• Technology

    Little Love For Space Tourism at AAAS

    By Posted on 2.15.2008 2 Comments

    For someone who follows far-out entrepreneurial space ventures for a living, its good to soak up some skepticism once in a while. And a heavy dose of skepticism about private-industry space tourism is just what I what I got this morning at the annual American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Boston, during a symposium titled 50 Years of the Space Age: Looking Back, Looking Forward. Looking forward, this group of experts—including Kathy Sullivan of the Battelle Center for Math and Space Policy, Roald Sagdeev of the University of Maryland-College Park, and Alvin Aldrin, son of Buzz Aldrin—sees hard times ahead for space tourism entrepreneurs.

    4.8.2008 at 10:59am - Comment by Hamman1990

    I think that it is doomed to what air lines are currently suffering from space tourism if it dose grow will just turn out like the air lines. they will be constantly bank corrupt and in financial turmoil.

  • Technology

    What Should Happen to the Body if an Astronaut Dies on Mars?

    By Posted on 3.4.2008 5 Comments

    I can say with fair confidence that if an astronaut died on a short mission to the moon, the craft would turn around and come back. But it gets thornier if the astronauts are on Mars, or even halfway there—any place where turning back would be inadvisable or even impossible. There are really only two options for the body: Leave it there or bring it home.

    4.8.2008 at 10:53am - Comment by Hamman1990

    I bet you if some one dies on mars and they are not infected with something then i think that NASA will simply depose of the body in space where it could be retrieved in Mars orbit on a return trip see you have to remember that space and fuel is to valuable to have a body on board any longer that a few hours and decomposition also has to be a factor as well.

  • Technology

    The Key to Better Boarding

    By Posted on 3.5.2008 2 Comments

    Everyone can guess the worst way to load passengers on to a plane is to do it front to back. People would have to wait at every row or squeeze awkwardly past. It would stand to reason, then, that the way airlines usually do it—back to front—would be the best way. But according to Fermilab physicist Jason Steffen, that's not the case. As it turns out, it's far from the best: it's the second worst.

    4.8.2008 at 10:43am - Comment by Hamman1990

    The current method is the worst because you have to wait for everyone that is ahead of you to load their luggage before you can load yours and the further back you are the worst it is.

  • Technology

    How It Works: The Flying Laser Cannon

    By Posted on 3.18.2008 31 Comments

    digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gadgets/How_It_Works_The_Airborne_Laser_Cannon'; Creating a laser that can melt a soda can in a lab is a finicky enough task. Later this year, scientists will put a 40,000-pound chemical laser in the belly of a gunship flying at 300 mph and take aim at targets as far away as five miles. And were not talking aluminum cans. Boeings new Advanced Tactical Laser will cook trucks, tanks, radio stations—the kinds of things hit with missiles and rockets today. Whereas conventional projectiles can lose sight of their target and be shot down or deflected, the ATL moves at the speed of light and can strike several targets in rapid succession.

    4.8.2008 at 10:34am - Comment by Hamman1990

    I believe that the lazer could be used as an alternative to drill bits in oil drilling. If you put the lazer on the pipe line in the place of a drill bit it could drill much deeper and without having to worry about it breaking so that we could gain access to more energy.



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