Technology

A GMD interceptor rocket on the launch pad. Photo: Missile Defense Agency

Protesters in Europe are rallying today against Bush Administration plans to build missile-defense installations in Poland and the Czech Republic, and Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that his nation will take retaliatory steps if the U.S. proceeds with these plans. But would such a system even work?

In theory, the system would destroy an incoming missile by intercepting it mid-course with a rocket carrying a kill vehicle. But critics have likened this method to hitting a bullet with a bullet—no easy task.

The Pentagons most recent test of the technology, originally scheduled for last year but delayed until May 25, was an embarrassment. The attack missile, carrying a dummy warhead, fell so far short of its target that the interceptor missile was never launched.

There has been only one successful intercept test since 2002. Last September, an interceptor fired from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California took down a dummy missile over the South Pacific. Critics say these tests arent realistic because they are carefully scripted, leaving little chance for the interceptor to be fooled by a decoy.

Even if the missile-defense system planned for eastern Europe works perfectly, it may not protect eastern Europe from missiles. Such a system is designed for high-altitude interceptions, so it works best when positioned between the launch site and the target, rather than near the target. Thats why U.S. missile-defense facilities are located on the California and Alaska coasts rather than inland.

The eastern European missile-defense system is intended to serve as a shield for the U.S., not Europe. So why would Poland and the Czech Republic want such a system? Because a U.S. military base on their soil may be the best protection of all. —Dawn Stover

Last December, a colossal wave swept across the entire solar surface within minutes, bulldozing everything in its path. The rare tsunami-like shockwave formed on the heels of a major flare that erupted from an Earth-size sunspot 15 minutes earlier. Though that storm didn't have a major impact on Earth, we aren't always so lucky.

Leading Edge Rocket Racing, which in October 2005 became the first team to join Peter Diamandiss ambitious Rocket Racing League, has officially left the organization. The league is in the process of developing rocket-powered aircraft that will race in Nascar-like events around the country. It is already more than a year behind its initial schedule, which was to have included 10 full races in 2007. As of right now, it hasnt even test-flown a prototype aircraft, let alone certified one for safe flight and produced enough for actual competitive racing.

Leading Edge, founded by former F-16 pilots Robert Rickard and Don Grantham, announced the move via a terse memo on Friday, and were vague about their reasons—though theyre clearly disgruntled. "After working with Rocket Racing League for the past 17 months, we have concluded that our vision, business practices, and communication standards are incompatible with those of the league, said Rickard in the press release. We had very high hopes for this enterprise and tried very hard to find a common way forward.

And: "There hasnt been a working relationship between our company and the RRL for some time now. This announcement makes it official so we can move on, said Grantham. It's time to focus our resources on something more compatible with Leading Edges goal of being the premiere operators of high performance rocket powered aircraft." (Neither Rickard nor Grantham could be reached for clarification or additional comment.)

RRL chief executive Granger Whitelaw didnt wish to comment on the departure, except to say that Leading Edge was welcome to come back and race whenever they get their internal organization funded and structured appropriately. When asked about the status of the RRL, Granger said, Terrific! Wonderful! before adding that the league expects to test-fly its first rocketplane this July.

So, reading between the lines (and it certainly doesnt take a rocket scientist to do that), Leading Edge seems to be implying that the Rocket Racing League is something of a sham, and the RRL thinks Leading Edge doesnt have its act together enough—most likely in terms of fund-raising—to play on the RRLs level.

Will the rocket racers ever start flying? Weve still got our hopes up, but todays news is certainly a significant obstacle for the fledgling league to overcome. —Eric Adams

Related: For more, see our February 2006 feature story on the RRL, as well as our reporting from this year's X-Prize Cup.

Photo: Shea Roggio/NYT

The New York Times yesterday on the dwindling numbers of aviation hobbyists:

The number of student pilots is down by about a third since 1990, from 129,000 to 88,000. The number of private pilots is down from 299,000 to 236,000, according to statistics kept by the Federal Aviation Administration. And they are aging.

Some longtime private pilots fear that an industry is withering and a bit of Americana is slipping away, along with a bit of freedom and joy. And it is happening in part because of lack of interest; Walter Mitty doesnt want to fly anymore.

The story explores a number of reasons for the decline—a more risk-averse society, female breadwinners causing men to have less disposable income (must admit I'm a little baffled by that one), a lack of modern, inexpensive hobbyist planes (the beautifully named Beechcraft Bonanza, still a go-to for most weekend pilots, has been around for 60 years), and a general lack of do-it-yourself spirit among younger Americans (can't say that's a problem for me).

But as an unabashed tech nerd who grew up living and breathing airplanes, I've naturally always wanted to do some flying of my own. Having the funds to do so, however, has yet to become a reality. The FAA's sport-license program—essentially, a way to get a watered-down license at a lower flight-hour and cost commitment to fly the smallest planes—piqued my interest last year, but I've read conflicting information on whether a sport license is worth it or not.

Basically, I want to hear from any hobbyist pilots out there: Should I get my license? How and when did you get yours, and what has been the payoff? Let me know in the comments below. I feel like it's probably something that's going to have to happen eventually, reduced private-pilot numbers or not. Maybe if we get enough people chiming in, I can convince the PopSci brass to foot the bill. You guys would read a day-by-day account of someone getting their pilot's license, right? Here's hoping...—John Mahoney

Prepare to be astounded: the image on the right is in . . . three dimensions

Seven months after its launch, NASA's STEREO satellite has sent back 3-D images of the sun. The Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory (guess STRO wasn't a cool enough acronym) charts the flow of matter and energy between Earth and the sun, and maps out things like solar storms and coronal mass ejections--actually useful for us, since these storms and CMEs will be used to better predict the next blackout-inducing maelstrom.So what's NASA been up to while its probe undertakes a two-year photo shoot? Well, it's been typing up the instructions on
how to make your own 3-D glasses. (Hint: it's exactly what you'd imagine.) —Abby SeiffRelated Links:Solar stormMake your own specsThe sun in 3-D

Phil has some photos from Wednesday night's DIY meet-up:
Despite some crummy rain, a lot of NY area makers made it to our MAKE/POPSCI/ETSY paper project night. Paper wallets were made, the drawbot cranked out dozens of portraits, experiments in powered paper flight were attempted...I was too busy folding wallets to shoot any. Thanks again to Instructables user theRIAA for providing the folding instructions (see them here), and of course to the Make/Craft/Etsy folks for hosting. Stay tuned for next month's details—if you're an NYC-area maker, this is turning into something you probably don't want to miss. —John Mahoney

Photo courtesy ESO

This week, scientists announced the discovery of what some believe is
the most promising earth-like planet yet found outside of our solar
system, some 20.5 light-years away in the contellation Libra. 

By measuring the miniscule amount of wobble a star has, astronomers
can conclude the amount of gravitational pull an orbiting planet is
exerting on the star and where and how massive that planets may be.
One such star, Gliese 581, has a wobble that indicates the presence of
a planet—Gliese 581-C—stuck right in the Goldilocks zone where the
conditions are neither too hot nor too cold but "just right" to
potentially have not only habitable temperatures but, more importantly,
liquid water.   

The star itself is much smaller and cooler than our own sun, but the
planet orbits at a comparatively close distance—seven million miles
compared to the earth's 91 million-mile solar orbit. However, too many
factors remain unknown, including the makeup of the atmosphere, the
actual size of the planet (only its mass is calculable from the star's
wobble) or if the planet's water may have dried up when the star was
warmer than it is now. And yet, its the most promising earth-like
planet found so far, and its relative proximity to our solar system
suggests that many more may exist beyond the reach or current
instruments.

The current uncertainties, however, havent slowed the gambling
community from putting money down on the findings.  Enterprising
British bookies (is there anything they don't have a line on?)
have put the odds at extraterrestrial life being found on this planet
somewhere between 1,000-1 and 100-1. The only parameters of the bet
are that the British Prime Minister must admit to the existence of
extraterrestrial life within one year of the bet being placed. Gambling junkies might want to hold onto their money a bit longer,
since the technology to accurately detect such things does not yet
exist, not to mention the planet is 20.5 lightyears away, which, while
relatively close, is still 20.5 lightyears away. —Dan Smith

Photo by O.P.Kopchevsky

On this day 46 years ago, Yuri Gagarin became the first human to be blasted into space. Naturally, Russians have celebrated this anniversary with vigor since its first occurrence the year following in the form of Cosmonautics Day, an annual holiday with an accompanying bevy of commemorative coins, stamps and magnificent pieces of authoritarian architecture like the Moscow monument pictured here.

While the rest of the world will naturally have a hard time matching the coolness of a towering, 100%-titanium Gagarin/Voltron hybrid (O to be an architect in the Soviet era!), an impressive international tribute has begun to emerge in the form of Yuri's Night. Since its foundation in 2001 by three lovers of all things space, the affair has sprouted parties in over 35 countries attracting space luminaries such as Ray Bradbury, Peter Diamandis and, ahem, Lance Bass. And if you're worried about being labeled a godless Commie, don't worry—April 12 is also the anniversary of the first Space Shuttle mission back in 1981.

From the website:"Whether in someones living room, a swinging nightclub or a world-class science museum, Yuris Night events all have one thing in common - people who are excited about space exploration and who want to join together to celebrate it."

Check it out to find a party near you. —John Mahoney

When PopSci published Will Snyder's article on terraforming Mars, we opined that the Mars Society's colonial flag could use some sprucing up, so we asked readers to submit their own designs. The week the article appeared, 42 Martian-flag mockups turned up in our inbox. Some featured elaborate designs and detailed explanations (which we've printed in their entirety in the slideshow), while others simply included a name. A couple flags were even sent anonymously.

Last night's NYC DIY meet-up was a blast: plenty of good people, good food, good drink and, of course, good MIDI hacks. This month's theme was handmade music, and as one would expect there were some pretty fabulous homebrew instruments on display.

Especially great was Jeff Hoefs's Beat Blocks, a 4-track beat sequencer with a tangible interface operated by blocks. Basically, if you put down a block with four stripes, you get four sixteenth-note hits on that beat. It's a blast to play with, which will hopefully be communicated in some way via this video:

For more photos, click on through below. And thanks to everyone at Etsy and MAKE for helping this first DIY meet-up happen. Stay tuned for details on next month's shindig. —John Mahoney

Le natural phenomenon or le UF

Fancy yourself an amateur UFOlogist? One of those people who knows  the truth is out there, and that the government is covering it up? Well, now you have a lot more evidence to comb through while looking to support your theories. Yesterday, with the introduction of a new section on the Web site of its national space agency, CNES, France became the first country to open its UFO files to the public—and also probably the first to have its server crash in three hours due to popularity. The initial batch (1,600 of some 100,000 documents that make up the complete archive of sightings reported) contains photographs, sketches, police reports and maps that the agency has used over the years to attempt to explain what was frequently deemed inexplicable. Now, of course, the 28 percent of cases that make up "Class D aerospace phenomena"—the real stumpers—will be handled by a crack team of Internet surfers. So just what was the shape-shifting brown disk that an Air France crew spied from the cockpit 13 years ago, or those beings that disappeared in a puff of sulfur in front of two cow herders back in '67? Take a look and let us know.—Abby Seiff

A mere three years after Burt Rutan´s SpaceShipOne skimmed the edge of space to capture the $10-million Ansari X Prize, more than half a dozen companies are furiously building and testing spacecraft designed to take paying passengers on suborbital journeys and beyond.