Archive for May, 2010

Phoenix Mars lander Killed By Ice

Landing on Mars in May of 2008, the NASA Mars Phoenix Lander worked remarkably well until November of the same year. It sent back hundreds of images and did soil testing that found calcium carbonate and perchlorate. The mission was only supposed to last for three months but like other NASA missions the service life of the lander exceeded expectations and only ended when the winter sun could no longer charge the probes batteries. When the Martian winter had passe it was hoped that the lander might have survived the deadly cold (-87C) and contact could once again be established. However it was not to be. The lander was no longer responding to commands issued from NASA’s Mars Odyssey orbiter as it did a number of passes over the landing site in multiple listening campaigns. Eventually an image was obtained from the HiRISE camera on the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter the that confirmed the speculation that an estimated 100 pounds of icy buildup has damaged the delicate solar panels.
Phoenix Mars Lander is Silent, New Image Shows Damage.

Popularity: 1% [?]

24 Hours Trapped Inside Starbucks

A writer spends 24 consecutive hours in a Houston Texas Starbucks and lives to tell about it:

“15 hours, 11 restroom visits, and 16 drinks in. 3:06 PM May 14th via Twitterrific”

At this point, it really felt like I was seeing things. The drinks weren’t the worst part, it was mostly the restroom. My bladder began to hurt. Later, it would go numb.

The Starbucks Experiment: 24 Hours Trapped Inside Starbucks

Popularity: 1% [?]

Mystery Camera and the Film From Within…

Every once in a while I’ll stumble across a ‘classic’ camera when I visit the local second hand store. I recently picked up a Kodak Duaflex IV that was in pretty bad shape. The faux leather case was hard and cracked, there is rust on anything that could rust and weird corrosion on whatever wasn’t rusty but the lenses looked OK and the shutter moved. I was thinking that this would be a great camera to pull apart for the glass and shutter mechanism. I’ve been doing an on again off again search for simple camera shutters for my own creations, the Kodak looked to be a likely source. I’d rather have a nice Copal or Zeiss shutter from a folding camera but this would do.
How I managed not to open it while I was at the store is beyond me. If I had I would have noticed the exposed roll of vintage 620 format Kodacolor-X that was neatly waiting for someone to process it. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 6% [?]

Space Slug Oven Mitt

Just the thing for your next BBQ, an oven mitt that that is styled after the space slug that tried to eat the Millenium Falcon in “The Empire Strikes Back“. A bit of trivia, the Millennium Falcon’s design was inspired by a hamburger.
Space Slug Oven Mitt
[via Super Punch]

Popularity: 1% [?]

Mishap With Helium and a Balloon

Had a little drama at the last HeatSync Labs meeting when one of the members was filling up a balloon with helium…

Popularity: 1% [?]

In a Blink of a Metal Eye

Stunning 300fps video of robot carnage at the 2010 RoboGames. I never built a robot that was this tough and dangerous but I did see my fair share of sparks and flying metal at numerous events. If you have the chance and like ‘bot on ‘bot action make sure you seek out the next robot combat event near you.

[via MAKE]

Popularity: 1% [?]