Hasta La Gadget!

A smartphone is about to boldly go where plenty have droids have already ventured–space. A team of British scientists at Surrey Satellite Technology in Guildford, England are preparing to launch a handset into space. The scientists have yet to reveal the model of the phone, stating only that it will be running a version of Android.

The idea behind the launch is, simply, to find out whether modern smartphones will work in space. The phone will be used to control a satellite, which will, in turn, be taking pictures of our home planet.

Of course, we’ve seen a number of stories about smartphones in weather balloons over the past year or so, but According to the BBC, this is the first time such a phone has gone into orbit. The business has been deemed STRaND-1 (Surrey Training Research and Nanosatellite Demonstration).

“Modern smartphones are pretty amazing,” Shaun Kenyon, the head of the team told the BBC. “They come now with processors that can go up to 1GHz, and they have loads of flash memory. First of all, we want to see if the phone works up there, and if it does, we want to see if the phone can control a satellite.”

The phone, Kenyon said, will remain intact. “We’re not taking it apart; we’re not gutting it; we’re not taking out the printed circuit boards and re-soldering them into our satellite – we’re flying it as is. And, in fact, we’re going to have another camera on the satellite so we can take a picture of the phone because we want to operate the screen and have some good images of that as well.”

Project Buran was the USSR’s answer to NASA’s Space Shuttle Columbia. Unlike its highly decorated American counterpart, however, this child of the 1970s produced only one unmanned space flight during its operation and was ignominiously shut down by Russian authorities in 1993. The remains of this most ambitious (and expensive) effort are still around, however, and have now taken on a layer of rust, weeds and general decay that would make any post-apocalyptic set designer swoon with admiration. It’s as beautiful as it is sad, this gallery of failed human endeavor, and you can see it in full at the link below.

Continue reading Visualized: the fate of the most ambitious Soviet-era space exploration project

Visualized: the fate of the most ambitious Soviet-era space exploration project originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 19 Jan 2011 02:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve already seen researchers at the University of Chicago and Cornell use coffee grounds to develop an entirely different type of robotic hand, and it looks like some folks at McGill University in Montreal, Canada have also been taking a similar approach to quite literally reinvent the wheel. That’s being done as part of the Lunar Exploration Light Rover (or LELR) project, which is aiming to build a lunar rover that’s light and able to navigate difficult terrain (i.e. the surface of the moon) with ease. One of the key aspects of that, of course, are the wheels, and the McGill researchers’ solution is something called the “iRing” — a wheel made of a chainmail-type fabric and filled with “granular particulate matter” (or tiny pieces of metal). That creates a wheel that’s heavy and sturdy enough to avoid bouncing around on the moon, but still flexible enough to absorb shocks and overcome any obstacles. Will it actually wind up on the moon? That remains to be seen, but the researchers expect the final prototype of the complete rover (which could even carry a crew) to be complete in the spring of 2012. Be sure to hit up the via link below for the best look at the rover on video.

McGill University researchers show off lunar rover prototype with unique ‘iRing’ wheels originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 03 Jan 2011 04:14:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s kind of hard to accept, Pluto has always been our favorite underdog, but the truth is that the Solar System‘s ninth planet was never really significant enough to earn that designation. Such is the coldly logical reason given for its removal from the planetary annals by a man who had a lot to do with its demise. Caltech astronomer Mike Brown discovered Eris, what he’d hoped was the tenth planet, back in 2005, but its extreme distance from the Sun and diminutive (by planetary standards) dimensions disqualified it from consideration. Unfortunately, its discovery is what doomed Pluto to be downgraded to a “dwarf planet,” though Mike’s not shedding too many tears over it. In fact, he’s gone and written a book about the whole thing, the smug planet destroyer that he is. You don’t have to buy it to learn more, however, as the source link has an interview with Mike all ready and waiting.

Why did Pluto lose its planet status? Because it never mattered enough originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 30 Dec 2010 08:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Your tree is looking a little bare around the bottom, and you have, like, one day to complete your Christmas shopping. (Nice one!) Don’t worry, we’ve got your back with gifts for every possible* personality type. More »