The Falcon Heavy is slated to launch twice the payload of the Shuttle at about one-fifteenth the cost of a Shuttle launch. It is thirty times cheaper to launch the same weight and ten times cheaper than a Delta IV Heavy. SpaceX has broken the long-sought 1,000 dollars a pound to orbit price barrier with …
Today Anwar al-Awlaki was killed by a U.S. drone strike. Awlaki, identified by U.S. intelligence as “chief of external operations” for al Qaeda’s Yemen branch and a Web-savvy propagandist for the Islamist cause, was killed in an attack by missiles fired from multiple CIA drones in a remote Yemeni town. The US is continuing to …
The artificial leaf — a silicon solar cell with different catalytic materials bonded onto its two sides — needs no external wires or control circuits to operate. Simply placed in a container of water and exposed to sunlight, it quickly begins to generate streams of bubbles: oxygen bubbles from one side and hydrogen bubbles from …
Wearing an antenna – without anyone knowing – is making a splash in the world of search and rescue. The new antenna is made from highly flexible, lightweight material that is robust against water exposure and moist conditions, and resistant to wear and tear, this special antenna has been designed for use by the Cospas-Sarsat …
Researchers at Northwestern University have developed a simpler way to generate single-chip terahertz radiation, a discovery that could soon allow for more rapid security screening, border protection, high sensitivity biological/chemical analysis, agricultural inspection, and astronomical applications. Terahertz radiation (wavelength range of 30 – 300 microns) can be used to see through paper, clothing, cardboard, plastic, …
The AlphaDog Proto is a lab prototype for the Legged Squad Support System, a robot being developed by Boston Dynamics with funding from DARPA and the US Marine Corps. When fully developed the system will carry 400 lbs of payload on 20-mile missions in rough terrain. The first version of the complete robot will be …
NPR had a claim – two years ago, America was importing about two thirds of its oil. Today, according to the Energy Information Administration, it imports less than half. The actual levels seem to be more of a shift from 61-63% imports to 47% imports. 3.8 million barrels per day of lower oil imports but …
With all switches firing and central components cleaned, realigned, and in some cases even resurfaced, Focus Fusion-1 (FoFu-1) has pushed the frontier of DPF functioning to record pressures of fill gas. This is a prerequisite for achieving high fusion yields. The yield increases with the plasma density in the tiny plasmoid where fusion is produced, …
The Carnival of Space 217 is up at Dear Astronomer. Universe Today – SpaceX to Develop a Fully Reusable Launch System — and Elon Musk Wants to Send Humans to Mars Elon Musk incidated in a speech that humanity should be willing to spend about one quarter of one percent of GDP for Mars colonization …
DARPA wants to create a quasi-passive adaptive suit. The vision of the Warrior Web program, grounded in human physiology and performance, is to develop and demonstrate the technologies required to create a compliant, warfighter-wearable, quasi-passive and adaptive suit system to both reduce injuries and retain optimal warrior performance. The Warrior Web program currently seeks the …
Alternative hybrid approaches replace the battery with compressed air or a flywheel. Compressed Air Scuderi has now released results of a computer simulation of its compressed air engine against a European economy-class engine of comparable power. The compressed air hybrid achieved a fuel economy figure of 65 miles per gallon, compared with 52 miles per …