Monday Tech News
Poster: Aron Schatz
Posted on March 6, 2006 at 2:49:00 PM
Microbes aboard Columbia survived.
Robotic mule. Watch the video, crazy.
Completing ISS is prime.
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Robert McLean at Texas State University in San Marcos had sent three strains of bacteria on the doomed Columbia sealed in a box to see how weightlessness would affect their growth. When the disaster happened, he assumed that the box had been destroyed. A few days later, however, a colleague spotted the charred container in a newspaper photograph of shuttle debris. McLean prised open the box to find the inner layers intact. The innards of the box had survived temperatures of more than 175 °C. His three bacterial strains had died, but he was surprised to find another bacterium, Microbispora, thriving inside.
Robotic mule. Watch the video, crazy.
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Raibert says the latest version of BigDog can handle slopes of 35° - a steeper gradient than one in two. The hydraulics are driven by a two-stroke single-cylinder petrol engine, and it can carry over 40 kg, about 30% of its bodyweight. The robot can follow a simple path on its own, or can be remotely controlled.
Completing ISS is prime.
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NASA Administrator Mike Griffin made it clear during a press conference on Thursday that his goal is to make use of 16 remaining shuttle flights to ensure the half-built station is finished, so fulfilling NASA's international obligations.