Satellite fall expected Friday
WASHINGTON, Sept. 22 (UPI) -- A 6.5-ton satellite falling out of orbit will hit Earth Friday, and 26 pieces of it have a good chance of surviving the heat of re-entry, NASA said.
The exact location of its re-entry is impossible to pinpoint because the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite travels thousands of miles in a matter of minutes, Mark Matney of NASA's Orbital Debris team told CNN.
On its Web site, NASA said the bus-sized 20-year-old satellite would not be flying over North America during the anticipated re-entry period.
Most of the satellite is aluminum that will melt and burn up during re-entry, but about half a ton of material is likely to make it through, the space agency said.
The chances of debris hitting anyone are slim, experts said.
"Most of these things fall in the water," Bill Ailor, an aerospace engineer at Aerospace Corp. in El Segundo, Calif., told the Los Angeles Times.
The company tracks uncontrolled objects leaving orbit.
Russia's Mir space station fell safely into the South Pacific in March 2001, and the U.S. space station Skylab disintegrated and tumbled into the Indian Ocean in July 1979.
Ancient Roman shipyard believed found
ROME, Sept. 22 (UPI) -- International researchers led by British archaeologists say they believe they've discovered a large Roman shipyard at Portus, the ancient port of Rome.
Scientists from the University of Southampton and the British School at Rome have uncovered the remains of a massive building close to the distinctive hexagonal basin or harbor at the center of the port complex, a university release said Thursday.
"At first we thought this large rectangular building was used as a warehouse, but our latest excavation has uncovered evidence that there may have been another, earlier use, connected to the building and maintenance of ships," Portus Project Director Simon Keay from the university said.
"Few Roman Imperial shipyards have been discovered and, if our identification is correct, this would be the largest of its kind in Italy or the Mediterranean."
The building dates from the 2nd century A.D. and would have stood about 475 feet by 200 feet, an area larger than a soccer field.
Large brick-faced concrete piers or pillars, some 9 feet wide and still partly visible, supported at least eight parallel bays with wooden roofs, the researchers said.
"This was a vast structure which could easily have housed wood, canvas and other supplies and certainly would have been large enough to build or shelter ships in," Keay said. "The scale, position and unique nature of the building lead us to believe it played a key role in shipbuilding activities."
YouTube videos to offer 3-D option
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Sept. 22 (UPI) -- The YouTube Internet video site says it is testing a feature to allow users viewing video clips to convert them to 3-D format.
Writing in a blog post, YouTube said users can click "Edit Info" on a video's page and select "3-D Video" to convert a two-dimension clip into 3-D, the Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday.
However, users will still need 3-D glasses to view the clips on most devices.
YouTube said it creates the 3-D video by measuring color and motion and combining two sets of images, the original and one it creates, to mimic the way a human eye perceives depth in the real world.
Engineers at YouTube owner Google said they had noted a steep rise in uploads from a new crop of 3-D-capable cellphones and camcorders.
The 3-D output can be viewed on a variety of devices including PCs, televisions and cellphone screens with differing and sometimes incompatible technologies.
"We wanted to make the barriers evaporate," Jonathan Huang, YouTube's product manager for 3-D, told The New York Times.
NASA to fund 'space taxis'
WASHINGTON, Sept. 22 (UPI) -- NASA says it will fund the development of at least two space taxi proposals that could send astronauts into orbit aboard U.S. vehicles by late 2016.
Draft terms of a contract with the goal of completed designs for such systems by 2014 were released by the space agency this week, Florida Today reported.
The request for proposals proves NASA's commitment "to outsource our space station transportation so NASA can focus its energy and resources on deep space exploration," Administrator Charles Bolden said in a statement.
California's SpaceX, one of four companies sharing $270 million in NASA funding to advance designs of spacecraft to fly people to and from the International Space Station, said it was reviewing the draft language.
Blue Origin, The Boeing Co. and Sierra Nevada Corp. Space Systems are the other companies involved.
Some commercial space advocates say they fear limited funding under the Obama administration's 2012 budget and new NASA contracting procedures could complicate or derail the design and development program.
"From a technical standpoint (the companies) are proceeding well, but there's a concern about both the future funding and how the contracting is going to be structured in this next phase," Jeff Foust, an industry analyst with Futron Corp., said.
Under the proposed contract companies would be awarded fixed payments for meeting technical milestones and completing a series of three system and safety reviews.
