Short answer: They're both technological local maxima. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="171"] "whoo hoo, I'm a local maxima!"[/caption] Long answer: If asked "what container do you use to ship large volumes of wine?" the answer is  pretty clearly "the barrel, duh." But if you asked that question two thousand years ago, it... [Read More]

The changing component of the magnetic fields that produce eddy currents can come from two sources: a relative velocity between the field and the target or change in the strength of the field itself. For a number of reasons the bulk of EC actuation research has focused on the latter... [Read More]

Testing on the ground removes all the characteristics of space that make eddy-currents and other exotic actuators useful there. Specifically, friction (with air or a surface) often overwhelms the small forces of spacecraft actuators that aren’t rocket powered. So, low friction test beds are necessary to experimentally verify things meant... [Read More]

A description of the latest research rabbit hole over at SSDS: where could you put a ping pong ball on the outside of the ISS, let go, and have it stick thanks to orbital mechanics? There is math and pretty pictures. It's also a test of $latex \LaTeX$  equations in... [Read More]

Sometimes, it feels like non-computer technology has kind of stagnated. Then you see Laser guns...  Robot police in Africa... and Fantasia in real life My analysis? Most of the hardware innovation doesn't permeate our everyday lives the way software does. Instead, it's working behind the scenes to make the same... [Read More]