Category: News

Taiwan Adventure ’05

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Originally uploaded by Gridman.

My co-host Eugene from over at Ninja Team Video is going on a six week trip to Taiwan with his family. He’s keeping a running update on his adventures on his page over at Lone Locust. So far it’s been been pretty food-centric (MOS burgers, Fried Chicken Flavor Cheetos, Cong You Bing…) but now that there is a Typhoon on the way life might take a change for the dramatic. So, for the next six weeks I’ll be encouraging everyone to head over and have a look at how he is doing in this strange environment.

Lone Locust Productions

And Away They Go!

Oh cool! LiftPort Group Inc., of Bremerton, Wa. tested a robot that climbed 1,000 feet of ribbon suspended by a balloon. This is the fist step towards building an actual space elevator. A full sized elevator would reduce the cost of spaceflight to the point that a trip into orbit would cost as much as a regular international air flight.

Space elevator robot passes 1,000-foot mark – Space.com – MSNBC.com

How to Blog Better

Have a blog and want to make it better (don’t we all)? What are the best kind of ads, what tools to use, news, and general tips make this a an important source of information for just about anyone that is serious about blogging. After all, don’t we all want to quit our day jobs and work out of an Internet cafe? 🙂

Blog Tips – ProBlogger: Helping Bloggers Earn Money

Space Travel via Gravity Tunnel

SmallTug

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.

Look, Up In the Sky!

Rocket launch by Uncle Jerry

I just witnessed an amazing sight! I looked to the west and and saw the unburned exhaust of a Minotaur rocket launching from Vandenberg AFB. Now, I’ve seen these before and I still get stunned when I see them, but this time was even better. I got to see the actual vehicle during it’s burn! The photo snapped by Uncle Jerry shows a bright object in the right hand side of the frame, that’s the exhaust plume. At first I thought it was a helicopter flying through a cloud but that didn’t make any sense as it was clear out. Then I realized that it must be the rocket making its ascent. How darn cool is that! Well anyway, I have thrown together a few links about the event.
This is some info on the Minotaur Space Launch System, some info on the Vandenberg Dusk Launch today, and here is some info on how you can keep up with them from Space Archive. If your in the southwest you should have a look here, its the how to on viewing Vandenberg AFB Launches.

And another taken from Kingman Az.

Rocket launch by Uncle Jerry

Rocket launch by Uncle Jerry

By Nogwater