'Incredible shrinking car' drives sideways to park in tiny spaces

 

 As cities continue to grow at a dizzying rate, commuters are constantly battling ever-increasing congestion on the roads and a lack of parking, just to get to work.

But now a team of German engineers have come up with an ingenious solution -- a "flexible" electric vehicle capable of shrinking, driving sideways (think like a crab) and turning on a dime.

The EO Smart Connecting Car 2 is an innovative design from DFKI Robotics Innovation Center, based in Bremen, Germany, where a team of software developers and designers, as well as electronics and construction engineers, have been refining the smart micro car project for the last three years.

Microsoft to stop producing Windows versions

 

Windows 10 is going to be the last major revision of the operating system.

Jerry Nixon, a Microsoft development executive, said in a conference speech this week that Windows 10 would be the "last version" of the dominant desktop software.

His comments were echoed by Microsoft which said it would update Windows in future in an "ongoing manner".

Instead of new stand-alone versions, Windows 10 would be improved in regular instalments, the firm said.

Mr Nixon made his comments during Microsoft's Ignite conference held in Chicago this week.

In a statement, Microsoft said Mr Nixon's comments reflected a change in the way that it made its software.

"Windows will be delivered as a service bringing new innovations and updates in an ongoing manner," it said, adding that it expected there to be a "long future" for Windows.

'No Windows 11'

Mars Curiosity: Facts and Information

The Mars Science Laboratory and its rover centerpiece, Curiosity, is the most ambitious Mars mission yet flown by NASA. The rover's primary mission is to find out if Mars is, or was, suitable for life. Another objective is to learn more about the red planet's environment.

Curiosity's extensive size allows it to carry a host of scientific experiments that will be able to zap, analyze and take pictures of any rock within reach of its 7-foot (2 meters) arm. Curiosity is about the size of a small SUV. It is 9 feet 10 inches long by 9 feet 1 inch wide (3 m by 2.8 m) and about 7 feet high (2.1 m). It weighs 2,000 pounds (900 kilograms). Curiosity's wheels have a 20-inch (50.8 cm) diameter.

NASA Targets Moons of Mars for Potential Robotic Mission

NASA's ever-growing footprint at Mars may extend out to one of the Red Planet's moons a decade or so from now.

Scientists and engineers at NASA's Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif., are drawing up a low-cost mission concept that would send a robotic spacecraft to one of Mars' two tiny satellites, Phobos and Deimos.

The probe would be based heavily on the space agency's $280 million Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE), an Ames-led effort that has been circling Earth's moon since September 2013.

How the Moon Formed: 5 Wild Lunar Theories

by Mike Wall, Senior Writer   |   April 02, 2014

Introduction

Credit: Imelda B. Joson and Edwin L. AguirreThe moon has fascinated humanity for millenia, exerting a powerful pull on our imagination just as it tugs on the oceans to create the tides. 

After gazing up at the moon for all those years, however, we're still not exactly sure how it came to be. Here's a brief rundown of the most prominent theories scientists have come up with to explain the moon's origin, including a few relatively wild ones with little observational evidence to back them up.

Moon's Age Revealed, and a Lunar Mystery May Be Solved

Scientists have pinned down the birth date of the moon to within 100 million years of the birth of the solar system — the best timeline yet for the evolution of our planet's natural satellite.

This new discovery about the origin of the moon may help solve a mystery about why the moon and the Earth appear virtually identical in makeup, investigators added.

Scientists have suggested the moon was formed4.5 billion years ago by a gigantic collision between a Mars-size object named Theiaand Earth, a crash that would have largely melted the  Earth. This model suggested that more than 40 percent of the moon was made up of debris from this impacting body. (Current theory suggests that Earth experienced several giant impacts during its formation, with the moon-forming impact being the last.)

Boeing Targets 66 Percent Launch Cost Reduction with ALASA

The ALASA rocket, measuring 7.3 meters long, would be attached to the underbelly of a Boeing-built F-15E fighter aircraft. DARPA says taking off from a standard airport runway would allow the Defense Department to launch from almost anywhere. Credit: Boeing artist's concept

WASHINGTON — Boeing Defense Space and Security of Huntington Beach, Calif., has won a three-way competition for a Pentagon contract worth as much as $104 million to build and demonstrate a low-cost, airborne satellite launching system, according to a March 24 posting on the Federal Business Opportunities website.

The contract is for the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Airborne Launch Assist Space Access (ALASA) program, which is intended to field a system to launch satellites weighing up to 45 kilograms into low Earth orbit for as low as $1 million each.

Part of a broader DARPA effort to reduce the cost and turnaround time of national security space launches, ALASA seeks to use a rocket launched from modified fighter-jet aircraft taking off from a standard airport runway. Doing so, they argue, would allow the Defense Department to launch from almost anywhere, whereas currently space launches are restricted to just a few sites: Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla.; Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.; Wallops Flight Facility, Va.; and Kodiak Island in Alaska.