Nasa 'to support UK Moon mission'
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The US space agency is likely to back plans to send a UK probe to the Moon, BBC News has learned.
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European Space Agency's Smart 1 probe is set to enter into orbit around the Moon on Monday.
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida  - The United States   begins its next step in human space flight with the   announcement by NASA on Thursday of a contractor to design and   build spaceships to fly to the moon.
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The space agency says it has added new lunar imagery to Google's Moon Web site.
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The United States  begins its next step in human space flight with the  announcement by NASA on Thursday of a contractor to design and  build spaceships to fly to the moon.
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(InfoWorld) - Google will pay up to $30 million in prize money to anyone able to land a privately funded spacecraft on the moon, because "it's cool," the company said on its blog. "More seriously, space exploration has a remarkable history of producing technological breakthroughs," wrote Alan Eustace, senior vice president of engineering, on Google's blog. He cited ablative heat shields, asteroid mining, invisible braces, and the Tang orange drink as past achievements, and said the prize money could lead to further developments in robotics, new space-age materials, precision landing control technology, "and who knows what else." Teams from around the world will vie for the Google Lunar X-Prize by building lunar missions complete with robotic rovers capable of roaming the surface of the moon for at least 500 meters and sending video, images and other data back to Earth, according to a statement from the X Prize Foundation. The X Prize Foundation is best known for another space competition, the $10 million Ansari X Prize for private suborbital spaceflight, won by SpaceShipOne three years ago. Google teamed up with the foundation on the lunar project. A grand prize of $20 million will go to the first team to land a privately funded spacecraft to the Moon and complete several tasks. Bonuses of up to $5 million can be earned from roaming an additional 5,000 meters on the surface of the Moon, finding and photographing man made artifacts left on the lunar surface, such as hardware from one of the Apollo missions, discovering water ice, and surviving a lunar night, a frigid affair lasting 14.5 Earth days, the foundation said. The remaining $5 million will be paid to the second place finisher in the competition. Images from the lunar landing will be available online at the Google Lunar X Prize Web site. There is a time limit to the competition. The value of the grand prize will drop to $15 million after Dec. 31, 2012, and on Dec. 31, 2014 the contest will end unless extended by Google and the X Prize Foundation.
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Science & environment: Nasa has given preliminary approval for a successor to the British-based Beagle 2 space mission.
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A new report released by an American Physical Society (APS) Special Committee on NASA Funding for Astrophysics has questioned the space agency's Moon, Mars and Beyond initiative. The APS assessment warns that t  he cost of overcoming technological challenges to make real the plan could far exceed budgetary projections and that numerous&nbsp;approved science programs could be jeopardized.
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Â· Beijing to put astronaut on moon by 2020 Â· Military implications of mission concern US
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American space agency NASA announced plans to put a permanent space station on the moon as part of an eventual mission to Mars. Not to be outdone, China and India have announced 'lunar intentions'.
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NASA's next moon rocket is still on the drawing
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A dishwasher-sized spacecraft on Europe's first mission to the moon was set to enter lunar orbit, a key milestone in its 13-month trip into space, the European Space Agency said.
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China and 15 other countries joined NASA officials this week to consider how they might cooperate with US plans for human exploration of the moon and Mars.
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ORLANDO, Florida -- Replanting boot prints on the Moon. Hurling expeditionary crews to distant and dusty Mars and other destinations. Executing a 21st century outreach campaign to faraway worlds demands a safe, sustainable, and affordable transport vehicle system.
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Scientific missions to the moon   should concentrate on sampling its thin atmosphere and on   examining as much of the lunar surface as possible, the   National Research Council advised on Tuesday.
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A group of scientists and engineers propose a plan for the UK to join the International Space Station.
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Lunarcy NASA has outlined its plans for a moon base. The space agency says it will start work on the project after it has started flying astronauts to our largest satellite again in 2020.â¦