rockets

Ten years ago today, space tourists began to play

On April 28, 2001, the world of exploration changed forever.

On that day 10 years ago, Dennis Tito, a wealthy engineer who had recently turned 60, broke one of the most sacred barriers in exploration: he became the first private citizen to go to space.

Blasting off on that Saturday from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan aboard Russian rocket--Soyuz TM-32--Tito was on his way to a place only professional astronauts and military- or government-sponsored personnel had been able to go before.

Tito was the launch client for a new company called Space Adventures that was founded in 1998. Led by chairman Eric Anderson, the company set out to change one of the most fundamental dynamics of space travel and make it possible for the first time for private citizens to experience life beyond Earth.

This was not possible in the United States. NASA was not interested in taking tourists aboard the Space Shuttle--and never has been--explained Space.com senior writer Clara Moskowitz. And so those like Tito who wanted to make like an astronaut had no choice but to go the Space Adventures route--which meant traveling to Russia for weeks of training and an eventual trip aboard one of that country's Soyuz rockets. … Read more

Handling T-Mobile's 4G laptop sticks

Orlando, Fla.--T-Mobile had more than the LG G2X and Sidekick 4G to show at CTIA 2011. And no, we're not talking about a plan as to how customers will be affected form the planned merger with AT&T.

No, T-Mobile also introduced four products for its HSPA+ network: a portable W-Fi hot-spot and three USB laptop sticks. The devices are optimized for the carrier's "4G" network--we know T-Mobile's definition of 4G is a little fuzzy--but they're compatible with the carrier's 3G and EDGE networks when you're not in a HSPA+ … Read more

The 404 775: Where we <3 Japan (podcast)

We're keeping Japan in our collective thoughts today as the country continues to suffer from the 8.9-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami that hit this morning. Be sure to visit RedCross.org for how you can help with the relief effort.

As usual, Google is doing its part to help on the tech side with a Person Finder to help locate displaced family and friends in Japan. Google launched a similar project in February of last year amid the Chilean earthquake disaster.

It's hard to think about anything but our friends in the East, but today also happens to be iPad 2 day, and there are already people in line for the release at 5 p.m. tonight.

And after spending almost 41 hours in line (all the way through last night's torrents), college student Amanda Foote just sold her first-place spot in line for $900. She plans to use the money to buy Lady Gaga tickets.

This morning also marked the release of the trailer for JJ Abrams and Steven Spielberg's new sci-fi thriller "Super 8." The Twitter-exclusive full-length trailer finally gives context to the teaser we first saw in last year's Super Bowl ad, although we still don't know exactly what escaped from the train crash.

In typical Bad Robot fashion, JJ Abrams and his crew add to the mystery of the film with an Alternate Reality Game (ARG) alongside viral marketing that creates an entire world to discover around the film.

There's already a product page in place for Rocket Poppeteers that lets you sign up and create your own member certificate, as well as an easter egg editing room whose URL is seen in this frozen screenshot from the trailer.

After an extended chat about the origin of ARGs, Jeff and I both have stories to talk about that deal with our beats--video games and printers, respectively.… Read more

How to hitch a ride to space (for your satellite)

Got a satellite you want to pitch into orbit? India's space agency will take it, but the Indian government doesn't really want to with deal you unless you've got a "primary"--a bird larger than 200 kilograms.

Instead, businesses and universities with smaller, "secondary" satellites can hitch rides on launch vehicles designed for primaries by working with launch broker Earth2Orbit, which can sell you spots on Indian launch vehicles and even help you interface your small satellite into the launch vehicle for the brief trip. Earth2Orbit will also help you sort out insurance … Read more

Nifty Sprocket Rocket camera fills up the frame

The folks over at Lomography have unveiled their latest creation, the Sprocket Rocket. This old-school-looking film camera has a couple of nifty tricks up its sleeve to make your shots look more interesting.

For one, this shooter captures ultra-wide panoramic shots, and the frame measures 72x35mm. This means that on a roll of 36-exposure film, you'll get approximately 18 shots. There are two shutter speeds and aperture settings to allow users to shoot in bright daylight or cloudy weather. If you really need to take pictures at night, there's a hotshoe to accommodate an external flash.

The rewind … Read more

Rocket scientist aims to relaunch propulsion technology

The time has come to jettison the traditional chemical rocket propulsion system and move to one powered by beamed microwaves, say a group of researchers.

For decades, even as rockets have gotten lighter and more powerful, the basic system for putting them in space hasn't changed. A combustion chamber is loaded with propellants, which are put through a chemical reaction, causing hot gases to accelerate and be ejected through a nozzle at very high velocity, which in turn, provides momentum to the rocket's engine.

But a team led by 25-year-old CalTech Ph.D. student Dmitriy Tseliakhovich thinks that … Read more

SlideRocket gets interactive with polling, comments

Web-based presentation creation tool SlideRocket is rolling out a handful of new features today, all of which are aimed at business users. Together, they promise to make it easier to see how the people you're sending a presentation to are viewing it, as well as help those involved in its creation get and manage feedback both before and after it goes out.

That first bit of collaboration is a new commenting tool, which lets a presentation maker ask the viewer, or any colleagues, to leave a comment on any particular slide. Viewers can place these anywhere on a slide, … Read more

3D camcorders for consumers

Links from Thursday's episode of Loaded:

Lenovo confirms that it is working to release LePad, an iPad competitor, sometime this year Yahoo begins to integrate Microsoft Bing into search results Samsung updates the DualView camera with a front-facing screen Ford launches the 2011 Explorer on Facebook Google Earth and Google Maps get more-detailed boundaries Panasonic plans a new line of 3D camcorders for consumers Sony and Intel help students build a rocket to launch into space

Students to launch rocket with Vaio laptops

Sony has taken eight promising high school students from across America, given them Vaio laptops, and challenged them to use the devices to build and launch a rocket. Sounds pretty cool, but why did Sony do this?

To answer a question that had never occurred to me until the press release hit my inbox: Can Vaio laptops (which, Sony reminds us, feature Intel processors) launch a rocket? Considering analog devices of 1960s could, we're betting on the "yes" end of the spectrum. But it's still fun to watch.

Intel i5-powered Z series Vaios were used to analyze the performance of the rocket, using simulations and virtual-reality models, before the real one was even built. In fact, the computers were used for "CAD, aerodynamic simulation, computational fluid dynamics, dispersion analysis, Monte Carlo simulation...and calculations for dispersion analysis, gas dynamics, aerodynamic stability, dynamic stability, structural loading, thermal heat transfer flux, fin flutter stability and much, much more." I'm guessing that means Rocketville on Facebook, too.

In addition, an i7-equipped F series will be used in the control room when the projectile is (hopefully) launched on Thursday in Nevada as per the plan. We're not sure what role the laptops have in actually launching the thing, though. A couple of weeks ago I launched many rockets with a Zippo. … Read more

Wallops Flight Facility, NASA's hidden launch shop

WALLOPS ISLAND, Va.--Imagine a football stadium floating high in the sky, enclosed in material not much thicker than a sandwich bag.

Take away the physical part of the football field, but leave the volume, and you get a sense of the size of the high-altitude balloons that NASA uses to conduct scientific experiments.

Those balloons, as well as the design and manufacture of sub-orbital rockets and the launching into space of government satellites, are among the mandates of the Wallops Flight Facility, a NASA center based here on the Atlantic coast about 160 miles southeast of Washington, D.C. … Read more