If you’re short of transport solutions, why not get your new friends to drop things off for you if they’re going the right way? That was NASA’s thinking when they heard that the Indian space program was doing a moon launch, and had a bit of extra space for a few instruments from NASA’s inventory of goodies. This may well be the first of many such collaborative projects.

Space – you’re going to need teamwork up there, under some of the most dangerous circumstances humans have ever been exposed to. So best to train before you go and iron out the creases somewhere not quite so risky…like underwater. The NEEMO project is a NASA training program that puts potential astronauts under the ocean to practice a variety of tasks similar to those they would have to use on the moon, or another planet such as Mars.

Twelve measly bits? Small beer in the world of traditional semiconductor logic, I’ll grant you. But the successful decohering of a twelve-bit quantum register is a big step forward in quantum computing.

Robotic limbs based on the ‘opposable thumb’ design tend to damage delicate stuff. So researchers have turned to the sea for inspiration, and are basing robotic limbs on octopus tentacles – ideal for probing into awkward and narrow spaces as well as picking up fragile things.

Pete Worden has been the director of NASA Ames for two days, but he’s already making a big noise. Over at the International Space Development Conference, he’s been plugging not just private sector involvement in lunar missions, but also ‘robots that build robots’ for constructing habitats on the Moon. A von Neumann fan in a position of power – that’s music to my ears.