Telstra has revealed the addition of almost one million new mobile services in the six months to December 2011, but Sensis revenues plummeted 24 percent in 12 months.
The YES2 experiment is intended to show how a payload can be returned from orbit without using a rocket engine.
YES2, created by a team of nearly 500 university students, has just been sent to Russia where will be attached to the outside of the Russian Foton M3 capsule scheduled for launch from Baikonur in September.
Just before the Foton begins its return to Earth from its 300km orbit, YES2's Fotino return capsule will be lowered on a 30km thick tether, forming a pendulum. The tether is so long that despite being just 0.5mm thick, it is expected to be visible in the night sky from South America and eastern Russia.
At a carefully calculated moment, the 6kg capsule will be released from the tether and descend to Earth, protected by a heat shield during re-entry and slowed by parachutes.
The intended landing area is a remote location in Russia, so there is little chance of the return capsule landing on anyone or anything fragile. If successful, larger versions may be constructed.
ESA project manager Roger Walker said "YES2 represents a whole collection of university dissertations and theses. Students have gained valuable hands-on experience that will certainly be put to good use immediately if they should continue in the space industry or come to work for ESA."
David Bass
| For the fourth year in a row, IDC has placed content security provider Websense (NASDAQ: WBSN) at the top of the IDC Worldwide Web Security 2011 –…
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