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Molyneux's first 22 Cans experiment Curiosity hits iOS, Android and PC August 22
We were introduced to Curiosity back during E3, and come August 22, everyone will have their chance to try Peter Molyneux's first 22 Cans experiment. Molyneux revealed the Curiosity launch date during PC and indie games conference Rezzed, in Brighton, England.At the core of Curiosity is a secret, one that Molyneux says "is so valuable, and so life-changingly important," as reported by Eurogamer. "It's so amazing I think it will appear on news reports."Back in March, Fable series creator and longtime Microsoft man Peter Molyneux left subsidiary studio Lionhead Studios. Soon after, he announced his new studio 22 Cans, which proposes to create 22 different digital "experiments" precluding the studio's masterpiece.
NASA's Seven Minutes of Terror: Curiosity's precarious Mars landing explained (video)
Edited and scored with the dramatic tension of a summer blockbuster trailer, NASA's put together a gripping short clip that dresses down Curiosity's mission to Mars for the layman. The "car-sized" rover, set to touchdown on August 5th of this year at 10:31PM PDT, is currently journeying towards the Red Planet on a suicide mission of sorts, with the success of its make it or break it EDL (enter, descent, landing) wracking the nerves of our Space Agency's greatest minds in advance. Their cause for concern? A period of radio silence, dubbed the "seven minutes of terror" for the amount of time it takes a signal to reach Earth, during which the craft will have already either smashed disastrously into the Martian landscape or nestled perfectly down from the ascend phase on a 21ft long tether. The logistics involved are so numerous and prone to error -- slowing the craft from 13,000 mph to 0 mph and then deploying, detaching and avoiding collision with the supersonic parachute for starters -- that it's a wonder the government ever signed off on the project. If it all does come off without a hitch, however, the ladies and gents down at Pasadena's Jet Propulsion Laboratory certainly deserve several thousand bottles of the finest bubbly taxpayers' money can buy. Click on past the break to gape at the sequence of engineering feats required to make this landing on terra incognita.
ESA team builds self-piloting rover in six months, tests it in Chilean desert
Chile's Atacama Desert might not be true Martian territory, but it's close enough for the European Space Agency's new rover. Built by a crack engineering team in just six months, the Seeker rover was created to autonomously roam 6 km of Mars-like terrain and trace its way back. The Seeker just wrapped up a two week gauntlet in the Chilean wasteland using ol' fashioned dead reckoning and stereoscopic vision to find its way, compiling a 3D map of its surroundings as it puttered along. The full-scale rover wandered the arid terrain on its lonesome until temperatures forced it to stop after trekking 5.1 km. The red planet won't welcome an ESA rover until 2018, but those jonesin' for news from Martian soil should keep their eyes peeled for Curiosity's August touchdown.
Peter Molyneux divulges DLC details for Curiosity, we apply for a loan
Peter Molyneux's first post-Lionhead game, Curiosity, holds a big mystery and now it promises DLC with a colossal price tag. The game -- the first of 22 experiments -- will reveal a secret to the gaming guinea pig who deals the final blow to a single black cube. Shortly after its release, chisels that pack a mightier punch to the monolith will arrive as DLC for those who long to crack the container open. Prices for the downloadable tools will start around $1 (59 pence) for an iron implement and reach up to roughly $78,000 (£50,000) for a one-of-a-kind diamond version that hits 100,000 times harder. Once the secret is revealed, 22 Cans will use social media to study how the winner proves the milestone and spreads the news. Curiosity is expected to drop in about six weeks for iOS and PC, but feel free to begin pondering the secret of life, the universe and everything that lies inside the digital fortune cookie.
Peter Molyneux reveals first game from his new studio: Curiosity coming to iOS and PC
Peter Molyneux has revealed what he's been up to since he left Lionhead. At E3, he paid a visit to Spike TV, bringing with him several screens from his upcoming title, Curiosity. He didn't give away much on what we can expect from 22 Cans' first effort, although we'd hazard a guess at something "conceptual." It's set to arrive on PC and iOS in around six weeks and Molyneux was showing off those stills from his iPad. Hit up the source for the full -- but brief -- interview.
NASA's Curiosity rover is on its way to Mars (video)
It's been described by the scientist in charge as "the most complex mission that has ever been undertaken to the surface of another planet," and NASA's Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft is now well on its way to Mars. An Atlas V rocket carrying the Curiosity rover launched from Cape Canaveral this morning, and a successful separation of the craft occurred in space shortly thereafter, kicking off a journey to Mars that's expected to end with a rocket-powered descent to the planet in August of next year. Video of both events are after the break, and additional details can be found at the links below
NASA's Mars rover Curiosity gains DAN apparatus, new lust for water
"You can think of DAN as a reconnaissance instrument." That's a quote from Igor Mitrofanov of the Space Research Institute, Russia, who is being deemed the "principal investigator" of the Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons. Shortened to DAN for obvious reasons, this guy will soon be affixed to NASA's Mars rover Curiosity, with one primary purpose: to "check for any water that might be bound into shallow underground minerals along the rover's path." In total, ten instruments on Curiosity will be dedicated to investigating whether the area selected for the mission has ever offered environmental conditions favorable for life and favorable for preserving evidence about life. We're told that while in active mode, it's sensitive enough to detect water content as low as one-tenth of one percent in the ground beneath the rover, but there's still no indication of when it'll actually prove that Mars truly is the next major relocation hotspot. Something tells us Richard Branson will be ready, regardless.
Curiosity rover to land in Mars's Gale Crater to look for life, finally answer Bowie's nagging questions
It's gotten its own photo shoot, some cool animation, and the interest of James Cameron -- and now Curiosity finally has a destination. NASA's pluckily-named Mars rover is set to land next to a mountain inside the red planet's 96-mile-wide Gale Crater. Curiosity is scheduled to touch down in August 2012 in search of life on the fourth rock from the sun. The crater, one of 60 suggested sites, was chosen due to its potential for a safe landing and the possibility of scientific discovery, thanks in part to nearby geographical formations that may have been created by water. Here's hoping it encounters some serious space oddities when it gets there.
NASA abandons Mars rover Spirit, chooses to remember the good times
More than a year after it first lost contact with its Mars rover Spirit, NASA has finally decided to throw in the towel. Yesterday, the agency confirmed that it will end all planned communications with the robot on May 25th, effectively ending the craft's seven-year mission. NASA was hoping that the approaching Martian spring would allow the Spirit to recharge its solar panels and re-establish radio contact, but it now appears that the craft sustained irreparable damage last winter, when it was forced to endure brutally cold temperatures. NASA executive David Lavery, however, says the rover team will remember the Spirit more for its achievements than its slow demise: "I think we'll all sit around and have a sip of Guinness and reminisce about when Spirit was a wee small little rover and look back at the accomplishments and successes rover had over its entire lifetime." So the Spirit's spirit will live on, but what about NASA's mission to Mars? Well, the Opportunity is still in good health and, later this year, will be joined by the next-generation, nuclear-powered rover Curiosity, which will investigate whether or not Mars ever supported life forms. Meanwhile, NASA's network of orbiting spacecraft will continue to passively listen for signals from the Spirit, just in case it miraculously comes back to life. Full PR after the break.
NASA animation depicts Curiosity's soft landing on Mars, courtesy of a 'sky crane' (video)
Sending a rover to a distant planet is no small feat, so we might as well make the landing even more spectacular, right? That's exactly what NASA has in mind for its Curiosity Mars rover, albeit for more practical reasons. Launching in late 2011 and expected to land on Mars in August 2012, this mobile laboratory will see a unique descent after entering the Martian atmosphere: there'll be the usual separation from the heatshield and backshell, but at about 380 seconds into the entry, the rover will be gently lowered down by wire from a "sky crane," as opposed to taking a leap of faith. Once the landing is complete, the hovering sky crane will then detach from the rover and fly off for a dramatic disposal -- let's just hope it won't hit the now-dormant Spirit. See for yourself in the video above.
NASA's Curiosity Mars Rover stars in its very own photoshoot
NASA's already given us a glimpse at its Mars rover, courtesy of a USTREAM broadcast a few months back, but the crew over at BoingBoing has taken one small step for mankind by going even further in-depth with Curiosity before it launches in November. One lucky photographer was granted permission into the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, and the fruits of his bunny-suited labor showcase the nooks and crannies of NASA's latest and greatest. We're still kind of bummed that the rover won't be equipped with a zoom 3D camera as originally planned, but we've got a hunch James Cameron's taking it even harder. Be sure to hit the source link for a whole smattering of more angles, if intergalactic spacecrafts are your thing.
NASA forced to abandon plans for 3D camera in next Mars rover, James Cameron not losing faith yet
Among the many great feats of his career, film director James Cameron counts the rather unorthodox achievement of being able to convince NASA to use a stereoscopic camera on its next Mars rover project. Unfortunately for him, us, and the hard working folks over at Malin Space Science Systems, technical snags have been encountered in the integration of the jumbo mastcam (pictured above) with the rover's hardware and the resulting delays have caused NASA to nix the idea altogether. You might think that 3D visuals of Red Planet gravel will be no great loss, but the MSSS cams also had zoom lenses attached, whereas the research project will now be returning to tried and true fixed focal length imaging. Ah well, such is the bumpy road to interterrestrial enlightenment. NASA's rover, titled Curiosity, is set to begin its voyage in November of this year, while Cameron and co remain upbeat about the future, saying they're "certain that this technology will play an important role in future missions."
Watch the next Mars rover being built... via USTREAM! (video)
Does the idea of live video from JPL, where NASA's best and brightest are assembling the next Mars Rover, promise excitement and adventure? Perhaps not entirely. Are we holding out for a little more than some guys in clean suits gazing thoughtfully at the thing for minutes on end? Yes we are. You know as well as anybody how much we love our civilian space program, and how giddy with excitement we tend to get whenever they announce some new technology, so we're wishing everyone involved much success with this latest endeavor. And we're really hoping that things pick up a little on the USTREAM. As for the rover itself, it's called Curiosity, and it should launch a year or so from now, putting it on the red planet sometime in August 2012. Get a good look after the break.
James Cameron convinces NASA to use 3D camera on next Mars mission
What do you do once you've broken your own record for the world's highest-grossing picture film? Well, you go offworld, of course. James Cameron, in his infinite benevolence and multidimensional wisdom, has convinced NASA bigwigs not to forgo the inclusion of a high-res 3D camera on the Curiosity (aka Mars Science Laboratory) rover, which is set to depart for the red planet in 2011. Budget overruns had led to the scrapping of the autostereoscopic idea, but the director-man -- who has been involved with this project for a good few years now -- felt the results of the mission would be far more engaging if people could see them in 3D. Hey, if he can make us watch the Blue Man Group reenactment of Fern Gully, don't bet on Cameron failing to make extraterrestrial rubble interesting with his 3D voodoo.
Inside the Phone Factory
Here's a sweet little treat. Over at ReMoveTheLabels.com, a poster's mom apparently bought an iPhone and found a surprise waiting for her on the onboard camera roll: three pictures. Two were blurry but the third is a real surprise: a picture straight from the iPhone production line. Look at all those luscious phones, waiting to be packed up and to go to good homes. These days, seeing that many iPhones at once is getting rarer and rarer, as they continue to sell out in US stores. Thanks, Guillermo Written by Erica Sadun
