Launching satellites is a risky proposition–costing as much as $US10,000 a pound to make orbit and little recourse if a critical piece malfunctions. So, DARPA has devised a system to recycle the $US300 billion worth of orbiting dead satellites into a zombie antenna array.
HP’s launched a new range of consumer-centric laptops and desktops, including the glow-in-the-dark phoenix, touch screen all-in-ones and ultraportable models.
newVideoPlayer( {"type":"video","player":"http://www.youtube.com/v/Wf5puynSYOI&hl=en&fs=1&hd=1","customParams":[] ,"width":500,"height":332.5,"ratio":0.615,"flashData":"","embedName":null,"objectId":null,"noEmbed":false,"source":"youtube","wrap":true,"agegate":false} ); When you’ve got rattlesnakes in your winter Arizona home, call Phoenix Snake Removal. Using only a pair of snake tongs, a headlamp, and a secure bucket, they’ll clear out your dark basement and bring home a souvenir video to match.
Mars isn’t exactly the warmest place during the winter transition, but as the first few rays of sunshine lick at the planet’s surface we’re able to make out the Phoenix lander shivering under a cover of dry-ice frost.
That’s Windows 7, not a mini-Linux OS like Splashtop. It’s also from a powered-off state, not sleep mode. Pretty impressive. And much of that speed comes from turning on a laptop’s devices (hard disk, ports, etc.) in just one second.
Looks like Mars Phoenix (or Mars Phoenix’s ghost) will have to wait another two years for a new companion–the Mars Science Laboratory, originally planned for a launch next year, has been delayed until 2011.
It may be extremely difficult but, even after its dead, NASA scientists have been trying to resurrect the Phoenix Mars Lander at all costs. Sadly, they gave up last week. Happily, there is hope.
Over the last few weeks here on Giz, the Mars Phoenix Lander, already a prolific Twitterer, became the first spacecraft to blog from its cold, unforgiving home tens of millions of miles away on Mars as its mission came to end–culminating in a touching goodbye this past Monday. As some of you may have guessed (and, for the rest of you, hate to burst the bubble), Phoenix had some help. Meet JPL’s Manager of News Services Veronica McGregor, the voice of Mars Phoenix Lander.
