Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Bug-Bots in WR News!

Club member S.R. brought us this story from the January 30 edition of WR News about tiny, insect sized Robots who will aid soldiers and help spy on bad guys - Text copied below:

"You might think twice the next time you spot a fly on the wall! The U.S. Air Force plans to design flying robots disguised or made to look like, insects. The bug-like robots could spy on enemies, including terrorists, in other countries. They could also conduct missions that are too dangerous for humans. Today's flying robots tend to be controlled by pilots on the ground. The new bug robots will fly on their own, using instructions that have been preprogrammed. The robots could be as small as bees. The tiny machines will have wings that flap like those of real insects. That will let them fly undetected, or unnoticed, into buildings. "There would be a bunch of these sent out in a swarm," explains researcher Greg Parker. He helps direct the research project at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton, Ohio "If we know there's a possibility of bad guys in a certain building, how do we find out? We think this would [help us]. " The robots will also assist U.S. troops by taking pictures and recording video and sounds, including enemies' voices. The flying machines could even fire tiny weapons!
Engineers hope the robots will be airborne by 2030. "More and more military research is going into things that are small," says Loren Thompson, a defense expert involved with the project. "This type of technology is really the wave of the future."

Thanks S.R.!!

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Annoucing Google Mars!

Quoting the NASA News Service -
MOFFETT FIELD, Calif. -- NASA and Google announced Monday the release of a new Mars mode in Google Earth that brings to everyone's desktop a high-resolution, three-dimensional view of the Red Planet.

Besides providing a rich, immersive 3D view of Mars that will aid public understanding of Mars science, the new mode, Google Mars 3D, also gives researchers a platform for sharing data similar to what Google Earth provides for Earth scientists.

The mode enables users to fly virtually through enormous canyons and scale huge mountains on Mars that are much larger than any found on Earth. Users also can explore the Red Planet through the eyes of the Mars rovers and other Mars missions, providing a unique perspective of the entire planet.

Users can see some of the latest satellite imagery from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and other probes orbiting the Red Planet. Viewers can learn about new discoveries and explore indexes of available Mars imagery. The new Mars mode also allows users to add their own 3D content to the Mars map to share with the world.

Today's announcement is the latest benefit from a Space Act Agreement NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., signed with Google in November 2006. Under its terms, NASA and Google agreed to collaborate to make NASA's data sets available to the world.

NASA Ames, along with its partners at Google, Carnegie Mellon University, SETI, and other institutions, helped produce the data to make this possible.

Google's innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. Google is headquartered close to Ames in Silicon Valley with offices throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia.

The address / link is - http://www.google.com/mars/. Try it out. There's quite a bit of information about Mars there. The application is really quite cool. It should be a great research tool.