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ESA picks two tiny spacecraft to study the dark side of the Moon
Tiny cube spacecraft aren't just useful around Earth's orbit. The European Space Agency has chosen two winners in a competition to build cubesats that will study the dark side of the Moon. The first, the Lunar Meteoroid Impact Orbiter (Lumio), would circle around the Moon's far side to map meteor bombardments by looking for bright flashes. The Lunar Volatile and Minearology Mapping Orbiter (VMMO), meanwhile, would study the permanently darkened Shackleton Crater near the lunar south pole to look for water ice and other materials that could be useful for colonists. It would keep watch for radiation, too.
Lumio hides a lamp inside the pages of a book, takes to Kickstarter (video)
Last week, we stopped by the TechShop to check out Lumio, a lamp that's masquerading as a book. While you could probably make one of your own with a few trips to IKEA, we're rather taken with the idea of toting one of these around in our bags. Now, inventor Max Gunawan has followed through on his promise to get the hardware onto Kickstarter, where he's already half-way toward his $60,000 goal to start his first production run. Still to be convinced that he needs your money? Head on past the break to watch the pitch.
Lumio desk lamp takes light reading literally (video)
With the future of reading heading squarely in the direction of electronic devices, what to do with the old timey book form? Build a lamp, of course. During a recent visit to the City by the Bay, we popped into the TechShop hackerspace and were introduced to Max Gunawan, the designer behind Lumio (not to be confused with a certain smartphone line of similar name). The product, developed in that very space, offers up a cool take on the desktop lamp, fitting it into a wooden, old timey-looking book form. Open it up and the pages fan out into what looks like a paper lantern. It's an LED light powered by a lithium ion battery that'll give you around eight hours on a charge. Due to the foldable nature of the Lumio, the device is portable and can be opened into a number of configurations, to suit your needs. Gunawan is a couple of days away from launching a Kickstarter page for the project, in hopes of getting together $60,000. Interested funders will be able to pick one up for around $95 -- wait for it to come to market, and that price will jump to around $125 or $135. After the break, check out a video of Gunawan giving us the lowdown on Lumio.%Gallery-178413%
