1. This study will investigate the development of an atmosphere-breathing electric propulsion solar-powered vehicle to explore planets such as Mars. The vehicle would use atmospheric gas for propellant, eliminating the need to launch and carry the propellant from earth. The propulsion thruster would be electric where the gas is ionized in a plasma and accelerated …
The NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) is having its Spring Symposium this week (March 27-29, 2012) 1. John Mankins is presenting SPS-ALPHA: The First Practical Solar Power Satellite via Arbitrarily Large PHased Array SPS-ALPHA (Solar Power Satellite via Arbitrarily Large Phased Array) is a novel, bio-mimetic approach to the challenge of space solar power. If …
Japan Space agency had the successful solar sail IKAROS. IKAROS (Interplanetary Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation Of the Sun) was launched on May 21, 2010 together with the Venus Climate Orbiter, AKATSUKI And IKAROS becomes the world’s first solar powered sail craft employing both photon propulsion and thin film solar power generation during its interplanetary cruise. …
Discovery News -Spacex ‘wet dress’ rehersal saw a full launch simulation with a planned abort at T-minus 5 seconds. If the next launch and docking is successful, the Dragon will begin supplying the International Space Station. The five-hour launch readiness test, held at Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, went through full countdown procedures, including …
Global water scarcity presents a grave challenge to continued human development and sustainability. The answer, however, is to use more water, not less. In order to do this, a dramatic technological breakthrough in desalination is necessary. This presentation describes the beginning of that effort. Rob McGinnis is Co-Founder and Chief Technical Officer of Oasys Water …
IEEE Spectrum – new antennas based on metamaterials, though, may soon rescue Web-addicted travelers from expensive connections in the air and elsewhere, and a group at the patent-licensing firm Intellectual Ventures (IV) thinks that it can implement the new technology by 2014. While IV has researched exotic applications of metamaterials like cloaking devices that could …
MIT researchers have now taken a major step toward brain emulation by designing a computer chip that mimics how the brain’s neurons adapt in response to new information. This phenomenon, known as plasticity, is believed to underlie many brain functions, including learning and memory. With about 400 transistors, the silicon chip can simulate the activity …
Graphene Science and technology for ICT and beyond received 1.5 million euros ($2.1 million) for 2011-2012, and late 2012 could be selected as a flagship project, to be funded at about €1 billion each over a decade. Graphene, a new substance from the world of atomic and molecular scale manipulation of matter, could be the …
Arxiv – In 1974, Ralph Merkle proposed the first unclassified scheme for secure communications over insecure channels. When legitimate communicating parties are willing to spend an amount of computational effort proportional to some parameter N, an eavesdropper cannot break into their communication without spending a time proportional to N^2, which is quadratically more than the …
Journal Science – Superelastic Effect in Polycrystalline Ferrous Alloys In superelastic alloys, large deformation can revert to a memorized shape after removing the stress. However, the stress increases with increasing temperature, which limits the practical use over a wide temperature range. Polycrystalline Fe-Mn-Al-Ni shape memory alloys show a small temperature dependence of the superelastic stress …
In this diagram, the M13 virus consists of a strand of DNA (the figure-8 coil on the right) attached to a bundle of proteins called peptides — the virus coat proteins (the corkscrew shapes in the center) which attach to the carbon nanotubes (gray cylinders) and hold them in place. A coating of titanium dioxide …