The Little Rovers That Could

The twin Mars rovers have had their missions extended for the fifth time.

Space probes seem to be really hit or miss — either they fail right away, or they keep going, and going… Maybe we just don’t get to hear about those that perform according to plans and nothing more.

Living the Future

When it rains, it pours. Here’s another high-tech prosthetic arm.

Living the Future

…by way of the past. Yes, it’s a steam/rocket-powered bionic arm. See the video.

Living the Future

We can rebuild him. We have the technology.

Bionic eyes can’t be far if this is available now…

i-Limb Hand

Check out that short video about the i-Limb Hand prosthetic — it’s eerie to watch. Just give them a few more years to plug into the proper nerves for full motion and find a way to put real skin over it. Wow.

(Back in the late 1980s, I used to think that Mike Pondsmith’s Cyberpunk 2020 was overly optimistic with its vision of “plug and play” back-alley prosthetics and mind/machine interface — the first commercial applications appearing around 2012 in his game’s timeline. Now it’s 2007, and I’m watching a video of a man and a woman with a pretty good mechanical hand. Awesome!)

MULE

Yea, killer robot!

Would be more useful if you didn’t need a trooper playing video games in the middle of a firefight, though. (And a little more speed wouldn’t hurt, either.)

BioSuit

Finally, a smarter space suit design. Not that it’s a new idea, mind you – using mechanical pressure to keep the body together instead of building a fully pressurized vessel.

I don’t like the helmet, however. I’m not sure if the designers ever tried to wear their suit, but if they did, they would soon realize that it’s useful to be able to look down without having to bend the entire body. (I.e., that glass bubble should extend down pass chin level.)

(Here’s a better picture.)

This Sucks

But in good way. Yes, it’s vacuum that’s holding up the robot against the wall.

Fruit Picker Machines

Well, that should help solve the illegal immigration issue. Progress marches on…

Rescue Robot

The US Army is working on a robot to rescue wounded troops (I think I mentioned it before). Check out the legs with their built-in threads, it looks like something out of Transformers.

If it works, though, wouldn’t it be smarter to give it a gun rather than to keep sending soft fleshy humans in combat?

This Is... Disturbing

The Japanese (who else) have built a robot child for research. Creepy as all heck. I’m getting serious Second Variety vibes from it. Brrr.

Bots on The Ground

Here’s an interesting article about combat robots and the soldiers that use them.

If Project 5 ever gets off the ground in game form, I’ll have to include some form of morale rules for this.

Land Warrior

Apparently, soldiers don’t much like the Army’s new Land Warrior gear (maybe if it was a 15-foot tall robot suit they’d like it better?).

Can’t blame them, really. Heinlein said it himself back in 1959’s Starship Trooper: you need to just wear the equipment, or else someone with a stick will just bash your skull in while you’re busy checking the displays. The system won’t be useful until it looks like a video game’s HUD — don’t tell the troops where their buddies are on a tiny headset map, highlight a virtual silhouette in their field of vision, instead.

But we’re getting there. Now add some armor, jumpjets, servos…

A Question of Perspective

Here’s a visual comparison of all (known) bodies in the Solar System larger than 200 Miles in diameter.

It puts things in perspective.

Mind Scanner

I said it before, but here’s more water for the mill: future mecha will be thought-controlled.

Interplanetary Logistics

Engineers create SpaceNet, an hypothetical near-space supply chain.

As Steve Jackson said, there has to be a boardgame idea in there somewhere.

Another Walking Robot

Another walking robot, only this time it’s learning to walk by itself, hence the eerily human gait.

I don’t know whether to be amazed, amused (bits of the video remind me of the Three Stooges) or scared (it sort of looks like a T-800 Terminator, no?).

That’s It

All my future mecha designs will have though-controlled cockpits.

Auto-powered Space Suits

Motion-sensitive spacesuits could generate power by using a special bio coating to convert the wearer’s natural motions to electricity.

Better be darn efficient if they don’t want the astronaut to get too tired. TANSTAAFL.

UPDATE: Apparently, I’m not the only one thinking along those lines.

Almost There

Fine-tune the controls and add armor, and you’ve got a powered combat suit.

Obviously we’ll need sensors, jump jets and a power supply that lasts more than twenty minutes between charges, but hey, Rome wasn’t built in a day.

Railguns are Coming

The US Navy just tested an 8-megajoule electromagnetic launcher prototype. Plans are in the work for a 64-megajoule version that would replace traditional guns on ships.

Blue Origin Ship Revealed!

Talk about starting 2007 on a good note: super-secretive Blue Origin, Amazon.com’s founder Jeff Bezos’ rocket company, has finally revealed their suborbital spacecraft. See the videos of the first test hop — it really works!

Boy, I hope the NASA folks are updating their resumes. They’ll need them when the public starts asking why it costs $1B to launch a shuttle once, while private entrepreneurs are well on their way to space using essentially their own pocket change.

Robotic Exoskeleton to Fight Paralysis

The Japanese (of course) are bringing to market a robotic exoskeleton to help patients suffering from paralysis.

I'll Believe It When I see It

The Russian Energia Corporation is announcing their space plans for the next 25 years or so. This includes Klipper (the re-useable Soyuz replacement), a Moon base, and a Mars mission.

Come on, pull the other one. (Though it would be neat if they managed to do it.)

Well Duh

Physicist Stephen Hawkings says that humans must colonize other planets as a matter of specie’s survival. Looking around at all the crazies that share this tiny planet, I strongly concur.

UPDATE: Re-thinking about it, why planets, anyway? A colony cylinder (or hollowed-out asteroid) would have Earth gravity (by spin) and atmosphere from the start, no terraforming needed. No need to spend energy getting in and out of a gravity well, either, if you want to go somewhere else.

And, if you make it large enough, it will be extremely safe, use proven engineering techniques, and might not even look like a closed environment from the inside.

HAL Exoskeleton

A Japanese researcher has perfected an exoskeleton that multiply force by 5 (according to the video). The demonstrations are quite neat to see.

Not quite ready for prime time, but it’s getting there.

Direct Launcher

A team at NASA makes an interesting proposal. Basically, instead of adapting shuttle technology to create two brand new launch vehicles (Ares 1 and 5), why not just use the shuttle hardware as is? Sure, you need to juggle the schedules to find cargo to launch with each crew, but you need just one type of vehicle, no mods to the existing pads, and little to the manufacturing side.

Will never happen, of course. NASA is a job program for scientists, not a space exploration agency.

Hubble Mission

NASA has announced a Hubble repair mission for 2008 or so (provided the shuttle fleet lasts until then). That’s welcome news.

Space Etiquette

Astronauts offer etiquette lessons to space tourists — mostly common sense stuff, but it needs to be said.

If memory serves, SF author Larry Niven has touched on the subject in his Known Space stories. R. Talsorian Games also had a few good entries in their Deep Space supplement for their Cyberpunk game, such as don’t smoke or wear perfume; be careful when making large gestures; don’t stare when someone is changing or washing, but don’t be ashamed either.

Think in Russian

I’m actually thinking about using direct mind-link for the vehicle control systems in Project 7.

There are already crude prototypes in operation — no idea where it may lead later. Plus, it strengthens the idea of the mecha as a giant spacesuit, an armored spaceborn body for your mind.

(And in case you missed the title’s reference: Firefox.)

Lunar Landers

Selenian Boondocks is at it again, this time on the subject of lunar landers.

Orbital Tugs

Selenian Boondocks has a new entry about the benefits of an orbital tug. It involves almost off-the-shelf technology, and the payload benefits are significant since the launching rocket doesn’t have to lug around guidance and docking systems for the cargo, or a third stage motor for that matter.

I can easily see a universal cargo pod design (open-source, so that anyone can use it) that would be the space-borne equivalent to the current-day shipping container. Hmmm… gotta make a note somewhere for Project 7.

SpaceShipTwo Mockup

The first images are here. You can also see the new carrier plane design, White Knight Two.

I knew it was supposed to be bigger than the first one, but it looks like it’s almost twice as long and three times as big. It might be a matter of mass, but that cabin looks roomy enough to fit twice the announced number of people (6 + 2 crew).

Sweet! Can’t wait for design number 3 (orbital), though.

A Swarm of Drones

At the MIT, they are doing experiments in drones swarming together, using tiny model helicopters.

Don’t miss the videos, especially the one where two drones collaborate to chase down a radio-controlled car. Freaky.

lunar transport vehicle

Selenian Boondocks has a post on using a Kistler K-1 as a lunar transport vehicle. Good stuff, especially the math about aerobreaking.

(Via Transterrestrial Musics)

Orion

That’s just sad.

Everyone knows that “Orion” refers to a big-ass nuclear bomb-propelled interplanetary spaceship, not a whimpy Apollo clone designed to maximize contracts to politically-connected corporations.

(Oops, did I say that out loud?)

MTHEL

Bet the Isrealis would love to have a few of those on watch at the border right now.

inflatable ship

Bigelow Aerospace have succeeded in putting their prototype inflatable hab module in space. Check the link for pics.

Launch Videos

You have to watch these. They’re like scenes from a sci-fi movie, but it’s the real stuff! Check out the solid booster cams!

jovian mystery

Two Jovian storms prepare for a showdown. On July 4, the Great Red Spot, a behemoth of a tempest twice as large as Earth, and Oval BA, also known as “Red Jr.,” a young yet giant storm, will be passing near one another. No one knows what’s going to happen.

the little robot that could

Seems that despite a burned-out wheel and an unexpected sandtrap, the Spirit Mars rover has made it to safety. Its solar panels are now correctly oriented for the Martian winter ahead. It won’t guarantee its survival, but it’s chances are much better than before.

I keep being impressed by the little fellows (Spririt and its twin, Opportunity). Planned for a three months mission, they’ve now been exploring Mars for two years.

Dammit!!!

The Falcon 1 maiden launch ended in a vehicle loss after less than a minute of flight. Crap!

Knowing that 50% of new rocket designs fail on their maiden flight lessens the blow, but I had hopes, see…

They’re not giving up, hopefully the next one will make it all the way to orbit.

Artificial Muscles

Apparently, the writers of the Battletech game were ahead of their time when they gave their mecha artificial muscles called myomers.

Now, scientists are making ‘bionic’ muscles for use in prosthetics and augmentation devices (i.e., powered armor).

I still can’t believe I’m going to see the sci-fi of my youth for real. Happy happy happy…

Walking Robots...

…are running now.

Man, I wish Asimov had lived to see this!

Space News

Jovian Chronicles collaborator (and real-life scientist) Christian Schaller reports that the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter is less that 48 hours from Mars orbit. The insertion burn will begin at 2:24 PM ERT MST tomorrow, which will send the spacecraft in a 35-hour highly elliptical orbit. Aerobraking maneuvers will begin the week of March 20 to turn that useless orbit to a roughly 2-hour polar orbit suitable for science. Before doing that, they’ll take some images of the surface with the onboard sensors; the HiRISE camera, on which Chris worked, will be one of the latter.

In other news, the Cassini spacecraft has found evidence of liquid water spewing from geysers on Enceladus, one of Saturn’s icy moons. I’m glad to see this because a) it gives us another place to look for life and b) I’m working on something that takes place in the Saturn system, and this will make the game/fiction more accurate.

(If you’re wondering, the latter is Project 7.)

UPDATE: Chris emailed back saying that the flight team has just elected to forego the planned fifth trajectory correction burn, because it’s not needed. The MRO is right on target!

MORE UPDATE: The orbital insertion was successful. Congrats!

BigDog

Don’t be mislead by the title, this isn’t dogblogging. Rather, more proof that mecha are coming.

(Weirdly enough, I cringed when the guy kicks the robot off-balance. The recovery movements remind me too much of a dog’s or mule’s.)

So we’ll definitely get to see robots, spaceships and mecha in our lifetime. Is this a great time to be alive, or what?

Express to Pluto

It took a while, but Mankind has finally sent its first probe to distant Pluto.

I just wish they had the budget to make something a little meaner and faster. Stick an ion engine on it, and an aerogel shield in front, and maybe a solid booster underneath the probe assembly for an extra initial kick?

I can’t wait to get the info, but I’m a bit miffed that I will use it as a science lesson for my kids.

UPDATE: Oops, there seems to be a Star-48B solid rocket booster present under the probe. My bad. Should’ve known, given the final velocity.

Martian Aircraft

This is cool. A proposed Mars scout mission with an airplane called ARES.

Check out the high altitude tests’ video!

(Via the Speculist)

Mag-boosted Rocket Engines

There’s an article over at Slashdot about a possible use of Alfvén waves for rocket propulsion.

Basically, a strong magnetic field would be used to add energy and speed to the combustion plasma of the engine, greatly increasing its efficiency.

Will it work in the real world? Don’t know, but here’s hoping…

Grand Challenge Won!

They haven’t announced the winner officially yet, but unless the remaining robots manage to sprint the remaining distance in less than an hour or so, the winner of the DARPA Grand Challenge 2005 is…

(Name after the fold to avoid spoiler)

…the Red Team with their Sandstorm vehicle, at around 7 and a half hours to drive 132 miles through a variety of terrain. According to the Web site, Standford U’s own “Stanley” took only two minutes more. Bravo!

UPDATE (Oct. 10): My bad — it appears that there was some timing processes in the race I was not aware of, and Stanley actually won the race.

Rocket NASCAR

Now this sort of Space Race is just what we need to get the regular joes interessed in space. Come on — a sound like thunder, twenty-feet-long flames coming out the back…

Next decade, can we put the race in orbit? Heck, eventually, we could have them race in Saturn’s rings — how cool would that be?

UPDATE: forgot to link to the official Web site of the league.

Shuttle a Mistake: Well Duh

Mike Griffin just told an interviewer that he thinks the Shuttle and ISS were mistakes.

A system designed by committees, to meet a ludicrous spread of requirements (some of them contradictory) and to meet an unrealistic budget and timeline, is not up to par? “Cheap, fast, good, pick any two.”

With hindsight the poor decision is obvious. Why wasn’t it caught back then, and how can we avoid repeating the same mistakes again? (Not looking good, by the way.)

Keep Space for Peace?!

They’re discussing what the Hippies would like as a space policy over at MarsBlog. It’s always a funny read. The thing that I found most amusing was that old saw, “ban space weapons!”

These people are not scientists, and it shows. A spacecraft engine delivers as much energy as a large bomb, just over a longer period of time.

Virtually any spacecraft, by virtue of its kinetic energy alone, is a deadly weapon. I’ve seen it written down as Robinson’s First Law of space combat: something hitting at 3 km/sec (kips) delivers kinetic energy broadly equal to its mass in TNT. (Which means that future space missiles won’t have to carry a warhead, just a heavy and dense nosecone.)

It doesn’t matter if it’s a environmental survey satellite — if you smash it against a shuttle, it will destroy it. If you drop a space station on a city, it acts as a massive nuke (Operation British in MS Gundam is a fictional but graphic example).

Carnival of Tomorrow 9.0

It’s this time of the month again. Check out the latest Carnival of Tomorrow to see technologies that we should keep our eyes on in the near future.

Miracle Mice

I pray that this article is not a hoax, and that the lab results can be reproduced elsewhere.

If this can be replicated in humans, we’re looking at a revolution in medicine.

UPDATE: Hey, I just thought of something: Star Trek got it right again! After the cell phone, the floppy disk, and many others, there’s a chance we just discovered the regrowth pill! (Doc McCoy: “Dialysis? What is this, the Dark Ages? Take this pill, it’ll grow you a new liver.”)

UPDATE 2: Hmm… I just realized there’s a dark side to this technology. You could torture someone badly, maiming them and all, then just wait for everything to grow back and start all over again. As long as you don’t kill the subject, this can go on for a very long time. Brr…

New Orleans Geography

I knew that the city lays under the sea level, but I had no idea it was that bad. This article on New Orleans’ peculiar geography explains much of the current circumstances.

Wonder if they will abandon the city, or try to rebuild?

Reach

Gary Farber notes a very cool NASA video.

I choked up when I saw it. No lies.

What the Heck are we waiting for?

Alien Life

A recent post on The Speculist blog discusses alien life — basically why hasn’t anyone contacted us yet.

I think there’s alien life out there, for sure. Just see how many variations we have on just one planet, and how easy it is for amino acids to form, and it’s hard to say with a straight face that the universe is sterile.

So why haven’t we heard from them just yet? I have my theory about that. Basically, it’s all about timing. The period during a civilization can be contacted is very short. During most of its early existence, an alien race won’t be able to communicate, due to lack of science.

Once they get their industrial revolution, however, things go very fast. Before long, they have access to enough computing power to simulate anything they want, and they probably fold in on themselves. Why go out into dangerous space when everyone can be a god in his own private pocket universe?

Humanity is rapidly approaching the latter end of the communication period. It’ll be interesting to see what path we will take: computed dreams or hard reality?

Carnival of Tomorrow

I love stuff like the Carnival of Tomorrow. It gives me plenty of fodder for my science-fiction work.

(Work, might I had, that’s getting tougher and tougher. Reality seems to catch up awfully fast to fiction these days. And making a credible post-Singularity setting is damn hard.)

Kliper

The Russians have just unveiled a full-scale mockup of the Kliper, a re-usable replacement for the aging Soyuz capsule. More pictures and info can be found here and here.

Too bad they probably won’t be able to finance it, however…

Ad Astra Eternae

I chose the category “Science” for this entry, but I could have as well chosen “Society” — this is the start of another era in Mankind’s history.

Rutan’s SpaceShipOne captured the X Prize this morning, showing that you don’t need an extensive government organization to reach space.

I know, I know, it’s much simpler to build a suborbital craft than an orbital one. But is anyone here doubting that either Rutan or someone else will have an orbital shuttle flying within ten years?

I’m not. Godspeed!

The Empire Strikes Back

The image says it all.

Ad Astra

This is a good summer for space cadets like me.

Cassini is entering the Saturn system, after seven years of travel.

Opportunity is preparing to explore a new crater on Mars.

The Chinese have just announced another manned flight for 2005.

NASA has started looking into a robotic rescue mission to save the Hubble.

I missed the transit of Venus — oh well.

And finally (but not least), SpaceShipOne is scheduled to make its first X-prize attempt on June 21. (And damn, that’s a sexy pair of flying vehicles!)

Oh yes, things are shaping up nicely.

Back to Mars

Mars Exploration Rover A (MER-A) “Spirit” has successfully landed on Mars during the night of January 3-4, 2004. This is the first successful return to the Martian surface since 1997’s Pathfinder mission (well, unless Beagle II is found, which grows more unlikely by the day). MER-A’s twin, the MER-B “Opportunity” probe, is on final approach for a landing in three weeks on the opposite side of Mars.

Aren’t these great days to be alive, or what? :)