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Recent Technology News: NASA's Stardust mission
successfully ends
Stardust is an American interplanetary spacecraft,
whose primary purpose is to investigate the makeup
of the comet Wild 2 and its coma. It was launched on
February 7, 1999 by NASA, traveled nearly 3 billion
miles (5·109 km), and returned to Earth on January
15, 2006 to release a sample material capsule. It is
the first sample return mission to collect cosmic
dust and return the sample to Earth.
After launch in 1999, the Stardust spacecraft
traveled in an initial orbit beyond- but
intersecting- Earth's orbit. The Delta II booster
did not have enough energy to reach Wild 2 directly.
The Stardust spacecraft then re-approached Earth in
January 2001 for a gravity assist maneuver. The
encounter with Earth enlarged the spacecraft's orbit
to intersect that of Wild 2.
On the second orbit, Stardust flew by the comet Wild
2 on January 2, 2004. During the flyby it collected
dust samples from the comet's coma and took detailed
pictures of its icy nucleus. Additionally, the
spacecraft accomplished several other goals. It
passed within 3300 km of the asteroid 5535 Annefrank
on November 2, 2002 and took several photographs.
The aerogel collector also acquired interstellar
dust. In March-May 2000 and July-December 2002, the
spacecraft angled itself into a dust stream believed
to originate outside the solar system. The reverse
side of the aerogel collector then caught a sample
of such particles.
On arrival, the capsule was traveling in a nearly
flat trajectory, at 12.9 km/s (28,900 miles per
hour), which is the fastest re-entry speed ever
achieved by a man-made object. As a point of
comparison, NASA's Utah ambassador stated it would
be able to travel from Salt Lake City, Utah to New
York City, New York in less than six minutes. A
large fire ball and sonic boom were observed in
western Utah and eastern Nevada.
The sample material capsule from Stardust returned
to Earth at approximately 10:10 UTC on January 15,
2006 in Utah's Great Salt Lake desert, near the U.S.
Army Dugway Proving Ground, to deliver the sample
material. The landing coordinates were 40°21.9′N
113°31.25′W. Winds had blown the capsule a few miles
off its ballistic trajectory, but it was within the
target area.
The Stardust mother ship had been put into a "divert
maneuver" to keep the hardware from hitting Earth.
NASA is considering sending it to another comet or
asteroid. Under twenty kilograms of fuel remain
onboard after the maneuver. Individuals who wish to
propose post-return uses for the spacecraft to NASA
may submit a proposal for the use of the spacecraft
in response to the current Discovery Announcement of
Opportunity, a document released on January 3, 2006.
On January 29, the craft was put in hibernation mode
with only its solar panels and receiver still
active. It may be reawakened for a future mission
(one possibility: flying by the comet 9P/Tempel that
was the target of the Deep Impact mission); for now,
it's in a three-year heliocentric orbit that will
return it to the Earth's vicinity on January 14,
2009.
Donald Brownlee, from the University of Washington,
is the Principal Investigator for the Stardust
mission.
Microsoft unveils the Ultra-Mobile PC, "Origami
Project".
The Ultra-Mobile PC (abbreviated UMPC), previously
known by its codename Project Origami, is a
specification for a small form factor tablet PC. It
was developed as a joint development exercise
between Microsoft, Intel, and Samsung, among others.
Current UMPCs feature the Windows XP Tablet PC
Edition 2005 operating system and low-voltage Intel
Pentium processors in the 1 GHz range.
Ultra-Mobile PCs have a 20 cm (7-inch) touch
sensitive screen at a minimum resolution of 800 ×
480. Windows XP Tablet PC Edition is used with
slight tweaks to the interface to make it more
suited for the small form factor. In addition, a
software suite known as the Touch Pack Interface is
included to make the interface more suitable for use
of stylus as well as hand.
The Ultra-Mobile PC is just a platform for which
manufacturers can design any model they want,
provided they meet or exceed the baseline
specifications laid down by Microsoft. When the UMPC
was disclosed as CeBIT 2006, Samsung, ASUS and
Founder had near-complete devices on display.
Pricing is expected to be in the range of $599 to
$999.
UMPCs will be able to run any software that has been
written for the Windows XP platform, though the
small form factor will mandate some changes to the
interface. The standard Windows XP interface is the
default, though a choice of having an interface more
suited for the small form factor is available with
the Touch Pack Interface. Due to the small size,
UMPC do not feature a physical keyboard, but a
virtual keyboard, known as DialKeys, is provided in
the Touch Pack Interface. Also, since the device has
standard USB 2.0 connectivity, external keyboards
and mice can be attached.
UMPCs will include 1 GHz Intel Celeron M, Pentium M
or VIA C7-M processors, with 256 MB RAM, and will
include 30 GB to 60 GB harddisks, depending on the
manufacturer. They could also feature GPS devices,
webcams, fingerprint readers, TV tuners, or memory
card readers. Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and Ethernet are all
supported as well.
UMPCs have enough processing power to support audio,
video, and gaming, in addition to having rich
support for browsing the internet as well as for
other communication and networking applications.
Windows Media Player will be included, with minor
tweaks to provide a better experience on the small
screen. The devices will also feature DirectX
8–class graphics, and all applications available for
standard Tablet PCs are expected to be compatible.
In future, the prices of UMPCs are expected to come
down to the $500 range, and battery life is expected
to increase from the present two and a half hours to
eight hours. UMPCs will be upgraded to include
Windows Vista later this year.
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