One of the better applications of 3D printing is using it to perfect your design. You can get the first product out the door, then iterate as needed…
Nokia, Ericsson Debut Portable Mini 4G Base Stations
Network in a bag? It’s possible. Finnish telecommunications company Nokia and Swedish rival Ericsson this week separately introduced new miniature 4G base station solutions small enough to fit in your carry-on. Small enough to fit in a backpack, Nokia on Monday said its new Ultra Compact Network is the smallest of its rapidly deployable 4G…
King Tut’s Dagger is From Space…
Here’s some fodder for those of you who believe that aliens constructed the pyramids… A new study says that King Tutankhamun, famed Egyptian boy king, was buried with a blade of meteoric origin. Using X-ray fluorescence spectrometry, a team of researchers from Milan Polytechnic, Pisa University, and the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, confirmed that the…
Scientists Say Flint Water Quality OK for Bathing, Showering
Municipal water in Flint, Michigan, has improved significantly and is suitable for personal cleanliness uses, scientists said Tuesday in a bid to calm fears raised by actor Mark Ruffalo and others who have questioned the safety of the supply that flows into the city’s bathtubs and showers. Marc Edwards, a Virginia Tech engineering professor whose…
Photo of the Day: Scott Kelly’s Post-Flight Visit to Washington
Former NASA astronaut Scott Kelly speaks about his historic mission aboard the International Space Station during an event at the United States Capitol Visitor Center, Wednesday, May 25, 2016, in Washington. Kelly and his Russian counterpart Mikhail Kornienko returned to Earth on March 2, 2016, after 340 days on the orbiting laboratory. During the record-setting One-Year mission, the…
Army Continues Research into Laser Weapons for Helicopters
Special Operations Command plans to mount a laser weapon on an Apache helicopter for testing this summer, according to a report on the joint SOCOM-Army project from National Defense Magazine. Colonel John Vannoy said at a conference in Florida that the laser could be used to destroy or damage vehicles or generators. Additionally, at $1…
South Korea Says North Korea Missile Launch Likely Failed
A North Korean missile launch likely failed on Tuesday, the U.S. and South Korean militaries said, the fourth in a series of high-profile failures that somewhat temper recent worries that the North is pushing quickly toward its goal of a nuclear-tipped missile that can reach America’s mainland. South Korea’s Yonhap news agency said the missile…
NASA Successfully Inflates New Space Station Room
NASA successfully inflated a new experimental room at the International Space Station on Saturday, producing the world’s first pump-it-up compartment for astronauts. The operation took much longer than expected, stretching over three days in all. But victory, when it came, was sweet. “A significant milestone has been accomplished,” Bigelow Aerospace, the inflatable chamber’s creator, cheered…
Report: Cost of Replacing Flint Water Pipes Double Estimates
Replacing water pipes due to the lead-tainted crisis in Flint could be at least twice the price of previous estimates, according to a report obtained by a newspaper. Engineering company Rowe Professional Services told the state the average cost for replacing a service water line through a completed pilot project was $7,500. The Michigan Department…
Mark Zuckerberg to Connect with Space Station Astronauts via Facebook Live
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and chief executive officer, will speak with three astronauts currently living and working aboard the International Space Station at 12:55 p.m. EDT Wednesday, June 1. The Earth-to-space call will be seen live on NASA’s Facebook page. During the 20-minute Facebook Live video call with NASA astronauts Tim Kopra and Jeff Williams,…
A Planet 1,200 Light-Years Away is a Good Prospect for a Habitable World
A distant planet known as Kepler-62f could be habitable, a team of astronomers reports. The planet, which is about 1,200 light-years from Earth in the direction of the constellation Lyra, is approximately 40 percent larger than Earth. At that size, Kepler-62f is within the range of planets that are likely to be rocky and possibly…
Eglin Shows Kids What It’s Like to be an F-35 Pilot
After spending the past few weeks watching “Top Gun” and videos of the F-35 Lightning II, Christian Loafman was ready for his May 18 visit to Eglin Air Force Base as its first F-35A Pilot for a Day. “I feel the need, the need for speed,” the 9 year old said. The program, which started…
President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel visit Weidmuller’s Industry 4.0 Cockpit at Hannover Messe
The U.S. was Partner Country at the 2016 Hannover Messe, the world’s most important trade fair focused on industrial technology. Companies from around the world exhibited their solutions for integrated industry at the Hannover Exhibition Center and had the opportunity to meet potential business partners during the week long April event. President Barack Obama had…
Video Highlights Mark and Scott Kelly’s Metabolites – “Metabolomics: You Are What You Eat”
NASA’s Human Research Program is releasing “ Metabolomics: You Are What You Eat” video to highlight its Twins Study which uses omics to study Mark and Scott Kelly’s metabolites. Omics is an evolving field integrating collections of measurements, biomolecules and sub-disciplines to provide a more complete picture of health. It includes the studies of DNA, RNA,…
A Look Beyond the Horizon of Events
In principle, nothing that enters a black hole can leave the black hole. This has considerably complicated the study of these mysterious bodies on which generations of physicists have debated ever since 1916, the year their existence was hypothesized as a direct consequence of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity. There is, however, some consensus in the…
Supermassive Black Hole Wind Can Stop New Stars From Forming
Scientists have uncovered a new class of galaxies with supermassive black hole winds that are energetic enough to suppress future star formation. Devoid of fresh young stars, red and dead galaxies make up a large fraction of galaxies in our nearby universe, but a mystery that has plagued astronomers for years has been how these…
Researchers to Test How Solids Dissolve in Space to Design Better Tablets and Pills on Earth
Anyone who has been sick before knows you want relief as quickly as possible. An investigation soon taking place aboard the International Space Station could help bring that relief by improving design of tablets used to deliver medicine into the human body. The Hard to Wet Surfaces research looks at liquid-solid interactions and how certain pharmaceuticals dissolve, which may…
NASA Scientists Explain the Art of Creating Digital Hurricanes
Every day, scientists at NASA work on creating better hurricanes – on a computer screen. At NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, a team of scientists spends its days incorporating millions of atmospheric observations, sophisticated graphic tools and lines of computer code to create computer models simulating the weather and climate conditions responsible…
Orion Service Module Testing Sounds Off
Replicating the thunderous noise of a rocket launch is no easy task, but engineers at NASA Glenn’s Plum Brook Station in Sandusky, Ohio are mimicking the launch environment the Orion spacecraft will experience on a 2018 mission beyond the moon. They recently concluded a series of tests on a structural representation of the Orion service module to help…
Army, Drexel University Enter Cooperative Research Agreement
The U.S. Army is partnering with Drexel University in a joint research agreement to spur scientific research in areas of mutual interest. The Army will work closely with Drexel under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement, or CRADA, initially to identify damage on Army aircraft due to metal fatigue and stress and to formally address…
Engineering Update #162: Using Drones to Detect Sharks
Welcome to the engineering update. In this week’s video: Using Drones to Detect Sharks Scientists from Duke University and the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill are looking into how drones can be used to detect bonnethead sharks that tend to hang out in the shallow waters. A Wearable Breathalyzer The wrist-worn BACtrack Skyn pairs with…
Solar Lighting Project Moves Forward at US Army Central
Over a nine month period, the U.S. Army Central Operational Energy Program tested the effectiveness and reliability of solar powered light systems as an alternative to gas-powered systems. The last of 250 SPLS in the initial test run arrived, May 16. Their arrival marks the end of the test period led by Chief Warrant Officer…
NASA’s Yearlong Spaceman Still Has Sore Feet, Fatigue
NASA’s yearlong spaceman still is nursing sore feet, stiff legs and fatigue, even after nearly three months back on Earth. Retired astronaut Scott Kelly gave his first major address to NASA employees Wednesday, confiding that while he may have looked good upon landing in Kazakhstan at the beginning of March, he didn’t feel that well after returning from the…
Solar-powered Airplane Lands in Pennsylvania
A solar-powered airplane has landed in Pennsylvania, about 17 hours after it took off from the Ohio hometown of America aviation pioneers Wilbur and Orville Wright. The Swiss-made Solar Impulse 2 landed at Lehigh Valley International Airport in Allentown around 8:45 p.m. Wednesday, the latest stop of its journey around the world. The plane took off…
Photo of the Day: NASA Spacecraft Prepared for Mission to an Asteroid
NASA’s OSIRIS-REx spacecraft is revealed after its protective cover is removed inside the Payload Hazardous Servicing Facility at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, on May 21, 2016. The spacecraft traveled from Lockheed Martin’s facility near Denver, Colorado to Kennedy to begin processing for its upcoming launch, targeted for Sept. 8 aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V…