jet

Juno spacecraft poised for five-year voyage to Jupiter

NASA's solar-powered Juno spacecraft, the centerpiece of a $1.1 billion mission to Jupiter, was mounted atop an Atlas 5 rocket today, setting the stage for launch August 5 on a five-year voyage to the solar system's largest planet.

Once in orbit around Jupiter's poles, Juno's instruments will precisely map the planet's gravitational and magnetic fields, probe its turbulent atmosphere and hidden interior and study the mechanisms responsible for its powerhouse auroras, the strongest in the solar system.

"Jupiter probably formed first, it's the largest of all the planets, in fact it's … Read more

Jet pack fails Fox news broadcast

Perhaps nothing even remotely associated with Rupert Murdoch could possibly be funny this weekend. Perhaps nothing even remotely associated with Rupert Murdoch could go right either.

But sometimes, when things go wrong, they can actually be amusing. So here (thank you so much, Gizmodo) is a Fox 5 News morning broadcast from the water in San Diego.

The producers clearly had a great idea. They had their presenter at the San Diego Yacht and Boat Show standing next to a man with a revolutionary aqua jet pack.

They were going to start the show by having Aqua Jet Pack Man take off. So very cute. And then.

Well, and then the JetLev R200 jet pack proved to need a little more rehearsal.

Or, more likely, it was the operator who wasn't quite ready to push the right button when the producer told him he was live.

Whatever the reason, there is something so very charming about the way that John, the man with pack, plummets straight into the water, almost taking the very fine and brave Fox 5 presenter with him.

I defy anyone who can still see and feel their feet not to lose a little equilibrium at the beginning of this video. Clearly, the JetLev R200 is a fine, fun machine that many will enjoy on future summer vacations. Indeed, the San Antonio Spurs' Tony Parker enjoyed one a few days ago in Saint-Tropez.

But he's merely a point guard, not someone who has to open what is, no doubt, San Diego's finest morning news show.

And no, I don't believe you can remotely hack an aqua jet pack.… Read more

Fun air combat, but suffers from online issues

MetalStorm: Online is a free--and impressively executed--multiplayer flight sim, but with a potentially frustrating in-game economy and erratically balanced matchmaking.

The interface and basic gameplay of MetalStorm are a joy: with smart use of your accelerometer and a few thumb controls on your "HUD" (arrows for brake and afterburner, buttons for guns and missiles), MetalStorm immerses you effectively in a jet cockpit for a tense dogfight experience, with cinematic music and great-looking terrain to complete the effect. You fly a modern jet equipped with an upgradeable cannon and missiles, and you can duke it out with increasing numbers … Read more

Buzz Out Loud 1489: 7073, people, keep it simple (Podcast)

The most common iPhone passcodes are revealed on today's show (no, not by LulzSec), but Tong has a pager-callback suggestion for all of us. A proposal in Congress would force U.S. companies to actually tell us when they're hacked and our data is stolen (yes, please), and Rojadirecta becomes the people's hero in challenging the government's domain-name seizures. Go, Rojadirecta, go!

Rumor: Motorola prepping a pair of quad-core smartphones for early 2012

We may still be in the first half of 2011, but that doesn't mean we can't start talking about devices rumored for next year. Droid-Life is reporting that it has received preliminary specs for a pair of Motorola handsets that likely won't arrive until 2012. And, as one might expect, the hardware is leaps above the stuff hitting shelves today.

Both smartphones, the Bullet and Jet, should be 4G LTE capable for Verizon's network. What's more, the handsets will be among the first to offer Nvidia's new quad-core "Kal-El" Tegra 3 chipset. … Read more

Transcend ships USB 3.0 rugged portable drive

Transcend today announced that it is now shipping the StoreJet 25H3P portable drive, which supports the SuperSpeed USB 3.0 connection. The drive is based on a 2.5-inch internal hard drive housed in a robust shockproof case.

The company claims that the new portable drive's antislip rubber enclosure and reinforced hard casing have passed the rigorous U.S. military drop tests, and that the StoreJet 25H3P is one of the most robust portable hard drives on the market.

The new StoreJet 25H3P comes with 1TB of storage space and is designed to offer transfer speeds of around 90MBps … Read more

Super pricey Android app saves the rich half a mil

Don't you hate it when you drop $10 million on a new private jet, and you don't have any cash left over to afford the $500,000 in-flight mobile phone system?

A new Android app is out to bridge that gap between those who can go anywhere, anytime and those who can go anywhere, anytime and call their other wealthy friends while they're doing it.

SafeCell, developed by ASiQ Limited Australia, enables users to make in-flight calls with their Android smartphone. At $12,500 for a single license--add $5,000 for multi-channel--it is likely the most expensive Android app yet, but that's still a big savings over conventional half-mil in-flight systems.

"The development of the Android app follows on from our initial Blackberry and Symbian versions...We now see why Android has gained such a high consumer acceptance," ASiQ CEO Ron Chapman said in a press release. "The app is very fast, which means that making a call at 30,000 feet or sending a message is just as simple as if you were using your mobile on the ground."… Read more

Get ready to jet-pack to work!

Links from Friday's episode of Loaded

Facebook launches the Open Compute Project, a collaboration with hardware manufacturers, aimed at making more energy-efficient Web-centric computers

The FCC adopts new rules on roaming rates and cell phone signal boosters

T-Mobile confirms that the Sidekick 4G will cost $99 when it launches April 20

Atari Greatest Hits brings vintage Atari titles to the iPad and iPhone

The personal jet pack takes a 7-minute flight in New Zealand, a new record.

Personal jetpack one step closer to launch?

The three-year wait for a recreational jetpack may be almost over--assuming regulators give their approval.

New Zealand's Martin Aircraft said that its Martin Jetpack--which has a 200-horsepower piston gasoline engine that powers a couple of ducted fans--remained aloft for more than seven minutes in its latest test. That may not be enough time to get you to the store and back, but it represents a record.

A man on the ground flew the Martin Jetpack by radio control; a weighted dummy, "Jetson," served as the pilot. No mention yet on an updated timetable for putting a human through a rigorous series of test runs, though the company has previously said that it's on track to do just that sometime in the current quarter.

The jetpack itself is 5 feet tall and 5.5 feet wide and made of a carbon fiber composite with a pinch of Kevlar for the rotor. It uses regular gasoline and will travel a grand distance of 31.5 miles at a maximum speed of 63 mph, which should comfortably take you from home to office (and back) in a jiffy, and with a lot of noise. … Read more

Study: 'Jet-fuel' crop success hinges on sites, seeds

Boeing's two-year study of jatropha-curcas agriculture in Brazil has found that location choice and strong seeds are the key to maximizing the crop's benefits, the company said today.

The jatropha-curcas plant has been under close scrutiny in recent years by scientists and companies because its olives yield an oil that can be made into an alternative jet fuel. The weedy plant can grow in adverse soil conditions. And in addition to yielding oil, it provides, like most plants, the secondary benefit of removing carbon from the atmosphere. Many have been trying to compare the carbon footprint of producing … Read more