Cutting Edge

JOHNSON SPACE CENTER, Houston--Despite problems that forced spacewalk replanning, an impromptu toilet repair and work to fix the space station's carbon dioxide scrubber, the shuttle Endeavour's ongoing assembly mission is going well, the commander said Sunday, with most major objectives now accomplished. A fifth and final spacewalk is planned for Monday.

During four earlier spacewalks and near daily use of three robot arms on the shuttle and the space station, the astronauts have attached a large experiment platform to the Japanese Kibo lab module, installed research instruments and critical spare parts, replaced aging solar array batteries and deployed … Read more

Docked off San Francisco's Pier 27 and rocking calmly in the bay, the Okeanos Explorer awaits its return to sea.

The ship--once a U.S. Navy vessel now under control of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)--is in the midst of being outfitted exclusively for deep-ocean exploration and discovery. Its purpose will be to investigate unknown, misunderstood, and other below-the-surface phenomena. It is expected to be fully operational by next summer.

With up to 95 percent of the ocean unexplored, there are vast amounts of research for the ship to pursue. However, the Okeanos Explorer will have … Read more

The Hubble Space Telescope, still undergoing tests and checkout after a May shuttle servicing mission, snapped a dramatic photo of Jupiter this week showing the atmospheric disturbance left behind after a presumed comet or icy asteroid crashed into the giant planet.

The photograph, taken by the new Wide Field Camera 3, is the first science observation released from Hubble since the telescope was upgraded and repaired.

"The details seen in the Hubble view shows lumpiness in the debris plume caused by turbulence in Jupiter's atmosphere," NASA said in a statement. "The impactor is estimated to be … Read more

The newly formed Andreessen Horowitz venture fund has its first outside recruit, and it's a Googler.

Ronny Conway, son of prominent Silicon Valley investor Ron Conway, is leaving his position at Google Ventures to join Netscape and Ning founder Marc Andreessen and partner Ben Horowitz in August, according to TechCrunch.

Conway had been at Google for six years, but Google Ventures, where he was an associate, was established earlier this year. Google Ventures' first major investment was in e-commerce start-up Pixazza.

Andreessen Horowitz first announced its new $300 million fund several weeks ago.

JOHNSON SPACE CENTER, Houston--Guy Laliberté, a former street entertainer who founded the enormously successful Cirque du Soleil, says he doesn't plan any fire eating or stilt walking aboard the International Space Station when he visits this fall.

But he might try to teach his crewmates a few card tricks if he can figure out how to do it in weightlessness.

"Take out the fire part!" he laughed during a news conference Thursday at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. "I think this is out of the question by far. The stilts, I don't know … Read more

Fiber to the home (FTTH) installations are expected to shoot up 30 percent annually over the next five years, according to a report released Thursday by Heavy Reading.

Growing from 36 million households with fiber hookups last year, a record 130 million are likely to have fiber by 2013, according to a summary (PDF) of the report from Heavy Reading, the market research arm of Light Reading, an event company serving the worldwide communications market.

FTTH installations employ fiber-optic cables to replace the traditional copper wiring used in the last mile from the central office to the home. Fiber can … Read more

PASADENA, Calif.--While some suggest that space exploration is a luxury we can't afford in tough times, it's not surprising that Charles Elachi doesn't see it that way.

"Our economy is fundamentally dependent on innovation," said Elachi, who heads NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "This is not the time to go back and sit under our shell."

Elachi, speaking at the Fortune Brainstorm: Tech conference, said some of the technology used in space has led to things like GPS and better ways of detecting cancer.

To offer a visual aid to his argument, … Read more

Touch screens that track two fingers will soon seem basic. At least if you compare them with the multitouch-sensor ClearPad 3000 Series, recently announced by Santa Clara, Calif.-based Synaptics.

The transparent sensor tracks up to 10 simultaneous finger touches--we assume that should cover most uses--making possible complex multifinger gestures such as closing an application by "crumpling" it with several fingers, or playing polyphonic sounds on a virtual piano keyboard.

Apple made multitouch popular with its iPhone, which debuted about four months after Synaptics introduced its currently shipping two-finger sensor, ClearPad 2000, in August 2006. Though widely speculated that Apple is using Synaptics' technology, that has not been confirmed.

One phone that does use the sensor is the T-mobile G1 by HTC, and manufacturers such as Samsung and LG are also confirmed customers.

The new sensor features an accuracy of plus/minus 1 mm, is 0.3 mm thick, and is available in sizes up to 8 inches diagonally.

That supported screen size, and the speculated relationship between Synaptics and Apple, makes us wonder if this sensor is what Apple's been waiting for to launch its much-rumored tablet. … Read more

JOHNSON SPACE CENTER, Houston--NASA managers terminated a spacewalk Wednesday when carbon dioxide levels in astronaut Chris Cassidy's spacesuit began climbing due to a malfunction in its CO2 removal system. NASA managers said later the CO2 levels never exceeded normal limits for crews inside the space station or the shuttle and that calling off the spacewalk early was simply a precaution.

"A spacesuit is a very small spacecraft and there's really not very much margin for error," said space station Flight Director Holly Ridings.

She said Cassidy, a former Navy SEAL making his first spacewalk, experienced no … Read more