Universe Today - October 30, 2001

A revolutionary engine, the HyShot scramjet, was tested this morning near the Australian city of Adelaide, but so far, researchers aren't sure if it worked or not. If everything went as planned, the HyShot would have kicked in once the rocket reached several times the speed of sound, using oxygen in the Earth's atmosphere as fuel (conventional rockets have to carry their own oxygen). If successful, the experiment will help to develop future scramjet aircraft fly many times the speed of sound.

NASA is working on tiny bulldozer rovers that could someday visit Mars to scoop up material like their Earth counterparts. The tiny 3.6 kg earthmovers would mimic the scoop-and-dump design of a bulldozer and dump truck. If underground water sources are discovered on Mars, a team of digging rovers could excavate the area; or they could be used to prepare a future landing site for a human mission.

The three guests visiting the International Space Station will head for home on Tuesday evening on board the station's older Soyuz lifeboat. Cosmonauts Victor Afanasyev and Konstantine Kozeev, and ESA astronaut Claudie Haignere will climb into the Soyuz at 2230 GMT (5:30pm EST), and land in Central Asia 6 hours later. These will be the last visitors to the station before the crew of Expedition 4 is brought up by the space shuttle Endeavour.