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ICYMI: Chocolate science, firefighter tech and more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-876193{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-876193, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-876193{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-876193").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: You may want to switch careers after seeing the chocolate formula MIT researchers got to dig into; Georgia Tech came up with a heads up display for biometric tracking and environment information for firefighters; and Blue Origin landed its rocket for the third time, like bosses. Also someone made a drone with a functioning chainsaw and you can see the destructive video here. As always, please share any great tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
SpaceX breaks ground at Vandenberg Air Force Base, continues preparation for 2013 Falcon Heavy launch
End of the US space shuttle program got you down? It doesn't seem to have phased SpaceX, which is still chipper and chugging right along with plans for its bodacious Falcon Heavy. The company recently broke ground at Complex 4 East at the Vandenberg Air Force Base, which Elon Musk's baby will call home, later next year. With twice the payload-to-orbit capacity of Boeing and Lockheed's Delta IV Heavy, and at a third of the cost, the firm hopes its latest will usher in a new era of affordable $100 million launches. If all goes according to plan, the 22-story behemoth will have its inaugural launch in 2013, making it -- we're told -- the most powerful US rocket since Saturn V hurtled the Apollo spacecraft towards the moon. Budget-friendly, rocket-boostin' PR awaits you after the break.
Amateur Copenhagen Suborbitals team about to send a dummy into a space, then a man; what have you done with your life?
The non-profit, volunteer-based and sponsor-supplied Copenhagen Suborbitals are an amateur group of Danish crazies that are about to fire a crash test dummy into space. It's all part of a wild plan to send a human into space on a shoestring budget (in the thousands, not the millions), and it seems to be going pretty well so far. The launch of the "Tycho Brahe" spacecraft (pictured above), which is really as small as it looks and will be towed to sea by a submarine built by one of the team members, is slated to take place on August 30th. A manned launch is still probably a few years off, but this is the first full scale launch for the team, and obviously a huge milestone. We wish the team the best of luck, and will have a bottle of our best bubbly standing by to celebrate.
