Month: May 2016

NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman speaks to NASA Social attendees at Kennedy Space Center in December. (credit: NASA)

On Tuesday, hundreds of Mars enthusiasts are gathering in Washington, DC to celebrate the red planet at the annual Humans to Mars conference. Buzz Aldrin will discuss his “cycler” plan for going to Mars. Andy Weir, author of The Martian, will be on hand to sign books and talk about his vision for Mars exploration. And representing NASA by giving the plenary speech, NASA Deputy Administrator Dava Newman will update the gathering about the Journey to Mars.

Since the conference is more or less a conclave of Mars devotees, there will probably be few hard questions asked about the feasibility of NASA's plans. But those hard questions are coming, and it’s not clear that NASA has the answers. Although space has not been an issue in the presidential election, whether a Republican or Democrat is elected this fall, a transition team will review the panoply of government spending, including NASA’s human exploration programs. Among those questions that will be asked are these: What is the plan for NASA to get to Mars? And can the space agency make it there within a reasonable budget?

In late April, Newman was asked these very questions at a meeting of the Federal Aviation Administration’s Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee. The FAA regulates commercial space launches, and Newman had given the standard speech about NASA’s activities. During a Q&A period, Newman took a question from Jeff Greason, a rocket scientist who founded XCOR and is now a consultant with Agile Aero, about the viability of the Mars plan.

(credit: Honda)

Modern supercars and hypercars are blazingly fast. Ironically, the sensation of speed they generate is often dampened by the fact that you often can't see a thing from the driver's seat.

Blame a combo of safety priorities and style. Over the last decade, crash and rollover regulations have dictated more robust cabin structures characterized by ever thicker, vision-blocking A-pillars. The regulations coincided with an in-vogue design language that gave us "turret-style" cabins from which to peer out.

With the new NSX, then, it's refreshing to see Honda put an emphasis on visibility in the design of its halo car rather than cobbling together a few sensors and a backup camera in the name of "safety." It's also not surprising. Cast your mind back to the 1980s/'90s heyday of Honda/Acura and you'll recall the pride Honda took (and the praise it received) in its airy cabins with low beltlines and superior visibility. The first generation NSX was lauded for its performance, dependability, and functionality, including cockpit visibility.

(credit: Sony)

Amidst the rumors that it could be killing off some of its smartphone lines, Sony just announced a new Xperia smartphone. The Xperia XA Ultra is being pushed as the "perfect nighttime selfie" phone with its 16-megapixel front-facing camera, low-light sensors, and optical image stabilization for blur-free shots.

The "selfie" appeal comes from the powerful front camera, but the rear camera is formidable as well at 21.5MP. The front camera also has a "gesture control" feature which lets you wave your hand in front of the lens to start a shutter timer. Aside from strong cameras, the Xperia XA Ultra is designed with a huge, 6-inch borderless screen and is supposed to last up to two days on a single charge. That's quite a claim since the handset only has a 2,700 mAh battery. A quick charger will be available for the handset, allowing it to get 5.5 hours of battery life with just 10 minutes of charging.

While Sony's previously announced Xperia X and X Performance tout top specs, the XA Ultra instead will impress with its cameras and large display. It's powered by an eight-core MediaTek MT6755 processor and comes with just 3GB of RAM and 16GB of internal storage, which is expandable via microSD card to 200GB.

The GTX 1080 should be a generational leap, a moment that, like the Titan before it, redefines consumer graphics card performance—and in many ways, it is. Yes, the GTX 1080 is the new world's fastest graphics card, and yes, it's faster than the likes of the now-redundant GTX 980 Ti and Titan X by as much as 35 percent in real-world use. Compared to the 980, it's faster still, by as much as 62 percent. For those that that want the very best graphics card right now, the 1080 is it.

But it's hard to shake the feeling that the GTX 1080 could have been so much more.

Despite its many innovations—it's the first graphics card based on its new Pascal architecture, the first with GDDR5X memory from Micron, and the first to be manufactured on a smaller, more efficient TSMC 16nm FinFET manufacturing process—the 1080's performance gains aren't entirely unheard of. The 680 was roughly 30 percent faster than the 580, as was the 780 over the 680—and those didn't feature a brand new manufacturing process.