JPL director: Visiting Mars a 'question of national will' - CNN (blog)

Elachi: The purpose of the InSight mission is to put a fixed lander, not a rover, which have a very sensitive seismometer. So the idea is to detect quakes on Mars. The reason that’s interesting is not only the quakes themselves, but the quakes because they propagate through the side of the planet, it will allow us to get a picture of the internal structure: the core, crust, and be able to compare it to Earth. Most of our information about the Earth’s internal structure comes from earthquakes, by seeing how earthquakes propagate and so on.Mundane matters yes, but we are in a pretty deep financial hole. Maybe you don't realize our viability as a nation is at stake here. No NASA doesn't cost very much in the grand scheme of things, but on a priority level as far as our attention to issues goes, its like thinking about taking a family trip to Disneyland when the bank has foreclosed on your home after you've lost your job. You can do it probably, but it seem!
s like a waste of resources when you really have to address how you&#039;re going to survive.<br />http://lightyears.blogs.cnn.com/2012/08/31/jpl-director-visiting-mars-a-question-of-national-will/?hpt%3Dhp_c3

Curiosity will.i.am “Reach for the Stars” music playback goes off without a hitch - SlashGear

NASA recently did this with a congratulatory message from administrator Charles Bolden. It appears that the song was not stored on the internal memory for the rover, which is no surprise. During the event, NASA engineers also spoke to students and media about the mechanics involved in getting a song back from Mars. Will.i.am&#8217;s i.am angel Foundation and Discovery Education also announced a $10 million classroom education initiative that will reach 25 million students each year. The initiative will focus on science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics.We mentioned earlier this week that rapper and Black Eyed Peas alum will.i.am had teamed up with NASA. The goal of the tie up was to encourage students to study science, technology, engineering, and math. As part of the team up between the rapper and NASA, will.i.am&#8217;s latest single called &#8220;Reach for the Stars&#8221; was transmitted from the surface of Mars by the curiosity Rover to students and media !
at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. <br />http://www.slashgear.com/curiosity-will-i-am-reach-for-the-stars-music-playback-goes-off-without-a-hitch-29244298/

Satellites Show Sea Ice in Arctic Is at a Record Low - New York Times

<br />http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/28/science/earth/sea-ice-in-arctic-measured-at-record-low.html

In key test, Curiosity zaps Mars rock with powerful laser - CNET

ChemCam was designed and built at Los Alamos and is a joint project between the U.S. Department of Energy and the French national space agency. It is one of 10 state-of-the-art instruments making up Curiosity's science payload that will look for carbon compounds and signs of past or present habitability during the rover's planned two-year mission.The laser beam created a visible spark of electrically charged plasma that was then observed by the instrument's telescope. The telescope, mounted on Curiosity's camera mast, fed the light through optical fibers to three spectrometers designed to record 6,144 different wavelengths of infrared, visible and ultraviolet light.<br />http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57496102-76/in-key-test-curiosity-zaps-mars-rock-with-powerful-laser/

NASA's Curiosity rover landed on Martian soil; a look at what's ahead - Washington Post

The nuclear-powered, six-wheel Curiosity is on a quest to learn whether the Martian environment could have been favorable for microbial life. Before it can drive, it has to slog through weeks of health checkups. Since it&rsquo;s the most complex spacecraft ever sent to the red planet, engineers want to make sure it&rsquo;s in tip-top shape before they hand over the keys to scientists. It already has done a cursory check of its 10 science tools, but more tests are needed. This weekend, its computers get a software update &mdash; a process that will last several days.The mission&rsquo;s chief scientist John Grotzinger said it was like staring at California&rsquo;s Mojave Desert. The landing site is pebbly with sand dunes nearby and mountains off in the distance. A curtain of haze hung over the site. Curiosity&rsquo;s destination is Mount Sharp, a 3-mile-high mountain rising from the center of the crater floor near the equator. Observations from space reveal the base of the mou!
ntain shows signs of past water &mdash; a good place to hunt for the chemical ingredients of life.<br />http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/nasas-curiosity-rover-landed-on-martian-soil-a-look-at-whats-ahead/2012/08/11/f1f348a2-e412-11e1-89f7-76e23a982d06_story.html

Solar day 2: Curiosity starts to rock - Sydney Morning Herald

Today, solar day 2 for Curiosity, the mission control team will instruct the rover to position its remote sensing mast, which has been stowed since the rover's descent and landing. The mast contains the ChemCam instrument, which will analyse rock samples using a mass spectrometer. The instrument works by shooting a laser beam at a rock up to seven metres away, vaporising part of the rock so the spectrometer can assess its chemical composition. Yesterday the rover successfully fired up two of its science instruments, including the radiation detection detector, RAD, which measured high-energy radiation during the spacecraft's flight, but was turned off during descent.<br />http://www.smh.com.au/world/science/solar-day-2-curiosity-starts-to-rock-20120808-23tto.html

University Structure

The current island-structure of universities is a way of wasting invaluable potentials. The existence of various disciplines in university is a golden opportunity, but people usually ignore it.

http://higher-education.criticpen.com/article/university-structure-m4z3