Tag: SPACE

Robonaut (or R2 for short) just made his grand debut on the International Space Station as the first humanoid 'bot to reach the void above. R2 was dropped off by the Space Shuttle Discovery on its last mission to the final frontier, and on Tuesday (a full two and half weeks after its arrival) crew aboard the ISS finally held an unveiling ceremony for its latest member. Astronauts Catherine ...

It's no secret that the Japanese love their robots. But the country's space agency, JAXA, is hoping that other nations will enjoy its android creations, too. The country of cutting-edge 'bots is planning to send a humanoid robot to the ISS, where it will monitor the health and stress levels of astronauts, and report back via Twitter. ...

British researchers plan to launch a cell phone into space later this year, using the device to control a satellite and take pictures of Earth. We've seen some guys send an Android phone 70,000-feet into the air on a weather balloon, but this would mark the first time a cell phone has ventured beyond the exosphere. According to BBC News, the team from Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL) ...

Ridiculous and implausible science fiction movies number in the thousands, but one particularly absurd film has actually provoked public admonishment from NASA. According to The Australian, NASA members recently discussed Hollywood science fiction fare, particularly the inane nonsense offered by 'Armageddon,' 'The 6th Day' and the unprecedentedly terrible [Ed. note: AMAZING] '2012.' The ...

NASA recently decided to sell off some of its old computers. Unfortunately, though, it forgot to erase some of the sensitive data that many of those computers still held. The embarrassing oversight came to light in a recent internal investigation (PDF), during which the issue was discovered at four NASA locations: Kennedy and Johnson Space Centers, and the Ames and Langley Research Centers. ...

Share We stumble across countless tech demos and flashy designs every week, but they usually leave us thinking little more than "that's cool." /dev/fort's new Spacelog is a spectacularly organized and designed site documenting the Apollo 13 and Mercury 6 missions. The site pulls from NASA missions' original radio transcripts, and displays communications like status updates -- yes, the "Houston, ...

NASA announced that a research team has found a microbe in California's Mono Lake that is unlike anything encountered before. This microbe's cell components replace phosphorous, one of the building blocks of life, with arsenic. This is the first life-form discovered that deviates from the basic SPONCH formula for creating DNA . The discovery expands the possibility of finding extraterrestrial ...

In case all the shake-ups at NASA have gotten you down in the dumps, perhaps you can take solace in those thrifty Brits and their newest entry in the space race: paper airplanes. Three private citizens -- Steve Daniels, John Oates and Lester Haines -- raised $13,000 (£8,000) in funds to launch the 'Vulture 1' glider (which measures three feet across) and its attached helium balloon into ...

What the hell, America? First, your stupid voters deny Massachusetts women the right to go topless in public, and now you've crushed the hopes of space aliens who might, just might, have wanted to drop by Denver for some Rocky Mountain hospitality. The Colorado city has overwhelmingly rejected Initiative 300, which called for the establishment of an Extra Terrestrial Affairs Committee. The ...

While NASA's plans to return a human to the Moon may have died when budget cuts killed its Constellation program, the space administration reportedly intends to send the next best thing to the lunar surface: a humanoid. Spearheaded by engineer Stephen J. Altemus, NASA's Project M robot moon-walker mission conceivably involves launching "a humanoid-like machine" into space and then onto the Moon, ...

Astronaut Doug Wheelock just became the first person to unlock the NASA Explorer badge on Foursquare by checking in from the International Space Station. We're assuming he's also now the mayor of the ISS, an accomplishment that will be tough to wrangle away from his space-suited hands. But don't fret, you Foursquare completists: you'll now be able to unlock the Explorer badge by visiting various ...

Usually, flash games are known for punchy bursts of quick n'dirty, button-mashing gameplay -- but sometimes we crave more than a short fix. That's the theme for this week's crop of browser-based strategy games: these titles force us to juggle a multitude of complex tasks and intricate systems, each rife with addictive experiences. Of course, the hardest part of playing will be getting back to ...

Technology, particularly the Internet and social networking, allows NASA to engage space enthusiasts through an expanding assortment of entertaining and educational interactive programs. Space geeks can read tweets from astronauts, launch their face into orbit, help map the moon, participate in research projects and -- now -- earn virtual moon rocks, spacesuits, shuttles and (awesomely absurd) ...

With the shuttles entering retirement and its budget slashed, NASA has been looking forward to a cloudy future of late. But, with the signing of the NASA Authorization Act 2010, Congress and President Obama have ensured that the world's leading space exploration and research agency will continue to operate at the forefront of the field, albeit in a form that may seem unrecognizable to many. The ...

Virgin Galactic took a major step toward realizing the dream of commercial space travel yesterday when its SpaceShipTwo craft gracefully landed at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California. The landing marked the first piloted glide flight for the SpaceShipTwo, or VSS Enterprise, which was released from its mothership VSS Eve at an altitude of 45,000 feet. Manned by Pete Siebold and Mike ...