ONE LAPTOP PER CHILD PROJECT

This is a project initiated Nicholas Negroponte of MIT. It was announced at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in January 2005. The espouses five core principles: (1) child ownership; (2) low ages; (3) saturation; (4) connection; and (5) free and open source.

OLPC is funded by a number of sponsor organizations, including AMD, Brightstar Corporation, eBay, Google, Marvell, News Corporation, SES, Nortel Networks, Red Hat, and most recently Intel. Each company has donated two million dollars.

The goal of theproject is to provide children around the world with new opportunities to explore, experiment, and express themselves. The project is designing a laptop, educational software, manufacturing base, and distribution system to provide children outside of the first-world with otherwise unavailable technological learning opportunities.

according to Nicholas Negroponte he says the project an education project, not a laptop project.

Participating countries
The following countries have already “committed” to the project in various ways. However, the commitment is not binding. The laptops will be sold to governments, to be distributed through the ministries of education willing to adopt the policy of “one laptop per child”. The operating system and software will be localized to the languages of the participating countries. As of December 1, 2007, only two countries, Peru and Uruguay, actually purchased the XO laptop.


Argentina, Brazil (not yet, is in study), Cambodia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Greece, Libya, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Rwanda, Tunisia, United States of America, Urugua

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LIFE's BUILDING BLOCKS FORMED ON MARS: Study

Scientists are reporting that the molecular building blocks of life formed on Mars long ago. findings that suggest these molecules could form on any cold, rocky planet.

Organic molecules, containing carbon and hydrogen, are the major components of all Earthly life. In a new study, researchers with the Carnegie Institution in Washington, D.C. analyzed organic compounds in a Martian meteorite. Scientists had previously speculated that these might have landed on the red planet thanks to meteorite impacts there. The new study instead concluded that the materials probably formed on Mars itself, possibly as a result of volcanic eruptions.

The findings "show that volcanic activity in a freezing climate can produce organic compounds," said the institution’s Hans Amundsen, one of the researchers. "This implies that building blocks of life can form on cold rocky planets throughout the Universe."

The investigators compared the meteorite, called Allan Hills 84001, with rocks from Svalbard, Norway. These occur in volcanoes that erupted in a freezing Arctic climate about a million years ago, possibly mimicking conditions on early Mars, the scientists said.
"Organic material occurs within tiny spheres of carbonate minerals in both the Martian and Earth rocks," said Andrew Steele, lead author of the study. The scientists, he added, found the organic material in close association with a mineral called magnetite—"the key to understanding how these compounds formed."

When material blasted from Svalbard volcanoes cooled off, magnetite acted as a catalyst, or chemical instigator, for the formation of organic compounds from fluids rich in carbon dioxide and water, said the researchers. "The similar association of carbonate, magnetite and organic material in the Martian meteorite... is very compelling," they added in an announcement of their findings Tuesday. "This is the first study to show that Mars is capable of forming organic compounds at all." The study is published in the September issue of the research journal Meteoritic & Planetary Science.

Steele said the work "sets the stage for the Mars Science Laboratory mission in 2009"—a NASA rover designed to help assess whether Mars ever could, or can, support microbial life. One of its goals is to identify organic compounds and their sources, said Steele, who is part of the mission team. "We know that they are there. We just have to find them."

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NASA TARGETS SPACE SHUTTLE ATLANTIS LAUNCH ON JAN. 10

NASA's Space Shuttle Program managers have targeted Jan. 10 for the launch of shuttle Atlantis' STS-122 mission to the International Space Station. The new launch date, an eight-day slip from an earlier Jan. 2 target, will allow NASA engineers and astronauts some much deserved time off during the holidays while the agency hunts down the source of a recurring shuttle fuel tank sensor glitch.

Moving the next launch attempt of Atlantis to Jan. 10 will also allow as many people as possible to have time with family and friends at the time of year when it means the most.

The liftoff date from NASA's Kennedy Space Center, Florida, depends on the resolution of a problem in a fuel sensor system. The shuttle's planned launches on Dec. 6 and Dec. 9 were postponed because of false readings from the part of the system that monitors the liquid hydrogen section of the tank.

The mission failed before because of a failure with devices Known as engine cutoff sensors. the devices are designed as a backup system to monitor the levels of super-cold liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen propellant in Atlantis' 15-story external tank and shut down the orbiter's three main engines before fuel runs out

Atlantis' main objective during its STS-122 mission to the International Space Station is to install and activate the European Space Agency's Columbus laboratory, which will provide scientists around the world the ability to conduct a variety of life, physical and materials science experiments. The mission will be Commanded by veteran shuttle astronaut Stephen Frick.

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NASA SELECTS PRIME CONTRACTOR FOR ARES I ROCKET AVIONICS

NASA has selected The Boeing Company of Huntsville, Ala., as the prime contractor to produce, deliver and install avionics systems for the Ares I rocket that will launch the Orion crew exploration vehicle into orbit.

The selection is the final major contract award for Ares I. The award resulted from a full and open competition. The Ares I launch vehicle is a key component of the Constellation Program, which will send humans to the moon by 2020 to set up a lunar outpost.

The avionics are the "brains" of the Ares I and will provide guidance, navigation and control for the rocket until it reaches orbit. The avionics system is responsible for managing vehicle health and reporting it to flight controllers based on a sequence of timed events, such as engine shutdown and first stage separation.

The Ares I first stage will be a five-segment solid rocket booster. The upper, second stage of the rocket will consist of a J-2X liquid-oxygen, liquid-hydrogen main engine, a new upper stage fuel tank, and the instrument unit avionics. NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala., manages the Ares Project for NASA's Constellation Program, based at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston

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NASA DELAYS LAUNCH OF SPACE SHUTTLE ATLANTIS

NASA has delayed the launch of the shuttle Atlantis due to faults with its fuel tank sensors. This was the second time in less than a week.

The failure of one of four fuel gauge-like sensors at the bottom of Atlantis' 15-story external tank during a preflight test prevented the shuttle from an afternoon launch at NASA's Kennedy Space Center spaceport.
The mission has now been pushed forward to not earlier than January 2nd 2008.

Commanded by veteran shuttle flyer Stephen Frick, Atlantis's planned 11-day mission will deliver the European Space Agency's Columbus laboratory to the ISS and swap out one member of the outpost's three-astronaut crew. At least three spacewalks are planned during the mission to install Columbus and upgrade the ISS.

Aboard Atlantis with Frick will be STS-122 pilot Alan Poindexter, mission specialists Rex Walheim, Leland Melvin, Stanley Love and European Space Agency astronauts Hans Schlegel and Leopold Eyharts.

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