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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.

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.

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.

Regional Climate Change in Business Lexington

A write-up of December's Regional Climate Change forum has appeared in Business Lexington.

Innovation and Etrepreneurship conference to focus on Kentucky initiatives, talent

The Kentucky Science and Engineering Foundation has posted information about the sixth annual Innovation and Entrepreneurship conference, which will take place April 6 at Lexington's Marriott Griffin Gate Resort.

This year’s conference will bring together distinguished speakers, tech-based economic development practitioners, innovators, and entrepreneurs. The conference will focus on opportunities for innovation, the state’s initiatives for entrepreneurship and economic development, and building science and engineering talent to grow local initiatives. The agenda (currently under development) will include key presentations, technology showcases (table tops), poster presentations, and more.

The conference is open to anyone from universities, the business community, state and local leaders, and students who are interested in technology-driven innovation, high-tech growth, university-business engagement, and job opportunities.

Online registration will open in February.

Kentucky satellite components to soon take suborbital test

Flight-ready hardware designed by Kentucky Space is being delivered today to the Virginia Wallops flight facility in preparation for a suborbital flight later this month. One of two payloads on the Suborbital Cubesat Experimental Mission (SOCEM) mission, the student-designed Antenna Deployment and Mono-filament Actuator Satellite (ADAMASat) will reach an altitude of over 300km and be visible to ground stations in Kentucky as well as Virginia. ADAMASat will

test the KySat-1 antenna deployment mechanism and actuator circuit. The idea is to gain confidence of the antenna deployment mechanism that consists of a mono-filament wire wrapped around the satellite to hold down its antennas, and a Nichrome cutter that burns the monofilament line to release the antennas. ADAMASAT will perform four tests of this mechanism while in space.

KySat-1 is the orbital craft designed by Kentucky Space.

News and links regarding ADAMAsat, including the GUI software download for HAM operators and a countdown clock are online. A post and pictures about the on-site test fit of the hardware is here. Please follow ADAMASat on Twitter.

Top tech in 2010

Augmented reality could be a $714m industry by 2014, according to information in this BBC story on the technology and its uses. It could find its place among the top ten tech concepts you should be aware of for 2010.

Business innovation in 2009

BusinessWeek takes a look innovation in 2009.

In 2009 the world was no longer flat; much of it was flat broke. Deflated by slumping sales and income, companies roundly did what innovation consultants say they never should—they cut spending on research and development.

Richard Florida: Creativity is the most important economic force

Describing how he arrived at the idea of a "creative class" and placing it in economic and historical context, Richard Florida talks about the fundamental economic force reshaping modern economies today - an ability to innovate, or to add creative value based, in part, on mental alacrity and a certain emotional IQ, but more importantly, in a larger willingness to view people as a potential to be maximized instead of costs to be minimized. Put another way, while it's certainly true that many agricultural or industrial activities can and will continue to provide jobs, today it's human creativity that is adding wealth.

Going rogue: The physics of finance

Can economic systems also act like physical systems? The interdisciplinary practice of econophysics looks for the parallels, and the physics arXiv Blog points out recent research that suggests intriguing new evidence that, like rogue ocean waves, the behavior of some market meltdowns have characteristics that can be modeled and understood.