RedDragon
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Elon Musk implies SpaceX won't land Dragon capsules on Mars
In February, SpaceX admitted its plan to shoot its Dragon capsule (without people) to Mars by 2018 was a little too ambitious, and bumped up the launch date to 2020. But it seems that approach was too uncertain for NASA's -- and Elon Musk's -- strict safety standards for a Martian landing. Today, the SpaceX founder suggested that the "Red Dragon" project is done and the current capsule won't be used for propulsive landings on the red planet. But don't worry -- the he's got a better plan that the company's cooking up for its next interplanetary hardware proposal.
'Guardians of the Galaxy' team says why it used Red's 8K camera
When director James Gunn revealed that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 would be the first movie shot with Red's 8K Weapon camera, he triggered a bit of speculation: what prompted the move beyond the incredibly high resolution? You might have a better answer today. Red has posted a behind-the-scenes look at the movie that, to no one's surprise, talks a lot about why the Vol. 2 team shot with such relatively exotic gear. And no, it's not just about that picture quality.
SpaceX reschedules its unmanned Red Dragon mission to Mars
SpaceX is still relentlessly gunning for Mars, but the company has admitted that the current plans for its first unmanned flight might be a tad too ambitious. SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell has revealed that its robotic Martian lander called Red Dragon won't be ready in 2018 like the company wanted. She made the revelation at a press conference announcing the first time the space corporation is launching a rocket from the historic Launch Complex 39A at NASA Kennedy Space Center.
Inhabitat's Week in Green: The Karma Revero, and more!
The Fisker Karma is one of the hottest plug-in hybrid cars ever built. However, production stopped in 2012 when the company went bankrupt. Now the car is set to be reborn as the Karma Revero this year. Meanwhile, Ford is planning to launch a 200-mile electric car to take on the Tesla Model 3 and the Chevy Bolt. In other news, SpaceX announced plans to send its Red Dragon spacecraft to mars in 2018, while NASA invested $67 million to develop super efficient solar-electric engines. The US Air Force smashed the world record for maglev speed by propelling a floating sled to 633 miles per hour. And the Twicycle is a crazy bike that's powered by your arms and legs.
SpaceX wants to land on Mars as early as 2018
SpaceX was already pretty ambitious when it signaled plans to send a Dragon capsule to Mars, but the originally hoped-for 2022 launch was apparently not quick enough. The company has announced plans to send an unmanned Dragon to Mars "as soon as" 2018 -- that's just a couple of years from now, folks. It also expects Red Dragons to define the "overall Mars architecture." Other details are scant at I write this, but it's already clear that SpaceX wants to try interplanetary travel as quickly as possible.
Jim Jannard steps aside, hands the Red Camera reins to Jarred Land (updated)
With Red Camera's industry footing now quite solid, CEO Jim Jannard is relinquishing his position at the helm. Jarred Land, the company's president, will become the new face of Red. Jannard announced the change in a post today over at Reduser, the forum he's used to announce everything from a lawsuit against Sony earlier this year to a DSLR replacement that never quite saw the light of day, way back in 2008. Today's thread, titled "My Final Post," details Jannard's nearly eight years at the company he founded, which began with the NAB 2006 debut of Red One and ran through shipping the Dragon upgrade, the component that essentially served to make "Obsolescence Obsolete." What's next for Jim? Retirement might be in order, and with upwards of $2 billion in the bank following his sale of eyewear and apparel maker Oakley, he certainly has the financial footing to back some pretty posh R&R. Update: While Jannard will not continue posting, he is not retiring or leaving the company. He'll continue working at Red, but behind the scenes, with Jarred Land representing the firm publicly.
First Red Dragon 6K footage shown, boasts three more stops DR (video)
After a considerable delay from its slated late 2012 release date, the 6K Red Dragon sensor is finally ready -- and it seems to have been worth the wait. The first test footage (after the break) has come from cinematographer and Red booster Mark Toia, who stress-tested it in difficult conditions like high contrast daylight and dark night scenes. Afterwards, he said the camera has three more f-stops of dynamic range than the MX-equipped Epic and thinks the new sensor brings the "best highlight falloff I've ever seen from any digital camera," including Sony's $65,000 CineAlta F65 4K model. Though Red put on a show of upgrading Epic and Epic-X cameras with Dragon earlier this spring, the company recently said that deliveries would start in September. Meanwhile, Dragon equipped cameras are in the hands of other notable DPs and directors too, like Peter Jackson, Michael Bay and Darius Woski -- meaning you can likely expect a deluge of Dragon eye-candy over the coming weeks.
Red claims Dragon is 'single most significant sensor in the history of image capture'
Red Camera's bombastic CEO, Jim Jannard, says that internal testing of the new 6K Dragon sensor proves that it's the new "resolution and dynamic range king." He also claims it will be "the cleanest sensor you have ever seen, ISO 2000 looks better than MX [the current sensor] at ISO 800." The imaging chip was first outed at NAB in April, promising 15+ stops of DR and 120fps at a full 5K of resolution, with $6,000 upgrades for Epic customers by the end of the year. Owners of the $9,700 (brain only) Scarlet-X will also get the Dragon, though no price or date has been given yet for that camera. Needless to say, some independent testing will be needed to substantiate his claims, but Jannard sure does sound confident.
RED Dragon 6K sensor upgrade eyes-on (video)
"Obsolescence Obsolete" -- that's RED's tagline for the just-announced Dragon sensor upgrade, which is set to bring 6K resolution to EPIC and Scarlet cameras beginning later this year. The sensor module was on display at the company's NAB booth today, under a backlit case that could only have been designed to make photographing the new chip a near-impossible task. We did manage to snag a few frames of the device, which appears as a mere silhouette to the naked eye. Sensors aren't designed for us to look at, however -- they're supposed to do the looking -- so we won't get any more hung up on the presentation. Existing RED camera owners can look forward to an incredibly impressive 15+ stops of native dynamic range and up to 120 frames-per-second at resolutions up to 5K. And as we discovered earlier today, the upgrade will roll out to EPIC owners sometime in 2012 for $6,000 while Scarlet users will need to hang tight for a release date, and a price tag. That's all we've got as far as details go, so click on through the gallery below for a flashlight-enhanced peek at the Dragon.
RED unveils Dragon sensor upgrade, turns Epic and Scarlet into a 6K camera
Love gadgets named after Hannibal Lecter movies? Good, because RED's announcing the RED Dragon upgrade kit that'll bolt onto your EPIC or Scarlet camera to provide resolutions of 6K at 85fps or 5k at 120fps with 15+ stops of Dynamic Range. Company founder Jim Jannard has said that the sensor is slightly larger than that of the Mysterium-X, but the pixel size is smaller, promising that "most of the current lenses will work" with the new hardware. It'll cost EPIC users $6,000 and arrive "late in the year," but bad news if you've got a Scarlet: it's back of the queue time for you until 2013, with no word on what it'll cost you, either.
A Red Scarlet-X 4K tour around CES 2012 (video)
For the third CES in a row, our old friend Ted Schilowitz has stopped by to let us drool over Red's latest high-end cameras. And boy, this is one helluva camera we have this time. You may recall that last year we were shown a working Scarlet prototype with 3K video resolution and a fixed lens; but fast forward to 2012 and we have the Scarlet-X, a sturdy 4K beast that not only supports interchangeable lens, but it's also actually out on the market. Obviously, the $9,700 base price (excluding the Canon EF lens mount; Nikon and Leica mounts coming soon) is aimed at film studios instead of us regular Joes, but Ted was kind enough to spend a whole afternoon showing us all the goodness on the Scarlet-X -- we even got to play with it on the CES show floor, and unsurprisingly, this Red kit became quite the celebrity. Read on to find out how we got on with it.
