Hasta La Gadget!

Space nerds, get your browsers ready — UrtheCast will soon be streaming HD video of Earth straight from the ISS. The system will actually consists of a pair of cameras, one still and one video, that will be mounted on the Russian arm of the station. The still shots will be very wide, covering about 30 miles with a resolution of 18-feet per pixel. Much more exciting will be the three feet per-pixel stream of 3.25fps video that will run 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You probably won’t be able to see yourself waving as the ISS passes overhead, but you should be able to spot your cardboard box fort house. The feeds won’t be your typical boring NASA fare either — you’ll be able to search, rewind, and tag objects or events, and UrtheCast is providing APIs for developers to build upon the service. The project won’t be launching until June 28th, so bide your time by checking out the video and PR after the break.

Continue reading UrtheCast to stream live HD footage of Earth from ISS, like Stickam for space

UrtheCast to stream live HD footage of Earth from ISS, like Stickam for space originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 25 Jun 2011 09:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Alright stargazers, listen up! You know that video you just watched above? Yeah, well that’s not terrible 1995-era CGI, it’s actually mind-blowing footage of the Martian moon, Phobos, passing by Jupiter in the distance. Credit goes to the insanely brainy folks over at the European Space Agency who captured 104 images of this special alignment on June 1st over a measly 68 seconds using their Mars Express probe. True, it does take a little bit of imagination to get the full sense of just how awe-inspiring this is, but consider this — the distance between Mars Express and Jupiter at the time of alignment comes in at 529 million kilometers. That’s about 329 million miles for those of you still not sufficiently impressed. Try doing that with your high-end DSLR.

Mars Express captures Phobos in orbit, has bad video to prove it originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 20 Jun 2011 17:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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IBM is quite possibly the only tech company around that might have genuine difficulty whittling a list of its industry defining contributions down to a mere 100. And it’s an impressively diverse collection at that, including the floppy disk, the social security system, the Apollo space missions, and the UPC barcode. All of this self-congratulation is not without cause, of course. IBM was born 100 years ago today in Endicott, New York, as the Computing-Tabulating-Recording Company, a merger between three companies, all peddling different technologies. That diversity has helped define IBM from its inception, and has offered a sense of flexibility, making it possible to keep in step with technology’s ever-quickening pace for a century.

In 1944, the company helped usher in modern computing with the room-sized Automatic Sequence Controlled Calculator, and 37 years later, it played an important role in defining the era of home computing with the much more manageable IBM Personal Computer. In 1997, IBM introduced a machine that beat the world’s reigning chess champion, and earlier this year, it created one that trounced two of the greatest players in Jeopardy history. These days, when the company is not building machines dedicated to outsmarting mankind, it’s looking to promote sustainable development through its Smarter Planet program. So, happy centennial, Big Blue, and here’s to 100 more, assuming your super-smart machines don’t enslave us all in the meantime.

IBM turns 100, brags about bench pressing more than companies half its age originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Jun 2011 08:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The European Southern Observatory (ESO) has just released the first batch of shots taken by its VLT Survey Telescope (VST), and, given the results, we’d say the thing’s got a bright future in photography. Not to be mistaken for its cousin, the VLT (very large telescope), the VST sports a 268-megapixel camera, known as the OmegaCAM, and a field of view “twice as broad as the full moon.” The images released by the ESO feature the Omega Nebula (located in the Sagittarius constellation) and Omega Centauri in stellar detail. Annie Lebovitz, eat your heart out — the rest of you hop on past the break for another shot by this up and coming shutterbug.

Continue reading VLT Survey Telescope snaps out-of-this-world photos with 268-megapixel camera

VLT Survey Telescope snaps out-of-this-world photos with 268-megapixel camera originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Jun 2011 05:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The “amateur” team from Copenhagen Suborbitals promised that they’d launch a rocket capable of carrying a human into space, and today they’re poised to do just that — minus an actual human, of course.

Update: They just had an ignition failure, but it looks like they’re going to give it another go in a few minutes.

Update 2: And it’s away! Apart from that slight hiccup on the first attempt (and a parachute that didn’t quite fully deploy), it’s looking like the launch was a complete success. We’re also still waiting for confirmation on exactly how high the rocket got, but the team is apparently pleased with the results regardless. Head on past the break for a video of the launch.

[Thanks, Michael]

Continue reading Amateur Copenhagen Suborbitals team about to make launch attempt (update: success)

Amateur Copenhagen Suborbitals team about to make launch attempt (update: success) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 03 Jun 2011 10:31:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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