A Tesla Model 3 owner has implanted a chip in his hand that unlocks his car. The chip also has a wide array of other functions.
Category: sustainability – Page 276
Europe is seriously considering a major investment in space-based solar power
“It’s the stupidest thing ever,” Elon Musk said several years ago.
European Space Agency’s (ESA) director general has proposed the development of Europe’s first space-based solar power system to be constructed in 2025.
ESA, an intergovernmental conglomerate of 22 member states, will decide on the director’s plan in November this year, according to a report published in Ars Technica.
Europe is seriously considering developing space-based solar power to increase its energy independence and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, the leader of the European Space Agency said this week.
“It will be up to Europe, ESA and its Member States to push the envelope of technology to solve one of the most pressing problems for people on Earth of this generation,” said Josef Aschbacher, director general of the space agency, an intergovernmental organization of 22 member states.
Previously the space agency commissioned studies from consulting groups based in the United Kingdom and Germany to assess the costs and benefits of developing space-based solar power. ESA published those studies this week in order to provide technical and programmatic information to policymakers in Europe.
After quitting the ISS, Russia reveals its next-gen space station
Meet ROSS, Russia’s new space station.
But unlike the ISS, ROSS won’t have permanent residents year-round. Instead, it will only host cosmonauts “twice a year for extended periods,” according to Reuters.
ROSS is still years out and shrouded in secrecy, so it’s hard to predict exactly how the new space station could surpass the ISS’s capabilities.
Roscosmos officials have told Russian state media that the station will likely orbit at higher latitudes than the ISS does. This could offer a better view of the Earth’s polar regions, which Russian researchers could analyze with optical, infrared, ultraviolet instruments. After all, Russia’s borders cover 53 percent of the Arctic Ocean’s entire coastline, and the country likely wants to use ROSS to chart northern sea routes as climate change melts Arctic sea ice.
2026 Hennessey 2400bhp six-wheeler EV targets 1000km range
Hennessey has revealed further details about its first electric car, the six-wheeled Project Deep Space grand tourer with a mind-boggling power output and a $3 million (£2.25m) price.
The outlandish EV — rendered by Autocar above, based on official sketches — will feature a central driving position within a diamond-shaped four-seat layout.
American luxury GT will appear in show form in 2024; priced from £2 million, targeting 620 miles on each charge.
What Happens When the Doomsday Clock Hits Midnight?
The invasion that Russia has wrongfully started in Ukraine has led to more people talking about the threat of Nuclear war and World War 3. How does the Doomsday Clock relate to all this?
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Script:
Since 2020, the Doomsday Clock has been set to 100 seconds to midnight. Which is the closest its ever been to midnight in its 75 years of existence. As the scientists who set the clock put it: we’re “at doom’s doorstep.”
The Doomsday Clock is a metaphor to remind humans how close we are to destroying our planet through the technology we develop, with midnight representing the apocalypse. It’s a symbol to remind us to address these dangers so that we can survive on our planet. It was created by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, an organization founded by scientists at the University of Chicago who worked on the Manhattan Project, which was America’s effort to develop atomic weapons during the Cold War.
When the Doomsday Clock debuted in 1947, its creator, artist Martyl Langsdorf, set it to 7 minutes to midnight. She was married to a physicist who worked on the Manhattan Project. When she heard him and other scientists talk about the consequences of developing this dangerous technology, she created the clock to show that we didn’t have much time left to get atomic weapons under control.
A 17-year-old engineer’s magnet-free motor prototype could make electric vehicles more sustainable
Society for Science.
As per Smithsonian Magazine, his new invention could one day transform the electric vehicle (EV) industry. It is a synchronous reluctance motor with improved performance over previous models.
New heat-tolerant, high-capacity capacitor created with solid electrolytes borrowed from all-solid-state batteries
Capacitors are energy storage devices—consisting of two electrodes and an electrolyte—that are capable of rapid charging and discharging because of charge adsorption and desorption properties at the electrode-electrolyte interface. Because capacitors’ energy storage does not involve chemical reactions, their storage capacity is lower than that of lithium-ion batteries, but they are useful for power leveling for renewable energy that requires repeated charging at high currents, regenerative braking energy for trains and electric or hybrid cars, as well as instantaneous voltage drop compensation devices that prevent equipment failure due to lightning strikes. They are also expected to be used to store energy for wearable devices in the near future.
Most capacitors use a liquid electrolyte with a low boiling point, which can only be used at temperatures below 80℃. Ceramic capacitors that use solid inorganic materials as a dielectric can be used at temperatures above 80℃, but their storage capacity is much lower than liquid electrolyte capacitors, which limits their use to electronic circuits.
To increase the energy storage of capacitors, it is necessary to have a large contact area at the interface between the electrode and the electrolyte. Making a large contact area is difficult using solid electrolytes; so, the creation of a capacitor with high storage capacity that can also operate at high temperatures has been desired for a long time.