SpaceX dragon in cargo configuration. Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) has completed the Preliminary Design Review (PDR) for the second Falcon 9 / Dragon demonstration under NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) project. During this second and much longer demonstration, the uncrewed Dragon spacecraft will approach within 10 kilometers of the ISS and hold its …
(Hat tip Bad Astronomy), About 1% of the stars in the Milky Way could have earth like planets (smaller rock like planets) Another study shows the Milky Way is twice as big as previously thought. So instead 100 billion stars there could be 200 billion and of those 1% or two billion could have earth …
McKinsey Global has an energy productivity plan (36 pages) An additional $170 billion per year invested in energy efficiency can provide 17% average internal rate of return and cut projected energy demand growth by half by 2020. We could use existing technologies to pay for themselves. It would provide up to half of the global …
A set of 15 proteins found in urine can distinguish healthy individuals from those who have coronary artery disease (CAD), a new study has found. Coronary artery disease is the most common type of cardiovascular disease, occurring in about 5 to 9% (depending on sex and race) of people aged 20 and older. In 2001, …
Jamais Cascio, founder of Open the Future and a director at CRN, says nanofactories will have a huge impact: “If it becomes cheaper and more efficient to have something printed out locally instead of made in China, it will have a big effect on things like trade balances, international labor, and … our national economy.” …
A picture from the patent filing for what General fusion is trying to build with backing from Chrysalix Energy Venture Capital. GF will build a ~3 meter diameter spherical tank filled with liquid metal (lead-lithium mixture). Rams use compressed steam to accelerate pistons to ~50 m/s. Make compression wave in the liquid metal. Microsecond of …
Photograph taken from a high-speed video camera during a record-setting firing of a seven-pound bullet fired from a truck-sized electromagnetic railgun at seven times the speed of sound and sent a visible shockwave through the air before crashing into a metal bunker filled with sand. UPDATE: New article written on using railguns for space launch. …
The technological singularity is a hypothesized point in the future variously characterized by the technological creation of self-improving intelligence, unprecedentedly rapid technological progress, or some combination of the two. I would want to focus on the aspect of “unprecendentedly rapid technological progress“. I feel that a proxy for measuring “technological progress” can be the rate …
For the same wind velocity, FloDesign’s Mixer Ejector Wind Turbine (MEWT) having a maximum diameter 50% smaller than an existing 3-Bladed regular wind turbine can potentially generate over 50% more power, and can potentially cost 25-35% less than the same conventional wind turbine (horizontal axis wind turbines, HAWT). Hat tip to Al fin for this …
There will be snow boarding in a Dubailand dome which is part of a massive larger development shown in architectural drawing. DUBAILAND will cover an area of 3 billion square feet and a population of 2.5 million people, which includes tourists, workers and residents, once fully operational. The development will have multiple theme parks, culture …
A carbon nanotube based drug has had preliminary tests showing it is more than 5,000 times more effective at reducing the effects of acute radiation injury than the most effective drugs currently available. There were already results that gene therapy can increase resistance to radiation. “More than half of those who suffer acute radiation injury …