NASA ready to explode one of the coolest space missions ever: "In an unprecedented scientific endeavor — and what may be one of the coolest space missions ever — NASA is preparing to fly a rocket booster into the moon, triggering a six-mile-high explosion that scientists hope will confirm the presence of water.
"(Via digg.com: Stories / Popular.)
Space shuttle launch now set for Wednesday: "NASA has rescheduled the launch of space shuttle Endeavour for 5:40 a.m. ET Wednesday, pushing back the planned launch of a separate lunar mission.
"(Via CNN.com.)
No it's not another fuzzy image of the Beast of Kandahar. It's a Northrop Grumman concept for a ship-based fan-in-wing VTOL'unmanned cargo aircraft that for a time we all thought was called, however unlikely, the Wild Thing.
Concept: Northrop Grumman
The image was featured in a larger powerpoint slide from a briefing on unmanned systems given at Paris on Monday by Northrop's vp strike and surveillance systems Gene Fraser. The slide was intended to illustrate the company's broad capability to provide a range of unmanned systems operating in a networked environment (hence the yellow 'connectivity' lines).
When questioned about the unknown UAV on the chart, Fraser revealed Northrop has conducted windunnel tests of the beast, which is designed to lift podded payloads of up to 10,000lb from the flightdeck of any air-capable ship. That's about the same load carried by the U.S. Navy's Grumman C-2 Greyhound carrier onboard delivery aircraft - and that needs a full-size flattop to operate from.
And the name? Well a few hours later we were told by Northrop that it's not really the Wild Thing, it's the Mover. Which sounds more appropriate, but way less fun. {UPDATE - okay, sorry, it's MUVR...)
"(Via Ares.)
What is this? I've tweaked the photo a bit to remove the identifier under the name Talisman. Don't scroll down until you've had a hard think. And it's not a prop for the next James Bond film, or at least, not until the producers have seen it!
OK, so it looks like an E-type Jaguar 'absolutely on purpose' according to Andy Tonge, the project manager for the object in question, but BAE Systems has not gone into the car manufacturing business. If I tell you that Tonge told me that 'design rule number 1 was that it mustn't look like a torpedo and design rule number 2 was that it must not be yellow or orange,' you may get the hint.
Well, here is the untweaked photo:
Now you know, Talisman M (for mine-hunter) is an autonomous underwater vehicle using technology from the racing-car industry. Talisman M has a brand new little sister: Talisman L (for littoral) the prototype of which came out of its mould last Wednesday just in time for the Undersea Defence Technology Conference which opened in Cannes, France's Mediterranean resort town, today. 'We started designing this in early March,' Tonge told me and it was ready just in time for the show. Here it is with a hand in the photo to give you an idea of the size:
This one is portable by two people and was designed to be deployed from a rubber boat and used in shallow waters (it needs a minimum of 1m of water). 'This is for use in that moving boundary between defense and security,' Tonge told me.
photo credits: Christina Mackenzie
"(Via Ares.)
STS-127 Mission Will Be Long and Busy: "Robotics, spacewalks to dominate 16-day station assembly mission"
