French Father Fires Kids' Toys into Space

A French father allowed his children to send their toys into space...and managed to retrieve them.

Nicholas L. sourced a helium-filled weather balloon from a US army surplus store, and a parachute and GPS tracker system was shipped from Hong Kong.

After fitting two GoPro waterproof cameras onto his makeshift spacecraft, he gathered his family in a French field and let his children launch the balloon.

The astronauts were an Angry Bird piggy character and a Hello Kitty toy.

The balloon ascends to a height of around 20,000 metres above sea level before popping and the parachute let it drift down into a crop field unharmed.

U.A.E. buys French spy satellites in $913M deal

The United Arab Emirates, a key U.S. ally in the Persian Gulf confrontation with Iran, has bought two military surveillance satellites from France that will give the region's Arab monarchies the capability of spying on the Islamic Republic.

Under the $913.2 million Falcon Eye contract, the Emirates, a federation of seven gulf sheikhdoms, will receive a brace of Helios high-resolution satellites to be built by Astrium, the space division of the European aerospace defense giant European Aeronautics Defense and Space Co. (EADS) and Thales Alenia Space, a joint venture between Thales of France and Finmeccanica of Italy.

Under an annex agreement, French military personnel will aid Emirati technicians in interpreting images and share information delivered by the satellites, said officials who accompanied French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian for the contract signing Monday.

The Emirates spearhead efforts by the Gulf Cooperation Council -- the other members are Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman and Bahrain -- to acquire a military surveillance satellite network to bolster an early warning system they've been talking about for a decade.

But, largely due to dynastic squabbles and mistrust within the GCC alliance established at the height of the 1980-88 war Iran-Iraq War, this and other GCC military aims remain unfulfilled.

However, growing tensions with Iran could spur them to set aside their differences.

Space Debris: French Corporation use UK design to 'harpoon' old satellites

UK engineers are developing a system to harpoon rogue or redundant satellites and pull them out of the sky.

It is a response to the ever growing problem of orbital junk - old pieces of hardware that continue to circle the Earth and which now pose a collision threat to operational spacecraft.

The harpoon would be fired at the hapless satellite from close range.

A propulsion pack tethered to the projectile would then pull the junk downwards, to burn up in the atmosphere.

"Space has become a critical part of our infrastructure - from weather forecasting and Earth observation, to GPS and telecommunications," said the harpoon's designer, Dr Jaime Reed, from French corporation EADS Astrium (UK).

"Space junk poses a real threat to these vital services if we do nothing about it, and so it's very important we develop capture technologies to remove some of this material. Studies have shown that taking out just a few large items each year can help us get on top of the problem."

Dr Reed's proposal is for a barbed spear about 30cm in length. It would be mounted on a "chaser satellite" that would edge to within 100m of a junk object.

Pictures sent to the ground would then be used to assess the target, before the chaser was moved to within perhaps 20m to take a shot.

Once the harpoon is hooked through the skin of the rogue satellite or rocket stage, the chaser could either pull on a trailing polymer cord itself or deploy a separate thruster unit to do the job of dragging the aimless drifter towards Earth.

Explosive concern
This is research in its very early stages. The BBC has filmed firing tests of a prototype harpoon at Astrium UK's Stevenage base.

EADS, the largest space manufacturer of aerospace and weapons in Europe, is also pursuing other ideas at its centres in France and Germany.

These concepts involve nets and robotic grappling devices. All systems have their pros and cons.

Harpoons could deal well with a satellite that is tumbling, for example, but the approach has its critics because of the fear it could actually add to our problems in space.

"Historically, one of the great sources of debris has been the explosion of fuel tanks in spent rocket stages," explained Dr Reed.

"We obviously don't want to be the cause of that, so our harpoon has a crushable cylinder. It's like a piston, and as soon as the harpoon hits the satellite wall, it rapidly decelerates, ensuring we don't travel right through the spacecraft, puncturing the tanks."

More than 50 years of space activity have left a huge quantity of redundant hardware in orbit.

This includes not just whole satellites and the upper-stages of the rockets used to put them there, but also debris from fuel tank explosions and nuclear powered devices.

Airbus and DLR testing fuel cell technology to cut aircraft pollution and noise emissions

The goals of the Advisory Council for Aeronautics Research in Europe (ACARE) to reduce CO2 emissions by 50 percent, NOx emissions by 80 percent and noise cut by 50 percent by 2020 has seen aircraft manufacturers and airlines looking at alternative fuels such as biofuel.

While not feasible for powering the flight of the aircraft itself, Airbus has also been looking at the potential for fuel cell technology to power a number of aircraft functions, such as autonomous taxiing.

In 2008, Airbus, together with its research partner the German Aerospace Center (DLR), performed the first successful flight test of fuel cell technology where a fuel cell system provided power for the aircraft's back-up systems.

Airbus and DLR are now looking at the potential of fuel cell technology for powering other aircraft functions including autonomous taxiing.

A DLR designed technology demonstrator has been installed in a DLR owned A320 ATRA (Advanced Technology Research Aircraft) consisting of a fuel cell system powering two electric motors built into the rims of the aircraft nose wheel.

The 47-ton aircraft taxied around Hamburg Finkenwerder Airport propelled by an electric nose wheel on July 1st, 2011.

DLR says that an airliner fitted with a fuel cell-powered nose wheel would be able to move from its stand to the end of the runway without using its engines, thus allowing emissions produced in airports to be cut by up to roughly 18 percent and the noise during taxiing to be almost eliminated completely.

Although DLR is still working on detailed models of the potential savings at airports, Thorsten Mulhouse from the DLR Institute of Flight Guidance (Institut für Flugführung) says, "the potential saving at Frankfurt Airport from the use of electrically-driven nose wheels for Airbus A320 class aircraft is about 44 tons of kerosene per day."

Airbus and DLR testing fuel cell technology to cut aircraft pollution and noise emissions

French Nuclear Power Station closed following coolant leakage

One of four reactors at the Cruas nuclear power station in southern France was shut down late on Tuesday following a lapse in the cooling system, France's nuclear safety agency said.

French energy company EDF reported the incident at 2250 GMT and followed its emergency procedures to shut down the reactor, it added.

The cooling system for the reactors use water from the Rhone river and the incident was due to a high level of plant debris in the river blocking intake, it added.

Intake of water into the cooling system was restored by 0400 GMT.

The agency rated the incident as a two on the seven-level international scale of nuclear incidents, adding control over the reactor was maintained at all times and there was no release of radioactivity to the environment.

Airbus A400M Military transport plane test flight imminent

Airbus' long-delayed A400M military transport will make its first test flight during the week beginning December 7, "weather permitting", the European planemaker said Friday.

The A400M was to replace ageing military cargo carriers in several European air forces but its development has been dogged by a series of serious technical problems and its in service date has been pushed from 2009 to 2013.

Some governments have begun to tire of waiting for Airbus to resolve the issues, and French and German officials have given the firm until the end of the year to prove that the project remains viable.

"Ground tests of the first A400M are progressing satisfactorily at our facility. This allows us to anticipate a first flight in the week 50, weather permitting," said Airbus military chairman and managing director Domingo Urena.

When the 20-billion-euro (28-billion-dollar) A400M project began it was hoped that a first test flight would be held in 2008 and that air forces would have had the airframe in service by the end of this year.

There is now little hope that the first production models will be delivered by 2012 and none is expected on the world's battlefield airstrips until 2013.

The delays have cost millions and forced Airbus to renegotiate its contracts with several customers. South Africa has dropped its order entirely and Britain has mulled switching is business to US manufacturers.

Seven European countries -- Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain and Turkey -- have ordered 180 planes between them, in most cases to replace ageing Transall and C130 Hercules transports.

British nuclear watchdog issues grave concerns on safety of French & Japanese reactors

nuclear safety watchdog has warned that French and US-Japanese reactors planned for construction in Britain could be rejected unless safety concerns were met.

The Health and Safety Executive said it has some concerns about features of both designs of the reactor technologies, proposed for use in a new generation of British nuclear power stations.

"We continue to believe that the UK EPR could be suitable for construction on licensed sites in the UK," it said in a report released Thursday.

"However, we have identified a significant number of issues with the safety features of the design that would first have to be progressed.

"If these are not progressed satisfactorily then we would not issue a design acceptance confirmation," the report said.

The executive conducted a safety review of the AP-1000 reactor put forward by US nuclear firm Westinghouse, now owned by Japan's Toshiba, and the European Pressurised Reactor (EPR) from French power giant Areva.

"As is normal for complex assessment projects of this type, we are identifying technical questions and issues that we are requesting Westinghouse to address," the report said.

Final approval of the designs is not due to be granted until 2011.

The British government decided to go ahead with a new generation of nuclear plants to replace the country's ageing nuclear infrastructure, most of which will be decommissioned by 2023. Ministers hope the first of a new generation of stations can come on stream as early as 2017.

Biggest dinosaur prints found in French Jurassic park

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Paleontologists in eastern France have reported the discovery of some of the largest dinosaur footprints ever documented, measuring about 1.4 meters to 1.5 meters (4.6 feet to 4.9 feet) in diameter.

The site of the find, high in the Jura mountains, was once a literal sauropod stomping ground: So far, 20 prints scattered on a 10-hectare (25-acre) site have been uncovered, paleontologist Jean-Michel Mazin of France's National Center of Scientific Research told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Researchers believe there are hundreds, or even thousands, more still hidden, Mazin said.

The well-preserved footprints from the Late Jurassic period will help scientists learn more about sauropods, long-necked plant eaters that were giants among the dinosaurs. The hulking beasts who left their footprints in the mud 150 million years ago weighed 30 to 40 metric tons (33 to 44 tons) and were more than 25 meters (82 feet) long, the French research center said.

From the prints, "we can calculate their size and speed, find out about their behavior and learn how they got around," said Mazin, who is studying the site along with fellow researcher Pierre Hantzpergue. Their discovery was announced Tuesday.

Several scientists who are not connected with the project said the prints appeared to be among the biggest ever found internationally, though they noted that slightly larger tracks have been recorded elsewhere.

Intensive French Frog Farming further endangers Asian Frog species

Giant frog farms could satisfy western diners' apparently insatiable appetite for frog meat, if pioneering French research is put into practice.

That's not just good news for the Europe's menus, but also for Asia's frogs, which conservationists say are in danger of being eaten to extinction.

Farming would also mean frogs could be raised close to where they're eaten, which could reduce the spread of diseases that are threatening frog populations around the world. But some ecologists and conservationists say that intensive frog farming could spawn a new range of problems.

The vast majority of frogs destined for European dinner tables are harvested from the wild in Asia, because previous attempts to farm frogs closer to home have ended in failure.

Disease spreads easily between frogs kept in close quarters, and they prefer expensive live prey to cheap food pellets, so they're not easy to raise. Another problem is that frogs hibernate for relatively long periods in cool European climates. So farming has thus far proven uneconomic.

Now, however, André Neveu at the French National Institute for Agricultural Research in Rennes says he's managed to raise common European frogs under intensive farming conditions.