New Mission In 2010 By U.S. - Two robots will be launched in 2010 to land on the moon and collect rock samples before returning to Earth. Carle Pieters of Brown University's Department of Geological Sciences who is involved in the U.S. space programmes said "The aim of the Moonrise Mission was to land at the moon's largest and oldest crater - the South Pole Aitken Basin."

The purpose will be to study how long ago the basin was formed and collect and return materials derived from the deep interior to earth for analysis. This will help us to understand the unique process of how basins are formed. Scientists in the U.S. are still identifying which landing spots in the basin will be good for the twin robots to gather samples. Each robot will collect one kilogramme of rocks and fragments.

Mysterious Booms In Richmond Area Being Heard Elsewhere - The mysterious booms which was first heard on the north side of Richmond are now being heard in other parts of the area, including Henrico and Chesterfield counties. They have also been heard and felt in Indiana and Canada according to officials.

The booms were first heard on the 2nd November in Richmond and have been heard several times a week since then. Most have been heard on the north side of town and one Sunday the authorities got 250 people ringing up to report they had heard the boom. Authorities have ruled out construction, railroads or quarries for being the cause and also public utilities, military exercises and aviation has been ruled out. Richmond officials state that advanced equipment is being brought to the City to help pinpoint the source of the booms.

Nasa To Reveal Documents On UFO In Kesburg - Nasa has agreed after persistent requests of the Sci-Fi TV. channel to reveal the documents (36 pages.) on the tragedy in Keksburg in 1965. The town which is in Pennsylvania went down in history after the residents there saw an unusual phenomenon on the 9th December,l965.

A ball of flames was seen in the evening sky and the ball was landing. After the ball landed it was quickly encircled by the military who took something out of it. The people of Kesburg became blocked in their town and strict measures of secrecy were taken. Local press increased the tension by writing that the UFO had landed, but no official comments were made.

It is too early to say what the people of Kesburg are going to hear. The ally of Sci-Fi Coalition for Freedom of Information's said that "After studying these documents it will decide what to do next." Meanwhile, the Pentagon does not intend to reveal its documents on the Keksburg case. John Podesta who is the former Head of White House employees in Bill Clinton's Administration is one of the supporters of revealing the truth on UFOs. He was a former high-ranking official.

No definite comments were made as to what it was and the local people called it the "Second Roswell."

Non-flammable Air Developed - Russian scientists have developed a new kind of air which does not burn, but can be breathed. This oxygen-argon mix is for use in spaceships and possible future bases on other planets but it is completely non-flammable. The initial tests have been successfully completed at the Moscow-based institute for Biomedical Problems, but more tests are still needed to see if the air would be suitable for long term use in colonies on other planets, even the Moon or Mars. This mixture is special because fires can not break out.

UFO Appears To Have Exploded In China - On Saturday night (12.12.04) at 11.36 p.m. witnesses reported seeing a strange shining object cross the sky around the western Chinese city of Lanzhou. It was seen by over 700 witnesses and all of them heard a tremendous boom. The earth trembled across a 700 square mile area suggesting an impact with the ground. Police searched the area for debris where they thought it had fell but so far nothing has so far been found. Two red trails of light passed over Lanzhou and suddenly a suburban area of the city was lit up as bright as day as a tremendous explosion shook the area, local people thought an earthquake had struck.

Alien Planetoid - Over one year ago on the 14th November, 2003 a mysterious object was detected at the far reaches of our solar system. It had a strange elliptical orbit of anything revolving around our own sun.

This cold, distant object referred to as a planetoid, was named "Sedna" after the Inuit goddess who created Arctic sea creatures. Sedna is the coldest object in our solar system, with temperatures never rising above MINUS 400 degrees. Fahrenheit. But as cold as it is, Sedna is red hot and shiny to look at thought high powered telescopes like the orbiting Spitzer Space Telescope.

The only other object that is so red in our solar system is Mars and to date, no one knows why Sedan is so red. It is estimated to be three-quarters the size of Pluto and travels in a very bizarre elliptical orbit that takes it in a range from about 8 billion to 84 billion miles from Earth beyond the Kuiper Belt of icy objects and near the edge of the Oort Cloud, which is the source of comets. It takes at least 10,500 years to complete one revolution around the sun. Scientists are puzzled about how it got to be where it is and in such a radically eccentric orbit. Earth takes 365 days to go around the sun, Sedna takes 10,500 years to complete one revolution around the sun.

Physicist Ben Bromley from the University of Utah, and astronomer Scott Kenyon of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory at Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts have come up with a startling hypothesis based on their work with computer simulations. They think that Sedna is an "Alien Planetoid" from somewhere else in our galaxy that was pulled into our solar system when an "Alien Star"passed by about 4 billion years ago.

Mysterious Object Is Orbiting The Earth - This is a story which was first discovered on the 20th September,2002. A strange object was discovered circling our planet. It is only small, perhaps only 60 foot long and it rotates once every minute or so. An amateur astronomer Bill Yeung first spotted the 16th magnitude speck of light on the 3rd September, in the constellation Pisces. It has been named J002E3.

Automated asteroid surveys that scan the skies every few weeks showed no sign of Yeung's object. Paul Chodas of Nasa's near earth Object Programme at JPL. said "That is did not match any recently launched spacecraft. It is a mystery!"

JOO2E3 is in a chaotic orbit, It loops around the Earth once every 48 days or so, coming as close to our planet as the Moon and ranging as far away as two lunar distances. There is no evidence to support the theory that it is moving under its own power. The orbit is constantly changing because of gravitational perturbations by the Sun and the Moon.

At first it was thought that it might be a small asteroid. The object is as bright as a 30m wide space rock and it is moving about as fast as an asteroid should move. Mars and Jupiter have captured asteroid moons before, perhaps the Earth has done the same. Brilliant idea - except for the paint.

On the 12th September, the University of Arizona astronomers found that when they measured the spectrum of sunlight reflected form J002E3. "The colours were consistent with - "White Titanium dioxide paint" - the type Nasa used on the Apollo moon rockets 30 years ago."

So, J002E3 might be a spacecraft after all. But, where has it been all these years?

Some think that it might have been orbiting the sun, Some think that it is from Apollo 14, but Nasa have accounted for all of the big pieces. None are missing.

On the 31st January, 1971 a Saturn V rocket blasted off from Florida. Two stages of the rocket fell back to Earth, the third stage the S-IVB fuel tank and rocket engine, was likewise discarded. The S-IVB however, did not fall back to Earth, it hit the Moon. It was guided there, to proved an impact for lunar seismic monitoring stations.

The lunar module Antares was also deliberately crashed. J002E3 could not be any of those things. "There is an outside chance that is might be one of the Spacecraft-Lunar Module Adapter (SLA) panels." Although it appears to be too bright for one of these. It could also be an S0IVB from Apollo 12, this did not crash onto the moon. The crew jettisoned it on the 15th Nov, 1969 as it was nearly out of fuel. Once safely away, ground controllers ignited the engine. It was meant to be sent into a sun centre orbit, but something went wrong, the burn lasted too long. The S-IVB entered a barely-stable orbit around the earth and moon - and it was 60ft long. Eventually the Apollo 12 S-IVB vanished and no one knows where.

It has been calculated that J002E3 will leave the Earths orbit in June 2003 to resume its orbit around the Sun. Maybe in 30 years time it might re-appear.

Russia And USA Plan For A Martian Mission - Russia and the USA have been making plans for a Mars Mission and according to NASA.s calculations, the cost of the space project will exceed $100 billion already by 2020.

Russia and the USA are the two countries that traditionally compete in the field of space exploration and Russia's approach to the goal consists of three aspects. Russia who have a rich experience of manned flight, the development of assemblage and exploitation of space complexes are also planning to develop breaking technologies for this purpose. The programme has been titled "The Manned Martian Orbital Station."

Four cosmonauts are to fly to the red planet onboard an orbital station. They will not walk on Mars, thought they will drop space probes onto the planet's surface. The machines will spend a month to explore the planet Mars and deliver Martian ground samples to the station. The spacecraft will then return to the near-Earth orbit and continue to work there instead of on the International Space Station.

The flight there and back will take 2.5 years. When the station returns to the Earth's orbit, the crew will be changed over and the craft will return to Mars again. Then it will be time for a human being to finally land on Mars. Nikolai Bryukhanov a spokesman's for the Russian Space Corporation said "We have adjusted the Martian complex for the Proton carrier rocket. Twenty five launches of this reliable rocket will be enough to take the parts of the station to the orbit."

Russia's Martian complex will enter the orbit of Mars in 2014, long before the USA, Europe or China will be able to come closer to this plan. The project has been evaluated at £14 billion - about $1.4 billion a year, which triples the current annual budget of the Federal Space Agency. America's approach to the problem is different. They aim to create a new type of manned spacecraft, which is to be finished by 2014. American astronauts are to return to the Moon in 2020 and land on Mars after 2030. The American Congress has recently approved the 6 percent rise to Nasa's budget, which now totals £16.2. billion.

The American Space Agency, however, have delayed several of its scientific programmes. According to the calculations, the cost of the projects will exceed $100 billion already by 2020 and it is up to Bush's successors to decide whether the financing of the project should be continued. It is not ruled out that the new US administration will simply decide to shut the Martian and Lunar programmes down. More importantly, Russia and the USA might decide to join forces in the space programme although the USA is determined to do everything alone. One thing in favour of the USA is that they have the money.

Meteor Shower Residents of Jakarta and two other neighbouring Indonesian towns were frightened on the night of December 18th when a series of loud explosions were heard. The Police did not find any signs of destruction either in Jakarta or nearby as they thought it might be due to terrorists acts in the country. No signs of meteorites were found in either area.

The Indonesian Air Force confirmed the meteorite origin of the explosions in Jakarta: radars registered an unidentified flying object, which was falling down on the ground at a very height speed. December is the time of meteor showers, especially the Geminids and the Ursids. The Geminids light the night sky as they fly from the constellation of Gemini on December 14th. The mysterious explosions in Jakarta occurred on December 19th - this was too late for the Geminid meteor shower, as it had flown away already on the 17th December. The Ursids which are considered to be the fragments of 8P/Tuttle comet, which , as scientists believe, neared Jupiter and exploded 600 years ago. December 19th was not a good day for them, they appear in the sky at night on the 22nd December. Apparently, if it was a meteorite in the sky it must have been a very unusual one.

Now with the internet, reports about meteorites falling down on the Earth appear almost every week. A strange object was seen flying across Australia in the sky shortly before the above explosion. Unusual luminescence and roaring sounds have recently been registered in the sky above several German towns. According to scientists, these phenomena have been caused by fragments of asteroids in the Earth's atmosphere. Spacecraft Impactor is to collide with Tempel-1 comet on the 4th July, 2005. Flyby spaceship, which carry the Impactor to the target will be the first to observe the collision between the man made craft and the celestial body.The 300 million dollar programme called "Deep Impact" is to obtain the inner substance of the comet. Scientists believe that the comet substance will be the source of extremely important information about space. This substance will have remained unchanged since the time when the Solar System was formed. The Flyby spacecraft is to be launched on the 28th January, 2005 and Impactor will fly to the comet at the speed of 37, 000 kilometres per hour. Flyby's scientific equipment and telescope of astronomic labourites on Earth will analyze the cloud of the comet substance after the impact.

Strange Lights And Explosions - Two weeks ago, there were lots of reports about unusual lights and explosions all over Indonesia, and a month ago the phenomenon appeared over China and Australia. Now it has been reported in Wisconsin.

In all the previous reports they were put down to meteors and in three cases they were followed by earthquakes. Now police in north central Wisconsin have received numerous reports of bright flashes and explosions in the area. After one of the flashes and explosions residents observed a persistent glow in the woods. Nothing was found and the explosions and bright flashes were put down once again to meteorites. Wisconsin is not considered an earthquake prone area, lets hope so.

UFO's Seen Over Mexico City Airport - On the 20th December, all the staff at the Mexico City International Airport witnessed a strange flying object. It was shaped like a black coloured saucer with what they say resembled "A golden spinning top" located on it's upper section. It was observed at an altitude of approximately 200 meters at 12.00 hours.

On the 20th December 2004, an aviation technician spotted unknown traffic flying from east to west. It passed very close to an airliner inbound from South America. According to the witness, the UFO stopped and then ascended before vanishing into the heights. This event happened at 4.30.am. Subsequently, Horacio Rodriguez shot a video of a cylindrical object which appeared "Metallic" over the east side of Mexico City.

On the 27th December at 15.00 hours, a spherical white flying object was seen suspended in the sky for several minutes near the control tower at Mexico City International Airport. The airports radar have detected these flying objects repeatedly.

Mars Rover Notches Up A Year - Nasa is celebrating after its Spirit Robot Rover has compiled a full year on Mars. It is apparently in very good shape and it will continue its work on the red planet.Spirit landed on the 3rd January, 2003, followed by the Opportunity robot three weeks later.

Both of the Rovers are equipped with a suite of geology tools and they have uncovered evidence that Mars was once drenched in liquid water. Their initial 90 day mission have been extended twice an it is hoped that they will continue working for some time yet. Jim Erikson, the rover project manager from Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said "The rovers are both in amazingly good shape for their age."

The Rovers have sailed through some of the worst Martian Winters and now Spring is coming. Both of the Rovers are in strong positions to continue with the good work but guarantees could not be given.

Trees To Be Grown On Mars - Nasa has a new project......trees are to be grown on Mars. Three Mexican universities will grow trees on Mars. The Earth Formation in Mars Project will plant a special type of tree on the red planet that grows on the highest mountain of Mexico, Orizaba Peak.

The National Autonoma University of Mexico, Veracruzana University, Veracruz University and Nasa have been researching the trees for years. Because of the high places they grow, which has little oxygen and is extremely cold, they are thought to be ideal for the project. Luiz CurzKuari, researcher, told Clarin newspaper "Orizaba Peak has the highest line of trees in the world."

Non-flammable Air Is Developed - Russian scientists have developed a new type of air, one which can be breathed but does not burn. The non-flammable oxygen-argon mix is for use in spaceships and possible future bases on other planets. It could also be used for breathing on future colonies on Mars or even the Moon.

The Moscow-based Institute for Biomedical Problems said initial tests have been successfully completed. More tests are still needed to see if the air would be suitable for long term use. It is planned to isolate six volunteers for 500 days to test the physical and psychological effects of a long journey through space. The project is part of the Russian research programme for future expeditions to the red planet.

Alien Life Could Be Found On Titan - The Huygens space probe which is now on it's way to Titan could possibly encounter Alien Life when it lands according to an US expert.

After a journey of seven-years the European probe is set to parachute down onto Saturn's largest moon, Titan. It has an environment of yellow clouds and oily black methane lakes, which is thought to resemble Earth, billions of years ago.

Titan is too cold for large quantities of unfrozen water and scientists had assumed that there would be no life, as there is no water available. Now in the journal Current Opinion in Chemical Biology, it is describes how organisms could survive in such an environment. Dr. Steven Benner of the University of Florida said that life could flourish without water and organisms could survive in such an environment. He identified two absolute requirements for life to exist - a suitable temperature range and an energy source, Titan meets both requirements.

Comet Mission - The Deep Impact Mission to crash a projectile into a comet, peeling away its outer skin in order to look inside will be launched on the 12th January from Cape Canaveral, Florida and will arrive at Comet Tempel 1, six months later.

A mothership will eject the 360kg projectile which is called "Impactor" directly into the path of Tempel 1. The projectile will hit the comet on the 4th July, 24 hours after its release. "Deep Impact will be the first mission to peel away the outer layer of a comet and peer inside its nucleus" said Tom Morgan, Deep Impact programme scientist. They are hoping the projectile will punch a crater in the comet, allowing them to analyse the interior. Some scientists think that the projectile could just compress the outer surface when it hits.

From a distance of 500km Deep Impact will analyse Temple 1's chemistry and structure by taking pictures and readings as the comet debris is hurled out. It will also carry a camera to take pictures as it is hurled into Tempel 1. This will give us the closes images yet of a comet's surface and in the last minute, it will most probably be sandblasted before impact and being destroyed. If it has optimal conditions, the camera could send back images of the comet's surface with a resolution of upto 20cm per pixel. If the camera gets sandblasted in the final minute before impacting, this could drop to 3cm per pixel. The collision with the impactor is not expected to divert the path of Tempel 1.

Smart 1 Winters Lunar Orbit - The Smart 1 lunar probe has become the first European mission to enter into orbit around the Moon.

The probe will spiral ever closer to the surface until reaching its final orbit on the 1st February and the data gathered by Smart 1 will be used by the next generation of space scientists. Smart 1 is testing a highly efficient solar-electric propulsion system as one of its key mission objectives and due to the fuel savings, power and engine performance Smart 1 has arrived much earlier than expected.

Smart 1 will deploy an X-ray spectrometer called D-Cixs which will map chemical elements on the Moons surface and it will also survey a flat region known as the "Peak of Eternal Light" near the South pole, which is thought to be bathed in perpetual sunlight and also appears to be flat. This could be a suitable spot for future manned lunar bases. Smart 1 will also look for water-ice in the very deep craters nearby, which some scientists think could be used both to drink and to create oxygen for moonbase dwellers.

Successful Set Down On Titan - Huygens, the European probe has successfully got through the atmosphere of Saturn's largest moon on Friday morning and made a landing. It has taken a photograph of what looks like a shoreline. It was too early to say what the features were or where Huygens bumped down. The scientists at the European Space Agency's control centre in Darmstadt, Germany never- the -less were thrilled with the wealth of images and information that the probes Cassini mothership beamed back to the Earth. Some of the images looked like a rocky looking surface that maybe large ice boulders. An image taken from 10 miles up showed what looked like canyons eroded by a flow of liquid trailing down to what looks like a shoreline and islands. The scientists are hoping to learn more about its atmosphere and just love the idea of there being liquid down there.

Huygens successfully survived the landing and lived off its batteries for hours, far longer that expected. For redundancy, Cassini had two channels to relay data. One wasn't working but scientists said they would get all the data they needed from the one remaining. It sent "I'm alive" signal during its descent. Cassini began sending floods of data from Huygens which took almost 2 and a half hours to float to the moon's surface on parachutes.

A joint project of Nasa, ESA, and the Italian Space Agency, the $3 billion Cassini-Huygens launched from Cape Canaveral in 1997 and entered orbit around Saturn in July. Huygens separated from Cassini on December 24th. The Cassini missions is to last at least four years and will include dozens of flybys of Titan. A disc digitally inscribed with more than 600,000 names flew to Saturn aboard Cassini. Landing on the moon Titan with the Huygens probe was a disc containing four pop music songs, which were written especially for the mission.

If you want to know more and a link to a free download of one of the songs, go to www.music2titan.com.

Titan - From the new images received from the Huygens space probe it suggests springs, rivers and lakes are present on Titan. The springs, rivers and lakes are fed by methane rain. Scientists have also recovered data from Huygens that was thought lost due to a communications failure.

At a press conference in Paris, the teams outlines new results. They have evidence of many Earth like processes such as rain, erosion and abrasion, but with very exotic materials according to Marty Tomasko, Descent Imager Spectral Radiometer. The Mission scientist confirmed these processes were active.

Fluid flowing on the surface of Titan was helping to carve channels between hills of water ice which was seen in the pictures that were returned from the moon. The liquid was within a few centimetres of the surface and according to Dr.Tomasko he felt that the place they landed it must have rained not that long ago. He stated that the area they landed in is more typical of arid regions and the rived beds are dry most of the time. After it rains, you have open flowing liquid. There are pools and then they dry out and the liquid methane sinks into the surface.

Meteorite Found On Mars - The first ever meteorite has been discovered on the planet Mars by the US space agency's (Nasa) robotic Mars rover Opportunity. Mission scientists spotted the pitted rock near to the remains of the rover's heat shield which is resting on the Meridiani Planum.

After analysis, it show it was made of iron and nickel, confirming that it is not Martian and fell from space. It was identified as being metal rich in data from the rover's Mini Thermal Emission Spectrometer (Mini-Tes) instrument. The meteorite sits near debris from Opportunity's heat shield, which protected if during its entry into the Martian atmosphere nearly one year ago.

If the researchers can find more meteorites, they may learn more about the surface processes at Meridiai plain and the numbers of exposed meteorites could be an indication of whether the Meridiani plain is gradually eroding away or being built up.

Beam Of Light - Mrs Sue Oliver of Briarwood, Brookside, Telford, was out in the morning walking her dogs at Nedgehill at around 6.40 am. when she saw a "Massive beam of Light" which has left her mystified. She is now trying to find out whether or not anyone else saw this. She stated that she wasn't sure what it was and she does not usually believe in weird things. She knew it was not a shooting star and after talking to her colleagues thinks its might have been an UFO.

The Meteorological Office said it was unlikely to have been caused by the Northern Lights because of the cloud cover.

Russian And Iran Struggle Against Invasion Of UFO's - Any UFO appearing over the sky's of Iran will be shot down by their anti-aircraft systems.

Apparently, unidentified flying objects are continuing to terrorize the Eastern hemisphere of planet Earth. No one knows what they are but something has to be done with the problem. Russia and Iran have agreed to join efforts to study the mysterious phenomenon. UFO's pose a big threat to Iran in connection with its growing nuclear potential. The UFO mania have gripped Iran, and the Air Force command of Teheran has recently been given an order to down any unknown or suspicious object seen in the air space of Iran. It is almost certain that if an UFO appears in the sky above Iran, anti-aircraft systems will most likely down it.

The Iranian mass media, meanwhile are distributing more and more information about extraterrestrial threats to the nations nuclear objects as the flights of unknown objects in the air space of the country have become much more frequent of late. According to the newspapers, unusual luminous objects have been spotted above Busher and Natanza, where nuclear facilities are located. One of the objects exploded in the sky and the Iranian defence department is trying to pacify the anxious population. The Iranian Air Force in on alert and ready to do its duty said General Qarim Gavani and plans have been developed to defend the nuclear objects from any danger.

The interest in UFO's began in Iran more than a year ago and it is growing very fast. Dozens of reports above strange objects have been reported. The state television of Iran aired the footage of a shimmering white disk above Teheran. People ran out of their houses in eight cities to see the bright light in the clouds. IRNA reported about multicoloured objects with green, red, blue and violet rays seen above the towns of Tabriz and Ardebil and above Golestan Province in the area of the Caspian Sea. Russia have promised to help Iran with the problem. The entire population of the Soviet Union was panicking over strange flying objects at the beginning of the 1990's. Both Russian and Iranian Officials emphasize the fact of expanding the bilateral cooperation, particularly in the field of space exploration and the development of satellites.

Strange Signals And UFO Sightings In The Indian Ocean - Heavy UFO sightings are being reported in Nicobar Island, Andaman, India, Maldives and Sri Lanka coastal areas. All the animals in these areas are showing strange behaviour and the local fisherman and their families are taking these signs seriously and are refusing to move near the ocean. The tribal people of Andaman Nicobar Island have moved to the high ground. Even the sea birds are showing strange signals.

The UFO sightings are happening at night with strange lights. Continuation of tremors of 6 ore less on the Richter scale seem never ending. Strange signals are being reported as well as jamming of the radio channels by Ships travelling between India's mainland and the Andaman-Nocobar Islands as well as commercial fishermen in the Indian Ocean.

Some experts are saying that these are signs of possible experimentation with tectonic plates by some entity. People on the Nicobar Islands are complaining that something is going on under the ocean-deep underground. The pattern of the aftershocks is also strange. Normally on plotting the same they show a gradual decrease in the moving average of the Richter scale reported. This time no pattern can be found. A considerable time elapsed after one shock before the next one. They think that someone is controlling the after shocks and making sure plates are not over stressed. Andaman and Nicobar islands have experienced 121 aftershocks between 5.2. and 6.2. on the Richter scale. The Geologists in India are closely tracking these aftershocks and cannot find a pattern. The pattern is the large lapse after a considerable aftershock. One sailor said that this part of the Indian ocean now resembles the Bermuda triangle region.

Many in the Indian coastal areas now believe that sightings of an UFO before the Tsunami had something to do with the Tsunami and that extra-terrestrials are doing something deep under the ocean. UFO researchers all around the world believe that there are UFO underground bases. These bases are mostly suspected in areas where one tectonic plate goes on top of another plate. Where one plate goes on top of another plate, this provides a thicker crust of earth on which extra-terrestrials could build their bases which needs miles of deep crusts of earth.

One of the strange things is that during low tide or any time when the ocean recedes leaving a wider beach for the birds to feed. But now -a- days the birds actually fly inlands when this is happening and the number of wild animals in the coastal area have also diminished. Are the birds and animals sensing the possibility of another Tsunami?

Some have blamed the experimentation or construction deep under the tectonic plates to cause mega earthquakes. Some have blamed the deep drilling in the Indian ocean for Oil and Gas exploration by India, Bangladesh and Mayanmar.