The real Saturn V may have been 363 feet tall and over six million pounds, but with 1,969 piece and standing at a majestic 39 inches, the Lego version is no slouch. Here at Popular Mechanics we like spaceflight and Lego, so when given the chance to build a Saturn V of our own, we couldn’t say no. And if you’re thinking about picking up the kit yourself, consider this an example of how construction might go....
In 1998, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) brought an antitrust action against Microsoft for a variety of anti-competitive practices in the software industry–chief among them the bundling of the company’s Internet Explorer browser into its dominant Windows operating system. The trial revealed plenty of bare-knuckled tactics and market manipulation on behalf of Microsoft, and stained the company’s brand for years (perhaps forever, frankly) as a corporate bully. But the central argument from Microsoft was that, with the ascent of the Internet, the browser had become an integral part of the OS, and that competing stand-alone browsers such as Netscape and Opera were moribund products from a transition era....
Another star buzzed the solar system 70,000 years ago and may have sent comets hurtling our way.It is possible our prehistoric ancestors saw the star in the sky.A new study also ID’ed eight objects that could have come from beyond our solar system.About 70,000 years ago, around the time our ancestors were just beginning to leave Africa, a small red dwarf star passed remarkably close to the solar system. Scholz’s star came within a light-year of the sun, the closest such encounter we know of....
Media Platforms Design Team Two-thirds of California residents rely on fresh water pumped from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, but the levees here are more than 100 years old and ready to give in. A failure would no doubt flood hundreds of acres across the north, but it could also compromise drinking water for an entire state already coping with “The Big Gulp.” Jeff Mount, a geology professor at the University of California, Davis, talked to PM about why the Delta is in trouble—and what we can do to save it....
The construction industry is facing a crisis in finding skilled workers.A new company is raising millions of dollars around the idea that it turn regular construction machines automated for simple tasks through a kit.So far, the machines only handle some of the less-complex tasks on a construction site. By 2030, analysts estimate that the global construction industry will be worth $8 trillion, with that growth being driven by the U.S., India, and China....
The days here start early. I’m up at 3:30 a.m. on my first morning with this areotrekking crew—which goes by the name Sky Gypsies—and out to the hangar near Tucson, Ariz., at 4 a.m. to preflight the vehicles.Here, in June, kite wing pilots fly early and fly late: Searing midday heat in the Southwest produces thermals—sudden updrafts that can lead to dust devils and sand storms. Glider pilots hunt for those pockets of lift, which hoist them like elevators....
Bosch is perhaps the biggest name in e-bike tech, making many of the powerhouse batteries that propel today’s models as well as their handlebar-mounted monitors. The company’s newest offering, the Kiox on-board computer, adds your athletic performance data, allowing it to track factors such as your cadence and heart rate.Kiox is magnetically connected to the base that’s attached to your handlebars. The full-color display is a big step up from the simpler displays on many e-bikes, and is covered by durable Gorilla Glass, which is meant to appeal to riders who cover tough terrain and want a rugged, unbreakable tracker....
The Pentagon is planning for the day when an adversary might disrupt or destroy the GPS network.One idea would be enabling commercial satellites to act as a backup. Although the idea isn’t currently in the works, commercial satellite operators would likely not want bullseyes on their expensive satellites. The Pentagon’s Space Development Agency is concerned that America’s GPS satellite network could be disabled or destroyed in wartime. One possible alternative would be using hundreds of civilian satellites to provide a wartime alternative, providing navigation to U....
Media Platforms Design TeamThe camera in your cellphone is a lot like the digital cameras marketed for kids—it’s a toy, and a pretty bad one, at that. With low-res sensors and lenses so tiny they generally can’t focus on anything, much less whatever you’re trying to capture, cellphone cameras aren’t the equivalent of a disposable film camera or even a Polaroid. They’re basically pinhole cameras.Which is my long-winded justification for testing out Samsung’s SCH-a990 cellphone, which came out last summer, received decent reviews, but not much attention....
Media Platforms Design TeamFrying an egg on the sidewalk proves to be no problem when that egg is caught in the reflective glare of London’s 37-story “Walkie-Talkie” skyscraper. This week the building has been to singe carpet in a building across the street, cause paint on nearby buildings to flake, and even warp plastic panels on a Jaguar parked across the street. reflecting enough focused sunlightDesigned by architect Rafael Viñoly, the Walkie-Talkie, so-called because of its shape, stands at 20 Fenchurch Street in central London and has proved to be one hot mess for its developer, the Canary Wharf Group....
When you turn off the faucet in your bathroom, the water rushing through the pipes does not magically stop. Like any matter, it has mass and momentum, and when it slams into a closed valve, it generates a lot of pressure that your pipes just have to deal with. This is the everday torture of “water hammer,” and Practical Engineering explains the basics of how it works, and how engineers prevent it from blowing up your plumbing....
For a little more than 20 years, India has worked on developing an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) program. The Nishant fleet built four of the drones to spy on Maoist rebels and other insurgents in the country. But now the military is closing the program because of a minor setback: they all crashed. On November 17, the Economic Times in India reported that the fleet was already to be decommissioned since three out of four drones had crashed....
George Johnson’s walnut table is already a gorgeous piece of furniture. But when he turns it clockwise, something amazing happens. The ingenious round table is built so that rotating it causes the six segments to expand radially. Think of it like a pizza with six pieces that all move away from the center at the same time, leaving gaps between them.Related StoryBuild This Rustic Farmhouse TableThe hexagonal central piece and the expansion leaves pop up out of the table once there’s enough space to accommodate them....
There are few people insane enough to strap on a jetpack and jump out of a helicopter, but Rex Pemberton is apparently one of them.Pemberton has spent the last few years building a prototype jet engine/glider combo called the X-Wing, which is designed to replace the wingsuit. Recently, he finally had the chance to test it in the skies over Baja, Mexico.View full post on YoutubePemberton was understandably apprehensive, considering that this was his first X-Wing flight, but the whole thing seems to have gone off without a hitch....
Media Platforms Design Team(Photo Credit: Khaled Desouki/AFP/Getty Images)One of the most famous relics in all of archaeology has been irreversibly damaged by a cleaning crew at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.The Wall Street Journal reports that someone accidentally bumped the sarcophagus mask of King Tutankhamen and knocked off the beard. Museum higher-ups gave the directive to fix it, and quickly. So someone did. Except they hastily did the job, using an inadequate epoxy to perform a shoddy “restoration” of the boy king’s beard and damaging the priceless relic....
Three major airports on the East Coast—New Jersey’s Newark International, Philadelphia International, and New York City’s LaGuardia Airport—are experiencing critical staffing shortages that are affecting incoming and outbound flights, according to the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Air Traffic Control System Command Center. Philadelphia International Airport briefly changed its status with wait times of 15 minutes reported on Friday morning, but later reverted back to 30 minute delays, per the FAA’s website....
Emily ShurWhen I stepped into the Offerman Woodshop in East Los Angeles, I stepped into a deep hush. The table saw sat quiet. The band saw was motionless, and so were the people—ten of them, variously seated or standing about. A tense silence hung in the air. Occasional words were exchanged in low voices. Unsure what I had stumbled into, I made a discreet inquiry of the person nearest me. It seemed the bird was not having a good day....
For millions of space nuts who watched SpaceX’s launch of the Falcon Heavy, the spectacle ended with the launch of the massive rocket and the return of the two out of three boosters that landed back at Cape Canaveral.The reveal of the car before it left Earth became an immediate iconic image. But for Earth’s cadre of professional and amateur space-watchers, the big show would happen later when the stage carrying the space car ignited and burned it way into deep space....
Back in 2015, SpaceX announced one of its more ambitious proposals: a constellation of satellites in orbit around the Earth, providing internet access to everyone and everywhere. Their plan involved launching over 4,000 such satellites, which would form a network capable of transmitting anywhere.Since the initial public announcement in early 2015, there have been a few pieces of news, such as an FCC filing in late 2016 and a proposal to start launching satellites in 2019....
Media Platforms Design TeamThe thrusters we’ve used to visit the moon are no good for traveling to Mars—they simply can’t carry enough fuel. But one of the new ways NASA is exploring for sending astronauts into deep space just got a boost. Jason Cassibry, an engineer at the University of Alabama at Huntsville, thinks nuclear power may be the answer. “If you took 1 kilogram of fusion fuel and burned it, it would exceed the energy of 1 kilogram of petroleum by at least a million times,” he says....
