SpaceX: All four landing legs now mounted on Falcon 9 rocket

All four landing legs now mounted on SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket being processed inside hanger at Cape Canaveral, FL for Mar 16 launch. 

Credit: SpaceX/Elon Musk 

The historic blast off of the first SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket equipped with 'landing legs' and also carrying the Dragon cargo vessel is bound for the Space Station.

The launch is now slated for March 16, following a short and "successful" hot fire check test of the first stage engines on Saturday, March 8.

The brief two second ignition of all nine upgraded Merlin 1D engines powering the first stage of SpaceX's next generation, commercial Falcon 9 rocket at the end of a simulated countdown, is a key test.

The rocket engine milestone test is required to clear the way for next Sunday's planned night time lift off at 4:41 a.m. EDT from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida.

SpaceX owner and entrepreneur, Ellon Musk, is shown here next to a model of the Dragon spacecraft.

 "Falcon 9 and Dragon conducted a successful static fire test in advance of next week's CRS-3 launch to station!" SpaceX announced today.

The primary goal of the unmanned SpaceX CRS-3 mission is to deliver over 5000 pounds of science experiments, gear and supplies loaded inside Dragon to the six person crew living and working aboard the International Space Station (ISS) flying in low Earth orbit under NASA's Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) contract.

"In this final major preflight test, Falcon 9's 9 first-stage engines were ignited for 2 seconds while the vehicle was held down to the pad," said SpaceX.

The static hot firing is a full up assessment of the rocket, engines, propellant loading and countdown procedures leading to a launch. The engines typically fire for a barely a few seconds.

SpaceX engineers will evaluate the engine firing to ensure all systems are ready for launch.

Segway Mounted Firefighting Robot Paints 3D Thermal Imaging Pictures

Engineers in the UCSD Coordinated Robotics Lab, have developed new image processing techniques for rapid exploration and characterization of structural fires by small Segway-like robotic vehicles.

A sophisticated on-board software system takes the thermal data recorded by the robot's small infrared camera and maps it onto a 3D scene constructed from the images taken by a pair of stereo RGB cameras.

FFR is a robotic scout for firefighters developed by the Coordinated Robotics Lab at UC San Diego.

This allows small mobile robotic vehicles to create a virtual reality picture that includes a 3D map and temperature data that can be used immediately by first responders as the robot drives through a building on fire.

The research is part of a plan to develop novel robotic scouts that can help firefighters to assist in residential and commercial blazes.

Researchers will present their results at the International Conference on Robotics and Automation to be held from May 31 to June 5, 2014, in Hong Kong.

The robots will map and photograph the interior of burning buildings by using stereo vision.

They will use data gathered from various sensors to characterize the state of a fire, including temperatures, volatile gases, and structural integrity while looking for survivors.

US Laser weapon to be mounted on USS Navy warship Ponce - Video

The US Navy has released a video of a laser weapon it says will be stationed on US warship Ponce in the Middle East, despite reports it has problems working in bad weather.

The weapon runs on electricity and can fire as long as there is power, at a cost of $1 dollar per shot. Military experts claim it is a step towards transforming warfare.

However, a report from the Congressional Research Service says there are drawbacks, including the potential that it could hit satellites or aircraft and may not work in rain or foggy conditions.

The laser weapon will be installed on USS Ponce which is being used as a floating base in the Middle East in 2014.