Crave

(Credit: Jonathan Worth/PopSci)

I know most of you out there think we landed two Americans on the moon in 1969. Well, let me tell you that you're wrong. It's all a hoax! It was done on a sound stage and George Clooney and Dan Aykroyd were involved!

I mean, look at this real-life version of the Atari classic Lunar Lander vector game!

It took British engineer Iain Sharp less than $800 and a year to build this replica in his garage to honor the 40th anniversary of the moon landing, and it works almost like the real thing. It's powered by a pair of old PCs he wrote custom software for. In addition, the movements are controlled by things like old inkjet printer motors, and fishing line. But what's important is it works just like a real lunar lander would--if one existed.

If Sharp can make a device like this in his garage in his spare time then it's not a leap to assume the U.S. government could have made a full-size mock-up with the years and millions it took to make the so-called "moon shot" happen. This awesome toy might be all the evidence I need. Myth busted.

(Via PopSci)

AlterG's new M300 series is smaller than the original and lower in price.

(Credit: AlterG)

We got our first close look at the AlterG antigravity treadmill at a health expo in San Francisco earlier this year, and at the time, the price was floating up there somewhere near the space station.

But we've good news for those who like the idea of running like an astronaut: Fremont, Calif.-based AlterG on Monday plans to announce a more affordable model, the AlterG M300. The two treadmills in the M300 series deliver the same antigravity technology as AlterG's pricey $75,000 P200 series, but at a third of the cost--$24,500 to $27,000.

Yes, we know that hardly puts the AlterG in the range of the Total Gym, but it does move the device beyond the realm of the sports elite into a bracket accessible to more gyms and physical therapy clinics.

Patty Shives, who runs on the AlterG to aid her rehabilitation from a hemorrhagic stroke, adjusts the settings on the machine.

(Credit: AlterG)

Medical institutions, college athletic programs, and sports teams around the country (including the Los Angeles Lakers, Dallas Cowboys, and Arizona Diamondbacks) already use the AlterG, but wider distribution could prove beneficial for Parkinson's patients, stroke survivors, and others reporting progress as a result of the technology.

AlterG's antigravity technology was originally developed at NASA and tested at Nike's Oregon Research Project by America's top distance runners.

The treadmill works by pumping air into an enclosure that surrounds users from the waist down. They zip themselves in, and an increase in air pressure lifts them so they can run at a fraction of their actual weight (pressing the up/down arrows on the control panel decreases body weight at increments of 1 percent, as much as 80 percent).

The reduction lowers the impact on joints and muscles to improve training and performance or help provide a smooth recovery from injury or surgery. Speed and incline are adjustable as with any treadmill.

"Removing the physical burden of weight bearing has remarkable results," said Bryan Nadeau of AlterG customer Muir Orthopedic Specialists, located in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Paty Shives, 46, is one patient who has seen such results. ... Read more

That's one small step for man, one giant leap for iPhone.

OK, that's probably a little overly dramatic, but the new NASA iPhone app, which was released Friday, is pretty cool.

With NASA's iPhone app, space geeks can access all kinds of information about their favorite missions.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET)

Designed to provide information, updates, and images on all current and scheduled NASA missions, the app--which can be found in Apple's App Store under the name "NASA app for iPhone--nicely allows you to search for any specific mission, say, Constellation, and then find information and images just for that project.

"Users can access NASA countdown clocks, the NASA Image of the Day, Astronomy Image of the Day, online videos, NASA's many Twitter feeds," and more, the space agency said in a press release about the app. It also allows users to track where the International Space Station is at any moment, as well as other spacecraft orbiting the planet, in three different views: maps with labels and borders, available visible imagery of satellites, and satellite positions overlaid on maps with country labels and borders.

Already, NASA nuts--you know who you are--have had access to much of this information online. But now, having it all available in a free iPhone app is going to keep these people happily staring down at the screen of their devices no matter where they are.

And for NASA, anything it can do to get more people excited about its various missions and projects is a good thing as it struggles for public resources and attention in an era where the economy is in trouble and people are increasingly distracted by other things.

This team from Southern University in Louisiana has a grip on lunar rover design in a race that's part aerospace engineering, part soapbox derby.

(Credit: NASA/MSFC)

It's been a long hiatus since the last time a human strode across the lunar terrain, and we're still some years out from the next planned mission to the moon.

But that doesn't mean we shouldn't tinker around with notions of how astronauts in the not-too-distant future might get around the Sea of Tranquility or some other lunar destination. That's part of the driving force behind NASA's Great Moonbuggy Race, an annual event geared toward college and high school students.

The mission: design and build a lightweight, human-powered buggy, then race it around a half-mile track pocked with gravel pits and bedeviled with other pseudo-lunar obstacles. While the race is designed to be forward-looking and to build on youthful dreams of the future, it also hearkens back to design challenges faced by Apollo-era engineers in the 1960s and 1970s.

Of 68 teams in this year's moonbuggy event, just 39 completed the race. Top honors went to the Rochester Institute of Technology in the college division, and--in a two-way tie--to teams from the Huntsville (Alabama) Center for Technology and Erie (Kansas) High School in the high school division.

Check out our slideshow for more details and a look at 15 or so of the vehicles.

Photos: Lunar lessons for moonbuggy makers

Koichi Wakata looks comfortable enough to me.

(Credit: NASA)

For some reason, every time high-tech underwear news hits the Internet, my editors think it's something I need to cover (pun intended). This time, though, it's underwear from space. And it's Japanese underwear from space that lasts up to a week before you have to change it--for better or worse.

According to Reuters, the clothing called J-ware is currently being tested aboard the International Space Station, perhaps to the dismay of Koichi Wakata's fellow astronauts.

The skivvies, developed by textile specialists at Japan Women's University in Tokyo, are meant to absorb moisture, kill bacteria, and generally be comfortable in situations where there are no laundry facilities and you really can't be as freshly dressed as you'd like.

Thankfully, so far the tests have been successful. Wakata has been quoted as saying, "Nobody has complained, so I think it's so far, so good." The question is, if the tests are fully successful, will the general, non-space-going world buy into the idea? There are plans for Earth-bound mass marketing of the week-long underwear. I for one am not into the idea, even if it works fine.

The zeppelin, Eureka, sits on the tarmac at Moffett Field in Mountain View, Calif. The airship was dedicated Friday at an event celebrating the 75h anniversary of Moffett Field.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News)

MOFFETT FIELD, Calif.--NASA celebrated the 75th anniversary of this iconic airfield and research center on Friday by dedicating a brand-new zeppelin from a private company called Airship Ventures.

The zeppelin NT ("new technology"), which is one of just three currently functioning zeppelins that exist in the world, and the biggest, at 246 feet, was named "Eureka," a name that relates to the fact that the ship is based in California, as well as the fact that it is "rooted in scientific principles," said Brian Bell, a co-founder of Airship Ventures, the ship's owner, minutes before he revealed the new name.

At an event here to celebrate the two milestones, Alexandra Bell, also a co-founder of Airship Ventures, spoke of the experience of getting the zeppelin program off the ground. Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA), as well as Pete Worden, director of the NASA Ames Research Center, attended the event.

Airship Ventures is the first company in the United States to offer public access to zeppelins. And the company will be carrying paying passengers around the Bay Area, as well as helping NASA carry out scientific research.

The co-founders of Airship Ventures pull back the cover on the name of their brand-new zeppelin, the largest in the world, at the event Friday. The zeppelin is called the Eureka.

(Credit: Daniel Terdiman/CNET News)

Brian Bell explained that Airship Ventures had a naming contest and received more than 1,500 submissions, five of which turned out to be "Eureka," a name that those involved in the company had already been thinking about anyway.

But Alexandra Bell said that the Eureka may not end up being Airship Ventures' only zeppelin (See video below of the first flight of the Eureka after its dedication).

"We decided we just have to get a couple more," she said, "so we can name them with some of the other wonderful names" we got.

While the Eureka is the largest currently functioning zeppelin, the airships from the golden age of zeppelins were much, much larger. The Hindenburg and the Graf Zeppelin were about 800 feet long, and the Macon, which was based at Moffat for a couple of years in the 1930s, was 785 feet long.

We've discovered a way to take a bunch of gadgets that belong in the trash and turn them into energy for everyone! Listen and find out how. (well, other than the fact that we're simply that awesome.)

EPISODE 114

Plasma plants to vaporize trash and create new energy

Chick-fil-A stuffing a space station in every kid’s meal

Baconnaise

Disco USB hub

Flip Mino--now in HD

Get into the festive spirit with Christmas Jewel USB drive

Update: Vivienne Tam HP Digital Clutch

Tool Time
BeoSound 5 controls your digital home theater in grand, futuristic style

It’s about time
Naf Naf Sunrise Effect alarm clock - a less SAD way to wakeup

PRETTY
Samsung Cleo cell phone sashays into Canada

Pink Watch
Guitars for Girls -Guitar Hero and Rock Band

Gender Gap
The Chair for Man

VOICE MAIL
Peter from Frampton

E-MAIL

I had to share this with people who would appreciate how this could be a necessary ‘food accessory’ for some, but to others, it is just wrong.

Leia E.
Apple Valley, MN

Hey Gadgettes,

Why, why, why? Well, actually, for cancer research. But at least it’s the real thing and not Swarovski crystals. Note the convenience of being able to remove the diamonds to stick in all the jewelry you have that doesn’t already have diamonds.

Also, the blog it came from has the potential to be a great source for you all. Love the show!

-Rabbi the Linguist

P.S.: Why the hate on LARPers but the love of Utilikilt owners? The two groups overlap quite a bit. If you’re gonna dis on LARPers, at least limit it to the ones who can’t distinguish the game from reality. Some of us just enjoy some escapism and creative use of our imagination from time to time, but we understand that, when the game is over, it’s over. (It’s also a good way to socialize - is this a good time to mention that I’ve never been in a LARP that wasn’t at least 40% female?) Our characters may be us (a first-time LARPer often ends up playing herself) but we are not our characters. Those who don’t understand that are likely to be marginalized in a serious game.
I will, though, give you mad props for liking Utilikilts. They’re quite comfortable and the ladies seem to love them. (Gotta love geek
girlfriends!) Keep on rockin’ that podcast.

From Dr. Jason
Lita Ford parties like it’s 1989

The Small Pressurized Rover is built on the Chariot platform.

(Credit: NASA)

Earlier this year NASA demonstrated its Chariot Lunar Rover concept, and now the space agency is demonstrating its adoption of modern automotive industrial practices by applying platform engineering to the Chariot, coming up with the Small Pressurized Rover (SPR). Built on the Chariot platform, the SPR is one variation of a lunar vehicle being tested by NASA. It uses a pressurized cabin that can seat two comfortably, or four in an emergency. Astronauts could view the surface of the moon, performing tests and experiments, in T-shirts. Instead of using a bulky airlock, the SPR has two extra vehicular-activity suits attached to sealable ports. An astronaut can enter the suit from inside the SPR, detach it, pick up some moon rocks or help build a lunar colony, then reattach to the SPR and climb back into the cabin.

This is an artist conception of the Ares I rocket.

(Credit: NASA)

According to a report at MediaFlux, NASA has had a successful preliminary design review of the Ares I rocket, which will be responsible for taking its Orion crew into orbit in 2015. The review was conducted by a team of more than 1,100 specialists at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.

It was the final step of the design process of the Ares I and according to NASA, was the first critical milestone in more than 35 years of a U.S. rocket responsible for carrying astronauts into space.

This was the first in a long series of reviews to come. NASA uses these reviews to correct all (or as many as possible) of the problems that may appear along the way to completion. When you're dealing with vehicles that have to propel astronauts from the Earth and into the cold silent blackness of space, 1,100 specialists looking over your work is probably a good idea.

The Ares I is part of NASA's Constellation Program, which is a new generation of spacecraft meant to replace the Space Shuttle. In August, NASA was forced to delay a proposed launch of Ares from 2013 to 2015.