Eclectic junk from the four corners of the ‘Net. And pictures too!
Few things beat seeing a rocket scream up into the heavens. Seeing them day and night is an even better thing! There was a recent event in Black Rock Desert (same area here Burning Man is held) where dozens of high powered rockets were flown during over the course of two days. I have to go visit one of these launchings some day, it must be simpley awesome to see one of these monters take flight in person.
If you have the space and an old BUD (Big Ugly Dish) satellite receiver and a few easy to find parts you too can construct your very own radio telescope. Use it to see the spectra of space or look for alien life.
[via MAKEzine]
Amateur SETI Station
One of these would be so cool to own…
Limited Edition Nixie tube desk clock
Functional art that mixes a little bit of history with modern electronics to create a clock design combining both the ultra modern 1960s with current retro trends. Deep stain wood box with glass door. Modern, custom electronics. Available for a limited time only. Each clock hand assembled.
Now when haven’t you wanted to be able to see thing from the perspective of a giant? These clever guys built a device that tricks your brain into thinking that your eyes are about ten feet apart and not the normal 2.5 inches. The effect is enhance the stereo effect and ‘shrink the world’. You can do the same thing with a camera by taking two photos of the same thing (it has to be large and far away) from two points that are separated by a few feet. But looking at photos isn’t the same as seeing it in real time with your own eyes, you lose a lot of the coolness.
Building one of these and putting it near the Grand Canyon or Niagara Falls and charging a quarter for a look would make you rich.
This is great news, if the fuel cost of going between points in our solar system can be reduced there should be a greater incentive to commercialize it.
ANDREWS SPACE OF SEATTLE has awarded SpaceDev a contract to design a small spacecraft to travel through a gravity tunnel – part of the InterPlanetary Superhighway or IPS, a route that eats up less fuel than normal trajectories – to the moon, for the very first time ever.
Small spaceship to fly through gravity tunnel
The SpaceDev web site also has a lunar lander program that you can try out if your running Windows. Looks ok, think of the classic lunar lander game but with 3D graphics.
I’m first in line and no cuts! Won’t be out for the Christmas rush but when it is you can bet that people will be lining up for them. Just as a way to tell time it would be super handy. And lets not even mention the possibility of moving tatoos.
a “programmable dermal display” in which a population of about 3 billion display pixel robots would be permanently implanted a fraction of a mm under the surface of the skin, covering a rectangle 6 cm x 5 cm on the back of the hand. Photons emitted by these pixel bots would produce an image on the surface of the skin. This pixelbot array could be programmed to form any of many thousands of displays.