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Marc Millis, former head of NASA’s Breakthrough Propulsion Physics program and founding architect of the Tau Zero Foundation, now gives us a look at the Foundation’s current status and his thoughts on where it’s going. To those who have been waiting for the Tau Zero Foundation to begin in earnest, your patience is greatly appreciated. We are definitely making progress and this article describes that status.

This summer, NASA plans to propel a satellite the size of a loaf of bread through space with an ultra-thin, 100-square-foot sail called NanoSail-D. Developed and constructed in just six months as the result of a partnership between Marshall Space Flight Center and Ames Research Center, NASA will ride the sail into space on an upcoming flight of the new Falcon 1 launch vehicle developed by Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) of Hawthorne, California. The launch is scheduled for take place from Omelek Island in the Pacific Ocean. Once in space, a Poly Picosatellite Orbital Deployer, or P-POD, developed at the...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Scientists with the US Phoenix lander will make their first analysis of Martian ice fragments in coming days but it could be the last done in one of the probe's small ovens, NASA said on its website Friday. ADVERTISEMENT A team of engineers and scientists were trying to get to the bottom of what caused a short-circuit on the TEGA (Thermal and Evolved-Gas Analyzer) which has four small ovens able to heat samples of Martian soil up to 1,000 degrees Celsius. "Since there is no way to assess the probability of another short circuit occurring, we are...

First surprise from mission to Mercury: signs of water Thursday, July 3, 2008 8:43 PM By Kevin Mayhood THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH Mercury facts Diameter: 3,032 miles Magnetic field: only rocky planet other than Earth with an active magnetic field Density: densest planet in solar system; 5.3 times denser than water Distance from sun: average of 36 million miles Distance from Earth: 50 million to 200 million miles Messenger facts Distance Messenger will travel: 4.9 billion miles as the spacecraft circles the sun 14 times before slowing enough to enter Mercury's orbit Size: 56 inches tall, 73 inches wide and 50...

The Martian soil uncovered by the 'Phoenix' Mars Lander might not be that different from the dirt in your own backyard. In fact, you might even be able to grow asparagus in it, mission officials said. The UA-led mission conducted the first ever wet-chemistry experiments done on another planet yesterday. 'Phoenix' tested the soil's chemical properties, like pH and mineral content, by mixing it with water in its onboard labs. The first experiment showed that Mars' soil has some of the basic nutrients needed to support life and is, in some respects, very earth-like, said Sam Kounaves, the mission's wet-chemistry...

This image, taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, is a very thin section of a supernova remnant caused by a stellar explosion that occurred more than 1,000 years ago. Newswise — A delicate ribbon of gas floats eerily in our galaxy. A contrail from an alien spaceship? A jet from a black-hole? Actually this image, taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, is a very thin section of a supernova remnant caused by a stellar explosion that occurred more than 1,000 years ago. On or around May 1, 1006 A.D., observers from Africa to Europe to the Far East witnessed...

Captain Eugene (Gene) Cernan, the last man to walk on the moon, has called for the shuttle to be extended past 2010 - so long as it doesn't damage Constellation's manifest - in order to reduce the gap in US manned space flight capability. In an inspiring interview, Captain Cernan spoke on a variety of topics, ranging from his concerns about presidential candidate Barack Obama's plans for NASA, to his wish that he had flown the space shuttle.

The drive to Mars is on! The Mars Society and MarsDrive would like to announce a new era of collaboration between our two organizations as we aim for Mars. Recognizing that all groups and individuals have an important role to play in this most challenging of tasks, we will work together in strategic areas which help streamline efforts towards a human future on Mars. MarsDrive will be assisting in various selected Mars Society projects from time to time and doing its best to ensure a new spirit of co-operation exists and flourishes between Mars and space advocacy groups in general....

Some Martian dirt has the same basic chemistry as garden soil, a new analysis from the Phoenix lander suggests. The find widens the range of organisms that might be able to live on Mars. Although the analysis is not yet complete, the lander has already found trace levels of nutrients like magnesium, sodium, potassium and chloride. Although these ingredients were known to exist in Martian soil, until now no one was sure whether they would be soluble in water and thus potentially available for life.

Buzz Aldrin, the second man on the Moon, has issued a stark warning that America must invest now in the space agency Nasa, or surrender leadership of space exploration to Russia and China. In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph, Mr Aldrin revealed that he intends to lobby Barack Obama and John McCain, the two US presidential candidates, in an effort to ensure they find sufficient funds for Nasa's goal to establish a permanent base on the Moon and then send a manned mission to Mars.

Here are a few past APODs (Astronomy Picture of the Day) that I've collected over the years. They really are incredible. However, some make take awhile to download, especially if you're on dial-up. Hope you enjoy them... Orion Spitzer:http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0608/orion_spitzer_f.jpg NGC-2174:http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0612/NGC2174_lrg.jpg M-42:http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0601/m42_hst_f.jpg Orion Cradle:http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0701/orioncradle_hallas_r.jpg Wisps Surrounding the Horsehead Nebula:http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080406.html Markarian's Eyes:http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0706/NGC4438_NGC4435_crawford_r.jpg Carina Nebula Panorama from Hubble:http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0704/carina_hst_big.jpg Bullet Pillars in Orion:http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0703/bullets_gemini_big.jpg The Rosette Nebula:http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/image/0702/rosette_gendler_big.jpg For individual descriptions of these images, go to the APOD archive page and run a search on the selected image's title:http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/archivepix.html

In honor of NASA's 50th anniversary, the Smithsonian Institution's Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage and NASA are partnering on this year's Folklife Festival. The festival will be held Wednesday, June 25 through Sunday, June 29, and Wednesday, July 2 through Sunday, July 6, outdoors on the National Mall between Seventh and 14th Streets. Festival hours are from 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. EDT each day, with special evening events including concerts and movie screenings beginning at 6 p.m. The program "NASA: 50 Years and Beyond," will include presentations, hands-on educational activities, demonstrations and exhibits that will highlight the agency's...

India takes on old rival China in new Asian space race Jeremy Page, in Delhi The world’s two most populous countries — and biggest emerging economies — have fought one war on land and are rapidly modernising their air, naval and nuclear forces in case of another. Now India and China are taking their rivalry into orbit, with Delhi determined to catch up with Beijing in what is starting to look like an Asian version of the Cold War “space sace”. General Deepak Kapoor, India’s Chief of Army Staff, has spoken publicly for the first time of his fears about...

Love is in the air: Amazing images of clouds from space By Daily Mail Reporter Last updated at 4:02 PM on 21st June 2008This is what earth looks like from above. And the spectacular pictures taken from 200 miles... Astronauts on the International Space Station took the snaps while travelling at 17,000 miles per hour during one of its 15 daily orbits.... Love is in the air over a Mexican islandThey show the complex meterological systems from an angle seen by a select few. Images include towering clouds, dust storms, lightening and a host of other meterological occurances. Astronauts are...

A joint American and European oceanography satellite designed to continue a growing legacy of monitoring changes in sea levels and the impacts on the global climate awaits an overnight blastoff Friday morning from California.

New startups hoping to make their mark on the space industry still face high entry barriers just to cover their initial costs, investors said Wednesday. (snip) "I am passionately committed to prizes," Gingrich said. "The great power of prizes is simple; they allow anybody anywhere who's competent to try and solve a problem."

PARIS (AFP) - Genetic material from outer space found in a meteorite in Australia may well have played a key role in the origin of life on Earth, according to a study to be published Sunday. European and US scientists have proved for the first time that two bits of genetic coding, called nucleobases, contained in the meteor fragment, are truly extraterrestrial. Previous studies had suggested that the space rocks, which hit Earth some 40 years ago, might have been contaminated upon impact. Both of the molecules identified, uracil and xanthine, "are present in our DNA and RNA," said lead...

It was a good mission and I'm glad to see the ISS is taking shape. As for the object, not a big deal. My advice for everyone here, before going crazy over something minor or if something goes wrong, listen to NASA, not the media.

  NASA just awarded its future spacesuit contract to Oceaneering International. The US firm must now design, test, and produce two suits -- the default suit (pictured after the break) worn on-board for launch and landing and a second, more versatile, cheese-proof suit worn during space walks and upon the surface of the moon. The suits must be ready for the first scheduled launch of the Orion Space Capsule in 2015. The contract is valued at the government special price of just $745 million. Hey, we have to keep up appearances at the International Space Station, you know.  

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - The Ulysses solar probe will cease operations around July 1 after nearly 18 years in outer space, NASA announced Thursday. The U.S.-European spacecraft has been suffering from a decline in its plutonium power for some time. Despite conservation measures by ground controllers, the power has dwindled to the point where thruster fuel soon will freeze up. Ulysses already has surpassed its expected lifetime by almost four times, traveling 5.4 billion miles since its launch aboard space shuttle Discovery in 1990. "When the last bits of data finally arrive, it surely will be tough to say goodbye,"...

NEW DELHI: In view of the looming Chinese threat to its communication network and other space assets, India on Tuesday announced the setting up of its Integrated Space Cell (ISC). The cell is designed to counter the Chinese Military Space Systems that comprises anti-satellite weaponry and a new class of heavy-lift and small boosters acting as catalyst in the next generation satellite warfare system. The Space Cell will be put under the command of the Integrated Defence Services Headquarters and will act as a single window for integration among the armed forces, the department of space and the Indian Space...

Presumptive Republican White House nominee John McCain said Thursday he would like to see a manned mission to Mars as part of a "better set of priorities" for NASA that would better engage the public.

Einstein rings produced by a galaxy behind the lensing galaxy. The sources are actually extended and that is why one sometimes sees arcs rather than complete rings. Credit: Photo credit: NASA, ESA, and the SLACS Survey team: A. Bolton (Harvard/Smithsonian), S. Burles (MIT), L. Koopmans (Kapteyn), T. Treu (UCSB), and L. Moustakas (JPL/Caltech) The mathematicians were trying to extend an illustrious result in their field, the Fundamental Theorem of Algebra. The astrophysicists were working on a fundamental problem in their field, the problem of gravitational lensing. That the two groups were in fact working on the same question is...

The Colorado Film School instructor who analyzed a video that purportedly shows a space alien swears the footage is real. "There is no doubt in my mind that (Stan Romanek, a Colorado native who has reported UFO sightings,) did not post-produce this material. In other words, it's not a trick done in special effects," Jerry Hofmann, a professional film editor with more than 30 years of experience, said Thursday. "I have equipment that will test to see if that shot was recorded originally on that tape, which it was," he said. However, Hofmann said there's no way for him to...

U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords says she's just as excited and nervous as family members of other astronauts. Never mind that she's making a little history as the wife of 6 months to Mark Kelly, commander of space shuttle Discovery. The shuttle is supposed to launch this afternoon. Giffords wanted to make it clear she wasn't there as a member of Congress. She was there as the anxious wife. The Arizona politician says she couldn't be prouder of her husband. She had no connection to NASA before meeting Kelly. But she is a member of the House Science and Technology Committee,...

This will be the official thread for the launching of the Space Shuttle Discovery..

A NASA employee has been suspended for soliciting donations and writing politically partisan blog posts and sending e-mail messages while at work, violations of the Hatch Act. Office of the Special Counsel officials said a Johnson Space Center employee promoted local and state political candidates in 2006 and 2007 through his Internet writings. The officials also found the employee solicited small campaign donations two times in 2006 through blogs. The employee has been suspended for 180 days without pay. The suspension started March 30. Special Counsel Scott Bloch said the suspension is part of an effort to crack down on...

Well, not really. But according to this post from NASA, cliamte change is occuring on Jupiter. The planet is getting warmer, so there must be SUVs, or power plants, or factories, or all of them somewhere on Jupiter...and they're almost certainly man-made. After all, since Al Gore says natural cliamte change is patently impossible here on Earth, there's no way it couls be happening naturally on Jupiter. Or Mars, since global warming was cited there, too, last year. We evil humans! Exporting our environmental devastation to the rest of the solar system. We must be stopped!

For about 300 years Jupiter's banded atmosphere has shown a remarkable feature to telescopic viewers, a large swirling storm system known as The Great Red Spot. In 2006, another red storm system appeared, actually seen to form as smaller whitish oval-shaped storms merged and then developed the curious reddish hue. Now, Jupiter has a third red spot, again produced from a smaller whitish storm. All three are seen in this image made from data recorded on May 9 and 10 with the Hubble Space Telescope's Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2. ... Jupiter's recent outbreak of red spots is likely...

LISTEN ONLINE ON KFI This should be an interesting show tonight. What they have done so far in the Mars mission is just amazing. Just for Sheila Jackson Lee, I hope we can see some photos of where our astronauts planted the flag on Mars.

This will be the official thread for the Phoenix Mars Lander..

While the former vice president is leading the charge for drastically changing the way humans do business in a bid to avert catastrophic, man-made global warming, scientists reported today there is noticeable climate change taking place on Jupiter, too. The news follows reports as far back as three years ago that ice caps on Mars are also retreating much as some of the ice in the Earth's Artic circle. Three's one striking difference between Earth and the other two planets' however. Neither Jupiter or Mars has any people - and no artificial activity creating so-called "greenhouses gases" like carbon dioxide...

Way down a dusty gravel road, tucked deep in Redstone Arsenal, right at the border's edge, hails a story that verges on legend, of a gun so big and so fast that people question its existence. It's said that people often talk about it in hushed tones, almost giving it a mythical feel. The tale has only grown over the years. "Every once in awhile, there will be someone, someone who works on the arsenal, who'll say, 'I hear you've got a big gun down there,' " says Brian Akins, research scientist and range engineer at the Aerophysics Research Center...

International scientists have used flowing water to simulate a black hole, testing Stephen Hawking's theory that black holes are not black after all. The researchers, led by Professor Ulf Leonhardt at the University of St Andrews and Dr Germain Rousseaux at the University of Nice, used a water channel to create analogues of black holes, simulating event horizons. An event horizon is the place in the channel where the water begins to flow faster than the waves. The scientists sent waves against the current, varied the water speed and the wavelength, and filmed the waves with video cameras. Over several...

TO JUDGE from the news out of NASA these days, you might think we are witnessing the last gasps of the space age. The agency has announced that it will phase out its aging fleet of space shuttles by the year 2010, and the next iteration of the space program, known as Constellation, isn’t likely to be sending people into orbit before 2015. Back in 2004, President Bush exhorted NASA to return humans to the moon (and then continue on to Mars), but precious little has been heard from the White House on the matter since. The American enthusiasm for...

Japan to scrap space weapon rules Japan has already developed an advanced space programme Japanese MPs have backed plans to scrap rules restricting the use of military technology in space. Lawmakers say Japan still opposes putting weapons into space, but claim the rules drawn up in 1969 have stifled innovation by Japanese firms. Some supporters of the bill say it could open the way to Japan launching spy satellites. Tokyo was alarmed last year when China conducted a test and shot down one of its own weather satellites. The bill is backed by government and opposition MPs, making it...

After 40 years of unwavering official pacifism Japan is poised to overturn its ban on the militarisation of space. Within the next month, the nation whose constitution renounces the use of force in settling international disputes will be allowed formally to direct its massive industrial and scientific communities to what it now calls the challenges of “changing global security situations”. The officially sanctioned use of space for military purposes will build on Japan’s longstanding civil space programme, which is regularly accused by Japanese peace activists and foreign governments of including military elements. It is an open secret that since the...

Never-before-seen video of "space aliens" - footage that will be revealed to the public in a few weeks - convinced Jeff Peckman that extraterrestrials exist. "These happen to be the little gray ones, about four feet tall," said Peckman, who is proposing the creation of an Extraterrestrial Affairs Commission in Denver, believed to be the first of its kind. "You could see them blink as they looked in a window and panned a room," Peckman, 54, said. Peckman is sponsoring an initiative that would require the city to create an ET Commission... Among the curious who attended the hearing were...

Washington-NASA has scheduled a media teleconference Wednesday, May 14, at 1 p.m. EDT, to announce the discovery of an object in our Galaxy astronomers have been hunting for more than 50 years.

Using data recovered from a damaged computer hard-drive that was aboard the ill-fated Space Shuttle Columbia in 2003, scientists have recently learned more about why the act of shaking a material can quickly transform it into something completely different. One of the best examples of this phenomenon is ordinary ketchup. Shake the bottle and the semi-solid paste becomes a runny liquid. Food scientists do the shaking in a controlled way by putting ketchup (and other processed foods) into a rheometer (rheo, meaning "flow") to see how its viscosity -- the scientific word for stickiness -- decreases when shaken. Robert Berg...

Canadian robotic arm; Seeks to discuss decision by Ottawa to block deal. MacDonald Dettwiler & Associates Ltd. said yesterday it's going on the offensive to try and salvage the $1.33- billion sale of one of its divisions to U.S. space giant Alliant Techsystems Inc. MDA - designer of the Canadian robotic arm used by space shuttle astronauts - is asking this week to sit down with Industry Canada officials who blocked the sale to Alliant, or ATK. MDA executives haven't met with Industry Minister Jim Prentice since the deal to create the U.S.'s fifth-largest space company was announced in January,...

  Monday's launch was carried live on state television India is well known today for its software and information technology industry.Less well known is that in a nation where more than 300 million people live on less than $1 a day, it is also a real force to reckon with when it comes to top class rocket and satellite technology. On Monday the Indian space agency created a world record by successfully launching 10 satellites in one go. That shattered the previous record of a Russian rocket that successfully launched eight satellites last year. Launching 10 satellites requires immense...

Air is crucial to human life, and the absence of a breathable atmosphere is one of the main obstacles to discovering other planets. Russian scientists have reproduced a gas mixture that human beings may breathe on the way to Mars and when on the Red Planet. Staff at the Moscow Biomedical Problems Institute have constructed an experimental capsule and reproduced within it the conditions that might be encountered during a mission to Mars. The gas inside accounts for only one per cent of the Earth’s atmosphere but there’s plenty of it on Mars as the gas inside is argon. Mixed...

BELLEVILLE — It's easy to be skeptical of Gary Streeter's plan to put a satellite into space. After all, he has bought many of his rocket parts at Home Depot. His engine testing ground is the weed-choked yard of a 145-year-old brick home on the edge of downtown. And mission control sits in the backyard, inside a lemon-yellow building the size of a one-car garage with windows covered by colorful curtains of rockets, stars and planets. It's there, in his spare time, where Streeter — amid piles of boxes, furniture and books — tinkers with his plans to launch a...

BANGALORE, India (AFP) — An Indian rocket blasted off and successfully launched a cluster of 10 satellites in a single mission Monday, marking a milestone for the country's 45-year-old space programme.The PSLV rocket lifted off at 9:20 am (0350 GMT) from the Sriharikota space station in southern India in clear weather, leaving behind a massive trail of orange and white smoke, on its 13th flight."The mission was perfect," G. Madhavan Nair, chairman of the Bangalore-based Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), said after the launch telecast live by the broadcaster Doordarshan. "Team ISRO has done it again.""It is a historic moment...

POSTCARDS FROM THE FUTURE Sometime in the near future, humankind will set foot again on the Moon. As part of NASA's New Vision for Space Exploration, they will build a permanent base on the moon, to test, research and invent new technologies for manned missions to Mars and beyond. The task will not be easy - there will be danger and hardships and broken lives, but these modern-day pioneers would have it no other way. Because for all the hardships that they must endure, they know that the Grand Vision extends beyond them - that they are but a small...

SOLAR BLAST: No sunspots? No problem. Yesterday the blank sun unleashed a solar flare without the usual aid of a sunspot. At 1408 UT on April 26th, Earth-orbiting satellites detected a surge of X-rays registering B3.8 on the Richter scale of solar flares. Shortly thereafter, SOHO coronagraphs photographed a coronal mass ejection (CME) billowing away from the sun: The expanding cloud could deliver a glancing blow to Earth's magnetic field late on April 28th or 29th. High-latitude sky watchers should be alert for auroras when it arrives. This strange solar flare came from a patch of sun (N08,E08) where magnetic...

Afghanistan Heroes Offer to Colonize Moon, Mars and Beyond By Anthony Duignan-Cabrera A recent survey in the news showed that the war in Iraq had dropped to number 3 on a list of issues currently obsessing potential voters in the ongoing presidential campaign season. -snip- The problem is, NASA is going about it all the wrong way. Here is an idea: Send battle-hardened, strong-minded soldiers and marines on the long trips into space. We are conditioned to live with the bare minimal (of) life’s necessities and are trained to be prepared for … the worst conditions that any environment could...

Acclaimed physicist Stephen Hawking called for renewed interest in the study of outer space and science, in a speech commemorating the 50th anniversary of NASA at the Jack Morton Auditorium on Monday. The Cambridge University professor and renowned author said society is increasingly regulated by science and technology, but few students are pursuing scientif careers in science. He said that a greater interest and technology could lead to significant advances in areas of study such as outer space.

Engineers at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston are busy creating tear-proof space suits, testing the heat shield on the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle (successor to the old Apollo capsule), and road testing six-wheel-drive SUVs. Although the buzz on America’s planned return to the moon has faded to a low hum, NASA continues to prepare at a breakneck pace for a manned lunar landing by 2020, with a permanent base to follow. The race, it seems, is on. To live, explore, and experiment on the moon means we need to plot—far more intimately than before—the lay of the land. NASA’s...