Month: August 2012

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From Popular Science – New Technology, Science News, The Future Now: India Will Launch Probe to Mars Next Year

India’s PSLV-C12 India’s space program successfully launched the PSLV-C12 satellite in 2009. EPA/ISRO/HO

While we in the U.S. wait with bated breath for Mars Rover Curiosity‘s August 5 landing on the red planet, India’s space program, the Indian Space Research Organisation, has confirmed that it plans to send an orbiter to Mars in 2013. It’s one small step in a program that’s been making giant leaps in recent years, including multiple satellite launch missions.

The total price tag for the project could wind up between $70 and $90 million, a source told AFP, which would go toward a 320-ton rocket carrying the orbiter. Once in place, it would study the planet’s climate and geology. That would already be a pretty big success for the program, but the ISRO is trying to go even further, planning to launch a fully manned mission by 2016.

India’s space program has been in place since the ’60s, but it’s in more recent years that its gained notoriety. In 2009, the country successfully launched seven satellites on a single rocket and it has been providing a cost efficient means of transporting satellites into space, but it was the Chandrayaan-1 lunar probe that brought the program global attention. Officials took criticism for spending on the space program, which intensified when the ISRO lunar probe lost radio contact with the probe after ten months. But Chandrayaan-1 was deemed a major success when it discovered water and a protective magnetic field on the moon.

Of course, a mission to Mars is a whole new beast, and they’ll be up against a lot of rough history when it launches.

[AFP]

 

from Popular Science – New Technology, Science News, The Future Now

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From Engadget: SLIPS liquid repeller is inspired by carnivorous plants, enemy to insects and graffiti artists alike

SLIPS synthetic liquid repeller is inspired by carnivorous, enemy to insects and graffiti artists alike

When a team of Harvard researchers wanted to create the ultimate liquid- and solid-repelling surface, they looked toward the Nepenthes pitcher plant, where curious insects check in and never check out, thanks to slippery walls that lead to their tiny, horrific fate. The tropical plant inspired the creation of SLIPS (Self-healing, Slippery Liquid-Infused Porous Surface), a synthetic material that utilizes nano/ microstructured substrates, capable of repelling just about anything you can throw at it. During a visit to the hallowed Crimson halls, the team was kindly enough to show off the material through a series of messy, messy demos, dropping water, motor oil, liquid asphalt and newly-mixed concrete on aluminum and glass. The team even went crazy with a can of black spray paint, comparing the results to a Teflon surface. The outcome was the same in all case — an amazingly repellent material.

The team has published a number of papers on the stuff, including ones that demonstrate its ice- and bacteria-repelling properties. Oh, and like its natural inspiration, SLIPS does a great jobs keeping bugs off its surface. You can check out our demos and one unhappy ant filmed by the SLIPS team. No insects were harmed in the making of our video, at least — and the lab assures us that ant had a good life before learning the hard way why it shouldn’t mess with Harvard scientists.

 

from Engadget

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From Engadget: Samsung demos its take on LTE Broadcast, edges closer to TV over 4G

Samsung demos its take on LTE Broadcast, edges closer to 4G TV

There must be a resurgence of mobile TV in the works at Samsung. Just hours after it brought out the TV-equipped Galaxy S Lightray 4G, the company has confirmed (through partner Anritsu) that it’s successfully testing LTE Broadcast technology. As the name implies, the standard and its evolved Multimedia Broadcast Multicast Service (eMBMS) pipe software-independent services like TV over a 4G network’s ample bandwidth rather than requiring dedicated networks and the costs that come with them — we all know how that last strategy panned out in the US. Unsurprisingly, Samsung isn’t saying what its long-term plans might be at this early stage, although we’d note that it isn’t alone. Qualcomm was showing LTE Broadcast back at Mobile World Congress, for example. While it’s far too soon to tell if there will be any American revival, Samsung’s help puts the writing on the wall for conventional mobile TV formats like T-DMB.

 

from Engadget

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From Engadget: Google takes one giant leap: now lets you Street View the Kennedy Space Center

Google takes one giant leap: now lets you Street View the Kennedy Space Center

Today’s a stupendous day for lovers of the one and only National Aeronautics Space Administration — nearly half as great as when we took you inside Kennedy Space Center shortly after it had opened its fascinating doors to the public. At any rate, Google announced earlier that its captivating (and sometimes troubling) Street View technology had made its way into NASA’s KSC, allowing people to check out what the compound is all about and what sort of sensational machinery lies inside. With Mountain View’s doings, you can now find your way around different spots within the Space Center, including the Launch Firing Room, Vehicle Assembly Building and, as seen above, the Space Shuttle Launch Pad. There’s a video past the break if you’re interested in a quick preview, otherwise you can give it a go yourself by clicking the more coverage link below.

 

from Engadget

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From Engadget: ARM claims new GPU has desktop-class brains, requests OpenCL certificate to prove it

ARM claims new GPU has desktopclass brains, requests OpenCL certificate to prove it

It’s been a while since ARM announced its next generation of Mali GPUs, the T604 and T658, but in the semiconductor business silence should never be confused with inactivity. Behind the scenes, the chip designers have been working with Khronos — that great keeper of open standards — to ensure the new graphics processors are fully compliant with OpenCL and are therefore able to use their silicon for general compute tasks (AR, photo manipulation, video rendering etc.) as well as for producing pretty visuals.

Importantly, ARM isn’t settling for the Embedded Profile version of OpenCL that has been “relaxed” for mobile devices, but is instead aiming for the same Full Profile OpenCL 1.1 found in compliant laptop and desktop GPUs. A tall order for a low-power processor, perhaps, but we have a strong feeling that Khronos’s certification is just a formality at this point, and that today’s news is a harbinger of real, commercial T6xx-powered devices coming before the end of the year. Even the souped-up Mali 400 in the European Galaxy S III can only reign for so long.

 

from Engadget

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From Ars Technica: NASA picks Boeing, Sierra Nevada, and SpaceX for Commercial Crew

The Boeing CST-100 just after its successful drop test at Delamar Dry Lake, Nevada

NASA announced the two and a half winners of the third Commercial Crew development round this morning. The winners were SpaceX ($440M), Boeing ($460M) and Sierra Nevada Corporation ($212.5M), although those allocations are subject to Congressional approval.

Today’s awards give a huge advantage to the three companies that got them, because competitors will need to fund their own development in its entirety. On the other hand, by partnering with the competitors, NASA has managed to seed the development of five different manned space vehicles for under $1B so far, a leap forward for the evolving space passenger market. They’ve paid for it on a reward-for-progress basis, handing out pre-agreed amounts of money for each specified milestone.

SpaceX was well ahead of the other two competitors because of the unmanned Dragon, which has already berthed with the International Space Station. The company has borne the brunt of the development costs itself, putting in about $300 million of its own money in addition to about $75 million from NASA. DragonRider, the nickname for the manned Dragon spacecraft, will probably fly its first manned flight in 2015, coming down for an ocean landing with the aid of parachutes. However, SpaceX has completed the development of the SuperDraco thruster, which will serve primarily as a launch abort system but also allow the DragonRider to make powered landings on solid earth without parachutes.

 

from Ars Technica