Comment Yes but... (Score 1) 109
I need something that understands the binary language of moisture vaporators.
Tiny Cube Drags Space Debris From Orbit 77
krou writes "A team from Surrey Space Centre has developed a device called a CubeSail, designed to be attached to satellites and rocket stages in order to drag space debris from orbit. CubeSail is a nanosatellite, weighing 3kg (6.6lb), and measures 10cm x 10cm x 30cm. Within its frame is a polymer sheet that unfurls itself once in space. 'The simple deployment mechanism features four metal strips that are wound under tension and will snap into a straight line when let go, pulling the sheet flat in the process.' The overall idea is that 'Residual air molecules still present in the spacecraft's low-Earth orbit will catch the sheet and pull the object out of the sky much faster than is normal.' Sir Martin Sweeting, the chairman of SSTL, who supported the research, said, 'We would be looking to put it on our own satellites and to put it on other people's spacecraft as well. We want this to be a standard, essential bolt-on item for a spacecraft; and that's why it's very important to make it small, because if it's too big it will interfere with the rest of the spacecraft.' The team is also hoping that CubeSail can act as a propulsion system, using 'solar sailing' to help satellites keep their orbits more efficiently."
Comment Re:It's a beta? (Score 1) 223
It's probably the same as with GMail and other Google services: they stay in beta for years so Google doesn't have to officially support them.
Comment Re:Doesn't look that way. (Score 1) 406
Yeah, we wouldn't want a shark container made of said transparent aluminum to let through laser light in its full intensity, now would we?
Comment Re:I'll repeat what I've said before: Use sentence (Score 1) 553
I use a Whitespace program as my password. Beat that!
Comment Re:what happens (Score 1) 178
They'll probably be able to... uhm... patch it together again.
Comment Re:Knoppix (Score 1) 739
[...] installed gentoo over the weekend [...]
Whoa, that must be some wicked Beowulf cluster!
Comment Re:Why bother? (Score 2, Funny) 369
How about we pass on the windscreen and let the car read everything in front of it out loud?
Comment Re:Cyber? (Score 0, Redundant) 90
You mean like the iCommand? Am I thinking "different" enough here? :P
Comment Re:When did this happen? (Score 1) 1582
If I remember correctly, faces get melt in WoW.
Comment Re:From across the pond (Score 1) 321
More.
Comment Re:Is it me. (Score 0) 294
The admins are probably just going with the masses since nobody here reads the summaries anyway, let alone the articles.
Comment Re:I'd like my gravity... (Score 1) 534
That's the same thing I had in mind for my star ship. On interstellar journeys, I'll just continuously accelerate to create gravity (can also be a few gees, I probably won't mind since I'll spend most of the time in cryogenic sleep or have a strong enough exoskeleton / cyborg body :D).
For stays in orbit I'll just rotate the whole ship (has to be designed that way though, to withstand different gravity vectors).
Needless to say that it requires a kickass engine...
For stays in orbit I'll just rotate the whole ship (has to be designed that way though, to withstand different gravity vectors).
Needless to say that it requires a kickass engine...
Comment Re:Letter writing (Score 1) 613
Facebook? That's what the hipsters use. We nerds usually hack into our friend's computers and use `write` to chat with them!
Comment Re:Slashdotted? (Score 1) 559
Opera can be installed, but it is shipped with the default S60 browser, which uses Webkit.
