Hasta La Gadget!

A manned mission to Mars could take place within the next two decades, NASA and the private sector have agreed, though the race is on to research and fund such the next ambitious step fo the space race. The feasibility of such a mission – and the political, financial, technological, and social problems that would need to be addressed first – is on the agenda of the Humans to Mars (H2M) summit this week, with NASA staffers, researchers, private space agencies, and more all coming together at George Washington University to explore the practicalities of sending astronauts to Mars by the 2030s.

“A human mission to Mars is a priority” NASA chief Charles Bolden has committed, Discovery reports, though right now the agency can’t afford to do it all itself. Budgetary limitations, Bolden argues, mean the private and government agencies involved in space travel will have to effectively pool resources in order to get the most bang for their buck.

His strategy is to leave escaping Earth’s gravity well to private contractors, while NASA looks to the bigger picture such as getting from outside the atmosphere to Mars. Modules like SpaceX’s Dragon could be used to go from Earth to low-orbit he suggests, the Washington Post reports, while NASA works on taking the eventual crew further.

Even with those delineated roles – which the private sector may not be entirely happy with anyway – the project isn’t going to blast off any time soon. ““I don’t know about you, but I’m not ready. I don’t have the capability to do it” Bolden conceded. “NASA doesn’t have the capability to do that right now. But we’re on a path to be able to do it in the 2030s.”

Firing a pod off to Mars isn’t quite as simple as, say, launching astronauts to the International Space Station. The 250-350m mile journey is not only long but puts humans at risk of high levels of radiation; once the crew reached Mars, if they wanted to land on it they’d need a safe way of decelerating since the planet’s thin atmosphere lacks the friction to brake a capsule.

One possibility is the same sort of sky-crane system as NASA and the Jet Propulsion Lab used to deploy Curiosity, the robotic rover that has been drilling samples from the Martian surface. That effectively lowered the rover from beneath a hovering crane; however, the weights involved for a human crew and their kit would make it far more difficult.

In fact, the payload involved could be anywhere around 40x the weight of Curiosity, NASA associate administrator Michael Gazarik told the Post. Curiosity “was a metric ton” he highlights, “the size of a MINI Cooper.” Assuming the team wanted to escape from the Martian surface at some point, they would need to have a return rocket and fuel as well.

Back in 2010, the US government set out a goal to have a human mission “to orbit Mars” though not land on it. NASA’s ambitions go a little further, of course, though there’ll likely be robotic missions before humans even leave Earth in order to test the technology, not to mention private proposals.

H2M is run by a non-profit group, Explore Mars Inc., and co-sponsored by a number of aerospace companies including Lockheed Martin and Boeing. It will close on Wednesday with final speech by Buzz Aldrin, second man to walk on the moon.

Manned Mars missions in 20 years say space experts is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Huge amounts of money and time are being spent researching robotics for myriad of potential uses in the future. Robots promise the ability to be able to work in environments that are too hazardous for humans. A robot must have the strength and dexterity to handle difficult situations that would confront human beings. A lot of research is being put into creating robotic components that mimic the human body in functionality if not design.

This is because tools, switches, valves, and environments where robots of the future are likely to work were created with humans in mind. DARPA and iRobot are currently working on one of the most important components of any humanoid robot, the hand. DARPA and iRobot have unveiled a robotic hand that has both strength and dexterity, something that is a requirement for any functional robot.

According to DARPA, the three-fingered robot hand is strong enough to lift a 50-pound weight, yet has the dexterity to utilize a small set of keys or even a set of tweezers. The robotic hand is also very strong and can survive being bashed by a baseball bat. DARPA stayed away from a five-finger human-style hand because the three-fingered hand features a usable palm making it easier to achieve fluid motion.

The hand created by DARPA and iRobot is known as the ARM-H and is constructed using 3-D printing, custom molded plastic and rubber, and plastic machining techniques. DARPA thinks that the hand will also be surprisingly affordable when produced in batches of 1000. DARPA predicts that in batches of thousand each robotic hand would cost about $3000. Current robotic hands can cost as much as $50,000 each.

[via CBS News]

Robot hand has strength of a strongman, dexterity of a doctor is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The BBC has been working on its own version of Microsoft’s IllumiRoom technology, a seven year project that creates immersive viewing by projecting wide-angle content around a central display. The technology, which the BBC describes as “surround video”, has been simmering in the broadcaster’s R&D labs since 2006, division director Alia Sheikh says, and in fact has already been used to film a live-action movie.

Just as Microsoft fashioned a dual-recording camcorder that can simultaneously capture a regular shot for the central screen, and a wide field-of-view counterpart to project around the TV, the BBC created a similar rig using a huge fish-eye lens. That secondary content is projected backward from the viewer, reflected off a curved mirror, and onto the walls and ceiling.

“We already know the human eye has much better vision in the center of your focal view, for things like detail, and colors, and shapes,” Sheikh explained of the concept behind the system, “and in your periphery you’re much more concerned with things like movement.”

However, while Microsoft’s IllumiRoom research uses Kinect to interact with objects in the room, creating a digital 3D map of furniture and then animating it to match on-screen video or gaming, the BBC’s system is a little less advanced. The projection system the BBC relies upon makes no differentiation about the surface it projects onto, and there’s no real-time processing taking place.

That fits in more with the BBC’s primary purpose of its unnamed system: for more immersive multimedia consumption, rather than something interactive like games. Nonetheless, the team has found that – with some careful planning of shots – it’s possible to create a far more interesting viewing experience that’s arguably less gimmicky than 3D.

For instant, while filming the 2011 movie Broken, they discovered that the “surround video” was much more successful when characters were running toward the audience, with the camera tracking back, rather than when following them.

More recently, an animated short called Kill Mode has been created to demonstrate the BBC tech, which will be shown off at the Sci-Fi London Festival this coming weekend. There’s no talk of commercializing the system at this stage, however.

BBC reveals IllumiRoom style immersive video tech is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Mitsubishi is currently struggling in the United States as an automaker after finding its products unable to compete effectively on the market in most segments. Despite the company’s troubles, it hasn’t stepped away from research and development when it comes to making electric vehicles more practical for your average driver. Currently there are several things about electric vehicles that are preventing them from gaining popularity.

Issues often cited by shoppers when looking for a new vehicle that specifically apply to EV’s include things like range anxiety and having to remember to plug your vehicle in every time you come home or get to the office. With the huge ecosystem of wireless charging products available for smartphones and other gadgets, it makes a lot of sense that people don’t want to have to fiddle with plugging in their car when they get home. Mitsubishi is currently working on a new charging system for electric vehicles that will allow for wireless remote charging.

Mitsubishi is working with Kyoto University and a group of Japanese organizations to develop a remote charging solution for electric cars. The group consists of 22 companies and 13 different universities with the goal of making a long distance electric vehicle charging a reality within the next five years. The technology will reportedly use microwave transmissions, but that’s really the only detail known about the tech this time.

The same technology is also being considered to keep gadgets such as smartphones and tablets powered up and working indefinitely. It’s even being considered for powering things like military drones indefinitely. The goal of the group of developers with this technology appears to be wireless remote charging with the potential to keep an electric vehicle powered as it cruises down the roads allowing an indefinite driving range. I can see a big challenge with determining how exactly the charge drivers for power in a system like this. Considering the Mitsubishi is working with so many other universities and organizations on this technology, it will likely find its way to vehicles other than Mitsubishi’s own i-MiEV electric car.

[via Dvice]

Mitsubishi wireless EV research could recharge your car remotely is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Smartwatches are emerging as a major player in the next phase of mobile computing, but for now, their capabilities are handicapped. A new technology called ZoomBoard explores a way you could actually type on a tiny smartwatch display.