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+ - Has Supercomputing Hit the Shoulder of the Sigmoid? 1

Submitted by anzha
anzha writes "Horst Simon, Deputy Director of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has stood up at conferences of late and said the unthinkable: supercomputing is hitting a wall and will not build an exaflop HPC system by 2020. This is defined as one that passes linpack with a performance of one exaflop sustained or better. He's even placed money on it. You can read the original presentation here."

Comment: Re:Speaking as a Team Leader... (Score 1) 74

by anzha (#39740559) Attached to: In Google's Moon Race, Teams Face a Reckoning
AFAIK, no. If there is someone to talk to about that, point me that way! That'd be awesome and I'd happily list /. as a backer/sponsor. That said, if you are looking for an open source team, you are looking at FredNet. If you are looking for the Silicon Valley big money team, you are looking at Moon Express. If you are looking at the university student/professor teams, you are looking at Astrobotic, PennState, and Omega Envoy. If you are looking for the traditional aerospace guys, you are looking at Rocket City Space Pioneers. If you are looking for very STEM oriented, educator focused, you are looking at JURBAN. If you are looking for the scrappy Silicon Valley startup, that'd be us: Team Phoenicia. There are more. Go to the Google Lunar X Prize website (http://www.googlelunarxprize.org/teams) to check us all out. Take a look at what Mike Doornbos of evadot has to say through his rankings of the teams: http://evadot.com/glxpscorecard/

Comment: Re:Speaking as a Team Leader... (Score 1) 74

by anzha (#39740389) Attached to: In Google's Moon Race, Teams Face a Reckoning
The Romanians considered the rockoon approach and discarded it. Instead they are building - yes, really! - a rocket powered seaplane to do an air launch of their rocket carrying their moonbot. They are nuts. And they are soooo fscking awesome. The problem with the rockoon is that even once you are outside the atmosphere, you are still subject to the rocket equation of getting to the moon with the delta V. Some things just don't scale down well.

Comment: Speaking as a Team Leader... (Score 3, Interesting) 74

by anzha (#39738455) Attached to: In Google's Moon Race, Teams Face a Reckoning
The single biggest problem that any team is facing is getting cash and sufficient cash to pay for a launch. This has been a problem for Astrobotic (and why they have postponed to 2015). This has been an issue for Moon Express. This is an issue for Rocket City Space Pioneers. And, yes, it is an issue for Team Phoenicia (my own team). For FredNet, too. Getting material donations has not been difficult. Just the $. That's why Team Phoenicia has been selling engines and rockets. If you want to help and not just snark, go to your favourite team's website and hit the donate button. They all have them. If /. or any other entity would use the /. effect to that end, it'd be a wondrous and helpful thing.
NASA

+ - 2nd Nanosat Launcher Challenge Seminar->

Submitted by
anzha
anzha writes "Team Phoenicia and Techshop — Menlo Park are hosting the Second Nanosat Launcher Challenge Seminar on Nov 12/13 in Menlo Park, CA. The Nanosat Launcher Challenge where teams must place two separate 1U cubesats into a verified orbit on two separate launches in one week with a first place prize of $2 million. The seminar will cover the draft rules, test/launch sites, how teams can raise the funds, introduce suppliers for the teams, and allow the teams themselves to present. While the seminar itself is not free, there will be a free lecture at Techshop by NASA about the Centennial Challenges at 5 PM on Nov 12. The draft agenda is here."
Link to Original Source
Science

+ - Gene Therapy May Thwart HIV->

Submitted by sciencehabit
sciencehabit writes "This past year, a Berlin man, Timothy Brown, became world famous as the first—and thus far only—person to apparently have been cured of his HIV infection. Brown's HIV disappeared after he developed leukemia and doctors gave him repeated blood transfusions from a donor who harbored a mutated version of a receptor the virus uses to enter cells. Now, researchers report promising results from two small gene-therapy studies that mimic this strategy, hinting that the field may be moving closer to a cure that works for the masses."
Link to Original Source
Moon

+ - The Search for Apollo 10's 'Snoopy'->

Submitted by
astroengine
astroengine writes "A UK-led team of astronomers are going to use their comet and asteroid-hunting skills to track down a piece of Apollo history. In 1969, Apollo 10 did everything the first moon landing (Apollo 11) did, except land on the lunar surface. During the Apollo 10 mission, the lunar module, nicknamed "Snoopy," was jettisoned and sent into a solar orbit — it is still believed to be out there, 42 years later. "We're expecting a search arc up to 135 million kilometers in size which is a huge amount of space to look at," British amateur astronomer Nick Howes told Discovery News. "We're aware of the scale and magnitude of this challenge but to have the twin Faulkes scopes assist the hunt, along with schools, plus the fact that we'll doubtless turn up many new finds such as comets and asteroids makes this a great science project too.""
Link to Original Source
Space

+ - Nanosatellite Launcher Challenge Seminar->

Submitted by codejoy
codejoy writes " Team Phoenicia and TechShop, are going to host a Nanosatellite Launcher Challenge Seminar on November 6th, 2010 at TechShop, Menlo Park at 1 PM. Organizations that will be presenting include NASA Centennial Challenge Program, FAA, New Mexico Spaceport Authority, Team Phoenicia, Friends of Amateur Rocketry, and some of the SF Bay Area teams. The draft rules for the Challenge are planned to be presented and feedback is expected. The scope of this seminar is to promote the challenge in the the SF Bay Area, explore how the different organizations, including Team Phoenicia, can help teams, and will be a working session."
Link to Original Source
Space

+ - First Potentially Habitable Exoplanet Discovered->

Submitted by Zothecula
Zothecula writes "If you’re looking to get away from it all then Gliese 581g might just fit the bill. But be prepared to pack enough for the trip that, even on a rocket traveling 30,000 km per second (18,640 miles per second), would take 200 years. Gliese 581g is the first exoplanet discovered that sits in an area where water could exist on the planet’s surface. If confirmed, this would make it the most Earth-like exoplanet yet discovered and the first strong case for a “potentially habitable” one."
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Q: What is the difference between a duck? A: One leg is both the same.

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