At a press conference today, NASA’s Orion team announced that the human test flight for the capsule may be pushed back as far as 2023, back from a 2021 test date for EM-2. The crew capsule, begun under President George W. Bush’s Constellation program, was one of the few survivors of the program when the Obama administration came to power.After rounds of testing, the team announced the need to shave weight off of the capsule....
View full post on YoutubeOculus VR’s headsets are opening the door to a new brand of video gaming in which the player can experience virtually any environ, including the middle of the world’s largest particle collider. Collider, a new project for Oculus, isn’t a game so much as an experience. Users strap into the console (or simply project it onto a screen) and play the role of the shining star of the Large Hadron Collider—a single proton....
Media Platforms Design TeamPasswords, banking records, social media accounts—day by day our lives create more and more data. But what becomes of all that data when we pass away is a looming problem with no clear answer.Marc Davis, a partner architect at Microsoft responsible for online services such as Bing, MSN, and advertising, raised this and other troubling issues about citizens’ rights to their own information at a panel at this weekend’s SXSW conference, called “Demystifying Online Privacy and Empowering the Digital Self....
Elvis made his first appearance of the evening just as Ridgid product engineer Mark Huggins explained how his team had reached the holy grail of 4.5-inch-angle-grinder design. The tool’s adjustable hand guard and exquisite balance made fine cocktail chatter at this power-tool party, held for the media at the swanky penthouse of the Palms Casino during this week’s International Builders’ Show. As Huggins passed the orange devices around for inspection, he spoke eloquently about Ridgid’s new jigsaw’s “debris management system,” and how an “optimized volute” above a new random-orbital sander pad had improved dust collection to a stunning 90 percent....
Long-haul trucker Josh Giesbrecht lives a strange and solitary life, spending weeks on the road at a time while hauling cargo from point A to point B, covering vast distances on seemingly endless stretches of pavement. The 27-year-old native of Manitoba, Canada documents his trials and tribulations on YouTube, showing off his adorable dogs (Diesel and Sergeant) and his long and lonely hours on the road. Giesbrecht spoke with us via Skype from somewhere in the middle of North Dakota while en route to Iowa....
On Feb. 17, 2009, analog television broadcasts in the United States are scheduled to end forever, giving way to a 100 percent digital television system. At least, that is the current plan. The digital television transition has been delayed more than two years since the original deadline and, as we get within weeks of DT-Day, problems are popping up that may push the date back even further. As of Jan. 14, the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) program had mailed out 44....
Media Platforms Design Team Last Wednesday Ratan Tata, chairman of the Tata Group, speaking at the Cornell Global Forum on Sustainable Global Enterprise in NYC, said he plans to sell a car like the Nano in the U.S., according to Reuters. He told the group, “It will need to meet all emission and crash standards, and so we hope in the next two years we will be offering such a vehicle in the U....
Media Platforms Design TeamAstronomers in Hawaii recently witnessed a rare astronomical treat. While using the Gemini Observatory to study the volcanic plumes of Jupiter’s moon Io in infrared, they witnessed its fellow moon Europa transiting across it.These two satellites are among four that comprise the system of Galilean moons orbiting Jupiter. Each of the four moons are larger than Pluto; Io and Europa are the closest to the planet. Because of its proximity to Jupiter, Io is the most volcanically active object in the solar system, while similar gravitational effects on Europa may heat an ocean below its icy crust....
The joke goes a little something like this: If you drop a Nokia 3310, you better check and make sure you didn’t break the floor. Nokia’s iconic 2000 dumbphone is a sturdy little bugger in all the ways our modern iPhones aren’t. But how does it do when it’s run over by a tank?Tech Assassin—one of YouTube’s legion of gadget destroyers—endevored to find out, and you have to hand it to him when it comes to technique....
Any yahoo can sit on the seat above a dunk tank and wait for someone to make them take a dip. But Eric Gradman isn’t just any yahoo. And that’s why you can find him inside of the Dunk Tank Flambé, a 1000-degree Fahrenheit inferno of flame triggered by a one good throw. View full post on YoutubeThe 8-foot wide, 10-foot high, open-top chamber is outfitted with 15 different burners that fling flaming propane at the occupant when triggered....
Media Platforms Design Team LOS ANGELES—Honda is known for quite a number of breakthrough motorcycle designs—icons like the original CB750, the CBX (a groundbreaking six-cylinder) and, of course, the Goldwing. Clearly, the company isn’t afraid to spearhead new directions in motorcycling. And the radical new DN-01 is certainly a unique direction. First seen at the 2007 Tokyo Motor Show, the DN-01 is a crossover of sorts—part cruiser, part scooter. At the heart of the bike is an automatic transmission developed for and borrowed from the Honda Fourtrax Foreman Rubicon ATV—a hydro-mechanical system called HFT that provides two fully automatic ranges along with a manually operated “six-speed” system for sporty riding....
Media Platforms Design TeamEveryone loves the Terrafugia Transition, the cute-as-a-bug flying car that has been center stage at the New York International Auto Show this week. Among the media reporting enthusiastically on its car-show debut were The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times. CNN was there, too, declaring, “Flying cars are not just the stuff of sci-fi movies anymore.“You might think that PopMech would be on board with this rapturous reception....
Update: The Orbital Sciences Antares rocket on the ORB-3 commercial resupply mission to the International Space Station exploded into ball of fire above the launch pad 6 seconds after an on-time liftoff tonight at 6:22 from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Space Port on the Virginia cost. “We do have significant property damage and significant vehicle damage,” was the understated announcement made by an official on the communications loop that went over the live feed on the shortly afterwards on the NASA TV website....
Yesterday, downtown Lynchburg, Va. saw a devastating train derailment in which several tankers hauling crude oil burst into flames. Details are scarce, but here’s what we know about these kinds of accidents.What Causes a DerailmentTrain derailments in the United States aren’t exactly common, but they happen much more often than you might think. According to the Federal Railroad Administration, more than 300 derailments happened in 2012 alone.Nearly all derailments are traced back not to negligence or a mechanical problem on the train, but to an issue with the tracks....
There’s been a long-held idea of a capacity limit in fiber optics—a point at which signals can’t travel any faster or contain anymore information without interfering with other signals on a strand of cables. Some experts thought that point was no more than five years away, after which we might have to seek out alternatives to fiber if we wanted anything faster or bigger. But some University of California-San Diego researchers have a new paper in Science saying that we could maybe, just maybe, step back a little and breathe easy....
Philip FriedmanMy tablet slid off my lap and onto a concrete floor. Everything still works, but now the screen’s got a bunch of scratches. Is there any way to fix this?Media Platforms Design TeamI wasn’t able to find a commercial product that claims to fix scratches on a glass touchscreen, but a Google search turned up a variety of improvised remedies. These run the gamut from fishy to believable, but have one thing in common: a near-total lack of substantiation....
Media Platforms Design TeamThe engine sat there on the stand, seemingly glowing in the low morning light that streamed into the shop: a flat-head, 327-cubic-inch Packard inline eight, circa 1950. In its heyday it was one of the finest engines Detroit ever built, producing 150 hp and 270 lb-ft of torque. It idled so smoothly you could balance a nickel on its edge atop the block’s head. It was big and beautiful in a way that never made sense for a passenger car....
The James Webb Space Telescope might be grounded years before it ever approaches liftoff. This month, a House of Representatives subcommittee introduced a bill that would eliminate funding for the program. Now the fate of NASA’s next great telescope-to-be rests with rests with the arcane procedures of the Congressional budget process. Heidi Hammel from the Space Science Institute, has been working on the project since 2003 and planned to continue working on it beyond the proposed launch date of 2018....
Media Platforms Design TeamFor taxi testing on Oct. 31, 2014 at NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, in California, the Adaptive Compliant Trailing Edge (ACTE) flap was extended to 20 degrees deflection. Flight results will validate whether the seamless design with its advanced lightweight materials can reduce wing structural weight, improve fuel economy and efficiency, and reduce environmental impacts. (Photo Credit: NASA/Ken Ulbrich)The future of flight may be seen in NASA’s new shape changing wings, made in collaboration with FlexSys....
Three Austrian patients just received a first-of-their-kind bionic hand, one that responds to brain signals as a flesh-and-blood hand would. The technology could pave the way for better, more responsive prostheses. The technique uses muscles and nerves taken from the leg and transplanted to the arm, allowing it to transmit signals from the brain. But there are some risks associated, including the need for patients to take anti-rejection drugs for all their lives....
