Maven
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OnStar is helping GM plan for an autonomous-car future
General Motors has been on a tear lately. The automaker recently invested $500 million in Lyft and acquired both self-driving startup Cruise and ride-share company Sidecar. And that's all since January. But there's one thing that GM has had for years that might give it an edge over the competition: OnStar.
GM teams up with Lyft to offer drivers short-term rentals
If you've been eyeing the ride sharing economy but your car isn't up to snuff Lyft and GM have teamed up to offer short-term rentals to would-be drivers. The Express Drive program is launching later this month in Chicago and will be launching shortly in Baltimore, Washington DC. and Boston.
Keep a Zipcar for as long as you want
Just ahead of GM's car-sharing service Maven launching in Ann Arbor, resident rival Zipcar is punching back. The latter's unveiling a new system wherein you could keep a car indefinitely rather than being stuck to a rigid reservation schedule. Switching up drop-off locations and destinations while you're on the go is an option now, too.
GM gets serious about car-sharing with new 'Maven' service
Move over, Zipcar. General Motors just announced the launch of Maven, a new car-sharing service meant to ease personal transport woes. Public transit is great (when it works anyway), but some situations just call for cars and GM's eager to try filling in gaps its competitors have left wide open. This isn't the first time GM has experimented with car-sharing — it launched a similar service called Let's Drive NYC for tenants of one apartment building last October. With Maven's launch, GM is no longer a company that looks at cars purely as products; they're a service now, too.
NASA's closer to knowing why Mars' surface is cold and dead
It looks like NASA's figured out one of the reasons why Mars isn't fit for human -- or any other kind -- of life. The space agency held another press conference to discuss why Mars has turned from what was thought to be a wet, lush planet (that might have contained surface life) into a cold, desolate place. The likely culprit? Solar winds. With a little help from the MAVEN probe (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution), researchers were able to figure out how much of the planet's atmosphere is being stripped away by solar winds -- around 1/4 pound of gas every second. Bruce Jakosky, MAVEN's principal investigator at the University of Colorado, likened the atmospheric loss to taking a small amount of coins out of a cash register every day -- at first it's insignificant, but over time can have a big impact.
Mars probe finds super-active auroras and mystery dust clouds
As much as humanity knows about Mars, the planet is still chock-full of surprises. Just ask NASA: University of Colorado researchers using its MAVEN probe have discovered phenomena in the Martian skies that you would never see on Earth. For one, there are auroras that are so energetic (their electrons are 100 times more powerful than a spark of house current) that they plunge far deeper into the atmosphere than back home, or even other places on Mars. Scientists suspect that the Sun is to blame -- Mars doesn't have a protective magnetic field like Earth does, so the solar wind sometimes hits with full force.
India put a satellite in orbit around Mars for a fraction of what NASA spent
India can rightly feel proud of itself today as its Mangalyaan "MOM" satellite mission successfully entered orbit around Mars. In the process, the country has broken at least three records, including being the first Asian nation to reach the red planet and being the first country to get to Mars on the first attempt. Third on that list of achievements is that the project is one of the cheapest exploration projects in recent history, costing just $72 million -- pocket change compared to NASA's $670 million MAVEN probe and the $2 billion Curiosity Rover. India's Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, has even quipped that it cost less to launch the satellite than it cost to make the movie Gravity.
NASA's MAVEN probe arrives in orbit around Mars
Whenever NASA achieves something, row after row of neatly-dressed mission controllers all begin whooping and clapping. The reason for today's jubilation is the news that, after nearly a year, the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution probe has successfully entered orbit around the red planet. MAVEN began its tour of duty at 10:24pm EDT Sunday night, and after a six-week test phase, will analyze the upper atmosphere of Mars in an attempt to understand how its climate has influenced the surface below. In addition, the information will help other white shirt-and-pocket-protector-wearing analysts to determine if, when, and how best to send a manned mission to Mars in the 2030s. You never know, maybe MAVEN will be able to find some Methane in the atmosphere and make David Bowie very happy. [Image Credit: NASA / Goddard Space Flight Center]
Watch NASA launch its Maven mission to Mars at 1:30pm (video)
What are the clouds of Mars made of? That's the question that'll be answered when NASA's MAVEN (Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN) probe reaches our neighbor. Before that can happen, however, it needs to leave home on its long journey, which is scheduled to commence around 1:30pm ET today. The stream kicks off from 11:00, showing the preparations live from Cape Canaveral, so if you're interested in watching what goes down, or, more appropriately, what goes up, head past the break and grab some popcorn.
NASA and Lockheed Martin finish MAVEN probe, hope to study Mars' upper skies
Us humans are surprisingly familiar with Mars' surface, yet we haven't studied its higher altitudes -- an odd discrepancy when the sky plays as much of a role as the soil in determining the planet's climate. We'll get a better balance in our research now that NASA and Lockheed Martin have finished constructing the Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolution probe, or MAVEN. The robot craft will learn how quickly the Martian atmosphere is escaping into space and give us a better idea of how the planet's arid landscape came to be. Lockheed Martin still needs to conduct space simulation tests and ship MAVEN to the Kennedy Space Center, but the ship should launch in November and deliver results roughly a year later; that's a quick turnaround for a probe that could answer riddles spanning millions of years.
Switched On turns one: The Maven
Every Wednesday Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, an opinion column about consumer technology, multimedia, and digital entertainment. Today's Switched On's first birthday, so as a present we gave Ross his very own banner. Wish Switched On a happy birthday, why don't you? Once upon a midnight madness sale I sauntered, steeped in sadness,Through the shiny piles and aisles composing my computer store.Suddenly there came a rapping. "Skeet skeet skeet." Had I been napping?Energy, it had been sapping from my soul for weeks or more.Yea, those loathsome customers had chilled my being for weeks or more.Back-to-school had drained my core.Soon the winds would bring the winter - time to sell each mouse, each printer."Profit!" said I, "Thing of evil? Nah," applying Avacor.For while came the rare exception, money flowed from deep deception.Ignorance would find reception warm throughout each corridor.From these fools I'd find the dollars flow down every corridor.Idiots I did adore.There I saw him, by the mobos, dressing like those unkempt hobos -Greasy hair atop the fat and pimples that adorned each pore.Mannerisms quite absurd, he stood there mumbling, looking nerdy,Yet I could not find the word he brought to mind inside the store.In that squalid rust of malice did he slither through the store,Saying naught and nothing more.Fate approached him as a customer who seemed at once to trust him."Are these cameras any good? I've never shopped for one before."Glasses thick, stubble unshaven, spewing trivia like Cliff Clavin,On he went, this crazy maven bragging of his Slashdot score."If you read my blog, you'd know my postings rate above a four.'Funny' and 'Insightful' are the words you'd see with five or four."After which she fled the store.Then a man who lacked acumen caused his targeting to zoom in."Windows spyware drives me nuts. Removing it is such a chore."This Mac mini sure looks swell so buying it would end my hell, no?""Apple's switching to Intel so I would wait a year or more"And you'll want new software too if you don't wait a year or more."Quoth the maven, "Leave the store."
