We’ve already seen Kickstarter fund some pretty incredible products and services, and most would agree that its made possible things which would otherwise have been too disruptive to come to market naturally (OUYA, we’re looking at you). But everything Kickstarter has funded up until this point has been kid stuff compared to the campaign which [...]
PhoneSats in Orbit, Transmitting Data To Listeners Worldwide
After a few delays, the inaugural mission of the Orbital Sciences Antares mission successfully made it into orbit on April 21st. While the mission didn’t carry the actual spacecraft Antares is designed to lift (that’s currently slated for June), it didn’t go up there empty handed. The Antares rocket safely delivered all three of NASA’s PhoneSats into their intended orbit, and [...]
Antares Rocket Launch Scrubbed at T-12 Minutes
This evening’s planned launch of the Orbital Sciences Antares rocket had to be canceled just 12 minutes before liftoff, due to the unexpected separation of the booster’s umbilical cable while the vehicle was on the launch pad. This is the first attempt to fly the Antares rocket, which is a commercial craft and direct competitor to the [...]
STRaND-1 Satellite Preparing to Activate Onboard Nexus One
We’ve previously reported on the NASA project to base a new generation of small, cheap, spacecraft around Android phones, dubbed PhoneSat. While PhoneSat is still on track to launch in April, the British have beaten their American counterparts to the punch with the Surrey Training, Research, and Nanosatellite Demonstrator (STRaND-1) satellite, currently orbiting the Earth. [...]
Mars Mapped With Open Source Tools From MapBox
With the recent successful landing of the Curiosity rover on the Martian surface, it seems NASA has managed to once again inspire the masses about the possibilities of space flight and exploration of other world in our solar system. But even for the most ardent of space buffs, it can be hard to truly grasp the scale and features [...]
NASA Expands Android Application Collection with “Earth Now”
NASA has put out a few absolutely stunning iPhone and iPad applications, but unfortunately for us not living under Apple’s thumb, the majority of them haven’t been ported over to Android. While that situation is still a long way from changing, the recently released “Earth Now” for Android shows that keeping the two mobile operating [...]
Can Android Revolutionize Spacecraft Design?
NASA’s Ames Research Center is working on a new project designed to drastically cut the cost of launching and operating small satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO). The project, known as PhoneSat, will see the Android powered Nexus One and Nexus S phones command their very own small scale spacecraft this year in a first [...]
SpaceX Launch Marks New Era In Open Space Program
This morning’s successful launch of the SpaceX Dragon spacecraft atop the Falcon 9 rocket marks the first time in history a commercial company has attempted a mission to the International Space Station (ISS). While the success of the mission won’t be determined for a few days yet, this is still a historic day for humanity’s efforts to reach out [...]
Winners Announced For International Space Apps Challenge
While budgetary constraints and increasing commercial competition has clearly taken its toll on NASA, one area where the iconic government institution has unquestionably made headway is the implementation of open source. The launching of code.NASA a few months back was an excellent start, open sourcing various pieces of NASA software so that anyone in the world [...]
Interview With Incarcerated NASA Hacker Jeremey Parker
On June 14th, 2011, Jeremey Parker was sentenced to 24 months in prison on charges of wire fraud. The sentence was the result of a plea agreement wherein Parker admitted he gained access to the servers of a subsidiary of Digital River Inc and siphoned approximately $275,000 into his personal bank account, and additionally, broke [...]
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