Well that's disappointing. On January 27th, Japan's space agency (JAXA) successfully launched the Kounotori 6 spacecraft to the ISS. It was supposed to test a novel method of dragging space debris out of orbit however a technical issue prevented the...
You probably know that the proliferation of space junk is a real problem, but we won't blame you if you have a tough time wrapping your head around the concept. There are roughly 20,000 fragments up there, after all. However, university lecturer Stua...
So you’ve got a couple of dead old video game consoles lying around. While you could just throw them in the trash, it’s better for you to recycle them. And what better than to turn your old game systems into Batman’s Tumbler?
That’s exactly what recycling artist Daniel Shankalonian did when he got his hands on a couple of deceased PlayStation 2 systems. He completed his build chopping up the bits and pieces of the consoles, mixing in a liberal dose of printer and hard drive parts, and placing the whole assemblage on a broken down old Dell XPS laptop.
While it’s certainly not as elegant of a job as Lucius Fox did with the original Tumbler, you have to give Shankalonian credit for being able to make lemonade out of the lemons he was dealt. And Lucius had the slight advantage of having millions of dollars from the Wayne Foundation to work with too.
Best of all, you can own this recycled PS2/Batmobile. It’s available over on Etsy for $250(USD). It’s a shame you can’t hook up a DualShock and play Arkham Origins on it.
I was minding my own business, strolling through the hallways of the Chicago Mini Maker Faire this weekend, when I turned a corner and came across this…
Yes, it’s a great white shark, assembled from plastic cups, bags, and other discarded items. In fact, this shark is 90% post-consumer waste. You can even look inside of it to see its shark guts – though they’re not exactly anatomically accurate.
Lovingly named Toothless the Great White, it was made by Deanna LaSusa-Hotchner and a team of volunteers from Discover the Depths. Deanna brings her 15-foot-long junk shark to schools, park districts, libraries and other venues to help kids learn about the delicate underwater ecosystem.
I love how the other side of the shark is made of grey linoleum. It’s perfect for conveying the thick grey skin of an actual shark. It also turns out this isn’t the only creature that Discover the Depths lugs around. Apparently, they also have a 60-foot-long inflatable whale, called Harry the Humpback, which you can actually walk inside of.
We’re so used to seeing Darth Vader dressed in all black, but his iconic helmet really works well no matter what color it’s done in. Heck, even Hello Kitty Vader was pretty imposing. But I think that this version of Vader, built out of old bits of reclaimed electronics and other junk looks really awesome.
I kind of wish that when they peeled back the helmet on Vader in Return of the Jedi, this is what they would have found underneath instead of Sebastian Shaw. I can’t tell for sure what all of the components came from, but there’s definitely some old adding machine and typewriter keys, circuit boards, gears and resistors on this handmade helmet.
It was created by Indiana artist Gabriel Dishaw, who has a love for making sculptures from found junk. The Darth Vader helmet is selling for $800(USD) over on Etsy now. While that may seem like a lot of money, I’m betting that Vader’s actual helmet cost him just as much.
Like many of you out there, I can’t wait until Star Trek: Into Darkness hits theaters next Summer. In the mean time, I have to be satisfied with other forms of Trekkism to keep my mind occupied – like this clever Starship Enterprise model, made from a defunct hard drive.
Actually, it was made from an old hard drive, bits of a dead mother board, and a laptop keyboard by geeky crafter Daniel Shankalonian. The drive platters make the perfect primary hull and bridge of the trusty old NCC-1701, while I don’t quite recognize what parts make up the warp nacelles and engineering section of the ship. The model also comes with a matching stand, made from a hard drive case and some busted headphone parts. Fascinating, Jim.
This isn’t the only U.S.S. Enterprise model that Daniel has built. This one is actually “version 2.1,” and he’s also got recycled part models of the U.S.S. Kelvin and Klingon Bird of Prey up for sale at the moment. There’s also an awesome X-Wing Fighter if you’re more into Wars than Trek. You can check out all of his nifty models over on Daniel’s Etsy shop.
Space junk is an undeniable problem when there's over 500,000 dead satellites, spacecraft pieces and other human-made obstacles that could crash into active orbiting vehicles. DARPA is more than a little overwhelmed in trying to track all those hazards by itself, so it's recruiting amateur help through its new SpaceView program. The effort will buy time for non-professional astronomers on existing telescopes, or even supply hardware directly, to track the spaceborne debris without the sheer expense of growing an existing surveillance network. While that amounts to using hobbyists purely as volunteers, DARPA notes that the strategy could be a win-win for some when hardware donated for SpaceView could be used for regular astronomy in spare moments. The challenge is getting through the sign-up phase. While SpaceView is taking applications now, it's initially focusing on options for standard commercial telescopes and hand-picking those who have permanent access to hardware in the right locations -- there's no guarantee a backyard observatory will pass muster. Those who do clear the bar might sleep well knowing that satellites and rockets should be that much safer in the future.
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DARPA SpaceView program enlists us to track space debris, save a satellite today (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Nov 2012 14:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
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