Category Archives: Technology

SpaceNet, the interplanetary supply chain

Science, Space, Technology

I’m sure this will come in handy someday soon.  MIT researchers have created SpaceNet, a software tool for modeling interplanetary supply chains.

“Increasingly, there is a realization that crewed space missions such as the International Space Station or the buildup of a lunar outpost should not be treated as isolated missions, but rather as an integrated supply chain,” said [MIT researcher Olivier L.] de Weck.

While “supply chain” usually refers to the flow of goods and materials in and out of manufacturing facilities, distribution centers and retail stores, de Weck said that a well-designed interplanetary supply chain would operate on much the same principles, with certain complicating factors. Transportation delays could be significant–as much as six to nine months in the case of Mars–and shipping capacity will be very limited.

I can’t wait for the day when I can order spare parts online and have them delivered to my house on Mars.

[via Boing Boing]

Congratulations, SpaceX!

Space, Technology, Uncategorized

SpaceX, which I’ve covered previously, successfully launched its Falcon 1 rocket yesterday.  The launch wasn’t without incident — there was a problem with the second stage after launch, and the first launch attempt was aborted at the last second — but the results were deemed enough to justify launching commercial payloads later this year.

On the latest flight, the second stage did not achieve its full speed, again because of an early shut down of the engine, this time because the vehicle began an unexpected roll.

Mr Musk said he thought this problem should be easy to fix once flight engineers had analysed the data.

“The launch was not perfect, but certainly pretty good,” he added.

“Given that the primary objectives were demonstrating responsive launch and gathering test data in advance of our first operational satellite launch later this year, the outcome was great.”

I personally see this as a huge success, because they were able to launch, reach space, and test their operational capacity.  Besides all that, they were able to make fundamental improvements to their launch platform in a single year, while still targeting that $7-million-per-launch figure.  Congratulations, SpaceX, and we can’t wait for the next stages!

I’m going to MIT

Academia, Education, Technology

…well, to their OpenCourseWare site, at least.  According to a recent article in Information World Review:

The entire catalogue of information from 1,800 courses at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) will be available free online by the end of the year. Once uploaded, it will represent one of the internet’s most important resources.

Seriously, though, this is quite a boon.  The site contains syllabi, lecture notes, assignments, reading lists, and sometimes even videos of lectures.  It doesn’t mean that students in Kansas can get an MIT education from a computer, but it does mean that teachers in Kenya can teach using an MIT-level curriculum and materials.

MIT started the site in 2001 as a pilot program, but at the time all the talk was about how to charge students for distance learning and restrict materials to those who paid.  Now the materials are being licensed under Creative Commons, and MIT is presenting them as a gift to be shared instead of a revenue source.

Now to find a few month-long chunks of free time in which to actually use these gifts…

carbon-neutral technology

Environment, Technology

A company called 3PAR is promoting a new idea in computer hardware. When you buy one of their products, they automatically include carbon offsets [1] for the energy it will use. The products themselves aren’t exactly everyday consumer items, but I can see this idea catching on as manufacturers realize that green values can be a differentiator.

[thanks for the link, Adam!]

[1] Wikipedia has more info on carbon offsets. They’re controversial, but I personally think they do real good and raise awareness. If people start thinking about the amount of energy something uses as an added up-front cost, it helps make efficiency part of the buying decision.