Coming soon to your neighborhood: A surveillance camera that can fly to heights of almost 200 feet.
Coming soon to your neighborhood: A surveillance camera that can fly to heights of almost 200 feet.
Tag: engineering
According to Orbital Sciences’ CEO, problems in launchpad construction have been the primary reason the first launch of Antares rocket/Cygnus capsule has been delayed.
Fingers crossed: According to Orbital Sciences’ CEO, problems in launchpad construction have been the primary reason the first launch of Antares rocket/Cygnus capsule has been delayed.
“We hope to have the rocket motor in the spaceship later this year and start powered flight testing.”
The problems of making both wind and solar power practical sources of electrical power on the grid.
The difficulties making both wind and solar power practical sources of electrical power on the grid.
According to the U.S. Department of Energy, when intermittent sources such as solar or wind reach about 20 percent of a region’s total energy production, balancing supply and demand becomes extremely challenging: rolling blackouts can sometimes become inevitable. The same problem exists elsewhere, notably in Germany, where a vast photovoltaic capacity has sprung up thanks to generous subsidies.
The article proposes several reasonable solutions for storing power for use when there are lulls in wind or sunlight. All, however, appear costly, and all appear to end up making fossil fuels themselves more cost effective. For example,
A pumped-hydro facility consists of two reservoirs with a substantial drop in height between them. When there is excess electricity to go around, electric pumps move water from the lower reservoir into the upper one, thereby storing energy in the form of gravitational potential energy. When wind and solar wane or simply cannot keep up with demand, operators let water flow down and through turbines, generating electricity. In compressed-air facilities, excess electricity pumps air into underground caverns, and it is later released at high pressure to turn turbines.
Pumped hydro has been used for decades to balance the load on large U.S. grids. About 2.5 percent of the electricity used by U.S. consumers has cycled through one of these plants. In Europe the amount is 4 percent and in Japan 10 percent.
Reading this, I immediately asked, why not use this technology now to help reduce the amount of fossil fuels you need to burn? Japan seems to have figured this out. Why not us?
The state of Orion’s construction, including a scheduled parachute drop test this Wednesday
The state of Orion’s construction, including a scheduled parachute drop test this Wednesday.
A Swarm of Nano Quadrotors
An evening pause. As Arthur Clarke once said, “Any sufficiently advanced science is indistinguishable from magic.”
The 3D printer that can build a house
The 3D printer that can build a house.
The D-Shape is potentially capable of printing a two story building – complete with stairs, partition walls, columns, domes, and piping cavities – using only ordinary sand and an inorganic binder. The resulting material is said to be indistinguishable from marble, and exhibits the same physical properties, with durability highly superior to that of masonry and reinforced concrete.
The building process is very close to what we’d expect of a huge 3D printer. A nozzle moves along a pre-programmed path, extruding a liquid adhesive compound on a bed of sand with a solid catalyst mixed in. The binding agent reacts with the catalyst, and the solidifying process begins. Meanwhile, the remaining sand serves to support the structure. Then, another layer of sand is added and the whole process is repeated. Since it’s computer assisted, no specialist knowledge is required to use the printer. All that’s needed is a CAD design file.
Orbital Sciences hopes to put its Antares rocket on the launchpad in five weeks.
Fingers crossed: Orbital Sciences expects to put its Antares rocket on the launchpad for initial checkout in about five weeks.
Scientists have found a way to produce an anti-corresion coating made of graphene only one atom thick.
Scientists have found a way to produce an anti-corresion coating made of graphene only one atom thick.
What Would Happen If You Shot a Gun In Space?
Asking the important questions: What would happen if you shot a gun in space?
The fundamental design flaw of all of Tesla Motors’ electric cars.
The fundamental design flaw of all of Tesla Motors’ electric cars.
A Tesla Roadster that is simply parked without being plugged in will eventually become a “brick”. The parasitic load from the car’s always-on subsystems continually drains the battery and if the battery’s charge is ever totally depleted, it is essentially destroyed. Complete discharge can happen even when the car is plugged in if it isn’t receiving sufficient current to charge, which can be caused by something as simple as using an extension cord. After battery death, the car is completely inoperable. At least in the case of the Tesla Roadster, it’s not even possible to enable tow mode, meaning the wheels will not turn and the vehicle cannot be pushed nor transported to a repair facility by traditional means.
This problem could destroy the company, which, believe it or not, might actually have a negative effect on the American space program! Elon Musk, the man behind SpaceX and the Falcon 9 rocket and the Dragon capsule is also the CEO of Tesla. If Tesla goes down, one wonders if that could have an impact on SpaceX’s effort to get Americans into space.
A motorized skateboard you operate with your feet
A motorized skateboard you operate with your feet.
Scientists have found an iron-based crystal that can superconduct electricity at a new record high temperature of 48 degrees Kelvin above absolute zero.
Scientists have found an iron-based crystal that can superconduct electricity at a new record high temperature of 48 degrees Kelvin above absolute zero.
Russian scientists have resurrected a plant from 30,000 years ago, using fruit tissues that had been frozen in the Arctic.
Russian scientists have resurrected a plant from 30,000 years ago, using fruit tissues that had been frozen in the Arctic.
The streets of Rome — in Jerusalem
The streets of Rome — in Jerusalem.
Orbital Sciences has delayed until late June the first test launch of its Antares rocket, which in turn will delay until late August the first flight of its Cygnus cargo freighter to ISS.
Orbital Sciences has delayed until late June the first test launch of its Antares rocket, which in turn will delay until late August the first flight of its Cygnus cargo freighter to ISS.
John Glenn – the first American in orbit
An evening pause: On the fiftieth anniversary of John Glenn’s orbital flight.
After putting a chimpanzee into orbit in November, NASA finally felt ready to send a man into orbit to answer the Soviets and their two manned orbital missions of Gagarin and Titov the previous year.
After Glenn’s mission and for the next few months, it looked like the U.S. was catching up with the Soviets in space. That would change before the year was summer was over.
The video below gives a nice summary of key moments in Glenn’s flight, though the special effects of the “fireflies” is poorly done. And we now know that the “fireflies” were nothing more than frozen particles of condensation coming off the capsule.
A transistor made from a single atom
Ancient computers still in use today, including punch cards, mainframes, and the first PCs.
Ancient computers still in use today, including punch cards, mainframes, and the first PCs.
India’s second lunar probe, Chandrayaan-2, faces possible launch delays
India’s second lunar probe, Chandrayaan-2, faces possible launch delays due to limitation in their rocket engine capabilities.