NASA puts out the call for commercial lunar landers

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Jan. 27, 2014 at 5:37 PM ET

NASA

NASA's Project Morpheus prototype lander blasts off during a free-flight test at Kennedy Space Center's Shuttle Landing Facility in Florida on Jan. 16. The space agency is looking for commercial partners to develop the technologies for future lunar landers.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. NASA plans to provide free technical expertise, equipment, facilities and software to help selected companies develop lunar landers as part of a new program called Lunar Catalyst.

"The intent of this initiative is to stimulate and help commercialization," Jason Crusan, who oversees NASA's advanced exploration programs, said during a conference call with prospective bidders on Monday.

Development of commercial lunar landers would join a growing list of space transportation services that have attracted interest from U.S. companies, including the Boeing Co and Alliant Techsystems Inc.

NASA already has turned over cargo deliveries to the International Space Station to SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corp. The companies hold NASA cargo resupply contracts worth a combined $3.5 billion.

NASA wants a balanced approach in which its contributions will help accelerate the development of industry projects, Crusan said during a follow-on conference call with reporters. "If a team came in and wanted everything from NASA and (wanted) us to build the landing service for them, that's not really much of a partnership," he said.

The space agency also is looking to buy rides commercially for its astronauts. At least three firms, SpaceX, Boeing and Sierra Nevada Corp., are in the running for NASA funding to help get their spaceships ready for test flights by the end of 2017.

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NASA puts out the call for commercial lunar landers

NASA Signs Mentor-Protege Agreement With AMRO Fabricating Corporation Near Los Angeles

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On Jan. 31, NASA will sign a Mentor-Protege agreement with The Boeing Company and AMRO Fabricating Corporation to work together in support of the agency's Space Launch System (SLS) -- a new rocket that will launch humans farther into space that ever before.

The NASA Mentor-Protege Program pairs large companies with eligible small businesses to enhance capabilities and enable them to successfully compete for larger, more complex prime contract and subcontract awards.

Media are invited to the event that begins at 10 a.m. PST at the AMRO facility, located at 1430 Adelia Avenue in South El Monte, Calif., 91733.

NASA astronaut Ricky Arnold, along with NASA, Boeing and AMRO officials, will be available for interviews. AMRO is a certified, small, minority woman-owned manufacturing company located near Los Angeles which specializes in the manufacturing of lightweight metallic structures for demanding environments on missiles, launch vehicles and spacecraft. AMRO currently supports Boeing core stage development by manufacturing the aluminum alloy panels that make up the large barrels of the stages.

In addition to the AMRO Mentor-Protege event, SLS is partnering with the Orion Program -- the spacecraft that will sit atop the SLS rocket and carry humans, cargo, equipment and science experiments into deep space -- to visit other institutions and companies in the southern California area that are providing support for the vehicles. The team will visit California State Polytechnic University at noon Thursday, Jan. 30, and speak to students there. This event is open to the public and the media.

SLS and Orion will expand our reach in the solar system, allowing astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft to explore multiple, deep-space destinations including an asteroid and ultimately Mars. Orion's first mission will launch later this year, and carry an uncrewed capsule farther into space than any spacecraft designed for humans has gone in more than 40 years, before returning to Earth at speeds of up to 20,000 miles per hour. SLS is scheduled to have its first test flight in 2017.

Media interested in covering the AMRO Mentor-Protege or the California State Polytechnic University event should contact Shannon Ridinger at Shannon.j.ridinger@nasa.gov or 256-541-7698. Additional interview opportunities with SLS and Orion representatives during the week are also available upon request.

For more information about progress on NASA's next human exploration launch vehicle and spacecraft, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/exploration/

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NASA Signs Mentor-Protege Agreement With AMRO Fabricating Corporation Near Los Angeles

NASA plans to watch when comet passes close to Mars

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PASADENA, Calif., Jan. 28 (UPI) -- NASA says it plans to observe a comet that will buzz Mars this year,coming about 10 times closer than any identified comet has ever flown past Earth.

Comet C/2013 A1 Siding Spring will make its closest approach to the Red Planet, a distance of about 86,000 miles, Oct. 19, the space agency said Tuesday.

Spacecraft orbiting Mars might get a good look at the nucleus of the comet as it speeds past, but there is also a chance dust particles the comet nucleus sheds could threaten those spacecraft, NASA scientists said.

The level of risk won't be known for months, but NASA is already evaluating possible precautionary measures as it prepares for studying the comet, the scientists said.

"Our plans for using spacecraft at Mars to observe comet Siding Spring will be coordinated with plans for how the orbiters will duck and cover, if we need to do that," said Rich Zurek, Mars Exploration Program chief scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif.

The comet was discovered Jan. 3, 2013, by Australia's Siding Spring Observatory.

Its nucleus will come about as close to Mars as one-third of the distance between Earth and the moon, NASA said.

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NASA plans to watch when comet passes close to Mars

Zettl awarded Foresight Feynman Prize in experimental nanoscience

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Richard P. Feynman (1918-1988)

Palo Alto, CA January 23, 2014 Foresight is pleased to announce the winners of the 2013 Foresight Institute Feynman Prizes for Nanotechnology Theory and Experiment.

The winner of the 2013 Feynman Prize for Experiment is Alexander K. Zettl, Professor, Condensed Matter Physics And Materials Science, U.C. Berkeley, and Senior Scientist, Materials Sciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The award recognizes Prof. Zettl's exceptional work in the fabrication of nanoscale electromechanical systems (NEMS), spanning multiple decades and including carbon nanotube-based bearings, actuators, and sensors brought to fruition with cutting-edge nanoscale engineering. Making remarkable strides towards nanoscale integrated systems, Prof Zettl produced a reversible mass transport memory device which integrated a nanoparticle and a nanotube into a more complex functional device with external controllability, and most recently a loudspeaker incorporating a graphene diaphragm, demonstrating that high-performance, nanoscale materials can be engineered into usable products even before those materials are fully characterized. Additional accomplishments of his solid state physics research group include chracterizing electronic, magnetic and mechanical properties of diverse nanoscale materials.

The winner of the 2013 Feynman Prize for Theory is David N. Beratan, R.J. Reynolds Professor of Chemistry, Biochemistry, and Physics, Duke University. The award recognizes Prof. Beratan's development of theoretical approaches to understand the function of complex molecular and macromolecular assemblies and machines. The accomplishments of his research group range from formulating the first molecular-level descriptions of how charge flows through proteins and nucleic acids to designing molecular-scale memory devices. His research group established the electron tunneling pathway model for biological electron transfer to understand the molecular machines of bioenergetics, the "inverse design" approach to discover molecular structures with optimal properties, and the first simulations of how chiral information is transferred at the nanoscale through electronic and conformational imprinting..

The awards will be presented at the 2014 Foresight Technical Conference: Integration, to be held February 7-9, 2014 at the Crowne Plaza Cabana Hotel, Palo Alto, CA USA, where the winners will give lectures on their groundbreaking work to leading scientists in the field of nanotechnology.

In awarding the prizes, Ralph C. Merkle, Chairman of the Prize Committee, noted that "The work of these Feynman Prize winners has brought us one step closer to answering Feynman's 1959 question, 'What would happen if we could arrange atoms one by one the way we want them?' The ability to simulate and manipulate atoms advanced by the work of these Prize winners will enable us to design and build engineered molecular machinery with atomic precision. It will take us another step on the way to the development of revolutionary nanotechnologies that will transform our lives for the better."

The annual Feynman Prizes recognize significant advancements on the road to the award of the $250,000 Feynman Grand Prize, an incentive prize that will be awarded to the first researchers to make a nanometer-scale robotic arm and a nanometer-scale computing device, two critical components of an atomic scalemolecular manufacturing system.

The Foresight Feynman Prizes were established by the Foresight Institute in 1993 and named in honor of Nobel Prize winner Richard Feynman whose influential essay, "There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom" inspired the first work on nanoscale science. The Institute awards Feynman prizes each year to recognize researchersone for theoretical work and one for empirical researchwhose recent work has most advanced the field toward the achievement of Feynman's vision for nanotechnology: molecular manufacturing, the construction of atomically-precise products through the use of molecular machine systems.

For more information about the Foresight Feynman Prizes, past winners and the Feynman Grand Prize please see the information on the Foresight website at http://www.foresight.org. For more information about prizes and prize nominations please contact foresight@foresight.org.

This year's Foresight Institute Feynman Prizes in Nanotechnology were made possible, in part, by donations from Colleagues and Friends of Foresight, including:

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Zettl awarded Foresight Feynman Prize in experimental nanoscience

‘Queensland Great’ appointed Provost

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Nanotechnology researcher and globally respected academic leader Professor Max Lu has been selected as The University of Queenslands first Provost.

UQ President and Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter Hj said Professor Lu was selected through an internationally competitive search which attracted candidates from upper levels of university senior management around the world.

Max's appointment will deliver a strategic approach that is informed by a deep knowledge of UQ, built on a journey of almost three decades at this wonderful institution, Professor Hj said.

He is known for his highly collaborative style, his integrity and his transparency in decision-making key values of UQ.

Professor Lu has been UQs Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) since 2009, and served as Pro-Vice-Chancellor (Research Linkages) from 2008 to 2009. He begins as Provost on March 17.

Professor Hj said Professor Lus leadership of research strategy and targeted investment in key initiatives had contributed to UQs improved standing in all major global rankings.

Max has led the development of major global partnerships with industry, government and other universities.

He brings a strong commitment to research and teaching, as well as a strategic approach to international and industry engagement.

Professor Lu came to UQ from China in the late 1980s to study for his PhD, and then spent three years as a lecturer at Singapores Nanyang Technological University.

In 1994, he returned to UQ as senior lecturer, and progressed to Chair in Nanotechnology and Director of the UQ Nanomaterials Centre in the School of Chemical Engineering.

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'Queensland Great' appointed Provost

Why BG Medicine (BGMD) Is Up Today

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NEW YORK (TheStreet) --BG Medicine (BGMD) was rising 26.97% to $1.46 on Tuesday after the diagnostics company published results of a clinical research study that validated the performance of the VIDAS Galectin-3, an automated assay developed by bioMerieux.

The results, which were posted online prior to its print publication in the journalClinica Chimica Acta, noted that elevated galectin-3 levels in blood samples that had been previously collected and then measured with the VIDAS Galectin-3 assay largely predicted fatal cardiovascular events. The assay also significantly predicted the severity of heart failure in the 137 tested patients, all of whom had been diagnosed with chronic heart failure.

TheStreet Ratings team rates BG MEDICINE INC as a "sell" with a ratings score of D-. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation:

"We rate BG MEDICINE INC (BGMD) a SELL. This is driven by several weaknesses, which we believe should have a greater impact than any strengths, and could make it more difficult for investors to achieve positive results compared to most of the stocks we cover. The company's weaknesses can be seen in multiple areas, such as its disappointing return on equity, generally disappointing historical performance in the stock itself and generally high debt management risk."

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Why BG Medicine (BGMD) Is Up Today

Symposium on the Impact of Natural Gas Drilling on Public Health and the Environment to be Held at Penn

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PHILADELPHIA The University of Pennsylvanias Center of Excellence in Environmental Toxicology (CEET) and the Center for Public Health Initiatives (CPHI) will co-host a symposium on February 18, 2014 about the public health affects of natural gas drilling operations.

This meeting aims to profile the state of the science as it relates to the public health and environmental impact of hydraulic fracturing. Stakeholders from the four major affected groups government, academia, industry, and concerned citizens will all be participating as speakers and attendees. The symposium will profile ongoing research on this topic, and the day will end with a session on citizens concerns and a panel discussion.

Sessions and speakers include:

The Hydraulic Fracturing Process - Are there effects on air and water quality?

Tim Bechtel, PhD, Earth and Environmental Studies, Franklin and Marshall College

Peter DeCarlo, PhD, Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering & Department of Chemistry, Drexel University

Lisa Senior, Acting Water-Quality Specialist, USGS Pennsylvania Water Science Center

Public Health Impact - What is happening now?

Lisa McKenzie, PhD, MPH, Department of Environmental and Behavioral Health, Colorado School of Public Health

Trevor M. Penning, PhD, CEET Director, Perelman School of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania

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Symposium on the Impact of Natural Gas Drilling on Public Health and the Environment to be Held at Penn