NASA has been on a tech spree in the last months. Moon bases, Titan and Europa explorers, RC planes, Mars drillers… what else, some new UFO models? All that plus some new kind of transportation vehicle for the “Moon landers.”
It’s dubbed NASA’s Lunar Chariot, and costs a mind boggling $2 million to build, Heaven knows how much to operate. It has just been tested by the NYT and the top speed of 15 mph may be just enough for the lunar conditions, though it’s six-wheeled weird appearance is noquite a new design never before seen. The front driving “turret” houses the primary controls: a joystick for steering, and an abundance of cameras and sensors that are capable of relaying images to the onboard screen.
The first test rides revealed some positive and some negative peculiarities:
• It navigated seemingly challenging terrain with relative ease, even if the ride was not so smooth for the passenger.
• The motion of the vehicle was a little disconcerting, as it didn’t move in a conventional manner; climbing, sliding and dropping in an apparent erratic manner.
• The six wheels could be controlled independently to navigate really, really challenging rough spots.
• The suspension is tuned sky high as the chassis can be raised a whopping, 28-inches in height.
• A bit of a gargantuan vehicle, weighing in at 4,500 pounds and being far too large to make it to the Moon in its current state.
• The Lunar Chariot is using commercial parts for now—a cheap webcam and Earth-car grade tires that would never make the final draft, and neither would they survive out in the big old vacuum or other extreme conditions.
As you can see, the Chariot is not the cruiser of choice for space travelers by any means, at least in its prototype phase. Hey NASA, $2 million for one? What, did you put diamond screws in it, everlasting NOS, golden suspension system?
OK Star Trek fans, time to gear up again. It’s another one of those prop-inspired gadgets and this time it’s the tricorder. The Star Trek Mark IX Science Tricorder Replica, to be exact.
The gadget is based on the actual prop that appeared in Deep Space Nine and Voyager TV shows. It comes with all sorts of electronic lights and sounds, staying true and paying tribute to the Star Trek phenomenon. And it also features s host of bright and colorful graphics.
Now you can part the veil of doubt and just consult your Tricorder for an exact report on things around you. Is that object made of tungsten, or is it a holograph? In the world of Star Trek, you’d just whip out your Tricorder for information on pretty much anything. The Mark IX Science Tricorder replica is a must-have collectible for Star Trek fans. Closely following the original pattern used to create the props, this replica is made of die-cast metal and plastic to give you that perfect artifact from the future that explains the world around you with a touch of a button.
You can get this for $349.99 from here, but keep in mind that this is limited edition, and only about 2,000 pieces are available. It also includes display case and certificate of authenticity.
Whatever you do, you always have to carry some portable storage device with you, especially if you are using the PC both at home and at your office, in order to facilitate the working process. The first USB storage sticks were cool but didn’t feature any real protection. Well, for y’all paranoid PC users that would protect their priceless information with their life, brace yourselves people, salvation has come! It’s the pin-pad encrypted USB stick!
The Personal Pocket Safe invented by CHDT Corp. is said to be the first “encrypted, epoxy coated, pin-protected smart drive.” It comes with the expected security features, such as military-grade encryption, safekeeping of passwords and other sensitive info and a track-covering feature that makes sure no one can trace its presence once it’s removed from a system. Maybe you’ve seen all these features in a bunch of previous sticks, but check out the rubber-key PIN-pad. It lets you key in your own 4-to-10 passcode. If somebody else tries to access your stick and inputs the wrong passcode, the USB drive goes into full lock down. I wonder what exactly happens after all this. Is there a special unlock code? Hell, it might even go into self destruct mode! Have some defusing kit around, God knows what atomic device they might’ve inserted in there.
It’s been more than one year since I last wore a wrist watch. Now I don’t have weird tan lines on my wrist anymore. Seriously now, if it doesn’t double as a communicating device, it’s as usless as it looks. But some guys thought about this and they came up with a hybrid watch concept. It might not open a portal to the future but it knows a bunch of other cool tricks.
<-125x125 Button - left->I’m talking about the DigitalRise M600i watch concept, which comes with a host of features never before integrated into this kind of device. It’s actually a phone-watch-player. I’m sure you will find the touchscreen interface impressive as it provides support for phone number and text messaging input. It comes Unlocked and you only need to insert whatever simcard you already have. As you don’t have dedicated keys, the text messaging is facilitated through handwriting input mode. You can record videos and browse on the mobile Internet. This M600i also has a built-in camera, mp3/mp4 player, Bluetooth and many others. It even supports T-flash memory cards and as a mobile phone it knows how to deal with 900/1800MHZ bands.
Here is the extended list of features:
• Language: English
• LCD Size: 1.4 inch, , 60 thousand color; PX: 128X160px
• Ring tone: 64 chord; Ring tone format: mp3, mp4, midi
• Vibration supported
• Voice dialing: voice recognition technology for dialing and control
• Bluetooth, support Bluetooth earphones
• WWW: WAP 2.0 internet browser & GPRS download
• MP3 Player: play mp3 at background; support equalizer
• Video Player: 3GP,MP4,Support to play in full screen, speed/pause
• Digital Voice recorder
• Camera: 1.3M pixel; Max resolution is 640*480
• Picture Viewer: jpg, gif
• Photo album
• Camcorder: support MP4 video recording with sound
• Memory Space: 1.9M built-in/Free TF card(512M) , support Document management
• Data Transfer: U-disk function for computer data/data wire, Bluetooth file transmission
• Standby Photo: jpg, gif
• More Functions: MP3, MP4, SMS group sending, GPRS download, MMS, Memory extended, calls vibration, voice dialing, IP dialing, calculator, graphics editor, memos, calendar, stopwatch, rates exchange, world time.
• Two games
Basic cellphone features
• Telephone directories: 800 groups of contacts of carte de visit, support incoming call with big head sticker, group ring
• Messages &Multimedia messaging: storage for 300, support SMS and MMS
• Schedule power on/off: Support auto start/close, can set self-defined photo of starting/closing
• Alarm clock: Set from Monday to Sunday at random, and can set MP3 as alarm rings
• Games: 2 games
I’m sure at least some of you liked to play with all sorts of aircraft toys when you were kids. A couple of months ago, I saw some guys flying small-scale helicopters while using remote controls. Cool hobby, but most of the RC models have a limited range and a restrictive battery life. NASA, on the other hand, thinks that RC models can someday be used as commercial airline planes.
One of the latest cutting-edge experimental aircraft, or X-Planes, the X-48B BWB is a collaborative effort of the Boeing Co., NASA’s Fundamental Aeronautics Program and the Air Force Research Laboratory. Keep in mind it’s still in the prototype phase and it can evolve into a more complex model. For now, it has a 21-foot wingspan, weighs 500 pounds and is remotely piloted, being designed designed to demonstrate the viability of the blended wing shape. Check it out in a test flight.
For its first six test flights the miniature RC plane behaved flawlessly. That’s why NASA immediately became interested in the potential benefits of the aircraft - increased volume for carrying capacity, efficient aerodynamics for reduced fuel burn, and, possibly, significant reductions in noise due to propulsion integration options. In the initial flights, the principal focus was to validate prior research on the aerodynamic performance and controllability of the shape, including comparisons of flight test data with the extensive database gathered in the wind tunnels at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia.
How about that? One day we might see radio controlled airliners that could carry hundreds of people and being piloted by sophisticated ground computers. Then there’ll be no more 9/11 attacks. Hmmm, maybe they can hack the computers and get a hold of those planes… drats!
