Uber is trying to commercialize ride-sharing electric flying taxis within 5 years. Uber wants to have two demonstrator flights by 2020. Uber wants to begin commercial flights in 2023. Uber needs to build many Skyports where their electric flying vehicles would provide locations where people would load and disembark from near-personal flying taxis. Uber wants …
When particular areas are automated then what is provided from automation becomes the competitive ante. The work and the activity will be to add more. This could mean creating more locations or finding ways to use more people to provide a better or more convenient experience. What businesses will need to understand is where will …
Elon Musk has indicated that one of the reasons for switching to stainless steel for the SpaceX Super Heavy Starship was to use $3 per kilogram of steel instead of $200 per kilogram for carbon composite. Above is a rendering of the stainless steel SpaceX rocket by Kimi Talvitie. He rendered the SpaceX Super Heavy …
Blue Origin has successfully launched a first commercial payload. It was a sub-orbital launch with the New Shepard rocket. The New Shepard system took 8 NASA-sponsored research and technology payloads into sub-orbital space. This flight was dedicated to NASA’s Flight Opportunities program, an essential program for researchers providing access to microgravity for technology development. Blue …
Blue Origin has started building a BE-4 rocket-engine production facility in Huntsville, Alabama. It will cost more than $200 million and employ about 300 when it opens in March 2020. This was reported by the Herald Net. The facility will build the BE-4 engine that Blue Origin expects to finish developing later this year. Blue …
Brazil’s mining company Vale has had its second iron tailings dam collapse in the last four years. An iron tailing dam burst on Friday. There are forty confirmed dead and about 200 people are missing. Romeu Zema, the governor of Minas Gerais state, said by now most recovery efforts will entail pulling out bodies. The …
Germany has announced that they will close down all coal power plants by 2038 according to Clean Energy Wire. Germany plans to close 25% of existing coal-burning plants (12.5 gigawatts) by 2022. This will be 24 coal plants shut within the first three years. By 2030, Germany should have about eight coal-burning plants remaining, producing …
The Wall Street Journal featured Tesla’s Gigafactory in China. China is already Tesla’s second largest market. Tesla sold 14,000 cars in China in 2018, but China plans is for the new Gigafactory to produce 500,000 electric cars per year. China’s electric car market is 3 times larger than the US electric car market. In 2018, …
China will not approve wind and solar power projects unless they can compete with coal power prices. China stopped subsidizing large scale solar projects in May, 2018. This was reported by John Parnell at Forbes. China’s leaders did not like Chinese companies building overseas solar projects overseas at prices far below what they were charging …
How will Maduro be able to keep the loyalty of the military when Guaido has all the money? The USA has already started to arrange to give all of its oil purchase money and gold to Venezuela’s new President Guaido. In 8 days, the EU money will start heading to Guaido’s side. All of the …
One of the problems preventing the Multi-billion dollar ITER nuclear fusion project from scaling to provide commercial energy are disruptions of the plasma. Disruptions are sudden events that can halt fusion reactions and damage the tokamaks. Princeton has developed an electromagnetic particle injector (EPI) which is a type of railgun that fires a high-velocity projectile …