AP - Two U.S. astronauts and a Russian crewmate blasted off successfully Wednesday on a mission to the international space station that will see the last ever shuttle visit to the orbiting lab.

Reuters - Two U.S. astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut blasted off aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket from Kazakhstan on Tuesday for a two-day trip to the International Space Station.

All that needs to be said is that this is the greatest You Tube video I have ever seen.

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SPACE.com - The latest Mars robot may be dead, but NASA scientists have plenty to keep them busy as they scout out four potential stomping grounds for an ambitious new rover pegged to be the next red planet explorer.

AP - A France-based satellite provider is halting broadcasts of the Hamas TV channel to Europe and parts of the Arab world because of concerns that it spreads incitement, a station official said Tuesday.

'Up, up the long delirious burning blue...' View from the Soyuz flame trench by 'Astro_Wheels,' astronaut Douglas Wheelock.

Two NASA astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut will launch to the International Space Station later today, and astronauts Douglas Wheelock has been able to get up close and personal with the Soyuz rocket that will take them there. He's taken a few pictures of his rocket from unusual vantage points and posted them on Twitter, and is sharing his prelaunch experiences, too (@Astro_Wheels). Wheelock has big shoes to fill in the Twitter and picture-taking department, as JAXA astronaut Soichi Noguchi set a new standard in making his time on board the ISS a shared experience through images and social media. More pics below, plus a newly released video by NASA of the landing of the Soyuz that brought the Noguchi, Soyuz Commander Oleg Kotov and TJ Creamer back home. It's a view of the landing not normally seen.
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AFP - A former Soviet SS-18 intercontinental missile lofted a trio of European micro-satellites into space on Wednesday, including a satellite to monitor the Sun's impact on climate change, France's National Centre for Space Studies (CNES) said.

Artist concept of Kepler in space. Credit: NASA/JPL

The Kepler spacecraft has found over 750 candidates for extrasolar planets, and that is just from data collected in the first 43 days of the spacecraft's observations. "This is the biggest release of candidate planets that has ever happened," said William Borucki, Kepler's lead scientist. "The number of candidate planets is actually greater than all the planets that have been discovered in the last 15 years."

This is an astounding amount of potential exoplanets from data taken during such a short period of time, however Borucki added that they expect only about 50% of these candidates to actually turn out to be planets, as some may be eclipsing binary stars or other artifacts in the data. But still, even half would be the biggest group discovery of exoplanets ever.
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AFP - The Hamas-run Al-Aqsa TV station on Tuesday protested a French decision to remove it from a major satellite provider within 48 hours because of "incitement to hatred."

The composite image from 11 images, each with 5 sec exposure, spaced by 35-50 sec. The magnitude of Hayabusa is estimated to be 21 mag. Credit: Subaru Telescope Team

The world watched and waited for the Hayabusa spacecraft to make its return to Earth on June 13, 2010 and the people of Japan — who built and launched the little spacecraft that could (and did!) — were especially hopeful in watching and waiting. Japan's Subaru Telescope (although located on Mauna Kea in Hawaii) turned its expectant eyes towards Hayabusa and captured the spacecraft's flight between the Moon and Earth in 11 different images.

A note from the Subaru Telescope team:
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SPACE.com - A Russian Soyuz spacecraft is poised to launch toward the International Space Station Tuesday to deliver three new members of the orbiting laboratory's multi-cultural crew.

ESA’s comet-chaser Rosetta is heading for a blind date with asteroid Lutetia. Rosetta does not yet know what Lutetia looks like up-close but beautiful or otherwise the two will meet on 10 July.

As the ISS circles Earth, it has begun tracking individual ships crossing the seas beneath. An experiment hosted by ESA’s Columbus module is testing the viability of monitoring global traffic from the Station’s orbit hundreds of kilometres up.

AFP - Japan's space agency has applied for a Guinness World Records listing after its Hayabusa space probe returned from a seven-year journey to an ancient asteroid, an official said Tuesday.

AFP - A space capsule that scientists hope is carrying asteroid dust, potentially revealing secrets about the origins of the solar system, will be flown back to Japan this week, officials said Tuesday.

AP - Scientists recovered a Japanese space capsule that landed in the Australian Outback after it traveled to an asteroid and hopefully obtained samples with clues into the evolution of the solar system.

Well how interesting, a shortage of rare earth metals and findings that Afghanistan may have $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits.
Now we are talking about Afghanistan's potential wealth even though Russia had done surveys years before.  The news shows are mentioning there is a concern about who is going to profit from this discovery.

Then there was a time when the USA was producing rare earth metals used in magnets but cut back production because China could export cheaper.  Now That China is developing, they have a greater need for their own use and it is reported that they are cutting back on exports.

How come I don't see anything about potential findings on our nearest neighbor in space, the "M...."?
http://lunar.arc.nasa.gov/results/gamres.htm
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/multimedia/lroimages/lroc-20100107-new-images.html
- LRK -

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http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/2010/06/on-mondays-newshour-26.html
ON THE NEWSHOUR -- June 14, 2010
On Monday's NewsHour ...

By: News Desk
snip
MINERAL RESOURCES IN AFGHANISTAN | A U.S. geologic survey has uncovered at least $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan. Margaret Warner talks to New York Times reporter James Risen on what the valuable natural resources could mean for the Afghan economy and the ongoing war with the Taliban.

RARE EARTH MINERALS AND TECHNOLOGY | Correspondent Kira Kay reports on the hunt for the rare earth metals, elements found almost exclusively in China, that are key to the U.S.'s emerging green technologies, despite their short supply.
snip
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The New York Times article.
- LRK -

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http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/14/world/asia/14minerals.html
U.S. Identifies Vast Mineral Riches in Afghanistan

By JAMES RISEN
Published: June 13, 2010

WASHINGTON — The United States has discovered nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan, far beyond any previously known reserves and enough to fundamentally alter the Afghan economy and perhaps the Afghan war itself, according to senior American government officials.

The previously unknown deposits — including huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and critical industrial metals like lithium  — are so big and include so many minerals that are essential to modern industry that Afghanistan could eventually be transformed into one of the most important mining centers in the world, the United States officials believe.
snip
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I watched the few seconds Jack Lifton was on.  He is concerned that there is now a shortage of rare earth materials that are needed in many applications.
- LRK -

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http://seekingalpha.com/instablog/65370-jack-lifton/76592-jack-lifton-will-be-on-the-pbs-new-hour-tonight-june-14-2010
Jack Lifton will be on the PBS New Hour Tonight, June 14, 2010
Jun 14, 2010 2:47 PM

I have just been informed that tonight's News Hour with Jim Lehrer will have a segment on rare elements that will include footage from the six hours of taping that a documentary crew did of me speaking in Los Angeles, Boston, and Beijing.

Let's see how many seconds of coverage come from six hours of taping.

I hope I do a credible job; I have not seen the segment nor have I seen any of the video tape.

snip
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Comments by Jack Lifton last year.
- LRK -

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http://seekingalpha.com/article/173627-rare-earth-metals-a-china-price
Rare Earth Metals: A China Price
 by: Jack Lifton  November 15, 2009

Today's Wall Street Journal has an article entitled: "China Starts New iron-Ore Talks." The article brings up the possibility that the Chinese market, the world's largest, by far, buyer of iron ore, may well be serviced with a "China price." This would be a price lower than that charged by the cartel of iron-ore miners, Anglo- Australia's BHP and Rio Tinto (RTP) and Brazil's VALE, which controls 70% of the world's iron-ore production, to its largest customers outside of China.

I am predicting that this "China pricing" will indeed come into being, and that China will reciprocate by bringing into being a two-tiered pricing for metals within its control, in the production of which it dominates the world, the first of which could well be the rare earth metals. I predict that metals in which China dominates world production will be sold for la lower price within China that they are sold in the rest-of-the-world market.

A lower price charged to Chinese customers, producing products for the Chinese domestic market, for rare earth metals produced in China will mean that Chinese manufacturers of end use products critically dependent on the rare earth metals will be able to continue producing those products for the Chinese domestic market without a cost penalty.  Any rare earth metals still exported from China or produced outside of China will be able to be sold for much higher prices in the non-Chinese market.

snip
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Rare earth elements.
- LRK -

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rare_earth_element
Rare earth element

As defined by IUPAC, rare earth elements or rare earth metals are a collection of seventeen chemical elements in the periodic table, namely scandium, yttrium, and the fifteen lanthanides.[1]  Scandium and yttrium are considered rare earths since they tend to occur in the same ore deposits as the lanthanides and exhibit similar chemical properties.

The term "rare earth" arises from the rare earth minerals from which they were first isolated, which were uncommon oxide-type minerals (earths) found in Gadolinite extracted from one mine in the village of Ytterby, Sweden. However, with the exception of the highly-unstable promethium, rare earth elements are found in relatively high concentrations in the earth's crust, with cerium being the 25th most abundant element in the earth's crust at 68 parts per million.

snip
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Good news, bad news, and what is talked about on the news, hmmm, any political overtones?
Naw, no way, tsch, tsch.
- LRK -

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http://www.dailytech.com/Chinas+Stranglehold+on+Rare+Earth+Metals+Could+Choke+EV+Hybrids/article18274.htm
China's Stranglehold on Rare Earth Metals Could Choke EV, Hybrids
Jason Mick (Blog) - April 30, 2010 11:41 AM

China outguessed the U.S. when it came to rare earth metals -- it may take 15 years to bring U.S. mines online

The auto industry seems to be moving towards embracing hybrids and electric vehicles.  One needs only look at examples like the 2011 Nissan LEAF and 2011 Chevy Volt, or the the new Chevy Volt MPV5 EV-crossover concept.

However, there's growing concern that the industry is casting a rather blind eye to what exactly the impact of its leap might be.  While about a third of U.S. oil comes from unstable regions like Nigeria and the Middle East, EVs present perhaps an equally challenging geopolitical resource problem.

According to Robert Bryce, author of the book "Power Hungry: The Myths of ‘Green’ Energy and the Real Fuels of the Future", the current third-generation Toyota Prius uses 25 lbs. (11 kg) of expensive rare-earth metals -- approximately twice the amount found in a standard vehicle.

snip
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Rare earth element
稀土元素

Thanks for looking up with me.
- LRK -

Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
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==============================================================
http://www.livescience.com/technology/Rare-Earth-Elements-100614.html
 What Are Rare Earth Elements?
By Jeremy Hsu, Life's Little Mysteries Staff Writer
posted: 14 June 2010 02:05 pm ET

Recently discovered mineral deposits in Afghanistan may be worth $1 trillion. The deposits are reported to contain rare earth elements.

The so-called rare earths – which include exotic-sounding elements like dysprosium, cerium, and ytterbium – are actually more abundant than other familiar metals, but tend to become concentrated in less exploitable ore deposits, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Consequently, most of the world’s supply of these elements comes from only a few sources.

Consumers may not know that their computer hard drives, TV screens, and smartphones contain rare earth elements. The often-irreplaceable metals also support everything from green technologies to military hardware.

snip
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http://www.americanrare.com/
American Rare Earths and Materials, Corp.

Since 2002, our company has been commercializing Rare Earth metals.  This has led to a unique vertical integration that began with the extraction of pure Scandium and its application to sports equipment and apparel. Today, that expertise has allowed American Rare Earths and Materials, Corp. to become a leader in commercializing Rare Earth metals and quickly delivering revolutionary new products to consumer and industrial markets. Our objective is to become North America's best, most reliable source for Rare Earth metals. We are developing opportunities to distribute Rare Earths like Scandium, Neodymium, Europium and Lithium that will help major industries launch major industrial brands — including categories like hybrid cars, flat screen televisions, LED light bulbs and wind turbines. We will also have significant exposure to mega categories such as transportation, shipbuilding, power transmission, automotive and aerospace.
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WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK

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AP - NASA says a research team has demonstrated a prototype for an improved tsunami prediction system.

SPACE.com - The sun's temper ebbs and flows on what scientists had thought was a pretty predictable cycle, but lately our closest star has been acting up.

n illustration of what Mars might have looked like some 3.5 billion years ago when an ocean likely covered one-third of the planet’s surface, according to a new University of Colorado at Boulder study. (Illustration by University of Colorado)

Like rising waters from a flood, the evidence for past water on Mars — and large amounts of it – keep mounting. The latest study, which combined the analysis of water-related features including scores of delta deposits and thousands of river valleys with a look at the possibility of a global hydrosphere on early Mars, found that a vast ocean likely covered one-third of the surface of Mars some 3.5 billion years ago.

"Collectively, these results support the existing theories regarding the extent and formation time of an ancient ocean on Mars," said Gaetano Di Achille and Brian Hynek from the Univesity of Colorado at Boulder, in their article in Nature Geoscience, "and imply the surface conditions during the time probably allowed the occurrence of a global and active hydrosphere integrating valley networks, deltas and a vast ocean as major components of an Earth-like hydrologic cycle."
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