Raytheon's Space Fence technology ready to track
space debris

post from Space Tourism, Space Transport and Space Exploration News on 30 July 2012 10:17:22 PM. © Space Tourism, Space Transport and Space Exploration News

Tewksbury MA (SPX) Jul 31, 2012
The U.S. Air Force and Raytheon have completed the preliminary design review (PDR) contract of the Space Fence program. Space Fence is capable of detecting more and much smaller objects in low earth orbit to provide greater accuracy and timeliness to meet warfighter space situational awareness requirements. "Space debris threatens systems we depend on every day, including satellites that p

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Insect-like robot can walk, leap on water

post from Space Tourism, Space Transport and Space Exploration News on 30 July 2012 10:17:22 PM. © Space Tourism, Space Transport and Space Exploration News

Waterloo, Ontario (UPI) Jul 30, 2012
Canadian scientists say they've made a robot that not just walks on water like the water strider insect but leaps over the surface like its living counterpart. A number of tiny robots that can walk on water have been developed that could skim across lakes and other bodies of water to monitor water quality or conduct surveillance operations, but none have been able to make leaps across t

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Dawn Completes Intensive Phase Of Vesta
Exploration

post from Space Tourism, Space Transport and Space Exploration News on 30 July 2012 10:17:22 PM. © Space Tourism, Space Transport and Space Exploration News

Pasadena CA (JPL) Jul 31, 2012
Dawn has completed the final intensive phase of its extraordinary exploration of Vesta, and it has now begun its gradual departure. Propelled by its uniquely efficient ion propulsion system, the probe is spiraling ever higher, reversing the winding path it followed into orbit last year. In the previous log (which gained prominence last month by making it into the list of the top 78 logs ev

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Checkout begins with the Fregat upper stage for
Arianespace's third Soyuz mission from French Guiana

post from Space Tourism, Space Transport and Space Exploration News on 30 July 2012 10:17:22 PM. © Space Tourism, Space Transport and Space Exploration News

Kourou, French Guiana (ESA) Jul 31, 2012
The Fregat upper stage for Arianespace's third Soyuz mission from French Guiana is now undergoing pre-launch verifications in preparation for a flight in the second half of 2012 that will carry another two spacecraft for Europe's Galileo satellite navigation constellation. After being moved into the Spaceport's Soyuz Launcher Integration Building - known by its Russian "MIK" designation -

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A Fish Friendly Facility for the ISS

post from Space Tourism, Space Transport and Space Exploration News on 30 July 2012 10:17:22 PM. © Space Tourism, Space Transport and Space Exploration News

Houston TX (SPX) Jul 31, 2012
While aquariums provide a relaxing pastime for humans on Earth, recreation is not the goal behind the new Aquatic Habitat, or AQH, aboard the International Space Station. Instead, researchers will use this unique facility to look at how microgravity impacts marine life. Sponsored by the Japanese Space Agency, or JAXA, this habitat is a closed-water circulatory system, which provides a new

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People with highly superior autobiographical
memory have different brains

post from Top stories on 30 July 2012 09:54:20 PM. © Top stories

Story Source

UC Irvine scientists have discovered intriguing differences in the brains and mental processes of an extraordinary group of people who can effortlessly recall every moment of their lives since about age 10.

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Press briefing schedule for Curiosity (assuming a
nominal landing)

post from Planetary Society Blog on 30 July 2012 08:53:37 PM. © Planetary Society Blog

JPL has published a schedule for press briefings in the first week of Curiosity's mission on Mars.

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NCBI ROFL: Having kids makes men see themselves
in random children.

Fathers See Stronger Family Resemblances than Non-Fathers in Unrelated Children’s Faces.

“Even after they have taken all reasonable measures to decrease the probability that their spouses cheat on them, men still face paternal uncertainty. Such uncertainty can lead to paternal disinvestment, which reduces the children’s probability to survive and reproduce, and thus the reproductive success of the fathers themselves. A theoretical model shows that, other things being equal, men who feel confident that they have fathered their spouses’ offspring tend to enjoy greater fitness (i.e., leave a larger number of surviving progeny) than men who do not. This implies that fathers should benefit from exaggerating paternal resemblance. We argue that the self-deceiving component of this bias could be concealed by generalizing this resemblance estimation boost to (1) family pairs other than father-child and (2) strangers. Here, we tested the prediction that fathers may see, in unrelated children’s faces, stronger family resemblances than non-fathers. In Study 1, 70 men and 70 women estimated facial resemblances between children paired, at three different ages (as infants, children, and adolescents), either to themselves or to their parents. In Study 2, 70 men and 70 women guessed the true parents ...

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Who Will Win the Ig Nobel Prize

Every year, a deserving physicist (or two or three) earns a free trip to Stockholm, Sweden to receive his or her Nobel Prize for groundbreaking research. Despite the prestige of the Nobel Prize, physicists are willing to shell out their own money to personally accept a lesser-known prize here in the U.S.

The Ig Nobel Prize Committee recognizes research that "makes people laugh and then think." Winners have traveled from across the globe to accept their prizes for often ridiculous, seemingly inconsequential research. Past winners have created a wasabi-spraying alarm clock, examined the physics of hula-hooping, and used magnets to levitate a frog.

Like the Nobel Prizes, the Ig Nobel Prizes award "excellence" in several categories, including physics. The award ceremony is on September 20th, and tickets go on sale this Wednesday, August 1st. For our impatient readers, we've wrangled some of our best bets for this year's Ig Nobel Prize in physics in an attractive list-based format.

Ponytail Physics

How do you quantify the shape of a ponytail? Physicist Raymond Goldstein of Cambridge University and his colleagues developed a formula for determining the "Rapunzel number" of ponytails. Combining the effects of elasticity, gravity and a curling factor, the scientists developed a way to characterize ponytail shape. Stylists around the world are now anxiously awaiting a rigid, mathematical hairstyle selection system to avoid customers' vague demands.

What Seems to be the Problem, Officer?

Perhaps we're biased, but we think Dmitri Krioukov's tale of using elementary physics to avoid paying a traffic fine is definitely Ig Nobel material. In a paper published on the arXiv, Krioukov showed how an officer could mistakenly think he ran a stop sign. Physics proved victorious when Krioukov argued his case in court, and the judge struck down the fine. Although his physics argument wasn't flawless (and assumed that a Toyota Yaris sustained the acceleration of a dragster), we applaud Krioukov's ingenuity and boldness. Krioukov even updated his article to address some of the potential faults readers found with his argument after the story broke on Physics Central.

Coffee Spills No More

Coffee stains have ruined many a morning, so physicists decided to save us from the perennial problem of coffee spills. Apparently, the structure of coffee mugs can produce some fascinating fluid dynamics when coupled with the mechanics of walking, leading to liquid letdowns. To avoid coffee spills, the researchers suggested new coffee mug designs and some practical advice: avoid quick starts and coffee mug relay races.

Wine Swirling

Coffee drinkers avoid sloshing at all costs, but wine enthusiasts tend to prefer some swirling before imbibing. Now physicists have started to reveal why wine swirling may enhance the flavor of wine, at least for those with the sophisticated palettes required for subtle flavor detection. Wine swirling creates standing waves in wine glasses, leading to better oxygenation and mixing; this mixing leads to an enhanced aroma and taste, according to the researchers. They even looked at a variety of parameters, such as glass size and rotational speed, to move toward a more perfect swirl.

We'll see if one of our choices made the final cut on September 20th. If you can't make it out to Harvard for the ceremony, you can watch it live online. Also, our intrepid reporter Quantum will likely be there to report all of the details.

Top image of Andre Geim's levitating frog, which garnered him an Ig Nobel Prize in 2000. He won an actual Nobel Prize in 2010 for his work on graphene. Image Courtesy Radboud University. Ponytail image and coffee image courtesy of Nicki Varkevisser and Tamorlan, respectively.
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If you want to keep up with Hyperspace, AKA Brian, you can follow him on Twitter.

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Installing Solar Panels via Robot

The solar energy industry has taken off over the last few years due largely to the significant drop in solar panel price, driven by Chinese manufacturers. But these low prices alone aren't always enough to make solar technology economically feasible. After all, each square meter of traditional

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