Archive for the ‘Historic’ Category

“NASA’CAR” Rocket Racers Take Off

I’ve been waiting a while for news of this. It’s fantastic that a demo has finally made it off the ground, please pardon the pun… Not too sure about the ‘play in the stands’ notion, that might be too much of a gmick for the spectators to handle.

A single rocket racer flew in front of the aviation crazed crowd at Oshkosh, Wisconsin, in 2008 with its short bursts of rocket power allowing the pilot to climb and maneuver unlike a traditional airplane. As one of the test pilots explains in the video after the jump, it’s full throttle or nothing at all, giving pilots a boost of power…

Video: Rocket Racers Roar Over Tulsa

It’s Halloween Again!

Over the years I have put together a few costumes for Halloween. Some took a few hours, some took days to build. The DIY Cricket bat and the robot costume have been my favorites:
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Tony Stark / Arc Reactor Iron Man Costume of 2008

In 2008 I needed a costume fast. I had a party to go to in a few days and I was at a loss as to what I should make. I was half way through moving and money and time were both in short supply. I built this passable version of the Arc Reactor from the film ‘Iron Man’ in about three hours. As I wasn’t going to take it out from under the shirt it didn’t need to be near film accurate, just look the part. Ah, the magic of Hollywood…. I got dozens of great complements about it from the various parties I went to…”
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New Element Officially Added

Set another place at the periodic table, we have another confirmed guest!  It’s not every day that science updates the classic chart of  the atoms that make up our universe (well what we know of it so far…)

A team of scientists, lead by Sigurd Hofmann at the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung (Centre for Heavy Ion Research) in Darmstadt, Germany are credited with its discovery.

“The new element is approximately 277 times heavier than hydrogen, making it the heaviest element in the periodic table,” the scientists said in a statement.

Hofmann and his team first synthesized the element in 1996 by firing charged zinc atoms through a 120 meter-long particle accelerator into a lead target. The zinc and lead nuclei were fused to form the new element.

Go science! Too bad you can’t get a sample of it, the lifespan of this element is measured in seconds. Wikipedia has a gob of tech on it if you want to sound all smart like to your friends: Wikipedia – Element 112

[via Periodic table adding new element - The Register UK]
Want your own periodic table of the elements? I bet you do! Amazon has a nice periodic table of the elements for less than $10. Buy it and I get a tiny kick back, we all know how that works.

When Satellites Collide

Like a scene from the Japanese TV series “Planetes“, a Russian and US satellite have collided in orbit. Early in February a non functional Russian military satellite (Kosmos 2251) and a US Iridium communications satellite occurred temporarily disrupting the Iridium communications network. An on orbit spare will be brought into service within the next 30 days. So far this isi the first accident of it’s kind, where a satellites has struck another satellite and not just orbital debris (paint chips, fuel tanks, etc) hitting working space hardware. There was that Chinese missile test where they destroyed a non functional weather bird but that was intentional (and also caused quite a mes up there). Hopefully the junk left from the recent accident will burn up, if not it will become part of the cloud of over 17,000 objects that are currently tracked by ground stations.

Original story:
Russian and US satellites collide

Mechanical TV, Steampunk Style

This is a wonderful project to build a working Baird mechanical television (televisor) that uses, among other things, a real working steam engine and a record as it’s ‘Nipkow disk’. It’s a great idea, Steampunk with real steam, I can’t wait to see some stills from it.

Mechanical TV has been an interest of mine for years now. The very idea that in  the primordial age of television the best solution was a big spinning disk and a flickering neon lamp. I have a model of a Baird Televisior that I built from a kit. It benefits from modern electronic timing and low voltage parts (LEDS not neon bulbs). It clearly works but only produces the most rudimentry of moving images. I have transcoded a few video clips to play on it (it comes with an audio CD of video sequences) and for what it is I’m impressed. I still want to build a camera that I can use to display live motion on it. Perhaps I’ll design it with a Steampunk theme.

SteamTV Part 1 — first looks at my newest project

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