NASA said the work on its historic 230-foot-wide antenna, which has received data and sent commands to deep space missions for more than 40 years, will involve replacing part of the hydrostatic bearing assembly that enables the antenna to rotate horizontally.

Officials said the engineering plans call for lifting about 9 million pounds of instruments approximately 0.2 inches so workers can replace the steel runner, walls and supporting grout.

The operation, which will cost about $1.25 million, has a design life of 20 years and is expected to be completed by November.

“This antenna has been a workhorse for … over 40 years,” said Alaudin Bhanji, Deep Space Network project manager at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif. “It has provided a critical lifeline to dozens of missions, while enabling scientific results that have enriched the hearts and minds of generations. We want it to continue doing so.”

NASA said it built the Mars antenna when spacecraft began venturing beyond Earth’s orbit, requiring more powerful communications tools. The Mars antenna was the first of the giant antennas designed to receive weak signals and transmit very strong ones far into space.

More information about the Deep Space Network is available at http://deepspace.jpl.nasa.gov/dsn/index.html.

Copyright 2010 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI’s prior written consent.

Preliminary measurements from data gathered at four universities and several agencies showed the massive earthquake also shifted other parts of South America as far apart as the Falkland Islands and Fortaleza, Brazil.

Researchers said the earthquake — the fifth-most-powerful since seismic instruments have been available — moved Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina and across the continent from the quake’s epicenter, about 1 inch to the west. Chile’s capital, Santiago, moved about 11 inches to the west-southwest.

The research team deduced the cities’ movement by comparing precise global positioning satellite locations known prior to the major quake to those of nearly 10 days later.

Ohio State University Professor Mike Bevis, who has led a project since 1993 that has been measuring crustal motion and deformation in the Central and Southern Andes, said the earthquake “will arguably become one of the, if not the most important great earthquake yet studied.”

The researchers — including scientists from the University of Memphis, the California Institute of Technology, the University of Hawaii and several South American universities and institutes — prepared a map showing the relative movement of locations after the Chilean earthquake. That map is available at http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/chilequakemap.htm.

Copyright 2010 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI’s prior written consent.

The “Space Communication and Navigation,” or SCaN, simulation offers a virtual 3-D experience to visualize how data travels along various space communication paths. NASA says it allows viewers to dock the space shuttle at the International Space Station, experience a virtual trip to Mars or a lunar impact, and explore images of star formations taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.

“The elaborate space communications networks that connect scientists and engineers with NASA’s spacecraft is essential to all of NASA’s missions and can be a challenging concept to comprehend,” said Barbara Adde, a NASA policy and strategic communications manager. “This simulation helps explain this complex infrastructure in an engaging way by using an interactive 3-D game.”

The simulation is designed to excite young people about space and NASA’s missions.

“Making this interactive simulation available to young people is important and may lead them to consider a career in engineering, science or information technology as it relates to space,” said Chris Kemp, chief information officer at NASA’s Ames Research Center.

SCaN is available at http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/3d_resources/spacecomm.html.

Copyright 2010 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI’s prior written consent.

Dawn Brancheau, 40, the trainer at SeaWorld Orlando, was killed when Tilikum, the 6-ton Orca, grabbed her by her ponytail and pulled her underwater where she drowned Feb. 24, the Orlando Sentinel reported.

SeaWorld Parks & Entertainment Inc. said it hopes to complete its safety and training review sometime this month.

“It is likely that Tilikum will return to shows, but it’s premature to acknowledge that at this point,” said SeaWorld spokesman Fred Jacobs.

Tilikum, who is twice as large as the next biggest Orca at SeaWorld Orlando, was linked to two other drownings, one in 1991 and the other in 1999, the Sentinel reported.

SeaWorld has resumed killer whale performances but says it will not allow trainers in the water with any orcas until the safety review is done.

Copyright 2010 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI’s prior written consent.

Purdue University Professor Jay Melosh refutes recent alternative hypotheses to the dinosaur extinction.

Melosh is among a panel of 41 experts from Europe, the United States, Mexico, Canada and Japan that evaluated new core samples from ocean and land sites.

“We find that alternative hypotheses are inadequate to explain the abrupt mass extinction and that the Chicxulub impact hypothesis has grown stronger than ever,” Melosh said. “The impact hypothesis has been widely accepted by the scientific community, but there has still been some debate, and we continue to examine the evidence.”

About 20 years ago an impact crater more than 125 miles wide was discovered in Yucatan, Mexico, and is thought to have caused the mass extinction 65 million years ago. However, some scientists suggest that event occurred 300,000 years earlier and could not have been the cause. Those scientists suggest active volcanoes led to global cooling and acid rainfall that killed the dinosaurs.

The new findings are reported in the journal Science.

Copyright 2010 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI’s prior written consent.

The $60 million, one-year contract extension with the Science Applications International Corp. calls for the Houston company to provide support to help ensure safety, reliability, maintainability and quality in the International Space Station, space shuttle and Constellation programs.

Work under the contract will be performed at Johnson, the Kennedy Space Center in Florida and NASA’s White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico.

Copyright 2010 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI’s prior written consent.

Sardine is part of the staple diet in Brazil’s coastal areas and most of last year’s catch of 100,000 tons was unloaded in the states of Rio do Janeiro, Santa Catarina and Sao Paulo, MercoPress reported.

However, overfishing blights some 80 percent of marine species in Brazilian waters and despite warnings and exhortations to the fishing industry, yields in excess of recommended quantities are a common occurrence.

The problem of fishing has reached crisis proportions in Argentina, where hake yields in excess of recommended levels now a pose a threat to preservation of the biomass in the seas — a problem now familiar to Brazilians as well.

Overfishing put Brazil’s sardine stocks at risk in the 1990s but a conservation program restored the biomass somewhat, only to be depleted again.

Fishing authorities have been struggling to enforce two bans on fishing each year, from the middle of June to the end of July and again from November to February. The first ban is geared to help regeneration of the biomass to safe levels and the second is to facilitate sardines to develop to an ideal catch size, experts said.

Officials said Brazil might need to start importing sardines if its domestic consumption kept rising at the current pace.

Meanwhile, Argentina is trying to restrain fishing in Patagonia’s San Jorge Gulf to preserve stocks of the common hake. But the conservation aim is challenged by fishing targets set by the Argentine Federal Fisheries Council, which plans to increase the yield by 27 percent this year.

Argentina’s government has been exploring ways of regenerating the country’s fishing industry. One of the investment initiatives calls for a Russian company, Sturgeon and Caviar, to set up a sturgeon farm in the La Rioja province. The technique of breeding sturgeon, until recently specific to the Caspian Sea, was pioneered about five years ago in Uruguay.

As caviar production in the Caspian dwindles and is threatened with extinction, the projects in Argentina and Uruguay are aimed at saving the fish, if not the heavily Caspian Sea.

Latin American partners of Russia hope the methods applied for sturgeon farming may help lead the way to a better management of Latin America’s own endangered fish stocks, including those affected by overfishing.

Copyright 2010 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI’s prior written consent.

Live Earth, organizer of the Dow Live Earth Run for Water; Pacific Sports, race director for the Los Angeles event; and Atlanta Track Club, race director for the Atlanta event, announced Monday that Etheridge will perform live at the Los Angeles eent and Thomas will perform in Atlanta.

The Dow Live Earth Run for Water is a series of 6km run/walks, culminating with water education villages and live musical performances.

“I’m a long-time environmental advocate and believe strongly that it is our duty as a society and as individuals to preserve our planet and its resources,” Etheridge said in a statement. “I want to lend my name and time to this event because the global water crisis is an environmental issue that affects nearly 1 billion people on the planet and through this event we can raise awareness and money to help address it.”

“I am thrilled to be participating in this important event to bring clean, safe drinking water to the women and children around the world walking 6km every day to sustain their families,” Thomas said. “I encourage the Atlanta community to come out on April 18 because together we can make a difference in the lives of so many.”

The events are to take place in nearly 100 cities across 50 countries around the world April 18 to raise awareness and funds to help solve the global water crisis, organizers said.

Copyright 2010 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI’s prior written consent.

Milwaukee’s Johnson Controls, which is overseeing the Empire State Building retrofit project, with a team of energy efficiency experts including the Clinton Climate Initiative, Jones Lang LaSalle, and Rocky Mountain Institute, announced Wednesday that California’s Serious Materials was chosen for the massive window project.

Serious Materials will reuse all the existing windows in the 102-story New York City landmark and create super-insulating glass units.

During the nine-month construction period, Serious will occupy a 5,000 sq. ft. space in the building, which will serve as the project’s processing and production area. To reduce noise, the company will install its QuietRock soundproof drywall product in its working space. The window retrofitting is expected to begin within the next 45 days.

“When we heard that retrofitting the dual-pane windows was a key component of the cost-efficient upgrade program, we went to work and came up with a solution never before attempted,” Kevin Surace, chief executive officer of Serious Materials told Contract Magazine.

“Most people throw out the glass and start anew,” Surace said. “It wasn’t cheaper to do this but it was the right thing for the planet.”

The super-insulating windows will reduce energy use and produce savings “that will payback in three years,” said Iain Campbell, vice president and general manager, Global Energy & WorkPlace Solutions, Johnson Controls, in a statement.

Surace said he’s seen a 50 percent growth trend in the last few years toward retrofitting initiatives.

“We expect to use this model with other major efficiency projects throughout the world with customers who want to save real money in their buildings,” he said.

The overall greening makeover of the Empire State Building will cost $500 million by the time it’s completed in 2013. Other measures in the eight-part project include upgrading the air, water and lighting systems as well as tenant energy management.

The project is expected to save $4.4 million per year in energy costs and save 105,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide over the next 15 years.

According to Serious Materials’ Web site, the Empire State Building will be more energy efficient than 90 percent of all office buildings and use half the energy per square foot of an average building.

“The Empire State building represents a model to others who may look to emulate what is being done at this landmark building from an energy efficiency standpoint,” Campbell said.

Copyright 2010 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI’s prior written consent.

Environment Minister Daniel Shewchuk announced in Iqaluit the existing quota of 105 bears per year will be reduced by 10 for the next four years, effective this year, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported.

The hunting area is in Baffin Bay, which separates northeastern Canada from Greenland.

Biologists say the number of polar bears in the area is shrinking, but Inuit hunters maintain the population is growing, the CBC said.

On Tuesday, Shewchuk told reporters he had written to 175 countries asking them to vote against a U.S.-sponsored ban on the commercial trade of polar bear products. The Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species will vote on the proposal later this month in Doha, Qatar, the CBC said.

Copyright 2010 United Press International, Inc. (UPI). Any reproduction, republication, redistribution and/or modification of any UPI content is expressly prohibited without UPI’s prior written consent.