Invention & Technology: Strong Armed
Building a truly useful prosthetic arm remains a major engineering challenge: while new designs show promise, they still can’t beat the utility of a simple hook mechanism that dates back to before World War I. By Michael Belfiore. Invention & Technology Magazine, Fall 2009. The place didn’t look like a cutting-edge research laboratory. The work benches in the little room at Johns...
Read MoreAir & Space: License to Thrill
Meet the first commercial rocketship pilots. By Michael Belfiore. Air & Space Magazine, March 01, 2009. In the old days it was straightforward enough. The planet had two corps of astronauts, Soviet and U.S., and to join one, you had to be a military test pilot. But now the rules have changed. You don’t have to be an American or a Russian anymore, and you don’t even have to be a government...
Read MoreWired: Robot Cars for Everyone
By Michael Belfiore. Wired, November 1, 2007. The question on a lot of people’s minds here at DARPA’s race for driverless cars is “when can I get mine?” So I went and asked Michael Darms, a Continental Automotive Systems engineer working with Carnegie Mellon’s Tartan Racing team. His answer: A lot sooner than you think. Robot cars have been Darms’ passion from an early age and...
Read MoreFinancial Times: Space for Everyone
By Michael Belfiore. Financial Times, October 20 2007. How does flying in space for a private company differ from flying for the government? ‘In the commercial world, the time scales involved are being dramatically cut,’ says Brian Binnie. Indeed, Binnie was selected to fly the second of the two flights needed to win the X Prize on a Thursday, started training for it the next day, and...
Read MoreWired: Accidents Won’t Stop Private Space Industry’s Push to Final Frontier
By Michael Belfiore. Wired, August 2, 2007. The private space industry suffered a setback last Thursday when an explosion ripped through a rocket-engine test area in the California desert, killing three workers and seriously injuring three others. The industry’s first fatal accident is already becoming a defining event in the history of commercial spaceflight — it’s the private...
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