Bill Nye’s LightSail spacecraft reboots and gets in touch with Earth

Josh Spradling / The Planetary Society

Bill Nye’s sunbeam-powered spacecraft caused quite a scare for him and his company Planetary Society when it lost the ability to send information back to earth. LightSail got cut off from communications a week after it launched on May 20^th due to a software glitch. They couldn’t get it to reboot remotely and so the engineers put their hope in the “natural reboot” that would happen when it collides with stray charged particles. Thankfully, that happened and they re-established connection with the spacecraft.

LightSail was inspired by Carl Sagan’s solar sailing idea, which imagines a spacecraft using the sun in the same way a sailboat uses the wind. This month’s test hopes to prove it can unfurl it sails. If successful, a second test run will happen in April next year. LightSail is built with a small satellite and four Mylar sails to ride solar radiation. The scientists hope to prove that solar propulsion can get rid of the need for boosters or fuel reserves in spaceflight.

Source: The Verge

NVIDIA to help create games for all Android devices with AndroidWorks

There are over 4,000 unique Android devices out there so it gets a bit tricky to develop apps for them. That’s why NVIDIA wants to help out on the gaming front. The company released a new developer tool called AndroidWorks that builds on its existing GameWorks tool. It’s said to bring “the best native Android application development tools” for a wide range of devices.

The tools are designed to work for all Android devices and not just those powered by Tegra trips. It even integrates Microsoft Visual Studio through Nsight Tegra Visual Studio.

Source: NVIDIA | Via: Android Central

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‘Schools of Magic’ game lets you train your own wizards and sorcerers

Want to become like Albus Dumbledore and train your own set of wizards and sorcerers? Schools of Magic will give you a chance to try this out. The Android game lets you build and manage your own school of wizardry and compete against other schools of magic that try to control the world.

The game comes with resource management feature and real-time combat, meaning you train your wizards and sorcerers, while making sure the school keeps up and running. There are four game modes to choose from: school management mode, real-time multiplayer PvP mode, campaign mode, and customization mode. As usual there are in-app purchases but you can play all these four modes for free.

Source: Android Community | Download: Google Play Store (Free)