New submitter joshtops shares a report from Scientific American: As NASA makes plans to one day send humans to Mars, one of the key technical gaps the agency is working to fill is how to provide enough power on the Red Planet’s surface for fuel production, habitats and other equipment. One option: small nuclear fission reactors, which work by splitting uranium atoms to generate heat, which is then converted into electric power. NASA’s technology development branch has been funding a project called Kilopower for three years, with the aim of demonstrating the system at the Nevada National Security Site near Las Vegas. Testing is due to start in September and end in January 2018. The last time NASA tested a fission reactor was during the 1960s’ Systems for Nuclear Auxiliary Power, or SNAP, which developed two types of nuclear power systems. The first system — radioisotope thermoelectric generators, or RTGs — taps heat released from the natural decay of a radioactive element, such as plutonium. RTGs have powered dozens of space probes over the years, including the Curiosity rover currently exploring Mars. The second technology developed under SNAP was an atom-splitting fission reactor. SNAP-10A was the first — and so far, only — U.S. nuclear power plant to operate in space. Launched on April 3, 1965, SNAP-10A operated for 43 days, producing 500 watts of electrical power, before an unrelated equipment failure ended the demonstration. The spacecraft remains in Earth orbit. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Tag: earth
Los Angeles Tests Reflective ‘Cool Pavement’ On Streets
mikeebbbd writes: As reported in the Los Angeles Daily News, during the current heatwave various officials swooped down on streets coated with an experimental light-gray sealer that makes the old asphalt into a “cool street” — and it works, with average temperature differences between coated streets and adjacent old asphalt around 10F. At a large parking lot, the temperature reduction was over 20F. If the material holds up and continues to meet other criteria, LA plans to use it on more pavement rehab projects, which could eventually make a difference in the heat island effect. The “CoolSeal” coating is apparently proprietary to a company named GuardTop LLC, costs $25-40K/mile, and lasts 5-7 years. At that price, it’s might not be used a lot, at least at first; typical slurry seals run $15-30K/mile. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Los Angeles Tests Reflective ‘Cool Pavement’ On Streets
NASA Finds Evidence Of 10 New Earth-sized Planets
NASA said Monday it has found new evidence of 219 planets outside our Solar System. Ten of those exoplanets appear to be similar to the size of the Earth and orbit their stars in the habitable zone. From a report: The new planets’ existence must still be double-checked. But Kepler’s latest haul — which includes a planet that is only slightly larger than Earth and receives the same amount of energy from its sun as Earth — is the latest triumph for Kepler, which has spotted roughly 80 percent of the planets orbiting stars other than our sun. Because of their potential for hosting life, the 10 Earth-size planets are the most glamorous of the newly announced planets from Kepler. But those 10 were joined by an additional 209 more garden-variety planets that are unlikely to be hospitable to life because they are too gassy, too hot, too cold or otherwise unlike the only known planet to host life: Earth. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
Hollywood Sees Illegal Streaming Devices as ‘Piracy 3.0’
After hunting down torrent sites for more than a decade, Hollywood now has a more complex piracy threat to deal with. From a report: Piracy remains a major threat for the movie industry, MPA Stan McCoy said yesterday during a panel session at the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum. Much like Hollywood, copyright infringers are innovators who constantly change their “business models” and means of obtaining content. Where torrents were dominant a few years ago, illegal streaming devices are now the main threat, with McCoy describing their rise as Piracy 3.0. “Piracy is not a static challenge. The pirates are great innovators in their own right. So even as we innovate in trying to pursue these issues, and pursue novel ways of fighting piracy, the pirates are out there coming up with new business models of their own, ” McCoy said. “If you think of old-fashioned peer-to-peer piracy as 1.0, and then online illegal streaming websites as 2.0, in the audio-visual sector, in particular, we now face challenge number 3.0, which is what I’ll call the challenge of illegal streaming devices.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Hollywood Sees Illegal Streaming Devices as ‘Piracy 3.0’
New Solar Plane Plans Non-Stop Flight Around The World
An anonymous reader quotes Bloomberg: [A] Russian tycoon and his Renova Group plan a record-breaking effort to send a plane around the world nonstop using only the power of the sun. If all goes well, a single pilot will fly for five days straight at altitudes of up to 10 miles, about a third higher than commercial airliners. The project isn’t just a stunt. The glider-style airplane with a 36-meter (120-foot) wingspan will be a test of technologies that are set to be used to build new generations of autonomous craft for the military and business, say aerospace experts. They will fly continuously, have far greater reach and control than satellites and expand broadcast, communication and spying capabilities around the globe… “Our flight should prove that it’s possible to make long-distance flights using solar energy, ” said Mikhail Lifshitz, Renova’s director of high-tech asset development and a qualified pilot-instructor. A “flying laboratory” test-plane will be ready by year-end, Lifshitz said in an interview. The plane will conserve power by slowly gliding down from the high altitudes at night — without ever touching the ground. In comparison a solar plane (partially funded by Google) already circled the earth last year — but it took 22 days, and made 17 different stops. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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New Solar Plane Plans Non-Stop Flight Around The World
1.9 Million Bell Customer Email Addresses Stolen By ‘Anonymous Hacker’
Bell, Canada’s largest telecommunications company, said a hacker had accessed customer information containing about 1.9 million active email addresses and about 1, 700 names and active phone numbers. The breach was not connected to the recent global WannaCry malware attacks, the company added. From a report: The information appears to have been posted online, but the company could not confirm the leaked data was one and the same. “There is no indication that any financial, password or other sensitive personal information was accessed, ” the company wrote in a statement. Bell said the incident was unrelated to the massive spike in ransomware infections that affected an estimated 200, 000 computers in more than 150 countries late last week. It is not clear when the breach occurred, how the data was accessed, or how long the attacker had access to Bell’s systems. Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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1.9 Million Bell Customer Email Addresses Stolen By ‘Anonymous Hacker’
Antarctica’s ‘Dragon Skin’ Ice Is Incredible
Dragon skin ice sounds like something you’d encounter beyond The Wall in the Game of Thrones fantasy realm. But good news nerds, you can find this magical-sounding stuff right here on Earth—though you’ve gotta be lucky, and willing to travel to some of the most hostile environments on the planet. Like the team of… Read more…
Antarctica’s ‘Dragon Skin’ Ice Is Incredible
Dragon skin ice sounds like something you’d encounter beyond The Wall in the Game of Thrones fantasy realm. But good news nerds, you can find this magical-sounding stuff right here on Earth—though you’ve gotta be lucky, and willing to travel to some of the most hostile environments on the planet. Like the team of… Read more…
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Antarctica’s ‘Dragon Skin’ Ice Is Incredible
Antarctica’s ‘Dragon Skin’ Ice Is Incredible
Dragon skin ice sounds like something you’d encounter beyond The Wall in the Game of Thrones fantasy realm. But good news nerds, you can find this magical-sounding stuff right here on Earth—though you’ve gotta be lucky, and willing to travel to some of the most hostile environments on the planet. Like the team of… Read more…
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Antarctica’s ‘Dragon Skin’ Ice Is Incredible
An Old Satellite Dish Found on Google Maps Is Becoming West Africa’s First Radio Telescope
Astronomy needs expensive things, and lots of them. You might remember that astronomers almost literally turned the Earth into a telescope just to see a black hole, by combining lots of existing radio telescope dishes. Read more…
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An Old Satellite Dish Found on Google Maps Is Becoming West Africa’s First Radio Telescope