Lifeboat Foundation

Last month, even as the coronavirus epidemic was ravaging China and making inroads in other nations, the space industry’s concerns were elsewhere. There were debates about a NASA authorization bill in the House that would reshape NASA’s Artemis program even as the agency sought more money for it, the ongoing review into the flawed test flight of Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner commercial crew vehicle, renewed concerns about orbital debris after a close call between two defunct satellites, and discussions about the viability and sustainability of satellite constellations like OneWeb and SpaceX’s Starlink as both moved into full-scale deployment.

Those were the days. In the last couple of weeks, and especially in the last week, those issues have largely disappeared as what is now a pandemic takes hold in the United States and many other nations. But while many parts of the economy have ground to a halt, like retail and tourism, the effects on the space industry have been uneven. Some parts of it have also effectively halted, yet others continue ahead at essentially full speed—at least for now.

The first clear signs of the effects of the pandemic on the industry was bringing the circuit of conferences and other events to a standstill. On March 9, the Satellite 2020 conference got underway in Washington despite growing concerns about the spread of the coronavirus disease COVID-19, including the first cases diagnosed in the city. Conference organizers plowed ahead even as some major companies, like satellite operator SES, bowed out, saying only about 10 percent of attendees as 12 percent of exhibitors had cancelled their plans.

No Autonomous Trucks? Wait, What? ‘…it resembled conventional human-operated transportation vehicles, but with one exception — there was no driver’s cabin.’ — Philip K. Dick, 1955.

Elon Musk’s Traffic Tunnel Challenge Is Boring ‘The car vibrated… threading the maze of local tubes.’ — Jack Vance, 1954.

Continue reading “No Autonomous Trucks? Wait, What?: Science Fiction in the News” »

Circa 2019

A Tesla owner has put over 1 million km (621,000 miles) on a Model S for the first time and he explains his experience in a video interview.

Continue reading “A Tesla Model S reaches 1 million km for first time” »

Dr. Ezekiel Emanuel, an American oncologist and bioethicist who is senior fellow at the Center for American Progress as well as Vice Provost for Global Initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania and chair of the Department of Medical Ethics and Health Policy, said on MSNBC on Friday, March 20, that Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk told him it would probably take 8–10 weeks to get ventilator production started at his factories (he’s working on this at Tesla and SpaceX).

Continue reading “Elon Musk: Should Have 1000 Ventilators Next Week, + 250,000 N95 Masks For Hospitals Tomorrow Exclusive” »

Trapping a molecule inside a liquid helium nanodrop allows clean measurements of the molecule’s vibrations.

The solvent in which a molecule is suspended can strongly influence the molecule’s motion. Now researchers have demonstrated that a molecule dissolved inside a superfluid helium nanodrop experiences very little effect from the solvent. The researchers measured, with femtosecond resolution, the intramolecular vibrations of an indium dimer (In₂) in a helium nanodrop. They say that their method could be used to study molecules relevant for light-harvesting technologies, such as solar cells, that have been difficult to observe because of solvent effects.

Modern society relies on technologies with electronic integrated circuits (IC) at their heart, but these may prove to be less suitable in future applications such as quantum computing and environmental sensing. Photonic integrated circuits (PICs), the light-based equivalent of electronic ICs, are an emerging technology field that can offer lower energy consumption, faster operation, and enhanced performance. However, current PIC fabrication methods lead to large variability between fabricated devices, resulting in limited yield, long delays between the conceptual idea and the working device, and lack of configurability. Researchers at Eindhoven University of Technology have devised a new process for the fabrication of PICs that addresses these critical issues, by creating novel reconfigurable PICs in the same way that the emergence of programmable logic devices transformed IC production in the 1980s.

Photonic integrated circuits (PICs) – the light-based equivalent of electronic ICs—carry signals via visible and infrared light. Optical materials with adjustable refractive index are essential for reconfigurable PICs as they allow for more accurate manipulation of light passing through the materials, leading to better PIC performance.

Current programmable PIC concepts suffer from issues such as volatility and/or high optical signal losses—both of which negatively affect a material’s ability to keep its programmed state. Using hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si: H), a material used in thin-film silicon solar cells, and the associated Staebler-Wronski effect (SWE), which describes how the optical properties of a-Si: H can be changed via light exposure or heating, researchers at Eindhoven University of Technology have designed a new PIC fabrication process that addresses the shortfalls of current techniques and could lead to the emergence of universal programmable PICs.

Responses to outbreak also show how government policy and behavioural changes can have impact.

A Dutch company from Eindhoven has released a prototype car called Lightyear One, that won the Bridgestone World Solar Challenge, being the very first long-range solar car in the world. It has already sold 100 orders to be filled in 2011 and is a four-passenger vehicle.

In light of the ongoing shift toward renewable energy technologies and the growing number of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, researchers worldwide have been trying to develop batteries that can operate more efficiently and for longer periods of time. Lithium-ion batteries (LIBs) are currently the preferred energy-storage technology for portable electronics, as they contain organic electrolytes, which typically enable high operating voltages and energy densities.

Despite their widespread use, further increasing the performance of existing LIBs could have a significant impact on their safety. In fact, these batteries contain highly volatile and flammable organic carbonates, which, if ignited, can cause considerable damage.

In recent years, researchers have made significant efforts toward overcoming these safety issues, for instance, by using additional substances or by optimizing the materials separating battery components. While some of these strategies successfully reduced the risk of the battery catching fire, as long as LIBs are made with highly flammable electrolytes, accidents may still occur.