Tesla adds ‘2048’ and Atari’s ‘Super Breakout’ to its dashboards

Posted on 04/04/2019 by Engadget RSS Feed

Tesla is adding more free games to the dashboard display on Model S, Model X and Model 3 cars. Super Breakout and 2048 are joining other Atari classics Missile Command, Asteroids, Lunar Lander and Centipede, which Tesla added in August. To date, hund...

Trump asks for $9.6 billion to bolster cybersecurity in 2020 budget

Posted on 11/03/2019 by Engadget RSS Feed

President Donald Trump has revealed his proposed budget for the 2020 fiscal year, which "supports the creation" of Space Force (USSF) as the sixth branch of the armed forces. The White House also hopes to bolster cybersecurity and NASA exploration mi...

Apollo 15 Lunar Lander Joystick for Sale

Posted on 12/05/2014 by Conner Flynn

Long before we were using our joysticks to play Space Invaders and Galaga, they were using joysticks in the space program. In 1971, Apollo 15 became the fourth manned mission to land on the moon. Mission commander Dave Scott had to manually guide the Falcon lunar landing module back on course after it veered away from the intended landing site. He used this joystick which is now up for auction, with the bidding starting at $10,000.

The joystick is in very good shape. It was used to land Falcon, then again to pilot the ascent stage as it met up with the command module in orbit of the moon. That was it. This joystick is spring loaded, so you can move it around and it will return to center. Sadly, the trigger is a communication toggle, not a fire button.

Whatever it sells for it will likely be the most expensive joystick ever.

[via New Scientist via Geek]

A Tour of Astrobotic Technology’s lunar rover lab at Carnegie Mellon (video)

Posted on 23/10/2012 by Brian Heater

Things are buzzing late Monday afternoon at Carnegie Mellon's Planetary Robotics Lab Highbay. Outside, in front of the garage door-like entrance, a trio of men fills up a kiddie pool with a garden hose. Just to their left, an Enterprise rent-a-truck backs up and a handful of students raise two metal ramps up to its rear in order to drive a flashy rover up inside. I ask our guide, Jason Calaiaro, what the vehicle's final destination is. "NASA," he answers, simply. "We have a great relationship with NASA, and they help us test things."

Calaiaro is the CIO of Astrobotic Technology, an offshoot of the school that was founded a few years back, thanks to Google's Lunar X Prize announcement. And while none of the handful of vehicles the former student showcases were made specifically with the government space agency in mind, given the company's history of contractual work, we could well see them receive the NASA stamp of approval in the future. Asked to take us through the project, Calaiaro tells us, quite confidently, that the trio of vehicles behind us are set to "land on the moon in 2015," an ambitious goal set to occur exactly three weeks from last Friday.

Gallery: Tour of Astrobotic Technology's lunar rover lab at Carnegie Mellon