In the very early hours of the morning, in a Harvard robotics laboratory last summer, an insect took flight. Half the size of a paperclip, weighing less than a tenth of a gram, it leapt [...]
Tag Archives | flight
Wonks figure out how butterflies fly
In Robert A. Heinlein’s science-fiction novel, The Cat Who Walks Through Walls, one of the characters states that butterflies are just “…self-propelled flowers.” While Heinlein’s description of the insect’s aerodynamic ability is quite poetic, it [...]
Emergency mental health lessons learned from Continental Flight 3407 disaster
BUFFALO, N.Y. — When a disaster’s physical evidence is gone — debris removed, shooter arrested, ashes cold — the psychological effects of the disaster on emergency responders and civilians involved still may burn.
Emergency mental health, a fi…
NASA’s NPP satellite undergoing flight environmental testing
GREENBELT, Md. — The NASA National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS) Preparatory Project (NPP) climate/weather satellite is undergoing flight environmental testing at Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp’s production …
WSU researchers apply fatigue model to fatal commuter air crash
SPOKANE, Wash. — Washington State University sleep researchers have determined that the air traffic controller in the crash of a Lexington, Ky., commuter flight was substantially fatigued when he failed to detect that the plane was on the wrong r…
NSF/NASA scientific balloon launches from Antarctica
NASA and the National Science Foundation launched a scientific balloon on Monday, December 20, Eastern Standard time, to study the effects of cosmic rays on Earth. It was the first of five scientific balloons scheduled to launch from Antarctic…
US nuclear safety claim is a ‘dangerous fantasy’
London, UK (November 1, 2010) — In April 2010, the US government adopted a new nuclear strategy that depends on the conclusion that the current missile defense systems will reliably protect the continental United States in the extreme circumstan…
NASA loosens GRIP on Atlantic hurricane season
NASA wrapped up one of its largest hurricane research efforts ever last week after nearly two months of flights that broke new ground in the study of tropical cyclones and delivered data that scientists will now be able to analyze for years to com…
Shape-shifting robot plane offers safer alternative for maritime rescue
The EUREKA E! 3931 ASARP project has developed a small and cheap-to-build unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) intended to cut the cost of maritime search-and-rescue missions and reduce risks to material and human lives. The seaplane uses shape-changing …
Older pilots OK to fly, study shows
An airplane pilot’s experience is a better indication of crash risk than his or her age, Johns Hopkins researchers say. They found in a study of 3,306 commuter plane pilots that those with more than 5,000 hours of flight experience had less than half the risk of a crash than less experienced counterparts. Results are published in the May 15 issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology.