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Live HD downlink from ISS on Discovery HD Wednesday
Catch a high-def lunch with International Space Station commander Michael Lopez-Alegria when Discovery HD airs the first live HD transmission from space Wednesday morning. Using a Sony HD 750A camera and through a partnership between NHK, Discovery and NASA, HDTV owners will get their best ever look at life in space from the comforts of our own homes. The broadcast is set for 11:30 a.m. (EST) and unlike some previous Discovery HD shows is on the US broadcast schedule.[Thanks, Michael]
Researcher dreams up $2.5 trillion "space sunshade"
With all these batteries exploding vehicles running around, we aren't too surprised that researchers at the University of Arizona are getting fired up about stopping global warming, but dropping $2.5 trillion on such a project might just cool the whole idea down a bit. Nevertheless, astronomer Roger Angel thinks that launching a "constellation made of trillions of small, free-flying spacecraft parts a million miles above Earth" could form a long, cylindrical cloud to reflect "about 10 percent" of the sun's rays away from our planet. The lightweight flyers hanging around in the L-1 orbit would be crafted from "transparent film pierced with small holes," utilizing "MEMS" technology mirrors as tiny sails that hold them in line while drifting about. The idea gets even zanier when referring to shooting the "20 million ton structure" into space; it's been suggested that "20 electromagnetic launchers" running on hydroelectricity could launch a stack of flyers "every five minutes for ten years" to complete the project, and while he feels that even the massive sunshade is no substitute for "developing renewable energy," that's still a huge chunk of coin to drop on something so, um, outlandish.[Via Primidi]
Video Sandwich: October 28, 2006
Ever want the whole world in your hands? YouTube user zachetus has turned his PSP into a remote control for the NASA World Wind program. This will become really helpful when satellite data gets strong enough so we can peek into showers. Yes, "helpful" is the word I'd use in a scenario like that...Speaking of creepy, YouTube user EnKeRaDc has a torrid love affair with his PSP. He makes a very disturbing tribute video to his somehow broken handheld. I like my PSP, but this guy took being a fanboy to a whole new, scary, level.
University of Florida scientists build a faster supercomputer for spacecraft
Haven't you ever sat in your space shuttle/module/station and said to yourself, "Gee, I wish that we had faster computers like those terrestrial scientists do." No? Well our actual astronauts apparently have. See, while you've got your current dual-core (soon to be quad- or oct-core) desktop PC, computers in space have to endure a great deal more stress -- you know, like that whole launching into space thing, not to mention cosmic radiation, and a whole host of other rugged requirements, which takes a toll on what processors can be used. Engineers at the University of Florida (including Alan George, a professor of electrical and computer engineering, pictured at right) and Honeywell Aerospace announced late this week that a new supercomputer 100 times faster than any current space-bound computer (that's 20 processors at a combined power of 100 gigaflops) is under development. If all goes according to plan, it'll get hitched to an unmanned NASA rocket aboard a test mission in 2009.[Via Roland Piquepaille]
NASA's second annual Tether Challenge beset by controversy, yields no winner
Apparently building space elevators in one's spare time is becoming a common hobby for jobless entrepreneurial engineers, as a bevy of eager teams set out to best NASA's "house tether" in order to get their rendition approved for intergalactic use. The contest requires that teams create cabling that weighs under two grams, sports a fiber loop with a circumference of at least two meters, and can withstand more weight (upwards of 1,662 pounds) than NASA's three-gram edition. While last year's shindig ended sans a winning party, NASA quadrupled the prize to $200,000 in order to attract more serious competition, but failed to crown a champion yet again. Three teams were immediately disqualified due to loop circumferences being less than the compulsory two meters, which sparked a "heated debate with contest organizers" about the supposed clarity of the rules. While a plethora of geeky expletives were presumably hurled, NASA only allowed the rule-abiding Astroaraneae team to officially compete -- but the Aerojet employees fell a bit short as their line snapped after withstanding 1,336 pounds of force. While we aren't sure if next year's challenge will offer an even larger purse (or yield an actual winner), we're fairly certain that the rulebook will be exorbitantly straightforward if nothing else.
Pittsburgh's Carnegie Science Center's planetarium upgraded to high-def
High-def and science seems to be going together like macaroni and cheese lately. Well, with that underwater exploration story and then now that the Carnegie Science Center in Pittsburgh has upgraded their planetarium to HD, it proves high definition isn't just all fun and games. The $1 million dollar DigitalSky by SkySkan projects up to five million pixels per frame by way of custom real-time presentations with the latest NASA images and databases. Images are shot up onto a 50-foot domed screen and is unlike your grade school planetarium memories thanks to magic of high definition. We are curious though if we slip the receptionist a twenty, or a new Sling Box, if they would let us throw a Monday Night Football kegger viewing party?[Via The Pittsbugh Channel]
HDNet's coverage of the Space Shuttle launch [Take 3]
Well, if you weren't around on Saturday (or Sunday) and missed the riveting coverage of the Shuttle launch by HDNet, the weather gods have given you a second chance. The shuttle was suppose to launch on Saturday afternoon but it was delayed due to weather. HDNet had set up 14 high-def cameras and were broadcasting all the different sites and sounds of the launch. Greg Dobbs never seemed to run out of things to talk about ether during the pre-launch phase but we wonder what he is going to talk about a second time through. To be honest, it is kind of boring and high up on the nerdy scale but there were some really pretty shots of the area. Plus, what else are you going to watch on Tuesday morning in high-def?The coverage starts again at 10:00 a.m. this morning with the shuttle scheduled to launch at 2:30 p.m. if the weather holds off.
New robot does the worm, for real
Sure, we've seen plenty of robot snakes in the past, but none like this robot earthworm being developed at Chuo University in Japan. The same research department that showed us the incredible Strider bot, is now demonstrating a machine that can move on open land and along narrow passageways, using the same method of peristalsis as the average night crawler. Each section of the body expands and contracts in a specific order, thus enabling the rubber-gripped bot to move inside of a tube with almost no lateral motion, even when crawling straight up. We can see how this technology, which NASA is also working on, could be used in fields like geology, robofishing and medicine, even though watching the videos on the site and seeing the word "catheter" in the article made us more than a little uneasy.
North Dakota students show off Mars spacesuit prototype
We had assumed that with all the robots being developed for deployment to Mars, the human astronauts would mostly be lounging around inside the comfort of their robot-built habitats and ordering drinks from their robot bartenders, but yesterday's unveiling of a prototype spacesuit for navigating the Martian terrain proves that manned missions might not be as cushy as we anticipated. The 50-pound suit (which they somehow got The Office's Steve Carell to model) was designed by students from five North Dakota colleges in a collaborative project funded by a $100,000 NASA grant, and includes at least three innovative technologies for which patents have been filed. Among the slew of sensors and communications gear designed for the harsh, low-gravity environment are oxygen and carbon dioxide detectors, GPS system, full suite of health monitors, shoulder mounted CCD cam, Bluetooth server to coordinate all the data, and a high-power transmitter for beaming info back to the mothership -- though curiously, there's no mention of an onboard weapons system that would be crucial for encounters with the occasional hostile Martian. Also, as the AP helpfully notes, even with all the research and design that went into this project, the forty-odd students seemed to neglect a key feature of any good full-body suit, which is an "escape hatch" for when the astronauts need to "jettison their waste."[Via futurismic and abc]
Mars24
If you like Mars, Nasa has the application for you. Mars24 tracks the time of day for numerous locations on Mars (those are Martian days, by the way).It is free, and interesting. Isn't that what we all want in our software?[Via PopSciBlog]
NASA and HDNet team up to broadcast shuttle launches in HD
NASA and Mark Cuban have hooked up to make sure every shuttle launch and landing at Kennedy Space Center is filmed and broadcast in high definition through 2010. The press release doesn't mention if this is an exclusive agreement or not, but they will also be distributing the HD feed to other networks so whenever you do start getting your news in high definition (if you don't already), your shuttle clips should be that way also.Shuttle launches are still a pretty cool event to watch, and its only logical they'd be best to watch in high definition, finally we'll have some footage beyond whatever IMAX movies are on this week.
