboratory on Mars," said John Grunsfeld, NASA associate administrator for the agency's Science Mission Directorate. "This is the biggest milestone accomplishment for the Curiosity team since the sky-crane landing last August, another proud day for America."

For the next several days, ground controllers will command the rover's arm to carry out a series of steps to process the sample, ultimately delivering portions to the instruments inside.

"We commanded the first full-depth drilling, and we believe we have collected sufficient material from the rock to meet our objectives of hardware cleaning and sample drop-off," said Avi Okon, drill cognizant engineer at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

Rock powder generated during drilling travels up flutes on the bit. The bit assembly has chambers to hold the powder until it can be transferred to the sample-handling mechanisms of the rover's Collection and Handling for In-Situ Martian Rock Analysis (CHIMRA) device.

Before the rock powder is analyzed, some will be used to scour traces of material that may have been deposited onto the hardware while the rover was still on Earth, despite thorough cleaning before launch.

"We'll take the powder we acquired and swish it around to scrub the internal surfaces of the drill bit assembly," said JPL's Scott McCloskey, drill systems engineer. "Then we'll use the arm to transfer the powder out of the drill into the scoop, which will be our first chance to see the acquired sample."

"Building a tool to interact forcefully with unpredictable rocks on Mars required an ambitious development and testing program," said JPL's Louise Jandura, chief engineer for Curiosity's sample system. "To get to the point of making this hole in a rock on Mars, we made eight drills and bored more than 1,200 holes in 20 types of rock on Earth."

Inside the sample-handling device, the powder will be vibrated once or twice over a sieve that screens out any particles larger than six-thousandths of an inch (150 microns) across. Small portions of the sieved sample will fall through ports on the rover deck into the Chemistry and Mineralogy (CheMin) instrument and the Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM) instrument. These instruments then will begin the much-anticipated detailed analysis.

The rock Curiosity drilled is called "John Klein" in memory of a Mars Science Laboratory deputy project manager who died in 2011. Drilling for a sample is the last new activity for NASA's Mars Science Laboratory Project, which is using the car-size Curiosity rover to investigate whether an area within Mars' Gale Crater has ever offered an environment favorable for life.

JPL manages the project for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington.

For images and more information about the mission, visit: http://www.nasa.gov/msl and http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/ .

You can follow the mission on Facebook and Twitter at: http://www.facebook.com/marscuriosity andhttp://www.twitter.com/marscuriosity .

The Morning Report -- Saturday February 9, 2013

Boeing To Get Flight Test -- Stocks Soar On Optimism -- Mass. Nuclear Power Plant Loses Power -- Panetta Retires, Hagel Waits -- White House Warns Of Sequestration -- Asteroid Approaches Earth -- Hunt For LAPD Cop Hindered By Snow --  Nemo Strikes Northeast United States

BOEING 787 DREAMLINER  FLIGHT TEST TODAY

Boeing will begin flight tests of its 787 Dreamliner on Saturday morning to gather data on the battery system that has caused the in-service 787 fleet to be grounded, according to an inside source.

The plane that will fly Saturday is Dreamliner No. 5, one of six planes filled with measuring equipment that was used in the flight tests for the 787’s original Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certification.

Ground tests were successfully completed on the jet Friday.

On Thursday, the FAA granted Boeing’s request to do test flights specifically to gather data on the battery performance in flight.

The FAA has imposed strict operating conditions on the test flights, requiring preflight inspections and in-flight monitoring of the battery system.

STOCKS END HIGH FOR SIXTH STRAIGHT WEEK

Reuters

(Reuters) - The Nasdaq composite stock index closed at a 12-year high and the S&P 500 index at a five-year high, boosted by gains in technology shares and stronger overseas trade figures.

The S&P 500 also posted a sixth straight week of gains for the first time since August.

The technology sector led the day's gains, with the S&P 500 technology index .SPLRCT up 1.0 percent. Gains in professional network platform LinkedIn Corp (LNKD.N) and AOL Inc (AOL.N) after they reported quarterly results helped the sector.

MASSACHUSETTS NUCLEAR POWER PLANT LOSES POWER

PLYMOUTH, Mass. — The Nuclear Regulatory Commission says a power plant in Massachusetts has lost power and shut down during a massive snowstorm.

The NRC says the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Plant in Plymouth experienced an automatic shutdown at around 9:15 p.m. Friday after losing off-site power. Spokesman Neil Sheehan says the plant has declared an unusual event, which is the lowest level of emergency classification.

Sheehan says that the reactor shut down without any problems and that backup generators are powering plant equipment.

The NRC says there’s no threat to public safety.

The shutdown came as a major snowstorm began clobbering the New York-to-Boston corridor, knocking out power to more than 300,000 customers in Massachusetts.

PANETTA RETIRES WHILE SUCCESSOR AWAITS VOTE

Reuters

(Reuters) - President Barack Obama bade a fond farewell to retiring Defense Secretary Leon Panetta at a ceremony on Friday and voiced strong support for his nominated successor, Chuck Hagel, who was attacked by Republicans at a contentious Senate confirmation hearing last week.

Panetta, in his 19 months as Pentagon chief, ended the ban on women serving in front-line combat roles and oversaw the integration of gays and lesbians serving openly in the military. The Iraq war ended and the lastAfghanistan "surge" troops came home on his watch.

But he may be remembered most for his work before he came to the Pentagon in July 2011, as the CIA director who helped oversee the raid earlier that year that killed Osama bin Laden.

WHITE HOUSE WARNS OF "DAMAGING" SEQUESTRATION SPENDING CUTS

Reuters

(Reuters) - The White House said on Friday that government spending cuts due to take effect March 1 would have harsh consequences for ordinary Americans and the U.S. economy, seeking to turn up pressure on Congress to come up with a plan to avoid what Washington calls "sequestration."

President Barack Obama said the spending cuts could weaken U.S. military preparedness.

"There is no reason, no reason for that to happen," Obama said at a farewell ceremony for Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.

"Putting our fiscal house in order calls for a balanced approach, not massive, indiscriminate cuts that could have a severe impact on our military preparedness," he said.

ASTEROID TO NARROWLY MISS EARTH

NASA

Astronomers are keeping a wary eye on a large asteroid expected to narrowly miss hitting Earth next Friday in the closest known approach of a dangerous cosmic object since NASA started tracking such debris.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration experts who plotted its trajectory are confident that the primordial rock, weighing an estimated 130,000 metric tons, will pass within "a remarkably close distance" of Earth, nearer than many orbiting communications satellites but far enough away to safely speed past the planet.

HUNT FOR LA COP LEADS TO SNOWY MOUNTAINS

BIG BEAR LAKE, Calif. –  The hunt for Christopher Dorner in the snow-covered San Bernardino Mountains is expected to resume at daybreak Saturday, when authorities hope clearer skies will allow airplanes to help them in their search.

Relentless snowfall on Friday grounded helicopters with heat-sensing technology and hampered their effort to find the former Los Angeles police officer suspected of going on a deadly rampage to get back at those he blamed for ending his career.

NORTHEAST SNOWED IN AS 'NEMO' HITS

BuzzFeed

BOSTON — A massive storm packing hurricane-force winds and blizzard conditions is sweeping through the Northeast, dumping nearly 2 feet of snow on New England and knocking out power to more than a half a million customers.

More than 23 inches of snow had fallen in parts of central Connecticut by early Saturday, and more than 21 inches covered Randolph in southeastern Massachusetts.

The National Weather Service says up to 3 feet of snow is expected in Boston, threatening the city's 2003 record of 27.6 inches.