A historic moment for humanity: NASA Launches "Curiosity" Mars Rover

The one-ton rover, tucked inside a capsule, left Florida on an Atlas 5 rocket at 10:02 local time (15:02 GMT). The rover is expected to reach Planet Mars on August 5, 2012. The rover is the out come of the hard work, the great engineers working for NASA have put in and about US$2.5 billion in funding.

Brief specs 

Autocar Performance Show 2011 at BKC Mumbai

 

Autocar Performance Show 2011

Hey people! This is for all the automobile enthusiasts.

Here are a few pictures that we at Tech Center photographed at the Autocar Performance Show 2011. Hope you guys like it. These pictures have been brought to you by Rizvi Reza a good friend of mine who is a lot involved in photography and video shooting.

All due credit to him.
Tell us what you think in the comments.

ASUS Unveils the Eee Pad Transformer Prime with a quad core processor

With it series of Quad core Nvidia Tegra 3 mobile processor it seems like Nvidia is serious about getting into the main stream market for ultra powerful and efficient tablet processors. Finally we have the world's first ever device from ASUS powered by the much talked about Nvidia Tegra 3 processor. ASUS unveiled it's first quad core powered tablet/netbook called the 'Eee Pad Transformer Prime' the successor of the Eee Pad Transformer. Now the main reason these tablet devices are called 'Transformer' is the fact that they can be used as a Tablet or a net-book by docking the tablet to the keyboard; although the keyboard docking is sold separately. 

Getting into the details of the new 'Eee Pad Transformer Prime', the device is a hardware marvel, it is basically a beefed up version of its predecessor. Along with packing the Tegra 3 quad-core CPU it features a 12-core GeForce GPU and Variable Symmetric Multiprocessing (vSMP) technology, it sports 1 GB of DDR2 RAM and will be available in two versions with  32 GB or 64 GB of onboard storage plus expandable via SD card. 

It has a 10.1-inch, 1280 x 800 pixel of resolution, the screen is protected by a Super IPS+, Gorilla Glass panel. The screen has a wide viewing angle of 178-degree and 600 nits of maximum brightness.

Boston Dynamics with its new toy: The PETMAN bipedal robot

Boston Dynamics is a company know for its crazy legged robots which really resemble real life movements. Its one of the leading company in the development of advance robots with remarkable mobility, agility, dexterity and speed. After releasing the video of Alpha Dog back in September, Boston dynamics released a new video demonstrating a robot that resembles an adult human in terms a lot of physical movements.

The Microsoft Kinect effect. (Video)

Microsoft Kinect has turned out to be a really effective add-on not only for gaming but; it has given a lot of developers a platform to create really amazing technologies. 


Here's a video as to whats possible with the Microsoft Kinect.

Solar Ship: A Hybrid Airship Concept

Hybrid technologies always give the benefit of both worlds. Various kinds of aircraft designs have their advantages and disadvantages. How about an aircraft that gives the benefit of a fixed wing aircraft and a helium airship, add to that the benefit of Zero carbon emission and Solar powered operation. A Canadian Company called Solar Ship Inc. has come with such an interesting concept.

What is Solar Airship?

The Solar Ship as its called is basically a hybrid airship. Just like any other airship it has an envelope to store helium which provides with Buoyancy/ lift to some extent, although the difference here is that unlike a normal Airship which completely relies for all its lift from the helium stored in something like a balloon on top, the solar ship on the other hand relies partly on the helium and partly on the aerodynamic lift created by the wings design. The airship is designed using  Advanced aerodynamics, synthetic textile laminates that give the aircraft the ability to store helium and at the same time have enough stiffness to provide a perfect aerodynamic (aero-foil) profile to act as wings.

Under normal conditions the solar airship would rely on the aerodynamic lift provided by the wing shape to give it more than half the lift required to get them off the ground. Additionally, the aircraft could also fly when filled with plain air. What this means is the aircraft will still be able to fly and land safely if there is any accidental damage that results in helium loss.

On top of the wings it has an array of highly efficient solar cells providing it with the ability to store electric energy  in batteries which can be used when required.