Korea celebrates space rocket success

Korea plans to develop a three-stage indigenous space rocket, the KSLV-2, by 2020. Before that, it aims to develop a 75-ton thrust engine by 2018. Kim Seung-jo, president of the Korea Aerospace Research Institute, said earlier that the country should look to a private space firm called SpaceX for its future space model. The California-based firm’s two-stage rocket uses the Merlin engine, which provides a 66-ton thrust using liquid oxygen and kerosene. The first stage has nine Merlin engines clus

Nation hopes to have self-developed thrust engine by 2018

NEW YORK (AP) ― It sounds, at first, like a bold, next-generation solution: personalizing guns with technology that keeps them from firing if they ever get into the wrong hands.But when the White House called for pushing ahead with such new technology as part of President Obama’s plan to cut gun violence, the administration did not mention the concept’s embattled past. As with so much else in the nation’s long-running divisions over gun rights and regulation, what sounds like a futuristic vision

The successful drilling of subglacial Lake Whillans suggests that microorganisms may have been living under the Antarctic ice sheet for thousands of years, U.S. broadcaster NBC News reported. Funded by U.S. National Science Foundation’s Office of Polar Programs, members of the Whillans Ice Stream Subglacial Access Research Drilling project drilled into the 800-meter-deep lake, retrieved water and sediment samples and analyzed them. The analysis of experiments showed that microorganisms may exist

U.S. scientists say bacteria and fungi found floating a surprising 30,000 feet above the Earth‘s surface have the potential to affect the globe’s weather.Scientists have long studied airborne bacteria, but they typically do so from the ground, so not much has been known about the number and diversity of floating microbes, researcher Athanasios Nenes, an atmospheric scientist at Georgia Tech, said.To find out more, Nenes and his colleagues hitched rides on a NASA research aircraft doing atmospher

U.S. researchers say hops, which help preserve beer and give it its distinctive flavor, may yield new drugs to treat diabetes, some cancers and other maladies.University of Washington researchers used a process called X-ray crystallography to analyze the precise configuration of humulones, substances derived from hops that give beer its flavor.Previous research has suggested beer and its bittering acids, in moderation, can have beneficial effects on diabetes, some forms of cancer, inflammation a

South Korea's space rocket blasted off Wednesday from the Naro Space Center on the country's southern coast.The Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1 (KSLV-1), also known as Naro, lifted off at 4 p.m. No apparent problems have been observed since its takeoff from the launch site, located 480 kilometers south of Seoul.The 170-ton thrust space rocket is designed to reach its target orbit in 9 minutes following its takeoff. Whether the launch was successful will initially be determined approximately 140 min

U.S. college students who get their education paid for by parents may not study as hard, but they have better odds of graduating, a researcher says.Laura T. Hamilton, a sociology professor at the University of California, Merced, found students‘ GPAs decreased with increased financial support from their parents.However, the study also found students with financial aid from their parents were more likely to complete college and earn a degree.“Students with parental support are best described as s

The Korea Space Launch Vehicle, the Korean-made space rocket also called Naro-1, began final preparations on Monday for its Wednesday launch. The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology announced Monday that Naro-1 had been moved to the launch pad at the Naro Space Center in Goheung, South Jeolla Province.The Naro-1 is scheduled to blast off from the Naro Space Center on Wednesday at around 4 p.m. A final rehearsal for the launch will take place Tuesday, and the preparation committee will

Cellphones are full of germs but users can damage phones‘ finishes with some commonly used cleaning products, U.S. researchers say.“Cellphones are 10 times as dirty as a toilet seat,” Chuck Gerba, a professor of microbiology at the University of Arizona, told ABC News.Cellphone users often carry their phones or smartphones all day -- from cars, public transit, offices, restaurants, stores, gyms, public bathrooms, home and often their beds.Most mobile phone manufacturers do not recommend using an

Not having a permanent partner or spouse during midlife is linked to a higher risk of premature death during that part of one‘s life, U.S. researchers say.Dr. Ilene Siegler and colleagues at Duke University Medical Center analyzed data for 4,802 people who took part in the University of North Carolina Alumni Heart Study -- an ongoing study of individuals born in the 1940s.The study authors were particularly interested in stability and change in patterns of marital and non-marital status during m

NASA says its Mars Curiosity rover has taken its first nighttime photos of the Red Planet's surface, using both white and ultraviolet lights of its instruments.Scientists used the rover's Mars Hand Lens Imager instrument for a close-up nighttime look at a rock target called "Sayunei," in an area where Curiosity's front left wheel had scuffed the rock to provide fresh, dust-free materials to examine, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., reported Thursday.The Curiosity science tea