Tech Universe: Monday 30 May

Nasa's Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle. Photo / Supplied

NASA GO DEEP: NASA will develop a new spacecraft known as the Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, while the private sector will handle transport to and from the International Space Station. The MPCV will carry four astronauts for 21-day missions and splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the California coast. The craft will take astronauts beyond Low Earth Orbit. Outward ho! More at Nasa.

THE LAST MILE: There are plenty of ingenious machines for accessing remote and difficult locations, but Fred is the one that makes it possible to lay cable in 'the last mile' of Vermont, USA. Fred weighs around 770 Kg. He's a draft horse that can walk across terrain that trucks can't reach, dragging heavy cable behind him. Fred's owner has other draft horses that also lay cable elsewhere. On a good day they can string 2.5 Km of cable - about the same as crews with trucks along the roads. Bring back the draft horses. More details here.

WARM UP SOLDIER: Soldiers who suffer hypothermia are wrapped in a warm blanket and given an IV drip. After 16 hours or so their core body temperature may be stable. A team of students at Stevens Institute of Technology, USA, has found a quicker way to handle things. They've created a proof of concept of a portable device that heats and humidifies air then delivers it through an oxygen mask. That brings heat directly to the lungs so recovery may take as little as 4 hours.
No rest for the cold and weary. Heartwarming news here.

LASER FAST: Scientists at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology successfully sent 700 DVDs' worth of content a distance of 50Km in just one second using a single laser beam. They used a technique called orthogonal frequency division multiplexing for encoding data and processed it at 26 terabits per second. Just think of the filesharing implications. And the data cap problems. More at Science Daily.

SILVER GLASSES: Professor Joshua Silver in the UK has created glasses that the wearer can easily adjust to their own prescription. He aims to supply 200 million pairs to kids in Africa and Asia. The spectacles have "adaptive lenses" - 2 thin membranes separated by silicone gel. The wearer looks at an eye chart and pumps in more or less fluid until they can see the letters on the chart clearly. The fluid changes the curvature of the lens, changing the prescription.
Currently at £15 a pair, Silver hopes to get the costs down to £1 a pair. A clear vision for the future. See clearly here.

-Miraz Jordan knowit.co.nz