The Large Underground Xenon Detector (LUX) is a 370 kg liquid xenon physics experiment that aims to directly detect interactions between Weakly Interacting Massive Particle (WIMP) dark matter and ordinary matter on Earth.

Despite the wealth of evidence supporting the existence of non-baryonic dark matter in the Universe, dark matter in our galaxy has never been directly detected on Earth. The LUX experiment utilizes a large detector mass in a time-projection chamber (TPC) configuration to identify individual particle interactions in the liquid xenon volume, which will allow it to look for faint dark matter interactions with unprecedented sensitivity.

The LUX experiment is located 4,850 ft (about 1 mile) underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (formerly the Deep Underground Science and Engineering Laboratory) in Lead, South Dakota. Underground, the detector is located in the Davis campus, the former site of the Nobel-prize winning Homestake neutrino experiment led by Raymond Davis. The LUX experiment needs to be operated underground in order to reduce signal background caused by high-energy cosmic rays at the Earth's surface.

The LUX experimental collaboration is composed of more than 100 scientists and engineers across 18 institutions in the US and Europe.

The detector assembly began in late 2009. The fully assembled detector was transported from the surface laboratory to the underground space in a two-day operation in the summer of 2012.

Aerospace Research & Engineering Systems Institute, Inc. (ARES Institute) is an American  501 (c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit organization  founded to promote space exploration and STEM education through hands-on research projects involving industry and students of all ages. Our mission includes public outreach through media activities, including our flagship publication, Zero-G News.

ARES Institute came to life in 2003 in the wake of the Columbia accident and recognition of the need to increase public support for space exploration as well as STEM education in America’s schools. One of the ways we do this is by creating unique projects utilizing nanosatellite technologies to design and build hardware and experiments that may actually fly in space.

Currently (Oct. 2013), we are working on a project we have named “LunarSail”. 

LunarSail is a cubesat-based space mission established by the Aerospace Research & Engineering Systems Institute, Inc. (ARES Institute).

LunarSail is designed to use a solar sail to propel a small spacecraft from Earth orbit onto a lunar orbit rendezvous trajectory and execute orbital insertion around the Moon.  A primary objective of the LunarSail mission is to serve as a testbed for cubesat operations beyond low Earth orbit and applications requiring cislunar or interplanetary rendezvous. It is a proposed cubesat mission intended to demonstrate practical application of solar sail technology for propulsion, trajectory/attitude control and rendezvous with another body in space. With LunarSail, we will take advantage of the cubesat platform to conduct a first of its kind mission to use a solar sail to send a spacecraft to the Moon and then utilize the sail's unique characteristics to navigate into lunar orbit.

LunarSail will be the first solar sail to enter Lunar orbit. The first crowdsourced mission to cislunar space. 

Generation Orbit Launch Services, Inc. is a private company offering small satellite launch services.

GOLS serves micro and nano satellite developers struggling to find dedicated and cost-effective space access by offering fast, flexible and affordable primary launch manifesting through GOLauncher, an air-launched space transportation system specifically designed for small payloads.

The Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), informally called Mangalyaan  by the media, is a planned Mars orbiter to be launched in November 2013 by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).

The mission is a "technology demonstrator" project aiming to develop the technologies required for design, planning, management and operations of an interplanetary mission. The Mars Orbiter Mission probe is set to lift-off from First Launch Pad at Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, using a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket on November 5, 2013. This will be India's first mission to Mars.

Dauria Aerospace is a satellite manufacturer. It manufactures low cost small satellites.

The reduction of costs combined with enhanced performance capabilities makes constellations of satellites financially viable, thus enabling operational services and creating new applications. The company currently (Oct 2013) has two satellite development centers:

• in Skolkovo, Moscow
• in NASA Ames Research Center, California

Dauria, which is headquartered in Munich, is part of the space cluster at the Skolkovo Innovation Center on the outskirts of Moscow.

World View Enterprises, Inc. is a new venture (date: Oct. 2013) headed by veteran space entrepreneurs plans to send tourists on a balloon up to an altitude of 19 miles, to give them the kind of spacey view that Felix Baumgartner saw last year — at a price of about $75,000 a ticket.

Arizona-based World View Enterprises said it would offer 30-kilometer-high balloon rides starting no earlier than 2016. It plans to start selling tickets sometime in the next few months, even as it continues development of its balloon and pressurized gondola in Tucson.

The company unveiled its plans on Tuesday 22 Oct. 2013, after the Federal Aviation Administration determined that the venture would follow the rules that govern commercial spaceflight rather than the more stringent rules for atmospheric balloon trips. World View says has completed some component testing for the balloon system and will begin subscale testing early next year.

The World View balloon wouldn't get anywhere near the internationally accepted 100-kilometer (62-mile) boundary of outer space, and riders wouldn't feel any zero-gravity sensation. But the experience would give them the kind of black-sky view associated with high-altitude balloon flights — like the ones that have put cameras, action figures and a Hello Kitty doll into the stratosphere.

Living With a Star (LWS) is a NASA scientific program to study those aspects of the connected Sun-Earth system that directly affect life and society.

LWS is a crosscutting initiative with goals and objectives relevant to NASA's Exploration Initiative, as well as to NASA's Strategic Enterprises. The program is managed by the Heliophysics Division of NASA's Science Mission Directorate. 

LWS is composed of three major components: Scientific investigations on spaceflight platforms study different regions of the Sun, interplanetary space, and geospace; an applied science program Space Environment Testbeds where protocols and components are tested; and a Targeted Research and Technology Program.

The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) is a NASA mission which will observe the Sun for over five years.

Launched on February 11, 2010, the observatory is part of the Living With a Star (LWS) program. The goal of the LWS program is to develop the scientific understanding necessary to effectively address those aspects of the connected Sun–Earth system directly affecting life and society. The goal of the SDO is to understand the influence of the Sun on the Earth and near-Earth space by studying the solar atmosphere on small scales of space and time and in many wavelengths simultaneously. SDO has been investigating how the Sun's magnetic field is generated and structured, how this stored magnetic energy is converted and released into the heliosphere and geospace in the form of solar wind, energetic particles, and variations in the solar irradiance.

Himawari or Geostationary Meteorological Satellite (GMS), was a series of Japanese weather satellites operated by the Japan Meteorological Agency.

The first GMS satellite was launched 14 July 1977 from Cape Canaveral. The fifth and final satellite was launched 18 March 1995 from Tanegashima. The satellites were replaced by the Multifunctional Transport Satellite series.