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NASA crashes a third airplane for science on live TV
If you've ever wanted to see a "severe but survivable plane accident" (without worrying about actual lives at stake), tune into NASA TV today between 1 and 2pm ET. The site will be broadcasting live coverage of a simulated crash conducted by the agency's Search and Rescue Mission Office.
NASA crashed another Cessna to improve emergency locators
Engineers at NASA's Langley Research Center have completed the second phase of a project that aims to improve the reliability of Emergency Location Transmitters (ELTs). These devices are meant to send your coordinates to emergency responders after a plane crash but are often so damaged by the impact that they don't ever turn on. That's why NASA is working with its industry partners to design an ELT system capable of taking a punch without getting knocked out.
NASA dropped this Cessna 82 feet... for your safety
If you survive a plane crash but your emergency locator transmitter (ELT) doesn't, it'd be a cruel irony if rescuers never found you. But NASA, of all agencies, has crashed a light airplane to make those devices stronger and better. "It's not obvious to the public what NASA does with search and rescue," says SAR mission manager Lisa Mazzuca, referring to NASA's role in improving aviation safety. She explains that ELTs are supposed to automatically transmit distress signals to satellites after aircraft accidents, so "NASA's here to innovate that technology, which will ultimately improve the probability of a successful rescue." The problem? ELTs often fail "because of inadequate performance specifications."
Plans for European Extremely Large Telescope approved, is indeed extremely large
We see a lot of "world's largest" claims around here. And this isn't even the first one for a telescope. But this one is actually for the world's biggest optical telescope, and that somehow makes it easier to grasp the magnitude of. At a cost of 1.1 billion Euros, it doesn't come cheap, but the European Extremely Large Telescope (ELT) has just been given the go ahead -- and truly lives up to its name. The mirror it uses will measure 39 meters across (four times that of typical mirrors,) comprising nearly 800 hexagonal pieces, and will swallow 12 times more light than the current biggest in existence. This, of course, means that it will be able to peep galaxies much farther away, and those in the process of formation in much more clarity. The project was approved by the European Southern Observatory council, which got the nod from ten countries in the continent, with others provisionally giving the thumbs up pending government backing. The telescope itself, however, will be located atop Chile's Cerro Armazones mountain in the Atacama Desert once completed.
