Electric cars set to hit Paris roads
Paris will on Sunday launch an ambitious electrically powered car-share service that it hopes will not only improve the quality of life in the City of Lights but also herald a revolution in sustainable urban transport.
But the “Autolib” venture also constitutes a risky gamble both for Bertrand Delanoë, the Socialist mayor of Paris, and for Vincent Bolloré, France’s best-known corporate raider and buccaneering entrepreneur, who is supplying the electric …
E-gate' adds face recognition to airline security
Silicon Valley-based AOptix on Monday introduced new "e-gates" that recognize faces as well as irises of passengers before opening to let them board flights.
"This is what we call the future of passenger boarding," AOptix director of corporate communications Brian Rhea said as an InSight Duo electronic gate was tested at the San Jose International Airport in Northern California.
AOptix e-gates that confirm identities based on iris scans are already …
US satellite may crash back to Earth Sept 23
A 20-year-old satellite that measured the ozone layer is expected to crash back to Earth late next week, but NASA said Friday it still does not know where it will fall.
The US space agency stressed that the risk to public safety from the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS) is "extremely small," and said that most, but not all, of the gear will burn up on re-entry into Earth's atmosphere.
"Re-entry is expected Sept. 23, plus or minus a day. …
Crew makes safe return to Earth afer space crash
Three astronauts returned safely to Earth from the International Space Station on Friday aboard a Soviet-era capsule whose mission follows an unprecedented spate of Russian space accidents.
Space officials said the Soyuz TMA-21 capsule landed on its side in the wind-swept steppes of the ex-Soviet republic of Kazakhstan at 0400 GMT.
"A bulls-eye landing for the Soyuz TMA-21," a NASA commentator said in a live video feed while Russian mission control …
Rocket lifts off with satellites to probe moon
An unmanned US rocket blasted off on Saturday from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida to deliver twin robotic probes to the moon in the hope of learning what is inside.
The 124-foot (37.8-meter) booster soared off its seaside launch pad at 9:08 a.m. EDT, arcing over the Atlantic Ocean as it raced into orbit. (Reuters)
NASA twin spacecraft to map inner Moon
The US space agency plans to launch two unmanned spacecraft Thursday that will chase each other around the Moon as they use gravity measurements to draw an unprecedented map of its inner workings.
Known as the GRAIL mission, or Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory, the satellites will launch together on a single Delta II rocket as early as 8:37 am Thursday (1237 GMT), when the launch window opens.
Researchers hope GRAIL will answer some of …
Gem of a planet struck: study
Astronomers claim that a planet orbiting a small fast spinning star, called a pulsar, is likely made of diamond. Pulsars are small spinning stars about 20 km in diameter – the size of a small city – that emits a beam of radio waves. As the star spins and the radio beam sweeps repeatedly over Earth, radio telescopes detect a regular pattern of radio pulses.
Researchers, from The University of Manchester as well as institutions in Australia, Germany, …
Twin NASA craft on the way to moon
CAPE CANAVERAL: A pair of spacecraft rocketed toward the moon Saturday on the first mission dedicated to measuring lunar gravity and determining what's inside Earth's orbiting companion — all the way down to the core.
"I could hardly be happier," said the lead scientist, Maria Zuber. After two days of delays and almost another, "I was trying to be as calm as I could be."
NASA launched the near identical probes named Grail-A and Grail-B aboard a …
NASA's Inspiring, Enlightening, and Successful Search for New Earths
A journey that began four decades before Columbus sailed for the New World finally ended when the Kepler space telescope snared a few errant photons as they shot past Earth’s orbit en route to infinity. The light had sped through space for 560 years, traveling more than three quadrillion miles from a star much like our sun. Captured by Kepler’s digital sensors, transformed into bytes of data, and downloaded to computers at NASA’s Ames Research Center …
Apple planning early 2012 launch for new iPad
NEW YORK: Apple plans to begin trial production of a next generation iPad in October with an eye to an early 2012 launch, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
The newspaper, citing "people familiar with the situation," said Apple is working with component suppliers and its assembler in Asia on the iPad 3 and has ordered key components such as display panels and chips.
It said the next generation iPad is expected to feature a high resolution …
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