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An MIT research proposal outlines a new method for rendezvousing with interstellar objects (ISOs) like ‘Oumuamua using a solar slingshot technique. By using solar sails to position deep-space probes on the edge of the solar system, the idea is to use the gravitational pull of the Sun to accelerate the spacecraft and set it on an intercept course with an interstellar visitor.

When ‘Oumuamua passed by in 2017, it was a truly historic event. For the first time, an object from interstellar space was detected entering the solar system. Traveling on a hyperbolic trajectory, it flew through the inner system before returning to the outer darkness, never to return. As it did so, observatories around the world focused on the object, giving scientists their first close-up glimpse at something that didn’t originate in our system.

However, a glimpse was all they had time for. Ideally, a long, leisurely look would have been preferable, but there wasn’t any time to even plan a mission to send a spacecraft to visit ‘Oumuamua – much less launch one. Worse, such a mission would have faced major technical challenges. Not the least of which being the requirement of a massive rocket to reach the needed velocity to overtake the object.

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A team of materials scientists at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) – scientists who normally spend their time researching things like high-performance materials for thermoelectrics or battery cathodes – have built a text-mining tool in record time to help the global scientific community synthesize the mountain of scientific literature on COVID-19 being generated every day.

The tool, live at covidscholar.org, uses natural language processing techniques to not only quickly scan and search tens of thousands of research papers, but also help draw insights and connections that may otherwise not be apparent. The hope is that the tool could eventually enable “automated science.”

“On Google and other search engines people search for what they think is relevant,” said Berkeley Lab scientist Gerbrand Ceder, one of the project leads. “Our objective is to do information extraction so that people can find nonobvious information and relationships. That’s the whole idea of machine learning and natural language processing that will be applied on these datasets.”

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Amazon is among the players in a bankruptcy bidding game with the assets of the OneWeb satellite venture at stake, according to Space Intel Report.

Quoting unnamed industry officials, Space Intel Report’s Peter B. de Selding says other potential bidders include two Chinese organizations that are apparently acting on behalf of the Chinese government; the Paris-based satellite operator Eutelsat, which apparently has the backing of the French government and several other European Union member states; and Cerberus Capital Management, a New York-based private equity firm with interesting connections.

Space Intel Report also quotes the officials as saying that SpaceX was among those expressing interest, but SpaceX CEO Elon Musk denied that was the case. “Not SpaceX,” Musk wrote in a tweet.

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analysis from BloombergNEF (BNEF) highlights that for applications requiring two hours of energy, batteries are beating gas peaker plants. While the 2019 LCOE benchmark for lithium-ion battery storage hit US$187 per megawatt-hour (MWh) already threatening coal and gas and representing a fall of 76% since 2012, by the first quarter of this year, the figure had dropped even further and now stands at US$150 per megawatt-hour for battery storage with four hours’ discharge duration.

The cost of battery energy storage has continued on its trajectory downwards, making it more and more competitive with fossil fuels. That in itself will come as no surprise to many in the industry. As we wrote last week, analysis from BloombergNEF (BNEF) highlights that for applications requiring two hours of energy, batteries are beating gas peaker plants. While the 2019 LCOE benchmark for lithium-ion battery storage hit US$187 per megawatt-hour (MWh) already threatening coal and gas and representing a fall of 76% since 2012, by the first quarter of this year, the figure had dropped even further and now stands at US$150 per megawatt-hour for battery storage with four hours’ discharge duration.

Andy Colthorpe spoke to Tifenn Brandily, BNEF’s lead author of the latest LCOE report, which covers solar, wind and more than 20 other technologies including battery storage from 47 regional markets around the world.

Let’s talk about how you derive the LCOE and the benchmark. I understand also that it varies a bit around the world and the US$150/MWh is an average figure?

Continue reading “Behind the numbers: The rapidly falling LCOE of battery storage” | >

Russian scientists have unveiled a “Superman suit” they claim lets the wearer walk through fire and grenade blasts unscathed.

Vladimir Putin’s military says the suit is made of a heat-resistant “aramid” type material that can withstand half a minute of direct flame contact.

The heatproof suit, part of the country’s Ratnik program is expected to be ready for use by 2020.

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