Perhaps I spoke too soon with our "simulated" footage of the satellite strike. The Pentagon has released video of the successful missile strike:
Click through to see a vid of the satellite-busting missile taking off.
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Whenever I'm visiting a war zone, like lovely downtown Basra, sunny Beirut, or Christmas morning with my family, I often wonder if there isn't a better way to protect myself other than wearing my lucky Chewbacca underwear. Turns out a company named Auxetix has developed a composite fabric called Zetix that can withstand blasts from multiple car bombs. It could be used for body armor, weapon-proof tents, or even in medical applications as medical sutures that don't damage body tissue.
The fabric works on a principle called helical auxetics, which means that it's made of materials that are woven in such a way that they get fatter when stretched, not thinner. Helically wound fabrics can withstand several blasts without breaking and are much stronger than other materials in their class. That should get me through sitting next to Uncle Milton after he loads up on beans and broccoli.
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Today's 60 Second Science podcast is brought to you by Explosions in the Sky:
Superdupernova explodes more than once
Full transcript after the jump...
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New Mexico was once again the site of interstellar shenanigans (I'm looking at you, Roswell) as the X Prize Cup rocket expo ended with Armadillo Aerospace's entry into the 2007 Northrop Grumman Lunar Lander Challenge exploding in spectacular fashion.
In a last-ditch attempt to win the prize, Armadillo took the engine out of another, more powerful rocket called Pixel – which it had planned to fly in the more difficult level 2 challenge – and used it as a replacement for Module 1's cracked engine.But the engine exploded in a fireball at launch, producing a bang that was audible from more than a kilometre away. Armadillo declared an emergency and fire trucks rushed to the scene, but the fire quickly burned itself out without any intervention or injuries.
Nine teams entered, but only Armadillo Aerospace was actually prepared to compete in time to win the prize. Armadillo was founded by John Carmack, creator of iD Software and the games Doom and Quake.
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