Skydive From Space Update 3

It is a sad sad day.

Red Bull GmbH and Red Bull North America Inc have decided to stop the Red Bull Stratos programme with immediate effect.

Felix Baumgartner had been scheduled to undertake a stratospheric balloon flight to 120,000ft (36.5km) and attempt a freefall jump that would, for the first time, reach supersonic speeds, as well as deliver valuable scientific data.

Despite the fact that many other people over the past 50 years have tried to break Colonel (Ret) Joe Kittinger's altitude record, and that other individuals have sought to work with Red Bull in an attempt to break his record, Daniel Hogan claims to own certain rights to the project and filed a multi-million-dollar lawsuit earlier this year in a Californian court.

That "Mr. Hogan" is apparently one Daniel Hogan, who reportedly pitched Red Bull on a similar skydiving idea in 2004.

Due to the lawsuit, they have decided to stop the project until this case has been resolved.

For a project that has been 3 years in development, this petty claim really pisses me off.
I've been waiting and waiting for this event.

[VIA]

Felix meeting Neil Armstrong in August 2010

[VIA]

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Japanese Concept Cars 1957-2009

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Skydive From Space Update 2

4 people now have their eyes on this record.

Felix Baumgartner, who with the help of Joe Kittinger, the man who has held the record since 1960, is well on his way to complete this insane challenge. A photo of his gondola which wil take him up to 120,000 Feet is below.

The rivals are:
Steve Truglia, a British stuntman.
Cheryl Stearns, a pilot for US Airways who holds 30 skydiving records.
Michael Fournier from France, who has attempted the freefall record 3 times and has been his dream for 20 years. His last attempt was in May 2010, but was cancelled due to a technical fault.

My money's on Felix.

Check out our previous post on him and his spacesuit HERE.


1. Camera Systems
Three pressurized housings on aluminum arms will contain a total of three HD, three ultra-high-resolution video and two digital still cameras. Four more cameras record outside and three inside. "We basically built a flying television studio," says Jay Nemeth of FlightLine Films.

2. Outer Fairing
The Gemini shape of the capsule is "really a very elegant way of putting a lot of insulation around a lot of the systems," says chief engineer Bill Dodson. R-24 equivalent foam, covered by a fiberglass shell and fireproof paint, helps guard against temperatures as low as minus 100 F.

3. Liquid Oxygen
Redundant liquid-oxygen tanks with independent lines provide 10 hours of O2 for the 3-hour flight, plus pressurize Baumgartner's suit at altitude. N2 flowing from an oversize liquid-nitrogen tank will keep the cabin's oxygen level to below 30 percent, minimizing fire risk.

4. Pressure Sphere
A pressure sphere, molded from fiberglass and epoxy, sits in a chrome-moly steel load frame "like an egg in a bubble-wrap container," says project director Art Thompson. It will be pressurized to 8 psi—equal to 16,000 feet—but is designed to withstand 50. "It's definitely overbuilt."

[VIA]

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1000Mph Land Speed Record Update

The Bloodhound SSC team have finished their modelling and are ready to build the machine that will smash the speed record in 2012.

Aussie Invader, the Australian rival team are in the middle of building, as are North American Eagle, the US team.

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Whole Popular Science Catalogue On Google Books

This might just be the find of the decade for me and those of you who enjoy checking out retro-futurism. The super-famous "Popular Science" series, which has been running since 1870(!) has been added to Google Books and each issue has been lovingly scanned and put into handy PDF's for all of us to read. Check out the incredible archive HERE. Happy reading!

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Augmented Reality Video

The latter half of the 20th century saw the built environment merged with media space, and architecture taking on new roles related to branding, image and consumerism. Augmented reality may recontextualise the functions of consumerism and architecture, and change in the way in which we operate within it.




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Augmented Reality Gaming

Forget looking at the world through rose tinted glasses – try these on for size. Video eyewear manufacturer Vuzix has unveiled its Wrap 920AR glasses prototype that features cameras mounted to the lenses that project real world images onto LCD’s inside the glasses, seamlessly mixing real-world and computer generated imagery.

The glasses incorporate a camera on each lens that captures video at a resolution of 752x480 at 60fps offering a combined image of 1504x480 which can also be viewed in stereoscopic 3D. The cameras project real-world imagery onto LCD’s inside the glasses that give the effect of watching a 67” display from ten feet away. The images are overlaid with computer generated imagery effectively creating an augmented reality.
Check out the video.

[VIA]

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Digital Magazine Concept By Bonnier

A really well thought-out concept for what could be the future of magazine reading...digitally and using a touch screen tablet. Conceptualists, Bonnier have really taken the time to think things through and propose a very realistic idea.....


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