Starship Asterisk*

In the news: http://www.zdnet.com/anu-lens-turns-sma ... 000028727/

I apologise in advance to star gazers for the intestinal worms mental image. But thought this was an interesting mcgyvering of an iPhone. SCIENTISTS used an iPhone and a camera lens to diagnose intestinal worms in rural Tanzania, a breakthrough that could help doctors treat patients infected with th...

It seems to me the headline writer takes some liberties, the study as I read it measures rainfall with strength of links between mobile telephone towers rather than phones, using phone network data. http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-02-05/dutch-researchers-find-way-to-measure-rain-with-mobile-phones/4...

Amazing!
http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msl/raw/?s=0

Looks like an abandoned dwarf fortress to me.

This may be a stupid question: Why don't they use the previous landing technique: A big balloon. When it hits the top of Mars atmosphere the craft will be travelling 13,200 mph. 7 minutes later 900 kg of rover will be at standstill on the surface (in one piece or very many). I guess for the weight ...

There is some excellent information about the Curiosity mission and landing here: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/press_kits/MSLLanding.pdf and http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/msl/index.html From the NASA press kit: Two live feeds of video during key landing activities from mission control rooms at J...