Space & Tech newsdump

Busy with uni work and yes, projects! =P
[need to finish an Android app in two 1-week sprints that allows year 10 students to learn functional programming by doing it!]
So as pointed out already, I'll abandon the idea of posting news items as blog articles regularly. This doesn't mean I'll stop posting all news type articles though!

Because I don't want to spend the time regurgitating news articles in nice English, here's a link dump of noteworthy articles in the past few weeks: (it also serves as a personal favourite/bookmarker =P) =D

http://www.sciencealert.com/australian-researchers-have-converted-sunlight-into-electricity-with-more-than-40-efficiency

http://garethhayes.net/hackrf-blue/

http://www.thesaturdaypaper.com.au/2014/11/22/private-cubesat-start-ups-join-the-space-race/14165748001263

www.space.com/27588-nasa-asteroid-capture-mission-mars.html

http://www.teslamotors.com/blog/factory-upgrade

Why CSIRO is important:
http://csironewsblog.com/2014/11/20/megans-seven-reasons/

gmailblog.blogspot.com.au/2014/11/going-under-hood-of-inbox.html

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/12/01/penniless_and_desperate_wikipedia_sits_on_60m_cash/

http://lunar.xprize.org/news/blog/lunar-mission-one-takes-crowd-funded-route-moon

www.space.com/27936-nasa-orion-spaceship-survives-test-flight.html

http://www.space.com/27833-nasa-orion-capsule-first-test-flight-infographic.html

https://www.reddit.com/r/learnprogramming/wiki/faq

www.space.com/27944-nasa-orion-spaceship-textbook-spaceflight.html

http://www.csoonline.com/article/2853027/malware-cybercrime/report-hacker-group-fin4-stealing-insider-info-to-exploit-significant-changes-in-stock-prices.html

http://www.citylab.com/cityfixer/2014/09/when-adding-bike-lanes-actually-reduces-traffic-delays/379623/

http://www.parabolicarc.com/2014/12/08/jaxa-testing-deep-space-microsat-with-asteroid-flyby/

http://www.livescience.com/49028-farthest-quantum-teleportation.html

www.space.com/27955-spacex-rocket-ocean-landing-platform.html

http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-hy-tesla-plugs-into-australia-20141209-story.html
Tesla finally updates their website to show superchargers on the Hume Hwy in 2015! YESS!! Can't wait to drive a Tesla from MEL-CBR! =)

Hoverboards are here!

Nerdist explains:
http://www.nerdist.com/2014/10/its-finally-here-a-hoverboard-you-might-actually-buy/
The Hendo hoverboard uses Lenz law which means it uses currents in the medium below to create magnetic fields to repel those on the hoverboard.

So water can have currents in it, but will that be enough to hover? And you'd probably need rockets to propel you like with Marty McFly's adversary right? =P

Want one? Grab one for $10k at the kickstarter or a dev kit for $300:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/142464853/hendo-hoverboards-worlds-first-real-hoverboard

The return of the ISEE 3

http://spacecraftforall.com/home


Great website with cool interactive documentary-like experience! Check it out! Also, it'll be live-streaming the fly-by of the moon in a few hours (Sunday, August 10th 10:30am PT - 12:00pm PT) , but I'll be asleep. Also includes live data anytime! =)

This whole project was crowdfunded and they (the hackers/makers) work in a hackerspace/mission-control in an old Maccas building! Lol! And with NASA's blessing =) Them talking about *SCIENCE* so much reminds me of stuff like Portal, xkcd, KSP (get them science points!) haha.

Also, great post about SoftwareDefinedRadio; been meaning to get my HAM radio callsign sometime soon ...

Also, the initial swing-bys to get to the 1st comet flown through by man is so cool and complicated, it reminded me of an epic version of this:

I mean, orbiting in one plane is hard enough to learn (in a fun way) in KSP. Add in polar plane and crazy manoeuvres and orbits like Quasi-Zenith and I have to spend more time wrapping my head around more simulations, models and reading.
P.S. My short-term goal is to build and launch a (nano)sat in one of them Quasi-Zenith orbits servicing Australia =P Hopefully I'll get to crowdfunding when I've actually done work on it xP.

Dragon V2 Unveil and All Tesla's Patent Are Belong To Us!

Back from a hiatus, we have news which may be a bit outdated, but interesting nonetheless!



SpaceX unveils Dragon V2, a manned spacecraft with the significant difference from V1 of being both manned and having Super Draco thrusters, with over 100 times the thrust. These are required for both the LES (Launch Escape System) built into the vehicle (as opposed to an LES tower ala Apollo), as well as propulsion based landing from orbit (it includes parachutes but isn't planned to normally use them).

It has massive 4*17" touch screen array powered by multiple redundant Tegra chips from nVidia, with technology shared from Tesla's own touchscreens on the Model S. In the middle of the array are a variety of hardware buttons for critical functions in case the touchscreens fail. Rest assured, Musk says (while laughing) the rest of the ship's systems aren't powered by Tegras. A lot more juicy info can be found at this arstechnica article.

Also, rodents (live animals!) will be flying on CRS-4, for SCIENCE! =D Because we know from KSP having a lab in space process science and recovering science module data gives you more science! =)


_______________________________________handmade_break__________________________________________

Tesla has released all of its patents as open in the spirit of open source and rapid development of Electric Vehicles to stop the evil and unsustainable oil pollutions! =P Go Tesla and Elon Musk!! Great FOSS philosophy. While some people may spell doom for the company, I don't see any specific licence they're releasing it under, and since they still hold the patents, they can enforce any at will if someone oversteps and abuses their limited rights. Also, the example of AT&T's decline is wrongly used, since Tesla will only fail if it fails to continue to innovate and capitalise on their innovations with the rest of the competition. Also, as we can see from AT&T releasing their patents, the global telecoms industry has grown so much, and this is the same goal of Musk and the reason he made Tesla in the first place.

Apparently, lots of confused media inquiries about blog title. Look, we just to make sure they don't set us up the bomb.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 12, 2014

Incidentally, one of the ranks of the Linux Users Group - an org in Star Citizen is AYBABTU. =)

P.S. I should be able to do that Model S test drive post soon, holidays are good. =)

GLXP (Google Lunar X Prize) $420 million?!

So as far X Prizes (suborbital plane, tricorder, lunar, etc.) go, I'm pretty sure I've already intimated they were all cool.

I have been following GLXP - my favourite - for a while now and talked/planned how to participate with Lunar Numbat as part of White Label Space (now "Hakuto") team.

Anyway, the purpose of this post is to point out and critique shoddy reporting which doesn't verify its sources as two outlets say Google is offering $420 million in prizes. Since the first prize is $20 million, I'm assuming someone accidentally pressed another '4' after pressing 'shift-4' which is '$' on US keyboards. Then it got thru QA and was published as $420 million instead of $20. Well there is a total of $40 million in prizes, but not even NASA is spending that kind of money in 'prizes' unless you go through all milestones of a CCDev1&2.

Inclusive Hackathon - attracting larger audiences for STEM, hacker/maker/geek events

Here's an interesting post about attracting larger audience for a hackathon

Australian Space Agency - why

Came across a good article here about why Australia needs a space agency, and how we can create our own solutions instead of piggybacking off others and be able to build a new industry which benefits us.


The ACSER seems pretty cool.
I wonder if the GPS module could be used for other Australian spacecraft ...

Also, if you read my Mt Stromlo (AIAA tour) post back in early August when AIAA Sydney Section toured Canberra, here are some projects that the AITC are looking at at the moment. Hope I get to participate soon =)

NASA News - September 2013

OK, I'm a bit on the slow side but I blame my travels to Melbourne and having so much fun at a wedding and fellowshipping =)

NASA has finally announced that Voyager 1 has left the solar system!
This, after scientists weren't quite sure how to interpret the data which seemed to indicate that it sometimes was still in the solar system and sometimes not. But now NASA thinks that Voyager 1 has passed the heliopause and is currently travelling through interstellar medium!

I guess we could add one more to the tally at http://xkcd.com/1189/ and hope we don't have to add any more =P

Also NASA news, they have 3 candidate asteroids for potential exploration by bringing it to moon orbit or something like L1/L4 and sending astronauts to do some science on it!

And if you haven't seen this photo bomb yet, something more light-hearted =P
http://www.universetoday.com/104679/absolutely-incredible-photo-frog-launches-with-ladee/

Control another human via your brain

While this isn't has hardcore as River Tam's psychic abilities ("I can kill you with my brain"), researchers have done an experiment where a colleague controls another colleague's hand movement to press a key.

Vods:



It's no where near the Nerve Gear but we're getting there ... to the point where the Matrix prison could be a concern ... and taking control of people, or killing them via the brain interface could easily happen. Like in Surrogates or Ghost in the Shell.
Cyberpunk ftw.

Star Citizen wows everyone (funding, backers, economy!)

 Funding Update

This week has been o.O for Star Citizen, pushing through the 12mil and 13mil and looking to push through 14mil in the next 24 hours (they're 40k away).

On the 29th June (pre-livestream), the numbers were $10.926mil and 198k citizens.
After the livestream, we were at $11.7mil and 200.3k citizens
On the 5th July, we were at $12.9mil and 206.5k citizens.
At writing, we are at $13.9mil and 210.5k citizens.

This whole grace period after the new website, and 24 hour livestream has generated >$3mil in just 1 week; now the grace period is over, LTI (lifetime insurance, no need to periodically insure your ship ingame with ingame credits) ships are now no longer available (unless you're an original campaign backer, who are able to get LTI and packages till November 2013).

With the hangar module coming out in late August, and dog-fighting module coming out December this year, Star Citizen seems like it will never run out of momentum =P Still, there's almost 1.5 years till final release, but if it takes $21mil to fund this game (as Chris Roberts has approximated), we're 2/3 of the way there already.

The ECONOMY

It's the economy, guys =)
Seriously though, we know Valve hires economists for their micro-transactions and in-game cosmetic items, but I wonder if CGI has hired any just for their universe economy and future micro-transactions. This preliminary sketch of the universe economy simulation/modelling and the physics - rigid body simulation and detail they have in this game remind me of those physics modelling we did with Mathematica/Matlab and step sizes xD.
This is like my dream game come true, achieving all I ever wanted a spacesim to be like: persistent universe, walking around instead of stuck in a cockpit, MMO, player actions affect universe, good simulation and detail -nerdgasm-.

Check out its full glory below:

2012 SciFi realities and Future Tech + Virgin Galactic

http://myscienceacademy.org/2013/01/03/27-science-fictions-that-became-science-facts-in-2012/


That chimera - bloody biologists are making FMA stuff a reality! I also lol'd at the accidents on self-driving cars ...

Also, Oculus Rift (revealed 2012) is a giant leap for NerveGear (SAO).

And congratulations to the folks at Virgin Galactic for the first powered SpaceShipTwo flight breaking mach 1, add that to the list of official responses =P.

Total Recall (1990) is totally real

New measurements of Mars' south polar region indicate extensive frozen water. The polar region contains enough frozen water to cover the whole planet in a liquid layer approximately 11 meters (36 feet) deep. A joint NASA-Italian Space Agency instrument on the European Space Agency's Mars Express spacecraft provided these data.

- JPL, NASA

We can totally terraform this stuff. (And also dump our carbon there =P).

Now I'm wondering if the moon has enough water ice to make a moon base have all their water and fuel needs taken care of.

hot young stars captured in my favourite colour ;P

blue!
http://t.co/eqMR8xQIm7

At first I thought astroid mining companies were laughable..

but then I was convinced from their business cases.
Mind you, they're still going to be like at least 50 years before massive monies get raked in, and it all depends on someone getting those earth to orbit vehicles cheap and accessible. Personally I reckon 20 years before real profit gets raked in.

Planetary Resources website doesn't have much in depth info, though they were first, and do have 'le google executive investor', if that means anything.

If everything the sleek Deep Space Industries website says is true, then the business case for one of these really will be alright, but it all depends on increased customers in space, in the long-term. Which if humanity should expand, would be the logical necessary step. DSI seems a bit more open than PR and heck, it reminds me of RSI which is always a good thing (positive reinforcement ftw). Props to them for making the "Firefly" their first spacecraft =P And if that isn't an obvious enough reference, 300+m asteroids are apparently useful for hiding from Darth Vader and Reavers". Sign me up =)

Nice surprise to see Daniel Faber is actually part of the team, heard a talk when he introduced the project he's behind - Antarctic Broadband, which in the process of their main goal, will put a "A satellite ground station capability at ANU Mt Stromlo." and also use the new space R&D space (lol) that they built for projects like these.

It's interesting to note that they are both USA companies, and will most likely be subject to Space Export laws, which means I need that citizenship if I ever work there. But I'll worry about that later.

I wonder what people would think if you meet an 'asteroid miner' and if companies like BHP will invest.
"So what do you do?"
"I mine asteroids."
"Oh, you mean on EVE? I've heard that's like, boringly grindy and tedious."
"No, like Armageddon Bruce Willis style. Except, I do the electronics and software, and no nukes... yet."


Vod:
Lol, the space colony animations reminded me of Macross and Gundam. Let's hope Gundam Earth VS Colonies wars never happens.

World's quietest place and hallucinations

Full post here: http://www.odditycentral.com/news/worlds-quietest-place-lets-you-hear-your-internal-organs.html
Also, NASA uses these rooms for Astronaut training in water.


Apparently you start to hallucinate after a while (longest someone was in the chamber for was 45 minutes), would be totally cool to hear what my body organs sound like though.

Oh, and apparently when it's pretty quiet I sometimes here these sounds: tinnitus. Most likely pulsatile, but I hear high pitched stuff which could be:

two recognized sources of very-high-pitched sounds might be electromagnetic fields common in modern wiring and various sound signal transmissions. A common and often misdiagnosed condition that mimics tinnitus is Radio Frequency (RF) hearing,^[16] in which subjects have been tested and found to hear high-pitched transmission frequencies that sound similar to tinnitus.

-le Wikipedia entry to Tinnitus

Russian Satellite Hit by Debris from Chinese Anti-Satellite Test [space.com]

Space.com story

So I feel like we're past the point where we can be passive about the problem and expect spacejunk to be negligible and avoidable.
Either PLA wanted to make space access harder for everyone once it secured manned spaceflight, or they have bigger egos than brains, or they don't understand sustainability. That graphic with the debris and ISS orbits is pretty freaky (below).

Also the tracking data seems to have large uncertainties or the statistics aren't to be trusted. -It's the 2nd time a mid-low chance of collision actually happened (there were higher probabilities of collision and closer aproaches by other objects each day).

 Also, ISS has manoeuvred as a result of avoiding this exact debris cloud's object.

If you want to learn more on the subject while being entertained, a good starting point is this movie:

http://www.lcsd.gov.hk/ce/Museum/Space/Programs/Omnimax/SpaceJunk3D/e_SpaceJunk3D.htm

This theatre highly recommended. Only criticism I have is that them red-cyan "goggles" make your FOV significantly smaller, making you have to look around a little sometimes. Non-3D shows have the advantage of filling your FOV with planetarium screen goodness, especially if you're at the back =) Also, any student ID is valid (Y)

 

Public Laboratory Spectrometer

for those who've missed the Kickstarter for Public Lab's spectrometer, here it is (the paper version):
http://publiclaboratory.org/notes/mathew/11-30-2012/final-fold-mini-spectrometer-print-files-and-instructions

Can't wait for my aluminium desktop USB one, although the first thing I want to test is HK water (and why it tastes funny, and requires boiling/filtration) and I got them to send it to Australia ...


Also on Kickstarter, Star Citizen raised 6.2mil in total for the campaign, with >$2mil from Kickstarter. Since, they've raised a bajillion dollars and are now at almost $7mil. (You can still 'pledge' and buy ships till what I'm assuming is alpha (they say "12 months from now"). However, there are less benefits than the campaign pledges like no life-time insurance on ships.) Totally can't wait for this! Especially if Oculus Rift fairs well with Star Citizen, will defs try this euphoric combo.

News post #11?

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/506466/given-tablets-but-no-teachers-ethiopian-children-teach-themselves/
Woot, u go, hacker children!!
Personally, I think humans are naturally hackers and makers, curious about things, tinkering with them, and wanting to make/create things. This bit of news kind of supports my thought =P
Also, good to see OLPC is doing stuff, their $100 XO-1 is pretty neat too, I've seen it in action before at ASSC, one of the guys from Lunar Numbat brought it along =)
Speaking of which, haven't heard much news from LN and White Label Space, but Canberra UAV had a pretty good year, and they presented at CLUG too! =D

Yep, lots of group dropping there =P Don't forget the hackerspaces I follow: MHV and HackJamHK@Dimsumlabs(-their FB page is pretty well updated) =D
Being a Melbourne boy, it's kinda sad I dont' follow these guys (CCHS) nearly as much (due to me not being around Melbourne -my fav city- as much as the other two places these days! ><") though some of them are LN and they've had some pretty cool projects. Their computer-in-car is especially cool =P and is part of the inspiration for Project Sheila (now much easier with mobile computing and Li batteries =D) which first requires a car and license (lol) xD Anyone get the project name reference? (Hint, my AI will be called Sheila).

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In other cool news:
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2012/october/carbon-solar-cell-103112.html
First whole carbon solar cell including electrodes (apparently some researchers as engadget points out, has made the energy transducer part before)
Pretty cool.