Latest Technology News: Technology Video & Technology News // Current

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Rupert Murdoch could block Google searches entirely

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/nov/09/murdoch-google Rupert Murdoch says he will remove stories from Google's search... more

bansheewail
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Rock Band Voice Engine Tricked By Something Called a "Musical Instrument"

On one hand, what's happening here is very simple: Rock Band's singing feature just senses pitch, not words, so... more

pjacobs51
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Murdoch threatens to remove News Corp from Google

Rupert Murdoch has been talking about charging for content of his newspaper websites & he's now taking this a further... more

AnnieMole
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Facebook Okay with Pro-Rape, Anti-Consent Group

http://jezebel.com/5399911/facebook-allows-pro+rape-anti+consent-group-to-stay-on-the-site-for-months A group of students, both... more

S3th
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Bacon Lamp

I doubt that words can do justice to the unbridled fulfillment a man receives when standing next to a bacon lamp birthed from his... more

pjacobs51
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'Revenge' App Lets You Kill Bankers, Shoot CEOs

Among the 100,000-plus applications for the iPhone is one that allows users to "kill" bankers. The TARP-inspired... more

atomiclegion
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Even God Runs Windows XP

Yes, that's a Windows XP error, floating in the sky. No, it's not a Photoshop.... more

pjacobs51
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Can smells trigger memories from the past?

FRIDAY, Nov. 6 (HealthDay News) -- Do you remember the first time you smelled a type of flower? You almost certainly don't,... more

FishaHouse777
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Japan aims to build solar power station in space by 2030

http://rawstory.com/2009/11/japan-aims-build-solar-power-station-space-2030/ It may sound like a sci-fi vision, but... more

SleepDirt
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World's first Arabic speaking robot constructed in UAE

"Ibn Sina is the first humanoid robot which actually can perform Arabic dialogue," Dr. Nikolaos Mavridis, lab director... more

vincius
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Berlin Block Tetris

To mark the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Sergej Hein created this animated piece featuring former soviet... more

smurph25
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What Life Leaves Behind

http://seedmagazine.com/content/article/what_life_leaves_behind/

cluiggi
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Have scientists found a way to read your mind?

Many who saw the movie "Minority Report" experienced two distinct reactions: first, "Please, this is pure science... more

karthikmns
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HTC Touch HD2: a ‘tragic creature’ crippled by poor software

With the smartphone market at a competitive peak, the news that the HTC Touch HD2 is flawed should not bode well for sales.... more

admillios
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How your cell phone can diagnose disease | Health Tech - CNET News

http://news.cnet.com/8301-27083_3-10393466-247.html?tag=mncol There's an app. for that

quanta
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Computer virus frames people for child pornography possession

Yes, this is real and yes, people have lost their savings, jobs and children over this. There is a problem though. Pedophiles now... more

admillios
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Introducing the Android iPhone

An iPhone clone from China has emerged in video with a little surprise. It’s running Google’s Android operating... more

admillios
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English wine gets help from space

A number of English vineyards have signed up to make use of a satellite imaging service to boost harvests.... more

cutee_leslie
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Planetary Society to Launch Three Separate Solar Sails

On the 75th anniversary of astronomer Carl Sagan's birth, the Planetary Society announced their plans to sail a spacecraft on sunlight alone by the end of 2010. Called LightSail, the project will launch three separate spacecraft over the course of several years, beginning with LightSail-1, which will demonstrate that sunlight alone can propel a spacecraft in Earth orbit. LightSails 2 and 3, will travel farther into .

Sagan, co-founder of the Planetary Society was a long-time advocate of solar sailing.

On today's 365 Days of Astronomy podcast, Sagan’s widow and collaborator, Ann Druyan said this project is a "Wright Brothers Kitty Hawk-type" enterprise of inventing and proving a new way of moving through the cosmos.

"On one episode of Cosmos, we wrote 'We have lingered too long on the shores of the cosmic ocean. It's time to set sail for the stars,'" she said. "And that's what I was thinking when it became clear that we had the resources to mount this expedition, that we are serious at The Planetary Society. And at Cosmos Studios, my company which provided the principal support for the first 10 years of this project, we're really serious about giving our kids a future in which science and technology is used in its most wise and benign and forward-looking possible way.

That's why I'm so thrilled and I just think if Carl were alive he would have been absolutely overcome at the notion that The Planetary Society is mounting its own space program, let alone its own launch."

The solar sail project was boosted by a one-million-dollar anonymous donation.
Taking advantage of the technological advances in micro- and nano-spacecraft over the past five years, The Planetary Society will build LightSail-1 with three Cubesat spacecraft. One Cubesat will form the central electronics and control module, and two additional Cubesats will house the solar sail module. Cameras, additional sensors, and a control system will be added to the basic Cubesat electronics bus.

Reflected light pressure, not the solar wind, propels solar sails. The push of photons against a mirror-bright surface can continuously change orbital energy and spacecraft velocity. LightSail-1 will have four triangular sails, arranged in a diamond shape resembling a giant kite. Constructed of 32 square meters of mylar, LightSail-1 will be placed in an orbit over 800 kilometers above Earth, high enough to escape the drag of Earth’s uppermost atmosphere. At that altitude the spacecraft will be subject only to the force of gravity keeping it in orbit and the pressure of sunlight on its sails increasing the orbital energy.

Lightsail-2 will demonstrate a longer duration flight to higher Earth orbits. LightSail-3 will go to the Sun-Earth Libration Point, L1, where solar sails could be permanently placed as solar weather stations, monitoring the geomagnetic storms from the Sun that potentially endanger electrical grids and satellite systems around Earth.

The Planetary Society’s attempt in 2005 to launch the world's first solar sail, Cosmos 1, was scuttled when its launch vehicle, a Russian Volna rocket, failed to reach Earth orbit.

http://www.universetoday.com/2009/11/09/planetary-society-to-launch-three-separate-solar-sails/On the 75th anniversary of astronomer Carl Sagan's birth, the Planetary Society announced their plans to sail a spacecraft on... more