Guyism » Space

VIDEO: Germans build personal multicopter, Americans build space blimp

Dan Seitz — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 16:30:21 +0000

One of the great things about the relentless march of technology is that as new ideas, materials and techniques propagate, we can come together as a species and use them to do things that are truly amazing, hilariously irresponsible, or both. We’re pretty sure these videos fall into category C.

First up, we’ve got this German slice of absurb/awesome. The multicopter design offers stability at the cost of speed, but considering how most helicopter crashes are caused by stability problems, that’s a good trade-off. There was also the problem of lifting a gas engine, which e-volo solved with, of course, making it an electrically powered device. Robots have been multicoptering it up for years now, but this is the first manned electric multicopter flight. And it went for about ninety seconds. Hey, they’re still working out the kinks. And besides, that’s one pimped out yoga ball.

Next, we have JP Aerospace. They’re a small company that would really like to get us off this rock using their products. Unfortunately, one of the problems is getting their products out of the atmosphere, which likes us right where we are. So, they solved that problem over five years by slapping together a cheap unmanned blimp called the Tandem (for its two propellers) that rises to a record breaking 95,000 feet and costs about as much as a decent car: $30,000. By NASA standards, that’s nothing. And here’s what it looks like, nearly twenty miles above the Earth:

Amazing Multicopter Could Be Your Ticket To The Heavens [Gizmodo]

DIY Unmanned Airship Soars 95,000 Feet Above Earth [Engadget]

Buzz Aldrin will knock you out

Chris Spags — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 17:10:12 +0000

This is pretty old but, hey, yesterday was the moon landing anniversary and I’ve never seen it so f you, enjoy it anyway. Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin is confronted by a conspiracy theorist so he reacts logically, by slugging him in the face.

I think the moon landing happened, but I could see how you wouldn’t believe it. I mean they did this in the 60s but since then we’ve done, what exactly? Ooh we sent a robot to Mars, wow! There were more interesting space discoveries on Lost in Space and that show was fundamentally about an old man f’ing a kid while a robot ran around pretending it wasn’t happening. If they put together a space program in less than a decade, we should at least be colonizing on the moon by now. Not that it’d be so amazing. People live in/on rocks here on Earth too. They’re called terrorists, and their lifestyle seems less glamorous than their lice-ridden beards will lead you to believe.

Quote of the Day

Chris Spags — Mon, 18 May 2009 18:00:02 +0000

Everyone loves rocks. They’re good for throwing at the windows of those who’ve wronged you or raising as a pet of your own that won’t crap on the floor or give you that terribly annoying love or affection. But would you pay $50,000 for something that’s basically a rock from the sky?

The five-pound meteorite that crashed into a Park Forest home in 2003 was bought by a private collector for $50,787.50 Sunday during an auction by Dallas-based Heritage Auctions.

David Herskowitz, director of natural history at Heritage, says it’s the Garza’s provenance that makes it exceptional.

“The added value of this meteorite is that it hit a man-made object,” Herskowitz said. “And that’s extraordinary. They usually land in the desert, the ocean or the polar ice cap and are never found.”

Herskowitz says wealthy collectors aren’t the only ones who find meteorites, fossils and dinosaurs fascinating.

“Most people find this sort of thing really cool,” he said. “We can’t get enough of them. That’s the reason natural history museums remain so popular.”

[via]