Science & Technology News.

[Audio]

Earth's true shape.

The colours in the image represent deviations in height (–100 m to +100 m) from an ideal geoid. The blue shades represent low values and the reds/yellows represent high values.

Space in Images - 2011 - 03 - New GOCE geoid

 

[Audio]

A European Space Agency bid to develop a small, reusable spaceplane in the 2017-18 timeframe is on track for a summer 2014 launch to test key re-entry technologies following a successful helicopter-drop splashdown trial.
That June 2013 test, off the east coast of Sardinia, of a full-scale prototype of the Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV) left ESA confident that the vehicle will survive splashdown and recovery following its planned suborbital launch on a Vega rocket from Kourou, French Guiana in summer 2014.

And it's true usable follow up was also approved:

Esa member states approved Pride (Programme for Reusable In-orbit Demonstrator in Europe) at their recent ministerial council in Naples, and the agency has just sent Thales Alenia Space a request for quotation (RFQ).
The company will have to detail its initial design thoughts and the likely cost for the project, which has an envelope of about 400m euros.
The PRIDE vehicle will be fully orbital and capable of runway landing, and designed to orbit small satellites, conduct microgravity or high-altitude research, be deployed for disaster monitoring or to refuel satellites in orbit.

Text and images from (images of the follow up vehicle are conceptual and could change somewhat):

BBC News - Europe's IXV 'space wedge' performs drop test

Europe's small spaceplane ambitions get splashdown boost - Hyperbola

 

[HRK]

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=194577370722472

..........

 

[W.11]

3D printing organs like breast tissue, kidneys etc

 

[Audio]

An early ground prototype of ESA’s six-wheeled ExoMars rover vehicle, nicknamed ‘Bridget’, was used for the SAFER (Sample Acquisition Field Experiment with a Rover) field test in Chile’s Atacama desert during October 2013. This photo was taken during a preliminary run in Upwood Quarry near Abingdon in Oxfordshire, UK, in July 2013.

Next week will see ESA’s most ambitious planetary rover test yet. Robotic exploration of a Mars-like desert in South America will be overseen from the UK, providing experience for future missions to the Red Planet.
The aim is to build up experience in operating rovers on a planet, which requires a very different way of working from a satellite mission.

For added pressure on the rover’s remote overseers – based at the Satellite Applications Catapult facility in Harwell, UK, next to ESA’s European Centre for Space Applications and Telecommunications – each day of the five-day test will be treated as equivalent to two Mars days, or ‘sols’.

For each sol they will first downlink data then prepare a set of commands for the next sol that the rover will then carry out on its own.

Desert trial for ESA Mars rover / Space Engineering / Our Activities / ESA

ESA is set to showcase complex printed parts made of metal that can withstand temperatures at 1000°C – fit for space and the most demanding applications on Earth.
ESA and the EU, together with industrial and educational partners, are developing the first large-scale production methods to 3D-print with metal. 3D printers are expected to revolutionise the way we live but until recently they could work with only plastic, which is not very useful for many industrial applications.
This novel technology offers many advantages. 3D printing, formally known as additive manufacturing, can create complex shapes that are impossible to manufacture with traditional casting and machining techniques. Little to no material is wasted and cutting the number of steps in a manufacturing chain offers enormous cost benefits.

Call for Media: Taking 3D printing into the metal age / Press Releases / For Media / ESA

 

[Audio]

Video of a fusion experiment inside the MAST device at Culham Centre for Fusion Energy. Hydrogen atoms are fused together in a plasma at 30 million degrees Celsius, copying the power in the Sun and stars to create a carbon-free energy source.

The good news, the big one (which will operate at 150 million degrees Celsius) is also progressing nicely:

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Günther Oettinger, European Commissioner for Energy, addresses representatives of ITER Member States at the construction site on 6 September 2013. Image courtesy of ITER

Ministers representing many of the world's main economic powers met on 6 September 2013 to show their support for one of the world’s most ambitious scientific experiments – a nuclear fusion reactor that will operate at temperatures ten times hotter than the core of the sun.

Representatives from the seven regions that are backing ITER – the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor – met for only the second time at the site of the planned reactor in southern France in September to underline the importance of the project.
‘Not to invest in fusion would be a big mistake,’ said Günther Oettinger, the European Commissioner for Energy. ‘We have oil for the next 20, 30, or maybe 40 years; but nobody knows what will happen at the end of the century. We have to switch and we need to invest in new, innovative energy generating technology for our children.’

World powers back hotter-than-the-sun reactor

 

[neolithic]

Brazil looks to break from US-centric Internet

 

[Audio]

Sandwich structure aerofoil demonstrator made of Titanium using 3d-printing technology.

3D printing is getting ready to revolutionise space travel. ESA is paving the way for 3D-printed metals to build high-quality, intricate shapes with massive cost savings.
“We want to build the best quality metal products ever made,” said David Jarvis, ESA’s Head of New Materials and Energy Research, during a press conference at the London Science Museum yesterday.
The project envisages printing entire satellites and using the technology for missions to the Moon and Mars. With no need of launching heavy payloads, manufacturing in space could save huge amounts of time and money.

To get to that future, ESA is looking at five metal additive manufacturing processes. “We are focusing on serious engineering components made of very high-tech alloys. We are using lasers, electron beams and even plasma to melt them,” explains David. Some of the materials AMAZE works with only melt at 3500°C

A quartet of pilot factories – each one employing different metallic 3D printing methods – are being set up in Germany, Italy, Norway and the UK. In parallel, a full industrial supply chain is being established for metallic 3D printing, incorporating feedstock alloys, printing equipment, finishing techniques, metrology and control software.

3D printing for space: the additive revolution / Research / Human Spaceflight / Our Activities / ESA

 

[Not Sure]

The mantis shrimp is one of the most incredible creatures found in our oceans. Over millions of years, it has equipped itself with an arsenal to rival that of any other organism, besting the limits of human technology on more than one front.
Firstly, it packs the biggest punch of any predator, with a sophisticated muscle mechanism allowing speeds in excess of 50mph to be attained. Couple this with the ability to create extreme low pressure behind it's extended arm, causing the water to spontaneously boil, no prey stands a chance. This action releases intense energy, enough to break sheets of glass. For a very interesting TED talk on exactly this, visit: Sheila Patek clocks the fastest animals | Video on TED.com

That is not all. The mantis shrimp has the most sophisticated and extensive eyes of any known creature. With their unique shape and composition, the shrimp can see in most directions simultaneously, as well as observing more of the spectrum than us humans, both at the infra-red and ultra-violet ends. This excellent asset, coupled with the killer punch, makes the mantis shrimp one of the most effective predators in the world, as well as being one of the most beautiful. The in-depth explanation for this exquisite sight can be found here:
http://scubageek.com/articles/mantis_eye.pdf

O yea? Let's see if your warrior can beat my soldier: Waterbear, the hardiest animal on earth!

Tardigrades can withstand temperatures from just above absolute zero (Helium liquifies, superconductivity occurs, and superfluidity comes in full effect, but Tardigrades survive!) to well above the boiling point of water, pressures about 6 times stronger than pressures found in Mariana Trench, ionizing radiation at doses over thousand times higher than the lethal dose for a person (by efficiently repairing their DNA after the exposure), and the vacuum of outer space (the only species to survive in outer space vacuum).

They can go without food or water for more than 10 years, drying out to the point where they are 3% or less water, only to rehydrate, forage, and reproduce!

Tardigrades can be found anywhere on earth, from polar regions, to equator, to top of the Himalayas, to deepest of oceans. No respiratory organs, with gas exchange able to occur across the whole of the body.

They are one of the few groups of species that are capable of reversibly suspending their metabolism and going into a state of cryptobiosis. Several species regularly survive in a dehydrated state for nearly ten years.

After all, a mere shrimp can't match a bear

 

[Audio]

Reaction Engines Ltd have signed a contract with the European Space Agency (ESA) for a €1 million study into the next European Launch System. The "Skylon-based European Launch Service Operator" contract has been finalised by the Launcher Directorate of the European Space Agency in Paris, France and work has started to study how the SKYLON spaceplane can meet Europe's Space access demands in terms of cost, flexibility and responsiveness, from the early 2020's.

Reaction Engines Ltd - News Updates

 

[aniqa]

Assalam o Alaikum guye hope so you all are fine here, well does any one know how to hack facebook password without downloading and without any survey? yes, then kindly do tell me

 

[Dubious]

London Teenagers Get £300,000 Science Training Boost from Ford

• By Ian Silvera , February 25, 2014 12:23 PM GMT

The money will aid the construction of the learning facility at the Centre for Engineering and Manufacturing Excellence in Rainham, East London(Reuters)
Car giant Ford has given London youngsters a welcome boost for careers in the manufacturing world after donating £300,000 to help build a new engineering college in the capital.

The money will aid the construction of a new learning facility at the Centre for Engineering and Manufacturing Excellence (CEME) in Rainham, East London.

The site will provide engineering and manufacturing training for 600 teenagers from east London and Essex.

"Work placements as part of the curriculum mean that these students will be 'work ready' when their courses finish, in addition to possessing the relevant qualifications to pursue their careers," said Mark Ovenden, chairman and managing director of Ford.

He added: "Ford is proud of its 10-year association with CEME and this is the next significant step in the journey of this campus."

The East London University Technical College (ELUTC) is set to open in September 2014 and will cater for students aged between 14 and 19.

It is aimed at students selecting their courses in years 10 and 11 - and will offer them "real-world, practical-based" learning alongside core subjects like English, Maths and Science.

The Mayor of London Boris Johnson claimed the new college and engineering campus can play an important role in the Mayor's strategy to position London as a global hub for all the sciences.

"Great feats of British engineering have helped to shape the modern world in which we live today, and for London to continue to grow, we need to support the young people who will design and construct the huge engineering projects that will define our nation," Johnson said.

"The new college will be instrumental in ushering in the next generation of great British engineers and securing London's status as the greatest city on earth."


Meteorite smashes into moon in largest lunar impact ever recorded | Science | The Guardian

 

[Levina]

Earth's true shape.

Space in Images - 2011 - 03 - New GOCE geoid

@thesolar65 @Dem!god @OrionHunter @Pumba @DRAY
did you just see that???

But then why dont the pics clicked from space dont show the same shape of earth???

 

[OrionHunter]

@thesolar65 @Dem!god @OrionHunter @Pumba @DRAY
did you just see that???

But then why dont the pics clicked from space dont show the same shape of earth???

Relax honey! Nothing to get alarmed about. This isn't a physical image of the Earth. It is a map of the Earth's gravitational field which shows it to be shaped not like a sphere but a potato.

The images taken by the GOCE satellite uses a gravity gradiometer to detect fine differences in the Earth's crust and oceans. The instrument consists of six highly sensitive accelerometers that measure gravity in three dimensions.

So, don't press the panic button just yet! The Earth is still round and will remain so till the stars start winking out signalling the end of the Universe!!!

 

[Saif_ullah]

Earth's true shape.

Space in Images - 2011 - 03 - New GOCE geoid

Time to leave earth