Cutting Edge

Astronomer-astronaut John Grunsfeld, veteran of eight Hubble Space Telescope spacewalks and a self-described "Hubble hugger," inadvertently bumped into one of the observatory's two low-gain antennas toward the end of an otherwise smooth spacewalk Monday, knocking off a small end piece. Groaning with disbelief, Grunsfeld said, "Oh, I feel terrible."

But engineers at the Goddard Space Flight Center quickly reported the antenna was still working normally. Grunsfeld and fellow spacewalker Andrew Feustel were asked to put a protective cover over the cone-shaped device for added insulation before ending the Atlantis crew's fifth and final spacewalk.… Read more

Held up by a stripped screw, spacewalker Michael Massimino applied brute force to an otherwise delicate operation Sunday, breaking off an offending handrail inside the Hubble Space Telescope and then carefully unscrewing more than 100 small fasteners to get inside a dead science instrument.

After pulling out a blown power supply circuit board, Massimino and crewmate Michael "Bueno" Good carefully installed a replacement card, closed the instrument up and began collecting tools and equipment while engineers at the Goddard Space Flight Center sent commands to verify electrical connectivity in a quick-look "aliveness" test.

Somewhere along the … Read more

This post was updated at 9:10 p.m. PDT to note that Wolfram Alpha is now up and running.

Wolfram Alpha struggled to get up and rolling Friday evening under difficult conditions, as the company scaled back expectations for its performance this weekend.

The new search engine attempted to make its debut literally in the middle of the perfect storm: a tornado watch had engineers on edge in Champaign, Ill., where Wolfram Research attempted to bring the service online. However, networking and database problems also prevented the engine from launching as of 6 p.m. PDT, an hour after … Read more

Astronaut Michael Massimino, floating inside the Hubble Space Telescope, and fellow spacewalker Michael "Bueno" Good, on the end of the shuttle Atlantis' robot arm, successfully installed four state-of-the-art gyroscopes Friday. But an alignment problem prevented the astronauts from installing a box containing two final gyros.

Even so, Hubble Program Manager Preston Burch said the refurbished two-gyro rate sensor unit, or RSU, that they installed instead featured two of the three improvements incorporated in newer models and that engineers are confident it will prove as reliable as its partners.

"We've run the reliability models for all the … Read more

This post was updated at 4:08 p.m. PDT with information from a Wolfram Alpha blog post and again at 5 p.m. PDT with info from a Wolfram spokesman.

Wolfram Alpha, the new "computational knowledge engine" set to debut publicly Friday, has hit a technical snag that could delay its launch, a spokesman for Wolfram Research confirmed.

The online tool--which some say could give Google a run for its money--supplies answers to factual, data-intensive questions but also does math in the process. It was set to go live to the public at 5 p.m. PDT. … Read more

The adventurous guys at Jetpack International recently made an attempt on a world air-speed record. Pilot Eric Scott hit a maximum speed of 68 mph, verified by a police radar gun.

Jet packs seem like the next obvious stage in the evolution of transportation.

Via OhGizmo

Follow me (sans Jetpack) on Twitter @daveofdoom

In a make-or-break attempt to free a stuck bolt holding an old camera in place on the Hubble Space Telescope, spacewalker Andrew Feustel, anchored to the end of the shuttle Atlantis' robot arm, used old-fashioned elbow grease to save the day, releasing the bolt and clearing the way for installation of a powerful new camera.

If the bolt had snapped--and that was a possibility--the astronauts would have been unable to remove the 16-year-old Wide Field Planetary Camera 2. In that case, the new $132 million Wide Field Camera 3 would have been returned to Earth aboard Atlantis in a major … Read more

"The ocean needs more friends", says Graham Hawkes, who earlier this week unveiled the Deep Flight Super Falcon at the Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. The craft is the newest and most advanced production-model undersea flying vehicle designed by Hawkes Ocean Technologies. (More information after the slideshow)

The submersible, which is 1/10th the weight of its conventional counterparts, seeks to provide new methods of exploring the oceans. Typically, undersea submersibles are very slow, and Hawkes designed this vehicle so that individuals might be able to more safely and comfortably explore the vast oceans of the world, … Read more

A group of MIT graduates has shown that life after college can be rewarding.

Ksplice, a start-up venture run by a team of MIT alumni, has taken home the $100,000 grand prize in the MIT $100K Entrepreneurship Competition. The award was handed on at a ceremony held Wednesday night at MIT's campus in Cambridge, Mass.

Ksplice beat out five other technology start-ups in its category to win the competition with its own innovative product. The company's technology lets computer users install software updates while other programs are running, eliminating the need for the dreaded reboot.

"You … Read more