Giant Freakin Robot

For the first time since 1972, NASA is planning to go back to the Moon. According to the European Space Agency, two trips are being planned, with the first one an unmanned mission in 2017. Assuming that one is successful, the first manned mission to the Moon since Apollo 17 will take place in 2019.

The European Space Agency is currently developing an Orion Multipurpose Crew Vehicle for deep space exploration for NASA. The module is based on the European Space Agency’s Automated Transfer Vehicle, a drone built to haul cargo to the International Space Station. It’s believed that NASA would use the Orion Multipurpose Crew Vehicle for these two lunar missions.

Why is NASA looking to the ESA for a space module? Apparently it’s to save money and cut costs. For the first time in NASA history, the space agency is looking outside of the US to “develop a critical technology for a manned space flight program.” NASA had been working with contractor Lockheed Martin to design an Orion service module, but they halted those plans when the ESA’s Automated Transfer Vehicle proved it could be repurposed for NASA’s needs.

The average stay for any astronaut in space is about six months. After this time, space missions are usually over as astronauts return back home to Earth. NASA Astronaut Scott Kelly has started training to spend a year-long journey aboard the International Space Station orbiting the Earth in 2015. If successful, Kelly will set the record for the longest American spaceflight and the longest spaceflight in history.

It makes me feel old and guilty not being able to remember when bottled water first saturated the marketplace. I can’t even say with conviction whether city water was as terrible beforehand, or if it got markedly worse after people turned away from the tap. But even with a proliferation of different kinds of filters, and various studies showing privatized bottled water to be less regulated than public, government-controlled water, these portable wastes of plastic aren’t going away anytime soon. Realize I don’t think they’re wastes for every reason, just for American reasons.

The key, then, becomes adapting the product for global use — you know, for those places where houses with eight indoor water faucets aren’t available. Enter NBD Nano, a start-up company comprised of four fresh-faced recent college grads eager to adapt the Namib desert beetle’s (pictured below) natural technology to change the world.

At virtually no point in my life was I ever into R.C. vehicles of any kind. I had a few when I was younger, but they usually came as cheap presents from non-immediate relatives for Christmas or a birthday. The “cheap” part isn’t a knock, because they were all cheap then. At that point, nobody could predict the onslaught of remote-controlled spherically covered crash-protected helicopters hitting toy shelves, least of all ones that could be flown using cell phone apps.

And now the company Puzzlebox has gone and made toys all brainy. Admittedly, their Orbit helicopter products have been used for educational use for the last two years, but thanks to excellent feedback and a highly successful Kickstarter fund, the company is looking to bring the toys to store shelves and online vendors. Their interest isn’t just making a quick buck, however; they want you to learn how the toy works.

Here is the longest explanation I will ever use to describe “playing.” The NeuroSky MindWave Mobile EEG headset detects levels of attention and meditation by measuring brainwaves. This data is sent via Bluetooth to either a smartphone/tablet, or to the Puzzlebot Pyramid, a dedicated home base with micro-controller, via USB. According to how the owner has programmed the device, his or her brainwaves will guide the helicopter around the room. Stimulated excitement means a rise is movement and height, while dismissive boredom may slow the toy down and cause it to descend. It has an eight-minute battery life that works on a 30-minute charge.