Technology

Stealth aircraft come in two forms: angular evaders like the B-2 bomber, and cruder radar jammers that simply overwhelm the enemy's air defense systems, allowing entire squadrons to penetrate hostile territory. Boeing's E/A-18 fighter jet is the latest entry in the latter group, but it's far from crude. Based on the nimble F-18 platform and outfitted with three jamming pods, it can outwit and outmaneuver the most advanced attack squadrons. The plane recently completed its first test flight; it should go into service by 2008.

It's arguably the most powerful scientific instrument ever created, adept at inspecting exploding stars and glimpsing billions of years back in time. Yet the Hubble Space Telescope is really just a giant orbiting lens, only as good as the camera within. This month, astronauts will deliver an even better internal eye, the Advanced Camera for Surveys. The upgrade will allow Hubble to operate 10 times more quickly. Here is a brief history of the telescope that changed the way we think about the universe.

HUBBLE IN FOCUS




April 1990

The corporate jet has long been the ultimate status symbol, but Renaissance Research is out to challenge jet-powered primacy. The California-based company is bent on designing the fastest propeller plane in history and, ultimately, on producing an alternative to today's midsize jets.

When a Concorde jet on its way from Paris to New York crashed on July 25, 2000, killing all 109 people aboard and four on the ground, the event was not simply a tragedy -- it seemed a metaphor for the sorry state of supersonic air travel.

Timeline March 1947

Martian Chess is played on an ordinary chessboard using a standard set of chess pieces, a standard deck of 52 playing cards, and a six-sided die. The pieces are set up in the usual fashion, and each player is dealt 13 cards. White goes first.

"Think about your eyeball," urges Peter Hall. It, your brain, and your retina "allow you to build an image in an instant using parallel processing. That's what a Luneberg lens could do for astronomy."

"I'm now convinced that Mars
is inhabited by a race of demented landscape gardeners," Sir Arthur C. Clarke announced recently.




The author of 2001: A Space Odyssey was only half-joking. He claims that an image produced by the Mars Global Surveyor satellite shows "large areas of vegetation . . . like banyan trees." Most experts dismiss the idea. But Popular Science loves a free thinker, especially one as talented and charming as Sir Arthur. We questioned him in Sri Lanka via e-mail.

Popular Science What makes you so confident there is life on Mars?

Timeline, September 1926

Day One: Orientation

It's 7 a.m. in Houston, and I'm watching a video of a grown man getting sucked into a jet engine.

Driving home from work, you suddenly remember that a few of the T-ball kids are supposed to come over after the game. Should you pick up a couple of pizzas on your way? You pull out your cellular phone and call home to check.