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20th century
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21st century
2000s
Wireless technology may supplement or replace hard wired implementations in security systems for homes or office buildings. |
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- 2001: Full Cellular telephone (phones and modems)
Perhaps the best known example of wireless technology is the cellular telephone and modems. These instruments use radio waves to enable the operator to make phone calls from many locations worldwide. They can be used anywhere that there is a cellular telephone site to house the equipment that is required to transmit and receive the signal that is used to transfer both voice and data to and from these instruments. |
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- 2003: Extensive household Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi is a wireless local area network that enables portable computing devices to connect easily to the Internet. Wi-Fi hot spots have been popular over the past few years. Some businesses charge customers a monthly fee for service, while others have begun offering it for free in an effort to increase the sales of their goods. |
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- 2004: Wireless energy transfer
Wireless energy transfer is a process whereby electrical energy is transmitted from a power source to an electrical load that does not have a built-in power source, without the use of interconnecting wires.
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- 2005: Computer interface devices
Answering the call of customers frustrated with cord clutter, many manufactures of computer peripherals turned to wireless technology to satisfy their consumer base. Originally these units used bulky, highly limited transceivers to mediate between a computer and a keyboard and mouse, however more recent generations have used small, high quality devices, some even incorporating Bluetooth. These systems have become so ubiquitous that
some users have begun complaining about a lack of wired peripherals. Wireless devices tend to have a slightly slower response time than their wired counterparts, however the gap is decreasing. |
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Space exploration in the 21st Century
- 2001 – Dennis Tito becomes the first space tourist by paying $19 million to board the International Space Station.
- 2002 – Mars Odyssey arrives in orbit around Mars.
- 2003 – Space Shuttle Columbia disaster February 1.
- 2004 – Mars Exploration Rovers land on Mars; Opportunity discovers evidence that an area of Mars was once covered in water.
- 2004 – The Cassini–Huygens probe arrives at Saturn.
- 2004 – SpaceShipOne makes the first privately funded human spaceflight, June 21
- 2005 – The Huygens probe lands on Titan, the largest of Saturn's moons, January 14.
- 2005 – The Deep Impact probe impacts Comet Tempel 1, July 4.
- 2006 – New Horizons is launched on a 9 year voyage to Pluto, January 19.
- 2006 – The Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter arrives at Mars.
- 2006 - The Space Shuttle Discovery launches on STS-121, the second "Return to Flight" mission following the Columbia accident, July 4.
- 2006 - NASA resumes construction of the International Space Station following the Columbia accident with the launch of Space Shuttle Atlantis on STS-115 on September 9.
- 2007 - China launches its first lunar mission with the Chang'e 1 on October 24.
- 2008 – Chinese space program launches its third manned space flight carrying its first three-person crew and conducts its first spacewalk that makes China the third nation after Russia and USA to do that, Shenzhou 7 on September 25.
- 2008 – The Indian Space Research Organisation's Chandrayaan-1 is launched on October 22. India becomes the fourth nation to reach the moon.
- 2009 - NASA launches the Kepler Space Observatory on a three year mission to search the sky in the Cygnus, Lyra, and Draco constellations for Earth-like planets, March 6.
- 2009 – The Space Shuttle Atlantis rendezvous with the Hubble Space Telescope on STS-125 to give the Hubble much needed repairs. This mission will enable Hubble to last for approximately 5 to 10 years.
- 2009 - NASA conducts the Ares I-X test flight. The 6-minute suborbital flight was the only flight of the Constellation program that was supposed to replace the Space Shuttle fleet in the next decade.
- 2009 - ISRO discovers water on the Moon.
- 2010 - Funding for NASA is cut.
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