Size doesn't matter: The giant Spirograph as large as a room that is just as precise as a hand-held toy

Dominating a whole room, it looks far too unwieldy to draw a geometric picture with a small ballpoint pen.

But this giant Spirograph graphic images that are both huge and unique each time.

Swedish artist Eske Rex constructed the 'Drawingmachine', which works by suspending two pendulums from separate wooden towers and connecting them through drawing arms and moveable joints.

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Bigger is better: A giant Spirograph creates incredible precise geometric images with a standard ballpoint pen

A ballpoint pen, which is dwarfed by the apparatus surrounding it, rests on a drawing surface covered with paper and is mounted at the point where the pendulums come together.

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The pendulums are set in motion by hand, and their movements are represented by the drawing on the paper.

Mr Rex said: 'I am interested in the machine as a sculpture in space, a constantly changing mobile.

'In addition, the universe in the drawings is interesting by virtue of their spatial, textural, temporal qualities - a never-ending experiment where it is impossible to produce two identical drawings.'

The 'Drawingmachine' was constructed by Swedish artist Eske Rex. Two pendulums are each suspended from a wooden tower and connected them through drawing arms and moveable joints

Precise art: The pendulums are set in motion by hand, and their movements are represented by the drawing on the paper

Amazingly, he claims never to have heard of the Spirograph and was instead inspired by the harmonograph, a mid-19th century device that also uses pendulums to create a geometric image.

He explained the concept behind his huge gallery piece was to captivate the audience.

'The movements of the pendulums affect the entire room, and the experience engages the beholder's body,' he said.

'While the rhythmic repetitions cause the beholder to pause, the drawing emerges on the paper.'

Unique design: Mr Rex claims to have never heard of the Spirograph and was instead inspired by the harmonograph, a mid-19th century device that also uses pendulums to create a geometric image

Unfamiliar pattern: Spirograph sets were popular in the 1960s and 1970s

What a stinker! World's smelliest flower opens for the first time in a DECADE

For botanists, it doesn't get more exciting than this - after 75 years, the Titan Arum plant has unfurled its leaves and is in full bloom.

For curious crowds who gathered, they perhaps realised that a once-in-a-lifetime look is more than enough - thanks to its pungent odour of rotting flesh.

The flower, nicknamed 'Corpse flower', bloomed late on Good Friday at the University of Basel, Switzerland and is expected to remain open until Easter Sunday.

Miracle-Gro: The flower opened for the first time in 75 years on Good Friday

The eight foot plant, which is indigenous to Sumatra's rainforests in Indonesia, has the largest unbranched shoot in the world. On average, they bloom once in a decade.

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Titan Arum is coveted by collectors and plant enthusiasts around the world because of its strange blooming patterns.

Once in a lifetime: Crowds capture Titan Arum in bloom at the University of Basel, Switzerland

It produces umbrella-sized petals which open to a diameter of three to four feet.

Its distinctive smell can be detected from half a mile away. The odour, which is usually strongest at night, is meant to attract pollinators such as carrion beetles and flesh flies.

Rare sighting: Botanists love the plant because it blooms so infrequently - despite the smell of rotting flesh

Twelve of them are housed at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, in the Princess of Wales Conservatory among hundreds of other tropical plants.

When the plants are ready to pollinate, the stem heats up to release a pungent smell, which lasts for about three days.

Beauty: The plant originates from Sumatra in Indonesia

The largest Arum at Kew gardens weighs 200lb and grows at a staggering rate of a quarter of an inch an hour.

It guzzles liquid fertiliser and potassium each week to keep up its strength while bedded in roomy surroundings.

Captivating: Crowds gather as the plant prepares to open its leaves

Sir David Attenborough, who invented the name Titan Arum, was the first to capture it flowering on film for his BBC TV series The Private Life of Plants.

He dropped the plant’s original name – Amorphophallus – perhaps because of the reference to male genitalia.

Star Wars is real: Life could thrive on planets like Tatooine with two suns... but the plants would be black

It was a fantasy world plucked from George Lucas' imagination.

But life could thrive on a planet like Luke Skywalker's Tatooine, with its two suns, in the Star Wars universe, scientists have claimed.

However, the legendary director did get one detail wrong - the trees would have had black leaves.

Two suns: Life could thrive on a planet like Luke Skywalker's Tatooine, scientists have claimed

Scientists have discovered that the temperature of a star determines its colour - and at different temperatures, life evolves in very different ways.

Photosynthesis - the process by which plants produce energy from sunlight - is altered when the light colour is changed.

Researchers carried out computer simulations to model Earth-like planets either orbiting two stars close together or one of two widely separated stars.

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They found that plants with dim red dwarf suns - like the desert world of Tatooine - are likely to have black or grey plants.

The study is significant because it means scientists hunting for alien life should not rule out planets with multiple suns as uninhabitable.

Many multi-star systems contain 'red dwarfs'. These are cool, faint stars that are the most common star type in our galaxy, the Milky Way.

Around half of all red dwarfs, and a quarter of sun-like stars, exist in multiple systems.

Black plants? Photosynthesis happens differently when the light colour is changed

Jack O'Malley-James, who is leading the University of St Andrews research, said: 'The temperature of a star determines its colour and, hence, the colour of light used for photosynthesis.

'Depending on the colours of their star-light, plants would evolve very differently.

'Our simulations suggest that planets in multi-star systems may host exotic forms of the more familiar plants we see on Earth.

'Plants with dim red dwarf suns for example, may appear black to our eyes, absorbing across the entire visible wavelength range in order to use as much of the available light as possible.

'They may also be able to use infrared or ultraviolet radiation to drive photosynthesis.

'For planets orbiting two stars like our own, harmful radiation from intense stellar flares could lead to plants that develop their own UV-blocking sun-screens, or photosynthesising microorganisms that can move in response to a sudden flare.'

Plants get their green colour from the pigment chlorophyll. It absorbs the light, which is vital if photosynthesis is to take place.

How blind grandfather could 'see' his grandson for the first time with revolutionary bionic glasses

It is the moment grandfather Elias Konstantopoulos has been dreaming of after losing his sight - 'seeing' his grandson for the first time.

Now he is a step closer after revolutionary technology has allowed him to see flashes of light which has given him hope he will one day be able to distinguish the boy's features.

The breakthrough has come almost five years after he went totally blind from the incurable condition retinitis pigmentosa which affects one in 3,000 people in the U.S.

Vision: Elias Konstantopoulos wears a special set of "bionic" eye glasses after a three-hour operation to implant a microchip in his eye which allows him to distinguish between light and dark

Doting: Elias Konstantopoulos hugs 18-month-old grandson Anthony at his home in Glen Burnie, Maryland. Futuristic technology has allowed him to see flashes of light

Testing: Elias Konstantopoulos runs through an optics exercise with his 'bionic' eye glasses during a session at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore

Konstantopoulos from Burnie, Maryland, came to America from Greece as a young man and first noticed his vision was deteriorating when he was 43.

A doctor discovered he was no longer able to see his outstretched arms from the corners of his eyes.

HOW THE DEVICE HELPS PATIENTS

The device is similar to the cochlear implants that have allowed hundreds of thousands of deaf people to hear again

It is part of a growing field known as neuromodulation, or the science that helps people regain lost abilities such as sight, hearing and movement by stimulating the brain, spinal cord or nerves.

Ear implants work by picking up sound through a tiny microphone, then converting those signals into electrical impulses and sending them to an electrode array implanted in the patient.

The electrodes gather the impulses and ship them to the auditory nerve, which hears them as sounds.

The retinal prosthesis follows a similar process. A tiny video camera on the glasses captures images and converts them into electrical signals that are fed to an electrode array that is surgically implanted in the patient's eye.

The visual signals are sent to the optic nerve and then to the brain, and the patient sees them as flashes of light and blurry shapes.

Within 10 years he was blind from the disease which gradually eats away at the retina's rods and cones, which are photo receptors that help people see light and identify colour and detail.

'You lose your sight, you pretty much lose everything,' said Konstantopoulos, now 72. But hope came when he join a three-year trial of a futuristic technology.

This involves placing an electrode array in his eye and a wireless camera mounted on a pair of glasses.

Now, every morning he puts on the glasses, straps a wireless device to his waist and stands by the window or out in the yard waiting to hear the sound of a car approaching. When it passes, he says he can see a block of light go by.

He can also distinguish light-coloured objects against dark backgrounds, and he can move around a room by being able to see where there is an open window or door letting in the sun.

The device, known as the Argus II, is made by a California company called Second Sight. It was recently approved for use in Europe, and in the U.S.

The operation to implant the electrode takes about three hours and causes little pain, according to Konstantopoulos.

He said: 'Without the system, I can't see anything. With the system, it's some kind of hope. Something is there. Who knows with technology what it can do? '

Fourteen patients are using the devices in America and 16 in Europe. The Argus II costs about 100,000 dollars.

The company plans to apply soon for a humanitarian device exemption with the Food and Drug Administration, and hopes for approval in 2012.

Konstantopoulos practises with the device one day a week in the lab with Gislin Dagnelie, a professor of ophthalmology who works with blind patients at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.

At each session, Konstantopoulos traces objects he sees on a computer screen. Sometimes they walk arm in arm around the medical complex trying to spot certain objects.

He is gradually improving in his ability to interpret the light flashes and identify them as lines and shapes, the doctor said. He is also doing work around his home including retiling his bathroom floor.

Konstantopoulos dotes on his 18-month-old grandson, Anthony who calls him Papou. He said: 'That has been my biggest complaint. I have never seen his face. I cannot see his face. Yet.'

Video of babies 'talking' takes the Internet by storm and is viewed TEN MILLION times on YouTube

A home video of two babies engaged in an animated conversation in a kitchen has become an Internet phenomenon.

The two-minute clip shows twin brothers Sam and Ren McEntee, aged just 17 months and barely able to stand, enjoying a lively exchange in which they laugh, raise their hands emphatically and nod their heads.

So far the footage has attracted a staggering 9.4million views on YouTube.

Online hit: Twins Sam and Ren McEntee, aged just 17 months, enjoy a lively exchange in which they laugh, raise their hands emphatically and nod their heads

This is probably because the boys' conversation is so adult in its mannerisms and they appear to genuinely understand what each other is saying.

Transfixed viewers even made suggestions as to what the brothers might be talking about - before comments on the video were disabled.

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Suggestions had included one brother telling the other 'That diaper is so 2010', before receiving a response of 'If you're so smart, where is your other sock, Einstein?'

The babies' mother Abby has a blog, twinmamarama.com, on which she writes about her experiences as a twin sister raising twin boys.

Good times: The home video has been watched almost ten million times

Mrs McEntee wrote on Wednesday: 'We've had a fascinating time seeing language blooming around here. Now the experts weigh in on this kind of twin language.

'I remember my own folks talking about my sister and I sending out verbal signals (essentially squeaks and shouts) in an attempt to pinpoint the location of our twin sister around the house!'

Child development specialists have even chimed in to say how natural and healthy it is for babies to develop language skills as they mature.

An early 15 minutes? The brothers arrive to make in Times Square, New York, to make an appearance on Good Morning America this week

Professor Karen Thorpe, of the Queensland University of Technology’s School of Psychology and Counselling, told ABC News: 'Babies are wired for communication from the start and we see here a fine example of how sophisticated and beautiful communication in even young children can be.'

The broadcaster also reported that 40 per cent of twins develop what appears to be their own language.

However, they are mimicking sounds and mannerisms that they have heard or seen, rather than actually understanding what each other is saying.

Same planet, same view, so why do these Russian satellite images of Earth look so different to Nasa's?

• Space agencies use different data sets to bring 'visualisation of reality' to life
  

They are some of the most revealing and fascinating images yet taken of Earth.

Clearly showing various land colours according to terrain and finely detailing the height contours of mountains, they are incredibly beautiful to look at.

But they are also unique and quite different to the images of our planet captured by numerous Nasa missions over the years.

Unique: Taken by Russian satellite Elektro-L, this image of the Red Sea region clearly show various land colours according to terrain and finely detail the height contours of mountains

For these images were not taken by Nasa, but by an orbiting Russian spacecraft, and the reason for the difference in Earth's appearance can be attributed to a different method of interpreting data being beamed back.

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The weather satellite Elektro-L sends images to ground control every 30 minutes, but is capable of mailing images every ten minutes.

Launched in January aboard a Zenit rocket, it is currently 36,000km above the equator.

But while the Elektro-L's revealing shots of Earth may appear more accurate than Nasa images, the U.S. space agency claims they are not.

An amazing image of Earth taken by Elektro-L on February 26. The satellite's images are quite different to those captured by Nasa over the years due to different data and methods of interpreting that data

Dr Robert Simmon, from the Nasa Earth Observatory at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, said the Russian images are neither better nor worse than Nasa's.

He told Gizmodo: 'These Elektro-L images are a combination of visible and near-infrared wavelengths, so they show Earth in a way not visible to human eyes - vegetation looks red, for example.

'They’re not any better or worse than Nasa images, but they show different things.'

Elektro-L takes pictures using three bands in reflected light, one red and two near infrared bands, one of which is a 'vegetation indicator' as plants clearly reflect near infrared.

This system can simulate a standard red/green/blue colour picture.

Contrast: Another image taken by Elektro-L (above) is substantially different to the method used by Nasa to capture and decode its satellite images. The Nasa image below places less focus on the colour of vegetation and is more realistic

Nasa's equivalent GOES weather satellites, on the other hand, don't have near infrared bands and capture images in black and white using multiple infrared wavelengths.

These are then transferred into colour images, bringing red, green and blue together, by 3D technology.

Nasa's method shows you what the eye can actually see, whereas Russia's Elektro-L images offer a different view that may be more revealing, but is not as realistic.

In orbit: An artist's impression of Elektro-L, which sends images back to ground control every 30 minutes

Stripped: Launched in January aboard a Zenit rocket, Elektro-L is currently 36,000km above the equator

Could this be the biggest find since the Dead Sea Scrolls? Seventy metal books found in cave in Jordan could change our view of Biblical history

For scholars of faith and history, it is a treasure trove too precious for price.

This ancient collection of 70 tiny books, their lead pages bound with wire, could unlock some of the secrets of the earliest days of Christianity.

Academics are divided as to their authenticity but say that if verified, they could prove as pivotal as the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947.

Lines of inquiry: The metal tablets could change our understanding of the Bible

On pages not much bigger than a credit card, are images, symbols and words that appear to refer to the Messiah and, possibly even, to the Crucifixion and Resurrection.

Adding to the intrigue, many of the books are sealed, prompting academics to speculate they are actually the lost collection of codices mentioned in the Bible’s Book Of Revelation.

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The books were discovered five years ago in a cave in a remote part of Jordan to which Christian refugees are known to have fled after the fall of Jerusalem in 70AD. Important documents from the same period have previously been found there.

Initial metallurgical tests indicate that some of the books could date from the first century AD.

This estimate is based on the form of corrosion which has taken place, which experts believe would be impossible to achieve artificially.

If the dating is verified, the books would be among the earliest Christian documents, predating the writings of St Paul.

Revelation: Experts speculate that the tablets could be the lost collection of codices referred to in the Bible's Book Of Revelation

Hidden meaning: Scrolls, tablets and other artifacts, including an incense bowl, were also found at the same site as the tablets

The prospect that they could contain contemporary accounts of the final years of Jesus’s life has excited scholars – although their enthusiasm is tempered by the fact that experts have previously been fooled by sophisticated fakes.

David Elkington, a British scholar of ancient religious history and archeology, and one of the few to have examined the books, says they could be ‘the major discovery of Christian history’.

‘It is a breathtaking thought that we have held these objects that might have been held by the early saints of the Church,’ he said.

But the mysteries between their ancient pages are not the books’ only riddle. Today, their whereabouts are also something of a mystery. After their discovery by a Jordanian Bedouin, the hoard was subsequently acquired by an Israeli Bedouin, who is said to have illegally smuggled them across the border into Israel, where they remain.

X marks the spot: The cave in Jordan where the artifacts were discovered

However, the Jordanian Government is now working at the highest levels to repatriate and safeguard the collection. Philip Davies, emeritus professor of biblical studies at Sheffield University, said there was powerful evidence that the books have a Christian origin in plates cast into a picture map of the holy city of Jerusalem.

‘As soon as I saw that, I was dumbstruck,’ he said. ‘That struck me as so obviously a Christian image. There is a cross in the foreground, and behind it is what has to be the tomb [of Jesus], a small building with an opening, and behind that the walls of the city.

‘There are walls depicted on other pages of these books too and they almost certainly refer to Jerusalem. It is a Christian crucifixion taking place outside the city walls.’

The British team leading the work on the discovery fears that the present Israeli ‘keeper’ may be looking to sell some of the books on to the black market, or worse – destroy them.

But the man who holds the books denies the charge and claims they have been in his family for 100 years.

Groundbreaking find: A section of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which were unearthed in 1947

Dr Margaret Barker, a former president of the Society for Old Testament Study, said: ‘The Book of Revelation tells of a sealed book that was opened only by the Messiah.

‘Other texts from the period tell of sealed books of wisdom and of a secret tradition passed on by Jesus to his closest disciples. That is the context for this discovery.’

Professor Davies said: ‘The possibility of a Hebrew-Christian origin is certainly suggested by the imagery and, if so, these codices are likely to bring dramatic new light to our understanding of a very significant but so far little understood period of history.’

Mr Elkington, who is leading British efforts to have the books returned to Jordan, said: ‘It is vital that the collection can be recovered intact and secured in the best possible circumstances, both for the benefit of its owners and for a potentially fascinated international audience.’

*British scientists have uncovered up to eight million mummified dogs, thought to have been sacrificed to Anubis, the god of the dead, 2500 years ago after excavating tunnels in the ancient Eygptian city of Saqqara.

Creationists say this petroglyph in Utah is proof dinosaurs and humans co-existed. But is it just a mud stain?

It certainly looks like a dinosaur. Then again, it also looks like a mud stain.

Either way, this apparent ancient cave drawing high on a rock formation in Utah has ignited a firestorm.

Creationists are claiming the famous dinosaur petroglyph at the Kachina Bridge formation in Natural Bridges Natural Monument in south-eastern Utah is proof that dinosaurs and humans co-existed.

Now you see it... A lighter patch of this rock at the Kachina Bridge formation in Utah appears to form the image of a dinosaur - but is it?

Above left: What appears to be the head and neck of the dinosaur. Above right: What is apparently the body and legs of the dinosaur - but a new paper argues that the image is merely a petroglyph of a snake, with mud stains that confuse the eye into thinking it is seeing legs

The image looks very much like a hand-drawn, plant-eating dinosaur - a diplodocus, perhaps.

But scientists say that is impossible.

Now a new research paper is stirring up the controversy with the claim that the petroglyph is in fact a drawing of a snake. The 'legs' of the dinosaur are nothing more than mud stains, according to the paper published in Palaeontologia Electronica.

The paper was co-authored by biology professor Phil Senter, at Fayetteville State University.

Had Native Americans seen one of these? A sauropod, which is similar in shape to the dinosaur-like image in Utah

He hiked the region with his fianceé in 2009 - and when he came upon the famous image, he said, 'I couldn't believe it.

'It looked just like a sauropod,' he told Discovery News.

Curious, he contacted archaeologist Sally Cole, considered an expert in petrogylphs, which are common throughout parts of Colorado, Utah and New Mexico.

The images are usually found on cave walls or rock faces, drawn several thousand years ago by Native Americans.

Usually they depict deer and other animals. The one at Kachina Bridge was different - as are a few others scattered around the area.

Cole examined the drawing and came to the conclusion that it was actually a composite of two separate drawings.

One is a snake or a serpent. The 'legs' of the 'dinosaur', she said, were actually just stains from minerals or mud.

The result, the paper claimed, was a kind of 'paraeidolia, the psychological phenomenon of perceiving significance in vague or random stimuli, e.g., seeing animals in clouds or the face of a religious figure in a food item.'

Officials at the Creationist Museum, one of several creationist organisations featuring the petroglyph, quickly criticised the report and Cole.

David Menton, a biologist at the museum, told Discovery News that Cole's findings had to be disregarded as she examined the petroglyph from a distance with binoculars - not close up.

He said he was prepared to accept it was a dinosaur - or even some other creature. But, he was quoted as saying, 'I'm not prepared to accept... that the artist climbed up there but the authors didn't climb up.'

The Kachina Bridge formation in south-eastern Utah, where there are many petroglyphs

Cole's paper claimed the area was too rugged for a ladder.

Menton said the image looked like a sauropod and rejected the theory that it has no meaning at all. He said he wished Senter and Cole had provided other possibilities for what the drawing might be.

Several other drawings at Kachina Bridge appear to be of dinosaurs also, including one apparently of a triceratops and another of a monoclonius.

But Senter and Cole claimed in their paper that those images, also, are either composites or do not resemble any four-legged animal they can identify.

Meltdown at Google Earth: New 3D function goes awry as bridges flop like a Salvador Dali painting

Warped and mangled beyond recognition, they look like a computerised version of a Salvador Dali painting.

But these pictures are not the work of a Surrealist - they are what happened when Google tried to tinker with its images of Earth.

Technicians have added elevation to the Google Earth tool but due to glitches the change had a bizarre effect on some of the world’s most famous roads and bridges.

Big dipper: This stretch of California's coast road at Big Sur appears to have lost all its strength in the Google Earth image

The 746ft tall Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco has been made as thin as paper and stuck to the surface of the water beneath it.

In other cases, bridges no longer go over ravines - instead they roll down the sides and go along the bottom before coming back up the other cliff face.

The images were created when Google tried to extrapolate 2D images on to a 3D landscape but did not get it quite right.

Not so great: San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge has been completely flattened

Floppy: The Los Angeles highway system

Dam buster: The roadway circling the Hoover Dam has wilted to water level

Surreal landscape: Salvador Dali's painting The Persistence Of Memory

They were spotted by artist and programmer Clement Valla who has trawled Earth to collect a string of weird sights.

The ‘Postcards From Google Earth, Bridges’ are 60 images from the virtual globe which show what happens when 2D and 3D don’t get along.

The most striking is the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco which has been flattened out - including the cars driving over it - and apparently nailed to the water’s surface.

The George Washington Bridge in New York appears to twisted as it goes up a hill and its enormous support structures seem bent over.

One picture of the Los Angeles Highway System makes the roads look like tin foil.

Big dipper: The Fred G. Redmon Bridge in Selah, Washington State could do with some strengthening

Equally bizarre is the Glen Canyon Dam Bridge over the Colorado River which looks like it is dropping down to the water on both sides and going across the water’s surface.

Other images show that Google’s technology has had even more surreal effects.

Bixby Creek Bridge in Big Sur, California for example sags in mid-air as if it has had the pressure let out of it.

The Fred G. Redmon Bridge in Selah, Washington, has developed an inexplicable kink which creates a striking shadow underneath.

No backbone: The Deception Pass Bridge in Washington could prove difficult to cross

Bend in the road: The Peter Guice Memorial Bridge on Interstate 26

And the Wilson Creek Bridge in Virginia has been completely flattened and moved 20ft in the air so it looks like it is levitating.

Google Earth is a free downloadable virtual globe tool that allows users to zoom in as close as street level to observe images that have been created by overlaying satelliate photos and aerial photography.

Google was unavailable for comment.

Unveiled: Nasa Orion 'moon' craft which could put man on an asteroid

• $100bn project axed by Obama get new lease of life as Space Station shuttle
  
• Nasa have ambitions of using Orion to land astronaut on asteroid by 2019
  

A test version Nasa shuttle that will allow astronauts to fly to and from the International Space station was showed off today.

The Orion spacecraft, which was initially meant to return humans to the moon until President Barack Obama axed the project, has been given a new lease of life as a docking vehicle.

Nasa hope two of the spacecraft could also be used to support a long-duration mission to an asteroid as early as 2019.

Daring mission: Two Orion spacecraft could be used to support a mission to an asteroid as early as 2019

Unveiled: The first Orion crew module is displayed behind images of how it will look when fitted for space

But, for now, it has a much more limited role of supporting missions at the International Space Station, which is just above the Earth's orbit,

To facilitate this, designers Lockheed Martin have built a huge test area at its Waterton Canyon site south of Denver, where full-size mock-ups both the station and Orion can practice manoeuvres.

The test version of the pod, though bare of the ceramic covering on the outside, is complete inside.

Orion was originally part of President George W. Bush's $100billion moon mission, called Constellation.

But President Obama cancelled Constellation last year, saying the space programme would instead focus on more advanced rocket technology.

Mr Obama revived the Orion portion of the project two months later, with administration officials saying it would be the space station's escape vehicle.

Nasa is now considering at least two roles for future manned spacecraft, including servicing the space station in low Earth orbit and going on longer, more distant missions.

Bare: Although not covered by protective ceramic, the craft is fully functioning inside

Cavernous: The Lockheed Martin test facility at its Waterton Canyon site south of Denver, where full-size mock-ups of the space station and the front section of the Orion can be used to practice docking manoeuvres

At work: Engineers in Louisiana building the Orion spacecraft

‘Orion is going to evolve from what it was under the previous Constellation program into what it needs to become as part of the multipurpose crew vehicle,’ Nasa spokesman Bob Jacobs said.

Lockheed Martin officials were more ambitious today, touting Orion as America's next generation spacecraft that could first explore the far side of the moon then land humans on asteroids and eventually take them to one of the moons of Mars, where they could control robotic instruments on the surface.

Orion includes a module for crew and cargo, a service module for propulsion, electrical power and other requirements, and a launch-abort system to carry the capsule to safety if the booster rocket fails.

NASA successfully tested the launch-abort system two weeks ago at White Sands Missile Range, N.M.

Lockheed Martin is Nasa's prime contractor for the Orion project.

The company said it built the $35million, 41,000-square-foot test facility, called the Space Operations Simulation Center, at company expense.

The first Orion capsule is being assembled in another building at Lockheed Martin's Waterton Canyon site. It will be used for ground testing and could possibly be launched into a suborbital test flight, said James Bray, Lockheed's crew and service module director.

In space: A computer-generated image of how the Orion will look once completed

The International Space Station: The Orion craft will be used as a docking vehicle and escape pod

Bray said the test results will be used in the engineering of the first Orion capsule to fly in space. Work on that capsule is expected to start in August.

Many of Orion's components can be re-used in subsequent flights, including some electronic systems, Bray said. The spaceship itself won't be reused because of the tremendous forces it endures on liftoff and re-entry, he said.

The first orbital space flight of an Orion capsule is expected in 2013, said John Karas, vice president and general manager for human space flight for Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co.

Congressman Ed Perlmutter and Senator Michael Bennet, Democrats in Colorado, where 10,000 people are employed by Lockheed Martin, had pressed Mr Obama to salvage the Orion project.

They said they were confident the spacecraft will fly, but neither discussed specifics in brief remarks at the dedication ceremony for the test building.

‘The White House and the Congress both recognize the importance of this program,’ Mr Perlmutter said.