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ISS

A Failure For SpaceX: Falcon 9 Explodes During Ascension 316

Posted by timothy from the harsh-news dept.
MouseR writes with bad news about this morning's SpaceX launch: About 2:19 into its flight, Falcon 9 exploded along stage 2 and the Dragon capsule, before even the stage 1 separation. Telemetry and videos are inconclusive, without further analysis as to what went wrong. Everything was green lights. This is a catastrophe for SpaceX, which enjoyed, until now, a perfect launch record. TechCrunch has coverage of the failure, which of course also means that today's planned stage one return attempt has failed before it could start; watch this space for more links. Update: 06/28 15:06 GMT by T : See also stories at NBC News, The Washington Post, and the Associated Press (via ABC News). According to the Washington Post, what was a catastrophe for this morning's launch is only a setback for the ISS and its crew, rather than a disaster: A NASA slide from an April presentation said that with current food levels, the space station would reach what NASA calls “reserve level” on July 24 and run out by Sept. 5, according to SpaceNews. [NASA spokeswoman Stephanie] Schierholz said, however, that the supplies would last until the fall, although she could not provide a precise date. Even if something were to go wrong with the SpaceX flight, she said, there are eight more scheduled this year, including several this summer, “so there are plenty of ways to ensure the station continues to be well-supplied.” Of note: One bit of cargo that was aboard the SpaceX craft was a Microsoft Hololens; hopefully another will make it onto one of the upcoming supply runs instead.

Elon Musk has posted a note on the company's Twitter channel: "Falcon 9 experienced a problem shortly before first stage shutdown. Will provide more info as soon as we review the data."

Comment Re:Revolutionary approach? (Score 1) 134

by hackertourist (#49985003) Attached to: 3D Printed Supercar Chassis Unveiled

The revolution is in being easily able to create complex shapes. Traditional manufacturing methods for these sort of parts fall in one of two categories:
1. Labor-intensive using simple tools. E.g. Welding the frame from stock pipe and plate.
2. Amenable to mass production, but at a huge initial cost (for tools). E.g. casting, forging, stamping.

3D printing allows complex shapes to be created from a CAD model without lots of labor. This is great for small production runs (i.e. runs too small for 2. to be cost-effective).

Comment Bad advice (Score 1) 269

by hackertourist (#49967959) Attached to: Ask Slashdot: How Effective Is Your ISP's Spam Filter?

I see a number of highly-rated comments recommending using Google for mail rather than the ISP's mail service.
This surprises me, given the privacy implications. I can reasonably assume my ISP won't read my mail other than for spam filtering. Google, on the other hand, will use your mail as input for their advertising machine.
Education

Are Girl-Focused Engineering Toys Reinforcing Gender Stereotypes? 490

Posted by timothy from the ten-pink-dollars-says-they-are dept.
theodp writes: VentureBeat's Ruth Read casts a skeptical eye at the current rage of toy segregation meant to inspire tomorrow's leaders in STEM: "Toys geared at girls serve to get them interested in coding and building when they're young, hopefully inspiring their educational interests down the road. But these gendered toys may be hurting women by perpetuating a divide between men and women." Read concludes, "Ultimately, girls (who will become women) are going to have to learn and work in a world where genders are not segregated; as will men. That means they need to learn how to interact with one another as much as they need to be introduced to the same educational opportunities. If STEM education is as much for girls as it is for boys, perhaps we should be equally concerned with getting boys and girls to play together with the same toys and tools, as we are with creating learning opportunities for girls."
Medicine

Monitoring Brain Activity With Mesh Electronics 31

Posted by Soulskill from the brain-and-brain,-what-is-brain dept.
An anonymous reader writes: Medical researchers have long known that bioelectronics could substantially improve patient diagnosis and treatment, but the difficulty in putting that circuitry into place kept more traditional options at the forefront. Now, a team of scientists has found a clever way to deliver flexible electronic meshes via syringe, which could make it easier to monitor complex brain activity without dangerous surgery. "The scientists demonstrated they could inject a 2mm wide sample of the mesh through a glass needle with an inner diameter of only 95m. During injection, the mesh structure continuously unfolds as it exits the needle. Injection of the mesh through a needle with a 600m inner diameter produced similar results." The team has already tested the technique on rodents, and found minimal response from astrocytes, cells involved in repairing damaged brain tissue. They were able to record the rodents's brain activity as well.
Communications

FCC Nixes PayPal's Forced Robocalls Plan 122

Posted by Soulskill from the don't-call-us,-we'll-call-you dept.
jfruh writes: As part of a new user agreement created in preparation for its spinoff from eBay as an independent company, PayPal told users that the only way to avoid advertising robocalls from PayPal and its 'partners' was to stop using the service. This caused something of a firestorm, and now the FCC is saying the policy may violate Federal law, which requires an explicit opt-in to receive such messages.

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