The DARPA Persistent Optical Wireless Energy Relay (POWER) program achieved several new records for transmitting power over distance. The team recorded more than 800 watts of power delivered during a 30-second transmission from a laser 8.6 kilometers (5.3 miles) away. Over the course of the test campaign, more than a megajoule of energy was transferred. …
Currently, drones run out of power after days, hour or minutes. If there was wireless power beaming then electrically powered drones could stay flying over a battlefield indefinitely. Years of flight could become possible. Swarms of drones would be have the power to stay over entire states or countries indefinitely. The multi-year electrical drones could …
There is now large-scale use small drones in warfare and there is now a rapid pace of improvement. The massive and effective military use of drones has been proven in the Ukraine war. The most effective countermeasure is electronic jamming. DARPA has large request for bids for swarms of autonomous drones. Autonomous Multi-domain Adaptive Swarms-of-Swarms …
Kevin Parkin described the history and status of microwave beam-heated propulsion at Space Access 2019. Technical summary is at Parkin Research. Kevin showed more pictures of the test systems. Kevin gave a previous update on beam propulsion in 2018 at Breakthrough Propulsion. Kevin wants to get heat reflectors and better coatings tested in a $1 …
Jeff Greason presented a radically new kind of power beaming. This will enable radical changes to drones, planes and eventually space launch. #SpaceAccess2019
A method to produce significant amounts of semiconducting nanoparticles for light-emitting displays, sensors, solar panels and biomedical applications has gained momentum with a demonstration by researchers at the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory. While zinc sulfide nanoparticles – a type of quantum dot that is a semiconductor – have many potential applications, high …
Air pollution is a killer, and it’s getting worse. All forms of air pollution is causing the premature death of ten million people per year Outdoor air pollution increased by 8% from 2008 to 2013 Outdoor air pollution is still increasing and current trends would see it double by 2050 Air pollution levels in many …
11 ships will be handed over to the Russian Navy after repairs and one vessel will be the fourth Varshavyanka class submarine that should be handed over to the military by the end of the year. Russia’s shipbuilding industry is not in good shape, as the delays in refitting the Admiral Gorshkov aircraft carrier as …
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab (Berkeley Lab), used a specialized petawatt laser and a charged-particle gas called plasma to get the particles up to speed. The setup is known as a laser-plasma accelerator, an emerging class of particle accelerators that physicists believe can shrink traditional, miles-long accelerators to machines that can fit on a table. The …
A solar research team at the University of New South Wales has converted over 40 per cent of sunlight into electricity, with an innovative take on Australian-designed solar tower technology. This is a follow up to an article yesterday about record outdoor solar power conversion efficiency. The team achieved 40.1 per cent efficiency in outdoor …
Boeing Co. Chief Executive Jim McNerney said the plane maker aims to emulate the product strategy of Apple Inc. by developing future passenger jets in incremental steps, rather than once-a-generation “moon shots” that carry too much risk. This is a reaction to the difficulties in building the advanced 787 Dreamliner, which suffered years of delays …