Today’s xkcd.

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A marriage of the tortoise and the hare may be the key to exploring the Solar System. At least, that’s the belief of Nathan Strange, a mission formulation systems engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, who has outlined a plan to use hybrid chemical/solar-electric propulsion systems for the manned exploration of the Moon, Mars and the asteroids.
via Gizmag</ … Read More → "NASA examines hybrid solar-electric propulsion for manned space missions"

If you want to feel the thrill of open-wheel racing at home without the danger of actually zooming around a track at 200-mph, you’re best bet is probably a high-end race simulator. This one looks like it should do the trick, the only catch being that it costs more than a pretty decent real race car.

The simulator is made by FMCG International, and is designed to look and feel … Read More → "Full-sized F1 race car simulator costs more than a real race car"

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen is a collector of all things geek and he has a wonderful habit of setting up museums to share items from his personal stash. He already has two museums in the Seattle area (the Flying Heritage Collection and EPM Museum), and last month he opened a third space to showcase his collection of computers.
via DVICE

Read More → "Living Computer Museum has something for everyone"

How connected is your car? There’s a good chance you’re already using your Bluetooth smartphone with your vehicle so you can continue your conversation in hands-free mode. And that you’re using that same phone as a hub for your traveling entertainment center. But that’s just the beginning.

Newer models are also more tied into other cars or to outside infrastructure and to the ubiquitous cloud than you might think, according to speakers at GigaOM’s Roadmap Conference on Monday. In that scenario, cars are just … Read More → "If you think your car is smart and connected now, just wait"

Back when I started writing about robots (get off my lawn, by the way), helicopters were big and complicated and dangerous and crashy. It’s kind of amazing that now (or at least, soon, hopefully) you can get a tiny little quadrotor that can stabilize itself in flight for just under $100. Or, to put it another way, for just under $10,000, you could get a hundred< … Read More → "Tiny clever quadrotors now on Kickstarter"

Looking at all the commercial airline accidents between 1983 and 2000, the National Transportation Safety Board found that 95.7% of the people involved survived. Even when they narrowed down to look at only the worst accidents, the overall survival rate was 76.6%. Yes, some plane crashes kill everyone on board. But those aren’t the norm. So you’re even safer than you think. Not only are crashes incredibly rare, you’re more likely to survive a crash than not. In fact, out of 568 accidents during those 17 years, only 71 resulted in any fatalities at all.
via Read More → "Surviving a plane crash is surprisingly common"

Boeing‘s latest creation, the 787 Dreamliner, has officially launched in the US and begin its domestic service with United Airlines yesterday morning. It completed its first public flight in the US when the aircraft landed at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport from Houston, TX, and arrived 15 minutes ahead of schedule.
via Slash Gear

< … Read More → "Boeing 787 Dreamliner enters service in the US"

Remember back when a 1 gigabyte hard drive was an impressive feat, and it was exciting to save a few pages on a floppy disc? Maybe I fall into awe a little too easily at how huge our drives are today, but it blows my personal world away that every single issue of National Geographic is on a 160 GB hard drive.

The hard drive contains every … Read More → "Every issue of National Geographic since 1888 now available digitally"

Hypothetical sources and sinks of methane on Mars. The simple organic gas could be produced by microbes or active geological processes. So far, Curiosity has not detected methane in the Martian atmosphere. Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech, SAM/GSFC

NASA’s Curiosity rover has sniffed the Martian atmosphere for methane and, so far, turned up empty. The much-anticipated measurement strikes a blow to the hope that  … Read More → "Life on Mars? Non-detection of methane suggests no modern-day microbes"