Researchers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center have received funding for a project to see if lasers can be used to capture stardust. The tests will be conducted on robotic space missions.

“Though a mainstay in science fiction, and Star Trek in particular, laser-based trapping isn’t fanciful or beyond current technological know-how,” said Paul Stysley, a laser engineer at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center.

The original thought was for a tractor beam that did a little more, but reality soon intruded. “The original thought was that we could use tractor beams for cleaning up orbital debris,” Stysley added. “But to pull something that huge would be almost impossible, at least now. That’s when it bubbled up that perhaps we could use the same approach for sample collection.”

Two types of beams, solenoid beams and Bessle beams are being studied. Thus far, tests using the solenoid beams have proven to be the most successful.

The bacteria, named GFAJ-1, has only trace elements of phosphorus, one of the so-called building blocks of life, instead, GFAJ-1 uses arsenic to live and arsenic is “embedded into their DNA, RNA and other basic underpinnings.”

“This is a phenomenal finding,” said Mary Voytek, director of NASA’s Astrobiology Program. “We are talking about taking the fundamental building blocks of life and replacing one of them with an unusual, perhaps not unpredicted, but another compound. In our mind this is the equivalent, and some of us remember seeing the original Star Trek episodes, of Devil in the Dark and the Horta. This in our mind is the equivalent of finding that Horta which is a silicon based life, substituting carbon, which is what we think all life forms are made of, with silica. Now we are talking about an organism that we think we are talking about an organism that, if not replacing all of it, appears to be using another fundamental component of life. The story is not entirely carbon. Nitrogen, phosphorus, and the other essential elements–it is replacing arsenic for phosphorus. This is a huge deal.”

As a result of the find, NASA will broaden its scope when looking for life off-planet, according to science fiction writer Robert Sawyer. NASA will start looking for arsenic-based life as well as life based on other chemicals, and in places such as Titan, which has traces of arsenic. “It’s a huge breakthrough,” said Sawyer. “It changes the probabilities for their being life on other planets,” Sawyer told FoxNews.com. “If there is more than one recipe that makes life, then there are chances of rolling the dice in a chemical soup of all over the universe, and the chances of that chemical soup giving rise to life is much larger.”

The VSS Enterprise, named after Star Trek‘s USS Enterprise, will be taking passengers, who will pony up $200,000 for the privilege, on short trips above the atmosphere.

In this test flight, the VSS Enterprise was carried to a 45,000 feet altitude and then dropped to glide back to the Mojave Air and Space Port, which is located in California.

“This was one of the most exciting days in the whole history of Virgin,” said Sir Richard Branson, who is bankrolling the project. “For the first time since we seriously began the project in 2004, I watched the world’s first manned commercial spaceship landing on the runway at Mojave Air and Space Port and it was a great moment.”

Virgin Galactic has already taken deposits from three hundred and seventy customers for the suborbital flight which will permit them to experience several minutes of weightlessness. Virgin Galactic expects to fly five hundred customers in its first year of operation.

The suborbital flights are expected to begin next year.

“Cosplay, or dressing in character, has always been a huge part of our conventions and has become increasingly popular in recent years,” Creation CEO and co-founder Gary Berman observed. Berman acknowledges the goal is a lofty one, but is optimistic the fan participation will be high. “Beating this record is certainly a challenge but I believe our attendees are ready to go where no fan convention has gone before!” Berman said.

In addition to to a wealth of costumed fans, attendees will get the opportunity to hear from a plethora of Star Trek celebs. Jeri Ryan, who portrayed Seven of Nine on Star Trek: Voyager will be making her first appearance at the Vegas convention, which has been running annually since 2002. William Shatner, who portrayed Captain James T. Kirk and will star in the new CBS comedy $#*! My Dad Says this fall, will be on hand alongside Leonard Nimoy (Mr. Spock), who recently announced his retirement from acting. Last season, Nimoy appeared on the Fox show Fringe. Ryan, Shatner and Nimoy will all be appearing on Saturday.

Other guests at the convention include the recently knighted Sir Patrick Stewart, who brought Captain Jean Luc Picard to life on both the small and big screens in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Last year, Stewart appeared on stage opposite David Tennant in “Hamlet,” portraying the titular character’s uncle Claudius. Stewart will be joined on Sunday by fellow TNG alums Jonathan Frakes (Commander William Riker), Brent Spiner (Data) and Michael Dorn (Worf).

On Friday, the star of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Avery Brooks (Captain Benjamin Sisko), will take the stage. He’ll be joined on Friday by castmates Nana Visitor (Major Kira Nerys), Rene Auberjonois (Odo), Armin Shimerman (Quark) and James Darren (Vic Fonaine). Thursday will see the reunion of Classic Trek stars George Takei (Sulu) and Walter Koenig (Chekov). Voyager will be further represented by Robert Picardo (EMH), Ethan Phillips (Neelix) and Garrett Wang (Harry Kim) on Saturday, while Star Trek: Enterprise stars Connor Trinneer (Trip Tucker), Dominic Keating (Malcolm Reed) and Anthony Montgomery (Travis Mayweather) take the stage on Sunday.

Tickets for all four days are available on site at the Las Vegas Hilton. More information, including ticket pricing information and additional guests, can be found at Creation’s page for the convention here.

A cat with a unique foot is being compared to a certain logical race of Star Trek beings.

Spock the cat was born with a malformed paw, which looks very much like the Vulcan hand salute.

Fans in the Atlanta area on the lookout for a cat can adopt the two-year-old domestic short hair/mix female cat who is at the Atlanta Humane Society, or choose one of almost three dozen other cats.

Spock is said to have a sweet personality, and she loves to get the attention of humans by grabbing them with her unique paw.

According to the full list of nominations posted on the SF Site, Star Trek was nominated as Best Science Fiction Film, while both director J.J. Abrams and writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci were nominated in their respective categories. The full list of nominations for Trek, as well as the films it will be competing against, can be found below the jump:

Best Science Fiction Film

The Book of Eli
Knowing
Moon
Star Trek
Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen
X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Best Director

J.J. Abrams (Star Trek)
Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker)
Neill Blomkamp (District 9)
James Cameron (Avatar)
Guy Ritchie (Sherlock Holmes)
Zack Snyder (Watchmen)
Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds)

Best Writing

Neill Blomkamp, Terri Tatchell (District 9)
James Cameron (Avatar)
Spike Jonze, Dave Eggers (Where the Wild Things Are)
Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci (Star Trek)
Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds)
Alex Tse, David Hayter (Watchmen)

Best Make-Up

Barney Burman, Minday Hall, Joel Harlow (Star Trek)
Joe Dunckley, Sarah Rubano, Frances Richardson (District 9)
Sarah Monzani (The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus)
Gregory Nicotero, Howard Berger (The Book of Eli)
Gregory Nicotero, Howard Berger (Drag Me to Hell)
Mike Smithson, John Rosengrant (Terminator: Salvation)

Best Production Design

Rick Carter, Robert Stromberg (Avatar)
Scott Chambliss (Star Trek)
Stuart Craig (Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince)
Sarah Greenwood (Sherlock Holmes)
Philip Ivey (District 9)
Alex McDowell (Watchmen)

Best Special Effects
Tim Burke, John Richardson, Nicholas Aithadi, Tim Alexander – (Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince)
John DesJardin, Peter G. Travers, Joel Whist, Jessica Norman – (Watchmen)
Volker Engel, Marc Weingert, Mike Vezina – (2012)
Roger Guyett, Russell Earl, Paul Kavanagh, Burt Dalton – (Star Trek)
Dan Kaufman, Peter Muyzers, Robert Habros, Matt Aitken – (District 9)
Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham, Andrew R. Jones – (Avatar)

For the full list of nominations, head over to the SF Site.

According to The Mirror,  Stewart, best-known to Star Trek fans for his role as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation, will be knighted for his services to drama.

Stewart has an admirer in the Queen, who according to Palace sources is a huge fan of the sixty-nine-year old actor.

“It’s a fantastic accolade for a fantastic actor,” said an observer.

Star Trek XI has made the first cut, joining other blockbusters from 2009 such as Avatar, 2012 and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen for consideration.

The others making the list of semi-finalists include: Where the Wild Things Are, District 9, Coraline, Disney’s A Christmas Carol, G-Force, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, Sherlock Holmes, Terminator Salvation, Angels & Demons and Watchmen.

The list of fifteen will be whittled down to seven in January. On January 21, the members of the Academy’s visual effects branch executive committee will view fifteen-minute excepts from each of those seven films and will then cut the list down to the three that will be in the final running for Oscar consideration.

The NBR, founded in 1909, was originally an anti-censorship organization. Today, it honors excellence and freedom of expression in filmmaking.

One hundred and eight members, including film enthusiasts, academics, filmmakers and students from the New York metropolitan area screened over three hundred films this year before selecting their award winners.

The Ten Best Films, in alphabetical order, are:

• An Education
• (500) Days of Summer
• The Hurt Locker
• Inglorious Basterds
• Invictus
• The Messenger
• A Serious Man
• Star Trek
• Up
• Where the Wild Things Are

“The NBR is very proud to announce its honorees for 2009, a year in which filmmakers’ voices and visions were innovative, exciting and eclectic,” said NBR President Annie Schulhof. “The NBR is looking forward to this year’s gala at Cipriani 42nd Street with Meredith Vieira joining us as the evening’s MC.”

The 2010 NBR Gala will be held January 12 at Cipriani’s 42nd Street in New York City, with Meredith Vieira serving as Mistress of Ceremonies.

Using an iPhone, sensor chip and programming, a NASA scientist creates a limited tricorder to sense trace amounts of certain gasses.

Jing Li and his team at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffet Field, California, used a silicon-sensing chip in micro-board with sixty-four nanosectors.

The device can detect even trace amounts of ammonia, methane and chlorine gas in the air. It can communicate the results to other iPhone or to a computer.