Controllers are still activating Curiosity's instrument package, and all antennas that will beam back data to JPL "work perfectly, " mission manager Jennifer Trosper said Wednesday.

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One thing we can confirm, though, is that it has a camera on board to beam back images and (per the picture to the right) Seiko Epson has all kinds of sci-fi delusions in mind for its future uses.

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From a standing start, the reconstructed beam sped back up to the normal speed of light.

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This fall Portmann will send one to hover over tsunami sensors embedded on the ocean floor to collect data and beam it back to shore.

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But the slow decay in radiation intensity from a tabletop pulsar would make possible extremely long-range transmitters, giving far-off space probes an energy-efficient way to beam information back to earth.

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"The thinking has shifted from no one is going to buy a house ever again, to if people decide they want to get back into houses, this is bad for apartments, " said Joel Beam, fund manager for Forward Select Income Fund.

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But the safety of beaming it back--proposals call for converting the radiated energy into a narrow microwave beam, which would then be collected and converted into electrical energy on earth--makes many people uncomfortable.

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