A company aiming to open the first space hotel already has 43 paying customers at $4.4 million a pop
Anyone with a cool $4 million and change might consider doing what 43 other people have done, and sign up for an orbital space vacation in 2012 with Galactic Suite Space Resort. The Barcelona-based company plans to open the first space hotel if all goes according to plan.
Space customers would spend three nights in their orbital pod room, where they could crawl around like Spiderman (or Venom) in Velcro suits. 'Reuters' reports that guests would also enjoy an eight-week training course set on a tropical island.
The price tag falls far below the $35 million paid by first repeat space tourist Charles Simonyi, or the same higher amount required to book an orbital vacation aboard a surplus Soviet-era military spacecraft.
There was a time when a farmer simply tasted a clump of dirt to tell the fecundity of the soil. Now, a wide range of chemical analysis help instruct farmers on the optimal mix of fertilizer, pesticide and water. However, tests on soil samples are expensive and time consuming, and few farmers can afford to waste either time or money. And that's where the satellite imaging comes in. The electromagnetic radiation reflected by farmland contains within it vast amounts of information about the chemical competition of the soil. By measuring the reflected radiation of entire fields, satellites now provide a cheaper, and more comprehensive, alternative to the testing of soil samples.
The service costs about $15 per 2.5 acres for a couple of scans a year, and the information imparted by the satellite scans has already proven to increase crop yield by as much as 10 percent.
In France, a grain-grower's co-op has even automated the process, linking GPS carrying farm equipment to the satellites. The farm vehicles carry about 50 different mixes of fertilizer formula, each one customized to particular soil characteristics. The satellite data links to the GPS system, and the vehicles automatically distribute the optimal fertilizer mix for the different soil quality regions identified by the satellites.
Beyond the industrialized world, non-profits and government organizations have already booked satellite overflights of the world's most impoverished farmlands in Africa. The readings from the satellites provide cheap and easy recommendations for increasing yield in a continent continually plagued by drought and famine. Farmer's Almanac, meet the space age.
How are robots changing war? Peter Singer talks about how robots are changing how we fight wars and how robots will change the way we fight war in the future. How does using robots in war change public perception of war? With thousands of robots already in the air and on ground of warzones, what part do they currently play in war and how will they change how we think and fight wars in the future?
Eric Giler wants to untangle our wired lives with cable-free electric power. Here, he covers what this sci-fi tech offers, and demos MIT's breakthrough version, WiTricity -- a near-to-market invention that may soon recharge your cell phone, car, pacemaker.
Ericsson's Spider PC Concept:
Ericsson has shown off an interesting PC design at the Taiwan Broadband Show, the Ericsson Spider PC Concept.
The Spider PC concept is Ericsson’s vision for portable computers of the future, it uses a pico projector to project a screen onto the wall, and a laser projector to project a keyboard onto your desk.
The first picture shows a working prototype, whilst the second picture is what they imagine the device will look like, personally I think the first picture would be a cooler design, as it looks more futuristic.
Ericsson imagine that the device will have all the features of a laptop, like WiFi, and a built in battery, it certainly looks like an interesting idea, check out the video of it in action below.
ThinkGeek is billing this as the smallest hovering device they've ever sold, so there's that too. Requires a handful of AA's and the controller has the ability to control two drones at once.
Battery powered USB chargers are pretty cheap at Amazon and other places, but as with everything else it's always more fun to make your own. The basic concept of a USB charger is actually pretty simple, and you don't really need more than a couple of very cheap components to make one yourself.
Concept and parts
The concept is simple; USB power is 5V. What else is 5V? No batteries. Sometimes you find chargers that use 4 AA/AAA batteries as this is 4.8V (if rechargable, 1.2V x 4) or 6V (if disposable, 1.5V x 4) but to have a charger that produces exactly 5V you need a voltage regulator. Such a regulator is the 7805 model you can get at Radio Shack for $1.59. This will take a voltage between 7.5V and 20V (according to Google research) and turn it into a steady 5V. Turn this into a charger, and there you go.
On top of this you also need a suitable power source (9V battery in my case), some wires (and a battery connector in my case) and a connector to connect to the device you want to charge- like a female USB port you can salvage off old computers etc.
The build
The assembly process is so simple it's almost redundant to describe it. Wire the setup like in the diagram and solder it stuck and you're basically done. With a 7805 regulator with a TO-220 type case like the one linked to above, the diagram shows the heatsink pointing away from you. The positive lead from the battery goes to the regulators left leg, and the regulated 5V goes from its right leg to the far left pin of the female USB port as it is when you're holding the female port pointing towards you with the pins pointing down from the plastic part they're stuck to. The ground wire goes from the battery to the middle leg of the regulator and then continues to the far right pin of the female USB port. Just look at the diagram and you'll see what I mean.
You might want to use a hot glue gun or some sort of casing to make it stick together. I wanted a very small easy to carry solution so I made it all into a single small adapter, but you might want to use multiple batteries (5x D batteries in a series would give you a lot of juice, for example) or another design for yours.
Not all devices will be able to charge from such a setup due to limitations in place by the manufacturers. Since you're making this from scratch, you might actually be able to make on that works if you know the criteria for you device to charge (such as having the two middle USB pins connected).
iRobot, the makers of the Roomba, have released footage of their bizarre new robot prototype, Chembot. It’s a is a small mobile device being developed for DARPA and the United States Army which looks like a gelatinous blob, and can change shape to navigate through tight spaces. The Chembot will eventually be used in intelligence gathering and search and rescue missions.
CNET explains how it works:
It gets around by way of a process called “jamming,” in which material can transition between semiliquid and solid states with only a slight change in volume.
In ChemBot’s case, a flexible silicone skin encapsulates a series of pockets containing a mix of air and loosely packed particles. When air is removed from the compartments, the skin attempts to equalize the pressure differential by constricting the particles, which shift slightly to fill the void left by the evacuated air.
As if you don’t have enough distractions while driving, the Personal Robots Group at the MIT Media Lab and MIT’s SENSEable City Lab have teamed up to create AIDA, a robot that lives in your dashboard, is way smarter than you, and has no compunctions about letting you know it:
IDA is actually watching you while you drive, paying attention to your expressions and even measuring your galvanic skin response through the steering wheel. Based on your driving habits, AIDA will suggest how you can be safer or more efficient. The robot is designed to use expressions to intuitively convey information.
Space Hotel Reportedly On Track for 2012 Opening:
