TechBlog

A CubeSat is a type of space research picosatellite with dimensions usually of 10×10×10 centimetres (i.e., a volume of exactly one litre), weighing no more than one kilogram, and typically using commercial off-the-shelf electronics components.

Developed through joint efforts, California Polytechnic State University and Stanford University introduced the CubeSat to academia as a way for universities throughout the world to enter the realm of space science and exploration.

Currently, a large number of universities and some companies and other organizations around the world are actively developing CubeSats. One of these companies Clyde-Space, has just developed an ‘off-the-shelf’ website with information and resources for various sized cubesats and their subsystems. Other suppliers such as ISIS and GomSpace are also offering products and services through their websites.
With their relatively small size, CubeSats can be made and launched for an estimated US$65,000–80,000 each (2004 US dollars). This low price tag, as compared to most satellite launches, has made Cubesat a viable option for schools and universities across the world.

Continue reading ‘Researchers And Students To Develop Small CubeSat Satellites, the Size of a Loaf of Bread’ »

In a revolutionary leap that could transform solar power from a marginal, boutique alternative into a mainstream energy source, MIT researchers have overcome a major barrier to large-scale solar power: storing energy for use when the sun doesn’t shine.

Until now, solar power has been a daytime-only energy source, because storing extra solar energy for later use is prohibitively expensive and grossly inefficient. With this announcement, MIT researchers have hit upon a simple, inexpensive, highly efficient process for storing solar energy.

Continue reading ‘Major Discovery - From MIT Primed To Unleash Solar Revolution’ »

Applied scientists at Harvard University in collaboration with researchers from the German universities of Jena, Gottingen, and Bremen, have developed a new technique for fabricating nanowire photonic and electronic integrated circuits that may one day be suitable for high-volume commercial production.

Fabrication technique could yield low-cost, scalable nanowire photonic and electronic circuits

Spearheaded by graduate student Mariano Zimmler and Federico Capasso, Robert L. Wallace Professor of Applied Physics and Vinton Hayes Senior Research Fellow in Electrical Engineering, both of Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), and Prof. Carsten Ronning of the University of Jena, the findings will be published in Nano Letters. The researchers have filed for U.S. patents covering their invention.

Continue reading ‘Scientists Demonstrate Method for Integrating Nanowire Devices Directly onto Silicon’ »

Astronomers from Arecibo Observatory radio telescope in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, have detected for the first time the molecules methanimine and hydrogen cyanide - two ingredients that build life-forming amino acids - in a galaxy some 250 million light years away. “Just add water!” said Robert Minchin, an Arecibo astronomer on the project, who explained that methanimine and hydrogen cyanide are two of the basic ingredients of life, because when combined with water they form glycine, the simplest amino acid, a building block of life on Earth.

The astronomy team, led by Arecibo astronomer Christopher Salter, announced this discovery today (Jan. 11) in a poster presented at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Austin. The Arecibo Observatory is managed by Cornell University for National Science Foundation.

The Arecibo astronomers focused on the distant galaxy Arp 220, an ultra-luminous starburst galaxy, because it forms new stars at a very high rate. They used the 305-meter, or 1,000-foot diameter, Arecibo radio telescope, the world’s largest and most sensitive, to observe the galaxy at different frequencies. In fact, for the first time in April 2007, they used the 800 megahertz wide-band mode of the main spectrometer to make these detections.

Continue reading ‘Radio Telescope Detects Life-Forming Ingredients In Far Off Galaxy’ »

Contact Lenses With Circuits, Lights A Possible Platform For Superhuman Vision

Movie characters from the Terminator to the Bionic Woman use bionic eyes to zoom in on far-off scenes, have useful facts pop into their field of view, or create virtual crosshairs. Off the screen, virtual displays have been proposed for more practical purposes — visual aids to help vision-impaired people, holographic driving control panels and even as a way to surf the Web on the go.

The device to make this happen may be familiar. Engineers at the University of Washington have for the first time used manufacturing techniques at microscopic scales to combine a flexible, biologically safe contact lens with an imprinted electronic circuit and lights.

Continue reading ‘Contact Lenses With Circuits, Lights A Possible Platform For Superhuman Vision’ »