• Technology

    Going Up?

    By Paul Adams Posted on 9.24.2008 68 Comments

    One of the most promising technologies for the aspiring outer-space commuter is the space elevator. The concept, like quite a few others, was pressed into the public imagination by Arthur C. Clarke, who in his 1979 novel The Fountains of Paradise described a incredibly thin, incredibly strong carbon filament with one end anchored on Earth and the other extending up to a satellite in geostationary orbit. Now, a group of Japanese scientists are convinced that they can build a space elevator more quickly and cheaply than has been believed possible. Such a cable could convey cargo into space very cheaply and easily. Carriages would travel up and down the cable under modest power, not the vast expenditures of energy that are currently needed to send anything into orbit.

    1.9.2009 at 10:20pm - Comment by tyminator

    This could also shape the space tourism industry by sending people up the elevator. If someone could create this, they would be rich.

  • Technology

    Stealth Reborn

    By Dawn Stover Posted on 1.9.2009 13 Comments

    The B-2 stealth bomber, assisted by midair refuelings, can fly a 44-hour mission to the other side of the world, take out targets using laser-guided smart munitions, then sneak out of enemy territory undetected. Yet it runs on Intel 286 processors -- state of the art in 1982, but these days, not so much.

    1.9.2009 at 10:15pm - Comment by tyminator

    Is there anyway that they could make the plane completely triangle shaped? Wouldn't that make it faster and less noticeable on radar?

  • Technology

    Deep Impact to Search for Alien Worlds

    By Posted on 2.11.2008 4 Comments

    Deep Impact, the NASA spacecraft that watched a sister craft smash into the Comet Tempel-1, is now roaming the universe in search of extrasolar planets. Deep Impact still has another date with a comet, Hartley 2, but those observations wont start until 2010. During its downtime, scientists will use one of the probes telescopes to examine some of the more than 200 planets that astronomers have discovered in orbit around nearby stars in recent years.

    2.11.2008 at 09:05pm - Comment by tyminator

    What tools does the spacecraft have on board?



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