Gizmodo: jules verne

Our Very Own Martian Landscape Here On Earth

John Mahoney — Tue, 05 May 2009 16:20:00 EDT

This is the Mars Desert Research Station in the Utah desert. Photographer Vincent Fournier went there to make beautiful photographs that capture the loneliness and desolation of humans on Mars. Someday!

At least, I would imagine he got pretty close. We'd have to ask Mars Phoenix to verify though.

Fournier bases his photography projects around the works of Jules Verne—here, of course, From the Earth to the Moon is the inspirations. Along with these fantastic quasi-martian landscapes, Fournier also photographed many of the world's most important locations related to space exploration, including some beautiful shots of Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

Beautiful stuff—check out Fournier's site for more. [Vincent Fournier via BUILD]

Spectacular Video of Jules Verne Apocalyptical Re-Entry

Jesus Diaz — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 17:00:00 EDT

Here's the video of the fiery re-entry of the Jules Verne Autonomous Transport Vehicle, the huge European Space Agency spacecraft that carried almost five tonnes of food, air, water and fuel on board the International Space Station. It was taken in high definition from a NASA's DC-8 at 37,000 feet, 90 miles north of the entry path. The debris was scattered through a 157,000-square-mile corridor about 1,250 miles east of New Zealand, where hobbits everywhere thought it was Sauron was coming back to eat them all deep-fried. [Aviation Week]

First Picture of Jules Verne Spacecraft Re-Entry Destruction

Jesus Diaz — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 12:13:24 EDT

This is the first picture of the spectacular re-entry of Jules Verne, the Automated Transport Vehicle that fell from orbit today at 9:31AM Eastern time. Taken from a DC-8, it shows the moment in which it starts to break at 9:43AM, just before falling into the Pacific Ocean. Apparently, the show was amazing because this thing was gigantic. Check its scale compared to the Apollo and a Progress capsule. Update: More pictures coming in now.

Let's hope there are better ones coming.

Jules Verne "carried almost five tonnes of food, breathing air, drinking water and fuel on board." There are two more ATVs in construction right now, and one of them may be in charge of bringing down the International Space Station when it reaches its end of life at the end of the next decade. Watch this space for more pictures and videos coming soon. [ESA and DLR]

Robotic Wheelchair Uses Lasers to Dock Like a Spaceship

AddyDugdale — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 12:30:00 EDT

A robotic wheelchair that loads itself into its owner's car using the same principles as a spaceship does when docking, has been developed by a team from Pennsylvania. An on-board computer uses LIDAR, or light detecting and ranging, to position the chair when it is loaded into a vehicle—exactly the same technique used by the space truck Jules Verne when it dropped in on the ISS last month.

The original idea was to use a camera and let the wheelchair user negotiate the passage of the wheelchair onto his or her vehicle's forklift attachment that lifts the wheelchair aboard. However, after this method proved to be too difficult, they went with plan B. This used an onboard computer that recognised the LIDAR system, used by the Jules Verne. It bounces laser light off two reflectors that are placed in the arm rests of the chair, keeping tabs on the chair's position and lining it up with the lifting device.

With a 97.5 percent success rate in tests, the project, a collaboration between researchers at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA, and a company called Freedom Sciences, is expected to go into production. The price is expected to be around $30,000. [NewScientist]

Space Truck Executes "Text-Book" Automated Docking at International Space Station

AddyDugdale — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 11:23:00 EDT

At 10.45 EST this morning, the Jules Verne docked at the International Space Station, with a 7,500-pound cargo containing equipment, supplies, water, food and gases—and no human driver. The AI-assisted landing of the European space truck after a 26-day journey was described as "text-book" and here it is, courtesy of NASA TV. While the Jules-ISS hook-up is not the first unmanned docking, anything with an automated system that can track down an object that is moving at 16,777 miles per hour and attach itself with just a 2-centimeter leeway, is pretty damn awesome in Giz's book. [NASA]