The Us Navy partnered with Oak Ridge National Laboratory to 3D print its first submersible that could be used to deploy logistics capabilities and sensors. Through a partnership with the Navy’s Disruptive Technology Lab, the team at ORNL’s Manufacturing Demonstration Facility (MDF) created the military’s first 3D-printed submersible hull. The Optionally Manned Technology Demonstrator is …
A new 3D printer creates metal parts at commercial production speeds. Their SPEE3D printer has the potential to turn 3D metal printing, which currently is just making prototypes of parts, into a tool for manufacturing actual parts for use. It is up to 1000 times quicker than conventional 3D metal printers. The entrepreneurs behind an …
US defense leaders should consider developing limited-production prototypes deployed to operational environments as “one off” weapon systems tailored to specific missions. For prototyping to become a relevant component of military doctrine, promising weapon systems will need to be delivered quickly to the operational forces in limited quantities, with the option of building or modifying the …
The keys to EMDrive experiments are prove the propulsion is real and will work in space. Find a way with theory or experiment to scale up the effect. If it is real and the effect can be scaled up then at the very least space travel is transformed. Here is information from a Shawyer paper, …
China’s high-speed railroad network surpassed 10,000 kilometers in length, not even counting the track still being built, Li Keqiang has continued his efforts to seek overseas projects. The latest progress came during Li’s three-day visit to Britain in mid-June. The two countries released a statement stating that they “agree to promote substantive cooperation on rail, …
Oil producers are now “cracking the code” on the Torquay, or Three Forks formation below the Bakken, and coming up with incredible economics—these wells are paying back in only seven months. This news has completely re-invigorated the Canadian side of the Bakken. And on the US side, the Three Forks is causing industry to leap-frog …
China currently has 21 operational nuclear reactors. By the end of 2014, the number of reactors in the country is expected reach 30, bringing the total nuclear capacity to around 27 GWe. In 2015, capacity should reach 36 GWe, as a further eight reactors are brought online. 18 units are expected to start up within …
Eugene Goostman, a computer programme pretending to be a young Ukrainian boy, successfully duped enough humans to pass the iconic test. Computing pioneer Alan Turing said that a computer could be understood to be thinking if it passed the test, which requires that a computer dupes 30 per cent of human interrogators in five-minute text …
The generating capacity of large-scale wind farms has been overestimated. Each wind turbine creates behind it a “wind shadow” in which the air has been slowed down by drag on the turbine’s blades. The ideal wind farm strikes a balance, packing as many turbines onto the land as possible, while also spacing them enough to …
If calculated under the central bank’s target of 14 percent year-on-year growth rate of money supply, China’s M2 balance will break 97 trillion yuan by the end of this year. And the number is very much likely to approach or even exceed 100 trillion yuan by the end of the first quarter next year. This …
What if a lunar base could produce and deliver waste silicon cheaper than coal on Earth? The economics of massive lunar exports A guest article by Joseph Friedlander There was a lot of talk stirred up lately by Newt Gingrich’s lunar base speech, which Brian referred to in a post here. Many people have been …