Articles

Deep Space Industries has announced plans to launch a fleet of asteroid prospecting spacecraft.The first venture of its kind, the "FireFly" spacecraft are equipped with low-cost cubesat components and will save money by piggy-backing in to space on the back of communications satellite launches. Weighing in at 25kg, the first spacecraft is set to launch in 2015 on a voyage of up to six months. Later, larger versions willlaunch on longer missions that will seek to return samples from potentially valuable asteroid targets."This is the first commercial campaign to explore the small asteroids that pass by Earth," said Chairman Rick Tumlinson.

"Using low cost technologies, and combining the legacy of our space program with the innovation of today"s young high tech geniuses, we will do things that would have been impossible just a few years ago." Deep Space Industries announced today thatit will send a fleet of asteroid-prospecting spacecraft out into the solar system to hunt for resources to accelerate space development to benefit Earth.  

View: Full article |  Source: Spaceref.com  

Sir David Attenborough has expressed his concerns over Earth"s ever increasing human population.The 86-year-old has spent a lifetime exploring the wonders of the natural world but out of all creatures it seems that it is ourselves who pose the greatest risk to the planet. "We are a plague on the Earth," he said. "It’s coming home to roost over the next 50 years or so. It’s not just climate change; it’s sheer space, places to grow food for this enormous horde. Either we limit our populationgrowth or the natural world will do it for us, and the natural world is doing it for us right now."Sir David has long been a proponent of better sex education and voluntary methods for controlling population growth.

"We keep putting on programmes about famine in Ethiopia; that’s what’s happening. Too many people there," he said. "Until humanity manages to sort itself out and get a coordinated view about the planet it’s going to get worse and worse." The television presenter said that humans are threatening their own existence and thatof other species by using up the world’s resources. He said the only way to save the planet from famine and species extinction is to limit human population growth.  

View: Full article |  Source: Telegraph  

Geoff Flood discovered the rolled up note inside a bottle washed up on a beach in New Zealand.The note was dated March 17th, 1936 and said - "At sea. Would the finder of this bottle kindly forward this note, where found, date, to undermentioned address." The message has been written on paper with the ship"s name, SS Strathnaver, in the header. The bottled note, it seems, had been adrift in the ocean for 76 years.Mr Flood waseventually able to track down the sender, a man named Herbert Ernest Hillbrick.

While Mr. Hillbrick had died some years ago, his grandson Peter Hillbrick was still alive. "For this one to be floating around in the ocean for 76 years and just all of a sudden pop up in New Zealand. Where has it been? What story is it going to tell?" he said upon hearing of his grandfather"s note. "The only connection I have with Grandfather is now that bottle. That"s about all. So, it"s a fascinatingstory." A message in a bottle found 76 years after it was thrown into the sea has been reunited with the family of the man who wrote it.  

View: Full article |  Source: Sky News  

A controversial story from Russia suggests that a prehistoric machine part is extraterrestrial in origin.The claim surrounds an aluminium object that was said to have been discovered in a piece of coal by a resident of Vladivostok when he was lighting his fire. The object was taken to be studied by scientists in the Primorye region who allegedly concluded that it was 300 million years old, meaning that it came in to being well before humans walked the planet. Described as an "aluminium gear", the artifact could have only been created through industrial manufacturing methodswhich has lead to the outlandish suggestion that it is in fact alien in origin.The authenticity of this story, unsurprisingly, remains sketchy at best.

No definitive evaluation of the object has been made available for general study and it is questionable that an object made of aluminium could have survived for 300 million years. While the claim is undoubtedly interesting, for the moment there are too many unknowns involved to conclude that the story represents a discovery of genuine significance. The Voice of Russia and other Russian sources are reporting that a 300 million year old piece of aluminum machinery hasbeen found in Vladivostok. Experts say a gear rail appears to be manufactured and not the result of natural forces.  

View: Full article |  Source: Beforeitsnews.com