By 2030, China wants to build the Long March-9 rocket to carry 140 tonnes into low-Earth orbit. This will be almost as powerful as a SpaceX Falcon BFR. China’s Long March-9 would have a core stage measuring 10 meters (33 feet) in diameter and four side boosters, each with a diameter of five meters. China …
There are currently 34 uncontained large wildfires in the USA. Over 763,079 acres (over 1100 square miles) have burned. On July 4th, wildland fire activity has picked up throughout the western states. Five new large fires were reported. Fires in Colorado, Nevada, and California made runs that burned thousands of acres yesterday. Firefighters continue to …
Lockheed Martin ONYX powered lower-body exoskeleton can increase mobility and reduce fatigue of its users. ONYX detects what the body is doing and provides support at the exact time it is needed. Sensors distributed on the exoskeleton report speed, direction, and angle of movement to an on-board computer that drives electro-mechanical actuators at the knees. …
There were time and motion studies in the early 20th century which found that if a city could have double the population then productivity would increase and per person income would increase by 7%. Currently the world is about 56% urbanized. Only 10% are in megacities with population over 10 million. 100% urbanization would double …
ThorCon is a graphite-moderated thermal spectrum molten salt reactor that will produce 250 MWe power. It will be cheaper than coal energy. Coal is 5 cents per kilowatt hour and Thorcon will be 3 cents per kilowatt-hour. The basic concept is similar to the MSRE (Molten Salt Reactor Experiment) in ORNL which was built and …
A new technique has produced the highest performing inverted perovskite solar cell ever recorded. A team of researchers from Peking University and the Universities of Surrey, Oxford and Cambridge detail a new way to reduce an unwanted process called non-radiative recombination, where energy and efficiency is lost in perovskite solar cells. The team created a …
In 2014, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz said that two significant forces would shape global prosperity in the 21st century: 1. U.S. technological innovation 2. urbanization in China. The Brookings Institute has an updated look at 103 cities in China that are the global top 300 in terms of PPP GDP. The Economist has a …
Arxiv – 18-qubit entanglement with photon’s three degrees of freedom They used * 30 single-photon interferometers in total. * The outputs are detected by 48 single-photon detectors Scheme and experimental setup for creating and verifying 18-qubit GHZ state consisting of six photons and three degrees of freedom. a. The generation of six-photon polarization-entangled GHZ state. …
Raytheon Company is developing a 100 kW class laser weapon system preliminary design for integration onboard the Family of Medium Tactical Vehicles. This is a $10 million U.S. Army’s High Energy Laser Tactical Vehicle Demonstration program contract. It is expected that there will be a follow up $130 million contract starting in 2019. The laser …
DARPA has awarded LiquidPiston an additional $2.5 million to continue development of its 30kW X4 rotary diesel engine prototype, bringing DARPA’s total funding of the engine technology to $6 million. When development of the fully packaged engine is complete, the 30kW X4 engine is expected to weigh just 30lbs and fit into a 10” box, …
DARPA is developing software tools based on machine learning and expert-encoded rules to recommend chemical synthesis recipes to optimize cost, time, safety, or waste reduction. They are trying to develop lighter and longer-lasting batteries and fuel cells, advanced adhesives, coatings and paints and less expensive explosives that are safer to handle. DARPA’s Make-It program is …