The future is here

NASA recently said that it is working on a personal flying suit.

Called “Puffin,” the conceptual and highly experimental project is part one-man stealth plane, part personal jet pack.

Unveiled at a San Francisco meeting of the American Helicopter Society on Jan. 20 by Mark D. Moore, an aerospace engineer at NASA’s Langley Research Center, the Puffin promises — on paper at least — a self-contained design with proper “cockpit” and helicopter-style blades that allow for high-altitude flying up to 30,000 ft.

The Puffin is intended to be 12 feet in length, with a total wingspan of 14.5 ft., and would tip the scales at 300 pounds, empty. It will be powered by a 60 horsepower electric motor for simplicity, reliability and low environmental impact.

The reason for this conceptual device? Covert military missions (”swoop and shoot”) or rescue operations.

Take a look at the video:

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Humber College to International Space Station: Do you copy?

Four community college students from Toronto contacted the space station through a hand-built apparatus, making them the first college-level students in the world to do so. It took them more than a year and a half to build the transceiver with many setbacks along the way, but in the end, the successful contact was so overwhelming that one of the students broke down and cried.

A number of the campus students spoke with U.S. astronaut Sandra Magnus for about ten minutes while she hurtled through space at 27,000 kilometres per hour.

The students' professor called his students' accomplishment the highlight of his career.

In a strange coincidence, I have a personal connection to this story. I happen to have attended Humber College when I was a youth. It's a small world, isn't it? Even when you're talking to someone out in space.

The Story.