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Space

SpaceX to transport cargo and crew on Falcon 9->

Submitted by
FiggyOO
FiggyOO writes "Just days after the successful launch of the Falcon 1, SpaceX isn't wasting time working to get the next rocket in orbit.

If that homebrew rocket you've been building in your backyard isn't working out, maybe SpaceX will have some room for you on one of its many upcoming Falcon 9 missions. Now that the F1 has successfully achieved orbit, the F9 is slated for launch in Q1 2009. As you may recall, the aptly named Falcon 9 has nine engines rather than one, as with the F1. These redundancies were inspired by the the Apollo's Saturn V and Saturn I rockets, noted for their flawless flight records despite engine failures. If all goes well, the launch will be followed by three more, including one with a crew and an F9 "Heavy" — handy if you've got 25,300 lbs of marbles or whatever to haul up to the International Space Station. If you plan on hitching a ride, get your job applications in now — only valued employees are scheduled to be passengers at this time. Got a more exotic destination in mind? Next up Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, has his sites set on building a "Mars lander of some kind."

Via Engadget"
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Space

SpaceX Receives USAF Operational License->

Submitted by
FiggyOO
FiggyOO writes "For those of you who witnessed the launch of SpaceX's Falcon 1 rocket, launch 3, you will be glad to hear that SpaceX has received a license to launch from space complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on the Florida coast. This Launch complex is just south of launch pads 39A and 39B which have been used to launch the space shuttles, and will continue to for a few more years. This launch complex will enable them to launch the much anticipated Falcon 9 rocket which will eventually carry the Dragon capsule. In doing so, SpaceX hopes to fill the void between the end of the shuttle program, and the constellation program.
They have already begun moving into the launch complex, including moving a 125,000 gallon liquid oxygen tank on the back of a semi."
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Space

NASA delays unmanned trip to the Moon, Moon delays->

Submitted by
FiggyOO
FiggyOO writes ""NASA has delayed plans to send an unmanned robotic spacecraft to the Moon — and the pause in action will cost $7 million a month, say reports. According to various news outlets, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter was set to blast off for the Big Cheese this December, but officials have decided a February 27th launch will provide the team with more wiggle room. The $491 million device is being sent skyward to circle the Moon's poles and map a safe touchdown spot for actual humans, set to journey up onto the Lunar surface sometime in 2020. In addition to the Orbiter, the space agency plans to launch an impactor probe into one of the Moon's poles in search of water ice. It should be a blast." Via Engadget. It would seem that Google Moon will have to wait a little longer to get new maps for its' systems. You might want to wait until then before you plan your next trip to Tranquility Base."
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Mozilla

Firefox 3 Gets The Colbert Bump!

Submitted by
Pjerky
Pjerky writes "Tonight (June 17th, 2008), during an interview with Jonathan Zittrain on Comedy Central's Colbert Report, Firefox 3 received the Colbert Bump! If anyone here doesn't know what that is please check out a description at... http://www.wikiality.com/The_Colbert_Bump Maybe, just maybe Stephen Colbert will have helped Firefox 3 reach the world record for most downloads in 24 hours. The bump has been known to help book authors and political candidates. What do you think?"
Space

First ethernet switch in space->

Submitted by mask.of.sanity
mask.of.sanity writes "The first commercial Ethernet switch has been successfully deployed in space aboard the Columbus module research laboratory.

The HP switch will form part of a half duplex 10Mbps local area network (LAN) on board the International Space Station (ISS), which has previously used a mix of IT technology dating back as far as the 1980's.

Switches from Cisco, D-Link, Avaya, 3Com, NetGear and Hewlett Packard were exposed to extreme levels of radiation in a particle accelerator in Villigen, Switzerland under conditions similar to space.

HP said it was the "most unusual and demanding" projects that Procurve has experienced."
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Hardware Hacking

What to do with a hundred hard drives? 3

Submitted by
Makoto916
Makoto916 writes "In five years with my current employer as the IT administrator I've amassed a sizable cabinet of discarded hard drives; just shy of 100 in fact. All of the drives range in size from 20GB up to 300GB. They've all been stored in anti-stat bags and spot checks of even the oldest ones show that that most all of them still work. Individually they're mostly useless for our line of work which is digital video production. However, the collective storage potential is quite significant. They are of varying size and speeds, but the one commonality is they're all IDE.

In the Slashdot community's opinion, what is the best way to approach connecting all of these devices and realizing their storage potential? On a budget of course.

Now I'd never use such an array for critical data storage, but it certainly would be useful as a massive backup array to our existing SAN that does store critical data.

I have several spare and functioning PCs, but not nearly enough to utilize their internal IDE controllers; even with multiple add-in controllers it still wouldn't be enough. Not to mention the nightmare of managing a bunch of independent PCs.

I've looked into ATA Over Ethernet and there's a lot of potential there, but current 15 to 20 bay AoE cabinets are expensive and single device enclosures are so rare that they're also expensive. Are there any hardware hackers out there that have crafted their own home-brew AoE systems? Could they scale to 100 drives? Is there a better way?"
Math

Quantum-entangled images show hidden details->

Submitted by
R. Colin Johnson
R. Colin Johnson writes "Quantum-entangled images — two randomly fluctuating pictures separated in space but inextricably linked through their complementary features — have been generated in real-time for the first time, revealing new details in hard-to-see objects. The researchers also generated reams of entangled data for future quantum computers, according to the joint research team from the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the University of Maryland. Text: http://www.eetimes.com/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=208403657"
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Space

Journal: Space.. The Final Frontier..

Journal by FiggyOO

Is it just me or is that saying starting to get a bit old. I mean, if you think about it, its not quite right. I would consider space to be the next frontier. I say next because we do not yet have a grasp on what the next frontier may be. If you think about the early days of America, the west was considered the final frontier, they did not worry about space travel because it wasn't something that they would have grasped.
(As a bit of a tangent: I li

Space

How to start a Space Agency 1

Submitted by FiggyOO
FiggyOO writes "With all of the new space start up companies coming around, are we on the verge of forming a space bubble, like the IT bubble of the 90's? There are numerous companies out there that are all trying to reach sub-orbital, orbital, trans-lunar flight or some combination of them all. There is definately a market in the world for space flight what with the X-prize foundation offering large incentives for people to reach to the heavens. That is why I ask you, users of Slashdot, for those of us that are brave enough, how does one go about starting a space agency?"

Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes. -- Dr. Warren Jackson, Director, UTCS