This is the journey of a lifetime – literally.

NASA and DARPA have teamed up to build a Hundred-Year Starship, an initiative that would entail passengers leaving Earth and never coming back.

Read More

Filed under: Aerospace, e-News | 10 Comments »

Tags: Aerospace, Space

CLARIFICATION: Our original story, “Tree Bombs to Combat Deforestation,” was based on a report by the blog Treehugger, which cited an original article published in 1999. We can find no indication that the idea ever received funding for trials or implementation. A corrected story follows:

Look up in the sky. It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s … a tree?

In 1999, an MIT researcher designed a plan to take a fleet of old, unused C-130 Hercules cargo planes – originally created to drop land mines – and recommission them to drop “tree bombs” that would aid growth in deforested areas.

Read More

Filed under: e-News, Environmental, Transportation | 5 Comments »

Tags: Aerospace, Environmental, Military, Transportation

For the past four years, Todd Reichert, an engineering student at the University of Toronto, has been working to perfect one of Leonardo Da Vinci’s greatest concepts – an ornithopter.

An ornithopter is a human-powered aircraft that flies by flapping its wings, and with the help of 30 other students, as well as $200,000, Reichert made history by building such a vehicle and piloting a sustained flight.

Read More

Filed under: Aerospace, e-News, Mechanical, Transportation | 3 Comments »

Tags: Aerospace, Mechanical, Transportation

Carlos Barrios, the thirteenth miner to be freed, emerges from the capsule

On August 5, 2010, the San José copper-gold mine near Copiapó, Chile collapsed, leaving 33 men trapped over 2,000 feet below ground.

Sixty-nine days later (a record period of time for surviving underground), all 33 of the miners were rescued.

The miners spent 17 days underground before making contact with the outside world. But once they did, engineers had to race to devise an escape shaft that could reach so deep underground – and safely, without harming the men trapped below. In the mean time, teams of rescue specialists worked to make sure the miners stayed healthy and fed.

Read More

Filed under: Aerospace, e-News, Mechanical, Mining | 7 Comments »

Tags: Aerospace, Mechanical, Mining

Americans of Hispanic descent have made notable contributions to science, engineering and technology. They include a 1968 Physics Nobel laureate, the current head of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and the first Latina astronaut, now Number 2 at NASA’s Johnson Space Flight Center. In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept. 15 – Oct. 15), here are the stories of a scientist and two engineers of Hispanic descent who have made a significant impact in their fields.

Read More

Filed under: Aerospace, e-News, Environmental | Comments Off on Notable Hispanic Scientists and Engineers

Tags: Aerospace, Energy, Environmental