Cosmos 1 Sets Solar Sail - Update
Cosmos 1, the world's first solar sail spacecraft, is scheduled to be launched on March 1, 2005 - Car Sagan's birthday. The mission of the flight is to perform the first controlled solar sail flight. (re: Jules Verne)

3D Holographic Images And Heinlein's Stereovision Tank
Harold Garner and his research team have used a gel-filled tank and a Texas Instruments Digital Light Processing (DLP) Digital Micromirror Device (DMD) to generate dynamic three-dimensional views from holograms. (re: Robert Heinlein)

Robotic Bins, Benches Run Amok
A $261,000 display of robotic bins and benches with friendly personalities and roaming ways came to an abrupt end in Cambridge yesterday. (re: Douglas Adams)

Mini AERCam Robotic Space Vehicle
The nanosatellite-class spherical Mini AERCam (Miniature Autonomous Extravehicular Robotic Camera) is just 7.5 inches in diameter and weighs approximately 10 pounds. (re: George Lucas)

Lifelike Robot Repliee Q1 May Need Voight-Kampff Test
The ultra-lifelike robot Repliee Q1 made quite an impression at the 2005 World Expo in Japan. (re: Philip K. Dick)

Robotic Singing Benches And Bins With Adam's GPP
Robotic benches and bins with Sirius Cybernetics Corporation Genuine People Personalities have been created by Greyworld, a group of London artists. (re: Douglas Adams)

Rape Trap Like Snow Crash 'Dentata'
South Aftrican inventor Sonette Ehlers has invented an anti-rape device similar to one mentioned in Neal Stephenson's novel Snow Crash. (re: Neal Stephenson)

HAL-5 Robot Suit
"Humans may be able to mutate into supermen in the near future," said Yoshiyuki Sankai, inventor of the HAL-5 robotic suit. (re: Robert Heinlein)

NYC Heliostats And Star Wars Orbital Mirrors
Three heliostats in New York City will provide much needed light in the planned Teardrop Park South. The park likes in the shadow of three skyscrapers. (re: Theodore Sturgeon)

Micro Spacecraft To Explore Planets
NASA and The Aerospace Corporation of El Segundo, CA are preparing to flight test 'micro spacecraft' as early as 2006. Robert Silverberg gave a pretty good description in 1969. (re: Robert Silverberg)

Breathe Like A Fish Thanks To Alan Bodner
Alan Izhar-Bodner, an Israeli inventor, has developed a way for divers to breathe underwater without cumbersome oxygen tanks. His apparatus makes use of the air that is dissolved in water, just like fish do. (re: Various)

Chinese 'Seed Satellite'
China will launch the first satellite designed specifically for seed-breeding in space. The project includes satellite research and development, mechanism research and simulation tests, as well as the launch and recovery of the satellite itself. (re: Gregory Benford)

QinetIQ First Automatic Shipboard Landing Of STOVL Craft
QinetIQ experimental VAAC craft with 'Autoland' technology succeeded in the first fully automatic landing of a short take-off vertical landing (STOVL) aircraft on a ship. (re: Various)

Traversable Wormholes And Time Machines May Not Be Usable
According to a new paper by physics researchers by Roman Buniy and Stephen Hsu, traversable wormholes and time machines cannot be both stable and predictable. (re: Jack Williamson)

Jack Vance's Incredibly Thin Solar Sail
Jack Vance guessed the thickness of an ultralight solar sail propulsion system Alliant Techsystems and NASA have recently tested. (re: Jack Vance)

Sky Billboards In Fact And Fiction
The Federal Aviation Administration intends to amend its regulations; the FAA wants to make sure it can enforce a law that prohibits "obtrusive" advertising in zero gravity. (re: Jules Verne)