Lifeboat Foundation

Such thrusters have been used since the 1970s; however, the Tiangong’s core module is set to become the first crewed spaceship propelled by ion drives. China is betting big on ion thrusters and intends to develop them on a far greater scale for its deep-space missions.

The space station’s core Tianhe module, which will welcome its first astronauts later this month if all goes to plan, is propelled by four ion thrusters, which utilize electricity to accelerate ions as a type of propulsion.

When compared to chemical propulsion, which keeps the International Space Station (ISS) in orbit, ion drives are much more efficient. According to the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the ISS’s thrusters require four tons of rocket fuel to keep it afloat for a year, whereas ion thrusters would require only 882 pounds (400kg) to do the same.

Swedish flying car maker Jetson will deliver its first batch of Jetson ONE personal eVTOL this year before scaling production in 2023.

Though still young, 2022 is shaping up to be monumental for Swedish flying car developer Jetson, which plans to deliver the first series of its one-passenger personal electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicle later this year, then turn to outside investors to help scale activity.

Continue reading “Sold-out Swedish Jetson ONE personal eVTOL set for delivery in 2022” »

EVTOLs (electric vertical take-off and landing) are gearing up to become serious competition for conventional helicopters, as the clean energy and advanced urban air mobility trends continue to rise. A Swiss eVTOL developer is ready to begin flight tests for its eight-seat aircraft that will be operating across Scandinavia.

Meet the ambitious P-ONE proposal.

The P-ONE design currently involves seven 10-string clusters, with each string hosting 20 optical elements. That s a grand total of 1,400 photodetectors floating around an area of the Pacific several miles across, providing much more coverage than IceCube.

Once it’s up and running, you just need to wait. Even neutrinos will strike some ocean water and give off a little flash, and the detectors will trace it.

Continue reading “Astronomers propose building a neutrino telescope — out of the Pacific Ocean” »

D-Wave Systems is ramping up in the race to so-called quantum supremacy — the bid to become the first to successfully commercialize quantum computing.

Tesla, the little startup automaker that many guessed would be bankrupt years ago, sold almost 1 million cars in 2021. Meanwhile, established brands struggled.

Meta’s ambition for its metaverse just got higher with a new robotic eyeball that mimics the human eye.

What do you call a broken satellite?

Today, it’s a multimillion-dollar piece of dangerous space junk.

But a new collision-avoidance system developed by students at the University of Cincinnati is getting engineers closer to developing robots that can fix broken satellites or spacecraft in orbit.

“The time taken to optimize antibiotic therapy might mean the difference between life and death if an infection is serious,” says Adrian Egli. “A fast, accurate diagnosis is extremely important in those kinds of cases.” (Credit: Getty Images)

This could help treat serious infections more efficiently in the future.