Elon Musk is the CEO of space launch company Spacex and Tesla the successful electric car company. Those companies are making major progress. Spacex expects to produce at least 180 rocket engines this year, with that number set to increase to 240 next year, and 400 in 2017, Shotwell told Reuters in an interview late …
The Tweel is an airless tire design concept developed by the French tire company Michelin. Its significant advantage over pneumatic tires is that the Tweel does not use a bladder full of compressed air, and therefore it cannot burst, leak pressure, or become flat. Instead, the Tweel assembly’s inner hub connects to flexible polyurethane spokes …
A new software system developed at the University of Michigan uses video game technology to help solve one of the most daunting hurdles facing self-driving and automated cars—the high cost of the laser scanners they use to determine their location. Ryan Wolcott, a U-M doctoral candidate in computer science and engineering, estimates that it could …
Qualification irradiation tests of fuel elements for the demonstration HTR-PM high-temperature gas-cooled reactor (HTGR) plant being built at Shidaowan, China, have been completed in the Netherlands. China’s Institute for Nuclear and New Energy Technology (INET) at Tsinghua University has conducted research on HTGR fuel element technology over the past 30 years. It developed a trial …
Theory and Experimental Work on Mach Effect Thrusters (MET) presentation. How do METs Mach Effect Thrusters work? • METs depend on “Mach’s principle” being correct. • Mach’s principle is the proposition that all inertial forces – the forces of reaction in Newton’s third law of mechanics – are produced by the gravitational action of all …
Previously nextbigfuture had noted the World Health Organizations increased estimate of deaths caused by air pollution. Regular commenter Goatguy looks at the future projection of warming and provides his own estimates to a chart provided by other climate researchers. Soot and particulates are still the best target for saving lives from air pollution and mitigating …
The Carnival of Space 336 is up at Photos to Space Universe Today – If you’re looking for something truly unique, then check out the cosmic menage aux trois ferreted out by a team of international astronomers using the Green Bank Telescope (GBT). This unusual group located in the constellation of Taurus includes a pulsar …
Manufacturing giant Foxconn Technology Group is on track with its goal to a create a “million robot army”, and already has 20,000 robotic machines in its factories, said the company’s CEO Terry Gou in June 2013. Workers’ wages in China are rising, and so the company’s research in robots and automation has to catch up, …
South Africa has witnessed an “unparalleled” five-year increase in life expectancy since 2005 thanks to the world’s biggest programme of HIV/Aids drug treatment. The trend marks a spectacular reversal from when former president Thabo Mbeki was branded an “Aids denialist” whose dogma was blamed for 330,000 deaths. In a few short years, South Africa has …
After several years of production in situ, it has become clear that current THAI (Toe Heal Air Injection) methods do not work as planned. Amid steady drops in production from their THAI wells at Kerrobert, Petrobank has written down the value of their THAI patents and the reserves at the facility to zero. They have …
From Frank Tobe’s Robot Report – China’s 12th 5-Year Plan targeted robotics as a growth industry necessary for China’s development. It expects a compound growth rate of 25%, said Wang Weiming, deputy director of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. The ministry has set up incentives and 5 geographical areas for Chinese companies to …