The British business tycoon Richard Branson has unveiled an aircraft in the US that will be used for his project to launch tourists into space. The high-altitude jet will act as the mothership for a spacecraft, releasing it in mid-air to take two crew and six passengers on sub-orbital flights. More than 250 people have already paid $200,000 (£100,000) each to be among the first making the tourist trips. Mr Branson predicts the maiden space voyage will take place in 18 months.
The British business tycoon Richard Branson has unveiled an aircraft in the US that will be used for his project to launch tourists into space.
The high-altitude jet will act as the mothership for a spacecraft, releasing it in mid-air to take two crew and six passengers on sub-orbital flights.
More than 250 people have already paid $200,000 (£100,000) each to be among the first making the tourist trips.
Mr Branson predicts the maiden space voyage will take place in 18 months.
18 months !!!! Not even 18 years matey. 80 is a better estimate. keep to the Fen Causeway
I'd guess getting above the stratosphere would count, but that's 50 Km up and you'd need a substantial booster rocket to lift an airliner that high, especially one that would have to have a lot of shielding and be a damn solid pressurised container.
And you don't glide back that easily either. The shuttle has proved resistant to reliable (or cheap)solutions for heat protection over large surfaces.
If you genuinely think Branson can get answers to those problems in 18 months, I have some magic ponies just here. keep to the Fen Causeway
That space vehicle will just be a modification of SSOne, which Rutan won the X-Prize with. Since SSOne has already been to the projected height and back twice, I think it's not unreasonable to say they can do it.
It's worth noting that the Shuttle's biggest problems heatwise come because you return from LEO at about Mach 25, whilst SSOne (going only to 100km or so) tops out at about Mach 3.5.
BERLIN: Germany's highest court partially overturned bans on smoking in bars Wednesday, ruling that states must either ban smoking in all restaurants and pubs or offer exceptions for single-room establishments. Smoking laws in German bars are set individually by each of the 16 states. A patchwork of legislation has taken effect across the country -- traditionally one of western Europe's more nicotine-friendly nations -- over the past year. Most states allow larger establishments to cordon off separate rooms for their smoking patrons. But the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe ruled that practice is unconstitutional, because it discriminates against smaller establishments. The court was ruling on appeals brought by owners of one-room pubs in two states, Berlin and southwestern Baden-Wuerttemberg, but the court ordered all states to review their laws.
BERLIN: Germany's highest court partially overturned bans on smoking in bars Wednesday, ruling that states must either ban smoking in all restaurants and pubs or offer exceptions for single-room establishments.
Smoking laws in German bars are set individually by each of the 16 states. A patchwork of legislation has taken effect across the country -- traditionally one of western Europe's more nicotine-friendly nations -- over the past year.
Most states allow larger establishments to cordon off separate rooms for their smoking patrons. But the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe ruled that practice is unconstitutional, because it discriminates against smaller establishments.
The court was ruling on appeals brought by owners of one-room pubs in two states, Berlin and southwestern Baden-Wuerttemberg, but the court ordered all states to review their laws.
A large chunk of an Arctic ice shelf has broken free of the northern Canadian coast, scientists say. Nearly 20 sq km (eight sq miles) of ice from the Ward Hunt shelf has split away from Ellesmere Island, according to satellite pictures. It is thought to be the biggest piece of ice shed in the region since 60 sq km of the nearby Ayles Ice Shelf broke away in 2005. Scientists say further splitting could occur during the Arctic summer melt.
A large chunk of an Arctic ice shelf has broken free of the northern Canadian coast, scientists say.
Nearly 20 sq km (eight sq miles) of ice from the Ward Hunt shelf has split away from Ellesmere Island, according to satellite pictures.
It is thought to be the biggest piece of ice shed in the region since 60 sq km of the nearby Ayles Ice Shelf broke away in 2005.
Scientists say further splitting could occur during the Arctic summer melt.
In the past century and a half there have been exactly three documented sightings of living humpback whales in German waters. Marine biologists say that makes last Friday's sighting a "sensation." Biologists Andreas Nick and Christoph Bock had travelled to the German island of Rügen in the Baltic Sea to watch birds. Yet, instead of spotting some rare animal in the sky or in a tree, they came across a far more unusual sight: a humpback whale. Bock told SPIEGEL ONLINE he recognized the animal straightaway. The biologists grabbed their cameras and started to click away, as the whale kept jumping out of the sea -- in what was eventually a two-hour show.
In the past century and a half there have been exactly three documented sightings of living humpback whales in German waters. Marine biologists say that makes last Friday's sighting a "sensation."
Biologists Andreas Nick and Christoph Bock had travelled to the German island of Rügen in the Baltic Sea to watch birds. Yet, instead of spotting some rare animal in the sky or in a tree, they came across a far more unusual sight: a humpback whale.
Bock told SPIEGEL ONLINE he recognized the animal straightaway. The biologists grabbed their cameras and started to click away, as the whale kept jumping out of the sea -- in what was eventually a two-hour show.
CLIMATE CHANGE IS CAUSED BY GLOBAL warming and is alarming many nations. Dire predictions by many experts say that sea levels will rise by as much as five feet or more by the end of the century. Extreme and unpredictable weather patterns and heavier rainfall are becoming evident. Unfortunately, many are not technically or financially capable of coping with the impending disaster--except the Dutch. The Dutch, who have been the masters in taming the ocean, are now finding ways to climate-proof their country, The Netherlands. Dealing with rising tides is nothing new to the Dutch as they have been doing it since the Roman times when they built their first drainage canals to turn swamp into agricultural land. By the 1400s the Dutch had harnessed water pumps into windmills, thus expanding larger tracts of land from the sea. Today, 60 percent of The Netherlands, which is basically built on reclaimed land that they call polders, is below sea level. The water is kept at bay by dikes, pumping stations, dams and huge storm barriers together with canal dikes, basin dikes and holding ponds. New challenge The new challenge facing the Dutch today is bigger than anything they have faced in the past, however. They now realize that simply building higher dikes is no longer possible as Europe continues to endure wetter winters and hotter summers--signs of a grave new danger.
CLIMATE CHANGE IS CAUSED BY GLOBAL warming and is alarming many nations. Dire predictions by many experts say that sea levels will rise by as much as five feet or more by the end of the century. Extreme and unpredictable weather patterns and heavier rainfall are becoming evident. Unfortunately, many are not technically or financially capable of coping with the impending disaster--except the Dutch.
The Dutch, who have been the masters in taming the ocean, are now finding ways to climate-proof their country, The Netherlands.
Dealing with rising tides is nothing new to the Dutch as they have been doing it since the Roman times when they built their first drainage canals to turn swamp into agricultural land. By the 1400s the Dutch had harnessed water pumps into windmills, thus expanding larger tracts of land from the sea.
Today, 60 percent of The Netherlands, which is basically built on reclaimed land that they call polders, is below sea level. The water is kept at bay by dikes, pumping stations, dams and huge storm barriers together with canal dikes, basin dikes and holding ponds.
New challenge
The new challenge facing the Dutch today is bigger than anything they have faced in the past, however. They now realize that simply building higher dikes is no longer possible as Europe continues to endure wetter winters and hotter summers--signs of a grave new danger.
Building massive concrete dams or barriers is not a green approach and is known to fail.
The Dutch Hoogheemraadschap (Waterboard) has investigated the potential risks for heavy storms and sea level rise years ago - there are a few spots which need improvements, but most of the water barriers have been estimated safe for the next 100 years. Note also that those improvements consist of increasing the height of the barriers (which are generally earthy or sandy).
The policy on making way for water has been ongoing and especially since the 1995 river floods, it's not exactly news. And the focus on "floating houses" is there because councils are ignorant enough to allow housing to be built in the river's storm beds which, surprise surprise, results in occasional flooding...
Misleading article but extra points for not referring to "Holland".
After a closer examination of the Antikythera Mechanism, a surviving marvel of ancient Greek technology, scientists have found that the device not only predicted solar eclipses but also organized the calendar in the four-year cycles of the Olympiad, forerunner of the modern Olympic Games. The new findings, reported Wednesday in the journal Nature, also suggested that the mechanism's concept originated in the colonies of Corinth, possibly Syracuse, in Sicily. The scientists said this implied a likely connection with the great Archimedes. Archimedes, who lived in Syracuse and died in 212 B.C., invented a planetarium calculating motions of the Moon and the known planets and wrote a lost manuscript on astronomical mechanisms. Some evidence had previously linked the complex device of gears and dials to the island of Rhodes and the astronomer Hipparchos, who had made a study of irregularities in the Moon's orbital course. The Antikythera Mechanism, sometimes called the first analog computer, was recovered more than a century ago in the wreckage of a ship that sank off the tiny island of Antikythera, north of Crete. Earlier research showed that the device was probably built between 140 and 100 B.C.
