Star Trek is one of the most famous television shows and media franchises in the world today, and while many love the storylines of the original show, along with its spinoffs and movies, we may not fully realize the impact the show has had on our lives. No, we are not talking about pop culture impacts, but what Star Trek envisioned for technology, which then inspired many scientists to make those visions a reality. In many ways, that little show from the 1960s has essentially invented the future as we know it.
So, what are some of the things we have now that Star Trek invented?
1. Personal Computing
When Star Trek debuted in 1966, computers were very large, very expensive and very slow compared with what we have today. That didn’t stop Gene Roddenberry from envisioning a future where small computers were in every meeting room and wherever people needed them. The computers in the original series were larger than what we have today, but they were personal computers nonetheless. Road Tickle has the story.
Roughly five years after Star Trek left the air waves, the Altair 8800 was built by Ed Roberts, who just happened to name the computer after a galaxy mentioned in Star Trek. This build-it-yourself personal computer was pretty basic, but it would inspire two guys named Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak to improve upon the model and usher in the age of the personal computer.
On that same note, the Tablet PC also appeared in the original Star Trek, with Captain Kirk using a tablet and stylus to sign off on important matters. Everyone who uses an iPad now can thank Star Trek for showing us what a tablet PC could do in the 1960s. Oh, and what was the name of the tablet PC used in Star Trek? The PADD….
2. Portable Computer Memory
From the old floppy disks, to the small hard disks, over to our memory sticks with their huge capacities, all this portable memory could be found in the 1960s, in Star Trek. Star Trek used square disks that were three inches by three inches and only a quarter of an inch thick. To use them, they were inserted in computers where they would display the information contained on them, sound familiar?
3. Wireless Ear-Piece
Drive down the road in the city and you will probably see quite a few people using Bluetooth headsets to talk to people without having to hold a cell phone to their ear. Well, roughly 30 years before cell phones became mainstream, Star Trek was already using wireless earpieces for communication. That is not too bad considering that Star Trek envisioned wireless earpieces 300 years from now.
http://beforeitsnews.com/news/41/339/Things_We_Have_Now_that_Star_Trek_Invented.html
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Things We Have Now that Star Trek Invented
Friday, May 7, 2010
Star Trek Online Demo Released with Free Weekend for Ex-Players
As previously reported, the Star Trek Online demo has been released offering unlimited playtime for a limited amount of content with Cryptic's MMORPG set in the Star Trek universe.
You can play through the entire Star Trek Online Tutorial, as well as the Episode "Stranded in Space." Master your skills in space and on the ground, then rescue the S.S. Azura!
The Demo is restricted to the Federation faction.
Additionally, players that have allowed his or her game subscription lapse are welcome to play for free this weekend as Cryptic attempts to draw players back to the game.
Various other reward and incentive programs have also begun which reward players with in-game items or currency for the amount of time played as well as for referring new players to the title.
http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/63696
William Shatner Lands Second Bio Channel Series
William Shatner has scored his second series on the Bio Channel.
The Star Trek alum, who already hosts the offbeat Bio celebrity interview series Shatner's Raw Nerve, will interview memorable newsmakers on his latest creation, Shatner's Aftermath, the network announced.
The series will examine ordinary Americans who became overnight household names — such as Jessica Lynch, the D.C. sniper victims and Mary Kay Letourneau — and what their lives are like now. Shatner will speak with the personalities and their family members.
Shatner's Aftermath, which has been picked up for six episodes, is slated to premiere in the fall, while Shatner's Raw Nerve will return for Season 3 in the winter. Viewers might be seeing three times the Shatner by then: His CBS pilot Sh-- My Dad Says is under consideration for next season.
Shatner cast in Sh-- My Dad Says
In addition to Shatner's Aftermath, Bio ordered two more new series: I Survived...Beyond and Back, which features people who have flatlined and come back to life, and My Ghost Story, where people recount their documented paranormal experiences.
http://www.seattlepi.com/tvguide/419609_tvgif6.html
Star Trek inspires new spacecraft
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — “Standard orbit, Mr. Sulu.”
Captain Kirk barks out the order with such confidence. He knows the USS Enterprise can slip in and out of planetary orbits with ease.
But it’s only easy in the realm of science fiction. In the real world, such maneuvers have been impossible — until now.
Enter Dawn, NASA’s cutting edge mission to the asteroid belt. Powered with a futuristic sounding new technology called “ion propulsion,” this spacecraft will perform space moves rivaling those of the Enterprise.
On the way
At this very moment, Dawn is slowly climbing away from the sun, beyond Mars, on its way to its first destination, asteroid Vesta. Dawn will enter “standard orbit” around this rocky world for a year, exploring its mysteries.
Then Dawn will do something unprecedented in real-world space flight: exit the orbit of one distant body, and fly to and orbit another. The second destination is asteroid Ceres.
“Dawn will be the first spacecraft ever built to orbit two target bodies after leaving Earth,” says Marc Rayman, Dawn chief engineer at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
“There’s not even a concept for doing such a mission with conventional propulsion systems. The spacecraft would have to carry so much fuel, it would be too heavy to launch.”
Alternative
Instead, Dawn relies on ion propulsion, which doesn’t require a huge spacecraft. Rayman first heard the term years ago while watching you guessed it — Star Trek.
Using solar arrays spanning 65 feet, Dawn collects power from the sun to ionize atoms of xenon. These ions are expelled by a strong electric field out the back of the spacecraft, producing a gentle thrust.
The weightless and frictionless conditions of space flight allow this gossamer force effect to build up, so the spacecraft gains speed slowly and continuously.
“Dawn isn’t exactly a hot rod,” says Rayman. “It would take four days to go from 0 to 60. But it ultimately achieves fantastically high velocity while consuming very little propellant. It uses only a kilogram of xenon every four days.”
Capability
Typically, conventional rockets thrust for a few minutes at most before they run out of fuel, then they coast to their destination. Dawn’s engines, on the other hand, are almost constantly active.
“Dawn will thrust for five years,” says Rayman. “It’s already been thrusting for 591 days. That’s 62 percent of the time it’s been in space.” This means Dawn must be very fuel efficient.
A typical Mars orbiter could consume more than 600 pounds of propellants to enter orbit around the red planet,” says Rayman. “With its ion propulsion system, Dawn could do it with less than 60 pounds of xenon.”
Add all of these advantages together and you get a spacecraft that can accomplish well the impossible.
“Dawn is taking us, in the truest sense, up close to two distant, alien, unexplored worlds.”
New frontiers
It’s destinations — Ceres and Vesta — are two of the biggest asteroids in the solar system. Indeed, Ceres is so big, it is actually classified as a dwarf planet, and Vesta is not far behind. Yet to date they’ve been studied only from a great distance, so they’re virtually unknown. What is known is that they’re not alike.
“Vesta is more like the rocky bodies of the inner solar system, one of which is right under our feet,” explains Rayman. “And Ceres is more like the icy moons of the outer solar system. Scientists think it may even have a subsurface ocean of liquid water.”
Dawn’s instruments will collect data and images to uncover the secrets these two bodies conceal and perhaps reveal why they’re so different from one another even though they inhabit such similar regions of the solar system.
“This mission will help us understand what the conditions were when Vesta and Ceres formed at the dawn of the solar system. It will fit more pieces in the grand puzzle of how our solar system formed and evolved and perhaps how others do as well.”
Adventure
Executing new cosmic maneuvers, exploring alien worlds, answering profound questions — Dawn has it all. But Rayman thinks the most compelling aspect of missions like Dawn may be that we are, in a sense, going along for a deep-space ride.
“Dawn is taking us all on a virtual trip through the cosmos. It’s not just a mission by the JPL team, or by NASA, or by the U.S and its partner countries. It’s a mission of humankind — something that represents all of us who share a spirit of adventure and curiosity, a passion for exploration. It’s an extension of ourselves into the universe.”
As one Star Trek crew member with particularly pointy ears would say — “Fascinating.”
http://www.farmanddairy.com/news/star-trek-inspires-new-spacecraft/14848.html
Dead Star Trek fan boldly goes where no fan has gone before... as his ashes are blasted into space
A Star Trek fan today boldly went where no fan had gone before as his remains were blasted into outer space.
Phillip Green, 47, had been an avid sci-fi fan all his life before he suddenly died in 2007 as he returned from a walk.
Now he has followed in the footsteps of Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and actor James Doohan, who played Scotty in the original series.
Mr Green, originally from Newcastle-on-Tyne, was sent into orbit with American firm Celestis at midday, but will fall back to earth a day later.
Sister Lynne Howe, 59, said it was exactly the kind of send-off that he would have appreciated.
She said: 'He was keen on Star Wars and Star Trek, he was interested in all that kind of thing.
'He would be delighted to know that he was going up there, he mentioned it when he was alive that he thought it would be brilliant.
'He knew Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry's remains had been sent into space.
'He was very keen on all those series and the books by Arthur C Clarke, although didn't go to any conventions or anything like that.
'We think this send-off is exactly what he would have wanted. He would have loved the idea of being up there looking down on us.'
The space trip has only cost his family £500 to fund.
Mr Green, who was single when he died, had been a smoker and died after his arteries thickened, despite living an otherwise healthy life of exercise and food.
Lift off: A rocket similar to the one that carried Mr Green's remains into orbit
He died on July 10, 2007, when he collapsed coming back from a walk in his hometown of Allendale, Northumberland.
He was then cremated and it is a portion of his ashes that are going to be sent into space, before they return to earth 24 hours later.
The Pioneer Flight was launched at midday from Spaceport America, near Las Cruces, in New Mexico.
A portion of Mr Green's remains was in the rocket with 18 others launched into space on a craft in separate capsules.
His ashes will fall to earth after about a day and be returned to his family.
Celestis, the firm launching the rocket, made the first private, post-cremation memorial spaceflight in 1997.
Its next space burial is due to take place in 2012 and is due to lay to rest professor and astronomer Dr William Rense.
Mr Green's biography, which was submitted to Celestis reads: 'Philip is a much missed son of Alec Green, brother of Lynne, Uncle of Joanne and best friend to Dennis.
'He was born to Freda and Alec, in Newcastle on Tyne in England, though he never knew his mother, who died in childbirth.
'He attended Longbenton High School and lived in Newcastle and Allendale all his short life, yet he was a frequent visitor to Scotland and Florida.
'He worked first in public transport, and later developed a talent for the traditional craft of stone-wall building. He loved science fiction, cooking, model making, music, walking his dogs and making fun. He had an enormous thirst for knowledge.
'His good humour and kindness will be missed by all who knew him.'
Breaking News : CBS to Relaunch StarTrek.com Website This Summer, New Site to Feature Content from TrekWeb.com
ne-Stop Entertainment and News Destination for All Things STAR TREK to Feature Complete Redesign, Breaking News and the Most Comprehensive Star Trek Database Available
NEW YORK - May 5, 2010 - CBS Consumer Products is re-launching the official online destination to the popular Star Trek sci-fi franchise -- StarTrek.com --- this summer with a new web design and added features. The ultimate entertainment destination for all things Star Trek, the comprehensive site will feature breaking news, rare interviews, a robust online community, online store and the official Star Trek database.
Designed to incorporate the very best of Star Trek content across the web, the site will showcase top fan sites and blogs including TrekMovie, TrekToday and TrekWeb. StarTrek.com is being designed by award-winning graphic design and content production web developer Funny Garbage.
"Star Trek fans deserve an online hub to suit all their needs," said Liz Kalodner, Executive Vice President and General Manager of CBS Consumer Products. "The new StarTrek.com will embrace the incredible fan activity across the web and bring together the many different voices that celebrate Star Trek."
Star Trek fans can follow the progress of the upcoming relaunch via official Facebook (www.facebook.com/StarTrek) and Twitter (www.Twitter.com/StarTrek) pages.
http://trekweb.com/stories.php?aid=4be15c7b0b863
Interview : Dave Rossi on the Proposed New Star Trek Animated Series Final Frontier
Star Trek Remastered producer Dave Rossi talks about Final Frontier, the proposed new Star Trek animated series from a few years ago and the story behind its development.
•1. What can you tell us about Final Frontier? (just a bit of background)
Final Frontier is a five-part animated Star Trek series meant for distribution over the web. At the time we began formulating the idea, "Clone Wars" was our real inspiration (the original shorts, not the modern CG series). We wanted to do something similar for Star Trek, using short-form animation. The three of us had worked together behind the scenes on Trek for years. We knew some of the right people to help move the idea forward, and so we decided to forge ahead.
•2. Whose idea was Final Frontier?
Two of us had previously worked together on another Trek project in the same format, telling stories from the TOS era and the U.S.S. Excalibur (this was before the reboot film was announced). That project fell apart for various reasons. Dave then decided the best choice after that was to move ahead into the future, and he got us all together to work on Final Frontier. The setting, storyline, and characters are a true collaboration, the result of many nights of sitting around our offices on the Paramount lot and picking apart each other's ideas.
•3. Can you talk us through what happened with CBS and why the show never made it to screen?
Final Frontier was born at a strange time for the franchise. CBS and Paramount had split up, and the rights to Star Trek were stuck in a strange limbo. CBS had TV rights, Paramount had film, and no one was quite sure where that left internet rights. Startrek.com was very excited about Final Frontier, but the money would have to come from CBS Interactive. Our initial pitch with them went well, and we were asked to draw up a budget. We met with several animation companies and got budgets for a few different approaches (including a CGI version). The process was slowed by CBS trying to figure out the rights issues, but it was looking hopeful. Then, at the end of 2007, CBS Interactive was restructured and the entire staff of Startrek.com was laid off all at once. With all of our connections gone and Paramount gearing up to focus almost exclusively on the upcoming film, the project was essentially dead.
•4. Why was the medium of animation chosen for this series?
We felt that animation would allow us to do things that were impossible in live action. We could visit planets and meet races that were truly alien, not just rubber faces on a soundstage, and do it all on a budget that made sense for web distribution. It would also appeal to a younger audience, who may never have seen any Star Trek before.
•5. Whose idea was it to set the show so far in the future (2528)?
From the very beginning of our talks on Final Frontier, we knew that the best thing to do was to move ahead and tell stories set in the future. One reason for this is that it freed us from having to worry about the enormously complicated history that's already been set up in the Star Trek universe. Working behind the scenes on "Enterprise," there were numerous times when the series felt like it was almost collapsing under the weight of Star Trek's established future, and we wanted to avoid that. That's minor, though. The main reason for the future setting is that we felt that Star Trek (and science fiction in general) needs to be constantly moving forward and showing its audience exciting new things.
•6. How did the background story for the show develop?
It has a lot to do with the state of the franchise at the time. "Enterprise" was slowly fading away, a lot of fans felt like Star Trek had lost its way, and the future was uncertain (the film hadn't been announced yet). The back story to Final Frontier was designed as an allegory to this idea. In it, Starfleet has lost its way and forgotten the ideals that it was originally based upon: optimism, exploration, and altruism. It's a fairly dark past, but this new captain and crew were going to turn it around. Star Trek has always been great at using metaphor to comment on current events, and this was an extension of that idea, using Final Frontier as a metaphor for the state of the franchise itself.
On a more focused level, another problem with working in a world as rich and detailed as Star Trek is that the universe is pretty much established. Even if we jump ahead into the future, our worlds and players are set. There's Klingons here, Romulans over here, and Borg way out there. We can add new races and planets as we go, but the major pieces are always the same. The Omega Event was devised as a way to mix that up. By cutting some sections of the quadrant off from warp travel, it allowed us to explore not just the frontier but also our own space, and see some of these established races in a new way.
We've gotten a lot of comments that the story is too dark, too "Battlestar Galactica." It's important to realize that these elements are simply background, and that the series itself would have been very positive, showing how Starfleet left that darkness behind and returned to a more positive worldview that we haven't seen since "Next Generation."
•7. What can you tell us about the characters in the series?
We started with our core three: Captain Chase, Commander Holden, and Lieutenant Donal. Chase is an idealist. He could be commanding a much more impressive ship, but he wanted Enterprise for the legacy of her name, a legacy that many have forgotten in this time period. After years surveying Omega fields, he's seen exactly what the disaster did to Federation space, and he's ready to move past it.
Commander Holden represents a more modern Starfleet, and he's the one who constantly has to rein his captain in. He's caught between his innate sense of following the rules and his burgeoning respect for his captain's ideals. The two often reach similar conclusions, but from opposite starting points.
Donal is our head of security. A short-form animated Star Trek has to be high on action in order to keep things moving and appeal to the widest audience. However, unlike Star Wars, Star Trek involves people stopping to talk from time to time about what's going on. Working under these constraints, we knew that Donal had to have a real voice. As these central three characters learned to work together and see things from each other's point of view, we would have seen the state of Starfleet change around them.
Outside of those three, we added a Protocol Officer. Based on a position in the Russian navy during Communist rule, Preston was a character whose job was to make sure Chase was doing things by the book. This gave us a chance to have Chase voice his opinions directly to the source. Mister Zero, our Chief Engineer, is the true alien, and gives us that outsider perspective we've seen from characters such as Data and Odo. Other characters such as Jax and Dr. Prowse were only loosely explored in the pilot, but would have grown as the series progressed.
•8. Why did you choose the Enterprise for this series?
The Enterprise is one of the most important pieces of Star Trek. Approaching an entirely new era, one that was designed to recall the glory days of the franchise, couldn't be done without that ship.
•9. Can you tell us a bit about the ship? (design, registry etc)
Our Enterprise is a much smaller ship than its predecessors, and is a reflection of its time. Whereas past Enterprises were flagships, this one is a heavy cruiser, designed to patrol the border. The legacy of its name has been mostly forgotten, but Chase is out to change that.
We never reached a final design on the ship, although we were headed in that direction. After meeting with Mike Okuda to talk about how to go about designing a new Enterprise, he suggested we change one of the three key pieces: the saucer, the nacelles, or the engineering section. We decided to alter the saucer, losing the graceful curves in favour of harder lines. There are a few variations of this design we liked, all available on the Final Frontier site, but we never settled on one.
The registry was never finalized. We knew that we didn't want to just add another letter to it, but hadn't decided if it should be NCC-1701. Most likely it would have had a completely new registry in order to illustrate how much things had changed. We were so focused on the nuts and bolts of getting this thing produced that details like this were put off until later.
•10. What was the inspiration for Final Frontier?
The three of us love Star Trek. We grew up on it, and the show was a big part of why we decided to get into the entertainment industry. Final Frontier was a chance to be creative in a world that we all love, and we were in a position where our chances of actually getting it made weren't too astronomical.
•11. Have you considered releasing Final Frontier as a fan film?
Maybe if we win the lottery. In order to do this right, it would require a very large team of people and a pretty sizable chunk of money that we would never be able to recoup. Though the budget is small compared to a feature film or live action TV series, it's still more money and manpower than we're capable of pulling together.
•12. Is there anything else you can tell us about Final Frontier?
We'd really like to thank the people who have helped us out on this project. Comic artist and writer Jeff Parker was responsible for translating our often incoherent ramblings into a focused art style that we loved from the moment we saw it. A large portion of our concept art after that was done for free by our good friend Bryce Parker at Pixar, who saw an article on Final Frontier in its early days and asked if he could help. Our storyboards are being done by an artist named Mei-Yi Chun, who read the script online and was inspired to help out. We've met a number of artists, writers, composers, and animators who all share a passion for Star Trek, people we would have never even known existed if it weren't for Final Frontier. It's truly amazing how technology brings people together, and it's a testament to the passion and creativity of Gene Roddenberry and all those who have followed him that Star Trek can still bring people together like this. If nothing else comes out of Final Frontier, it was amazing to be a part of this collaboration and dabble in this world, if only for a little while.
http://trekweb.com/articles/2010/05/03/Interview-Dave-Rossi-on-the-Proposed-New-Star-Trek-Animated-Series-Final-Frontier.shtml
