The battle of the bulges, 1940s style
An evening pause: As you giggle at this, be forewarned: seventy years from now what you consider sane will be considered just as absurd.
Tag: engineering
DARPA has released some details about last summer’s HTV-2 hypersonic test flight.
DARPA has released some details about last summer’s HTV-2 hypersonic test flight.
An unmanned hypersonic glider likely aborted its 13,000 mph flight over the Pacific Ocean last summer because unexpectedly large sections of its skin peeled off, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency said Friday.
Brilliant or dumb?
Interesting inventions. With pictures.
A new launch schedule for Cygnus
Orbital Sciences has released an updated launch schedule for its Antares rocket and Cygnus capsule.
- Third quarter 2012 – Antares First-Stage Static Fire Test at Wallops
- Third quarter 2012 – Antares Test Flight for COTS
- Fourth quarter 2012 – COTS Demonstration Mission to ISS*
- First quarter 2013 – CRS Mission #1 to ISS
The significance?
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The death of the double click
The death of the double click.
The story includes some nice history behind the invention of the GUI.
Interestingly, I could probably count on one hand the times I have double-clicked on a computer, since I rarely use the mouse at all. Instead, I have found it is far faster to use the keyboard to access commands, files, programs, etc.
Is asteroid mining about to begin?
Is asteroid mining about to begin?
Considering some of the major players who are either investors or advisers for this company, this story could get very exciting when the company’s full plans are revealed on April 24.
The first stage of the Antares rocket is now vertical on the launchpad at Wallops Island in preparations for launch tests.
The first stage of the Antares rocket is now vertical on the launchpad at Wallops Island in preparations for launch tests.
“Our spaceships to fly from here to Abu Dhabi to New Mexico in no more than an hour.”
“Our spaceships to fly from here to Abu Dhabi to New Mexico in no more than an hour.”
The suggestion from this story is that not only will Virgin Galactic fly suborbital tourism flights out of Abu Dhabi, but the deal includes an effort to turn SpaceShipTwo into a transportation vehicle as well. Most interesting.
New simulations suggest that the magnitude of tsunamis predicted to hit Japan have previously been underestimated.
New simulations suggest that the magnitude of tsunamis predicted to hit Japan have been significantly underestimated.
The difficulty here is that these predicted giant tsunamis are still expected to be very rare events. It is thus unclear what is more practical, to build things at great cost so that they can survive these rare events, or to live with the risk and rebuild each time after disaster strikes.
Coming and going
There are really only two important stories today concerning space exploration. The story that is getting the most coverage is the big news that the space shuttle Discovery is making its last flight, flying over Washington, DC, as it is delivered to the Smithsonian for permanent display.
- CBS: Space shuttle Discovery viewing guide: Final flight Tuesday over DC.
- WTOP: Space shuttle Discovery salutes nation’s capital.
- Washington Times: Space shuttle Discovery ready for final flyover.
- Associated Press: Space shuttle Discovery ready for voyage to museum.
- Space.com: Space shuttle Discovery to take last-ever flight today.
- Discovery News: Shuttle Discovery begins new life as museum piece.
Of these stories, only Irene Klotz of Discovery News seems to really get it. This is not an event to celebrate or get excited about. It is the end of an American achievement, brought to a close probably three to five years prematurely so that the United States now cannot even send its own astronauts to its own space station.
The other news, actually far more important, has gotten far less coverage, and includes three different stories all really about the same thing.
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A new record for the longest Rube Goldberg machine
An evening pause: The Purdue Society of Professional Engineers team set a new record last week for longest ever Rube Goldberg machine, taking 300 steps to flawlessly blow up and then pop a balloon.
ULA, NASA’s prime contractor for operating the space shuttle, on Friday laid off nine percent of its work force.
USA, NASA’s prime contractor for operating the space shuttle, on Friday laid off nine percent of its work force.
I honestly have to ask: why did it take so long? The last shuttle flight was in July of last year. It couldn’t possibly have required that many people to prepare these spacecraft for display in museums.
Update: Typo corrected. Thank you Erik.