Hasta La Gadget!

We’re probably still a bit short of packing our bags and heading to Mars. But it appears NASA’s Phoenix Mars Lander may have helped scientists figure out which parts of the planet are more habitable for humans than others. Recent (and controversial) evidence that certain portions of the Mars landscape could host liquid water has lent credence to the theory that the planet contains the ingredients necessary to support life as we know it, Space.com reports.

According to the article, four papers are
under review for scientific publication on four major discoveries from the
mission, said Peter Smith, the Phoenix mission’s principal investigator at the
University of Arizona in Tucson. Under discussion are the following factors for supporting life: “the presence of liquid water; the
presence of a biologically available energy source; and the presence of the
chemical building blocks of life in a biologically available for.” The report also named temperature and water activity as additional key requirements.

Interestingly, the (stationary) Phoenix Mars Lander may have plopped down a spot that’s perfect for life. “What you
see is that Phoenix comes down as a clear winner — a much, much higher
habitability index than any of the other sites,” Stoker told conference
attendees, according to the report. “The Phoenix landing site is the most habitable zone of any location
we have ever visited on Mars.”

You may have heard of Vuzix eyewear as a way to watch big-screen video from your portable media player, but a new Vuzix kit will bring virtual reality to your everyday life.

The Vuzix Augmented Reality Accessory Kit, which works with the VR920 eyewear ($349.95), debuted at the 2009 Game Developer Conference in San Francisco. The kit consists of the CamAR, a clip-on USB camera that attaches to the front of the VR920, and the PhasAR, an input device that you hold in one hand. The camera lets you see what’s around you, while the PhasAR tells the software how you’re interacting with the real and virtual worlds.

Depending on what software is written for the kit, it could provide a variety of heightened experiences. The test software currently being showcased lets participants read a fantasy book while a dragon flies overhead. The input controller could be used as a magic wand, allowing users to be the wizard they’ve always dreamed of being. A PR person suggested that a city might create software for the kit, allowing people to take self-guided tours of different neighborhoods.

The kit isn’t on sale yet, but will be by the end of the summer, and will cost about $100. Note that it will work only with the VR920. Vuzix will release the SDK next month, so interested developers can start creating jaw-dropping virtual experiences.

Professor Matteo Matteucci of Politecnico di Milan believes that “a research consortium should be set up” for projects concerning the development of brain-powered wheelchairs and similar technologies. For now though, he, PhD student Bernardo Dal Seno and their other colleagues came up with a working prototype of a thought-propelled wheelchair.

After three years of working on it, the wheelchair now works by connecting the user to a computer through putting electrodes on the person’s scalp (see image left). These electrodes send the signal capable of controlling the wheelchair’s movement. However, the technology isn’t so advanced that it could decipher brain signals at length just yet – the user would have to concentrate on a destination’s name (i.e., kitchen, bathroom) and then a pre-set program would take the wheelchair to that location. Since it seems a promising technology for quadriplegics, the researchers are already in contact with a few companies that could create a commercial prototype within five to ten years’ time.

The International Space Station will soon surpass Venus to become the second brightest object in the sky after the Moon, once astronauts install the fourth and final set of solar array wings as part of Space Shuttle Discovery mission STD-125 TS-119/15A, according to Slashdot.

The final section of the ISS’s structure will bring the station to a total length of 102 meters, and increase the amount of electricity available for science experiments by half, the report said. The mission will also help prep the station for a full crew size of six (instead of the current three). The shuttle mission launches tomorrow, assuming good weather, and will be the shuttle program’s 125th since its inception in April 1981.

Currently, Venus is the brightest object in the sky after the Moon, with an apparent magnitude that reaches -4.6 on occasion. Track the ISS and other space missions across the sky using NASA’s sighting calculator.

NASA’s Kepler spacecraft launched into space from Cape Canaveral on Friday at 10:49 PM EST, beginning an ambitious mission to discover Earth-like planets around other stars, according to Space.com.

The $600 million spacecraft will study the Cygnus-Lyra region of the Milky Way galaxy for at least three years in a planetary census that could potentially realign humanity’s view of its place in the universe, the report said. The craft will orbit the sun once every 371 days, trailing the Earth’s orbit in the process.

“At the end of those three years, we’ll be able to answer, ‘Are there other worlds out there or are we alone?'” said William Borucki, Kepler’s principal investigator at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., in the article. (Image credit: NASA TV)