NASA Ames' Vertical Motion Simulator, the largest-such simulator in the world, has been used since 1980 to help train pilots to fly helicopters, fighters, and space shuttles. Now, it is being used for training on the next-generation lunar lander.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--There I was, staking my claim to a pilot's slot in one of NASA's next-generation lunar landers, and to be perfectly frank, I think I'd better not quit my day job.
"I think we probably walked away from that," said NASA aerospace engineer Eric Mueller, after one rough touchdown. It was an overly charitable assessment of my performance. I'd hate to know what he was really thinking.
If you've been paying attention, you're probably aware that there are no current missions to the moon, and so you know that I wasn't actually trying to land there. But I was piloting the same equipment that real-life astronauts have been using to prepare for potential future lunar trips, and so you'll have to forgive me for being a bit disappointed that my skills are likely not up to snuff.
This indulging of my astronaut fantasies was part of a visit last week to NASA's Vertical Motion Simulator (VMS), the world's largest tool for training those whose actual job is to fly lunar landers, space shuttles, helicopters, Joint Strike Fighters, and even bobsleds on the skills and tricks necessary to get their crafts safely to their destinations.
Based in the Aviation Systems Division at NASA Ames Research Center, the VMS offers those who use it six degrees of freedom, including 60 feet of vertical and 40 feet of lateral motion simulation inside a huge, 100-foot-tall chamber that looks like something over which an auto mechanic would salivate. Those "flying" the simulator (see video below) have 20 feet of movement in both in the left and right directions, as well as 4 feet forward and back, and 25 degrees of roll, pitch, and yaw.
Originally opened in 1980 to enable pilots to test-fly helicopters, the VMS is currently being used, among other things, to help NASA get ready for what is likely to be its next great mission: a return to the moon with Constellation, the space agency's long-awaited next-generation program and the followup to the Space Shuttle program.
Over the years, according to Kathleen Starmer, the deputy director of NASA's SimLabs outreach team, VMS has been used by a wide range of private companies and military agencies that have needed to run vertical motion tests, including Boeing, Lockheed, Grumman, and others. And today, even when the simulator is not set up for faux lunar landings, it is in use 100 percent of available time, Starmer said. Those wishing to use it need only show that their project can offer some benefit to NASA, and be able to pony up about $5,000 a day.
Flying Altair
But I hadn't come to the VMS to see what it would be like to fly a helicopter. I'd come for a shot at Altair, the next-generation lunar lander, and the one that will be the business end of the Constellation program, at least on the surface of the moon.
According to Karl Bilimoria, an aerospace engineer in the VMS program, NASA is now in the process of running its third formal Altair simulation. When reporters aren't being allowed to barely land in the simulator, "pro astronauts," as Bilimoria put it, are coming to Ames and spending full days in the VMS. One reason for that, he said, is that with Altair, the pilots will need to master pinpoint landing accuracy: they'll need to put the craft down within 10 feet of their designated landing sites on the moon, requiring far more precision than what was required of the pilots of the Apollo age.
This is expected to be a difficult task with Altair because one of the design philosophies of the Constellation program will be to shave as much mass as possible off the payload in order to reduce takeoff weight--and save tremendous amounts of money that each additional pound costs to put in space. Bilimoria said NASA hopes to outfit Altair with the smallest possible control jets, a configuration that makes minute control of the landing craft more difficult than was the case with its much sportier Apollo counterpart.
Which would mean, of course, that NASA is trying to offset the loss of some of the brute force control that comes with less propulsion on the lander with state of-the-art electronics: advanced control systems and advanced cockpit displays.
It might not be possible to achieve the kind of landing accuracy NASA wants with the reduced control jet profile, Bilimoria said, but "before we throw our hands up," it will try to solve the problem with technological advances. "We can always squeeze out a little more," he said. "The question is, is it enough?"
To date, Bilimoria said that multiple simulations have shown that technology isn't quite up to the task at hand, and that it could be another year of running tests in the VMS before it's known if the goal is possible. Of course, any return trip to the moon is many years away, but Mueller explained that NASA is doing this work now in order to have the most advanced notice possible if it's going to be necessary to design Altair with larger control jets.
Rough landings
Inside the cockpit, I was strapped in and given some quick instruction (see video below) on how to read the two major digital displays and how to use them in conjunction with a set of joysticks to properly land the craft. The space is set up to resemble what an actual Altair interior would look like, down to the view out the window, and the narrow working space that is partially made possible by having both the pilot and co-pilot stand up straight rather than sit down.
In fact, the Altair cockpit simulator is one of five separate "interchangeable cabs" used in the VMS to mimic different kinds of vehicles, from rotorcrafts to fighters to transport vehicles. Each cab can be set up with conventional aircraft instruments or advanced avionics, depending on the needs of the client using the simulator.
On an Altair pilot's right is what is known as a vertical situation display, which Mueller said is a fairly typical glass cockpit-type display that, for the most part, would be familiar to fixed-wing pilots, and which is new for a lunar lander. The idea, said Mueller, is that this display provides good cues for landing.
On the left side is the horizontal situation display, a newer system that provides Altair's pilots with velocity vectors, and a touchdown display. This system features a set of "bells and whistles" developed at Ames and designed to help the pilot keep a "nice hover" over the landing spot and to improve their hover and descent skills.
One display in the cockpit shows the ground and the landing pad, and the lander's progress towards a proper touchdown.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)And, just to help the pilot with more true-to-life visual cues, there's also a "view" out the front windows, as well as a view from straight down underneath the lander at the ground below.
For someone skilled at piloting any kind of aircraft--even simulated ones in video games--landing the faux Altair is not that hard. The visual cues are extremely intuitive--basically, just keep a little dot in the center of the screen by tapping the joystick one way or another--and it's designed to be fairly simple, in the VMS, at least, to land.
Adding to the realism, of course, is the fact that the cockpit rocks back and forth and left and right, as it would in real life. So if you overcorrect, get ready to tilt the wrong way. Given my lack of skills, I found myself doing that far more than I should have.
Still, in each of my landing attempts, I managed to get the craft onto the lunar "surface," not even crashing once.
The progress of the lander is marked by the green line on the display in this picture. The long, squiggly line is evidence of a rather lengthy and roundabout approach to the lunar surface.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)To be sure, though, none of the current or future astronauts have to worry much about me being a competitor for their spots on actual moon missions.
Nor would they worry about competition from a CNET colleague who accompanied me to the VMS. As he attempted to fly the lander, his progress was recorded as a long, very squiggly green line on one of the displays, evidence of a remarkable lack of precision.
In the control room, two VMS scientists watched my colleague's progress and shook their heads.
"We've never seen anything like this," said one, of my colleague's roundabout approach to the ground.
"He still hit the pad," said the other. "It's amazing."
Mattel's i-Tag, a new augmented reality-based toy that comes with 'Avatar' action figures that will be released in October. Could this be the future of toys?
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)I have seen the future of toys, and it is augmented reality.
That was my conclusion Monday after seeing Mattel's i-Tags, new technology that will be included with action figures the company will make for "Titanic" director James Cameron's new film, "Avatar."
For those not familiar with augmented reality, it's an overlay of digital information or imagery on top of real-world objects. AR, as it's known, "is a field of computer research that deals with the combination of real-world and computer-generated data (virtual reality), where computer graphics objects are blended into real footage in real time," according to Wikipedia.
Or, as Sean McGowan, a toy industry analyst with Needham & Company in New York called it, AR is "jet fuel for the imagination."
In the case of the "Avatar" action figures, AR is being implemented in the form of small plastic cards--the i-Tags--that kids can hold up in front of any Webcam. When they do, a fully 3D digital image is superimposed over the card on the screen. This can be anything from a simple set of information about a character from the film to a full-on, five-on-five shooting battle involving large military helicopters and flying dinosaur-like creatures called Leonopteryx.
The i-Tags, along with the "Avatar" action figures they're based on, will be released in October in advance of the December 18 release of Cameron's film.
There are five levels of i-TAGs, each of which corresponds to a specific level of interactivity with the AR. At level one--which will cost $8.95 per toy--kids who hold the card up to their Webcam will see some information on their computer screen about the character. At higher levels, though, they'll be able to "push" buttons on the card, allowing them to manipulate the digital character or vehicle that pops up (see video below).
While AR is beginning to show up in many arenas, from video games to movie advertising to baseball cards to exploratory toys, Mattel said that the i-Tag is the first-ever retail toy implementation of the technology.
And let's be honest about Mattel's implementation: it's cool, if fairly limited. At its best, two kids with Level 5 i-TAGs could put their "Battle Packs" to the test and watch as five warriors pop up on both sides of the screen and proceed to battle it out in, seemingly right in front of the kids.
And to be sure, for a 6-year-old, or even a 10-year-old, this could be pretty exciting. But I'm willing to bet a 15-year-old is going to get the maximum out of this system pretty quickly.
Augmented reality has already made it to some markets, as in the case of Topps baseball cards. The Topps implementation was also done by Total Immersion, which is behind the technology in the Mattel i-Tags.
(Credit: Topps)But to me, this isn't about today. This is about what's coming down the line, and what i-Tags and augmented reality making it to the retail market now means for the future of toys. And that's because this, as first-generation technology, is just scratching the surface of what's going to be possible in a year or two when growing public awareness of AR meets lower R&D costs and motivates developers the world over to see what's possible with this new medium.
"It's a very important thing, because the evolution of toys has been about solitary action," McGowan said. "We've had Web sites that interact with toys, but we've been missing the feedback with the toy...We've seen interactive toys 1.0, but nothing that goes back to the toy. I think augmented reality is creating a loop that makes two plus two equal five."
Think about it. The possibilities are just about endless, and could mean a whole new life for the kinds of toys that kids at first play with a lot, and then quickly abandon. By embedding special software in imagery that can be placed just about anywhere on a toy, toy makers will now have an incredibly wide range of virtual things to add to their physical toys.
Whether it's battling aliens or dancing dolls or branded pets, the sky's pretty much the limit for what could be done with AR and toys. And it's not about Mattel at all. Or at least not entirely about Mattel. It's really about the entire toy industry and the imaginative ways that toy designers figure out to build AR into their creations.
Indeed, it may be more accurate to say that, assuming the market is proved out quickly, the only limitations to how to deploy AR in or with toys could be what toy makers can think of.
Instructions on the side of an augmented-reality-embedded toy from Mattel's 'Avatar' collection.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)To McGowan, there really is no limit to what can happen with this technology, but he thinks that it's important that a company like Mattel is taking the step of introducing AR to the market. Yet he also applauds the company for being subtle about AR in its marketing. In part, that's because of the state of the economy.
"Mattel is being smart, and downplaying" AR, McGowan said. "They're not trumpeting it as the hottest thing. They're not saying it's going to set the toy industry on fire. Why set it up that way?"
Yet this is extremely new technology and, so far at least, people don't seem to be putting a lot of energy into embedding AR into toys. Which isn't, of course to say that the technology won't be the next big thing.
McGowan believes there isn't any corner of the toy industry that won't benefit from new technologies like this, whether it's dolls or airplanes or anything else.
"With the concept of play, going back to the stone ages, kids emulate what they see in the world, and emulate what they see adults doing," he said. "It's their imagination that makes things real. And that imagination can be augmented...Every kid has always taken a little paper airplane and imagined they've been flying through the sky. Now that can happen a lot more realistically."
For today's picture of the day challenge...win a prize for being the first to name this art project and the artist.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)Update (9:04 a.m.): We have a winner. It seems that many people knew of, or had visited, Nancy Holt's "Sun Tunnels," close to the town of Lucin, Utah. It also seems that the hints provided and/or Google may have made this one a little too easy. Stay tuned for tomorrow's Road Trip picture of the day challenge.
BOISE, Idaho--If only I'd known, when I began Road Trip 2009 nearly three weeks ago, that running a picture of the day challenge would elicit such a large response.
Over the last two days, I've posted two photos, one of an odd large yellow sphere in Arco, Idaho, and the other a Cold War era Bomarc B surface-to-air missile, currently housed at the Hill Air Force Museum near Ogden, Utah, asking my readers to identify them. I'm not sure if I've ever gotten so much e-mail. So, the picture of the day challenge continues.
Your task: be the first person to send me an e-mail--with "Picture of the Day" in the subject line identifying this art piece, and the artist who made it. I won't ask you to say where it's located, and I'll even give you one hint: it's in Utah, not far at all from the Nevada border.
If you have an answer, please e-mail it to me at daniel--dot--terdiman--at--cnet--dot--com. The first person with the right answer (including the name of the artist) wins a prize. Once I've identified a winner, I'll post an update with the answer.
Good luck.
For the next several weeks, Geek Gestalt will be on Road Trip 2009. After driving more than 12,000 miles in the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest, and the Southeast over the last three years, I'll be writing about and photographing the best in technology, science, military, nature, aviation and more in Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, and Colorado. If you have a suggestion for someplace to visit, drop me a line. And in the meantime, join the Road Trip 2009 Facebook page and follow my Twitter feed.
At exactly 3,000 miles into Road Trip 2009, CNET News reporter Daniel Terdiman and the Audi Q7 TDI clean diesel SUV he's road-testing were on the road alongside Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)CRATERS OF THE MOON, Idaho--It's hard for me to believe, because I still feel like I just started Road Trip 2009, but I've already driven enough miles to have crossed the entire United States.
Already it's been 18 days, and on Wednesday, I hit exactly 3,000 miles since I started this project. And it was in one of the most foreign and awe-inspiring places I've ever seen: alongside the road adjacent to Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve.
I'll post a story and photo gallery on this huge and incredible place tomorrow, so I won't get into details on it now. But suffice it to say that if you spend any time here, you know a little bit about what it must be like to walk on surfaces that aren't here on Earth.
The odometer may read 1,000 miles, but Road Trip 2009 has actually been on the highways of Colorado, Utah, and Idaho--with brief crossings into Arizona and Nevada--for 3,000 miles already. How many more miles will there be?
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)Since I hit 2,000 miles, meanwhile, I've been extremely busy. I've stopped by the Golden Spike National Historic Site, where the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads met for the first time, forming the transcontinental railroad. I've walked on Robert Smithson's masterpiece of an earthwork, Spiral Jetty, which seems to float on top of the Great Salt Lake. At the Utah Test & Training Range, I've seen how the U.S. Air Force trains its pilots on America's largest bombing range. I've played with my iPhone and seen how it integrates seamlessly with the Audi Q7 TDI I'm road-testing. And I've been the first reporter to see the completed Ares I test rocket that will be fired in August in what will be an important first step to getting people back to the moon.
Now, I've moved on, have visited Craters of the Moon, and have urged my readers to help me figure out what to do in Boise, Idaho. I've also picked your brains about the best apps for the new iPhone 3GS.
Each year, Road Trip challenges me with an incredible roster of destinations and a non-stop pace. But it's always worth it. And whether I'm driving enough miles to cross the country, or adding enough miles to return again, I'm going to keep on sharing my experiences with you. I hope you enjoy them.
For the next several weeks, Geek Gestalt will be on Road Trip 2009. After driving more than 12,000 miles in the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest, and the Southeast over the last three years, I'll be writing about and photographing the best in technology, science, military, nature, aviation and more in Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, and Colorado. If you have a suggestion for someplace to visit, drop me a line. And in the meantime, join the Road Trip 2009 Facebook page and follow my Twitter feed.
A MUTE, or multiple threat emitter simulator, which is designed to throw up electronic challenges to pilots attempting bombing missions at the Utah Test & Training Range.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)DUGWAY, Utah--"We train warriors and test weapons."
That's how Col. Jeff Snell, the commander of the 388th Range Squadron, which operates the gargantuan Utah Test & Training Range (UTTR), summed up the main mission of his command.
I had spent the day visiting part of UTTR's Maryland-size facilities, and discovered that Snell's words were a very succinct way of explaining what really goes on at the range: Air Force pilots fly in there in screaming-fast aircraft to run bombing training missions, often in advance of deployments to either Iraq or Afghanistan, and, less frequently, the Air Force uses the facility to test out various weapons systems.
Unless you knew it was there, you wouldn't know it was there. There is so much desert in northwest Utah, much of it with small, Afghanistan-like mountains, that except in very rare cases, the public never goes anywhere near UTTR. And that means that pilots flying missions there have almost unfettered scope for firing away at their targets, often with live bombs or missiles.
Indeed, unlike other bombing ranges around the country, all of which limit the direction in which missiles can be fired, UTTR offers the Air Force no such limitations. Instead, the property is so big that in most cases, there is nothing to stop pilots from firing any which way they please.
As part of my Road Trip 2009 project, I was given a tour of part of UTTR by Maj. David Dunklee, the detachment commander there. He explained that his team--mainly made up of civilians--have four main tasks: setting up and refurbishing targets; photographing missions, with centimeter accuracy; challenging pilots on missions with all manner of electronic threats in attempts to make the missions as realistic as possible; and basic infrastructure management.
While the first and the last of those duties are probably the most time-consuming, the most complex parts are the middle two: photography and challenging pilots during their missions.
The point of the photography component is to record every last bit of data about each and every mission that is run at UTTR, and that's a big number. According to Snell, there are about 15,000 sorties a year at UTTR, most of which are training runs. Pilots will fly all kinds of aircraft there, including the politically controversial F-22, B-1s, B-2s, F-15Es, and others.
Scattered around UTTR are small white domes called cine-theodolites. These are camera batteries in which operators are able, through very high-powered lenses, to capture imagery of elements of bombing missions, and, when combined with at least two and, ideally, three other Cine-Ts, as they're called, Dunklee's people can triangulate and create a "centimeter accuracy" record of what went on during a mission.
And that's important, because the critical part of the missions that are run at UTTR is giving decision makers, pilots and others involved in the Air Force, a way to see exactly went right and what went wrong during a mission, or with a test weapon, so that they can determine the pilot, or the weapon, are ready for prime time.
This is called "scoring" the missions, and with more than 300 targets scattered all over UTTR, it is important that Dunklee's team have infrastructure in place where and when it's needed so that every mission can be scored.
Realistic conditions
But pilots wouldn't get much out of running training bombing missions if they had free and clear access at their targets. That's why another task of the Dunklee's people is to run interference, and to, essentially, be the "bad guys," as John Bridgman, a quality assurance operator, put it. To that end, Bridgman and his colleagues are given control of systems that can transmit many different kind of threats that pilots will have to contend with as they scream over UTTR in their aircraft.
Several drones that will be used as unmanned flying targets for the pilots attempting missions at the range.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)Those threats can be anything that a pilot might encounter in actual combat: shoulder-launched missiles, surface-to-air missiles, other airplanes and so on. "We throw everything we can at them," Bridgman said, trying to simulate shooting them down.
Additionally, Bridgman's team moves its equipment around so that they can "attack" from anywhere, making it impossible for pilots to learn where the threats, of which there are at least 75 different kinds, might be coming from.
Another element of presenting pilots with realistic conditions is giving them moving targets. Already, UTTR has two autonomous tanks that are capable of pulling targets around on trailers at slow speeds. But now, the Air Force is preparing to roll out a new system, a GPS and transmitter-geared-up Ford F-350 truck that is designed to pull a target around without a driver at 55 miles an hour.
The truck cost the Air Force more than $100,000, Dunklee estimated, so it's crucial that pilots not hit it. But with precision weapons, and long trailers, no one is too worried about losing the pricey vehicle to a rogue bomb. Rather, they hope, pilots will hit the inexpensive targets placed on the trailer.
At UTTR, there are other target scenarios going on than just pilots firing directly at targets. Those types of missions are intended mainly as training for the pilots. But there are also test of weapons systems such as cruise missiles. In that case, pilots of bombers like a B-52 will fly into UTTR and fire such a missile, which, in an attempt to simulate the up to four hours of flight time it might have in combat, will proceed to "spaghetti" overhead until finally zeroing on its target.
Back at Mission Control
The command center for UTTR is at Hill Air Force Base, which is north of Salt Lake City and about a two-hour drive from UTTR. There, Snell and his team, as well as any of a wide range of "customers," including personnel from the Air Force, other military services, the Defense Department, defense contractors and others can watch the missions play out in real time, thanks to Dunklee's photography team.
The various tracking systems deployed at UTTR allow those in the command center to see very accurate and up-to-the-minute data about the missions, giving them the ability to understand precisely what is happening at any given moment and, later, to make decisions based on that information.
And while the most common mission of Snell's 388th Range Squadron is training pilots who are headed for combat, it is also to evaluate new weapons systems.
In August, then, the 388th will begin a weapons systems evaluation program (WSEP) that will last for three weeks. Personnel involved in the evaluation will begin to show up at Hill up to a couple weeks early for preparation. A WSEP, Snell said, is designed to produce an end-to-end examination of a weapons program, of everyone involved in it, and of their ability to react to conditions on the ground.
All told, given how many people are involved, both at UTTR and at Hill, how many bombs are dropped annually and how many sorties are flown there, it's amazing that the Air Force is able to pull it all off without the general public even knowing it is going on in their backyard.
But that's the advantage provided by a piece of land that is protected by mountains on several sides and which is the size of the state of Maryland. And while there have certainly been deadly cases of miscalculation in airborne attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan, the Air Force feels that those who train at UTTR are as well-prepared as a pilot can be before heading off into combat.
On June 22, Geek Gestalt will kick off Road Trip 2009. After driving more than 12,000 miles in the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest and the Southeast over the last three years, I'll be looking for the best in technology, science, military, nature, aviation and more in Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, and Colorado. If you have a suggestion for someplace to visit, drop me a line. And in the meantime, join the Road Trip 2009 Facebook page and follow my Twitter feed.
At the United States Air Force Academy on Thursday, 1,376 basic cadets arrived for initiation.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.--"Get off my bus!"
As the door opened, those words exploded out and it seemed that everyone within a few hundred feet must have heard them. But there was no doubt the two or three dozen on board did, as they came scurrying off at high speed.
These were one busload of the 1,376 members of the United States Air Force Academy's class of 2013, and, less glamorously, the brand new basic cadets who had arrived here Thursday, many just weeks out of high school.
Accustomed to being on top of their respective worlds--they had high grades, top SAT scores, and were chosen from among nearly 10,000 applicants to the Academy--these men and women were now reduced to being screamed at by fellow students just two years ahead of them.
As part of Road Trip 2009, I was on hand Thursday for what is known as "in-processing," the initiation of the new class of students and I can tell you that the scenes from all those movies of drill sergeants yelling at new recruits at the top of their lungs, blood vessels bulging out of their necks, are not far from the truth.
But that was later in the day. First, the 1,300-plus new students had shown up, many with parents and brothers and sisters in tow, and as an observer, it was hard to tell any difference between that scene and what you'd see at any college's first day.
Yet there was a sense of nervousness and seriousness palpable in the air. It was clear these new students were aware that they were in for something that would take their lives in a new and extremely difficult direction.
But you have to think it's what they wanted.
"I'm feeling a little, I'd say, anxious, nervous, and excited," said Joel Starkey, 18, of Atlanta. "I wanted to fly since I was in about third grade, and I want to be an officer in the military. I want to commit myself to something bigger."
Nearby, an interesting scene was under way. Twin girls were huddled with their family, and when I approached them, I discovered that the girls, Catherine and Irene Joyce, 18 and from Omaha, Neb., were joining up, as was their first cousin, Molly Bush. It turned out that Bush's father was an Academy graduate, as was her sister.
For Catherine Joyce, her first day at the academy--and whatever indignities it might bring--were clearly stepping stones to a career she seemed very certain she wanted.
"It's exciting and I'm honored, and it's a privilege to be here," Joyce said. "I learned about (the Academy) by visiting and speaking with cadets and officers, and everyone in the Air Force told me the best way to become an officer was to come to the Academy."
On the bus
I was allowed to ride one of the buses away from the intake hall and toward the actual grounds of the Academy. Onboard, the basic cadets looked tight and nervous. One of the more senior cadets had gotten on behind them and immediately began barking out commands to quickly find a seat. He leaned over to me at one point and whispered that "it's about to get loud." And then, without warning to the basic cadets, he began screaming out commands, telling them exactly where to hold their hands, not to speak unless spoken to, that they must recite the seven basic--and only--responses to questions they were now allowed and more.
"Have I made myself clear?" he bellowed.
"Yes, sir," the basic cadets called out.
"Have I made myself clear?" he shouted even louder.
"Yes, sir," they responded.
Soon, a woman cadet in the back of the bus began her own shouting, snidely calling out the names of West Point, Annapolis, and the Officer Candidates School, the officer training grounds of, respectively, the Army, Navy, and Marines. "Nobody even comes close," she yelled. "We are the service academy for the last superpower on the face of the planet. You have made the right choice."
By now, the bus had stopped. We were at our destination. But the door hadn't opened yet.
"If any of you are not a person of absolute integrity, stay on my bus," the first cadet hollered. "If you are not willing to sacrifice for your nation, stay on my bus. If you accept the minimum as your own personal standard, stay on my bus. If you are not ready to give your best...stay on my bus. (And) you'd better be ready to live up to the legacy in front of you...and that begins right now!"
With that, the doors opened, and the veteran cadets screamed some more, now ordering the newbies off the bus at an even higher volume than before (see video below).
The freshmen grabbed their gear and hustled off the bus. They ran to where a cluster of blue-uniformed cadets were waiting in front of a large mat emblazoned with footprints for them to stand on.
A fresh veteran cadet stood in front of the group of newbies and shouted out his commands. That they were to keep their feet each at a 22.5 degree angle from their head, meaning that their feet would be open at a 45 degree angle; that their hands should be held, cupped, at their sides, with their thumbs even with the seams of their pants. And then he ordered his cadre of veteran cadets to "correct" any mistakes they saw in how the new cadets were standing.
This, of course, was their excuse to loudly, energetically, and enthusiastically rush around and berate the newcomers. One by one, it seemed, they would be singled out and screamed at for this or that mistake (see video below). I could tell the veteran cadets were enjoying this, finally their opportunity to shift forward their revenge for when this happened to them two years ago.
It went on for a while, and then, finally and mercifully, it stopped, and the new cadets were ordered to grab their gear and head off up a ramp to begin the next rounds of processing.
Box Boy
For many associated with the Air Force Academy, the most memorable basic cadet of the day--and maybe ever--was a tall brown-haired kid who emerged from the bus lugging a giant box on his shoulders. The scene was absurd, and he was immediately set upon by several of the cadre, who shouted out things like, "Are you kidding me," and, "Did you bring your Xbox and your TV?"
This new cadet will forever be known as 'Box Boy,' since he arrived with this giant box. The veteran cadets who welcomed him did so with insults, derision and incredulity.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)Box Boy, as he quickly began to be called throughout the Academy, had clearly miscalculated, and not only would he likely never live down the shame of having brought this giant box with him, but he'd also have to spend the entire rest of the day carrying the box on his shoulders, as basic cadets have to lug their gear with them the entire first day.
Another basic cadet also had attracted a huge amount of attention from the group. At one point, I counted at least seven cadets circled around him, screaming at him and yelling and belittling him. I asked someone why he'd been singled out, and was told that this particular basic cadet had somehow let it be known that he planned on being the first man on Mars, and that his time at the Academy was little more than a brief stepping stone on his way to glory as an astronaut.
He may be right. But on this day, he was just fresh meat, and a prime target for ridicule.
From there, the new cadets went on through several more procedural steps toward actually joining the Air Force. They got immunized, they got haircuts, and then they had to take their formal oath (see video below) to the service. They gathered in a conference room, stood up, repeated the oath as recited to them by a woman officer who, when finished, said simply, "Congratulations, you're now in the Air Force."
Hard to believe it was three years ago
While waiting in the room where the men were getting their hair cut, I came across Cadet First Class--meaning, a senior--Frank Mercurio. He was talking about the new basic cadets and what they must be feeling.
"I think they're real scared, real worried about how hard it's going to be," Mercurio said. "It's going to be the hardest thing they've ever done in their lives up to this point...The first day is so overwhelming. You just get things thrown at you and you can fold up like a deck of cards, or carry through."
I asked him if any of the new cadets ever backed out, and he said that in fact he'd heard that just today, one had gotten off the bus, made it to the mat with the footprints, and "turned right back around and got back on the bus."
It turns out that a few dozen of the basic cadets will end up dropping out or leaving for one reason or another, but most will stick it out and eventually become Air Force officers.
But all that seems so far away when, for the first time, they're sitting in a barber's chair, having their hair shaved off.
I stood and watched as several of the kids went under the razor, going from shaggy-headed to buzz-cut. And then, as one of them got up to leave, his barber, a cheery, flamboyant woman named Hannah Love, said, "Oh, look at how cute you are. Bye."
Correction at 7:10 a.m. PDT: The name of the Marines officers school has been fixed
For the next several weeks, Geek Gestalt will be on Road Trip 2009. After driving more than 12,000 miles in the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest and the Southeast over the last three years, I'll be writing about and photographing the best in technology, science, military, nature, aviation, and more in Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, and South Dakota. If you have a suggestion for someplace to visit, drop me a line. And in the meantime, join the Road Trip 2009 Facebook page and follow my Twitter feed.
Hoover Dam was a big hit from Road Trip 2007. What will be the biggest surprises of Road Trip 2009?
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET Networks)In the United States, the major east-west Interstate highways are denominated by multiples of tens: I-10 goes from Los Angeles to Jacksonville, Fla. I-40 goes from Barstow, Calif., to Wilmington, N.C. I-80 goes from San Francisco to New York.
The north-south Interstates, meanwhile, are denominated with fives. I-5 goes from the U.S.-Mexico border, through San Diego, Los Angeles, Portland, Ore., and Seattle and ends at the U.S.-Canada border. I-15 goes from from San Diego to the Canadian border near Sweetgrass, Mont. And I-95 heads north from Miami all the way to northeast Maine.
Over the last three years, I've spent part of each summer doing a project called CNET Road Trip, and each time I've driven long distances through a specific region of the country. In 2006, it was the Pacific Northwest. In 2007, it was the Southwest. And in 2008, it was 4,593 miles through the Southeast.
All told, I've covered 12,853 miles and 17 states. But one of the little details about the three trips that I've enjoyed the most is that combined, I've driven at least a few miles on every one of those north-south divide-by-five interstates, except I-35. I spent a lot of time on I-5 on Road Trip 2006; I touched I-15 and I-25 on Road Trip 2007; and I actually hit I-45, I-55, I-65, I-75, I-85 and I-95 on Road Trip 2008.
On Sunday, I'll begin Road Trip 2009 in Denver. And looking back at that U.S. map, I realize that after this year's journey--which will take me through Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Montana, South Dakota, and Wyoming--I'll have also driven on each of the divide-by-ten Interstates except I-30. Looking at that map, clearly there's a hole in the country I need to think about for future Road Trips.
Nevertheless, this time around, it's the Rocky Mountain region and a bit of the Great Plains. It'll start off with a drive--in the Audi Q7 TDI I'll be road-testing--to Mount Evans, due west of Denver, which features the highest paved road in North America. And given that the Audi has a so-called "clean diesel" engine, I'll be writing a fair bit about that technology and what it means for fuel efficiency and the environment.
There will be three major themes this year: military and defense; energy and sustainable living research; and America's natural wonders. To be sure, there will likely be plenty of little meanderings off those themes, but they will be the major backbones of the project.
That means I'll be visiting places like North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD/Cheyenne Mountain); the Air Force Academy; the Department of Energy's Idaho National Lab; a series of locations in and near national parks in Utah that were first put on a list by the Bush administration for drilling to private interests and then taken off the list by the new Obama administration; a firefighting technology center in Missoula, Mont.; a maker of commuter train engines in Boise, Idaho; an innovative wind farm in Wyoming; Air Force Space Command, also in Wyoming; Yellowstone National Park, also in Wyoming; the Badlands in South Dakota; a nonprofit working to help Boulder, Colo., transition to a peak-oil environment; and much, much more.
But even though I've worked out a more complete itinerary this year than I have in the past, I've still got plenty of wiggle room for unexpected discoveries. And I hope that you, dear readers, will get in touch with me as I go with suggestions for places to go and things to see.
Among the many high-tech gadgets Terdiman will be road-testing will be the new iPhone 3G S.
(Credit: Apple)Along the way, I'll be blogging constantly, posting regular photo galleries and some video, Twittering like mad, organizing meet-ups through Facebook; and giving away a whole series of things, including DVD sets from Showtime, Halo: ODST game codes from Microsoft; lots of video games; and more.
As I have each of the three previous trips, I'll also be bringing a long a veritable Best Buy's worth of high-tech gadgetry to test out. Among the devices are Apple's brand-spanking-new 13-inch MacBook Pro and iPhone 3G S; Verizon's MiFi 2200 mobile hot-spot; Iridium's new 9555 satellite phone; Inmarsat's Explorer 500 mobile satellite modem; Amazon's Kindle 2; and LiveScribe's Pulse pen; and more.
Last year, I took thousands of pictures with Nikon's D60 digital SLR. This year, I'll have Nikon's new D5000 dSLR, which adds HD video capabilities. I'll also be shooting some HD video with Flip Video's UltraHD. And I hope to edit some of the photos and video with the applications in Adobe's Creative Suite 4 Master Collection, and will be printing photos on Hewlett-Packard's Officejet H470wbt, a fully mobile printer.
And when I need to chill out and watch a movie, I'll have a pair of Sony's MDR-NC22 noise-canceling headphones to listen with.
On Road Trip 2009, Terdiman will be taking thousands of pictures with the Nikon D5000, which can also take HD video.
(Credit: Nikon)I intend, during the trip, to blog about my experiences using each and every one of the products I'll have with me.
As in previous years, Road Trip 2009 will be both a great deal of fun and a tremendous challenge. I'll be working nearly nonstop, posting stories constantly, driving several hundred miles a day on average, and even trying to get a little food and sleep. And I'll be by myself most of the time.
But I will have plenty of good music to listen to, thousands of miles of beautiful country to look at, and the chance to visit some of the most interesting destinations this country has to offer.
It is a tough job. But as they say, somebody's got to do it.
Starting today, please check out the Road Trip 2009 page frequently, follow my Twitter feed, and join my Facebook fan page. I'll do my best to bring you along with me.
Road Trip 2008 included a stop at the Corvette assembly plant in Bowling Green, Ky. Road Trip 2009 will feature visits to factories, as well as to Air Force Space Command, the Badlands, the Firefighters Challenge, and much more.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET Networks)Dear readers: I want you. And I want you to stay.
For each of the past three summers, I've spent some time on the road, driving around different regions of the United States, reporting on some of the most interesting destinations I could find, and road-testing some of the coolest gear around. The CNET Road Trip has taken me through 17 states (and one Canadian province) in the Pacific Northwest (2006), the Southwest (2007), and the Southeast (2008).
The trips have been hits, but I have struggled to organically build an audience throughout each journey. Rather, it seems most people have tended to come across a story they liked, read it, and then left.
For Road Trip 2009, which will take me through Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and South Dakota, I want not just to get you here, but to give you as many reasons as I can to stay. And that, I'm learning, means being much more proactive in keeping you engaged.
To be sure, the heart of what I'll be offering up will be a steady flow of feature stories and photo galleries from places like NORAD, Yellowstone National Park, a unique Mars research program, an innovative Wyoming wind farm, the highest paved road in North America, and much more. But I know there has to be more than that. And the tools at my disposal are powerful, yet complex.
With that in mind, I asked four power social-media users for tips on how to make Road Trip 2009 a regular destination for a sizable audience. And if one thing became clear afterward, it's that I need to step it up and do a lot more personal outreach than I've ever done before.
Very busy days
Not to make excuses for my past lackluster social-media usage, but let me give a little context for how these trips work: Each day, I wake up in a new motel and quickly rush off to an appointment. I spend the late morning and early afternoon reporting, and then usually drive several hours to the next town. I eat something and then I write and process photos for a few hours. Then I go to sleep. Repeat. For several weeks.
Sadly, this hasn't allowed much time for things like meet-ups. But to hear my expert panel tell it, I need to get beyond that, and just embrace meet-ups. Or tweet-ups, if they're organized on Twitter, as many are these days.
"I'm a huge fan of the tweet-up," said Laura Roeder, a social-media consultant. "I just moved to Los Angeles...from Chicago. I've met so many of my friends through Twitter and through tweet-ups."
And despite my limited amount of available time, Chris Heuer, co-founder of the Social Media Club, says tweet-ups don't have to take all that long.
"Say, 'I'm going to be here at this place, from 6 to 7," advised Heuer. "Or have readers come and meet you and (organize the tweet-up) for you."
I also told Heuer that another element of my Road Trips has traditionally involved road-testing a number of high-tech products, and that this year is no different. Among the products I'll have with me this time are an Apple MacBook Pro and iPhone 3G S, a LiveScribe Pulse recording pen, an Amazon Kindle 2, a Verizon MiFi and more. I'll also be driving a "clean diesel" Audi Q7 TDI.
Heuer said that given that, one good way to get people to come out to the meet-ups would be to bring the technology along with me so that people could check out all the gear for themselves.
Of course, not everyone is a big fan of the meet-up. I asked Boing Boing's Xeni Jardin what she thought of them, and she explained that she has tended to skip such gatherings on her many reporting journeys around the world. Largely, it seemed, she didn't feel that meeting up with readers added all that much to the overall experience, though she did say she organized a couple of them in Latin America recently.
Still, it's clear that doing meet-ups is a natural way to energize local audiences--and Heuer suggested that even if it's only local audiences at first, getting them interested in the trip, and the trip's themes, will have a snowball effect as they tweet and blog about coming together with me and other readers.
Among the many tools CNET News reporter Daniel Terdiman plans to use to build an audience for his Road Trip 2009 project is Twellow, which allows anyone to search for Twitter users by city.
(Credit: Twellow)I wondered, though, about how to get people in the cities and towns I'll be visiting interested in meeting up in the first place. And Heuer suggested using sites like Twellow, which allow you to find Twitter users by geography. Then, by interacting with some of the most popular Twitterers in each area, it's possible to engage them in helping to promote a gathering.
To Facebook, or not to Facebook
I wondered if Facebook would be a good way to organize the get-togethers, but found that, despite the social network's incredible success, the experts I talked to were mixed about its utility for this specific purpose.
"I honestly find Facebook a lot less useful than Twitter," said Roeder. "Twitter is much easier for more fluid, instant communications....I tell my (business clients) not to even worry about Facebook. To me, the core difference is that Twitter is all about meeting new people, and a lot of people don't use Facebook that way."
Heuer, on the other hand, said he'd actually turn to Facebook first, since the site's reach can be huge, and it offers specific tools for events. Clearly, the answer is to post meet-ups on both Twitter and Facebook, and hope that the two combined can create an echo effect.
Of course, I'm already using Facebook to some extent. I'm not afraid to admit that I'm a rank amateur when it comes to the massively popular social network. But a couple months ago, I started a Road Trip 2009 fan page. The response has been moderate, but not that bad, given that I haven't posted any new content to the page since then. But that is about to change. This story, for example, will be the first new post there, and every new piece of Road Trip content will appear there, as well.
That is, if I can be disciplined. Heuer cautioned against dropping the ball when it comes to utilizing Facebook. "The most important thing there is staying on top of it," he said, "and not dropping it after you start."
I agree. And we'll see how it goes.
Finding themes
One of the first people I talked to about expanding the reach of Road Trip was the futurist Jerry Paffendorf. An organizer of the Metaverse Roadmap Project, a very early Electric Sheep employee and generally a visionary thinker, Paffendorf asked me how I thought all the various destinations on the trip were tied together.
To date, I'd been thinking of the trip as concentrating on three major themes--environmental and energy research, military and defense, and America's natural wonders.
But Paffendorf said I needed to find a way to tie everything together, and that perhaps turning to my readers to help with that would be a good way to build an audience. He suggested asking readers, via the Road Trip blog, or on Facebook or Twitter, to suggest questions to ask the people I interview at each destination. That, he said, might create a dynamic where readers begin to feel like they're coming "on the trip" with me. So it's, "We're going to go on the road," not I'm going on the road.
Paffendorf also told me about a really cool project Flickr had done not long ago, commissioning a company called Uncommon Projects to build them a series of bikes complete with cameras that automatically take, geotag, and upload pictures on the go. It seemed like that would be a great addition to the car I'd be driving, especially since I'll be driving through some of the most beautiful country in the United States.
Unfortunately, after talking with Uncommon Projects, I discovered that commissioning something like that would cost several thousand dollars--money I don't have.
What I do have, however, is a bag full of things to give away to readers, things like Flip video cameras, Showtime DVD sets, and a series of video games. I can imagine handing them out to people at meet-ups, or to people who suggest the best things to go visit in a certain town, or maybe who offer the best question to ask my host at a military installation or national park. Or maybe I can offer a chance to have your picture posted on my blog, live, with awe-inspiring natural beauty as a backdrop, far from any normally available Internet signal. I want to get readers excited, and I want to give back to them for their attention.
Boing Boing's Jardin, for her part, said that when that popular tech culture blog has given away things like iPhones or iPod Touches, people have indeed gotten excited about the contests.
"People get jazzed about cool stuff," Jardin said. "But it's not just the device that's going to get them excited. The device is part of it, but so is the experience....(Giveaways) will pique their interest, but you have to have other stuff going on."
And, dear readers, that is something I feel very confident about. I may have a lot to learn about utilizing social media to build an audience, but at the very least, Road Trip 2009 will offer you an intriguing picture of some of the best that America has to offer.
On June 21, Geek Gestalt will kick off Road Trip 2009. After driving more than 12,000 miles in the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest, and the Southeast over the last three years, I'll be looking for the best in technology, science, military, nature, aviation and more in Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, and South Dakota. If you have a suggestion for someplace to visit, drop me a line. And in the meantime, join the Road Trip 2009 Facebook page and follow my Twitter feed.
The deep-sea submersible, Deep Flight Super Falcon, from Hawkes Ocean Technologies. The vessel, which can descend 1,000 feet below the sea surface, was unveiled on Wednesday in San Francisco.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)SAN FRANCISCO--For Graham Hawkes, the inventor of an entirely new class of deep-sea submersibles, a reporter's question on Wednesday--What kind of fish inspired his new flying craft?--was the perfect opportunity to vent about one of his chief frustrations with science.
"The thousands we don't know of," Hawkes answered, adding that when a world-class ichthyologist friend of his had said he'd never before seen many of the different species of fish they'd passed by while flying far underwater in one of his vessels, "I go, 'yeehah.'"
On Wednesday, Hawkes, his business partner and wife, Karen Hawkes and the employees of their company, Hawkes Ocean Technologies, unveiled the Deep Flight Super Falcon, a $1.5 million "flying" submersible capable of going as far as 1,000 feet below the surface with two passengers, and that the company hopes will help foster a new era of understanding about the ocean.
The company had previously built an identical craft for venture capitalist Tom Perkins, but this vessel will belong to the Hawkes and they plan to use it for, among other things, promoting a new exploration of the vast areas of the deep sea that until now have been out of reach for nearly all of humankind.
"If people could see (the deep sea, and access it), we wouldn't call this planet Earth," Graham Hawkes said, alluding to the fact that 94 percent of life on the planet is aquatic. "Earth is a stupid name for a beautiful ocean planet. The fact that we call it Earth means we don't understand it."
Graham Hawkes, the inventor of the Deep Flight Super Falcon, has been working on submersibles for 20 years, and is now in the process of creating a fifth-generation vessel intended for science, industry, and the military. But he said the Super Falcon, the fourth generation, is as good as he knows how to create.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET Networks)The Deep Flight Super Falcon is what Hawkes called "Gen four," or the company's fourth generation of submersibles. In 1995, Hawkes Ocean Technologies launched its first vessel, Deep Flight 1, followed up in 2003 with a two-seat trainer known as Deep Flight Aviator. It made big news last year when it became known that the company had built, on commission, a submersible known as Deep Flight Challenger for adventurer Steve Fossett.
That project was a secret, but when Fossett's remains were found about a year after he died in a mountain plane accident, the company put the word out about it: Deep Flight Challenger had been designed to be the first craft in history capable of taking a solo passenger to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, 37,000 feet below the surface.
To date, Hawkes said, there are just five other deep ocean submersible crafts in the world, all of which are owned by national governments. But those vessels are costly operations requiring dedicated "motherships" to launch a mission. As a result, they have an extremely limited exploration range once they reach their desired depths.
By contrast, Hawkes Ocean Technologies' submersibles are between an eighth and a tenth the weight of the nationally-owned crafts and can therefore be launched anywhere in the world from many different kinds of rented ships. Once below the surface, they can cover as much as 20 kilometers of territory.
The Deep Flight Super Falcon has a maximum depth of 1,000 feet, but is expected to generally descend to no more than 400 feet. It can sustain two people for up to 24 hours, but the company expects normal dives to be between one and three hours in order to maintain the passengers' comfort.
Pulling back the wraps
For Wednesday's event, Hawkes Ocean Technologies gathered a group of journalists, members of the California Academy of Sciences, and friends of the company to witness the unveiling.
Graham Hawkes got the festivities started by standing in front of the craft, which was covered in a colorful parachute-like fabric and explaining that it had voice-activated controls. He began yelling out a series of commands: "Sub power, activate;" "Activate flight;" "Activate thrust," and so on. Beneath the cover, there were some clicks, the tail began to move and it was clear that Hawkes' commands were working. "Power up wing tip light," he shouted, and indeed, they came on.
The Super Falcon, as seen from the front. It is engineered to 'fly,' and relies on some of the same principles of airplane flight, including lift.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET Networks)Finally, it was time to unveil the vessel, and so with a flourish, Hawkes had his son pull back the wraps.
The joke was on us: two grinning faces appeared under the submersible's clear acrylic domes.
But the Deep Flight Super Falcon was for real, and it was beautiful. It is brand new and gleaming white. And befitting what Hawkes and his people kept referring to as a "flying" vessel, it has both main and tail wings and does look somewhat like a small airplane.
In fact, unlike the world's other submersibles, the Super Falcon doesn't rely on ballast to sink or rise. Rather, it follows the model of air flight, using downward lift on the wings to descend to depth. It can reach speeds of between six and eight knots, much faster than conventional submarines.
Powering the vessel are a set of lithium polymer batteries, and it launches with up to 48 cubic feet of oxygen, Hawkes said. It uses LED lights to make it possible for the passengers to see, even while minimizing the impact on aquatic life unaccustomed to unnatural light.
And while the craft is designed with redundant safety systems and enough air for up to 24 hours, it is also "positive buoyant," meaning that when it comes to a full stop, its 4,000 pounds naturally rise to the surface.
Hawkes Ocean Technologies chief electronics engineer Charles Chiau sits inside one of the 'domes,' the acrylic tops that allow passengers to see everything around them as they travel in the submersible.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET Networks)For the passengers, each housed in a tiny seat and looking out into the water through crystal-clear acrylic domes, things on board are designed to be comfortable, if not luxurious. The pilot controls the ship with a right-side joystick that directs pitch, yaw, and roll, and a left-side lever for throttle. There are two sets of three digital readouts: on the right, life support monitors showing partial pressure of oxygen, cabin pressure, and earth-leakage measurement; and on the left, a throttle position setting and left- and right-battery power. There's also redundant oxygen tanks, and a system of fully-protected high-power electronics.
Go where no one has gone
To Charles Chiau, the chief electronics engineer for Hawkes Ocean Technologies, traveling on board one of the company's submersibles is unlike anything else.
"Imagine you're in a place no one has gone before," Chiau said, nearly glowing, "able to do things no one has done before...I personally encountered three manta rays, and we went through a school of sharks."
Chiau said that passengers don't feel claustrophobic because of the transparency of the domes. Rather, it's like their heads are directly in the water, though obviously protected. The domes "go away," he said.
To Karen Hawkes, the experience of riding the submersible is "balletic and quiet," and allows you to "move through water, tailing animals."
All of this is vital because, as Graham Hawkes had said, one of the company's major goals is to connect people with the ocean, and Karen Hawkes said they want to "use this as an ambassador for the ocean."
As a result, the company is undertaking two different programs with the Deep Flight Super Falcon, one a flight school in Monterey, Calif., and the second a VIP program (which will be run in conjunction with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration and the Office of National Marine Sanctuaries) intended to take influential people--such as legislators and writers--down in the vessel so they can experience the deep ocean in ways that might encourage them to advocate for further exploration.
Inside the submersible, the pilot uses a joystick to control pitch, yaw and roll, and has two different sets of digital readouts, including the one on the right here that shows a set of life support measurements.
(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET Networks)"We want to send (down) poets and writers," said Graham Hawkes, before being asked if he personally liked poetry. "No, I don't, I'm an engineer. (But) we've got to stop sending (only) engineers down there."
The idea, Hawkes said, is that it's hard to ask lawmakers to set policy for a massive part of the planet with which they have no direct experience. And so the company and NOAA hope that the VIP program will help alleviate that problem.
The flight school, which will take place during summers, will cost $15,000 for a three-day course--after which graduates will get a certificate enabling them to pilot a submersible--or $5,000 for a half-day lesson.
Hawkes said the company is now in the process of working on a fifth-generation submersible that will be geared more toward industry, science, and the military. But he said he feels that the Deep Flight Super Falcon is a machine with "no compromises." With the Deep Flight Challenger, built for Fossett, the company got "depth out of the way," and the Super Falcon was built just the way he wants a submersible.
"This is the first machine," Hawkes began, before stopping. "I don't know how to build it any better."
On June 22, Geek Gestalt will kick off Road Trip 2009. After driving more than 12,000 miles in the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest and the Southeast over the last three years, I'll be looking for the best in technology, science, military, nature, aviation and more in Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana and South and North Dakota. If you have a suggestion for someplace to visit, drop me a line. And in the meantime, join the Road Trip 2009 Facebook page and follow my Twitter feed.
This Flash game based on the infamous incident last winter in which an Iraqi journalist threw his shoes at former U.S. president George W. Bush has spawned at least seven so-called 'news games.'
(Credit: Flashgressive)Here's a conundrum: when the world is deep into hysteria over a potential pandemic like the swine flu, how does someone who wants to poke fun at the problem do so?
For Jude Gomilla and Immad Akhund, the answer was a single sleepless night about 10 days ago during which the two San Francisco entrepreneurs built what has become a massively popular Flash game called Swinefighters.
In Swinefighters, players--dressed as giant-syringe-wielding and mask-wearing doctors--are tasked with killing off rogue viruses in the form of sneering pigs. Each time you hit a pig with the syringe, it is wiped out, and the goal is to do that as many times as possible in 20 seconds. And because the game presents a running total of all the pig-like viruses killed by everyone who has played the game, we know that in total, Swinefighters have destroyed nearly 14.5 million viruses since the game's launch.
Swinefighter players have 'destroyed' nearly 15 million viruses. The game's creators argue that because the present tips from the CDC on how to combat swine flu, that their game serves an educational purpose.
(Credit: HeyZap)Swinefighter is hardly the only game of its kind. In fact, in the last few months, there's been a proliferation of what some call "news games," little Flash-based exercises that are based on the very latest mega-stories sweeping the globe. Among the targets of these titles' satirical eye have been things like the George W. Bush shoe-throwing incident, the water landing of US Airways flight 1549, the British financial bailout, and even Britney Spears' haircut. And next up is a game that is expected to be released in a few days parodying the Bernard Madoff scandal in which players can manage their own Ponzi scheme.
Controversial? Or not?
And while some may find such premises beyond objectionable, those making the games--not surprisingly--don't think they're crossing any social taboos.
"To me, it's a bit strange, because some people see these games as controversial," said Gomilla, "when usually the point is a positive one. Most are expressing something that users want to be. They want to be the heroes of landing the plane, or they want to beat the virus, but they can't (personally) make political decisions. (So) in a sily way, they can go and vent their frustrations in the game."
Others feel that those who are up in arms are missing the point, or overreacting. After all, no one was ever harmed by a flying digital shoe.
"We were quite surprised at the level of controversy (our game) created," said Louise Doherty, of Fubra, which currently publishes Sock and Awe, one of at least seven games devoted to the Bush shoe-throwing incident. It's only a bit of fun, but we had hundreds of emails telling us that we were evil, that we should close the site (and) that no matter what Bush had done, 'no one deserves to have shoes thrown at them.' They're virtual shoes. Even the real shoe that was thrown didn't hit him."
Of course, there are different ways of approaching delicate subjects, and the people behind some of these games have chosen different ways to have fun with the subject matter. In both Hero on the Hudson and Double Bird Strike, for example, players must try to land an airplane that has had its engines knocked out by birds.
But in Hero on the Hudson, if you don't handle the rapidly descending plane properly, it crashes into the water. To Dominic Tocci, the creator of Double Bird Strike, that's not the best way to confront the potentially impolitic nature of a game based on a well-publicized airplane accident.
"Some topics are a little delicate, but it's all in how you present them," said Tocci. "For example, when I designed Double Bird Strike, I intentionally made it so that crashing the plane was impossible."
Tocci's attempts at political correctness aside, not everyone would agree that making play out of a near disaster is funny, or useful, even if players don't have to actually see the plane crash. And not everyone would agree with Tocci's assessment of what's fair game and what's not.
A game that is about to be released leverages the attention that Bernard Madoff has generated and tasks players with managing their own Ponzi scheme.
(Credit: Cellufun)"Personally, if I think a game idea is in poor taste, I won't make it," Tocci said. "Of course, there will always be someone out there who might get offended by something I made, but you can't please everyone."
One such group might be fans of Britney Spears or those who feel for the personal travails the pop superstar has gone through in recent years. Yet Tocci took Spears' dramatics head-on with his first news game, Britney Wigged Out, in which players have to try to place a wig on the head of a bobbing and weaving Spears caricature.
Money to be made
But there's no denying that these projects, most of which are created by individuals or small teams, are resonating with the Internet public. And that can be profitable.
Doherty's Fubra bought Sock and Awe from its original creator on eBay for more than $8,000, but said ads on the game earned the money back in just 48 hours. And Tocci said his creations earn money from royalties paid by the casual games sites that host the titles.
Not everyone is trying to profit though. Gomilla said that he and his partner decided not to attach ads to Swinefighter because of the sensitive nature of the game. But he suggested he wouldn't have a problem making money off of less controversial topics.
Flash games like these have been around almost as long as Flash itself. But in the past, they've tended to center on harmless fare like throwing things at penguins. And while they've managed to spread far and wide, it's likely they haven't done so with the urgency of the news games. And that has to do with the fact that these new titles, like so many other Web-based projects these days, can spread like wildfire on social-networking services like Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter.
That leads to staggering numbers like the 14.5 million viruses tackled in Swinefighter and the 93.5 million shoes tossed at Bush in Sock and Awe alone. Tocci's Double Bird Strike has been played more than 400,000 times.
The games are also coming faster these days because the tools available make it possible for someone with even rudimentary skills to make something like Swinefighter in an evening.
To Sree Sreenivasan, the dean of student affairs and a professor at the Columbia University School of Journalism, things like news games and other Web phenomena prove that there's little point in trying to understand people's sensibilities or taste. After all, he points out, someone might post a video on YouTube of their grandmother's funeral only to have others' mocking responses to the video catch viral fire.
"On the Internet, you've lost control of this stuff," Sreenivasan said. "It would be nice if everything on the Internet had redeeming value, but I don't think that's possible."
News game creators like Gomilla and Doherty, however, think their offerings do present some social value, even as they poke fun at topics that make some people very nervous.
Gomilla, for example, points out that Swinefighters features advice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on how to combat things like swine flu. And Doherty indicated that while she might have little sympathy for Bush having had to dodge flying shoes, she cared about the fate of the Iraqi journalist who threw the footwear at the president.
"When it became clear that reporter Muntadar al-Zaidi could be in serious trouble as a result of his actions we decided to display news about his arrest and charges on the site so people would be kept aware of his plight," Doherty said. "People that were visiting the site to play the game and laugh were also getting news that they may not have seen otherwise."
News games as education
In fact, Doherty said that the educational value of these games can outstrip even what respected government institutions offer the public.
"It's a shame the innovation (of providing CDC advice about swine flu in Swinefighters) was left to two entrepreneurs," said Doherty. "It would have been great if the World Health Organization had realized they could use a game to raise awareness about preventing swine flu."
Sreenivasan, too, recognizes that the creators of news games have the time and energy on their hands to move a lot faster than traditional organizations.
"I think (news games) can be engaging and helpful," Sreenivasan said, "and that's why you see some news organizations trying to do this. The problem is when breaking news happens, structured organizations don't have the time or work flow (to act), whereas someone working alone in the basement" does."
On June 22, Geek Gestalt will kick off Road Trip 2009. After driving more than 12,000 miles in the Pacific Northwest, the Southwest and the Southeast over the last three years, I'll be looking for the best in technology, science, military, nature, aviation and more in Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana and South and North Dakota. If you have a suggestion for someplace to visit, drop me a line. And in the meantime, join the Road Trip 2009 Facebook page and follow my Twitter feed.
