Late this month, if everything goes according to plan, Space Exploration Corporation, or SpaceX for short, will launch its privately funded two-stage rocket, Falcon I, into low-Earth orbit, carrying with it the U.S. Department of Defense’s TacSat-1 satellite. The ride costs just under $6 million, a price that undercuts the competition by up to two thirds. â€We want to be the Southwest Airlines of space launches,†says SpaceX CEO and PayPal founder Elon Musk.

Dept.: Tech Lesson
Tech: Tape to DVD conversion
Base Cost: $100 to $500
Time: A few hours
Dabbler | | | | | Master

The beloved Hubble Space Telescope may get a new lease on life after all. Late last summer, NASA nixed its controversial decision to retire the aging instrument and instead will consider asking Congress for roughly $1 billion to plan and launch a robotic repair mission by late 2007.


The leading contender for a Hubble house call: a 3,664-pound, two-armed robot named Dextre. The robot, made by MD Robotics in Brampton, Canada, is about

It was supposed to end with a smashing movie stunt; instead it ended with a smash. The parachute that was to be grabbed by helicopter pilots on September 8 never opened, and the Genesis return capsule, loaded with solar particles, plunged into the Utah desert. A report from the NASA Mishap Investigation Board due out this month should explain why the spacecraft’s control system failed to deploy the chutes.

A decade ago, Brazilian Minister Carlos Velloso, president of the Superior Electoral Court, made a speech in which he promised a nation free of election fraud through the use of e-voting machines. Although there’s still room for debate about whether Brazil’s rapid move to e-voting solved all their electron-fraud problems, since 2000 the country’s elections have been conducted entirely on electronic voting kiosks.

Mike Melvill flew SS1 for the first attempt


Brian Binnie piloted White Knight


Brian Binnie flew SS1 for the second attempt


Mike Melvill piloted White Knight

(Click here to view a map)


[1] Maryland and Georgia use Diebold voting machines statewide that leave no paper trail. A Maryland judge rejected a paper-trail mandate.


[2] California: Secretary of State Kevin Shelley decertified insecure Diebold machines, and the attorney general joined a lawsuit against the company accusing it of making false claims about its machines.

1. When you go into the voting booth, you’re presented with an ATM-like screen that lists the candidates. Choose one by tapping that person’s name. A message confirming your choice appears at the top of
the screen.


2. This confirmation is actually two paper receipts, pressed together and then illuminated from behind. Each receipt by itself is an unreadable grid, but when properly aligned, the name you have chosen appears.

It’s 2 a.m. on November 3. The polls have been closed for hours, but the election has yet to be called. Around the country, reports of snafus with new electronic voting machines have been pouring in; no one is sure how these problems have affected the results. In Maryland, machines failed to boot up, and voters were turned away for hours. In South Carolina, officials bought machines too late for adequate testing, and on many of the onscreen ballots, the presidential contest included names of candidates from local elections.

Just a couple miles off the coast of Panama City, Florida, I descend by scuba to an artificial reef about 60 feet below the surface. The reef is teeming with fish and other marine life. It’s a beautiful sight—save for the dead body.