More used to seeing rocks covered in grime after billions of years of floating around space, a team of astronomers at MIT are scratching their heads over a surprisingly pristine rock in Kuiper Belt, near Neptune. More »
Kuiper Belt – Solar System – Astronomy – Space – Technology
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Good news for the Little Japanese Solar Sail That Could, as the first images of the solar sail spread out in full deployment have been snapped. All is going according to plan, says the space agency, and “flying” looks possible. More »
Solar sail – Space – Technology – Unmanned – Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
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This is Atlantis, launching for the last time from Cape Canaveral, as two F-15E Strike Eagles watch from the distance. One of the most beautiful photos I’ve seen of a space shuttle launch. [Discover via Ruthless via Jalopnik] More »
F-15 Eagle – Space – Technology – Space Shuttle – NASA
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The 20meter (diagonally) solar sail Ikaros we mentioned last month has been successfully unfurled in space by its Japanese team. Now it’s a waiting game to see if it can be used for solar-powered travel as planned. More »
Japan – Technology – Energy – Solar sail – Renewable
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With only two remaining space shuttle missions, NASA wants to send a picture of your face to space. Given that we’ve all passed on our dreams of being astronauts, unlike Leroy Chiao, this is as close as we’ll ever get. More »
NASA – Space – Technology – Space Shuttle – Leroy Chiao
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“This week I was attending Microsoft’s TechEd conference and was covering Apple’s WWDC remotely for a number of services. Strangely enough, both Microsoft and Apple seemed more focused on Google as a competitor than they were on each other. In fact, they seemed closer to embracing each other than I have seen them in a decade with Apple supporting Bing and Microsoft indicating that much of what they were showcasing would run on coming iPhone applications. There’s a big battle ahead in the smartphone space and the artillery is put into place. Here is how the rivals stack up.”
Rob Enderle sums up the pros and cons of each of the major smartphone offerings (and their backers) going into next year. I think it’s a little flattering for WP7 to be included since it isn’t on the market yet, but it’s also a testament to the quality and usability of WP7 (what we’ve seen of it anyway) that its considered a contender. The only thing I think Rob is wrong on is the throwaway line at the end about HP and Palm – HP are already on record as saying they didn’t buy Palm to get a leg up in the smartphone space.
Check out the rest: Windows Mobile News copy
Aussie artist Peter Hennessey spends his time creating 1:1 scale models of spacecraft. The Hubble is above, but he’s also done the Voyager, Mission Control and even a Lunar Rover. [Hennessey via MAKE via DesignBoom via BoingBoing] More »
Hubble Space Telescope – Space – Technology – Astronomy – Voyager
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Cell phones represent the killer combination of their owner’s identity, presence and wallet — and they are nearly ubiquitous, with an estimated five billion global active subscriptions predicted before the end of 2010. As such, using phones to pay for things provides a huge growth opportunity in the mobile market. Generator Research recently predicted that the worldwide market for mobile payments would grow to $633.4 billion by 2014, up from $68.7 billion in 2009.
So, after many years of promise, mobile payments are finally finding their stride — but it’s not just one stride. In writing about the space, I admit I’ve been confused many times by what people actually mean when they say “mobile payments.” Is it when people buy things on their phone? Within a mobile application? Using their phone number? Using their physical handset? When they pay their bills from their phone? When they split a tab via text message?
The answer is yes — in fact, all of these are rapidly growing businesses. In the hopes that I could help other people more easily understand the mobile payments space, I spent some time talking to many of the players about their business. I then wrote a longer post for GigaOM Pro, our subscription research service, that lays out the different subsets, challenges and opportunities they face.
Companies mentioned in this feature include Allopass, Apple, AT&T, Bling Nation, Boku, ClairMail, Danal, Facebook, FeliCa Networks, Firethorn, Globe, mFoundry, Mopay, M-PESA, O2 Money, Oi Paggo, Obopay, Smart, Square, PayPal, Venmo, Verizon, Visa, ViVOtech and Zong. I hope you’ll check it out!
Check out the rest: GigaOM
Humans can’t survive out in the vacuum of space. At least not for long. But what would those 14 seconds or so be like? Not fun, it turns out! More »
Space – Technology – Vacuum – Business – Google
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It’s been an amazing couple of weeks for amateur astronomers. Last Sunday, one of their ilk spied the super-secret X37-B space shuttle making the rounds, and this Sunday another has imaged the ISS crossing paths with Jupiter—during the daytime! More »
Astronomy – Amateur astronomy – Amateur – Space Shuttle – Technology
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