The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People! » Curiosity rover

What Happened in 2012: Fourteen Highlights

Sabina Peycheva — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 20:00:40 +0000

The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!

The year 2012 is already behind us, but for many, some events will leave lasting imprints – both in the positive and negative ways. So what happened in 2012?

At the beginning of the year, the luxury cruise ship Costa Concordia became one of the largest commercial shipping disasters in modern time. Thirty-two people died and thousands were evacuated when the ship started to sink near the coast of Italy. With half of the ship under water, there was a real danger of the complete sinking of the luxurious vessel. The salvage of the ship is said to be the most expensive one ever.
One of the most remarkable singers in modern times died at the age of 48. Whitney Houston was found dead on February 9, 2012 in her hotel room in Beverly Hills, California. The unexpected news distressed her family, friends, and fans all around the globe.
The people of France chose a new president. François Hollande won the 2012 Presidential elections in the European country in April. With 51.64% of the votes, it was evident that the former president Nicolas Sarkozy was not to continue as the most powerful man in France.
North Korea tried to launch its first rocket on the anniversary of the birth of the nation’s founder, Kim Il-Sung. However, it was not until December 17, 2012, days before the the end of the year, when the North Koreans managed to successfully send their satellite into space, a move which sparked tension between the already isolated nation and its neighbors.
Vladimir Putin was once again elected President of Russia on March 4, 2012. He was preceded by Dmitry Medvedev, who is currently Prime Minister. Having been allegedly “pulling the strings” in the country while Medvedev was officially in power, Putin’s return to power was seen as a power play both inside and outside the country. The whole pre-election campaign and the aftermath of the elections were marked by controversy. In February, five of the members of the Russian punk group Pussy Riot made a provocative performance in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow as a part of a protest against the re-election of Putin. However, their act landed three of the young activists in a penal colony in Russia, guilty of ”hooliganism motivated by religious hatred.” The actions against Pussy Riot created a discontent among people in- and outside the country. In October, one of the girls – Yekaterina Samutsevich, was cleared, but Maria Alyokhina and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova are still serving their two-year sentences.
In March, the sedition in Syria grew into a civil war between the leader of the Ba’ath Party government and its opponents. The people fight oppression, but the price they are paying is excessively high. More than 50,000 people lost their lives last year and thousands were wounded every day in the battle that continue to rage into 2013.
The most democratic election in the history of Egypt were held in May. For the second time, two candidates were fighting for the presidential chair in the North African republic. Mohamed Morsi took 51.73% of the votes and thus won against his opponent Ahmed Shafik. Legal actions were then taken against the former President Hosni Mubarak and twelve other politicians from his government, including the Minister of the Interior Habib al-Adly. They were put on trial for the killing of protesters and for corruption. Mubarak and Adly were both sentenced to life in prison.
On July 15, the Korean singer Psy released his single ‘Gangnam Style‘ that conquered international hit lists and has become the most watched video on YouTube. The popular song is about life in the Seoul Gangnam District, and popular culture quickly joined the dance steps – although for most of us, the lyrics are incomprehensible.
The release of the new Batman movie ‘The Dark Knight Rises’ in July gave rise to another tragic event in the United States. A masked gunman killed 14 and wounded more than 50 spectators at a cinema in Denver during the premiere showing of the 2012 Batman production. In the middle of December, international news was again challenged by another US massacre, this time in Connecticut. A heavily armed gunman killed 26 innocent people including 20 children, and then committed suicide. It is one of the most appalling mass shootings in the States.
Among the most memorable events of was the Olympic Games, held in London from July 27 to August 12. More than 10,000 athletes from 204 countries measured swords in the fight for the golden medals. The participants from China, Great Britain, and the United States of America achieved the largest number of medals. Although many records were set during the Games in August, Usain Bolt’s achievement will stay as the most remarkable in the history of the Games. The Jamaican athlete became the first person to achieve a “double double” after he won 100m and 200m titles at consecutive Olympic Games; 2008 in Beijing and 2012 in London.
NASA’s Curiosity rover landed successfully on Mars in August, 2012. Scientists believe that it will be able to study the history of the Red planet for at least two billion years.
October brought some more horrific news. The teenage Pakistani girl Malala Yousufzai was shot in the head by the Taliban because she promoted girls’ education in her country. Malala was transferred to the Queen Elizabeth hospital in London, where she has later recovered. The incident put international focus on the hardship of women in the war-torn nation.
President Obama was reelected by the American voters, winning the elections on November 6, 2012. His opponent, Mitt Romney, took 47.27% of the votes, against Obama’s 50.96% which showed that it was a close battle to the end. The election was marked by the devastating power of Hurricane Sandy and according to specialists, the support that Obama showed in the hour of crisis played a major role in his re-election.
The end of the world did not come. Again! The Mayan Long Count calendar definitely marks the end of something, but fortunately it is not our existence.

The world is not ending at least for now and let the new 2013 be full of more happiness, joy, and good news.

Image Courtesy : KOREA.NET – Official page of the Republic of Korea

The article What Happened in 2012: Fourteen Highlights appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.

NASA Mars Curiosity Rover Begins Moving From Landing Site

TP Newswire — Sat, 25 Aug 2012 11:00:49 +0000

The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!

Pasadena, U.S.A. — NASA’s Mars rover Curiosity has begun driving from its landing site, which scientists announced today they have named for the late author Ray Bradbury. Making its first movement on the Martian surface, Curiosity’s drive combined forward, turn and reverse segments. This placed the rover roughly 20 feet (6 meters) from the spot where it landed August 6th.

NASA has approved the Curiosity science team’s choice to name the landing ground for the influential author who was born 92 years ago today and died this year. The location where Curiosity touched down is now called Bradbury Landing. “This was not a difficult choice for the science team,” said Michael Meyer, NASA program scientist for Curiosity. “Many of us and millions of other readers were inspired in our lives by stories Ray Bradbury wrote to dream of the possibility of life on Mars.”

The drive confirmed the health of Curiosity’s mobility system and produced the rover’s first wheel tracks on Mars, documented in images taken after the drive. During a news conference at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., the mission’s lead rover driver, Matt Heverly, showed an animation derived from visualization software used for planning the first drive. “We have a fully functioning mobility system with lots of amazing exploration ahead,” Heverly said.

Curiosity will spend several more days of working beside Bradbury Landing, performing instrument checks and studying the surroundings, before embarking toward its first driving destination approximately 1,300 feet (400 meters) to the east-southeast.”

Curiosity is a much more complex vehicle than earlier Mars rovers. The testing and characterization activities during the initial weeks of the mission lay important groundwork for operating our precious national resource with appropriate care,” said Curiosity Project Manager Pete Theisinger of JPL. “Sixteen days in, we are making excellent progress.”

The science team has begun pointing instruments on the rover’s mast for investigating specific targets of interest near and far. The Chemistry and Camera (ChemCam) instrument used a laser and spectrometers this week to examine the composition of rocks exposed when the spacecraft’s landing engines blew away several inches of overlying material.

The instrument’s principal investigator, Roger Weins of Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico, reported that measurements made on the rocks in this scoured-out feature called Goulburn suggest a basaltic composition. “These may be pieces of basalt within a sedimentary deposit,” Weins said.

Curiosity began a two-year prime mission on Mars when the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft delivered the car-size rover to its landing target inside Gale Crater on August 5 PDT (August 6 EDT). The mission will use 10 science instruments on the rover to assess whether the area has ever offered environmental conditions favorable for microbial life.

In a career spanning more than 70 years, Ray Bradbury inspired generations of readers to dream, think and create. A prolific author of hundreds of short stories and nearly to 50 books, as well as numerous poems, essays, operas, plays, teleplays, and screenplays, Bradbury was one of the most celebrated writers of our time.

His groundbreaking works include “Fahrenheit 451,” “The Martian Chronicles,” “The Illustrated Man,” “Dandelion Wine,” and “Something Wicked This Way Comes.” He wrote the screenplay for John Huston’s classic film adaptation of “Moby Dick,” and was nominated for an Academy Award. He adapted 65 of his stories for television’s “The Ray Bradbury Theater,” and won an Emmy for his teleplay of “The Halloween Tree.”

JPL manages the Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The rover was designed, developed and assembled at JPL.

More information about Curiosity is online at: http://www.nasa.gov/msl

The article NASA Mars Curiosity Rover Begins Moving From Landing Site appeared first on The Toonari Post - News, Powered by the People!.