Space shuttle Discovery maakte deze week zijn allerlaatste vlucht. Het toestel werd op de rug van een boeing 747 naar zijn laatste bestemming in Washington gevlogen. Daar zal de Discovery worden tentoongesteld in het National Air and Space Museum. De space shuttle vertrok vanaf Kennedy Space Center.
Voordat de shuttle vertrok naar Washington DC maakte het eerst nog een laatste vlucht langs de Space Coast, het deel van de kust van Florida dat van Cape Canaveral tot het meer zuidelijk liggende Palm Bay strekt. De shuttle is in deze gemeenschappen niet uit de lokale cultuur weg te denken. Het verkeer op de snelweg die langs het strand loopt zat zoals bij elke shuttle launch volledig vast, mensen stopten spontaan de auto langs de weg en liepen het strand op, en burgers die er wonen stonden buiten, om deel uit te maken van deze historische gebeurtenis.
Ook in Washington DC, het nieuwe huis van de shuttle, staan mensen overal op straat. De shuttle landde op Dulles Airport. Elke landing van een normale 747 is geweldig, laat staan deze 747 met Discovery als passagier.
De laatste vlucht van Discovery was een historische ervaring, al is het voor velen met gemengde gevoelens, met name voor de Space Coast bewoners en de rest van Centraal Florida. Ook de andere drie overgebleven spaceshuttles, de Enterprise, de Endeavour en de Atlantis worden in de VS tentoongesteld. De Atlantis komt bij het Kennedy Space Center zelf te staan.
Doe mee aan de discussies over de space shuttle en de volgende uitvinding van de mensheid. Niets is onmogelijk, dat heeft het spaceshuttleprogramma overduidelijk bewezen. Bezoek de nieuwsgroep sci.space.shuttle!
In keeping with our ongoing love and fascination with outer space and the universe, we thought we would take a moment and share something amazing that will absolutely blow your mind and melt your brain at the same time…once upon a time scientists pointed the best telescope the Hubble at what appeared to be nothing..and…..were they ever wrong!
This past Saturday November 26 2011, NASA sent into space an Atlas V rocket that carried a payload of a totally Awesome laboratory onboard the Mars rover “Curiosity” whose job it will be to explore the bottom of a 100 mile wide crater that is believed to hold the key to unlocking and discovering the possibilities of life on Mars. Curiosity will spend its time questing for organic life…watch as Curiosity soars to new hieghts as she reaches the vastness of space without a hitch
Speaking as one who owns a smartphone and did some awesome shopping over Thanksgiving on the infamous Black Friday – it is totally incredible to be able to shop around with ease and all on the fly to find the hottest deal – everyone knows where I am going with this, the all to amazing Barcode scanning apps – Like IOS’s ShopSavey. The power of the barcode in concert with the internet allows us to find any item’s description, best price, and nearest location where we can find the item all with a quick snapshot with our phone’s built in megapixel camera.
A group call the Consortium for the Barcode for Life is putting together an extensive and very impressive database of 5 million DNA sequences cataloging over 500 thousand unique species. Next time you go to your favorite 5 star fine dining restaurant and you order fresh catch Salmon, a DNA barcode could be used to identify that you are indeed getting and eating the real thing. These DNA barcodes could also be used to identify fake or knock off herbal medicines and offer you a full proof guarantee that you are getting the real stuff. The applications for this are awesome have many possibilities – who knows…maybe one day you will have to pass a DNA barcode scan to get a driver’s license – big brother here we come
University of Wisconsin scientists have created a device that can store a charge as we move so that we can have power on the go to create and share.
Could cell phone batteries be a thing of the past? Well a team of mechanical engineers at the University of Winconsin says, “You Betcha!” Well, not exactly in those words, we are paraphrasing a little But the team has created a magic device that stores up a charge just by the user walking around and doing their everyday stuff. The charge that is created and stored in the user’s shoes is enough to power a laptop or a even a mobile phone. Until now, engineers have not been able to create enough power to make our larger more fun power hungry devices go. With these new charging devices you may soon be working off those extra pounds and recharging your iPod at the same time as you can as the power will grow and flow as you move down the street.
If Darth Vader and the Emperor shared an intergalactic condo, being as shady as they are, they would likely make there homestead in the darkest place in space…Hehehe, we will out fox those Jedi rebels yet!…Don’t think so Darth, the jig is up amigo! Earthly Astronomers have now discovered a super dark planet, likely Darth’s secret hideout, though this has not been confirmed as the planet is basically a black hole in space – no really, Darth’s hang out (or TrES-b2) reflects less than 1% of the light from the star that it orbits – it is blacker than black and can barley be seen from space. Earthly scientists are marveled at how it absorbs so much light without giving back – perhaps Darth’s new hangout is entirely made of black coal or some mineral entirely unknown to us – Oh the mysteries of outer space… she is amazing, always keeping us on the edge of our seats, we marvel at your vast incredible greatness Wonder how Darth sees to clean his condo?…..Vader vision?
Remember how we all used to play with silly puddy and how awesome that was? – Well apparently so do some super clever techno geeks at Boston’s Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). These techno gurus have put rubber and a special paint together so that the rubber can be stuck to anything and magnify the object on the micron level making it possible to see detail smaller than the width of a human hair. The rubber is super cool (Called GelSight) as it sucks up everything it sticks to and creates a picture because the paint on the rubber uses little pieces of super tiny metal to fill in the gaps – the result is a well formed 3D metallic looking image that is easily visible by shining a light that reflects off the metallic image. From there the image can be examined with even more incredible detail using computer scanning technology – this could be used for medical discoveries as we can see things we could not see before, or it could be used for tracking down the bad guys, when examining bullets and matching them to a perpetrators gun. The most amazing thing about this new rubber is the level of detail and the fact that there would no longer be a need for big bulky equipment Check out the video below. Great job MIT
Have you seen Samsung’s new Galaxy Tab 10.1 – oh what’s that you say? – oh yes it is in fact the tablet that looks exactly like the iPad – since you thought so you are indeed very clever because Apple and the ever so incredible Mr. Steve Jobs thinks so too. So much so in fact that they have felt compelled to go after Samsung and stop all sales of the Galaxy in Europe. Apple just might have cut them a break and looked the other way, but they just had to go and copy even the iPad’s packaging….really the packaging….if it looks like an iPad feels like an iPad and comes dressed up like an iPad – would think they want us to the Galaxy is an iPad I am sure Apple can appreciate the gesture as imitation is most definitely the best form of flattery, but really Samsung…the packaging…that’s taking the Galaxy to the stalker tablet level. What this will mean for the Galaxy tablet is unclear, but it should be fun to watch the two go at it….I mean what can Samsung say…reallly. Steve Jobs and 30 geek bystanders to Samsung – “Dude, it looks like an iPad! ” Samsung – “Na UH our is heavier!”
Strolling through sci.space.news, I came across an article with an enormous storm going across the planet Saturn. A storm that is still going on today that has lasted for months! Check out the amazing image below.
Aanstaande vrijdag 8 juli staat de laatste vlucht van Atlantis gepland. Met deze vlucht zal het spaceshuttle programma van NASA aan een einde zal komen. Vier astronauten zijn inmiddels aangekomen in Cape Canaveral, Florida. De vlucht staat gepland voor 17.26 Nederlandse tijd, onder voorbehoud van de juiste weersomstandigheden enz. Voor de laatste lancering worden opnieuw veel bezoekers verwacht langs het gebied wat in de lokale omgeving de Space Coast wordt genoemd. Van Titusville tot Cape Canaveral, en van Cocoa Beach tot Melbourne, FL zullen bezoekers de kans hebben om deze unieke ervaring mee te maken. Er zijn plekken genoeg waar men goed uitzicht heeft. Een shuttle launch meemaken is met geen woorden of foto’s te omschrijven. Voor wie deze kans niet heeft, zorg dat de TV of het internet aan staat!
