Reinventing the NASA Mobile App

For the Behance presentation, click on the image!
(and do not forget to push the "appreciate this" button ;)

New Round for the CAT started!

A few months ago, the CAT Thruster--a very promising water-propelled micro satellite--failed to achieve its Kickstarter goal (despite the incredible support I might add). The project then went on a hiatus, a period of re-thinking what went wrong with the campaign (on Kickstarter, of course, as the actual development in the engineering department at the University of Michigan never actually stopped.) Now, however, the hiatus is over, and the team has returned with a much more thought-out (and realistic) Kickstarter page! For more information on the project and why you should support it click here! And, if I managed to convince you, click on the link below to pledge your support:

CAT Thruster Kickstarter Campaign

The Future of the CAT Thruster

With a heavy heart I inform you that the CAT thruster for cubesats had failed to reach its goal of 200.000 dollars on Kickstarter. Fortunately it was not a total loss! First of all, considering how small the project was--a university campaign with very limited media access--the nearly $68.000 they did manage to collect I think is remarkable. To me, it shows that people do care about space exploration, similarly to the Arkyd space telescope even though not quite on the same scale. Secondly, and most importantly, the unsuccessful campaign does not mean the end of the project! After the deadline, Benjamin Longmier (project and science lead) published the below open letter, discussing the various possibilities for the future:

Dear Team,

We didn't make it to our funding goal of $200k with kickstarter in this first university funding experiment, though it's been a fun ride. Our team at the University of Michigan has been making great progress on the CAT engine, even since we first launched the kickstarter campaign, and we attracted a lot of attention from a few government and commercial partners. Some of these groups intend to fund this research and we are looking into these options. We are also considering re-listing the kickstarter campaign with a few tweaks, a lower funding goal, and some revised rewards. Please stay tuned as we heard the CATs, and we will keep you posted on the CAT engine research progress as things unfold in our lab. We remain excited about creating the next generation engine for deploying CubeSats around the Earth and sending them off into deep space, and we are quite grateful for your continued interest and participation in this journey.

Best regards,
Ben

One Year on Mars!

Exactly one year ago today, Curiosity has landed on Mars. Followed by the unblinking eyes of millions of people around the world, the rover began its career with a daring, never before seen maneuver: lowered onto the surface from a hovering rocket-powered skycrane. Although the landing was an incredible feat of engineering, it was only the beginning, the first step in an incredible journey to unravel the mysteries of the red planet. For all the science nerds out there, here are a few quick facts about Curiosity's first year on Mars:

Curiosity has...
... sent home over 71,000 images.
... traveled a little over a mile.
... fired more than 75,000 shots from its laser spectrometer.
... drilled into and analyzed 2 martian rocks.
... discovered ancient river beds.
... found evidence of PH-neutral water.

In the coming year, the rover will began its journey to Mount Sharp where layers of sedimentary rock promise a treasure trove of scientific data, a window back to a Mars very different from the one today. Although its destination lies about 5 miles from its current position, engineers at JPL hope to cover the distance in just under a year thanks to Curiosity's newly updated driving software. They will, of course, stop several times to do what they are the best at: science.

Lastly, here are two videos from the JPL team commemorating the landing and the 12 months that followed afterwords:

Yet Another Promising Kickstarter!

It has only been two weeks since the successful Kickstarter campaign of the ARKYD space telescope, and I have already come across another promising proposal. And let me say this right at the beginning: I have donated the largest sum of money to this project among all the ones I have supported, and by a huge margin. I have two reasons for it. First and foremost, I think this idea is worth our attention and support, and I will explain why shortly. Secondly, unlike ARKYD where you had a campaign backed by considerable media attention—most likely due to the group of influential people in the board of Planetary Resources—this project is really down to earth; just a few university professors who want to make their dream a reality. And since I tend to sympathise with that dream, I am willing to risk my money in hope it will one day become a reality, and I hope that after explaining this idea, at least some of you will follow suit.

The ARKYD-100 Is Funded!

17,614

backers

$1,505,366

pledged of $1,000,000 goal

The Arkyd 100 Space Telescope

About a month ago, Planetary Resources—the company that caused quite a stir a while back when announced its intention to mine asteroids—created a Kickstarter campaign. Their intent with it was not to make money—looking at the investors at the company’s website, they probably do okay in that area—but to offer the public access to one of their small space telescopes expected to launch in 2015, called the Arkyd-100. Since the telescope is intended for the public, the company is asking for one million dollars to crowd fund it.

While this idea seems a little far fetched at first—after all, what can one million dollars buy in an industry that already operates on billions—but if anyone has a chance to pull this off, it is Planetary Resources. Since the company does not need to design the telescope from the ground up, “simply” re-purpose one of their already existing designs, they can send it up with their own fleet of asteroid hunting space telescopes. So, in essence, the team at Planetary Resources offered us the opportunity to hitch a ride with them to space. This, I think, is pretty cool, and apparently I am not the only want thinking that. Twenty days into the Kickstarter campaign, the Arkyd-100 space telescope had surpassed the one million dollars mark, not only giving the project a clear, green light but also marking a significant milestone in citizen science.

Build an Organizer for Arkham Horror

If someone asked me what my favorite board game was, I would probably have to say Arkham Horror from Fantasy Flight Games. Among its many great qualities, the one I like the most about the game is its complexity. With intricate rules and an army of bits and pieces, Arkham Horror provides a fun and long-lasting experience—extra fun if you happen to be a devotee of H. P. Lovecraft. Complexity, however, often comes with a price, and, in the case of Arkham Horror, this price is difficult storage. The large number of components can be tricky to properly store and organize—especially if someone invested in one or more of the game’s many expansions. Of course, you can always use tackle boxes and be done with it, but there are those of us who would like to use something a little more fitting to this great game; preferably, without spending too much money on it. That is where I come in.

In this article, I will guide you through the process of building the above pictured wooden organizer to replace the plastic insert that comes in the game’s original box. My goal is to present you with something that is relatively simple to construct—without any previous woodworking knowledge—yet still looks professional and elegant. Furthermore, this organizer is not only good looking but also highly functional, able to hold the core game and an extra expansion comfortably in one, tidy box.

Although this was my first attempt to work with many of the tools and material I used in this project, I feel confident that I learned enough from my own experience to write this guide in such detail that you do not have to suffer through my mistakes again. So, if you feel up for the task, read on and start building!

Is This the End of Console Gaming?

It has been quite some time since I last posted anything here, and I apologize. This new Xbox One craze, however, kind of forcing me to get back into the writing game as I care deeply about this issue

First of all, if you haven’t heard what is going on, here is a quick recap: the new Xbox, called the Xbox One, has features that basically cripples the used game market, has a mandatory DRM (Digital Restrictions Management) system, mandatory installs, a Kinect sensor that is forced on you whether you want it or not, and a crap-load of other restrictions. But the most important thing is basically the killing game ownership. In the next generation, you will no longer buy games, you will lease them, and if you don’t check in with the company over the internet after a certain amount of time, you cannot play! That is right! You cannot play a single player game without checking in with Microsoft first and then after every 24 hours! And if the company goes under or decides it wants out of the console business, there goes your game collection with it.

Curiosity on Xbox Live

Ever wondered what it would be like to witness Curiosity’s landing? Well, thanks to the recent cooperation between NASA and Microsoft, you can not only do that now but also control the rover as it descends onto the Red Planet—so to speak. :)

From yesterday morning, the Kinect game “Mars Rover Landing” is available on Xbox Live free of charge. If you own an Xbox with a Kinect sensor, I recommend you go and check it out. The game is fun, looks great, and has quite a bit of educational value, not to mention the potential to get kids excited about science and space exploration!

The cooperation between the space agency and Microsoft, however, does not end with "Mars Rover Landing." The list of real life and online events commemorating Curiosity’s landing—of which I am updating continuously as new information comes out—gained a new entry, as Microsoft will also broadcast the event via Xbox Live!

Elder Sign: Omens Review

Elder Sign: Omens is the digital (iOS, Android, and Mac OS X) adaptation of the similarly named board game from Fantasy Flight Games. In it, a group of investigators attempt to stop the awakening of an Ancient One, a supernatural entity from H. P. Lovecraft’s renowned Cthulhu mythos. Players accomplish their goal by completing adventures in an eerie museum setting, some of which reward players with elder signs, which then can be used to stop the Ancient One from waking. To beat these adventures investigators need to match symbols with the ones they generate randomly. In essence, therefore, Elder Sign: Omens is a bit like Yahtzee or a slot machine, only a lot more complex, mixed with puzzle, role-playing, strategy, and exploration elements.

Aiptek AHD - H12 Test

The saying “you get what you paid for” describes Aiptek’s latest digital camcorder perfectly. I purchased the AHD - H12 during Memorial Day weekend for the reasonable amount of $200. Even though I had my suspicion that, for this price, the image quality cannot be too good, I went ahead and purchased it anyway. A full HD video camera for this price was just too darn good to let it get away. I figured, if I can get a decent 720p quality out of 1080p, it was already worth it!