UK 'to lead moon landing' funded by public contributions
Back to the future: 55 years after the Moon landing could a UK-led probe set down on the Lunar surface
A British-led consortium has outlined its plans to land a robotic probe on the Moon in 10 years' time.
Its aim is to raise £500m for the project from donations by the public.
In return, donors would be able to have photos, text and their DNA included in a time capsule which will be buried under the lunar surface.
Lunar Mission One aims to survey the Moon's south pole to see if a human base can be set up in the future.
The plan has received the endorsement of a host of well-known scientists and organisations. These include Prof Brian Cox, the Astronomer Royal Lord Rees, and Prof Monica Grady of the Open University.
David Iron, who is leading the project, said he was setting up the initiative because governments were increasingly finding it difficult to fund space missions.
"Anyone in the world will be able to get involved for as little as just a few pounds. Lunar Mission One will make a huge contribution to our understanding of the origins of our planet and the Moon," he said.
Immortality
The team hope to raise £600,000, using the international crowd funding web service Kickstarter, in the next four weeks to fund the initial phase of the project.
For the next four years, funds will be received through contributions from the public, who will be able to buy digital storage space on the lander for their own personal text messages, pictures, music and videos. They will also be able to pay for an immortality of sorts by sending up a strand of their hair, which the project team claim could survive for one billion years.
The plan is for the lander to set down in 2024 on the Moon's South Pole.
The cost of a short message will be a few pounds, a compressed photo will be a few tens of pounds while a short compressed video will be about £200. The cost of sending a hair sample will be around £50.
The lander will also contain a public digital archive of human history and science which will be compiled as a legacy which will survive even if our species becomes extinct.
Mr Iron believes the fact that people will have a stake in the mission will make it all the more engaging.
Legacy
"The project's long-term legacy will be a new way of funding space exploration," he told BBC News.
"Rather than just watching the mission, people can be directly involved, not just through funding but helping to make key decisions such as the selection of the landing site or what should be included in the public archive."
All the money raised by the project will go to funding the mission, and any money left over will be put into a charitable trust whose proceeds will be spent on future space exploration. Mr Iron described it as "a Wellcome Trust for space exploration".
The mission will also have a scientific component. The aim is to drill and analyse a sample from underneath the lunar surface, something which has never been done before.
A key aim of the project is to educate and inspire a new generation to become engaged in science in the same way that the Apollo Moon landings did in the 1960s and 70s, and as indeed the Rosetta landing did just last week.
"I really hope that it has the same effect as Rosetta that so gripped the world," said Prof Monica Grady, of the Open University, whose sheerenthusiasm and joy at Philae's landing was caught on BBC News.
Veteran Japanese actor Ken Takakura dies at 83
Ken Takakura found fame with his brooding acting style in Japanese yakuza and detective roles
Veteran Japanese actor Ken Takakura has died of lymphoma aged 83.
The actor passed away at a Tokyo hospital on 10 November, his office said on Tuesday.
Known as the "Clint Eastwood" of Japan, Takakura was renowned for his brooding style and stoic roles in several Japanese yakuza and action movies.
He also starred as a tough Japanese police officer alongside US actor Michael Douglas in the 1989 Ridley Scott film "Black Rain".
Among his well-known films were "The Yellow Handkerchief" and "Poppoya" (The Railway Man), for which he won the best actor prize at the Montreal World Film Festival.
Takakura also went on to play a lead role in Chinese director Zhang Yimou's 2005 film "Riding Alone for Thousands of Miles".
He was affectionately known as "Ken-san" to his friends and fans alike
Pictured here with famed Chinese director Zhang Yimou (right), Takakura was also popular in China
In Japan, national broadcaster NHK opened its news programme at noon with the news of Takakura's death. The Asahi Shimbun, a major daily, tweeted condolences and called him "one of Japan's greatest actors".
Online, there was an outpouring of grief as fans took to social media to pay tribute to "Ken-san".
Japanese actor Takafumi Sasano said on Twitter that his dream of acting with Takakura would now "never come true".
Tadanobu Asano, best known for his roles in Electric Dragon 80.000 V and Marvel action movie Thor, tweeted: "Rest in peace. This makes me so sad. Thank you so much."
Other people referred online to Takakura's appearance in a 1984 TV commercial for life insurance in which he famously declared: "I'm an awkward guy."
Many Japanese tweets quoted that phrase, while The Mainichi Shimbun, another daily, immediately carried a piece with the phrase "awkward guy" in the title.
The paper said Takakura represented the self-denying stoicism and generosity of spirit which resonated with Japanese audiences.
"නයිට් රයිඩර් නිර්මාතෘ මියයයි" Knight Rider creator Glen Larson dies aged 77
ලංකාවේ 1980 දශකයේ ඉමහත් ජනප්රියත්වයට පත් ටෙලි චිත්රපට මාලාවක්වූ සුප්රකට නයිට් රයිඩර් කතා මාලාවේ නිර්මාණකරු ග්ලේන් ලාර්සොන් පිළිකා රෝගයෙන් පීඩා විඳ පසුගිය සිකුරාදා ලොස් ඇන්ජලීස් නුවරදී අභවප්රාප්ත විය. මියයන විට ඔහු 77 වන වියේ පසුවිය.නයිට් රයිඩර් කතා මාලාව 1982 සැප්තැම්බර් සිට 1986 අගෝස්තු දක්වා ඇමරිකාවේ ඉහළ ප්රසිද්ධියක් අත්කරගත් අතර ලංකාව ඇතුළු ලෝකයේ රටවල් ගණනාවක විකාශයවිය.
1937 වසරේ ජනවාරි 03 වැනි දින කැලිපෝනියාවේදී උපත ලද ග්ලේන්ගේ මව ස්වීඩන් කාන්තාවක් වන අතර පියා ඇමරිකන් හා ස්වීඩන් මිශ්ර ජාතිකයෙකි.
දෙවරක් විවාහ වුණු ග්ලේන් මිය යන විට වත්මන් බිරිඳ ජෙනී, සහෝදරයා සහ දරුවන් 9 දෙනාද ඔහු අසල සිටියහ.
Prolific TV writer and producer Glen Larson has died at the age of 77.
The executive was responsible for a string of action-packed hits, including Knight Rider, Magnum PI, Quincy ME and Battlestar Galactica.
Knight Rider's David Hasselhoff paid tribute on Twitter, saying: "(He) had seven TV series at one time! Without him there'd be no KITT & Michael."
Larson died of oesophageal cancer at the University of California, Los Angeles Medical Center on Friday night.
Also an accomplished singer and composer, he co-wrote the theme songs for many of his shows, including the frequently sampled tune from Knight Rider and the orchestral score for Battlestar Galactica.
Larson was behind some of biggest series of the 1970s and 80s, including the original incarnation of Battlestar Galactica
He was nominated three times for an Emmy, once for a Grammy (for Battlestar Galactica), and received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1985.
TV powerhouse
Larson was born on 3 January, 1937, to a Swedish immigrant mother and a Swedish-American father in Long Beach, California.
His entertainment career started in the 1950s, when he was a member of the all-male quartet the Four Preps.
He helped write and compose some of their hits, including 26 Miles (Santa Catalina), Big Man and Down by the Station.
Where he would make a lasting mark, however, was in television in the 1960s, working on The Fugitive, Alias Smith and Jones and The Six Million Dollar Man.
Magnum PI, with Tom Selleck, aired for eight seasons from 1980 to 1988
By 1968, he had worked his way up to an associate producer on the series It Takes A Thief and quickly rose through the ranks to produce some of the biggest TV shows of the time.
At one point, he had five shows airing at once, his son said.
A list of nearly four dozen TV credits also includes The Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries, BJ and the Bear, The Fall Guy and the TV movie of The Six Million Dollar Man.
Larson leaves behind his wife, Jeannie Pledger, his brother, and nine children from two different marriages.
How To Make A Global Travel Resources And Booking Software
| There are various software that you can actually use for your business nowadays. If you are in a travel agency, then you are surely the one in need of global travel resources and booking software. Making this particular software is actually a walk in the park. Here are tips that you can take advantage of for that. First of all, you should consider selecting a database, web development, and even middleware software. These are the materials that you will be needing when you wish to develop the software that you can use for your business. You have to know what is the commonly used ones in your market so that you can make the correct choice. You should then proceed on making your own database diagram. This database diagram is a reflection of what the database should look like. This will show off how the database is to be structured. You need to have this database diagram first before you go into the actual building of the system you want to make. There are different tables that you need to add to this diagram. These are tables of what entries you want to put into your database. You have to be concise and informative when it comes to your tables because you have to record entries as accurately as possible. Add as much tables as you think necessary. Do not limit yourself to individual tables. You also need to make join tables so that you can pull up records easily with the said program. The join tables will be added to the database diagram too. You will have to pull up your records from the said database. Making a mistake here will ruin all the efforts you have put in so far. Finishing your tables means that you can now proceed to making the actual database. When you want to build your tables, you will have to follow the database diagram that you have made beforehand. This is the easiest and simplest way for you to complete your database. Put placeholder data in it to ensure that you made no mistakes. You need some HTML web pages for the said program. These are the web pages that are necessary for you to navigate the said system. When it comes to the web pages, you need to put in your query page, introduction, submit page, documentation, response page, and such. The web pages should be good too. Decide on what middleware language will be used to pull up the information from your database's join table. You will then have to reflect the information pulled up into the web page. When it comes to the middleware language, there are surely a lot of them that you can use. There are languages like PHP or MySQL for this. You have to test the database, the web pages, as well as the middleware. This is where you will be testing the quality of what you have made. You should not skip on this part. It is a must for you to do this meticulously because this is what you will determine whether there are no bugs in your software. If there are bugs, you need to fix them. About the Author: When you are looking for information about global travel resources and booking, you can pay a visit to our web pages online here today. Details are available at http://www.travelostay.com now. Tips For Selecting Travel Agencies Near Houston
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