Missile practice for Moon mission

Missile practice for Moon mission
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Penetrator missiles were fired into a wall of sand at 1,100km/h (700mph)
Tests on a UK-led technology at the heart of a planned Moon mission have been a spectacular success, according to the experts involved in the project.
Three penetrator missiles were fired into a sand bunker in Wales, designed to mimic the lunar surface.
Professor Alan Smith, of the Mullard Space Science Laboratory, told BBC News the results had exceeded expectations.
He is a leading figure in the Moonlite mission, which hopes to fire instruments into the Moon in 2013.
A BBC team witnessed the final day of the tests at the Ministry of Defence (MoD) test site at Pendine, near Tenby.
The site has been open since 1940 but is now operated by Qinetiq, the privatised MoD spin-off company which developed the penetrator technology.
Three projectiles were tested on three consecutive days at the end of May.
They look like missiles but, rather than exploding on impact, they are designed to stay intact to protect the scientific instruments inside.

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An animation of the penetrator missile hitting the lunar surface
The Moonlite mission plans to fire four penetrators into the lunar surface from an orbiting spacecraft. They will come to rest three metres (10ft) underground.
The onboard instruments will send back a mass of information, everything from seismic activity and mineral composition to the underground temperature.
Sand blasted
Security at Pendine was tight - we had to show passports to gain entry. The high-speed test track is set in a large area of sand dunes paradoxically full of birds and flowers.

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Professor Alan Smith explains how the penetrator missiles are tested
It's a hard hat site; during the firing itself, all staff must take cover. We were actually confined to the control centre.
Earlier, we saw scientists loading instruments into the third and final penetrator to be tested.
The purpose of the test firings was to check how well the penetrators would withstand being slammed into several tonnes of sand at 1,100km/h (700mph) and whether the instruments inside would survive.
The difference between the penetrators that had already been fired and the one that had yet to be tested was striking.
The blue paint on the fired ones was scraped off and the steel nose cones were distorted.
But despite their battered appearance, Peter Truss of Qinetiq confirmed that they had done their job and protected the instruments inside: "our confidence is growing with every test".
Qinetiq not only contributed to the missile derived design of the penetrators themselves, but to the batteries and communication systems they will carry.
Ultimately, the plan will be to apply this technology to other rocky planets and moons in the Solar System, particularly to Jupiter's icy moon Europa, which may have an ocean below its frozen surface.
Other candidates include Saturn's moons Titan and Enceladus.
Deep space
Until now, missions have only been able to scrape the surface of other planets.
"We're developing the technologies now to enable a much more in-depth analysis of these planetary bodies and with the increase in technology that we can apply to these problems, all sorts of possibilities open up," explained Peter Truss.

The other advantage of penetrators is that it's easier to fire into a rocky planet than to land gently on the surface.
Loading and safety checks complete, the penetrator was driven out to the test track. This stretches 1,500m through the sand dunes but the penetrator and its rockets were strapped to a firing sled 300m from the target.
We retired to the control room and looked on as scientists waited anxiously for the final countdown. When it came, the firing shattered the quiet with a reverberating bang. There were cheers from the scientists at the completion of the last test.
Then it was time to break cover and head down to the sand bunker with a metal detector and some shovels to locate the penetrator and dig it out. Researchers measured how far it had pushed into the sand and collected samples.
In each test, the penetrators described a curved trajectory upwards through the sand, ending up only slightly below the surface.
Intruigingly, they also turned the sand they touched black, possibly as a result of its high coal content reacting to the heat.

Now chimpanzees hit by Facebook bug
Oregon, June 07: After humans, the bug of social networking online has hit chimpanzees, it appears. Albert, a 20-year-old chimp, is the first of his kind to join the popular website 'Facebook' and his friends Jones, Sheena and Britney have followed the suit to provide a 'wild' company to the 40-million-odd human users. Scientists from the University of Northern Oregon have spent the last two years training Albert and his comrades, who all belong to 'Pan troglodytes species' to acquire language skills necessary for their online s
Big hearts 'have genetic problem'

The exact role genes play in irregular heart growth is largely unknown
Scientists claim to have found a new genetic basis for why some people develop an enlarged heart, a condition which can result in a heart attack.
Irregular heart growth can be brought on by strenuous exercise, high blood pressure and obesity, but the role played by genes is largely unknown.
Now an international team say they have for the first time linked enlarged hearts with a gene, osteoglycin (Ogn).
Writing in Nature Genetics, they say the findings could mean new treatments.
Work carried out on rodents and some 30 humans indicated that Ogn - which has never before been linked with heart function - regulated the growth of the heart's main pumping chamber, its left ventricle.
When this gene behaves abnormally the heart can become enlarged, putting the person at an increased risk of common heart diseases and heart attacks.
Enlarged hearts are found often, but not exclusively, in those who are obese, have diabetes or high blood pressure. People with none of these underlying problems can be affected, as can elite athletes.
A post-mortem diagnosed the problem in Cameroon football midfielder Marc-Vivien Foe, who died in 2003 after collapsing during an international match in France.
Controlling factors
The team, which included researchers from the Medical Research Council's Clinical Sciences Centre and the National Heart and Lung Institute at Imperial College, London, noted that at present lowering blood pressure was the only treatment option available.
This could lead to new and more effective ways of treating people
Dr Stuart CookReport author
"But, now that we are unravelling how genes control heart growth, we can gain a better understanding of common forms of heart disease," said Dr Stuart Cook, one of the study authors.
"This could lead to new and more effective ways of treating people."
It is not the first time that genetics have been linked to enlarged hearts: work carried out at University College, London has suggested that genes involved in metabolism may also be linked to the condition.
The British Heart Foundation, which part-funded the research, said it was vital to understand the processes which led to such abnormal growth.
"When a person's heart is continually struggling to meet demand - for example following damage by a heart attack - it may enlarge, lose its elasticity and not pump efficiently," said associate medical director Professor Jeremy Pearson.
"These researchers have used highly advanced technology to discover a new gene - osteoglycin - that is important in controlling heart growth in these conditions. Osteoglycin is now a potential target to aim for with future therapies."
ocial networking. With the help of specially-designed software that recognises sign language (ASL) and a chimp-proof adapted touch screen, the scientists recently announced that the four apes could communicate using over 1000 symbols, adapted to the most popular features of the online social network. They can also chat online with their best friends from around the world, write text messages and even upload their favourite profile pictures. 'Alberts gang', as they are called, have become very popular among Facebook's users. Although sociologists and anthropologists have used social networks as empirical research tools, Facebook will now provide a new platform for biologists to observe the chimpanzees' social skills, claims Chief Researcher Dr John F Marlowe.
Speaking later, back at the Mullard Space Science Laboratory, Professor Smith said Nasa and the European Space Agency were showing interest.
"The results have been spectacular and the space agencies are sitting up and taking notice," he said.
"Before now it had all been on paper. Now we have real hardware to show them."