Lifeboat Foundation

Interesting story.

The site will have 5,000 new apartments—along with schools and stores that all residents can walk to.

France is set to welcome a new semiconductor production site on its soil as it continues the drive to position itself on the global market amid growing shortages, though it is still unclear where funding for the new plant is coming from.

Read the original French article here.

France will open a new semiconductor factory, according to the announcement by French company STMicroelectronics and US company GlobalFoundries released on Monday (11 July).

Unless Europe’s Large Hadron Collider coughs up a surprise, the field of particle physics may wheeze to its end.

CELESTA, the first CERN-driven satellite, successfully entered orbit during the maiden flight of Europe’s Vega-C launch vehicle. Launched by the European Space Agency from the French Guiana Space Centre (CSG) at 13.13 UTC on 13 July 2022, the satellite deployed smoothly and transmitted its first signals in the afternoon. Weighing one kilogram and measuring 10 centimetres on each of its sides, CELESTA (CERN latchup and radmon experiment student satellite) is a 1U CubeSat designed to study the effects of cosmic radiation on electronics. The satellite carries a Space RadMon, a miniature version of a well-proven radiation monitoring device deployed in CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC). CELESTA has been sent into an Earth orbit of almost 6,000 kilometres.

CELESTA, the first CERN-driven satellite, successfully entered orbit during the maiden flight of Europe’s Vega-C launch vehicle. Launched by the European Space Agency from the French Guiana Space Centre (CSG) at 13.13 UTC on 13 July 2022, the satellite deployed smoothly and transmitted its first signals in the afternoon. Weighing one kilogram and measuring 10 centimetres on each of its sides, CELESTA (CERN latchup and radmon experiment student satellite) is a 1U CubeSat designed to study the effects of cosmic radiation on electronics. The satellite carries a Space RadMon, a miniature version of a well-proven radiation monitoring device deployed in CERN’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC). CELESTA has been sent into an Earth orbit of almost 6,000 kilometres. “Right in the middle of the inner Van Allen belt, CELESTA will survey an unusual orbit where radiation levels are at their highest,” explains Markus Brugger, Head of the CERN Experimental Areas group and initiator of both the CHARM and CELESTA projects in the context of the R2E (Radiation to Electronics) initiative. The Space RadMon is a flagship example of how CERN technologies can have applications beyond particle physics experiments. “Based entirely on standardised, ultra-sensitive components selected and calibrated by CERN, and mostly in CERN facilities, the Space RadMon is a lightweight and low-power instrument, ideal for future risk-tolerant space missions,” says Ruben Garcia Alia, R2E project leader. “If CELESTA is successful, the Space RadMon could even be adapted to satellite constellations as a predictive maintenance tool – to anticipate the necessary renewal of satellites.” A radiation model of the CELESTA satellite was also tested in CHARM, a CERN mixed-field facility capable of reproducing, to a large extent, the radiation environment of low Earth orbit. The mission will be an important validation of this capability at the facility. “Capable of testing satellites all at once, rather than component by component, CHARM is a unique installation worldwide, remarkably different from other irradiation test facilities. It offers a simple, low-cost alternative and the possibility to assess system-level effects,” says Salvatore Danzeca, CHARM facility coordinator. The success of this satellite is the result of a fruitful partnership between CERN and the University of Montpellier, which involved many students from both institutions and radiation effect specialists from CERN. CELESTA is based on the CSUM radiation tolerant platform. It will be operated from the CSUM control centre. The European Space Agency provided the launch slot in the framework of its small satellite programme. “On a mission to make space more accessible, CELESTA is an exciting example of how CERN expertise can have a positive impact on the aerospace industry. With this mission, CERN displays its low-cost solutions for measuring radiation and testing satellites against it – thus providing universities, companies and startups with the means to realise their space ambitions,” concludes Enrico Chesta, CERN’s Aerospace and Environmental Applications Coordinator in the Knowledge Transfer group. Further information: Video of the launch More about the aerospace applications.

July 15 (Reuters) — NASA and Russia’s space agency Roscosmos have signed a long-sought agreement to integrate flights to the International Space Station, allowing Russian cosmonauts to fly on U.S.-made spacecraft in exchange for American astronauts being able to ride on Russia’s Soyuz, the agencies said Friday.

“The agreement is in the interests of Russia and the United States and will promote the development of cooperation within the framework of the ISS program,” Roscosmos said in a statement, adding it will facilitate the “exploration of outer space for peaceful purposes.”

NASA and Roscosmos, the two-decade-old space station’s core partners, have sought for years to renew routine integrated crewed flights as part of the agencies’ long-standing civil alliance, now one of the last links of cooperation between the United States and Russia as tensions flare over the war in Ukraine.

A scientific article just published by four Brazilian and two American scientists reports gains in electric and thermal energy obtained when brewer’s spent grain (barley bagasse), an abundant waste produced by the beer industry, is treated with ultrasound before undergoing anaerobic digestion, a microbiological process involving consumption of organic matter and production of methane.

Pre-treatment generated biogas with 56% methane, 27% more than the proportion obtained without use of ultrasound. After purification in methane, the biogas can be used as vehicle fuel with a very low carbon footprint compared to conventional fossil fuels. Moreover, in cogenerators, the methane can be burned off by the brewery to produce electricity and heat. The final waste can be used as biofertilizer instead of mineral fertilizer. The methodology is described in detail in the article, which is published in the Journal of Cleaner Production.

The innovative process was developed at the Laboratory of Bioengineering and Treatment of Water and Waste (Biotar) in the State University of Campinas’s School of Food Engineering (FEA-UNICAMP). The research group lead, T nia Forster-Carneiro, is principal investigator for a project supported by FAPESP.

Ahead of the Artemis I flight test, NASA is inviting media to its Johnson Space Center in Houston Friday, Aug. 5, for a detailed mission briefing and a behind-the-scenes look at facilities that will enable a long-term human presence at the Moon.

Photovoltaics will play a key role in the future energy supply. Conventional solar cells based, for instance, on silicon, a well-known semiconductor material, are already highly developed and in widespread use. However, their production is complex because it requires a high vacuum with high temperatures. It can take up to five years for the energy used for production to be offset by operation.

This is where solar cells based on organic semiconductors can make a difference, as they can be printed in an energy-and cost-saving way. However, there are limitations to the energy conversion that need to be examined in more detail. A research team led by the Professorship of Optics and Photonics of Condensed Matter at Chemnitz University of Technology has investigated which main factors are decisive for the power limitation of organic solar cells.

The lead author of the study is Christopher Wöpke, research associate at the Professorship of Optics and Photonics of Condensed Matter at Chemnitz University of Technology. He was joined in the study by scientists from the universities of Bayreuth, Bern (CH), Durham (UK), Erlangen-Nuremberg and the Advanced Light Source Berkeley Lab (U.S.). Among other things, the team found that transport resistance in particular severely limits the performance of organic solar cells.

A study led by UCLA researchers could help accelerate the use of hydrogen as an environmentally friendly source of energy in transportation and other applications.

The team developed a method for predicting platinum alloys’ potency and stability—two key indicators of how they will perform as catalysts in hydrogen fuel cells. Then, using that technique, they designed and produced an alloy that yielded excellent results under conditions approximating real-world use. The findings are published in the journal Nature Catalysis.

“For the sustainability of our planet, we can’t keep living the way we do, and reinventing energy is one major way to change our path,” said corresponding author Yu Huang, a professor of materials science and engineering at the UCLA Samueli School of Engineering and a member of the California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA. “We have fuel cell cars, but we need to make them cheaper. In this study, we came up with an approach to allow researchers to identify the right catalysts much faster.”