Magnetic Shields to Protect Spaceships From Re-Entry Friction Heat [Space]

The Europeans are developing a magnetic shield that will protect spaceships when entering the Earth's atmosphere.

The new magnetic heat shield—developed by EADS Astrium, the German aerospace center, and the European Space Agency—is expected to complement or replace traditional ceramic heat shields entirely. The field will be generated by a super-conducting coil, deflecting atmosphere particles from the surface of the spaceship and, therefore, eliminating friction.
If everything goes as they expect, it will be tested with a Russian Volna launcher in the next decade, which will enter the atmosphere at Mach 21.
[Gizmodo]

John Carmack's Armadillo Finally Wins Lunar Landing Challenge [Space]

After crashing the last time, Armadillo Aerospace won the $1,000,000 Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge this Saturday. Needless to say, Doom-creator, Armadillo's head, and überspacenerd John Carmack was veehee happy:

Since the Lunar Lander Challenge is quite demanding in terms of performance, with a few tweaks our Scorpius vehicle actually has the capability to travel all the way to space. We'll be moving quickly to do higher-altitude tests, and we can go up to about 6000 feet here at our home base in Texas before we'll have to head to New Mexico where we can really push the envelope. We already have scientific payloads from universities lined up to fly as well, so this will be an exciting next few months for commercial spaceflight.

Scorpius was able to complete the challenge, flying the 180 seconds required to escape from the Moon's surface and reach lunar orbit. [Space.com]