Microsoft + NASA = 3D views of Endeavour.

Using Microsoft’s Photosynth technology, bought from Seadragon in February 2006, the technology takes 2D images and morphs them into 3D which we then can examine in greater detail.

"You can see the shuttle in times when no one has access," said.Chris Kemp, director of strategic business development at NASA Ames Research Center in Palo Alto, California.

This X-48B is Boeing’s Blended Wing Body prototype flew for the first time at Edwards Air Force Base in California. It was "remotely piloted from a ground control station in which the pilot uses conventional aircraft controls and instrumentation while looking at a monitor fed by a forward-looking camera on the aircraft."

Developed by Boeing, NASA, and the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, these X-Planes do not have a tail and the triangular shape creates less drag than a traditional circular fuselage. That translates into 30% less fuel consumption than a standard-design airplane.

It employs three turbojet engines that enable it to fly up to 10,000 feet and 120 knots in its low-speed configuration, and it makes less noise to make everyone happier.

Future robotic explorers are being tested by NASA at a remote location in Canada. Equipped with "GPS, stereo cameras, laser scanners and sun trackers," the K10 Black and K10 Red can laser map terrain over 3,000 feet away, and with ground-penetrating radar, which NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory developed, can map below ground as deep as 16.4 feet.

"We are learning about the awesome potential of human and robot teams," said NASA researcher Simon "Pete" Worden. "Studying how humans and robots can maximize scientific returns in sites such as Devon Island will prepare us to walk on the moon and Mars."

Powered by ordinary laptop batteries, the robots are able to cover over 120 acres of ground and operate for up to five hours at a time, depending upon outside temperatures.

NASA is working on an actual "nanobattery" to provide power to nanoscale devices by using the ability of the iron-containing protein ferritin to carry either a positive or negative charge. Ferritin self-assembles relatively easily into a uniform nanolayer, so one layer of ferritin would be stacked with another layer carrying the opposite charge, effectively forming a battery just a few nanometers thick. That’s the plan anyway.

On August 7, the Endeavour will launch itself into space once again this year.  Teacher/Astronaut Christa McAuliff has been waiting 22 years for this day and will operate the shuttle’s robotic arm, transfer cargo, and even report to students at three different schools from space.  It would’ve been nice to have my science teacher teach astronomy from space.

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