Hasta La Gadget!

While some bot makers are busying themselves designing AI to simulate humans’ natural and distinct lack of intelligence, it’s nice to see there are still old-fashioned researchers out there keeping the Skynet dream alive. Northrop Grumman‘s aeronautics gurus have paired together a Global Hawk unmanned aircraft with a manned Proteus ship way up in the skies — 45,000 feet, to be precise — with the vessels of ingenuity managing to fly in tandem at a distance as short as 40 feet. Unsurprisingly, this is the first time such intimacy has been reached between UAVs (the Proteus had a monitoring crew on board to ensure the insurance bill wasn’t through the roof) in high altitude, and the ultimate goal of having two Global Hawks doing the deed without any human intervention is said to be within reach by next year. That’s when these light and agile air drones will be able to refuel themselves and go on for a mighty 120 hours in the air… plenty of time to complete a well planned extermination down below, if one were so inclined.

Continue reading NASA’s Global Hawk completes unmanned airborne refueling simulation, will do it for real next year (video)

NASA’s Global Hawk completes unmanned airborne refueling simulation, will do it for real next year (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 10 Mar 2011 03:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Robots.net  |   | Email this | Comments

This is how Discovery approached and landed safely on Runway 15 at the Kennedy Space Center, after successfully completing mission STS-133. Everyone loves the Space Shuttle launches, but the landings are quite exciting too—and terrifying, after the Columbia disaster. More »

Earlier this morning, NASA’s Glory spacecraft, aboard a Taurus XL rocket, failed to reach orbit. Not only did the spacecraft launch fail, NASA isn’t exactly sure where it is now, other than somewhere in the South Pacific.

The Glory’s mission is to help us better understand our climate system by collecting data from aerosol particles. After being delayed on February 23rd, today it was launched at 5:09am EST from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, but couldn’t reach orbit because the rockets protective shell didn’t separate from the Glory. This malfunction also happened two years ago, but after a redesign, it proved successful in other launches. Well, it apparently still needs some work, NASA.

NASA said that once they analyze more data they will be able to determine to determine what went wrong and locate the spacecrafts current location.

Photo via NASA

We doubt many of you need a reminder but, just in case, we’re here to let you know that Space Shuttle Discovery is set for lift off today, at 4:50PM ET. While all shuttle launches are certainly worth watching, this one’s particularly notable for a number of reasons — it’s the last mission for Discovery and the third-to-last mission for the entire Space Shuttle program, and it’s the first mission to carry a humanoid robot into space: our friend Robonaut 2. Head on past the break to watch Spaceflight Now’s live coverage of the launch.

[Image: NASA / Flickr]

Update: Liftoff! Humanoid robots in spaaaaaace.

Continue reading Space Shuttle Discovery launches at 4:50PM ET today with Robonaut 2 on board

Space Shuttle Discovery launches at 4:50PM ET today with Robonaut 2 on board originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 24 Feb 2011 15:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Spaceflight Now  | Email this | Comments

On February 14 NASA’s Stardust spacecraft had a close encounter with the comet Temple 1. For the first time in history, we got to visit a comet two times—a strange opportunity that allowed scientist to see how these space objects change. More »