Tag: mission

May142018 by adminNo Comments

69-year-old double amputee climbs Everest after decades-long mission

May 14 (UPI) -- A 69-year-old Chinese man reached the top of Mount Everest Monday, on his fifth try -- decades after a prior attempt forced doctors to amputate both his legs. Xia Boyu was guided by Mingma Gyalje Sherpa, a veteran mountaineer who's successfully climbed the world's 14 highest mountains, and joined by 11 others. Xia's son said his father had finally realized his "40 years dream" by reaching the top of the world's highest peak early Monday. "I love the mountain," Xia told TIME magazine before the climb, "I will fight for it my entire life." "Boyu finally won his 40-year-long battle for Mount Everest," the sherpa said Monday. Xia lost both legs below the knee when he was 25, after a failed attempt in the mid-1980s resulted in severe frostbite. In December, Nepal banned solo c...

May72018 by adminNo Comments

InSight Diary: Mars mission emerges from the mists

Science

Prof Tom Pike from Imperial College London is part of the science team on the US-led InSight mission to Mars. His group has supplied seismometers that will enable the Nasa lander to detect "Marsquakes", which should reveal the internal structure of the Red Planet. Over the course of the coming months, Prof Pike will be updating us on InSight's progress. This was surely the best way to see our mission leave Earth, standing in a field in California with 1,500 people from the InSight mission team. We should be able to get a direct view of the launch pad eight miles away. At 4 o’clock in the morning after the final go/no-go checkout was announced over the big screens, the final countdown began. The act I had been desperate to see for the last decade was about to start. But an uninvited, ...

May52018 by adminNo Comments

NASA launches mission to investigate Mars

Technology

NASA has launched a mission to Mars which, if successful, may help reveal the planet's internal secrets and suggest if it was ever habitable.The InSight mission successfully launched before dawn on Saturday in California (12.05pm UK time) on a powerful Atlas V-401 rocket, but the whole mission is far from a confirmed success.Mars is a difficult planet to investigate. Its thin atmosphere makes landing a challenge and its extreme temperature swings make it very difficult for missions to be conducted on the surface.NASA is warning onlookers that only 40% of the missions ever sent to Mars have been successful.Image:The mobile service tower is rolled back from the rocket this morning. Pic: NASAInSight, which stands for Interior Exploration Using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transpor...

May52018 by adminNo Comments

Nasa's InSight mission will target 'Marsquakes'

Science

The American space agency is set to launch its latest mission to Mars. InSight will be the first probe to focus its investigations predominantly on the interior of the Red Planet. The static lander will put seismometers on the surface - including sensors from the UK - to feel for "Marsquakes". These tremors should reveal how the underground rock is layered - data that can be compared with Earth to shed further light on the formation of the planets 4.6 billion years ago."As seismic waves travel through [Mars] they pick up information along the way; as they travel through different rocks," explained Dr Bruce Banerdt, InSight's principal investigator. "And all those wiggles you see on seismograms - scientists understand how to pull that information out. After we've gotten many, many Marsquake...

Mar302018 by adminNo Comments

U.N. ends peacekeeping mission in Liberia after 15 years

World

March 30 (UPI) -- U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres congratulated the government of Liberia for turning "the page on crisis and conflict" as the United Nations ended its mission in the west African nation Friday.U.N. peacekeepers departed Liberia after nearly 15 years in the wake of two deadly civil wars."The secretary-general congratulates the people and government of Liberia for their determination to turn the page on crisis and conflict," a statement on behalf of Guterres said. "He commends the government's continued efforts to ensure sustained peace and sustainable development in Liberia."U.N. peacekeeping troops entered the country in October 2003 at the end of the second Liberian civil war between a rebel group in the north, one in the south and the government of former Preside