iMedia

Kentucky Space, NanoRacks making microgravity research affordable

Jeffry Manber provides an update on NanoRacks work with Kentucky Space on innovative plan make microgravity research affordable. Kentucky Space will go to the International Space Station in March on the Shuttle.

Publishers and virtual currencies

The stand alone publishing business is a tough one. How can publishers take advantage of game economies?

Kentucky Space receives launch assignment from NASA

KySat-1 will be on the Glory mission set to launch in November 2010.

Gov. Steve Beshear has announced that Kentucky Space has received the official launch assignment from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) for its first satellite, KySat-1 on the Glory mission set to launch in November 2010.

Kentucky Space is a nonprofit enterprise involved in designing and developing entrepreneurial and educational space platforms. It is a consortium involving the combined resources and capacity of the University of Kentucky, Morehead State University, University of Louisville, Western Kentucky University, Murray State University, the Kentucky Community and Technical College System, The Kentucky Space Grant Consortium, Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education and Belcan. The managing partner and founder of the Kentucky Space consortium is the Kentucky Science and Technology Corporation.

"Kentucky Space is a an example of exactly the kind of innovative ideas and ventures that Kentucky is capable of and that will form the basis for the creation of dynamic new companies and high paying jobs across the state," said Gov. Beshear.

Now for a completely different take on manufacturing

When an action as simple as tracing an object in the air can result in a manufactured piece of furniture, the wall separating virtual and physical reality becomes a little less relevant. Reality is not just augmented, but in a sense, created.

Atoms are the new bits - Open source manufacturing

Cisco wants your "billion dollar" idea

With $250,000 in prize money at stake, Cisco is hosting competition the I-Prize competition to find the next billion dollar idea for the company. Awards will be made in these categories: 1) the future of work, 2) the connected life, 3)new ways to learn, and 4) the future of entertainment.

Student laptops boost standardized test scores?

While it is extremely hard to compare programs, there is some evidence that one-to-one student-laptop programs may boost standardized test scores.

FREE innovation seminar at EKU

Planet Eureka will be conducting a free innovation training program Feb 9 at EKU, according to the Innovation and Commercialization Center at the school.

These programs are open to all entrepreneurs, managers, new product and multi-disciplinary teams, inventors and innovators in our area from any walk of life - independent, corporate/company, university, lab, etc. Seating is limited and reservations are required.

Contact R. Gary Marshall, Eastern ICC at gary.marshall@eku.edu or 859-622-8577.

Fix boring schools, not students who are bored

Offering a description of the site owner that says he is willful, unable to follow the rules and "should be seen in psychotherapy," this has to be one of the more interesting "about me" pages you'll ever read. Lisa Nielsen uses it to argue that educators should fix boring schools, not students who are bored.

Wayne

Growing Kentucky's future in Space

Pictured in two of the three images here is the 21 meter tracking antenna as viewed from the ground control room at the brand new Morehead State University Space Sciences Center yesterday. One of only a handful of undergraduate centers devoted solely to the space sciences, the center represents an enormous investment in the future of Kentucky.

It features a sizable anechoic chamber and several large clean rooms that are nearing completion, a digital star theater hosting tours of the universe incorporating the latest astronomical data, classroom and fabricating facilities too numerous to mention, and ample room for all to grow.

Here, a complete range of astronautical instruction and engineering can be accomplished.

Like the exploration the ocean depths or the pursuit of an edge in any environment, the systematic and risky exploration of frontiers produces unexpected insight. And space exploration has proved incredibly beneficial in that regard, spinning off technologies like novel resins used materials science that are able to withstand extreme heat, nanotubes deployed in biosensor applications, and air purification technologies that can kill airborne pathogens and preserve food. Each of these and many more discoveries can be traced to a willingness to prepare for and take risks in the harsh vacuum of space.

For for Kentucky, the benefits are wonderfully suggestive. Thanks to the vision and skill of a handful of people, the investment you see - and many more you don't - represents a new possibility - an entirely new industry in the commonwealth that can design, fabricate, test and fly the science and technology needed in space, and in doing so, shape the young minds that will make discoveries unimagined.

It's wonderfully suggestive because in the waning days of the 18th century, Kentucky was known as the frontier. In the 21st century, it can be again.