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Archive for the ‘transportation’ category: Page 246

May 7, 2020

New game-changing Inflatable Space Tech NASA to test in 2022… China just tested it.

Posted by in categories: disruptive technology, engineering, space, space travel, transportation
inflatable heat shield
China inflatable heat shield: Credit CCTV

New spacecraft experience setbacks all the time. SpaceX Starship prototype violently disassembled several times. Boeing launched the CST-100 but ended up in the wrong orbit. China isn’t a stranger to setbacks either.

China tested a prototype spacecraft on May 5th, 2020 in efforts to prove the technology was ready. It’s good it was a test and not an actual mission since the spacecraft did not perform as expected. The news agency Xinhua reported the spacecraft launched from Hainan China, operated abnormally during its return.

Heat Shields Need to work or expect a terrible day.

Spacecraft experience tremendous heat during the last minutes of their mission. The heat shield protects the spacecraft from that heat. NASA looked at lots of materials and tested many before using for heat shields.

NASA’s Space Shuttle used a thermal soak heat shield approach. The Shuttle tiles act as an insulating material. The design absorbs and radiates the heat away from the spacecraft structure. A second common approach is an ablative heat shield like those used for Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, and Orion spacecraft. These ablative heat shields commonly have a layer of plastic resin which experiences intense heating while entering the atmosphere. The heat shield wears away, carrying the heat away through convection.

Continue reading “New game-changing Inflatable Space Tech NASA to test in 2022... China just tested it.” »

May 7, 2020

Plasma jet thrusters make push for propulsion

Posted by in category: transportation

Researchers in China have demonstrated a prototype device that uses microwave air plasmas for jet propulsion, an advance that could one day replace fossil fuel combustion engines.

The team from the Institute of Technological Sciences at Wuhan University describe the engine in AIP Advances.

Waiting in the wings: How plasma could help revolutionise aircraft design.

May 6, 2020

Delfast TopCop 50 MPH electric bike gets thumbs up from police testing

Posted by in categories: energy, transportation

When we first covered the high-power Delfast TopCop electric bicycle, the company was still pitching its bikes to various police departments around the world. Now we’re hearing some of the first feedback from actual cops who have incorporated the e-bikes into their daily service.

May 5, 2020

Tesla improves on its ‘million-mile battery’ with less cobalt and higher energy density

Posted by in categories: energy, sustainability, transportation

Tesla has made even more battery improvements on its new ‘million-mile battery’ now with less cobalt, which could result in lower cost and even more energy density.

Last year, we were the first to report on Tesla’s battery research partner, Jeff Dahn and his team at Dalhousie University, unveiling the impressive results of tests on a new battery cell that could last over 1 million miles in an electric vehicle.

Continue reading “Tesla improves on its ‘million-mile battery’ with less cobalt and higher energy density” »

May 5, 2020

Scientists Create Jet Engine Powered by Only Electricity

Posted by in category: transportation

Scaling Up

There’s a long way to go between a proof-of-concept prototype and installing an engine in a real plane. But the prototype was able to launch a one-kilogram steel ball 24 millimeters into the air. That’s the same thrust, proportional to scale, as a conventional jet engine.

“Our results demonstrated that such a jet engine based on microwave air plasma can be a potentially viable alternative to the conventional fossil fuel jet engine,” lead researcher and Wuhan University engineer Jau Tang said in a press release.

May 4, 2020

Intel to buy smart urban transit startup Moovit for $1B to boost its autonomous car division

Posted by in categories: information science, robotics/AI, transportation

Some big M&A is afoot in Israel in the world of smart transportation. According to multiple reports and sources that have contacted TechCrunch, chip giant Intel is in the final stages of a deal to acquire Moovit, a startup that applies AI and big data analytics to track traffic and provide transit recommendations to some 800 million people globally. The deal is expected to close in the coming days at a price believed to be in the region of $1 billion.

We have contacted Nir Erez, the founder and CEO of Moovit, as well as Intel spokespeople for a comment on the reports and will update this story as we learn more. For now, Moovit’s spokesperson has not denied the reports and what we have been told directly.

“At this time we have no comment, but if anything changes I’ll definitely let you know,” Moovit’s spokesperson.

May 3, 2020

Volkswagen plans to launch a family of affordable electric cars under $22,000

Posted by in categories: sustainability, transportation

Adapting the architecture for small city cars in a cost-efficient way is proving to be challenging because of the need to strip out a third of the costs compared with the ID.3.

Engineers have looked at everything from smaller electric motors to different battery module configurations to give the small EVs the high standard of crash protection that will be expected by customers.

Continue reading “Volkswagen plans to launch a family of affordable electric cars under $22,000” »

May 3, 2020

Tesla applies to become UK electricity provider

Posted by in categories: energy, sustainability, transportation

The US firm, known for its electric vehicles, also has operations in battery energy storage and solar panel manufacturing.

May 3, 2020

The Electric Vehicle Revolution Is Finally Hitting the U.S. Army

Posted by in categories: nuclear energy, sustainability, transportation

The JLTV is the successor to the Humvee, and the Army plans to buy at least 50,000 in the coming decades.
The Army, concerned that civilian adoption of electric vehicles could leave it vulnerable, is looking into making the JLTV itself an EV.
An electric JLTV would reduce the need for diesel fuel at remote outposts, with power provided by solar or nuclear energy.

#USArmy
#USmilitary
#MilitaryNews

May 1, 2020

Musk tweet knocks $14bn off Tesla market value

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, finance, law, sustainability, transportation

Elon Musk tweeted a complaint about Tesla’s share price that wiped $14bn off the company’s stock market value on Friday morning.

The seven-word tweet was the latest controversial outburst from the outspoken chief executive, whose outpourings on Twitter have landed him in hot water before. An incorrect claim in the middle of 2018 that he was close to a buyout of Tesla led to a complaint from the US Department of Justice and a settlement that involved Mr Musk agreeing not to issue market-moving tweets in future without first clearing them with his company’s legal department.

Tesla did not immediately confirm whether Mr Musk’s tweet had been given legal clearance, and did not respond to a question about whether the company currently has a general counsel. Tesla lost three general counsels last year, one of them quitting after only two months.