Gizmodo Australia » athlete

Double-Amputee on Cheetah Blades Fails to Qualify For the Olympics

Matt Hickey — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 03:40:00 +0000

Oscar Pistorius, double-amputee with carbon-fibre “cheetah” blades failed to qualify for the Olympics. He just missed the needed time in the 400 meter of 45.55 seconds, though it should be noted he posted a new personal best of 46.25. [New Scientist Tech, via Engadget]

Moonstream Rover Could Finally Make Yuppies Happy On Mars

Gizmodo US Edition — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 01:30:00 +0000

A young designer has adapted one of man’s greatest achievements – the S.U.V. – to the Martian landscape. By scaling up the spidery walking legs of NASA’s ATHLETE rovers, the massive Moonstream would be able to slowly but smoothly traverse Mars’ uneven surfaces with a giant payload of people and hardware.

The Phoenix straining its wiry little arm to scrape some ice off the ground isn’t a terribly impressive expression of NASA’s billions, but the Moonstream looks forward to a time when the space program’s spending will be a little more apparent. The pilot (or conductor, or driver, or Mum) navigates from a separate, elevated pod at the front of the vehicle, leaving the rest of the presumably large crew to do whatever they want in a cushy main cabin, furnished with all the amenities you would expect in a Martian tour bus.

The designer claims to have taken cues from nature, citing the turtle shells and the stance of giraffes as inspirations. To be completely honest though, it looks like a DLP projector with wheels. Anyway, all this Phoenix talk just serves to remind everyone how lame it is that we aren’t driving around on Mars already, and the Moonstream wouldn’t be a bad way to do it.
[Anthony Sims via DVICE]

Sprinter With Two Carbon-Fiber Feet Gets Olympics Thumbs-Up

Gizmodo US Edition — Sun, 18 May 2008 21:30:00 +0000

Oscar Pistorius is a sprinter with a difference: he runs on two artificial lower legs and feet fast enough that he may qualify for the Olympics. And that’s something he can now attempt, given that the Court of Arbitration for Sport has just overturned a ruling by the International Association of Athletics that had banned him from competing against able-bodied runners. All because of the specialised carbon-fibre Cheetah Flex-Foot prosthetic feet he uses, which represented an unfair mechanical advantage maintained the IAAF. So the advanced artificial limbs, designed after the shape of a Cheetah’s hind leg, were put to the test in the lab.

A study led by MIT professor Hugh M. Herr revealed that the high-tech feet didn’t give Oscar an advantage over able-bodied runners, conflicting with a January study at the German Sport University which stated they were 30% more efficient than a human ankle. The German study also suggested that the springy feet meant that a user would need 25% less energy expenditure than an able-bodied runner to achieve the same sprinting speed: this is the study the IAAF based the ban on.

A panel at the Court of Arbitration looked at both studies and eventually ruled in favour of Oscar, overturning the IAAF’s ban and opening the gates for him to try to qualify for the 400m.

Oscar was born without fibulas, and had the lower part of both legs amputated when he was 11. He runs on the J-shaped Cheetah feet now, and does so remarkably well: his PB is 46.56 seconds, which is just shy of the 45.55 second qualifying time for Beijing. He plans to train hard, but may be invited to join the South African relay team even if he doesn’t beat the individual race qualifying time. And that sounds much more in the spirit of good sportsmanship than banning the guy in the first place. [Flexfoot and Yahoo via Popsci] (Images courtesy of www.ossur.com)

Nike PreCool Vest Is Heatsink For Athletes

Gizmodo US Edition — Sat, 03 May 2008 20:00:00 +0000

Beijing Olympians can count on being cool as cucumbers in Nike’s PreCool Vest, a specially designed piece of clothing that lowers the body’s core temperature. Much like computers, muscles perform better when they’re not dedicating most of their resources to cooling down. Used about an hour prior to a competition, it can help an athlete last up to 21% longer out in the field. The vest is made of two layers of material: the inner one is filled with frozen water and the outer layer is coated with aluminium to act like a thermos, trapping cold in while reflecting radiant heat. Unfortunately, the PreCool is only available for Olympic athletes, so us normal folk will have to find other ways to chill out. [Newlaunches.com]

NASA’s ATHLETE Hex-Legged Lunar Robots Now Work in Pairs

Gizmodo US Edition — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 21:00:00 +0000

We’ve shown you NASA’s neat ATHLETE robots before and it looks like the little hexapod machines have been getting more sophisticated. This vid of two ATHLETEs collaborating to lift a heavy habitat load onto the ground sent faint Matrix-esque shivers down my spine. NASA is taking development of the robots seriously, as it turns out their multiple-wheeled dexterity make them perfect for carrying mobile habitats across the rocky, uneven lunar terrain. They’ve even been discussed in the most recent mission planning, so they really might be trotting-rolling across the Moon’s surface in a short bunch of years. Next up for ATHLETE: a mock mobile lunar base trial. [NASA and New Scientist]