• Technology

    Inflatable Surveillance Balls for Mars

    By Corey Binns Posted on 9.26.2008 12 Comments

    By next fall, NASA plans to launch its biggest Red Planet rover yet, the $1.8-billion, SUV-size Mars Research Laboratory. Even though the MRL will be able to haul five times as much equipment as the Spirit and Opportunity rovers that are already on Mars, a group of Swedish researchers say that they could accomplish far more if accompanied by a squad of helper ’bots. Fredrik Bruhn, the CEO of Ångström Aerospace Corporation, and his colleagues have designed the small inflatable scouts to assist bigger, less mobile rovers in their hunt for signs of microbial life on Mars.

    10.9.2008 at 03:16am - Comment by nikman

    How do they plan to clean the "solar shell" from the dust that it will gather on it's surface as it rolls?

  • The Environment

    Future Human: Recycle—Or Else!

    By Posted on 3.11.2008 2 Comments

    The unsettling prospects of climate change seem to be inspiring a flurry of research on the innate ability of humans to cooperate for the common good. In my last post, I described a clever game by German scientists that found that freeloading impedes cooperation among a group of individuals chipping in to prevent a global warming disaster.

    9.16.2008 at 08:55am - Comment by nikman

    I am wondering by which standards is Greece considered authoritarian. I live in Greece, I looked up the definition of "authoritarianism" at Wikipedia and it doesn't sound very familiar.



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