Imagine that

Flying saucer tryout The skies off the Hawaiian island of Kauai will be a stand-in for Mars as space agency Nasa prepares to launch a saucer-shaped vehicle in an experimental flight designed to land heavy loads on the red planet. For decades, robotic landers and rovers have hitched a ride to Mars using the same parachute design. But Nasa needs a bigger and stronger parachute if it wants to send astronauts there. Weather permitting, it will conduct a test flight tomorrow high in the Earth’s atmosphere to simulate the thin Martian air. Cameras on the vehicle will capture the action as it accelerates to four times the speed of sound and falls back to Earth. Cutting power-plant pollution The Obama Administration was today to unveil a plan to cut Earthwarming pollution from United States power plants by 30 per cent by 2030, say people familiar with the proposal. The rule, when it becomes final a year from now, will set the first national limits on the gases linked to global warming from US power plants. They are the largest source of greenhouse gases. It will also be a defining part of President Barack Obama’s environmental legacy. Data shows the plants have cut CO emissions

2 by nearly 13 per since 2005.