Video Game Jams Showcase Tech Skills
to Companies Who Need Them (Source: Orlando Sentinel)
Video game jams have grown in popularity around Central Florida and
across the globe. The competitions typically span a weekend and award
prizes to the better games, or those that meet specific criteria. In
Orlando, a game that put players into a soccer-like match in space won
the top prize of $5,000 from Space Florida.
Dale Ketcham, Space Florida’s chief of strategic alliances, said a
bigger relationship between space and video game professionals will
help the region. “The opportunity to integrate the development
community with the space community made a great deal of sense,” he
said. “We are trying to create an environment (in Central Florida)
where the space industry wants to come here.”
Central Florida is home to a vibrant video game development community,
anchored by Electronic Arts Tiburon, which employs about 800 people in
its Maitland studio. The studio has made some of the biggest sports
titles. In addition, several independent studios have helped make
Florida one of the largest video game development communities in the
country. (8/17)
Red Planet Rumble (Source:
Space Review)
During the annual Mars Society conference last week, the CEO of Mars
One and a member of his technical team debated two critics of the
one-way venture from MIT. Dwayne Day recaps the event, which exposed a
lack of detail in Mars One's technical plans. Visit http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2809/1
to view the article. (8/17)
The Unnatural Selection of Planetary
Missions (Source: Space Review)
The process of sorting through dozens of proposals for NASA missions is
a thankless job for an anonymous group of reviewers. Ralph Lorenz
explains the challenges involved with developing and reviewing mission
proposals. Visit http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2808/1
to view the article. (8/17)
A Funding Breakthrough for SETI
(Source: Space Review)
Efforts in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence got a boost
last month when a Russian billionaire pledged $100 million over ten
years for SETI projects. Jeff Foust reports what that $100 million
means for SETI projects and who might be left out, at least for now.
Visit http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2807/1
to view the article. (8/17)
Harnessing "The Martian"
(Source: Space Review)
In October, the film version of the bestselling book "The Martian" hits
theaters. Rick Zucker and Chris Carberry discuss how space advocates
can use the release of the film about a fictional human Mars mission to
build support for the real thing. Visit http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2806/1
to view the article. (8/17)
Apollo 13 Splashes Down in Oshkosh
(Source: Space Review)
Forty-five years after their dramatic mission, the two surviving
members of the Apollo 13 crew joined two others involved with the
mission at the EAA AirVenture show last month. Eric Hedman describes
their presentation on the mission, and what the famous movie got wrong.
Visit http://www.thespacereview.com/article/2805/1
to view the article. (8/17)
New Road Map For DLR’s Suborbital
SpaceLiner (Source: Aviation Week)
A decade after DLR first unveiled the suborbital SpaceLiner concept,
the German aerospace research agency is mapping out an ambitious
development road map to help define mission goals and stimulate
potential industry and government funding for a flying prototype.
Conceived as a winged, hypersonic airliner capable of carrying 50
passengers from Europe to Australia in 90 min., the rocket-powered
system incorporates a flyback booster and other dual-use technologies.
(8/17)
Baby Jupiter Discovery a Step Toward
Rewriting Planet Formation Models (Source: Space.com)
Over the last two decades, the discovery of thousands of exoplanets
outside our solar system has shaken up old theories about how planets
form;the recent discovery of an "infant Jupiter," rich in methane, may
be one step toward writing a new one.
A very young gas giant planet called 51 Eridani b, located 96
light-years from Earth, has a methane-rich atmosphere, just like
Jupiter. This is a first, according to a statement from Stanford
University: the handful of gas giant atmospheres that scientists have
been able to study contain only trace amounts of methane, despite what
scientists anticipate for those types of planets. (8/16)
Philae Silver Lining: Robot Lab
Shielded From Sun (Source: Space Daily)
When a comet whizzes past the Sun on Thursday it won't mean certain
high-temperature death for a European robot lab riding on the chunk of
ice and dust. Instead, the rough, off-target landing by the Philae
lander -- deposited on the comet's surface last November by the Rosetta
spacecraft -- has turned out to have a silver lining.
"It had some disadvantages. We had to reschedule everything, which had
to happen really fast in the first days after landing," said Manuela
Braun. "But you also have the advantage that it (Philae) has really
survived much longer. On its original site it would have been too hot
by March or April." In other words, if the lander had hit the mark on
the comet last year it would have been cooked into inaction by now. But
because it bounced and tumbled to a halt on a shadier stretch of the
alien surface, it might be able to witness the dramatic show on the
comet as it warms. (8/12)
Mars One Is Still Completely Full Of
Crap (Source: Gizmodo)
After watching a two hour debate on the feasibility of the Mars One
mission last night, I think I finally understand its problem. It’s not
that the company is broke. It’s that we don’t yet have the technology
to sustain human life on Mars, and Mars One still won’t admit it. A
public debate at the annual Mars Society Convention pitted Mars One
cofounder Bas Lansdorp against MIT PhD candidates and vociferous Mars
One critics Sydney Do and Andrew Owens.
The topic of the debate was simple: “Is Mars One Feasible?” That is,
can we start sending pairs of human colonists on a one-way journey to
Mars every 26 months, beginning in the 2020s, and expect them to
survive? Do and Owens say that we can’t, because the technologies
needed to support a colony on Mars aren’t yet mature. To make that
point, the two presented a condensed version of a detailed feasibility
analysis they published last fall. That analysis basically shows that
the Mars One mission (as it’s been sold to the public) will fail
because the astronauts will starve, their habitats will catch on fire,
they will run out of spare parts, or some combination of the above.
Lansdorp disagrees. Throughout the debate, he insisted that all the
technology we need to settle Mars “already exists.” But he refused to
offer any specifics, instead repeatedly falling back on metaphorical
comparisons between his harebrained dream and the Apollo 11 mission.
(8/17)
Retired Shuttle Donating Water Tanks
for Space Station (Source: CollectSpace)
NASA's space shuttle Endeavour, retired and on exhibit in Los Angeles
for the past three years, has been called back into service — or
rather, parts of it have — for the benefit of the International Space
Station.
A NASA team working this week at the California Science Center will
remove four tanks from deep inside the winged orbiter to comprise a
water storage system for the space station. The reactivated artifacts
are intended to help free more crew time for science operations onboard
the orbiting outpost by reducing the astronauts' involvement in
refilling their water reserves. (8/17)
Google Skirted Drone Test Rules by
Using a Deal with NASA (Source: Engadget)
Getting an FAA exemption to operate commercial drones in American
airspace is almost more trouble than it's worth, what with the litany
of requirements and restrictions. That's why Google, according to a
Guardian report, has been sidestepping those FAA rules and testing its
Project Wing UAV over private US land for more than a year.
Google apparently leveraged NASA's Certificate of Waiver or
Authorization (COA), which allows government agencies to operate UAVs
but prohibits commercial use, as part of a joint project the two
organizations are working on. What's more, COAs specify that any public
agency operating a drone must either own it or be its exclusive
operator. That would mean that the Mountain View company either "sold"
NASA a Wing prototype or is relying exclusively on NASA pilots to fly
the drones. (8/13)
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