February 24, 2007
Most speculation about finding life on Europa revolves around drilling through the perhaps kilometers-deep ice to sample the ocean beneath. But paleobiologist Jere H. Lipps (University of California, Berkeley) envisions a different exercise. Lipps, who has studied polar environments for twelve years in Antarctica, notes that turnover of ice on that continent often brings organisms […]
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February 23, 2007
A nice upgrade to existing satellite engine technology comes out of Georgia Tech, where researchers have developed a design that allows the engine to optimize available power, much like the transmission of a car. Thus the engine can burn at full throttle in ‘first gear,’ maximizing acceleration, while dropping into a much more economical gear […]
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