rmcclelland - Slashdot User

PhD Candidate Talks About the Physics of Space Battles 361

Posted by samzenpus on Thursday December 17, 2009 @03:18PM from the load-photon-torpedoes dept.

darthvader100 writes "Gizmodo has run an article with some predictions on what future space battles will be like. The author brings up several theories on propulsion (and orbits), weapons (explosives, kinetic and laser), and design. Sounds like the ideal shape for spaceships will be spherical, like the one in the Hitchhiker's Guide movie."

Super-Earths Discovered Orbiting Nearby, Sun-Like Star 242

Posted by Soulskill on Monday December 14, 2009 @05:52PM from the i-for-one dept.

likuidkewl writes "Two super-earths, 5 and 7.5 times the size of our home, were found to be orbiting 61 Virginis a mere 28 light years away. 'These detections indicate that low-mass planets are quite common around nearby stars. The discovery of potentially habitable nearby worlds may be just a few years away,' said Steven Vogt, a professor of astronomy and astrophysics at UCSC. Among hundreds of our nearest stellar neighbors, 61 Vir stands out as being the most nearly similar to the Sun in terms of age, mass, and other essential properties."

America's Army Games Cost $33 Million Over 10 Years 192

Posted by Soulskill on Thursday December 10, 2009 @04:25AM from the your-tax-dollars-at-play dept.

Responding to a Freedom Of Information Act request, the US government has revealed the operating costs of the America's Army game series over the past decade. The total bill comes to $32.8 million, with yearly costs varying from $1.3 million to $5.6 million. "While operating America's Army 3 does involve ongoing expenses, paying the game's original development team isn't one of them. Days after the game launched in June, representatives with the Army confirmed that ties were severed with the Emeryville, California-based team behind the project, and future development efforts were being consolidated at the America's Army program office at Redstone Arsenal in Alabama. A decade after its initial foray into the world of gaming, the Army doesn't appear to be withdrawing from the industry anytime soon. In denying other aspects of the FOIA request, the Army stated 'disclosure of this information is likely to cause substantial harm to the Department of the Army's competitive position in the gaming industry.'"

NASA Tests Flying Airbag 118

Posted by samzenpus on Wednesday December 09, 2009 @03:10PM from the drop-the-cloud-anchor dept.

coondoggie writes "NASA is looking to reduce the deadly impact of helicopter crashes on their pilots and passengers with what the agency calls a high-tech honeycomb airbag known as a deployable energy absorber. So in order to test out its technology NASA dropped a small helicopter from a height of 35 feet to see whether its deployable energy absorber, made up of an expandable honeycomb cushion, could handle the stress. The test crash hit the ground at about 54MPH at a 33 degree angle, what NASA called a relatively severe helicopter crash."

Comment Bing market share is ill-gotten (Score 1) 514

by rmcclelland on Wednesday November 18, 2009 @10:20AM (#30142986) Attached to: Bing Gains 10% Marketshare

It's not surprising they have gained market share, but it is not because of the quality of the search engine, rather heavy handed forcing of the engine on unwitting customers. Somehow, many of my friends and families computers started defaulting to the bing search engine in both IE and FireFox, perhaps after a windows update. Microsoft changed the defaults of the browsers without giving the user an option and it was not trivial to return the default search engine to Google. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but I didn't like it.

Comment I second that emotion (Score 1) 384

by rmcclelland on Tuesday May 19, 2009 @03:08PM (#28015637) Attached to: Where Are the High-Res Head-Mounted Displays?

I think a high def lightweight HMD would really change things. It is an idea who's time has come. I could sit in bed or on the train and work as if I were in my office and interact with data in new ways. Not to mention the games! Ryan

Comment How much do these subs cost? (Score 1) 266

by rmcclelland on Saturday March 21, 2009 @09:11PM (#27284245) Attached to: US Nuclear Sub Crashes Into US Navy Amphibious Vessel

If this was a NASA issue, they would give the cost of the hardware involved. Why don't they do this for military issues? Then the public would realize how expensive the military is. I bet those subs burn through $100K a day and cost $1B.

Comment The big deal here: launch costs getting cut in 1/2 (Score 5, Interesting) 151

by rmcclelland on Tuesday December 23, 2008 @11:25PM (#26219321) Attached to: NASA Outsources ISS Resupply To SpaceX, Orbital

Supporting SpaceX/Orbital in this endeavour could be a game changer for the whole space industry. SpaceX is charging half of going rate for launches. Once they get flying regularly, NASA and commercial projects will be able to spend more on satellites and less on launching which means more spacecraft, science, and bandwidth.

Comment Re:Problems (Score 1) 151

by rmcclelland on Tuesday December 23, 2008 @11:19PM (#26219287) Attached to: NASA Outsources ISS Resupply To SpaceX, Orbital

It would be great if NASA would make all it's documents publicly available. I work in the industry and it would make my job easier. However, most of NASAs technology is publicly available through publications. Anytime they come up with something novel, it gets into a conference or journal. Between conference proceedings, journals, and textbooks, almost every technology NASA uses is publicly available. From the very beginning of a project NASA programs have to have a 'technology transfer plan' to get any new tech to industry. They even put out an annual book on new NASA technologies and other uses for them. Compare this to the military space program which has double the annual budget and gives the public nothing back but wrong intelligence.

Comment What makes this news? (Score 1) 106

by rmcclelland on Sunday October 12, 2008 @10:23AM (#25345313) Attached to: 3D Printing On Demand

3D printing services have been around forever. I work for a huge company, and we generally use a service since it is cheaper than owning and operating your own machine. solidconcepts is a good example. Web based 3D printing services have been around for like 5-7 years. The good companies can have the part in your hand next day.

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