UAE launches project to send unmanned probe to Mars

Oil-rich United Arab Emirates on Monday launched a project that aims to send the first Arab unmanned probe to Mars by 2021.

The Gulf state set up the UAE Space Agency to supervise and finance the "Emirates Institution for Advanced Science and Technology (EIAST) to execute and manage all stages of the Mars probe project," a statement said.

The two entities signed a seven-year partnership agreement Monday, setting the timing as well as legal and financial frameworks for the Mars project, said the statement.

In July the UAE government revealed a plan to create a space agency to drive the project.

It said at the time that UAE investments in space technologies have already topped 20 billion dirhams ($5.44 billion).

The UAE, a seven-emirate federation formed in 1971, will become the ninth country in the world with space programmes to explore the Red Planet, according to the statement.

On Oct 20th his Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, on Monday attended the signing of an agreement to build the first Arab Islamic probe to reach Mars.

The agreement emphasises the importance of building a national base of research, developing specialised national cadres during the coming years, and the commitment of international partners in conveying all necessary knowledge to the national work team which will, in turn, contribute to building a solid scientific base for developing the UAE space sector.

“We started today a seven-year journey with a national team; through it we will cross hundreds of millions of miles to build globally competitive Emirati individuals. We say to the people of our region join us in building a new history for our Arab nation,” Shaikh Mohammad said on his social media account.

Upon completion, the probe is expected to reach Mars in nine months, an achievement which will make the UAE one of nine nations around the world with a Mars exploration space programme.

The probe’s estimated time of arrival on Mars, the year 2021, coincides with the 50th anniversary of the creation of the UAE.

Space is considered a key factor for economic security, used for satellite communications, broadcasting, meteorology and observing natural disasters.

The UAE’s current national investments in technology-related projects and industry is more than Dh20 billion, which includes Yahsat satellite communications company and Thuraya telecommunications company.

The UAE Space Agency was earlier set up by Shaikh Mohammad for supervising and organising all space activities, developing the sector, ensuring knowledge transfer, enhancing the UAE’s position as a global player in aerospace, and maximising the contribution of space industries to the national economy. The agency will report to the Cabinet and enjoy financial and administrative independence.

The UAE’s purpose is to build Emirati technical and intellectual capabilities in the fields of aerospace and space exploration and to enter the space industry and to make use of space technology in a way that enhances the country’s development plans.

Solar System: Life began on Mars - Boron and Molybdenum

New evidence has emerged which supports the long-debated theory that life on Earth may have started on Mars.

Professor Steven Benner will tell geochemists gathering today (Thursday 29 Aug) at the annual Goldschmidt conference that an oxidized mineral form of the element molybdenum, which may have been crucial to the origin of life, could only have been available on the surface of Mars and not on Earth.

"In addition", said Professor Benner "recent studies show that these conditions, suitable for the origin of life, may still exist on Mars."

"It's only when molybdenum becomes highly oxidized that it is able to influence how early life formed," explains Professor Benner, from The Westheimer Institute for Science and Technology in the USA.

"This form of molybdenum couldn't have been available on Earth at the time life first began, because three billion years ago the surface of the Earth had very little oxygen, but Mars did. It's yet another piece of evidence which makes it more likely life came to Earth on a Martian meteorite, rather than starting on this planet."

The research Professor Benner will present at the Goldschmidt conference tackles two of the paradoxes which make it difficult for scientists to understand how life could have started on Earth.

The first is dubbed by Professor Benner as the 'tar paradox'. All living things are made of organic matter, but if you add energy such as heat or light to organic molecules and leave them to themselves, they don't create life. Instead, they turn into something more like tar, oil or asphalt.

"Certain elements seem able to control the propensity of organic materials to turn into tar, particularly boron and molybdenum, so we believe that minerals containing both were fundamental to life first starting," says Professor Benner.

"Analysis of a Martian meteorite recently showed that there was boron on Mars; we now believe that the oxidized form of molybdenum was there too."

The second paradox is that life would have struggled to start on the early Earth because it was likely to have been totally covered by water.

Not only would this have prevented sufficient concentrations of boron forming – it's currently only found in very dry places like Death Valley – but water is corrosive to RNA, which scientists believe was the first genetic molecule to appear.

Although there was water on Mars, it covered much smaller areas than on early Earth.

"The evidence seems to be building that we are actually all Martians; that life started on Mars and came to Earth on a rock," says Professor Benner.

"It's lucky that we ended up here nevertheless, as certainly Earth has been the better of the two planets for sustaining life. If our hypothetical Martian ancestors had remained on Mars, there might not have been a story to tell."

More information: goldschmidt.info/2013/

Video of Tourists Bathing in Florida's Oil Contaminated water

Gulf Oil Spill: Marine pollution Surveillance Report

In the satellite image from April 27 at 12:05 p.m. CDT the MODIS image showed that the oil slick was continuing to emanate from the spill location. Individual slicks lay just north of 29 degrees and zero minutes north, where they have been noted in the days before.

Oil had spread further east and the edge of the slick passed 87 degrees and 30 minutes west compared to the MODIS image taken on April 26. The April 26 satellite image came from NASA's Aqua satellite.

On April 29, the MODIS image on the Terra satellite captured a natural-color image of the oil slick just off the Louisiana coast. The oil slick appeared as dull gray interlocking comma shapes, one opaque and the other nearly transparent. The northwestern tip of the oil slick almost touches the Mississippi Delta.

Deepwater Horizon had more than120 crew aboard and contained an estimated to 17,000 barrels of oil (700,000 gallons) of number two fuel oil or marine diesel fuel.

Today, April 30, NOAA declared the Deepwater Horizon incident "a Spill of National Significance (SONS)." A SONS is defined as, "a spill that, due to its severity, size, location, actual or potential impact on the public health and welfare or the environment, or the necessary response effort, is so complex that it requires extraordinary coordination of federal, state, local, and responsible party resources to contain and clean up the discharge" and allows greater federal involvement.

NOAA's estimated release rate of oil spilling into the Gulf is estimated at 5,000 barrels (210,000 gallons) per day based on surface observations and reports of a newly discovered leak in the damaged piping on the sea floor.

NOAA reported on April 29 that dispersants are still being aggressively applied to the oil spill and over 100,000 gallons have been applied. NOAA's test burn late yesterday was successful and approximately 100 barrels of oil were burned in about 45 minutes. NOAA is flying planes over the area and using NASA satellite imagery from the Terra and Aqua satellites to monitor the spill.

Former aides want Chavez to resign over charges of corruption and incomptence

Former aides want Chavez to resign

In a daring move, former aides of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez have signed a petition asking the populist leader to resign because of gross incompetence.

The former loyalists' statement appeared in the local media, itself a brave move by the remainder of the Venezuelan press that has survived last year's purges and government measures against independently run newspapers, magazines and broadcasters.

It was also the first time that news had reached the outside world of the existence of a dissident group calling itself the Constitutional Axis.

The call for resignation follows weeks of growing public discontent over the shortages of water, power and basic necessities. The government said drought conditions caused by the El Nino phenomenon have drawn down water reservoir levels, but critics accused the government of mishandling that worsened the crisis.

Support for Chavez has dwindled since his much publicized foreign tours in 2009 that preceded major shortages and urban unrest. Critics accused Chavez of neglecting the domestic needs of Venezuela and of wasting resources on lavish foreign tours.

Seemingly Intelligent oil droplet solves maze

There's some humbling news from the chemical world for anyone who has ever found themselves lost in a garden maze. A simple droplet of organic solvent can find its way through a complicated labyrinth with nothing more to go on than a slight pH difference.

Bartosz Grzybowski's team at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, used a common polymer to fashion a two-dimensional labyrinth some 2 centimetres on each side. They then flooded the maze with strongly alkaline potassium hydroxide solution, before placing a hydrochloric acid-soaked chunk of gel at the maze exit.

After about 40 seconds they placed a droplet of mineral oil containing hexyldecanoic acid at the maze entrance. The oil, which cannot mix with the potassium hydroxide solution, sits on the surface. But it remains still only for a matter of seconds – it soon begins tearing around the maze at speeds of up to 10 millimetres per second, sniffing out the shortest path to the acid-soaked gel, and solving the maze in the process.

"In the movie files you can see the droplet makes decisions," says Grzybowski. "It goes left along the wrong path, decides there's something fishy with that and so it reverses. It looks almost alive."

How to Mix Oil and Water: A la Belgique!

Scientists in Belgium have uncovered a new way to shake things up. Violent bouncing of a water droplet coated with oil causes the oil layer to move inside and fracture into many oily globs. In a paper published in the December Chaos, researchers at the University of Liège in Belgium call this microemulsion of oil and water the mayonnaise droplet.

sciencenewsFrom earlier experiments, researchers knew that oily droplets bounce several times on a bed of oil before merging with the oil base. But Denis Terwagne and colleagues wanted to know what would happen to an oil-coated water droplet if the bouncing was prolonged. To find out, the team constructed a moving base that would quickly raise and lower the oil bed, similar to using a horizontal Ping-Pong paddle to keep a ball bouncing.

Virgin Galactic takes Abu Dhabi oil money

It is certainly a case of the rich getting richer and a sign of the only way these space tourism companies will ever get off the ground but either way Mr Branson pockets another profit for himself.

Today Virgin Galactic today sold a 32% stake of the company, which is valued at about $900 million, to an Abu Dhabi-based investor raising $280 million to help fund future test-flight program.

Bailed out

Virgin Galactic stated that it expects the capital infusion to fully fund the company to its commencement of commercial operations. The Virgin Group has spent over $100 million on its space flight venture since forming it in 2004.

Aabar Group

With the investment Abu Dhabi's Aabar Group gets exclusive rights to host Virgin space tourist and scientific flights. The group also said it wants to pay an extra $100 million to fund a program to launch small satellites of its own into orbit, and will build spaceport facilities in Abu Dhabi. US regulators and others must approve the deal.

Space Ship One

Virgin Galactic claims it is in the final stages of developing and testing commercial sub-orbital space vehicles based on the prototype SpaceShipOne. The current launch aircraft, WhiteKnightTwo, made a splash this week by flying at the Experimental Aircraft Association's annual AirVenture air show in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

Space Ship Two

WhiteKnightTwo will carry the pressurized spacecraft SpaceShipTwo to about 50,000ft, where SpaceShipTwo will release and fire a rocket taking it to about 360,000ft at speeds over Mach 3, Virgin says. SpaceShipTwo then glides back to a runway landing. More than 300 people have paid almost $40 million in ticket deposits to get on the flights, according to London-based Virgin.

Test Flights

SpaceShipTwo will begin test flights before the end of 2009. Both vehicles offer a unique environment for space tourism and a wide range of science research applications as well as a platform for small satellite launch, Virgin stated.

First Private Sector Launch

"We are building a great partnership for the development of the world's first private sector integrated human and payload space launch system," said Patrick McCall, Virgin Group Commercial Director in a statement.

Forbes Comment

According to Forbes.com, this may not be the last big financial splash the space company makes: "The aim over a bit of time is to try to IPO the business," said a spokesman for Virgin Group. He said the procedure would follow a similar template seen at

• Virgin Blue, the Australian airline floated in 2003;
  
• Virgin Mobile UK, floated in 2004;
  
• Virgin Mobile USA, floated in 2007.

Sold out
The entire Virgin Group even went public in 1986, but was bought back by Virgin's billionaire owner, Richard Branson. Such a move by Virgin Galactic would be a couple years away at least, observers said but Mr Branson must be wringing his hands with glee at this deal. Looks like he is off the hook again.