pale blue dot
Space exploration and programs, often seen as lofty pursuits aimed at the stars, have a profound and often overlooked impact on our daily lives. While debates continue about prioritizing earthly concerns over cosmic exploration, it’s enlightening to recognize that many innovations we rely on daily are direct results of space research. From the solar cells …
Continue reading “From Orbit to Ordinary: 10 Earthly Applications of Space Technology”
NASA, in collaboration with Lockheed Martin, has officially introduced the X-59 quiet supersonic aircraft, a groundbreaking venture poised to redefine air travel. As the centerpiece of NASA’s Quesst mission [see notes 1], the X-59 is designed to address one of the primary challenges to supersonic flight over land – making sonic booms quieter. This unique …
This 1965 MIT Science Reporter television program serves as a remarkable time capsule, capturing a pivotal moment in the history of space exploration and computer technology. Presented by MIT in association with WGBH-TV Boston and produced for NASA, the program provides an in-depth look at the Apollo guidance computer and navigation equipment, a technological marvel …
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In 1967, as space-age fantasies ignited imaginations across the globe, the then Philco-Ford, now Ford Motor Company, attempted to capture the future’s heart and soul in a brief cinematic journey. The film titled “1999 AD” catapulted its audience three decades into the future, offering a tantalizing glimpse of everyday life for a quintessential American family, …
Continue reading “The future as envisioned in 1967: The year 1999”
The first cell phone call was made by Martin Cooper (born December 26, 1928), a researcher at Motorola, on April 3, 1973. Cooper was working on developing the first handheld mobile phone, which he called the DynaTAC. The phone was large and bulky, weighing about 2.5 pounds, and it had a battery life of only …
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An essential step towards a carbon-neutral future could be reached through dispersed power grids, featuring networks of local-scale renewable energy and battery storage plants. To prevent these power grids from damaging themselves and their surroundings when electrical faults arise, they must be integrated with “circuit breakers”, which temporarily interrupt the current flowing through them. However, …
Continue reading “An Innovative Medium-Voltage DC Circuit Breaker for Renewable Power Grids”
Electric vehicles are having a moment in the sun thanks to significant pushes to invest in the performance and energy efficiency of EVs. While electrifying our lifestyles isn’t perfectly clean energy, it significantly reduces our carbon footprint by lessening our nonrenewable energy consumption. This leads many to ask – can we electrify our homes while …
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On September 9, 1947, a team of computer scientists and engineers operating Harward University’s Mark II electromechanical computer started getting an error. They traced the error and found a moth trapped in a relay. The moth was carefully removed and taped to the logbook with a note saying “first actual case of bug being found”. …
Continue reading “The first “actual” computer bug was found on September 9, 1947″
On August 12, 1981, the Personal Computer, (model 5150, commonly known as the IBM PC) was released. This machine (and its descendants) started the PC revolution. It was a very small machine that could not only process information faster than those millions-of-dollars huge computers of the 1960s but also hook up to the home TV …
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On August 9, 1991, two STS-43 astronauts aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis, Shannon W. Lucid and James C. Adamson sent the first e-mail from space. The astronauts used an Apple Macintosh portable computer and AppleLink, a popular service for Mac and Apple IIGS users before the commercialization of the Internet, offered from 1986 to 1994. …
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