Orbital test-fires engines on Antares rocket

NASA

Orbital Sciences Corp. lights up the engines on its Antares rocket for a hot-fire test at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport in Virginia on Friday.

By Tariq Malik
Space.com

Orbital Sciences Corp. has successfully tested the engines for a new private rocket designed to send cargo to the International Space Station.

The Virginia-based company test-fired the first-stage engines of its new Antares rocket for 30 seconds Friday night at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on Wallops Island, Va. NASA's Wallops Flight Facility, also based on the island, supported the so-called static fire engine test, which involved having the Antares rocket fire its engines without leaving the launch pad.

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"This pad test is an important reminder of how strong and diverse the commercial space industry is in our nation," Phil McAlister, director of commercial spaceflight development at NASA Headquarters in Washington, said in a statement released after the test. "A little more than one year after the retirement of the space shuttle, we had a U.S company resupplying the space station, and another is now taking the next critical steps to launch from America?s newest gateway to low-Earth orbit."

Orbital Sciences is one of two private spaceflight companies with billion-dollar NASA contracts to provide unmanned cargo delivery missions to the International Space Station. Under its $1.9 billion contract, Orbital Sciences will make at least eight delivery flights to the space station using its Antares rocket and robotic Cygnus spacecraft. The first Antares rocket test flight is expected later this year. [Antares Rocket and Cygnus Explained (Infographic)]

California-based SpaceX is the other company with a NASA contract for unmanned space station deliveries. SpaceX has a $1.6 billion contract to fly at least 12 missions to the space station using its Dragon space capsules and Falcon 9 rocket. The company launched both a test flight and a bona fide delivery mission to the space station in 2012. The second delivery flight under the contract is slated to launch on March 1.

An animation shows how Orbital Sciences Corp.'s unmanned Antares-Cygnus launch system would be used to resupply the International Space Station.

With NASA's retirement of the space shuttle fleet in 2011, the space agency is relying on new private rockets and spacecraft to ferry cargo ? and eventually astronauts ? to and from low-Earth orbit. NASA is currently dependent on Russia, Europe and Japan for cargo deliveries to the space station. Russia's Soyuz spacecraft are the only vehicles currently available to ferry astronauts to and from the station. ?

Friday's engine test marked Orbital's second attempt to check the Antares rocket's dual AJ26 rocket engines, which are designed to provide 680,000 pounds of thrust. A first attempt on Feb. 13 was aborted before engine ignition due to a "low pressurization" detection during a nitrogen purge in the rocket's aft engine compartment, Orbital officials said.

The test took place at Pad-0A at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, which is located on the eastern shore of Virginia. It set the stage for a full-up flight test of the Antares rocket, and then a demonstration flight as part of Orbital's contract under NASA's Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program, also known as COTS.

"Following the successful completion of the COTS demonstration mission to the station, Orbital will begin regular cargo resupply flights to the orbiting laboratory through NASA's Commercial Resupply Services contract," NASA Wallops officials said.

This report was updated by NBC News Digital. You can follow Space.com managing editor Tariq Malik on Twitter?@tariqjmalik.?Follow Space.com on Twitter?@Spacedotcom. We're also on?Facebook?and?Google+.?

? 2013 Space.com. All rights reserved. More from Space.com.

Source: http://science.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/02/22/17061399-orbital-test-fires-engines-on-antares-rocket-for-future-space-station-trips?lite

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Southern California malls target Asian shoppers

The arrival of the Lunar New Year this month seems to have sparked an epiphany for area shopping centers: Asian and Asian American consumers have a growing pile of money and want to spend it where they're welcome.

So in the Year of the Snake, malls around the Southland are hustling harder to make themselves more appealing to the demographic.

Desert Hills Premium Outlets, Ontario Mills and the Outlets at Orange are partnering on a "Snaking through Southern California" initiative to lure Chinese shoppers to their malls. Simon Property Group, which owns the centers, says it's attempting to market to Asian consumers with multilingual messaging and Lunar New Year decorations.

Many stores in South Coast Plaza now have Asian employees to cater to the influx of moneyed tourists from China, Japan and South Korea who flock to the upscale mall. The center also has a language-assistance program and maps in Asian languages.

Westfield Santa Anita in Arcadia, a city where more than half the population is Asian/Asian American, is hosting its first-ever Lunar New Year festival Saturday afternoon. Free activities include a lion dance, Chinese calligraphy demonstrations and a Year of the Snake photo booth for families.

The San Gabriel Valley center hung a 120-foot, 600-pound red-and-gold dragon installation above its indoor carousel. Decorators brought in a Chinese pagoda as well as kumquat trees for good luck.

Even after the holiday, Westfield plans to continue tweaking the Santa Anita mall -- currently home to Nordstrom, AMC Theatres, Macy?s and more -- to better suit its Asian American clientele.

This summer, Hai Di Lao, a hot-pot restaurant chain based in China's Sichuan province, is to open its first U.S. location at the center. Beijing-based eatery Meizhou Dongpo is also scheduled to move in, in early 2014.

The mall already offers some store directories in Chinese.

The revamps could have a major economic payoff. Government projections peg 2013 as a record year for Chinese tourism to the United States. A report from Nielsen this past fall showed Asian American buying power surging over $1 trillion within five years, from $718.4 billion in 2012.

ALSO:

Asian tourists flock to South Coast Plaza

U.S. wine exports hit record, China sales up 18%

Asian American consumers: Nearing $1 trillion in buying power

Source: http://feeds.latimes.com/~r/MoneyCompany/~3/7_aOOxYAcM4/la-fi-mo-california-malls-westfield-asians-20130222,0,2582185.story

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Google's Driverless Cars Will Drive Down Real Estate Prices

By Margie Nemcick-Cruz - February 22, 2013 | Tickers: GOOG | 0 Comments

Margie is a member of The Motley Fool Blog Network -- entries represent the personal opinions of our bloggers and are not formally edited.

In my last column on the majorly disruptive technology of Google?s (NASDAQ: GOOG) driverless car, I outlined 5 ways that we all will benefit from this innovation. Due to my sheer excitement of the prospect, before in my next column diving into the challenges of implementing the technology, I want to offer you some additional ways that both you as individual and we as a society will benefit. (the two certainly go hand in hand don?t they?)

My original 5 (again outlined here, were)

1. Car ownership won?t even be necessary
2. Cheaper insurance
3. Less demand for medical care
4. Seniors will be much more independent
5. Productivity of society will increase dramatically

Let?s Add On To Society?s Benefits

1. Cost of roads will drop precipitously
2. Cheaper gas prices via less demand for fuel
3. Better use of land
4. Fewer lawyers (hooray!)
5. Drunk driving becomes so pass? (and who benefits)

Roads

Traffic in major metropolitan areas can be horrendous and time consuming. Ever waited to turn right for twenty minutes because the old lady in front of you needs a two mile window of zero traffic before she?ll make a move? Ever wait to merge right onto a four lane road, all traffic in the two far lanes, and the moron in front of you seems to lack a three dimensional model of the world, and not even a long blare of your horn can jog her memory?

And how do we respond as a society, we yell at our politicians, ?to widen the roads!? or ?Build an overpass!?

Well let me tell you something, roads cost a lot of money. Not only would robotic cars be in constant communication with each other, allowing the cars to merge much more easily and safely thus insuring the flow of traffic, but they would be able to drive much more closely together. No more need to widen the roads. Yes, they would still require maintenance but the transportation budget for both Federal, State, and City would drop dramatically (and with it our taxes)

Cheaper Gas Prices

As many of the benefits of the driverless car will stem from efficiency, I?ll follow suit with my words.

There will be less demand for gas due to three factors I can think of.

1. Robotic cars driving down the freeway can use convoys, the minor gaps between the cars mean less air drag, and therefore less consumption of fuel. Chinese owned Volvo, with their own driverless technology has already demonstrated this possibility on freeways. This is the process referred to as ?drafting? and is a strategy commonly used by cyclists in a race to use less of their own energy.
2. With traffic moving more efficiently there won?t be gas and energy wasted in gridlock.
3. Let?s say you are headed to the grocery store. You call the robotic cabbie, unbeknownst to your friend two blocks away is going to the same destination. Via Google Plus, an icon pops up on screen. ?Share ride with Joe?? You accept, now your ride is cheaper because you split it, maybe they cab company charges an extra few cents for the ride, so they make more, and the demand for fuel is cut. Don?t get out of the store at the same time, no problem, you don?t have to wait, just take separate cars home.

Better Use of Land

City streets might become several feet more narrow because parking would not be required. This leaves room for more trees in the neighborhood enhancing both quality of life and air.

Those massive parking lots you see everywhere, at the mall, the airport, outside the grocery store? There will be no need for them. This will free up massive tracts of land for new businesses, for parks, or even living space (apartments, etc.) With a growing population and thus demand for land, the rate of increase of property would slow or even fall making home ownership more affordable for all, etc etc.?

Fewer Lawyers

Society loses vast amounts to dishonest people, some of which are, of course, lawyers.

Google assumes its driverless technology deployed in mass can rid the world of 90% of accidents. Less accidents for ambulance chasers to run after. Also, the sensors, video, and read outs of the respective cars will in most cases show exactly who, or what, was at fault reducing time and friction in court.

Drunk Driving

With almost no one owning a car, it becomes a relic like crime. "James got arrested for drunk driving? How quaint."

All those don?t drink and drive commercials get replaced by ads for Anheuser-Busch?InBev ?Thanks Google, this Bud?s on us!?

Seriously, demand for alcohol will increase with the deployment of driverless technology. Of course, throwing up in the back seat of the robotic taxi might earn you a $50 cleaning bill, but that?s exponentially better than the 10k it costs to defend yourself against a drunk driving offense. (again, bye-bye lawyers and costs to society)

Expect to find alcohol producers on the same side of the aisle as Google.

Coming Up

I have explored only a few of the myriad of benefits that driverless technology might offer us. Yes, it IS that disruptive and awesome and I encourage you readers to feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section about your feelings/ vision.

In the next column of this series, I?ll be discussing who stands to lose from this technology and why it?s no sure bet.?

Source: http://feeds.fool.com/~r/usmf/foolwatch/~3/yGMadOJPl1M/story01.htm

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A Florida Woman Was Shot by an Oven

Among items on the short list of "things that shouldn't be stored in an oven," live ammunition ranks near the top—just below live babies and gasoline. That's because, as Myth Busters has taught us and one Florida woman learned this week, live ammo and high temperatures make for an explosive combination. More »

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/QOfz2p_pq1M/a-florida-woman-was-shot-by-an-oven-in-her-pursuit-of-waffles

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Jane Fonda, Kristen Stewart, Jennifer Garner join list of Oscar presenters

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Oscar-winner Jane Fonda has been added to this year's list of presenters at the Academy Awards ceremony, along with non-Oscar winners Kristen Stewart, Jennifer Garner and Kerry Washington, the show's producers said on Thursday.

Fonda took home her first Oscar statue in 1972 for her leading role in "Klute" and then won another in 1979 for her performance in Hal Ashby's "Coming Home."

She has been nominated five other times, while Stewart, Garner and Washington have yet to be so honored.

Still, Stewart is a hugely popular young starlet thanks to her role as Bella Swan in the "Twilight" franchise, and Washington portrayed Jamie Foxx's wife in Best Picture nominee "Django Unchained."

And not only did TV's "Alias" star Garner appear in the 2012 family fantasy "The Odd Life of Timothy Green," but her husband, Ben Affleck, while not getting a nomination this year, did direct the clear frontrunner for Best Picture, "Argo."

All four leading ladies are joining a very long list of previously announced Oscar presenters, including Affleck, Jennifer Aniston, Michael Douglas, Jamie Foxx, Paul Rudd, Salma Hayek Pinault, Melissa McCarthy, Liam Neeson, John Travolta, Jessica Chastain, Jennifer Lawrence, Halle Berry, Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman, Reese Witherspoon, Mark Wahlberg, Ted and the cast of "The Avengers."

Jean Dujardin, Christopher Plummer, Octavia Spencer and Meryl Streep - last year's winners in the Academy's acting categories - are returning as presenters, too.

Barbra Streisand and Adele will perform, along with the casts of "Les Mis?rables," "Chicago" and "Dreamgirls."

"Family Guy" creator Seth MacFarlane hosts this Sunday's telecast.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/jane-fonda-kristen-stewart-jennifer-garner-join-list-235502110.html

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Hagel has enough support for defense secretary

WASHINGTON (AP) ? Barring any new, damaging information, Chuck Hagel has secured the necessary votes for the Senate to confirm him to be the nation's next defense secretary. A vote ending the bitter fight over President Barack Obama's choice for his revamped second-term, national security team is expected next week.

Hagel cleared the threshold when five-term Republican Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama said he would vote for the former GOP senator from Nebraska after joining other Republicans last week in an unprecedented filibuster of the Pentagon nominee.

"He's probably as good as we're going to get," Shelby told the Decatur (Ala.) Daily.

Although a Republican, Hagel has faced strong GOP opposition, with many of his former colleagues voting last week to stall the nomination. Republicans have questioned Hagel's support for Israel, tolerance of Iran and willingness to cut the nuclear arsenal. His opposition to the Iraq war after his initial vote for the conflict angered his onetime friend, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.

GOP lawmakers demanded more time to review the nomination that a divided Armed Services Committee had approved on a party-line vote.

Shelby's support was a clear sign of weakening Republican opposition, and it prompted two letters within hours from Hagel's fiercest GOP foes. One letter went to the president calling on him to withdraw the nomination, the other to GOP senators pleading with them to stand together against Hagel.

Fifteen Republicans senators wrote that Hagel lacks the bipartisan support and confidence to serve in the vital job of defense secretary.

"The occupant of this critical office should be someone whose candidacy is neither controversial nor divisive," wrote the senators ? all opponents of Hagel. Leading the effort was Texas Sen. John Cornyn, the party's No. 2, who is up for re-election next year.

One name missing from the letter was McCain, who has called Hagel unqualified but indicated last Sunday that he wouldn't stand in the way of a Senate vote.

Separately, the top Republican on the Armed Services Committee, Sen. Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma, sent a letter to his GOP colleagues urging them to vote again to block the nomination when the Senate returns from its recess next week. He acknowledged the reality that if the GOP fails to block a vote, Hagel proponents have the votes to approve him on an up-or-down vote.

"Make no mistake: A vote for cloture is a vote to confirm Sen. Hagel as secretary of defense," wrote Inhofe. He said that while the Senate traditionally defers to presidents on their Cabinet choices, "our nation is at war. The Senate must insist on confirming only the most effective leaders."

The Senate Republicans' closed-door weekly meeting on Tuesday will be crucial to Inhofe's hopes of keeping the GOP in line on Hagel.

At the White House, spokesman Jay Carney rejected GOP calls for Hagel to withdraw. He complained that Republicans were putting politics ahead of national security, pointing out that the administration wants Hagel to be part of decisions on the size of the U.S. force in Afghanistan as American and coalition forces wind down combat operations.

"This waste of time is not just meaningless political posturing because we firmly believe that Sen. Hagel will be confirmed. The waste of time is of consequence," Carney told reporters.

The Senate also is holding up the nomination of John Brennan to be CIA director, with Republicans and Democrats seeking more information about the U.S. policy on the use of drones. Hagel and Brennan would join Secretary of State John Kerry in Obama's overhauled, second-term national security team.

If confirmed, Hagel, a twice-wounded Vietnam combat veteran, would succeed Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who is stepping down after four years first as CIA director and then Pentagon chief.

In a boost for Hagel's nomination, former Republican leader Bob Dole, a decorated World War II veteran, issued a statement Thursday saying, "Hagel's wisdom and courage make him uniquely qualified to be secretary of defense and lead the men and women of our armed forces. Chuck Hagel will be an exceptional leader at an important time."

Hagel is expected to get all 55 Democratic votes and the support of three Republicans ? Sens. Thad Cochran of Mississippi, Mike Johanns of Nebraska and Shelby. Two other Republicans ? Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska ? voted last week to allow the nomination to move ahead and are expected to do the same next week, giving Hagel the requisite 60 votes out of 100 necessary to end a filibuster.

An up-or-down vote on confirmation, with only a majority necessary, could occur as early as Wednesday.

The filibuster left the administration angry and troubled by the prospect of a nomination in limbo, with opposition groups redoubling their efforts to scuttle Hagel and the uncertainty of a weeklong Senate break. But the administration is more confident about Hagel's prospects after private conversations with several senators to ensure Hagel gets past the 60-vote barrier, according to an official close to the confirmation process. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss private conversations.

Hagel's nomination also has become entangled in GOP demands for more information from the Obama administration about the deadly assault on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, last September that killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., has described Hagel as "radical" and pressed for Obama to abandon the nomination. Graham sent a new letter to Hagel this week with fresh questions about Israel, after Hagel responded to a separate Graham letter on Israel last week.

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Associated Press writer Darlene Superville contributed to this report.

___

Follow Donna Cassata on Twitter: http://twitter.com/DonnaCassataAP

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/hagel-enough-support-defense-secretary-211621061--politics.html

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Robotic bat wing engineered: Researchers uncover flight secrets of real bats

Feb. 21, 2013 ? The strong, flapping flight of bats offers great possibilities for the design of small aircraft, among other applications. By building a robotic bat wing, Brown researchers have uncovered flight secrets of real bats: the function of ligaments, the elasticity of skin, the structural support of musculature, skeletal flexibility, upstroke, downstroke.

Researchers at Brown University have developed a robotic bat wing that is providing valuable new information about dynamics of flapping flight in real bats.

The robot, which mimics the wing shape and motion of the lesser dog-faced fruit bat, is designed to flap while attached to a force transducer in a wind tunnel. As the lifelike wing flaps, the force transducer records the aerodynamic forces generated by the moving wing. By measuring the power output of the three servo motors that control the robot's seven movable joints, researchers can evaluate the energy required to execute wing movements.

Testing showed the robot can match the basic flight parameters of bats, producing enough thrust to overcome drag and enough lift to carry the weight of the model species.

A paper describing the robot and presenting results from preliminary experiments is published in the journal Bioinspiration and Biomimetics. The work was done in labs of Brown professors Kenneth Breuer and Sharon Swartz, who are the senior authors on the paper. Breuer, an engineer, and Swartz, a biologist, have studied bat flight and anatomy for years.

The faux flapper generates data that could never be collected directly from live animals, said Joseph Bahlman, a graduate student at Brown who led the project. Bats can't fly when connected to instruments that record aerodynamic forces directly, so that isn't an option -- and bats don't take requests.

"We can't ask a bat to flap at a frequency of eight hertz then raise it to nine hertz so we can see what difference that makes," Bahlman said. "They don't really cooperate that way."

But the model does exactly what the researchers want it to do. They can control each of its movement capabilities -- kinematic parameters -- individually. That way they can adjust one parameter while keeping the rest constant to isolate the effects.

"We can answer questions like, 'Does increasing wing beat frequency improve lift and what's the energetic cost of doing that?'" Bahlman said. "We can directly measure the relationship between these kinematic parameters, aerodynamic forces, and energetics."

Detailed experimental results from the robot will be described in future research papers, but this first paper includes some preliminary results from a few case studies.

One experiment looked at the aerodynamic effects of wing folding. Bats and some birds fold their wings back during the upstroke. Previous research from Brown had found that folding helped the bats save energy, but how folding affected aerodynamic forces wasn't clear. Testing with the robot wing shows that folding is all about lift.

Studying an animal with unique abilities

Over the years, Kenneth Breuer, an engineer, and Sharon Swartz, a biologist, have developed a large archive of bat data, from wind tunnels to field studies and slow-motion video.In a flapping animal, positive lift is generated by the downstroke, but some of that lift is undone by the subsequent upstroke, which generates negative lift. By running trials with and without wing folding, the robot showed that folding the wing on the upstroke dramatically decreases that negative lift, increasing net lift by 50 percent.

Data like that will not only give new insights into the mechanics of bat flight, it could aid the design of small flapping aircraft. The research was funded by the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the National Science Foundation..

Inspired by the real thing

Bat wings are complex things. They span most of the length of a bat's body, from shoulder to foot. They are supported and moved by two arm bones and five finger-like digits. Over those bones is a super-elastic skin that can stretch up to 400 percent without tearing. The eight-inch robot mimics that anatomy with plastic bones carefully fabricated on a 3-D printer to match proportions of a real bat. The skin is made of a silicone elastomer. The joints are actuated by servo motors that pull on tendon-like cables, which in turn pull on the joints.

The robot doesn't quite match the complexity of a real bat's wing, which has 25 joints and 34 degrees of freedom. An exact simulation isn't feasible given today's technology and wouldn't be desirable anyway, Bahlman said. Part of why the model is useful is that it distills bat flapping down to five fundamental parameters: flapping frequency, flapping amplitude, the angle of the flap relative to the ground, the amount of time used for the downstroke, and the extent to which the wings can fold back.

Experimental data aside, Bahlman said there were many lessons learned just in building the robot and getting it to work properly. "We learned a lot about how bats work from trying to duplicate them and having things go wrong," he said.

During testing, for example, the tongue and groove joint used for the robot's elbow broke repeatedly. The forces on the wing would spread open the groove, and eventually break it open. Bahlman eventually wrapped steel cable around the joint to keep it intact, similar to the way ligaments hold joints together in real animals.

The fact that the elbow was a characteristic weak point in the robot might help to explain the musculature of elbows in real bats. Bats have a large set of muscles at the elbow that are not positioned to flex the joint. In humans, these muscles are used in the motion that helps us turn our palms up or down. Bats can't make that motion, however, so the fact that these muscles are so large was something of a mystery. Bahlman's experience with the robot suggests these muscles may be adapted to resist bending in a direction that would break the joint open.

The wing membrane provided more lessons. It often tore at the leading edge, prompting Bahlman to reinforce that spot with elastic threads. The fix ended up looking a lot like the tendon and muscle that reinforce leading edges in bats, underscoring how important those structures are.

Now that the model is operational, Bahlman has lots of plans for it.

"The next step is to start playing with the materials," he said. "We'd like to try different wing materials, different amounts of flexibility on the bones, looking to see if there are beneficial tradeoffs in these material properties."

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted from materials provided by Brown University.

Note: Materials may be edited for content and length. For further information, please contact the source cited above.

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Journal Reference:

1. Joseph W Bahlman, Sharon M Swartz, Kenneth S Breuer. Design and characterization of a multi-articulated robotic bat wing. Bioinspiration & Biomimetics, 2013; 8 (1): 016009 DOI: 10.1088/1748-3182/8/1/016009

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/top_technology/~3/mH5WJdkNVC4/130221143942.htm

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