Tag: vehicles

China Confirms Its Space Station Is Falling Back to Earth

The Tiangong-1, China’s prototype space station which was launched in September 2011, is no longer under the control of China. PopularMechanics reports: China’s Tiangong-1 space station has been orbiting the planet for about 5 years now, but recently it was decommissioned and the Chinese astronauts returned to the surface. In a press conference, China announced that the space station would be falling back to earth at some point in late 2017. Normally, a decommissioned satellite or space station would be retired by forcing it to burn up in the atmosphere. This type of burn is controlled, and most satellite re-entries are scheduled to burn up over the ocean to avoid endangering people. However, it seems that China’s space agency is not sure exactly when Tiangong-1 will re-enter the atmosphere, which implies that the station has been damaged somehow and China is no longer able to control it. This is important because it means Tiangong-1 won’t be able to burn up in a controlled manner. All we know is it will burn up at some point in late 2017, but it is impossible to predict exactly when or where. This means that there is a chance debris from the falling spacecraft could strike a populated area. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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China Confirms Its Space Station Is Falling Back to Earth

Why Bezos’ rocket is unprecedented—and worth taking seriously

Enlarge / Jeff Bezos, founder and Chief Executive of Amazon.com, in May, (credit: Alex Wong/Getty Images) We can say this much for Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com and Blue Origin—he does not lack ambition. First Bezos founded an online bookstore that became the largest retailer in the western world, and now he plans to self-fund a New Glenn rocket that is nearly as tall as the Saturn V launch vehicle and more than half as powerful. As wild as Bezos’ idea sounds, Blue Origin might be able to get the job done. And if Bezos and Blue Origin can fly their massive orbital rocket in the next three to four years, it would be a remarkable, unprecedented achievement in a number of ways that could radically remake spaceflight. Proof of concept First, a few words about why this might really be viable. It is true that all Blue Origin has flown so far is a propulsion module, powered by a single BE-3 engine, and a capsule on a suborbital flight. The company’s New Shepard spacecraft is designed to carry six passengers on 10- to 15-minute hops up to about 100km before bringing them back down to Earth. This is not dissimilar to the first Mercury flights in the early 1960s, hence the moniker New Shepard, named after pioneering astronaut Alan Shepard. Read 12 remaining paragraphs | Comments

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Why Bezos’ rocket is unprecedented—and worth taking seriously

NASA’s Impossible Propulsion EmDrive Is Heading to Space

An anonymous reader writes:The EmDrive, a hypothetical miracle propulsion system for outer space, has been sparking heated arguments for years. Now, Guido Fetta plans to settle the argument about reactionless space drives for once and for all by sending one into space to prove that it really generates thrust without exhaust. Even if mainstream scientists say this is impossible. Fetta is CEO of Cannae Inc, and inventor of the Cannae Drive. His creation is related to the EmDrive first demonstrated by British engineer Roger Shawyer in 2003. Both are closed systems filled with microwaves with no exhaust, yet which the inventors claim do produce thrust. There is no accepted theory of how this might work. Shawyer claims that relativistic effects produce different radiation pressures at the two ends of the drive, leading to a net force. Fetta pursues a similar idea involving Lorentz (electromagnetic) forces. NASA researchers have suggested that the drive is actually pushing against “quantum vacuum virtual plasma” of particles that shift in and out of existence. Most physicists believe these far-out systems cannot work and that their potential benefits, such as getting to Mars in ten weeks, are illusory. After all, the law of conservation of momentum says that a rocket cannot accelerate forward without some form of exhaust ejected backwards. Yet the drumbeat goes on. Just last month, Jose Rodal claimed on the NASA Spaceflight forum that a NASA paper, “Measurement of Impulsive Thrust from a Closed Radio Frequency Cavity in Vacuum” has finally been peer-reviewed and accepted for publication by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, but this cannot be confirmed yet. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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NASA’s Impossible Propulsion EmDrive Is Heading to Space

Floating Solar Device Boils Water Without Mirrors

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Researchers from MIT and the Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, led by George Ni, describe a prototype design that boils water under ambient sunlight. Central to their floating solar device is a “selective absorber” — a material that both absorbs the solar portion of the electromagnetic spectrum well and emits little back as infrared heat energy. For this, the researchers turn to a blue-black commercial coating commonly used in solar photovoltaic panels. The rest of the puzzle involves further minimizing heat loss from that absorber, either through convection of the air above it or conduction of heat into the water below the floating prototype. The construction of the device is surprisingly simple. At the bottom, there is a thick, 10-centimeter-diameter puck of polystyrene foam. That insulates the heating action from the water and makes the whole thing float. A cotton wick occupies a hole drilled through the foam, which is splayed and pinned down by a square of thin fabric on the top side. This ensures that the collected solar heat is being focused into a minute volume of water. The selective absorber coats a disc of copper that sits on top of the fabric. Slots cut in the copper allow water vapor from the wick to pass through. And the crowning piece of this technological achievement? Bubble wrap. It insulates the top side of the absorber, with slots cut through the plastic to let the water vapor out. Tests in the lab and on the MIT roof showed that, under ambient sunlight, the absorber warmed up to 100 degrees Celsius in about five minutes and started making steam. That’s a first. The study has been published in two separate Nature articles: “Steam by thermal concentration” and “Steam generation under one sun enabled by a floating structure with thermal concentration.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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Floating Solar Device Boils Water Without Mirrors

20% of Scientific Papers On Genes Contain Conversion Errors Caused By Excel, Says Report

An anonymous reader writes from a report via WinBeta: A new report from scientists Mark Ziemann, Yotam Eren, and Assam El-Osta says that 20% of scientific papers on genes contain gene name conversion errors caused by Excel. In the scientific article, titled “Gene name errors are widespread in the scientific literature, ” article’s abstract section, the scientists explain: “The spreadsheet software Microsoft Excel, when used with default settings, is known to convert gene names to dates and floating-point numbers. A programmatic scan of leading genomics journals reveals that approximately one-fifth of papers with supplementary Excel gene lists contain erroneous gene name conversions.” It’s easy to see why Excel might have problems with certain gene names when you see the “gene symbols” that the scientists use as examples: “For example, gene symbols such as SEPT2 (Septin 2) and MARCH1 [Membrane-Associated Ring Finger (C3HC4) 1, E3 Ubiquitin Protein Ligase] are converted by default to ‘2-Sep’ and ‘1-Mar’, respectively. Furthermore, RIKEN identifiers were described to be automatically converted to floating point numbers (i.e. from accession ‘2310009E13’ to ‘2.31E+13’). Since that report, we have uncovered further instances where gene symbols were converted to dates in supplementary data of recently published papers (e.g. ‘SEPT2’ converted to ‘2006/09/02’). This suggests that gene name errors continue to be a problem in supplementary files accompanying articles. Inadvertent gene symbol conversion is problematic because these supplementary files are an important resource in the genomics community that are frequently reused. Our aim here is to raise awareness of the problem.” You can view the scientific paper in its entirety here. Read more of this story at Slashdot.

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20% of Scientific Papers On Genes Contain Conversion Errors Caused By Excel, Says Report

All 2017 Ford vehicles are getting CarPlay and Android Auto

Ford has confirmed that all of its 2017 models — every single car, SUV, light truck and EV — are smartphone-ready. They all come loaded with Ford’s Sync 3 entertainment system and are compatible with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto . Those who’ve snapped any of the currently available 2017 models, such as the latest Escape, Fusion, Mustang and Explorer, can already enjoy the in-car technologies. They can use their iPhones (5 or newer) or their Android Lollipop (or higher) devices to access maps, music, messages and even third-party apps on their vehicles’ screens. Both systems give them access to voice commands, as well. Ford also assures those interested in buying the upcoming F-150, Focus, Edge and all-new 2017 Super Duty when they come out later this year that they’ll have access to Google’s and Apple’s in-car tech. “Ford is not taking the traditional approach of introducing Apple CarPlay and Google Android Auto on a few piecemeal models or as an expensive option on luxury vehicles only, ” said Jeffrey Hannah from automotive technology research firm SBD. “The guesswork for consumers is over — if you buy any 2017 Ford vehicle with SYNC 3, you drive off the lot with both of these innovative technologies ready to go.” Source: Ford

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All 2017 Ford vehicles are getting CarPlay and Android Auto

Solar road technology comes to Route 66

Solar Roadways’ dreams of sunlight-gathering paths are one step closer to taking shape. Missouri’s Department of Transportation is aiming to install a test version of the startup’s solar road tiles in a sidewalk at the Historic Route 66 Welcome Center in Conway. Okay, it won’t be on Route 66 just yet, but that’s not the point — the goal is to see whether or not the technology is viable enough that it could safely be used on regular streets. You should see it in action toward the end of the year. The tiles will be familiar if you’ve followed Solar Roadways before. Each one combines a solar cell with LED lighting, a heating element and tempered glass that’s strong enough to support the weight of a semi-trailer truck. If successful, the panels will feed the electrical grid (ideally paying for themselves) and make the roads safer by both lighting the way as well as keeping the roads free of rain and snow. They should be easier to repair than asphalt, too, since you don’t need to take out whole patches of road to fix small cracks. Of course, “if successful” is the operative term here. The real litmus test comes if and when Solar Roadways subjects the tiles to the legions of cars traveling on Route 66 and beyond. Missouri has a strong incentive to make that happen, though. As the Transportation Department’s Tom Blair observes , it would be odd to push self-driving cars in the state’s Road to Tomorrow initiative when the streets aren’t as smart as the vehicles using them. Via: Inhabitat , CleanTechnica , The Verge Source: Kansas City Star , News Tribune

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Solar road technology comes to Route 66

Driverless pods to hit the streets of Greenwich

As you stroll past the Royal Observatory in Greenwich and that place where Thor fought in The Dark World , you’ll soon see driverless pods gliding next to you. That’s the plan, anyway. The GATEway project, which has already been experimenting with a self-driving shuttle around the O2, will soon be taking some unusual vehicles onto south London’s streets. They’ll be repurposed Ultra Pods — electric four-wheelers that already operate at Heathrow Airport. Until now they’ve been locked to tracks, but project organiser TRL wants to upgrade them so they can navigate Greenwich independently. Furthermore, the new trial will be used to record exactly how the public reacts to self-driving vehicles. To help with the project, TRL has recruited a handful of experts. These include Westfield Sportscars , a West Midlands company that builds classic automobiles. TRL says it was will act as an “integrator and manufacturer, ” designing and testing the vehicles to ensure they meet road safety standards. Joining them are Oxbotica , a research-based team that was spun out of Oxford University’s Mobile Robotics Group. In short, they’ll be working on the autonomous bits — the software and hardware that deals with mapping, localisation and perception. Finally there’s Heathrow Enterprises, the company that operates the UK’s busiest airport and has plenty of first-hand experience with the dome-shaped pods. The current batch of Ultra Pods have a top speed of 40kph (roughly 25mph) and can carry up to six passengers at once. They’re not the sleekest or most exciting vehicles to look at, but presumably they get the job done at Heathrow and have shown potential as a fully-fledged mode of public transportation. TRL’s expanded consortium is aiming to start the Greenwich trial this summer, before moving on to additional experiments related to autonomous valet parking and automated deliveries. Source: Oxbotica , TRL

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Driverless pods to hit the streets of Greenwich

This Is The Insane Video China Just Put Out Showing It Attacking The U.S. 

A small group of Chinese Navy ships showed up near Alaska earlier this week during President Obama’s visit to the northern state, mostly as a “we’re here” message. But then, as the Chinese People’s Liberation Army marched in a Beijing parade , someone simultaneously put out this completely nuts video of a naval attack on an American fleet, and on an American base that looks suspiciously like the one on the Japanese island of Okinawa. Read more…

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This Is The Insane Video China Just Put Out Showing It Attacking The U.S. 

Hackers control connected cars using text messages

It’s not only Chrysler drivers that have to worry about hackers taking control of their cars from afar. UC San Diego researchers have found that you can control features on cars of many makes by exploiting vulnerabilities in cellular-capable dongles that are sometimes plugged into the vehicles’ OBD-II ports, such as insurance trackers and driving efficiency tools . In the example you see above, the security team compromised a Corvette touting a Mobile Devices dongle (one of the most common varieties) through everyday text messages — they could turn on the wipers or even cut the brakes. That same device is also set to allow remote tunneling using a universal ‘private’ key, making it easy for an intruder to get complete control over the adapter and its unfortunate host car. You’ll be glad to hear that Mobile Devices has already patched its hardware in response to the findings, and that the phone numbers for these dongles aren’t normally public. You’d have to use brute force guesses to find a viable target. However, the concern is that other brands’ dongles still have holes, and that many of these gadgets aren’t getting updates in a timely fashion. It’s feasible that an intruder could cause chaos by either forcing vulnerable cars off the road or making life miserable for their occupants. Filed under: Transportation Comments Via: Wired Source: Mrlanrat (YouTube) Tags: car, chevrolet, chevy, corvette, metromile, mobiledevices, obd-II, obd2, security, sms, transportation, ucsandiego, video

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Hackers control connected cars using text messages