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Geez, I feel stupid now. Google 'solid smoke' and get good links from
here,
here, or
here among a bazillion others.
Technically, the stuff is is called aerogel. Even more amazing, it was invented in the 1930's!

Sounds like you're describing Aerogel it was mentioned on slashdot a few times, I believe this was the first.

Wow, I wish I had cable TV now.. that musta been a neat show. I just can't see myself paying for TV though.

I believe you are talking about aerogel. Very nifty stuff.

It's called aerogel.

You tell me how were gonna get send billions of people to Mars and ill take another look at your rants.
How about a Space Elevator. NASA estimates, although from 2000, are that exiting the gravity well could cost as little as $1.48, meaning that a person, with baggage, weighing a total of 150Kg could be sent up for $222. If the US stopped spending any money on defense, about 450-500 billion a year, we could get 250 million people per year *into* space. Assuming we had the will, and i'm pretty sure we would given certain death would be the other option, I couldn't be too hard to figure out how to actually survive.

What i'm really saying is that we should be focusing on a space elevator instead of spending more money on crap we don't need.

You tell me how were gonna get send billions of people to Mars and ill take another look at your rants.
How about a . NASA estimates, although from 2000, are that exiting the gravity well could cost as little as $1.48, meaning that a person, with baggage, weighing a total of 150Kg could be sent up for $222. If the US stopped spending any money on defense, about 450-500 billion a year, we could get 250 million people per year *into* space. Assuming we had the will, and i'm pretty sure we would given certain death would be the other option, I couldn't be too hard to figure out how to actually survive.

What i'm really saying is that we should be focusing on a space elevator instead of giving more money to crap we ddon't need.

That's weird - simoniker slightly different headline but the rest of it is identical to the submitted post.

2004-01-14 21:33:38 It's Official: USA to the Moon and Mars by 2015 (articles,space) (rejected)

This afternoon George Bush announced space exploration plans for the USA to return to the Moon by 2015, the design and construction of a new space vehicle fleet by 2014 (called the Crew Exploration Vehicle) to replace the aging space shuttles which will be retired in 2010, and the construction of a permanent Moon base, followed by manned missions to Mars. The initiative begins with a $1 billion increase to NASA's budget and $12 billion in new space exploration money over next five years. However Congress is concerned about how to pay for the new space policy, initiative in the face of a $500 billion national budget deficit. AP via Yahoo has a Moon/Mars/space policy FAQ. NASA Chief Scientist/Astronaut Dr. John Grunsfeld will discuss U.S. Space Policy today at 5pm (ET) in an online chat. They want questions. More at NASA and the New York Times among others.

I know this comment may be somewhat OT but I had to add a comment. Anyone know what's going on with this? Maybe related to the many 500-class errors I've been getting lately?

Here's a link to NASA's own list of technological spinoffs.

As much as I want us back on the moon, there are some issues that need to be addressed. How many mistakes has NASA made? Most of them caused by Metric -> US conversions. Mistakes happen, but what have we done to correct these mistakes? I heard that in the 1970's, NASA was an organization that tried really hard to change us from the Imperial measurement system to the Metric system. The lumber industry was unwilling to make the switch from 2x4's to 5x10's. The lumber industry apparently won in the choice of our measurement system. Now, with 30 years of technology development since the last time we had a man on the moon, it shouldn't be as difficult, especially the way a "new" piece of technology goes out-of-date in 9 months... or is that estimate out-of-date as well?

This crap gets modded up? please.

No, the leader who kicked it off was JFK. The last White House resident who sort of made big mumbles about it was actually Poppy Bush--but most people don't even remember his Mars by 2035 mumble. Dubya is just trying to get it back on Daddy's schedule.

Perhaps you noticed that the reasons we had a space race are gone? That race is over. This oculd be a new one. And So what if it was his dad's idea or whoever, that makes it less of a good idea? No you're just spouting off crap and you're obviously biased against GWB.

In terms of doing something useful in space, probably the strongest claim would be the international space station--but Dubya is destroying the international cooperation that depends on. Only natural, since Dubya's real motivation for supporting space flight is military dominance.

Please. We certainly are doing nothing with the ISS Destroying relations? Please. I believe that we helped a fair amount with the Beagle 2 and that we had some help with our rovers as well. Only motivation is military dominance? Another pointless spouting of crap. Perhaps you haven't noticed, we already have that. We spend more money on our military than every other country combined in the world. And because of that, we develop a shitload of new ideas, discovery, researching whtaever.

I think your question is fundamentally flawed. You can't ask "What do we use *now* that NASA invented 10 years ago?" Most of the things they are using now won't be in serious commercial use for another twenty years. So most of the things we're using now were invented over 10 years ago.

But, to answer your question anyways, here is an article on Video Image Stabilization and 2D Barcodes. This is another on Superstrong Plastic Films/Strings and Lightweight Composite Actuators.

I'd really like to see a list of advances

It's not difficult, by looking in the obvious place to find entire publications and databases to suit your request.

If you really wanted to see a list, that is.

I'd really like to see a list of advances

It's not difficult, by looking in the obvious place to find entire publications and databases to suit your request.

If you really wanted to see a list, that is.

I'd really like to see a list of advances

It's not difficult, by looking in the obvious place to find entire publications and databases to suit your request.

If you really wanted to see a list, that is.

First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth.

John F. Kennedy, May 25, 1961

If I were you I would be a bit concerned over the fate of the James Webb Space Telescope. Simply put I would fear the Joe Sixpack just doesn't find a telescope all that sexy compared to a Moon mission. I personally fear for that fate of a possible Titan mission. Cripes, I want to find life on Titan!

I think our local government (Australian Capital Territory) had a far more intelligent policy; you should consider open source software but still pick the best (read: most economical) tool for the job.

my real motivation [...] is [...] partly smugness

I definitely don't want FLOSS to be govt-mandated now and 10 years later have a bunch of disgruntled ex-Microsofties bitch about how "FLOSS would never have won if the govt didn't make it compulsory".

I think our local government (Australian Capital Territory) had a far more intelligent policy; you should consider open source software but still pick the best (read: most economical) tool for the job.

my real motivation [...] is [...] partly smugness

I definitely don't want FLOSS to be govt-mandated now and 10 years later have a bunch of disgruntled ex-Microsofties bitch about how "FLOSS would never have won if the govt didn't make it compulsory".

I think our local government (Australian Capital Territory) had a far more intelligent policy; you should consider open source software but still pick the best (read: most economical) tool for the job.

my real motivation [...] is [...] partly smugness

I definitely don't want FLOSS to be govt-mandated now and 10 years later have a bunch of disgruntled ex-Microsofties bitch about how "FLOSS would never have won if the govt didn't make it compulsory".

They will begin testing the Crew Exploration Vehicle in 2008, and will start using it by 2010 if it is ready. 2014 is the deadline to get it ready and doing maned missions. The old shuttle fleet may be used thru 2014 if the new one is not ready.

ISS is supposed to be done by 2010 and moon base in 2015.

The bummer part is redirecting 11 billion of the current budget todo this. That means about 6-10 other missions will be canceled. Maybe it will be the Hubble space telescope replacement JWST. :(

I have read that funds would need to be diverted from other programs to make this happen. I just pray they don't touch LISA

Not to be cynical, but a moon base just sounds like a hair-brained space detour to me...

You were right, I found it!!!

http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/gallery/video/movie s/mer_rovernav_240.mov

How exactly was this move accomplished? If you look at the first frame and second frame, the rover moved sideways about the length of one wheel.

I don't know if this has been linked to before, but it's a pretty overview of the mission.

True, and here it states that it uses QT from trolltech and open inventor from SGI. Many government organizations use IRIX so there is probably a strong possibility they are running IRIX. Government contracts currently make up most of SGI's revenue. I have seen many military computer systems running IRIX for things like large scale battle simulation.

Viz runs on Unix, Linux, or Windows according to the site, so it could be any number of GUIs.

The ground looks like it's been disturbed in the panoramic image from the website. A few locations, most notibly a little left of the "Northwest Hill 335.9 Azimuth 11.2 Kilometers" marking looks like it could've been caused by the rovers bouncing airbag landing. Anyone know for certain or can identify any terrain disturbed by the landing?

Looks like they're using linux. Anyone know which GUI?

here is the image.

-bk.

Those who are interested in nuclear rocketry may want to check out NASA's Project Prometheus.

There's also an excellent write-up of present day and past efforts HERE.

The Germans had the right idea about how to build a rocket, and we used that to go to the moon, and to launch the Space Shuttles. Not going to improve much on that in our lifetime. Now we need to settle back and watch our little Mars machines do their work, started on their way to the surface of Mars with technology developed for the most part by the Germans under Dr. Wernher von Braun .

The Germans had the right idea about how to build a rocket, and we used that to go to the moon, and to launch the Space Shuttles. Not going to improve much on that in our lifetime. Now we need to settle back and watch our little Mars machines do their work, started on their way to the surface of Mars with technology developed for the most part by the Germans under Dr. Wernher von Braun .

Just to educate the willing...

There are two primary types of nuclear fission propulsion being researched

NEP - Nuclear Electric Propulsion

The use of a nuclear reactor to provide electricity to ion thrusters, instead of Solar arrays like Deep-Space 1. This is the kind of propulsion being planned for JIMO. Low thrust, very high effiency (exhaust velocity)

NTP - Nuclear Thermal Propulsion

Take a nuclear reactor, pump hydrogen through it with a turbopump, hydrogen expands, and produces thrust when forced through a nozzle.

This kind of propulsion has much higher thrust than NEP, but it less efficient (still about twice as efficient as LOX/LH2 chemical propulsion though. This can produce enough thrust for launch.

IAARS, FWIW

NASA has a page detailing some of the benefits.

The objective of current U.S. RTG design philosophy is for full fuel containment; that is, in the event of an abort during the launch or on-orbit phase of a mission, the RTGs are designed to retain the fuel material. In two subsequent unplanned incidents involving U.S. RTGs, the new design philosophy successfully prevented the fuel from being released. The first involved two SNAP 19 RTGs in a 1968 meteorological satellite while the other involved one SNAP 27 RTG in the Apollo Lunar Scientific Experiment Package (ALSEP) aboard Apollo XIII in 1970. Neither of these incidents caused release of radioactive materials. The two SNAP 19's were recovered from Santa Barbara Channel five months after the range destruct of the launch vehicle. The nuclear fuel was reprocessed and later re-launched in new RTGs. No release of the fuel was detected. The mission abort maneuver of Apollo XIII separated the Command Service Module from the Lunar Module. The Lunar Module containing the SNAP 27 RTG (as part of the ALSEP) re-entered the atmosphere and impacted in the South Pacific Ocean in the region of the Tonga Trench, where it remains today. Air and water samples taken by the U.S. in the vicinity of the re- entry found no evidence of fuel release.

That is right, the US self-destructed a rocket right after launch and the RTGs survived intact, were recovered and the material was in good enough condition to be reused.

Nuclear propulsion is our ticket off this rock. The only thing in our way is ignorance of the technology.

Oh, and yes, IAARS.

FYI, that was the Cassini probe that they were protesting about, and they're still protesting it.

morons protesting progress

If you think the images from Spirit are cool, just wait until Cassini starts sending back close-ups of Saturn, it's moons, it's rings... and don't even get me started on the Huygens probe... coolness.

neat-o cool sciency-stuff

There is water on Mars. The ICE CAPS were first noticed about FOUR HUNDRED YEARS AGO.

332 years ago, to be specific, though looking through a low-powered telescope isn't quite the same as using an orbiting thermal emission spectrometer.

I don't think it's mud, the Pathfinder photos have the same kind of markings on the ground - and it's clearly not mud.

The watchmaker's has the watches for sale on his website. Three different brand: Orient, Seiko, and Citizen. Prices start at around $145 for the watch and $35 for the upcoming Mars watchface.

What we are plotting on the map is the universe in 'comoving coordinates', which are determined by cosmological parameters (amount of luminous matter, dark matter and dark energy in the universe). They're the ones that determine the global curvature of space, and in the past few years have been measured very accurately (eg., with WMAP).

What you seem to be objecting to (among other things) is that the map should somehow depict local curvature as well (eg., you talk about closed timelike loops, black holes, etc). However, note that in that case you'd also have to object to every map of the _Earth_ that has ever been made, because it doesn't take into account the small increase in Earth's area due to mountains and depressions ("And their map would be f**ked around mountains for obvious reasons").

LOL, that post made the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) sound like a secretive spy satellite. :-)

Actually, WMAP is a hugely successful astronomical microwave observatory which sits at Earth's second Lagrange Point (L2). L2 is 1.5 million kilometers on the opposite side of the Earth from the Sun. This informative page shows the location and how the probe got there very clearly.

The WMAP was launched in June of 2001 and has made a map of the temperature fluctuations of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation with much higher resolution, sensitivity, and accuracy than its predecessor, COBE. It has been a huge success.

Done and done.

There is a palm version out there, too, though, IMHO, it doesn't work all that well. Or, more accurately, it doesn't meet the standard set by this program.

Here is another link for a proposed Mars Calendar:
http://mars.complete-isp.com/time/zubrin.html

NASA has an Applet showing the current time on Mars.

Offtopic - NASA is really embracing Java lately. At least parts of the control and visualising software for the current mission uses Java, including Java 3D. Java not ready for user interfaces eh?
They also certainly seem to be considering Java and Linux for future missions and have built a concept vehicle using it. The SD times article is very preachy, and I'm sure people sceptical of Java can argue over many of the points, but it is interesting still.

As previously noted on Slashdot, Nasa offers Technical Notes on Mars Solar Time.

I hope everybody has had the chance to view the panorama shot composed of somewhere around 225 photographs.

Head... about... to... EXPLODE!!!

The X-Band Phased Array Antenna has one major benefit. Phased array antennas are meant to mimic the directivity and gain of a parabolic antenna, with the ability to aim it, in an array of antennas that does not move and is flat.

So basicly you take a bunch of flat antennas, do some 'magic' between the array and the signal source (or destination) and you can effectively aim the antenna as though you were actually moving a parabolic antenna.

Since the antenna on spirit is aimed mechanically, and phased array antennas are, IIRC, still pretty power hungry, then it may be that they are not using a phased array. However, it would make a lot of sense to use a phased array for fine control aiming and the machanical link for coarse control.

-Adam

High resolution image of "mud" 1Mb jpg

In this image it looks more like fine dust than mud. I remember a nature programme that was about landslides. It showed that rock (and dust) could have similar properties with water. When fine dust and the landslide ontop, flowed downhill, it mixed with air and started flowing like water. Can martian (fine) dust behave like water when moved?
Knut

I suspect that it's simply a patch antenna. For the size and weight, it's hard to beat the gain of a patch antenna.

Here is an example for 802.11b of which the author notes, "What's nice about the patch antenna over the "cantenna" is its broad beamwidth. The cantenna has to be pointed very precisely at the AP to get anything at that range, but the patch can be tilted several degrees and still get a signal." The Spirit's antenna was estimated to be 2 degrees off aim at the initial connect attempt, but they said they should still get good data at up to 4 degrees off, and beyond that they would still get carrier.

While the frequency is different, you'll find that these people sell patch antennas which compare favorably in signal strength with their parabolic antennas, but with a wider beam spread.

But we all know they're simply using the technology they've been using for years to practice mind control on us.

-Adam

Here's a link to all the pictures taken so far.

Sorry, correct link here.