Here's an article about Einstein's warped view of the Universe being found to be correct.
After 11 years of watching the movements of two Earth-orbiting satellites, researchers found each is dragged by about 6 feet (2 meters) every year because
the very fabric of space is twisted by our whirling world.The results, announced today, are much more precise than preliminary findings published by the same group in the late 1990s.
The effect is called frame dragging. It is a modification to the simpler aspects of gravity set out by Newton. Working from Einstein's relativity theory, Austrian physicists Joseph Lense and Hans Thirring predicted frame dragging in 1918. (It is also known as the Lense-Thirring effect.)
Robo Segway
The Segway technology that went into the Ginger vehicle is being married to military robotics. This may have other application, but somehow the people with the need to design weapons get their mitts on the Segway technology. I guess they did fork out the money for its development.
Originally developed by New Hampshire-based Segway for a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) program, the firm's Robotic Mobility Platform (RMP) allows robot developers to focus more on the thinking power of their machines while providing a quick mode of transportation.
"The speed at which we can move is impressive," said Manuela Veloso, who leads the robotics CORAL research group at Carnegie Mellon University. "From a motion point of view, it's extremely reliable."
During DARPA's Mobile Autonomous Robot Software (MARS) program about 14 different research groups received Segway RMP platforms, some programmed to play soccer while others model the human brain.
"Some of the power researchers got this stuff and in about a week they had their robots rolling・t was pretty fast," said John Morrell, Segway director of systems engineering for the RMP project, in a telephone interview. "It's been really interesting to see what people have come up with."
And there's more to follow.
If A Telescope Should Fall...
...and if it is a the Hubble Telescope, it may be in violation of NASA's own regulations. Here's the article.
My goodness, all the stuff I missed while I was busy moping about the Yankee loss. Back to the Space Freak Ways, ladies and gentlemen.Based upon the latest configuration and orbit of HST and on solar activity projection, HST is expected to reenter Earth's atmosphere around the year 2020. Furthermore, studies are now underway to, perhaps, robotically save the telescope, nudging it to a higher altitude for prolonged looks at the surrounding universe. HST could also be ditched in a controlled way into a remote stretch of ocean.
But in the event that HST waterfalls from space in willy-nilly fashion -- look out below!
At least two tons (2,055 kilograms) of the estimated 26,000 pounds (11,792 kilograms) of the observatory would survive the fiery fall. Such a tumble would create a debris footprint stretching over 755 miles (1,220 kilometers) in length.
- Art Neuro
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