Surfing Titan's waves in a nuclear-powered boat

Planning a trip to Titan, one of Saturn's moons? Well, you're going to want to go prepared. Why not bring along a nuclear-powered boat for sailing the seas of ethane, methane and propane?

That's what NASA-funded geologist Ellen Stofan suggests with her design, seen above. The Titan Mare Explorer (or TiME for short) uses nuclear power rather than solar power because the methane raine in Titan's atmosphere cuts down the suns rays considerably (as does the distance from the sun). It'll be powered by a new kind of nuclear power cell known as the Advanced Stirling Radioisotope Generator (ASRG). Cool! Be sure to send a postcard when you get there and let us know how the weather is.

[DVICE via Space via io9]

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National Geographic: 50 Years of Space Exploration

Ready to lose 20 minutes of your day?
Check out this huge infograph that displays the last 50 years of space exploration. It’s awesome although it does kind of indicate that Venus is closer to earth than the Moon. The “50 Years of Space Exploration” graphic was created by Sean McNaughton and Samuel Velasco for National Geographic. I must say though, skip the interactive edition on NationalGeographic.com and check out the full size version on Flickr.
[CrunchGear via OhGizmo]

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alessi laser shot watch projects time on your wrist, won’t burn holes in your skin

This offbeat watch design is merely a concept at this point, but I actually kind of like the idea. The Alessi Laser Shot watch is supposed to project the current time on your wrist using (frickin’) laser beams.

Designer Andy Kurovets envisioned this über-modern watch concept that uses a modulated laser scanner to projects the time onto the surface of your wrist. And he promises it won’t give you skin cancer. At least that’s what I heard – somewhere.

The design features a unique broken “o”-ring band that is slightly elevated from your wrist in order to provide sufficient projection throw distance.

Cool, no? Unfortunately, the design is only conceptual at this point, so if Alessi happens to be reading this blog – make these. People will buy them… so long as the laser doesn’t set your skin on fire.

[Gizmodo via Yanko Design via Ubergizmo]

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Devon Tread 1 Motorized Watch Looks Awesome, but Crazy Expensive [Watches]

I have said before that I don’t wear watches. If I were a billionaire and could just throw away money on cool stuff that I don’t really need, I would buy this new Devon Tread 1 watch.

This thing has a clear polycarbonate case that is supposedly bulletproof. The coolness is that all the numbers to tell time are printed on bands that are woven together and move to place the correct numbers in each of the colored boxes on the watch face.

This has to be one of the coolest watches that I have ever seen and all the moving bands require four little motors on the inside. The downside to all the cool the watch has to offer is the ISL 56,026.17 ($15,000) price tag.

[technabob via The Awesomer]

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This Quantum Clock Is 100,000 Times More Accurate Than the Atomic Clock [Clocks]

As Make puts it, the atomic clock is old and busted. The quantum-logic clock from National Institute of Standards and Technology, keeping time 100,000 times more accurately than its predecessor, is definitely the new hotness.

The quantum clock, developed by physicist Chin-wen Chou of the NIST, keeps time by measuring the energy of a single aluminum ion with UV lasers. It loses one second every 3.4 billion years, compared to the cesium fountain clock which loses a second every 100 million years, and upon which the current international standard is based.

In fact, the new quantum-logic clock is so precise that Chou's team can't even measure it, as the current definition of a second is based on the prevailing cesium clock.

Don't get too excited about setting your life to a more precise clock just yet: there are currently no plans to adopt the quantum clock as the international standard. But with potential applications ranging from use in more precise GPS devices to answering questions about the speed of light and Einsteinian relativity, this clock is still a serious tick into the future.
[Gizmodo via Wired via Make]

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