November, 2011 archive
PM defies calls for rollback of FDI in retail sector (Reuters) 0
NEW DELHI (Reuters) ? Fighting-off demands for a U-turn on allowing foreign investment in supermarkets, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Tuesday that the policy would bring jobs and technology to farmers.
“I am confident that foreign direct investment in retail will help to bring modern technology in the farm sector, less wastage and more jobs,” he said at a rally.
Opposition parties and Singh’s own political allies are demanding a rollback of the reform allowing foreign supermarket giants to enter the country’s $450 billion retail market.
Parliament is in deadlock over the issue, clouding the outlook for an ambitious agenda of legislation, including an anti-corruption bill and another on food subsidies for the poor.
(Reporting By Manoj Kumar; Writing by Frank Jack Daniel)
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Iran’s parliament orders ties with Britain reduced (AP) 0
TEHRAN, Iran ? Iran’s parliament on Sunday approved a bill requiring both Iran and Britain to withdraw their respective ambassadors from each other’s countries, following London’s support of recently upgraded U.S. sanctions on Tehran.
Tehran’s relations with Britain have become increasingly strained over the past few months, largely driven by increasing tensions over Tehran’s disputed nuclear program. The West says Iran is developing weapons; Tehran denies the claims.
During an open session broadcast live by state radio, 171 out of 196 lawmakers present voted for the bill requiring Iran to reduce its relationship with Britain to the level of charge d’affaires within two weeks. Ismail Kowsari, a lawmaker and one of the sponsors of the bill, told the official IRNA news agency that the bill would lead to the removal of ambassadors.
Britain’s Foreign Office on Sunday said the decision to order the country’s ambassador, Dominick John Chilcott, to leave Tehran was regrettable.
“This unwarranted move will do nothing to help the regime address their growing isolation, or international concerns about their nuclear program and human rights record,” the ministry said in a statement. “If the Iranian government acts on this, we will respond robustly in consultation with our international partners.”
The bill needs ratification by a constitutional watchdog to be a law. It also requires reduction of the volume of trade to a “minimum” level. It allows Iran’s foreign ministry to restore ambassador-level relations if the “hostile policy” of Britain changes.
Parliament’s decision is seen as a reaction to London’s support of a new U.S. package of sanctions in Iran. The measures were coordinated with Britain and Canada and build on previous sanctions to target Iran’s oil and petrochemical industries and companies involved in nuclear procurement or enrichment activity.
The annual volume of trade between Iran and Britain is about $500 million.
Iranian oil exports are a large component of this trade. In the first six month of 2011, Iran sold some 11,000 barrels of crude to Britain per day, some 0.5 percent of Iran’s daily production.
British Midland International airline carries some 80, 000 between Tehran and London per year in its daily flight. Some 100.000 Iranians live in Britain.
The tension between the two countries is not limited to the nuclear dispute.
Earlier in October, the mayor of Tehran ordered a lawsuit to be filed contesting the ownership of the land on which Britain’s embassy has stood since the 19th century.
In September, Iran detained and summoned a group of people for their alleged links to BBC’s Farsi-language service.
Since the turmoil which followed Iran’s 2009 elections, Tehran has repeatedly accused Britain of fomenting unrest. London denies the charge.
___
Associated Press writer David Stringer contributed to this report from London.
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Carolina fires Maurice as coach, hires Kirk Muller 0
FILE – In this Nov. 20, 2011 file photo, Carolina Hurricanes head coach Paul Maurice gestures during the first period of an NHL hockey game in Raleigh, N.C. The last-place Hurricanes have fired coach Maurice _ the second time he’s been dismissed by the club. The team announced the firing in a statement Monday, Nov. 28, 2011, and said it would announce a new coach later in the day. (AP Photo/Karl B DeBlaker)
FILE – In this Nov. 20, 2011 file photo, Carolina Hurricanes head coach Paul Maurice gestures during the first period of an NHL hockey game in Raleigh, N.C. The last-place Hurricanes have fired coach Maurice _ the second time he’s been dismissed by the club. The team announced the firing in a statement Monday, Nov. 28, 2011, and said it would announce a new coach later in the day. (AP Photo/Karl B DeBlaker)
FILE – In this Nov. 19, 2010 file photo, Carolina Hurricanes coach Paul Maurice makes his point to referee Greg Kimmerly, right, about a third-period goal by the Pittsburgh Penguins during an NHL hockey game in Pittsburgh. The last-place Hurricanes have fired coach Maurice _ the second time he’s been dismissed by the club. The team announced the firing in a statement Monday, Nov. 28, 2011, and said it would announce a new coach later in the day. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)
FILE – In this Jan. 22, 2011 file photo, Carolina Hurricanes head coach Paul Maurice yells instructions from behind the bench during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Pittsburgh Penguins in Pittsburgh. The last-place Hurricanes have fired coach Maurice _ the second time he’s been dismissed by the club. The team announced the firing in a statement Monday, Nov. 28, 2011, and said it would announce a new coach later in the day. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar, File)
Carolina Hurricanes head coach Paul Maurice watches from behind the bench during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Buffalo Sabres in Raleigh, N.C., Friday, Nov. 18, 2011. Sabres won 1-0. (AP Photo/Karl B DeBlaker)
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) ? The last-place Carolina Hurricanes fired coach Paul Maurice for the second time in less than a decade Monday and replaced him with former All-Star Kirk Muller.
Muller begins his first NHL head coaching job with a slumping team that has made one playoff appearance since 2006 and has lost 10 of 13 games.
He was in his first season coaching the Nashville Predators’ AHL affiliate in Milwaukee after spending five seasons on the Montreal Canadiens’ staff. He played 19 seasons in the NHL, made six All-Star teams and led the Canadiens to their most recent Stanley Cup in 1993.
“It’s very simple: you’ve got to get guys to believe in the system,” Muller said. “You’ve got to get them to believe in being accountable for each other. And if you can come every night and you create that culture, and you give them something, a way to believe in how they play and why you’re going to win that night, I think that’s what players want.”
Carolina dropped to 8-13-4 following Sunday night’s 4-3 loss at Ottawa, its third in a row. The Hurricanes are 14th in the Eastern Conference ? but only five points out of the No. 8 spot ? and play Southeast Division leader Florida on Tuesday night to begin a three-game homestand.
“You certainly don’t give up on the season at this point in time, and as bad as we’ve been over the last five weeks or six weeks, we’re really not far out of being in the thick of things,” general manager Jim Rutherford said. “A new coach can’t come in and just put his new system in in a morning skate and all of a sudden make things better.
“We may win tomorrow night, we may not, but really what I want to see is on a consistent basis, we have that work ethic,” he added. “And when we get to that consistent basis, the wins will come and they will come in streaks.”
Rutherford said he began considering changing coaches roughly a month ago during the team’s slow start and reached his decision following the Hurricanes’ listless 4-0 loss at Montreal on Nov. 16.
Rutherford said he and Muller ? whom he said was the top name on his short list ? had been in contact for little over a week, and he discussed the job with Jeff Daniels, coach of the Hurricanes’ AHL team in Charlotte but ultimately preferred to go outside the organization.
Maurice became the second coach in his division to lose his job Monday. His firing was announced about 90 minutes after the Washington Capitals fired Bruce Boudreau and replaced him with Dale Hunter. That means every team in the division except Tampa Bay ? which hired Guy Boucher in 2010 ? has changed coaches since last spring.
Maurice’s assistants ? Rod Brind’Amour, Dave Lewis and Tom Barrasso ? were retained and will work for the 45-year-old Muller, a star center picked behind Mario Lemieux in the 1984 NHL draft who went on to score 30 or more goals five times and post seven 70-point seasons.
He has been asked to revive a Carolina team that ranks 28th in the league in goals allowed, giving up an average of 3.24, and has one of the worst power-play units in the NHL, scoring on just 12.2 percent of its chances with the man advantage.
“I’m just honest, straightforward,” Muller said. “I believe in accountability. I believe that it’s a tough league, you’ve got to work hard, and if everyone’s accountable to each other, everyone buys into a system, it’s amazing what you can accomplish.”
There may be more changes ahead for the Hurricanes. Rutherford wants to add a top-six or top-nine forward and could try to deal a defenseman.
“We’re a long ways away from being the team we need to be,” Rutherford said.
Maurice, who helped shepherd the club’s move from Hartford to North Carolina in the late 1990s, returned to the Hurricanes in December 2008 when Peter Laviolette was fired. He guided their run to the 2009 Eastern Conference final, the club’s only postseason berth since they won the Cup in 2006.
Before that, they hadn’t reached the playoffs since Maurice led them to the 2002 Stanley Cup final ? the highlight of his first stint with the team. He was first fired by Carolina in 2003-04 following an 8-14-8-2 start.
Maurice received a three-year contract in 2009 that ran through this season. His combined record with the team was 384-391-145, and his career record of 460-457-167 includes two years with Toronto sandwiched by his stints with Carolina.
Maurice did not immediately return a text message left Monday by The Associated Press seeking comment.
Maurice holds the Hurricanes’ career coaching record with 25 playoff victories. The 2009-10 team set a club record with a 14-game winless streak, last season’s group finished one victory shy of making the postseason when it lost the finale on home ice and this season’s team has shown virtually no consistency.
“When you put a group of guys together at the start of each season, you watch to see the team come together and to jell,” Rutherford said.
“Some teams do, and some teams don’t. And at this point in time, this team hasn’t ? for whatever reason. … From a team-concept point of view, even in years we haven’t made the playoffs … we’ve been very fortunate with real character guys that wanted to win at all costs. And at this point in time, this group of guys don’t. Haven’t.
“So that’s what we’ll see here. Can Kirk pull these guys together and get them to step their game up? And if he can, that’s good for this group.”
Associated Press
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Canon EOS 1000D washes ashore in BC, Canada, SD card reveals it was lost at sea for over a year (update) 0
Update: The original Google+ post was updated within the last hour, noting that the owner of the camera has indeed been identified!
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Analysis: Sprint network upgrade may curb unlimited data (Reuters) 0
NEW YORK (Reuters) ? Sprint Nextel may be forced to abandon the biggest advantage it has over its rivals — unlimited data services for a flat fee — because of heavy data users and a shortage of wireless airwaves.
Moreover, the increasing likelihood that AT&T’s plan to buy T-Mobile USA, the nation’s fourth-largest mobile operator, will fail may have the paradoxical result of making Sprint’s position even more untenable, according to analysts who follow all three companies.
Sprint, the nation’s third-largest mobile service provider, is planning to upgrade its network with the latest mobile standard, Long Term Evolution. But it is launching that service with only half the wireless airwaves bigger rivals Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc have assigned, leading experts to suggest that the popularity of Sprint’s unlimited data plan could put a strain on the network or slow down Web surfing speeds.
Sprint has assigned just 10 megahertz of spectrum for the launch compared with its rivals’ 20 megahertz, analysts say. It will have to reassign airwaves being used for other services in order to expand its capacity for LTE.
Unlike AT&T and Verizon, which cap data use to stem overcapacity issues brought on by heavy users, Sprint is the only big U.S. carrier still selling unlimited data for a flat fee to users of smartphones, including the Apple Inc iPhone, on its current network.
“It’s a very bare-bones implementation of LTE,” said Tolaga Research analyst Phil Marshall. “The risk is, if you don’t have headroom as your LTE subscriber base grows, then the speeds will go down.”
In that situation, Marshall does not see Sprint being able to continue to offer unlimited services.
“Unlimited is going to kill them,” he said. “I think they’re going to have to back off from the all-you-can-eat plan.”
Unlimited data is a strong selling point for Sprint, which has been struggling for years to retain customers. For Sprint to keep the marketing advantage it has over rivals, one option could be for it to institute usage caps that are considerably higher than those of its competitors.
“That’s a lever they can play if they run into being constrained,” said an industry source who asked not to be named due to a lack of authorization to speak publicly. “It’s inevitable that they will eventually have to put caps (on their data use).”
SPRINT: NO HEADACHE
Sprint, which is spending $7 billion to upgrade its network to LTE by the end of 2013, says concerns about its capacity are overblown, arguing that advanced technology allows it to make the most of its spectrum resources. Bob Azzi, a Sprint executive in charge of the company’s network, said the company’s plans assume that it will keep its unlimited data service during the LTE rollout.
“I don’t consider it a headache,” he told Reuters, “We have a good understanding of the nature of those plans and what they do.”
Azzi added that the section of the 1,900 megahertz spectrum band Sprint has set aside for LTE is currently unused. He also plans to reallocate spectrum in its 800 megahertz band to use for the high-speed service by early 2014, provided it can secure regulatory approval to do so. That spectrum is currently being used by the aging iDen service Sprint hopes to shut down in mid-2013.
Sprint is also in talks with Clearwire Corp, its majority-owned venture, about expanding their partnership to cover LTE. Sprint currently depends on Clearwire’s network for its fastest service based on WiMax technology, and the latest talks are aimed at allowing it to piggyback on Clearwire’s LTE to help it boost capacity in the “hottest of hotspots” by 2014 when Azzi says Sprint will need more capacity.
But the future of Sprint’s tempestuous relationship with Clearwire is murky since it is not yet certain if Clearwire will raise the roughly $1 billion in new funding it needs to upgrade its network to LTE.
Clearwire lost one-third of its value after Sprint said on October 7 that a bankruptcy filing by the company could be “constructive.” Clearwire shareholders again fled on November 18 after the company said it may skip a debt interest payment due December 1. Many analysts saw that pronouncement as a negotiating tactic to try to force Sprint’s hand into an agreement with favorable terms for Clearwire.
SOAP OPERA
One investment manager described the Clearwire/Sprint relationship as a “soap opera” that will end with an agreement because they are both heavily dependent on each other.
“In the short term Sprint doesn’t need them beyond (WiMax) but they do need them later,” said the manager, who asked not to be named.
Even if Sprint and Clearwire reach an agreement, however, Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett is skeptical about how much it would help because of the frequency Clearwire’s spectrum is on, which he said causes signal problems within buildings.
“Now that the person next to you at the conference table is surfing away on Verizon … the shortcomings of Clearwire become painfully apparent,” Moffett said.
Moffett also noted that even if Clearwire upgrades its network, it will still have coverage for only about one-third of the U.S. population because it would need to raise a lot more funding than it is currently seeking to extend its network into new markets.
Since Sprint has already had to tap capital markets for $4 billion in debt and needs up to $3 billion more in funding for its own network upgrade, analysts are skeptical it can come up with the money to help Clearwire expand further.
“What are you going to do with the (rest) of the United States? You can’t just limp around on one leg,” said Moffett, who has a “hold” rating on Sprint due to the uncertainty around its strategy.
The uncertainty around AT&T’s deal for T-Mobile USA is another big wrinkle in the Sprint story. On Thursday, AT&T withdrew its application for deal approval with the Federal Communications Commission, saying that it would focus on its legal battle with the Department of Justice. If that deal is approved, it leaves Sprint as a distant No. 4. But if it is blocked, as many analysts now expect, T-Mobile USA may look for another partner, according to the investment manager.
Instead of forging a deal with Clearwire or Sprint, Moffett suggested that T-Mobile USA would instead turn to U.S. cable operators such as Comcast Corp and Time Warner Cable. Some investors had hoped these companies would come to Sprint’s aid as they are part-owners in Clearwire. But since the cable operators have unused spectrum in the same band as T-Mobile USA, Moffett suggested that the cable providers would instead create a partnership with that company if it has to abandon the AT&T deal.
Sprint has loudly opposed the AT&T/T-Mobile USA deal, a position that Moffett said was against its best interests.
“Now Sprint loses its logical partners in the cable operators,” said Moffett, who described a potential cable/T-Mobile deal as a “match made in heaven.”
Moreover, some analysts said that the $6 billion breakup package AT&T will have to pay T-Mobile if the deal fails would make T-Mobile into a more formidable rival to Sprint in the market for cost-conscious mobile consumers.
The uncertainty means that Sprint does not “know exactly how desperate they are at any given point in time,” the investment manager said, noting that Sprint’s $2.38 share price speaks volumes about investor confidence in the operator’s strategy.
“It shows there’s not a whole lot of faith out there that they’ll be able to successfully execute on these things,” this person said.
(Reporting by Sinead Carew; editing by Peter Lauria and Matthew Lewis)
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Heart patients prefer longevity over quality of life (Reuters) 0
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) ? When an elderly person’s chronic disease is impossible to cure, many doctors might assume that patient would chose to improve the quality of his or her remaining life rather than to extend it as is. Those doctors would be mistaken most of the time, according to a new study.
Swiss researchers who surveyed more than 500 elderly heart failure patients found three quarters wouldn’t trade a longer life with symptoms for a shorter life without them, and the severity of symptoms was not a good predictor of who would pick a measure of relief over more time.
“I was quite surprised by the results,” said lead author Dr. Hans-Peter Brunner-La Rocca, of University Hospital Basel in Switzerland.
“Often we think we know what is best for a patient, but this is often wrong,” he told Reuters Health in an email.
“When patients get to an age where the chance of dying in the near future becomes more evident, pure survival may be more important,” said Brunner-La Rocca, who is also affiliated with the Cardiovascular Research Institute at Maastricht University Medical Center in the Netherlands.
Heart failure is a chronic and incurable condition, in which the heart is too weak to pump enough blood to meet the body’s needs. It affects around six million people in the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Symptoms include shortness of breath, fatigue, weakness and swelling in the legs and feet, reducing a person’s ability to walk or exercise. Heart disease, high blood pressure or diabetes can weaken the heart muscle over time, which can lead to heart failure.
The researchers surveyed 555 heart failure patients, most in their seventies and eighties, asking a series of questions about end-of-life preferences. Then they repeated the survey after 12 months, and again after another six months.
At the start of the study, 74 percent of the respondents said they would not choose to live one more year in excellent health over living two more years in their current state. After a year had elapsed, 80 percent were unwilling to trade more time for symptom relief.
At 18 months, few had changed their minds. When asked about whether they wanted CPR in a crisis, about a third said they didn’t want to be resuscitated.
Even among people with “do not resuscitate” orders in their medical files, about a third said they in fact did want CPR. Dr. Eugene Storozynsky, who studies cardiology at the University of Rochester Medical Center, noted that the study participants represented a broad range of people with heart failure — from those with a just a few symptoms to those with many more severe problems.
Those with milder disease might not consider it bad enough to trade-off their remaining time.
“For these patients, it seems oral medications are still adequate enough to relieve their symptoms so they don’t need to be frequently hospitalized,” said Storozynsky, who was not part of the study.
Patients with end-stage heart failure require multiple hospitalizations in a short period of time due to their symptoms, he pointed out.
“Life expectancy may be six months or less without advanced therapies,” he told Reuters Health.
“Patients in this study were less bothered by their symptoms, so I would define them as less sick than those with end-stage heart failure.”
Participants in the study who were willing to trade more time for symptom relief were older, often female and had more heart failure symptoms, suggesting people may change how they manage their disease over time.
“We couldn’t find particular patterns to predict what individuals would want,” Brunner-La Rocca told Reuters Health.
“So it’s crucial to individually discuss these issues with the patient.” Storozynsky also thinks doctors should be upfront with patients.
“We should discuss all stages of heart failure to make them aware that at its end stage, their life will likely shorten,” he said.
“Not to scare them, but inform them and tailor our treatment to their wishes.”
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/w41t5q
European Heart Journal, online November 18, 2011.
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NBC apologizes to Bachmann for Fallon song choice (AP) 0
ST. PAUL, Minn. ? GOP Presidential candidate Michele Bachmann received an apology from an NBC executive after an off-color song was played during her appearance on Jimmy Fallon’s “Late Night,” her spokeswoman said late Wednesday.
The Minnesota congresswoman received a personal letter from NBC’s vice president for late night programming, Doug Vaughan, a day after she appeared on the show. As Bachmann walked onstage, the show’s band had played a snippet of a 1985 Fishbone song entitled “Lyin’ Ass B—-.”
Vaughan wrote that the incident was “not only unfortunate but also unacceptable,” Bachmann spokeswoman Alice Stewart told The Associated Press. She said Vaughn offered his sincerest apologies and said the band had been “severely reprimanded.”
Fallon also apologized to Bachmann when they spoke earlier Wednesday, she said. He’d tweeted earlier, saying he was “so sorry about the intro mess.”
“He was extremely nice and friendly and offered his apology, and she accepted it,” Stewart said, adding that the comedian said he was unaware the band planned to play the song. “It’s just unfortunate that someone had to do something so disrespectful.”
Bachmann lashed out earlier Wednesday at NBC for not apologizing or taking immediate disciplinary action. In her first comments on the flap, Bachmann said on the Fox News Channel that the Fallon show band displayed sexism and bias by playing the song.
“This is clearly a form of bias on the part of the Hollywood entertainment elite,” Bachmann said. She added, “This wouldn’t be tolerated if this was Michelle Obama. It shouldn’t be tolerated if it’s a conservative woman either.”
She went further on a national radio conservative radio show hosted by Michael Medved, calling the incident “inappropriate, outrageous and disrespectful.”
On Fox, Bachmann expressed surprise that she’s heard nothing from the TV network. She suggested that discipline for the show’s band, The Roots, was in order. She said she believed Fallon’s comments to be sincere.
One of Bachmann’s congressional colleagues, New York Democrat Nita Lowey, had called on NBC to apologize for its “insulting and inappropriate” treatment of its guest.
An NBC spokeswoman didn’t return a phone message from The Associated Press.
The Roots’ bandleader, Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, has said the song was a “tongue-in-cheek and spur-of-the-moment decision.”
Bachmann, who is lagging in presidential polls, has spent the week promoting her new autobiography in national television interviews.
___
AP Television Writer David Bauder in New York and Associated Press writer Erin Gartner in Chicago contributed to this report.
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Man in Australian $1M suitcase mystery charged (AP) 0
SYDNEY ? A man questioned by Australian police about an abandoned suitcase stuffed with nearly 1 million Australian dollars ($970,000) has been charged with assault and dealing in the proceeds of the crime.
New South Wales police announced the charges Friday, but they haven’t said where they think the money came from.
Workers at a Sydney eatery say the suitcase was left there Tuesday by a nervous-looking man, and they were initially worried it might contain a bomb.
In a release, police said they found the 49-year-old suspect in a dazed state later Tuesday. When he was taken to the station, police allege he assaulted three officers, causing them minor injuries. The man was then treated at a local hospital.
The man was denied bail and is due in court Friday.
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NASA flies robotic lander prototype to new heights 0
ScienceDaily (Nov. 21, 2011) ? NASA successfully completed the final flight in a series of tests of a new robotic lander prototype at the Redstone Test Center’s propulsion test facility on the U.S. Army Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Ala. Data from this test series will aid in the design and development of a new generation of small, smart, versatile robotic landers capable of performing science and exploration research on the surface of the moon or other airless bodies in the solar system, such as asteroids or the planet Mercury.
Since early October, the Robotic Lander Development Project at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville has subjected the lander prototype to a series of more complex outdoor flight tests maneuvers. The team steadily increased the lander’s flight profile, starting by hovering the lander — dubbed Mighty Eagle — at 3 feet, then 30 feet and finally a record 100-foot flight test.
During the 100-foot flight test, the lander autonomously flew for 30 seconds. The Mighty Eagle ascended to 100 feet, hovered and then demonstrated the equivalent of an autonomous landing on the lunar surface. The final maneuver simulated the required descent approach by horizontally translating 30 feet while descending and landing on target. The test demonstrated the lander’s ability to maneuver to avoid hazards before performing a safe, controlled landing.
“The successful completion of the Mighty Eagle lander prototype provides a high level of confidence in our flight system design which significantly reduces cost and schedule,” said Julie Bassler, Robotic Lander Development project manager at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville. “Our combined NASA and contractor team went from the drawing board to successfully flight testing an autonomous, closed-loop, lander prototype system in less than two years,” she said. “Mighty Eagle has performed well, demonstrating precision ascents, descents and horizontal translation flights to prove the lander can control itself and land safely.”
“Our small team has worked tirelessly to develop a robust lander system,” said Dr. Greg Chavers, lead systems engineer for the Robotic Lander Development Project at Marshall. “The prototype lander has the capability to launch, descend and land safely on its own — without a man in the loop — demonstrating the lander’s autonomous and reusable test capability. Our team has matured the lander’s guidance, navigation and control algorithms, which provided stable control of the lander, even through light wind and rain.”
Mighty Eagle is a three-legged prototype that resembles an actual flight lander design. It is 4 feet tall and 8 feet in diameter and weighs 700 pounds when fueled with 90 percent hydrogen peroxide.
The lander receives its commands from an onboard computer that activates its 16 onboard thrusters — 15 pulsed and one gravity cancelling thruster — to carry it to a controlled landing using a pre-programmed flight profile. The prototype serves as a platform to develop and test algorithms, sensors, avionics, software, landing legs, and integrated system elements to support autonomous landings on airless planetary bodies, where aero-braking and parachutes are not options.
The next test phase of the test series is set to resume in early Spring when weather is more favorable for outdoor flight test. This new test series will test enhanced navigation capabilities.
Development and integration of the lander prototype is a cooperative endeavor led by the Robotic Lunar Lander Development Project at the Marshall Center; Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory; and the Von Braun Center for Science and Innovation, which includes the Science Applications International Corporation, Dynetics Corp., Teledyne Brown Engineering Inc., and Millennium Engineering and Integration Company, all of Huntsville.
The project is partnered with the U.S. Army’s Test and Evaluation Command’s test center located at Redstone Arsenal. The Redstone Test Center is one of six centers under the U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command and has been a leading test facility for defense systems since the 1950s. Utilizing an historic test site at the arsenal, the project is leveraging the Redstone Test Center’s advanced capability for propulsion testing.
For more photos of the hardware visit: http://www.nasa.gov/roboticlander
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