Category Archives: Tech

Hitchcock Goes To Mars

Posted on by

NASA preps for ‘7 minutes of terror’ on Mars

[T]hey have to get the lander on the ground, and that’s where the worry comes in. In fact, they have a name for it in the Mars exploration community: “seven minutes of terror.”

Seven minutes is all it takes for a spacecraft travelling neary 13,000 miles per hour to hit the Martian atmosphere, slam on the brakes and reach the ground.

And then there’s this tidbit, with the resulting obligatory snark:

Historically, 55 percent of Mars missions have ended in failure.

I’ll bet the odds go up when you don’t mix up metric and English units.

——

Good luck to them.

UPDATE: SUCCESS! Animation of the landing and some subsequent operations

Coherent Google?

Posted on by

laser08.gif

Google’s logo in recognition of May 16, 1960 being the day the first laser was demonstrated. So that’s good. But geek pedantry gets in the way — you can only see a laser from the side if there’s something to scatter the light, so they are depicting a layout with a really poor air filtration system in operation and/or reinforcing a Hollywood myth about lasers.

(I really like Google. That I pick on them occasionally should not be misconstrued as anything mean-spirited. It’s more like constructive criticism: seeking geek perfection.)

Large Sibling

Posted on by

Great, now I’m scared of cellphones

A service called World Tracker lets you use data from cell phone towers and GPS systems to pinpoint anyone’s exact whereabouts, any time — as long as they’ve got their phone on them.
[…]
Once connected, the service shows you the exact location of the phone by the minute, conveniently pinpointed on a Google Map. So far, the service is only available in the UK, but the company has indicated plans to expand its service to other countries soon.
[…]
Dozens of programs are available that’ll turn any cell phone into a high-tech, long-range listening device. And the scariest part? They run virtually undetectable to the average eye.

On the one hand, it’s easy to see that this sort of technology and sophistication has arrived. On the other hand, holy crap.

via Schneier

Take Me Out, Out, Out to the Ballgame

Posted on by

A map of Armstrong and Aldrin’s moon walks, superimposed on a baseball diamond. One fly ball to right-center, and nothing else left the infield. Apparently Armstrong had a wicked slider and Aldrin a nasty cut fastball.

(A couple of years ago, a friend had the opportunity to meet Buzz Aldrin. My suggestion: as you’re shaking his hand, say, “Wow! I can’t believe I’m meeting someone who actually knows Neil Armstrong!”)