The crew of STS-126 will be delivering to the International Space Station a wastewater regeneration system that will recycle astronauts' urine.
(Credit: NASA)
If you're the kind of person who wants to do research on the International Space Station, it appears that you may need to cross some boundaries of taste many of us wouldn't even consider.
According to a BBC News story, the crew aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavour, which is scheduled to launch from the Kennedy Space Center on Friday afternoon, will be handing off to their Space Station colleagues a water regeneration system designed to, among other things, recycle urine for reuse as fresh water. Read more »
If powering up your amp and monster TV leaves your neighbors in blackout misery, this new energy monitor could be for you. Dubbed the Wilting Flower, it's a visual reminder of how much electricity you're guzzling at any one moment. When you're using very little juice, it's a perky little flower with its petals open, but as you use more energy it goes red and--if you maintain your prolifigate ways--eventually wilts and closes up. Subtle? No. Quirky? Yes.
Designed by Carl Smith of Doncaster, the Wilting Flower is essentially a fancy-looking version of the Wattson, Efergy Meter and OWL. It works by chatting wirelessly to a clip that you DIY install onto your electricity meter (if it's as easy as the Wattson, you won't electrocute yourself). We like Smith's graphic approach to reminding us of our energy use, since most of today's energy monitors employ a rather boring screen that shows how many watts or pounds you're burning.
Read more »
OK, the whole Star Wars thing? A little misleading.
Basically, the Herald Sun is reporting on a technology that involves firing a laser beam accurate enough to puncture a hole in an individual cell. Sounds more like The Authority--or any other Mark Millar-written comic--than Star Wars to me.
Anyway, Professor Kishan Dholakia and Dr. Frank Gunn-Moore--both of the University of St. Andrews in Scotland--say the "light saber" could be used routinely on cancer patients within the next five years.
The method would allow chemotherapy drugs to be pumped directly into cancer cells. The researchers believe hard-to-reach cancers such as that of the pancreas would especially benefit.
Read more »
NASA said Monday that it intends to pursue a mission, entitled Juno, to do an in-depth survey of Jupiter. The mission is expected to launch in 2011 and reach Jupiter in 2016.
(Credit: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute)
Fans of the planet Jupiter have something new to get excited about.
On Monday, NASA announced that it is planning to launch a mission, titled Juno, to conduct a large-scale survey of our solar system's biggest planet.
According to NASA, the new mission will involve an unmanned spacecraft that is planned for an August 2011 launch onboard an Atlas rocket from Cape Canaveral, Fla. It is expected that the rocket will reach its destination, orbit around Jupiter, in 2016.
Once there, the plan is for the spacecraft to orbit Jupiter 32 times over the course of a year at a distance of around 3,000 miles above the planet's cloud tops.
NASA said this would be the first solar-powered spacecraft expected to be able to perform its duties so far from the sun. Jupiter is more than four times farther away from the sun as Earth, a total of around 400 million miles.
Read more »
Honda shows off the FC Sport hydrogen fuel-cell supercar. (Credit: Corinne Schulze/CBS Interactive)
This century, vaunted supercar names such as Ferrari and Lamborghini might be displaced by Honda. At the 2008 Los Angeles Auto Show, Honda showed off a supercar concept, the FC Sport, powered by an electric motor with energy generated by a hydrogen fuel cell. The fuel-cell powertrain, which Honda calls V Flow, is being used in the FCX Clarity, the hydrogen-fueled sedan that Honda currently leases on a limited basis. The FC Sport is designed to be a lightweight, performance-oriented car, and should have a 0-to-60 mph time of under 4 seconds to achieve supercar status. While Honda is known for producing fuel-efficient compact cars in the US, it garners performance expertise by competing in F1 and IRL racing.
Read more »