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Category: sustainability – Page 223

What is PHASA-35? Cutting edge stratosphere drone passes key test in U.S.

A new solar-powered high-altitude drone has successfully navigated a stratospheric test, opening the door to a new set of possibilities for unmanned vehicles, not least in modern warfare.

The PHASA-35 solar and battery-powered unmanned aerial system reached an altitude of 66,000 feet during a 24-hour test flight launched from New Mexico in June, British defense giant BAE Systems said in mid-July.

The stratospheric test, which comes after the system’s maiden flight back in 2020, “marks a significant milestone” in the development program started in 2018, BAE said in a press release.

Researchers use quantum computer to identify molecular candidate for development of more efficient solar cells

Using the full capabilities of the Quantinuum H1-1 quantum computer, researchers from the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory not only demonstrated best practices for scientific computing on current quantum systems but also produced an intriguing scientific result.

By modeling —in which absorption of a single photon of light by a molecule produces two —the team confirmed that the linear H4 molecule’s energetic levels match the fission process’s requirements. The linear H4 molecule is, simply, a molecule made of four hydrogen atoms arranged in a linear fashion.

A molecule’s energetic levels are the energies of each quantum state involved in a phenomenon, such as singlet fission, and how they relate and compare with one another. The fact that the linear molecule’s energetic levels are conducive to singlet fission could prove to be useful knowledge in the overall effort to develop more efficient solar panels.

Blue Alchemist to make solar cells on the Moon using moondust

With the aim of allowing astronauts to live off the land as much as possible when they return to the Moon, NASA has awarded Blue Origin a US$35-million Tipping Point contract to develop the company’s Blue Alchemist process to make solar cells out of lunar soil.

The biggest bottleneck to establishing a permanent human presence on the Moon and beyond is the staggering cost of sending equipment and supplies from Earth. NASA and other space agencies believe that the best way to overcome this is to use local resources as much as possible to manufacture what’s needed.

Under development since 2021, Blue Alchemist is an example of this. The basic concept is to develop a complete process that takes the lunar soil, more formally known as the regolith, at one end and spits out complete solar cells and other products at the other.

Genetically engineered trees stoke climate hope — and environmental fears

“O poplar tree, O poplar tree, how carbon-dense are thy branches …”

Trees are a major tool in our fight against climate change by sucking up carbon dioxide, but one company is taking them a step further: genetically engineering trees to sequester even more carbon. U.S. climate technology startup Living Carbon is developing genetically engineered seedlings of a hybrid poplar that it says can accumulate up to 53% more biomass than control plants and thereby absorb 27% more carbon.

Plants use sunlight to turn water and carbon dioxide into oxygen and sugar, a process known as photosynthesis. Living Carbon says its trees, a hybrid of the common aspen (Populus tremula) and white poplar (P. alba), can do it better with genetic changes to boost its photosynthetic performance.

New study reveals spin in quantum dots’ carrier multiplication

A new approach to developing semiconductor materials at tiny scales could help boost applications that rely on converting light to energy. A Los Alamos-led research team incorporated magnetic dopants into specially engineered colloidal quantum dots—nanoscale-size semiconductor crystals—and was able to achieve effects that may power solar cell technology, photo detectors and applications that depend on light to drive chemical reactions.

“In quantum dots comprising a lead-selenide core and a cadmium-selenide shell, manganese ions act as tiny magnets whose magnetic spins strongly interact with both the core and the shell of the quantum dot,” said Victor Klimov, leader of the Los Alamos nanotechnology team and the project’s principal investigator. “In the course of these interactions, energy can be transferred to and from the manganese ion by flipping its spin—a process commonly termed spin exchange.”

In spin-exchange multiplication, a single absorbed photon generates not one but two , also known as excitons, which occur as a result of spin-flip relaxation of an excited manganese ion.

DARPA will soon make strong and reusable scrap wood

It turns out there’s a lot of scrap wood produced by the US Army. According to the US Army Corps of Engineers, more than 80 percent of solid waste produced at the Department of Defense (DoD) forward operating bases consists of scrap wood, cardboard, and paper. This equates to almost 13 pounds of waste per soldier per day that could be reused if handled properly, reducing garbage and supplying useful materials for construction.

DARPA’s new Waste Upcycling for Defense (WUD) program aims to produce a process for turning scrap wood, cardboard, and paper into lightweight, strong, and sustainable materials for reuse in a variety of DoD environments.

Tesla to discuss factory plan for new $24,000 mass market EV

According to a person with direct knowledge of the matter, representatives from Tesla are planning to meet India’s commerce minister this month to discuss the possibility of constructing a factory for producing an all-new $24,000 electric car. Tesla has expressed interest in manufacturing low-cost electric vehicles for both the local Indian market and exports. This meeting would mark the most significant discussions between Tesla and the Indian government since Elon Musk’s meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in June, where he expressed his intention to make a substantial investment in the country.

Dr. Michael Roberts, Ph.D. — Chief Science Officer, International Space Station National Laboratory

Dr. Michael Roberts, Ph.D. is Chief Science Officer of the International Space Station National Laboratory (https://www.issnationallab.org/), and Vice President at the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space (CASIS — https://www.issnationallab.org/about/center-for-the-advancem…dership/), which as manager of the ISS National Laboratory in partnership with NASA, is responsible to the nation for enabling access to the International Space Station for research, technology development, STEM education, and commercial innovation in space as a public service to foster a scalable and sustainable low Earth orbit economy.

Before joining CASIS in 2013, Dr. Roberts worked as a microbial ecologist, principal investigator, and research group lead in the NASA Advanced Life Support program at the Kennedy Space Center.

Prior to arriving at NASA-KSC in 1999, Dr. Roberts completed an undergraduate degree in biology at Maryville College, a doctorate in microbiology at Wesleyan University and post-doctoral research at the Center for Microbial Ecology at Michigan State University and the RIKEN Institute in Wako-shi, Japan.

A special new tape could make small, efficient nuclear fusion reactors possible

A revolutionary new high-temperature superconducting tape could lead to the development of small, efficient tokamak nuclear fusion reactors.

A groundbreaking high-temperature superconducting tape has been devised that could prove revolutionary in our quest to develop sustainable nuclear fusion, reports IEEE Spectrum.

GRETCHEN ERTL/CFS/MIT PLASMA SCIENCE AND FUSION CENTER

A revolutionary material.

Tesla Cybertruck Orders Surpass 1.9 Million, 5 Year Wait Times

There are now over 1.9 million orders for the long-awaited Tesla Cybertruck, per a crowd-sourced data tracker. Speaking on an Earnings Call earlier this week, Tesla CEO Elon Musk stated that demand for the Cybertruck is “so off the hook, you can’t even see the hook.”

Given that Tesla plans to produce 375,000 Cybertrucks a year at peak capacity, new orders will technically take around 5 years to arrive. That said, a significant amount of reservation holders may not follow through with their purchase — after all, the deposit to reserve a Cybertruck was only $100. The Cybertruck is being produced at Giga Texas, although it’s a possibility it could also be built at Giga Mexico when the proposed factory is up and running in a few years’ time.

It will be interesting to see if the Cybertruck will be offered outside of North America. Currently, those in Tesla’s European and Asian markets can pre-order the truck. That said, the Cybertruck’s large size and hefty weight could make selling it overseas a serious challenge. For example, in several European nations it would have to be classed as a commercial truck or semi.

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