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Japan plans Moonbase by 2030

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) revealed its ambition to an international conference in Tokyo this week but has not yet been alotted the budget for the ambitious project. JAXA hopes to launch a satellite into lunar orbit next year, followed by an unmanned spacecraft that will land on the moon and a probe ship that will collect samples from the moon. Under the plan, the astronauts will be sent to the moon by around 2020 so that they will start construction of the base to be completed by 2030, the agency said. Japan had earlier given 2025 as the target date for a lunar base. "The feasibility of the plan is unclear at this point as we need to gain understanding by the government and the Japanese people on our plan, but technologically it would be possible in a few decades," said Satoki Kurokawa, spokesman for JAXA.

"Exploring a frontier is always a mission of science. In addition, space programs have the potential to create cutting-edge technologies, particularly in the field of robotics," he said, explaining benefits of the program. Japan's space program has been on a rebound with a series of satellite launches after an embarrassment in 2003, when it had to abort a rocket carrying a spy satellite just 10 minutes after lift-off.

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Crop circles gain perspective

Crop circles have started appearing again in the English countryside, but this time in a new permutation. A crop circle in a complicated three-dimensional design was discovered in the first week of July near Ashbury, Oxfordshire. The exaggerated perspective of the formation, which is approximately 360 feet in diameter, suggests a bird's-eye view of a group of skyscrapers, as though the viewer was looking down on a city center from directly overhead.The new circle is located near the famous Uffington White Horse and a Neolithic burial chamber called Wayland's Smithy, which dates back to 3700 B.C. The formation was originally spotted by the pilot of a microlight aircraft. When Steve Alexander heard about it, he immediately hired a helicopter to get a better view. The 34-year-old crop circle researcher, who is the co-author with Karen Alexander of a series of crop circle yearbooks, was stunned by the unique pattern in the wheat field.

"Of late, the crop circles seem concerned with the moving of one dimension into another," Steve Alexander said. "This is perhaps one of the most striking and overt expressions of that idea to date."Some, like movie director M. Night Shyamalan, have suggested that crop circles are the product of paranormal forces or extraterrestrial beings."As to who or what created the circle, I don't know," Steve Alexander said, musing at the possibility of alien artists. "If people made it, then it was planned and executed very well indeed, and it was not made by people coming out of the pub after a night on the razzle. I went into the formation on the ground, and it is very impressive. It was constructed very well, the best ground quality I have seen this year."

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Geothermal energy: The way forward ?

The answer to the world's energy needs may have been under our feet all this time, according to Jefferson Tester, professor of chemical engineering at the MIT Laboratory for Energy and the Environment. Tester says heat generated deep within the earth by the decay of naturally occurring isotopes has the potential to supply a tremendous amount of power -- thousands of times more than we now consume each year. So far, we've been able to harvest only a tiny fraction of geothermal energy resources, taking advantage of places where local geology brings hot water and steam near the surface, such as in Iceland or California, where such phenomena have long been used to produce electricity.

But new oil-field stimulation technology, developed for extracting oil from sources such as shale, makes it possible to harvest much more of this energy by allowing engineers to create artificial geothermal reservoirs many kilometers underground. Tester calls it "universal geothermal" energy because the reservoirs could be located wherever they're needed, such as near power-hungry cities worldwide. Technology Review spoke with Tester about the potential of universal geothermal energy and what it will take to make it a reality.

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Martian life announcement plan needed

A plan should be formulated for how to tell the public if signs of Martian life are found by future missions to the Red Planet, say scientists from NASA and the SETI Institute. Otherwise, incorrect information could be leaked to the public before studies on the potential life could be completed.The Spirit and Opportunity rovers that continue to explore Mars are not designed to search for life. But if a sample return mission is ever sent to Mars, scientists could test for it in the rocks brought back to Earth.In 1996, news of possible signs of life in a Martian meteorite called ALH84001 leaked out ahead of a press conference that had been scheduled by NASA. This was partly because a high-ranking White House official told a prostitute about the meteorite. NASA had to scramble to reschedule its press conference to an earlier date to satisfy the growing demand for information from the press and the public.That rescheduling was just an inconvenience, but bigger problems could arise in connection with a Mars sample return mission, say John Rummel, NASA's planetary protection officer in Washington DC, and Margaret Race of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, both in the US.

The ALH84001 researchers were able to carry out their studies for years before finding themselves in the media spotlight. But the public will know about the Mars sample return mission ahead of time, so there will be intense media scrutiny from the beginning, they say.

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Strange 'twin' new worlds found

A pair of strange new worlds that blur the boundaries between planets and stars have been discovered beyond our Solar System. A few dozen such objects have been identified in recent years but this is the first set of "twins". Dubbed "planemos", they circle each other rather than orbiting a star. Their existence challenges current theories about the formation of planets and stars, astronomers report in the journal Science. "This is a truly remarkable pair of twins - each having only about 1% the mass of our Sun," said Ray Jayawardhana of the University of Toronto, co-author of the Science paper. "Its mere existence is a surprise, and its origin and fate a bit of a mystery." The pair belongs to what some astronomers believe is a new class of planet-like objects floating through space; so-called planetary mass objects, or "planemos", which are not bound to stars.They appear to have been forged from a contracting gas cloud, in a similar way to stars, but are much too cool to be true stars.

And while they have similar masses to many of the giant planets discovered beyond our Solar System (the largest weighs in at 14 times the mass of Jupiter and the other is about seven times more massive), they are not thought to be true planets either. "We are resisting the temptation to call it a 'double planet' because this pair probably didn't form the way that planets in our Solar System did," said co-researcher Valentin Ivanov of the European Southern Observatory (ESO) in Santiago, Chile.

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MoD to investigate UFO sightings

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is to probe UFO sightings over Sunderland and Seaham after mysterious lights appeared in the night sky. An MoD spokeswoman said: "We examine any UFO sighting reports to establish whether there is any evidence to suggest that UK airspace has been compromised by hostile or unauthorised air activity."The probe is under way after Seaham couple Harry and Elizabeth McCall filmed the orbs flying over the town last Saturday night.Mr McCall, 67, told the Echo: "They were silent, as if they were floating. There was no noise."It was unbelievaable and until someone convinces me otherwise, they were UFOs."Since then Echo readers from Westlea, Eastlea, Northlea, Deneside, Dalton-le-Dale, and Hollycarrside, in Sunderland, have reported seeing the lights.UFO Hunters, a national organisation which researches and compiles information about sightings internationally, has also appealed for witnesses to get in touch.North East-based UFO expert Alfred Dodds receives an average of three reports a year of sightings in the region.

Mr Dodds, 68, who runs the Northumberland UFO Research Centre, has been interested in the subject since the age of 10 and has never heard of any local sightings like those made last weekend.He said: "There have been similar sightings, but mainly abroad."The problem is you see is that we don't know what is being developed in technology and who is developing it."It's mainly America, which we have seen recently in the press."There are a lot of triangle sightings, with three lights and then a larger central light. This doesn't sound like that at all.

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X-rays reveal Archimedes secrets

A series of hidden texts written by the ancient Greek mathematician Archimedes are being revealed by US scientists. Until now, the pages have remained obscured by paintings and texts laid down on top of the original writings. Using a non-destructive technique known as X-ray fluorescence, the researchers are able to peer through these later additions to read the underlying text. The goatskin parchment records key details of Archimedes' work, considered the foundation of modern mathematics. The writings include the only Greek version of On Floating Bodies known to exist, and the only surviving ancient copies of The Method of Mechanical Theorems and the Stomachion. In the treatises, the 3rd Century BC mathematician develops numerical descriptions of the real world. "Archimedes was like no-one before him," says Will Noel, curator of manuscripts and rare books at the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland and director of the imaging project. "It just doesn't get any better than re-reading the mind of one of the greatest figures of Western civilisation."

Revealing Archimedes' writings presents a huge challenge to the imaging team. The original texts were transcribed in the 10th Century by an anonymous scribe on to parchment. Three centuries later a monk in Jerusalem called Johannes Myronas recycled the manuscript to create a palimpsest. Palimpsesting involves scraping away the original text so the parchments can be used again. To create a book, the monk cut the pages in half and turned them sideways.

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NASA loses Moon walk footage tapes

The heart-stopping moments when Neil Armstrong took his first tentative steps onto another world are defining images of the 20th century: grainy, fuzzy, unforgettable. But just 37 years after Apollo 11, it is feared the magnetic tapes that recorded the first moon walk - beamed to the world via three tracking stations, including Parkes's famous "Dish" - have gone missing at NASA's Goddard Space Centre in Maryland.A desperate search has begun amid concerns the tapes will disintegrate to dust before they can be found.It is not widely known that the Apollo 11 television broadcast from the moon was a high-quality transmission, far sharper than the blurry version relayed instantly to the world on that July day in 1969.Among those battling to unscramble the mystery is John Sarkissian, a CSIRO scientist stationed at Parkes for a decade. "We are working on the assumption they still exist," Mr Sarkissian told the Herald."Your guess is a good as mine as to where they are."Mr Sarkissian began researching the role of Parkes in Apollo 11's mission in 1997, before the movie The Dish was made. However, when he later contacted NASA colleagues to ask about the tapes, they could not be found."People may have thought 'we have tapes of the moon walk, we don't need these'," said the scientist who hopes a new, intensive hunt will locate them.If they can be found, he proposes making digitalised copies to treat the world to a very different view of history.

But the searchers may be running out of time. The only known equipment on which the original analogue tapes can be decoded is at a Goddard centre set to close in October, raising fears that even if they are found before they deteriorate, copying them may be impossible."We want the public to see it the way the moon walk was meant to be seen," Mr Sarkissian said."There will only ever be one first moon walk."Originally stored at Goddard, the tapes were moved in 1970 to the US National Archives. No one knows why, but in 1984 about 700 boxes of space flight tapes there were returned to Goddard.

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Team release ghost investigation report

The Northwest Arkansas Ghost Connection, the non-profit organization that spent two nights in mid-July at the St. Francis County Museum, has released its official report on the ghostly activity at the facility. Lori Arhangelsky, the case manager, director and founder of the Northwest Arkansas Ghost Connection, recently discussed the time they spent in an earlier story, but wanted to wait until several hours of both audio and video tapes were analyzed before filing a final report."On the 13th and 14th of July, the Northwest Arkansas Ghost Connection was invited to conduct an investigation of the paranormal activity at the St. Francis County Museum," Arhangelsky wrote in the report. "Prior to our investigation, we conducted extensive research on the history of the museum using materials provided by Harvey Hanna, the museum's manager, information provided by the Internet, local newspaper articles and personal experiences of locals."The report explains what the research found before entering the museum. "Reported hauntings include, but are not limited to, relocation of objects, strange unexplained noises and sightings of both a woman in a blue dress and a man wearing overalls. The woman in the blue dress has often been witnessed standing in the south bedroom window, while the man in overalls has occasionally been seen standing on the front porch, There is a trophy case in the main hallway of the museum where trophies reportedly move around inside the showcase by themselves."In the report, Arhangelsky thanks the local community for information provided to them. "It greatly aided our research and investigation," she said.The report then outlines the group's observations during their two nights at the museum."During the first night of the investigation, we had many encounters with the spirits that dwell within the walls of the museum. One of our team members heard a woman talking to her while she was in the upstairs hallway. Another witnessed a visage of a woman in a white dress manifest beforehim in the same hallway. Downstairs, two members walked around the corner and came to an immediate halt as a six-foot tall man with a mustache and wearing a dark suit stood before them in the artifact room.

"The team's EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomenon) captured the distinct voices of two different females as well as two different males. One member saw a shadow walk across the floor before her and was lucky enough to capture that very apparition on video," continues the report. It also mentions that several different light anomalies were witnessed throughout the night by several different team members.According to the report, on the second night of the investigation, the spirits became more "physical" with some of the team.

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Spiders trigger mass hysteria in Austria

An eight-legged invasion is giving some Austrians the creeps. The venomous yellow sack spider, whose painful bite can cause headache and nausea, has become the talk of the country since several people were bitten earlier this summer.Reports of spider sightings have dominated the local news, triggering hundreds of calls to a Vienna poison hot line and prompting the government to plead for calm."The bites of a yellow sack spider are indeed painful but not deadly," Health Minister Maria Rauch-Kallat said in a statement. "If you are bitten, please don't panic and in case of discomfort immediately contact a doctor."In a sign of the hysteria, 190 people went to a hospital Wednesday in the northwestern city of Linz fearing they had been bitten. Only eight of them had the right symptoms, doctors told Austrian state broadcaster ORF. Eva Reiner, a Vienna business consultant, fished a dead yellow sack spider out of her pool this week -- and hasn't gone swimming since."It wasn't even alive, and it still looked evil to me," she said.

Experts are urging people to keep their perspective.The yellow and brown striped critter -- Cheiracanthium punctorium in Latin -- is one of 1,000 similar species found in Austria and neighboring countries, said Christian Komposch of an animal ecology institute in the southern city of Graz.There are sightings every year, said Komposch, who accused the news media of spreading misleading information and fanning the frenzy.

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Mystery creature on display in museum

A mysterious creature known as "Little Doug" has been generating a lot if interest in the Hull maritime museum. Nobody has yet been able to identify what the creature is, and theories range from a cross breed between a dog and a frog, to mermaids, to some sort of mutant seahorse. A recent article in the local paper has also helped to increase interest in the mystery. Corona Smith: "Well, the Hull Daily Mail article that was so explicit in its revelation of 'Little Doug' has done wonders for attendance to the museum. Literally hundreds have been pouring through the doors, with more than a little help from the rain too, I might add. I observed one family who were brought to the museum by that very article as they painstakingly studied little Doug. Dad didn't have a clue what it was, kids settled on Dragon or Sprite, and mum suggested it was the 'strangest thing she'd ever seen in her life!' High praise indeed! And a fitting tribute to Arthur's little secret.

When I asked another lady who had read the article what it was, she eyed me mysteriously as she uttered 'no one knows'.The comments book is almost full with what must be over a thousand suggestions of little Doug's identity."

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Meet the "Indigo children"

Eight-year-old Oliver Banks thinks he sees dead people. Recently he thought he saw a little girl with black hair climb over their garden fence in Harrow, Middlesex. Then, as he watched, she vanished. When Oliver was three he was at a friend's house, on top of the climbing frame, when he suddenly started yelling "Train!" He was pointing over the fence to the adjacent field. It turned out that, generations earlier, a railway line had passed through the field, exactly where he was pointing. Oliver's mother, Simone, was at her wits' end.At that moment, a woman standing nearby interrupted. She introduced herself as Dr Munchie (her real name is Manjir Samanta-Laughton). She said she couldn't help but eavesdrop on Simone's conversation. She was, she said, a qualified GP. "Well, then," Simone replied, "do you think Oliver has ADHD?" Dr Munchie said no. She said it sounded very much like Oliver was in fact a highly evolved Indigo child - a divine being with enormously heightened spiritual wisdom and psychic powers. Oliver couldn't concentrate, she explained, because he was being distracted by genuine psychic experiences. She said Indigo children were springing up all over the world, all at once, unconnected to one another.

There were tens of thousands of them, in every country. And their parents weren't all new age hippies. They were perfectly ordinary families who were realising how super-evolved and psychic their children were. This was a global phenomenon. Soon the Indigo children would rise up and heal the planet. Perhaps, Dr Munchie said, given this new diagnosis, Simone and Oliver might like to attend an Indigo children meeting at the Moat House Hotel in Bedford? Channel 4 was going to be there. Maybe the TV crew could follow Oliver about? Simone was desperate for answers. She wasn't going to close off any avenue. So that's how she and Oliver ended up appearing in the forthcoming C4 documentary My Kid's Psychic.