New Delhi, July 10 (IANS) The global aerospace and defence industry performance in 2011 was sluggish, posting a revenue gain of just 2.3 percent compared to 2.5 percent in 2010, an industry study has found.
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Magellan Aerospace Secures a £370 Million Contract Extension with Airbus
TORONTO , July 10, 2012 /CNW/ - Magellan Aerospace announced today an agreement between Magellan Aerospace (UK) Limited and Airbus for a contract extension to deliver aluminum and titanium, structural wing components from Magellan UK divisions located in Wrexham and Bournemouth. This contract is comprised of components for use on the A320, A330 and A380 aircraft programs and is projected to generate revenues in excess of 370 million through to December 2019 .
The scope of work of this contract complements the new A350 work packages that Magellan has previously been awarded and are currently developing, thereby, securing the company as a supplier on every Airbus civil program. To maintain Magellan's competitive position and support this long-term commitment to Airbus, Magellan will invest up to 15M in capital equipment over the term of contract extension.
Mr. James S. Butyniec , President and CEO of Magellan Aerospace Corporation said, "This long-term contract with Airbus demonstrates our commitment to developing enduring relationships with our customers and investing the resources required to support their current and future requirements. Magellan has a culture committed to achieving operational excellence and we are very pleased that Airbus has confidence in our ability to provide globally competitive products for their family of commercial aircraft."
Business Secretary, Vince Gable said, "This multi million contract is great news for Magellan Aerospace, Airbus, and the UK aerospace industry suppliers. It's a further demonstration of the breadth of the UK's supply chain."
About Magellan Aerospace:
Magellan Aerospace is one of the world's most integrated aerospace industry suppliers. Magellan designs, engineers, and manufactures aeroengine and aerostructure assemblies and components for aerospace markets, advanced products for military and space markets, and complementary specialty products. Magellan is a public company whose shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange (MAL.TO), with operating units throughout Canada , the United States , the United Kingdom , and India .
Forward Looking Statement:
This press release contains information and statements of a forward-looking nature and is based on assumptions and uncertainties as well as on management's reasonable evaluation of future events related to the provision of structural components for Airbus programs. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict, and/or are beyond the Corporation's control. A number of important factors could cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially from those expressed in these forward-looking statements.
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Magellan Aerospace Secures a £370 Million Contract Extension with Airbus
TECT Aerospace Operations at New Facility in Everett, WA
FARNBOROUGH, England, July 10, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- TECT Aerospace, a global leader in aerospace component manufacturing, is pleased to announce that its new 157,000-square-foot facility located at 1515 75th Street SW in Everett, Washington is ramping up production ahead of schedule.
"This new facility, which was announced at the Paris Air Show in 2011, is well ahead of the planned startup schedule, thanks, in large part, to the dedicated TECT Aerospace team in the Seattle area led by Tom Winkelmann, VP & GM of TECT Aerospace's greater Seattle area operations," commented Pete Knapper, president of TECT Aerospace. Knapper went on to comment that the startup schedule has also been helped a great deal by the decision to replace many of the older machine tools that were located at TECT's Paine Field and Woodinville operations, which are being consolidated at the 75th Street location, with new, state of the art machining centers. Knapper concluded by saying "This facility consolidation and investment in manufacturing technology reaffirms our commitment to manufacturing in the Seattle area and supporting our commercial aerospace customers in this unprecedented up cycle."
About TECT Aerospace TECT Aerospace is a member of the TECT family of businesses, a privately held group of companies that competes in the airframe and turbine engine manufacturing supply chains. More information on TECT Aerospace and TECT can be found at http://www.TECTaero.com and http://www.TECTcorp.com respectively, or you can call Colin Strain, vice president of sales and marketing for TECT Aerospace at +1-316-529-5000 or David Nolletti, vice president of marketing, strategy, and business development for TECT at +1-828-210-8127.
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New Study Affirms Masimo rainbow® Pulse CO-Oximetry™ Accuracy for Noninvasive Carboxyhemoglobin and Methemoglobin …
IRVINE, Calif., July 9, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --Masimo (MASI) announced today a new study in Respiratory Physiology & Neurobiology shows that noninvasive carboxyhemoglobin (SpCO) and methemoglobin (SpMet) measurements with Masimo rainbow Pulse CO-Oximetry are accurate and conclude they can be used as an effective first screening test with emergency room patients suspected of suffering carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning.(1)
CO poisoning is a major cause of morbidity and mortality(2) and is responsible for more than 50,000 emergency department visits per year in the United States.(3) Because symptoms of CO poisoning are nonspecific ranging from mild headache, nausea, confusion, and dizziness to end-organ injury, such as myocardial infarction, stroke, and death diagnosis is difficult and has historically relied on clinical suspicion and confirmation by measurement of carboxyhemoglobin (COHb) via invasive blood-gas analysis. Unfortunately, it has been estimated that up to half of U.S. hospitals do not have invasive COHb testing ability increasing the potential that many victims of CO poisoning could be overlooked and misdiagnosed.(4)
The study was conducted on healthy subjects who inhaled a mixture that included carbon monoxide such that it raised the COHb to 10% to 14%. Investigators compared the mean bias and precision of SpCO and SpMet data obtained noninvasively with a Masimo Rad-57 Pulse CO-Oximeter and adult reusable SpCO rainbow sensor (DCI-dc3) with invasive venous blood samples analyzed on an arterial blood-gas analyzer (ABL80 FLEX CO-oximeter, Radiometer America).
The SpMet results showed the mean bias was 0.0% and precision was 0.3%. The SpCO measurements showed a mean bias of 0.8% and precision of 2.5%.
Researchers noted the Rad-57 "provides coherent and reproducible day-to-day measurement" of SpCO and SpMet, and concluded the "Rad-57 should be used as a first screening to determine whether an invasive blood measurement of COHb should be performed to confirm the (CO) intoxication."
(1) Zaouter C, Zavorsky G. "The measurement of carboxyhemoglobin and methemoglobin using a noninvasive pulse CO-oximeter." Respiratory Physiology & Neurobiology 2012 (http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.resp.2012.05.010)
(2)Suner S, Patridge R, Sucov A, et al. "Noninvasive pulse CO-oximetry screening in the emergency department identifies occult carbon monoxide toxicity." J Emerg Med. 2008; 34(4):441-50.
(3) Weaver LK. "Carbon monoxide poisoning." N Engl J Med. 2009; 360(12):1217-1225.
(4) Hampson NB, Scott KL, Zmaeff JL. Carboxyhemoglobin measurement by hospitals: Implications for the diagnosis of carbon monoxide poisoning. J Emerg Med 2006;31(1):13-6.
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New Study Affirms Masimo rainbow® Pulse CO-Oximetry™ Accuracy for Noninvasive Carboxyhemoglobin and Methemoglobin ...
American Society for Microbiology’s newest journal earns a high impact factor in latest rankings
Public release date: 9-Jul-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jim Sliwa jsliwa@asmusa.org 202-942-9297 American Society for Microbiology
Less than two years after publishing its first issue, the online open-access journal mBio is now ranked among the top 20 highest-impact microbiology journals according to Thomson Reuters, which has just released its Journal Citation Reports for 2011. Thomson Reuters tracks the number of times scholarly articles are cited by other authors and compiles the information into "impact factors", rough measures of the quality or standing of a journal within its field. Since the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) launched mBio in April 2010, it already boasts an impact factor of 5.311 and ranks 16th among all microbiology-centered journals.
mBio is ASM's first broad-scope open-access journal and is published solely online. Among the journal's other distinguishing features is its streamlined decision policy, a response to what many in science perceive to be overly onerous revision requirements by many study reviewers. Using a rigorous peer-review process with an eye to importance and impact, mBio offers authors an up or down decision on manuscripts and will request only minor revisions. The average time to first decision for all mBio manuscripts (excluding those editorially rejected) is 23 days.
In its short history, mBio has published a number of studies and opinion pieces that have garnered national and international attention, in such media outlets as the New York Times, MSNBC, and CNN. An article published in February 2011 by scientists at Northwestern University was the first to reveal the presence of human DNA in a bacterium, the pathogen Neisseria gonorrhoeae, a genetic entanglement that many thought was not possible and contributes to our understanding of how pathogens and hosts can evolve together. The news about gonorrhea was picked up by bloggers and writers for the national press.
mBio published another high-profile article in February 2012 which revealed that one type of MRSA, a bacterium that causes invasive skin infections, most likely acquired its resistance to antibiotics while it lived in livestock. The findings illustrated the best evidence to date linking antibiotic use on the farm and antibiotic resistance in an organism that can cause lethal infections in humans. The article added fuel to an already fiery debate about the wisdom and ethics of using antibiotics as growth promoters in livestock.
Editor-in-Chief, Arturo Casadevall, says that the goal for the next year is a continued focus on identifying highly important papers.
While the journal rankings by Thomson Reuters are not the final word on journal quality, they do offer authors guidance on which journals are more likely to garner attention from other scientists in their particular field. ASM expects that mBio's streamlined editorial process, rigorous review process, and high caliber research studies will continue to provide readers with a quality publication and will propel the journal even further up the impact factor rankings in 2012.
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mBio can be found online at http://mbio.asm.org.
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American Society for Microbiology's newest journal earns a high impact factor in latest rankings
Technique spots disease using immune cell DNA
ScienceDaily (July 9, 2012) By looking at signature chemical differences in the DNA of various immune cells called leukocytes, scientists have developed a way to determine their relative abundance in blood samples. The relative abundance turns out to correlate with specific cancers and other diseases, making the technique, described in two recent papers, potentially valuable not only for research but also for diagnostics and treatment monitoring.
When a person is sick, there is a tell-tale sign in their blood: a different mix of the various types of immune cells called leukocytes. A group of scientists at several institutions including Brown University has discovered a way to determine that mix from the DNA in archival or fresh blood samples, potentially providing a practical new technology not only for medical research but also for clinical diagnosis and treatment monitoring of ailments including some cancers.
The key to the new technique, described in two recent papers, is that scientists have identified in each kind of leukocyte a unique chemical alteration to its DNA, called methylation. By detecting these methylation signatures in a patient's blood sample and applying a mathematical analysis, the researchers are able to determine the relative levels of different leukocytes and correlate those with specific diseases.
"You can simply look at the DNA and discern from the methylation marks the relative abundance of different type of leukocytes," said Karl Kelsey, professor of pathology and laboratory medicine in the Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and a senior author on both papers. "It's a way to more easily interrogate the immune system of a lot of people."
Other tests, using flow cytometry, can already sort through the abundance of different leukocytes in a blood sample, but they require the blood to be fresh and leukocyte cell membranes to be intact. Because the DNA in a blood sample remains even after cells have died and degraded, tests based on detecting methylation could help doctors or researchers analyze a patient's blood sample that has either aged or has simply not been kept fresh.
In a paper published in advance online June 19 in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers, and Prevention, the researchers describe using their technique to distinguish accurately which blood samples came from patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, ovarian cancer, or bladder cancer. By using methylation to determine the leukocyte populations in each sample, they could predict that the same samples were as much as 10 times more likely to have come from a patient with ovarian cancer than a healthy control patient, six times more likely to be from a head and neck cancer patient than a healthy control, or twice as likely to be from a bladder cancer patient than a control.
"Our approach represents a simple, yet powerful and important new tool for medical research and may serve as a catalyst for future blood-based disease diagnostics," wrote the authors, who hail from Dartmouth, Oregon State University, the University of Minnesota, and the University of California-San Francisco, as well as Brown. Several authors worked with Kelsey at Brown during the research.
They describe the technique and its analytical methods in deep mathematical detail in another paper published in May in BMC Bioinformatics. They also report experiments that included analyses of the leukocyte mix of noncancer conditions such as Down syndrome and obesity.
The paper found many examples of differences between the immune cell mix of healthy controls and people with specific illnesses. For example, obese African Americans had an estimated increase in granulocyte leukocytes of about 12 percentage points. People with Down syndrome, had 4.8 percentage points fewer B cells. For head and neck cancer, they noted a 10.4 percentage point drop in CD4+ T-lymphocytes.
"Any disease that has an immune-cell mediated component to it would have applicability," Kelsey said.
Like humans bacteria remember (if only for 4 seconds), says MU researcher
Public release date: 6-Jul-2012 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Timothy Wall walltj@missouri.edu 573-882-3346 University of Missouri-Columbia
COLUMBIA, Mo. -- The bacterium Escherichia coli (E. coli) has a rudimentary molecular "memory" that allows it to swim toward the richest sources of food. MU biochemistry professor Gerald Hazelbauer's continuing discoveries about how bacteria do this could shed light on human and animal sensory, memory and response systems.
"My doctoral work was with Julius Adler, the first scientist to study the molecules behind bacterial behavior. His work led to the discovery that bacteria have a molecular 'memory' system that allows them to 'remember' the past, compare it to the present and thus move toward the area that is most favorable," Hazelbauer said. "When I began my work as a researcher in the late 1960s, studying bacterial behavior was a curiosity and its significance unclear. Now, decades later, the research done by my group and others has grown into a body of knowledge about the fundamental processes used by all living things to recognize, remember and respond to changes in their environments."
The National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) recently recognized and rewarded Hazelbauer's scientific contributions by granting him a "Method to Extend Research in Time" (MERIT) Award. The award, which is worth at least $5.5 million over 10 years, will allow him to continue his research without re-applying for funding. Hazelbauer joins only 11 other MU researchers who have received the MERIT award, including his wife, Linda Randall, who is also a biochemistry professor.
MERIT awards are intended to foster creativity and allow researchers to take more time to develop new techniques. The awards are given only to scientists who have proven themselves by succeeding in at least 10 years of previous NIGMS-funded research and who seem likely to continue making valuable contributions to their field.
Hazelbauer is professor and chair/director of biochemistry, a department/division jointly administered by the University of Missouri's School of Medicine and College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources. Linda Randall is the Wurdack Professor of Biological Chemistry in that unit.
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Like humans bacteria remember (if only for 4 seconds), says MU researcher
Like humans bacteria remember (if only for 4 seconds), says researcher
The bacterium Escherichia coli (E. coli) has a rudimentary molecular "memory" that allows it to swim toward the richest sources of food. MU biochemistry professor Gerald Hazelbauer's continuing discoveries about how bacteria do this could shed light on human and animal sensory, memory and response systems.
"My doctoral work was with Julius Adler, the first scientist to study the molecules behind bacterial behavior. His work led to the discovery that bacteria have a molecular 'memory' system that allows them to 'remember' the past, compare it to the present and thus move toward the area that is most favorable," Hazelbauer said. "When I began my work as a researcher in the late 1960s, studying bacterial behavior was a curiosity and its significance unclear. Now, decades later, the research done by my group and others has grown into a body of knowledge about the fundamental processes used by all living things to recognize, remember and respond to changes in their environments."
The National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) recently recognized and rewarded Hazelbauer's scientific contributions by granting him a "Method to Extend Research in Time" (MERIT) Award. The award, which is worth at least $5.5 million over 10 years, will allow him to continue his research without re-applying for funding. Hazelbauer joins only 11 other MU researchers who have received the MERIT award, including his wife, Linda Randall, who is also a biochemistry professor.
MERIT awards are intended to foster creativity and allow researchers to take more time to develop new techniques. The awards are given only to scientists who have proven themselves by succeeding in at least 10 years of previous NIGMS-funded research and who seem likely to continue making valuable contributions to their field.
Hazelbauer is professor and chair/director of biochemistry, a department/division jointly administered by the University of Missouri's School of Medicine and College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources. Linda Randall is the Wurdack Professor of Biological Chemistry in that unit.
Provided by University of Missouri-Columbia
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Like humans bacteria remember (if only for 4 seconds), says researcher
UNR biochemistry student receives global science award
RENO, Nev. (KRNV & MyNews4.com) -- University of Nevada, Reno senior Clarissa Martins always knew she wanted to be involved in the medical field. Receiving the 2012 Thomas J. Bardos Award for her research involving cancer and nutrition is a reflection on those childhood dreams. "Winning this award means so much to me, and shows that all my hard work is paying off," Martins said. "Out of the 16,000 people who applied worldwide, I was one of the 17 people chosen for this award. It's a huge honor."
The award is intended to inspire young science students to enter the field of cancer research and to help those students develop their careers in science by providing a unique educational opportunity. Martins' research is largely inspired by her mother, who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
"When I was about nine years old, my mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and as a child, I didn't really understand what that meant," Martins said. "So, I began researching cancer and in my freshmen year of college I found the Pardini research lab. I started out helping with a couple projects there and learned about various research techniques. My passion for cancer research exploded from there."
To be eligible for the award candidates must be a full-time, third-year undergraduate student majoring in science as well as a current American Association for Cancer Research member. Martins will receive $3,000 from the AACR, which grants the career-development award.
Martins said that she applied to the association upon the encouragement of her mentor Keith Kikawa, a postdoctoral scholar with the University's Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.
"My mentor initially told me about the award," Martins said. "The minute the application was open I was applying for it with his help."
The award is named after Thomas J. Bardos, a professor emeritus from the University at Buffalo, who participated in cancer research for more than 50 years.
Martins, scheduled to graduate in 2013, plans to be a clinical researcher in the oncology field.
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UNR biochemistry student receives global science award
Sara Ramirez, 'Grey's Anatomy' Star, Is Married! (EXCLUSIVE)
"Grey's Anatomy" star Sara Ramirez is married!
A rep for the 36-year-old Mexican actress confirms that Sara tied the knot on July 4th.
"On July 4th 2012, after a year-long engagement, Sara Ramirez and Ryan Debolt were married in an intimate ceremony in New York. The private event was attended by close family and friends," the rep wrote in an email to The Huffington Post.
Last June, Ryan got down on one knee and popped the question to Sara in Paris, France.
At the time, witnesses described the romantic exchange that took place when Ryan proposed. "Her boyfriend came next to her and kneeled," a witness said. "He opened a case, and we just heard her saying, 'Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God,' and seconds later, a really big 'Yes!'"
Then Sara gave Ryan a big hug. "She looked several times at her ring," the onlooker added.
Congratulations to Sara and Ryan!!!!
LATINO CELEBS ON THE HOLLYWOOD WALK OF FAME
Cuban born actor, Andy Garcia earned his star in The Hollywood Walk fo Fame in 1995. Garcia earned an Oscar nomination for his role in "The Godfather Part III" and a Grammy as producer of "Ahora Si" by Israel "Cachao" Lopez. More recently he played the role of Terry Benedict, the casino mogul, in "Ocean's Eleven" and it's following sequels. Garcia will appear in the movie "Hemingway and Fuentes", which will be released in 2012, in the role of Gregorio Fuentes.
Aguilera, who's father is originally from Ecuador, was awarded a star in The Hollywood Walk fo Fame in 2010. In 1999 she had three number one singles on the Billboard Hot 100--"Genie in a Bottle", "What a Girl Wants", and "Come On Over Baby (All I Want Is You)."
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Sara Ramirez, 'Grey's Anatomy' Star, Is Married! (EXCLUSIVE)
Space Worms Live Long and Prosper
A microscopic worm used in experiments on the space station not only seems to enjoy living in a microgravity environment, it also appears to get a lifespan boost.
This intriguing discovery was made by University of Nottingham scientists who have flown experiments carrying thousands of tiny Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans) to low-Earth orbit over the years. But why are these little worms so special?
NEWS: Pets in Space? It's Possible
C. elegans may be microscopic, but they were the first multi-cellular organism to have their genetic structure completely mapped. These little guys possess 20,000 genes that perform similar functions as equivalent genes in humans. Of particular interest are the 2,000 genes that have a role in promoting muscle function. As any long-duration astronaut can attest, one of the biggest challenges facing mankind's future in space is muscle atrophy.
Understanding how C. elegans function in space is therefore of huge scientific value not only for tiny worm enthusiasts, but for the manned exploration -- and colonization -- of space.
In 2011, Discovery News reported on some results to come from the C. elegans experiments. Nathaniel Szewczyk, of the Division of Clinical Physiology at the University of Nottingham, discussed the worms' microgravity reproduction habits and, as it turns out, C. elegans prospered just fine. Over three months, Szewczyk's team were able to observe the space worms flourish over twelve generations.
ANALYSIS: Legacy Space Worms Flying on Shuttle
And now, in results published on July 5 in the online journal Scientific Reports, it appears that C. elegans not only adapted to microgravity conditions, their lifespans also received a boost when compared with their terrestrial counterparts.
"We identified seven genes, which were down-regulated in space and whose inactivation extended lifespan under laboratory conditions," Szewczyk said in a press release. This basically means that seven C. elegans genes usually associated with muscle aging were suppressed when the worms were exposed to a microgravity environment. Also, it appears spaceflight suppresses the accumulation of toxic proteins that normally gets stored inside aging muscle.
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Marshall Space Flight Center director to retire
HUNTSVILLE, AL (WAFF) -
Arthur E. "Gene" Goldman, director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, is retiring from the agency.
He is retiring to accept amanagement position at Aerojet in Huntsville, effective August 3rd.
His departure ends a 22-year career with NASA that began in 1990 as a project engineer in the Marshall space shuttle project integration office.
Goldman has been the acting center director at Marshall since March 5th when Robert Lightfoot began his assignment as NASA acting associate administrator at NASA Headquarters. Previously, beginning March 2010, Goldman served as the center's deputy director.
Robin Henderson, Marshall's associate director, will serve as acting center director following his departure.
Copyright 2012 WAFF. All rights reserved.
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Marshall Space Flight Center Director Retiring
Posted on: 10:46 am, July 9, 2012, by Ty Watwood, updated on: 11:36am, July 9, 2012
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center director, Arthur E. Gene Goldman, is retiring. His departure makes the top spot at Marshall open for the second time since March.
Goldman, a 22 year NASA veteran, took over at MSFC when Robert Lightfoot was promoted to acting associate administrator at NASA headquarters.
Gene Goldman, Marshall Space Flight Center Director, is retiring effective August 3. (Photo Courtesy NASA)
Genes technical expertise and management skills will be missed, not only at Marshall, but across the entire agency, said NASA Administrator Charles Bolden in a news release. We are grateful for his service to NASA and wish him the best in his next endeavor.
Goldman has accepted a management position at Aerojet in Huntsville. Robin Henderson, Marshalls associate director, will serve as acting center director effective August 3.
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Marshall Space Flight Center director leaving NASA
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) Officials say Arthur E. "Gene" Goldman, director of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, is retiring from the agency.
The center said in a statement that Goldman will accept a management position at Aerojet in Huntsville, effective Aug. 3.
Robin Henderson, Marshall's associate director, will serve as acting center director following Goldman's departure.
Goldman has had a 22-year career with NASA that began in 1990 as a project engineer in the Marshall space shuttle project integration office. He has been the acting center director at Marshall since March 5 when Robert Lightfoot began his assignment as NASA acting associate administrator at NASA Headquarters. Previously, beginning March 2010, Goldman served as the center's deputy director.
2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Mars Rover NASA Images – Video
09-07-2012 01:18 More than 800 images were stitched together to create this image of the Mars surface. *Videos:
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Mars crater image beamed back by Nasa rover Opportunity
Nasa scientists say crater, formed by an impact billions of years ago, is the largest yet encountered • See images from the rover's mission to Mars It could be the Sahara or Egypt's Western Desert, but this sand-covered crater is the latest image from Mars. The picture was taken from US space agency Nasa's Mars exploration rover, Opportunity, close to where the robotic unit spent the winter ...
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NASA To Launch The Finest Mirrors Ever Made
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This Wednesday NASA will launch its High Resolution Coronal Imager (HI-C) mission from White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, sending a sounding rocket above the atmosphere with some of the best mirrors ever made to capture incredibly-detailed ultraviolet images of our Sun.
HI-C will use a state-of-the-art imaging system to focus on a region near the center of the Sun about 135,000 miles (271,000 km) across. During its brief flight only ten minutes long HI-C will return some of the most detailed images of the Suns corona ever acquired, with a resolution five times that of previous telescopes including NASAs Solar Dynamics Observatory.
While SDO collects images in ten wavelengths, however, HI-C will focus on just one: 193 Angstroms, a wavelength of ultraviolet radiation that best reveals the structures of the Suns corona present in temperatures of 1.5 million kelvin. And although HI-Cs mirrors arent any larger than SDOs about 9.5 inches in diameter they are some of the finest ever made. In addition, an interior maze between mirrors effectively increases HI-Cs focal length.
Researchers expect HI-Cs super-smooth mirrors to resolve coronal structures as small as 100 miles (160 km) across (0.1 arcsec/pixel).
Other instruments in space cant resolve things that small, but they do suggest after detailed computer analysis of the amount of light in any given pixel that structures in the suns atmosphere are about 100 miles across, said Jonathan Cirtain, project scientist for HI-C at NASAs Marshall Space Flight Center. And we also have theories about the shapes of structures in the atmosphere, or corona, that expect that size. HI-C will be the first chance we have to see them.
One of the main goals of HI-C will be to place significant new constraints on theories of coronal heating and structuring, by observing the small-scale processes that exist everywhere in hot magnetized coronal plasma and establishing whether or not there are additional structures below what can currently be seen.
This instrument could push the limits on theories of coronal heating, answering questions such as why the temperature of the suns corona is millions of degrees higher than that of the surface, said Marshalls Dr. Jonathan Cirtain, heliophysicist and principle investigator on the mission.
Read more on the NASA news release here.
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NASA's past considers its future
Former NASA administrator Richard Truly told a National Research Council committee on June 26 that he was utterly confused about NASAs current direction. (credit: J. Foust)
NASA may have had its issues over the years, from strained budgets to programs running behind schedule and over budget, but one thing it has never suffered from is a lack of advice. While the space agency has its own sounding boards, in the form of the NASA Advisory Council and the Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel, there have been plenty of external reviews of the agencys aims and efforts, often created at the behest of the White House or Congress. The result has been a steady stream of reports offering insights and recommendationsalthough that advice often remains trapped on the pages of those reports, never to be implemented by NASA or its overseers on either end of Pennsylvania Avenue.
Another exercise in studying NASAs present situation and offering advice for the agency is underway. The fiscal year 2012 appropriations bill that funded NASA included report language directing the agency to undertake an independent assessment of its strategic direction. That study, the report mandated, would evaluate whether NASAs overall strategic direction remains viable and whether agency management is optimized to support that direction.
NASA brought in the National Research Council to perform the NASAs Strategic Direction study, which is currently underway. The committee has held a pair of public meetings, including one in late June that included presentations by a number of current NASA officials, including administrator Charles Bolden. The June meeting also featured three of Boldens predecessors: Richard Truly, James Beggs, and Sean OKeefe. The perspectives of those former administrators in particular provided some interesting insights into both the agencys past and its future.
Some former administrators, in their comments to the committee, raised concern about the future direction of NASAor, more accurately, a perception that the agency lacks direction. I cant tell you how many times in the last few years I have been asked, What do you think of NASAs new direction? recalled Truly. And I cant answer that question. I am utterly confused.
Truly, who served as NASA administrator from 1989 to 1992, left the space field behind after leaving NASA, eventually taking a position as director of the Department of Energys National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Colorado. He described himself to the committee today as a citizen who lives way out there in the country who watches NASAs activities from afar.
Truly said that after President George W. Bush announced the Vision for Space Exploration, whose elements included the retirement of the Space Shuttle, he got comfortable with the idea of ending the shuttle program to help fund the future exploration systems. But I never dreamed that the president then would not make another speech about the Vision after his January 2004 address at NASA Headquarters, Truly said, and the program was not properly funded. He sounded disappointed that, when the Obama Administration decided to cancel the Constellation program in 2010, it did not decide to keep the shuttle going.
The confusion he said he experiences about NASAs direction should be a concern, he warned. But if Im confused, and you multiply me by the millions of citizens who may also be confused, this is a dangerous situation for NASA. And thats the reason that makes this study so important.
Beggs, who was NASA administrator from mid-1981 through 1985, also expressed concern about NASAs direction in his comments to the committee later the same day. He noted NASAs 2011 strategic plan includes six specific goals, from extend and sustain human activities across the solar system to public outreach and fostering innovation.
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NASA Releases New Mars Rover Pictures During Martain Winter [PHOTOS]
By IBTimes Staff Reporter | Jul 09, 2012 10:40 AM EDT
NASA released new photos on Thursday from the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity with panoramic pictures showing the terrain over four months during the most recent Martian winter.
The pictures from the Pancam are a full-circle scene comprised of 817 images depicting the terrain where the rover was stationary over a four month period at a northward sloped outcrop called "Greeley Haven" between December 21, 2011 and May 8, 2012.
The rover has been stationed on Mars since January 2004 and most recently worked on Greeley Haven to:
1. Understand Martian spin axis dynamics and thus interior structure through radio-science observations
2. Investigate of the composition and textures of an outcrop exposing an impact-jumbled rock formation on the crater rim,
3. Monitor the atmosphere and surface for changes
4. Acquire a full-color mosaic of the surroundings
View the slideshow to see photos of Mars from NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity and learn more about the project on Greeley Haven here.
NASA released new photos on Thursday from the Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity with panoramic pictures showing the terrain at Greeley Haven over four months during the most recent Martian winter.
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NASA Releases New Mars Rover Pictures During Martain Winter [PHOTOS]
NASA's Final Space Shuttle Mission — Where Are They Now?
One year (and one day) after launching on NASA's final space shuttle mission, the orbiter Atlantis is parked today just a few miles from the launch pad where it lifted off on July 8, 2011.
No longer flight-worthy its main engines replaced with replicas and its hazardous fuel lines removed Atlantis is waiting inside a high bay in the Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building to complete its transformation into a museum-safe displaylater this year.
This November, NASA plans to roll Atlantis, the last of its space-flown shuttles, down the road to the center's visitor complex, where a $100 million exhibition hall for Atlantis will open to tourists next summer.
Like Atlantis and some of its parts, so too has dispersed the team that led STS-135, the final flight of NASA's 30-year shuttle program. A year since working together to fly one last mission to the International Space Station, the astronauts, Mission Control directors, and managers have since moved on to other missions, programs, and in some cases, other organizations.
The final four
Atlantis' four astronauts commander Chris Ferguson, pilot Doug Hurley and mission specialists Sandy Magnus and Rex Walheim stayed together as a crew for four months after flying the 13-day STS-135 missionfrom July 8 to July 21, 2011.
They toured NASA centers, spoke to the public about their mission, visited with President Obama in the White House and then finally, on Nov. 2, posed for photos together with the crew of the first space shuttle mission, STS-1 astronauts John Young and Bob Crippen. [NASA's Last Shuttle Mission in Pictures]
"We're done," Ferguson said that day, following the photo shoot. "Everyone goes their separate ways right now."
For Ferguson, that meant separating from NASA. On Dec. 9, Ferguson announced he was leaving the space agency. He accepted a position with Boeing, overseeing the design and development of the crew systems for their potential shuttle replacement, a capsule the company is calling the Commercial Space Transportation, or CST, 100.
Boeing's CST-100 is among a small group of commercial spacecraft competing for a NASA contract to fly astronauts to and from the space station. NASA is expected to reveal its choices of vehicles this summer.
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