Useful Technology | MarsBlog.net

Speaking of “Other Commitments”…

One of the other things on my plate right now is putting the novel through one final edit, prior to publishing it on Kindle. We’ve tried (oh have we tried) to find an agent, but none seem interested in the genre right now…which is to say, every inquiry gets rejected out of hand, unread, with […]

Basic Transportation

I’ve always thought that NASA’s manned rover concepts were a little too consciously “futuristic”, designed more with a sci-fi aesthetic in mind than simple rugged practicality.

Now this…this is my idea of a manned rover…

[…]

DIY High-Altitude Photography

I’ve already got the camera – if only I had the time to do the rest.

Amazing pictures of Earth captured by one man, a balloon and his compact camera:

Space enthusiast Robert Harrison managed to send his home-made contraption 22 miles – or 116,160 feet – above the earth’s surface from his back garden.

[…]

NASA Gives Opportunity Free Will

Okay, not really. But they are giving it the ability to autonomously select science targets based on general guidelines:

The new system, which NASA uploaded over the past few months, is called Autonomous Exploration for Gathering Increased Science, or AEGIS and it lets Opportunity’s computer examine images that the rover takes with its wide-angle navigation […]

“Non-Smoking, Please”

I guess someone must have missed the lesson of the Hindenburg: Giant hydrogen airships could herald a new era in luxury travel

Image: Seymourpowell/PA

Set aside the obvious problems with floating bags of hydrogen large enough to lift nearly 400 tons of payload over major cities, and their obvious appeal as terrorist targets, […]

Detroit – the New Trantor

Isn’t this what the remaining denizens of Trantor did after the collapse of the empire in the original “Foundation” trilogy?

Farm to Save Detroit:

[O]ne day about a year and a half ago, [investment manager John Hantz] had a revelation. “We need scarcity,” he thought to himself as he drove past block after unoccupied block. […]

Christmas Comes Early, Part I

Part of the reason that posting on MarsBlog has been so lackluster over the past year is that my other project, People’s Press Collective, has been claiming nearly all of my time outside of work. Since I live about forty minutes from downtown Denver, and end up down there for events 2-3 nights a week, […]

Timelapse, the Hard Way

This guy clearly has a lot of media cards for his camera.

More at rossching.com. And details of how he did it can be found at Digital Photography School.

What surprises me (and perhaps it shouldn’t) is that it took roughly 15,000 still frames to generate the film. I bought a Nikon D80 two […]

One Good Use for ISS

Whatever else good eventually comes out of the ISS, demonstrating VASIMR — and then using it to routinely reboost the station — might just be its best sci/tech achievement.

[h/t: Instapundit]

Two Tales of Technological Evolution

A trip to a slowly disappearing Borders bookstore, and a trip to a cutting-edge dentist. […]

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