Hasta La Gadget!

Boeing has announced plans to add space tourism to its CST-100 — or Crew Space Transportation-100– low orbit flights by 2015. Operated by a partnership with Space Adventures, the flights will be able to carry up to seven passengers about 62 miles above Earth’s surface, and the craft are currently being developed with the help of NASA.The vehicles could also be used as a ferry to get people to and from the various space habitats companies are working away at. There’s no word on what the pricing of one of these journeys will look like, but trust us: Jared Leto will be able to afford one, while you probably will not.

Boeing plans to add space tourism seats to its CST-100 flights by 2015 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Sep 2010 11:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NASA is finally looking to dump rockets. Yes, rockets did some impressive things–back in the day. But now everyone is using them to get to space. The Chinese. The Indians. Even some Danish yahoos with spare parts they found in their garage. NASA is correct. Rockets are officially lame. So, what is a fashionable national space program with a multi-billion dollar budget to do?

How about hitting the rails?

That’s exactly what NASA’s new Advanced Space Launch System program (which will hopefully get a sexier
name at some point) is looking to do. Railgun technology has been around for nearly a century. It works by creating a strong magnetic field that accelerates a projectile along a set of horizontal metal rails, like train rails. And it can generate some real power. In 2008, the US Navy tested a railgun that launched a projectile 2.4 km per second.

That’s seven times the speed of sound.

We’re not yet at the point of development that we can railgun it into orbit. Not yet. But NASA is looking to tweak these existing technologies to see if they can make a feasible prototype. The ASLS has created a 10-year plan that would begin launching drone-like vehicles, followed by more advanced models that would eventually be able to launch a small satellite into orbit.

Choo choo to where no man has gone before.

Deep down, NASA scientists–all scientists, really–get into this business to blow stuff up. No one’s really watching Mythbusters to learn about the physics of how a cup of jello handles a ride down an escalator in a humid room. We watch to see things go kablooey in the presence of high-speed cameras which allow the kablooey to be looped time and time again in all its kablooable glory.

That’s why NASA engineers must have been in science kablooey nerd heaven yesterday as they tested the monstrous DM-2 rocket in the Utah desert. The DM-2 is the world’s largest, most powerful solid rocket motor and is designed to provide up to 3.6 million pounds of thrust. That means if it wanted to, the DM-2 could punch God in the face. The rocket is slated for use as a heavy-lifter in 2015.

To be sure, the thrust and power of the DM-2 is very impressive. But in this day and age, I was kind of hoping NASA (or private industry) might have created a more practical means of transport into space? Anything happening with that Space Elevator concept? Anyone else disappointed that in 2010 we’d still be testing bigger and bigger Godzilla rockets?

Very loud rocket test video after the jump.

What’s a boy to do when he desperately needs a portfolio full of galactic imagery of his own doing? In most cases, we’d suggest he grab up a telescope (or one of these), the biggest DSLR he can find and a planetary expert who knows a thing or two about exposure. But thanks to a mod that’s becoming more and more common these days, it seems that you can replace the latter recommendations with an iPhone 4. Yep — Apple’s latest smartphone, when paired up with a miniature tripod mount and a telescope, can apparently take lovely shots of our dear moon, and if you’re struggling to actually spot it, we hear that Planisphere app is pretty handy. Hit the source links if you’re scouting some inspiration.

iPhone 4 cuddles up against telescope, snaps impressive moon closeups originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Aug 2010 12:29:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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NASA challenge searches for a solar-powered ‘Night Rover’ originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 Aug 2010 19:49:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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