Exawatt Lasers? That's: 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 watts worth of power. And we are close to achieving it. Could open up Laser fusion as a power source, and more powerful Laser Weapons.

Laser are getting ten times more powerful every 3 years, soon Exawatt lasers will unlock fusion and more | NextBigFuture.com

The International Committee for Ultrahigh Intensity Lasers provided a 56-page report on global ultrahigh power laser projects. Ultra-intense lasers are lasers with capabilities exceeding 10^19 Watts per square centimeter (10 quintillion watts per square centimeter). This community is rapidly increasing in size both in terms of capability and investment.

From article, (The International Committee for Ultrahigh Intensity Lasers provided a 56-page report on global ultrahigh power laser projects. Ultra-intense lasers are lasers with capabilities exceeding 10^19 Watts per square centimeter (10 quintillion watts per square centimeter). This community is rapidly increasing in size both in terms of capability and investment.

Ultra-intense lasers are lasers with capabilities exceeding 10^19 Watts per square centimeter (10 quintillion watts per square centimeter). This community is rapidly increasing in size both in terms of capability and investment. The cumulative laser power from all “ICUIL” qualifying lasers in 2010 was estimated to be ~11 PW. By present estimates this total will exceed 120 PW by 2018. Ultra-high intensity laser projects worldwide now total more than $4 billion in research investment and involve more than 1500 FTEs of technical staff.

 In 2015, we were at 2 petawatt lasers, now at 10 petawatts and soon 100 petawatts

In 2015, Japan fired a 2 petawatt laser and believe this could be a pathway to commercial nuclear fusion.

Ultrapowerful lasers have been increasing in power by 1000 times every ten years for the past forty years.

In 2017, ten petawatt lasers were fired.

The formulation for the glasses needed for exawatt lasers is known.

Liquid cooling can enable one shot per minute or better. There are other laser types that have lower power but very high repetition rates. One of many goals is to increase the power and increase the repetition rate.

Multi-petawatt power capability projects.
* Chinese initiative at the Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics (SIOM) is advancing towards a 10-PW laser facility
* 100 Petawatt Station for Extreme Light (SEL) at the proposed Shanghai Coherent Light Facility (SCLF).
* Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) activated their multi-kJ Advanced Radiographic Capability (ARC) PW scale laser and the PETAL laser at CEA began operations toward the 2-PW level in 2017.
* In South Korea, the Gwangju Institute for Science and Technology is presently commissioning a 4 PW capability that should be available to users in 2017.
* The University of Rochester’s Laboratory for Laser Energetics continues to work on the OPAL multi-phase laser initiative that could evolve from 5-PW to 75-PW capability.
* European ESFRI roadmap project, the Extreme Light Infrastructure (ELI), consisting of ELI-Beamlines (Czech Republic), ELI-Nuclear Physics (Romania), and ELI-ALPS (Hungary), is rapidly approaching initial operations.)

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To be Fair to the engineers: Why wouldn't female astronauts want makeup in space? You have to look good on NASA TV, right?

NASA Engineers Thought Women Astronauts Would Want Makeup Kits ... in Space

When most of us think about what we'd need if we went into space, we think about basics, like oxygen, spacesuits, rockets, and Kylo Ren's high-waisted pants. But back in the 1970s, NASA engineers assumed women astronauts would also want to bring makeup into space - so they actually designed a makeup kit to send on missions.

 From article, (When most of us think about what we’d need if we went into space, we think about basics, like oxygen, spacesuits, rockets, and Kylo Ren’s high-waisted pants. But back in the 1970s, NASA engineers assumed women astronauts would also want to bring makeup into space — so they actually designed a makeup kit to send on missions.

However, as Quartz points out, NASA’s prototype kit — which included spots for mascara, eyeliner, blush, eye shadow, eye make-up remover, and lip gloss — was never actually sent into space. But let us not forget that these same engineers once asked Ride if 100 tampons would be enough for her weeklong journey into space.)

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Me, "To be Fair to the engineers: Why wouldn't female astronauts want makeup in space? You have to look good on NASA TV, right? Its not unheard of for Men, NASA Astronauts, to shave in space. Maybe, Women would have wanted makeup."

President Trump Should have cut off all the Aid. Maybe, if the Palestinians had no money, for anything, they would be more responsive to the peace process.

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From article, (Human Rights Watch director Kenneth Roth on Monday called the US move “vindictive” and a “bullying tactic,” as he urged other governments to step in and fill the gap if the United States decides to definitely cut funding.

“It is vindictive for the US government to deprive the UN of money to feed and educate Palestinian children in order to blackmail the Palestinian Authority into rejoining Trump administration-led peace negotiations,” Roth said in a statement.)

Me, "But it is okay for the Palestinians to refuse to negotiate with Israel?
But it is okay for Palestinian schools to publicise dead terrorists by naming their schools after them?
But it is okay for Palestinian children to grow up and be used as human bombs?
No sir. President Trump is doing the only logical thing. Maybe, when the Palestinians have no money, to fund anything, they will be more responsive to a peace process. If you ask me? He should have cut off all the supposed aid."


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Strategically placed Tolls?

Cuomo says tolls can be placed on 'any block' in NYC

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is mulling a congestion pricing plan in Manhattan, said Monday the state is capable of placing tolls anywhere in the Big Apple. "We have the ability with technology to put tolling anywhere in the city - it's not just the bridges, it's just a gantry with a license plate reader that reads an EZ pass or a license plate," he explained at an unrelated press conference.

From article, (Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who is mulling a congestion pricing plan in Manhattan, said Monday the state is capable of placing tolls anywhere in the Big Apple.

“We have the ability with technology to put tolling anywhere in the city — it’s not just the bridges, it’s just a gantry with a license plate reader that reads an EZ pass or a license plate,” he explained at an unrelated press conference.

 “So we can put that anywhere. So we can be very flexible and variable so there are a lot of options.”

Cuomo said that the panel he created to study congestion pricing, called FixNYC, will call for a “zone” in Manhattan instead of tolls on the borough’s bridges. The commission will release a report with exact recommendations later this week.

“Really what you want to do is keep people out of the highly congested areas at the time of the highest congestion, and we now have the capacity to put up tolling machines on any corner, any block, to operate at any time,” Cuomo said.

“So the FixNYC commission, and I think they tend to be right, is talking about defining a zone and then charging for that zone.”

The money from the tolls would be used to inject cash into the struggling subway system, he said. Advocates of congestion pricing have said it could raise $1.5 billion a year.)

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President Trump's administration will allow waivers to test delivery drones in cities. Your next toothbrush or toothpaste tube could be delivered by drone.

How Will Air Traffic Control Work When We Have Drones and Flying Cars Everywhere?

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate , New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has been convinced for a while that one day flying robots will deliver packages to your home or office.

From article, (Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has been convinced for a while that one day flying robots will deliver packages to your home or office. No more driving to the store to pick up toothpaste; no more receiving human couriers toting important documents; no more mail carrier, no more mover, no more pizza guy. When Bezos described his vision of drone-filled skies in a 2013 60 Minutesinterview, it may have been easy to scoff. “It drops the package. You come and get your package and we can do half-hour deliveries,” Bezos said, imagining that drone delivery could happen within five years. The biggest hurdle, he said, would be regulation

In October, the White House released an executive order inviting states and municipal governments to apply for broad waivers that would allow companies to conduct drone delivery trials and test air traffic control systems that go beyond what the current law allows. And according to Gregory McNeal, co-founder of AirMap, a company that provides drone traffic management solutions and has been working closely with the FAA on drone policy, hundreds of local governments have expressed interest in participating. Now the FAA and members of local and federal law enforcement agencies are reviewing those proposals. The Trump administration ordered that a minimum of at least five pilot sites for testing drone delivery be approved by the end of July. Which means that this year, drone delivery is likely to take off in certain areas across the country, including major cities, long before a national drone traffic management solution is finalized. All kinds of businesses have been eager to hop on the drone bandwagon. There was the dry cleaner in Philadelphia who hung his hanger on a drone in 2013, and in 2014, a flower delivery company outside of Detroit tried to ferry a bouquet through the skies, only to have the FAA ground the drone. There’s also (thank goodness) a company working on a drone burrito delivery service.

The new drone pilot programs could take any number of shapes. If there’s one thing the industry hasn’t been shy about, it’s imagining what a future with drone delivery might look like. Amazon, for example, has proposed an idea for beehive-like towers where drones can recharge and be restocked before going out for another delivery. The company also won a patent for its design of floating warehouse fulfillment centers (like, in the sky!), as well as an idea for smaller drones to assemble and link together to carry larger packages. There’s also Project Wing, the drone delivery program from Google’s parent company Alphabet, which has tested burrito delivery by drone and has a patent for a ground robot designed to catch packages from drones to bring them to people’s front doors. Amazon has also proposed an aerial highway system, where drones that are filming or surveying land fly lower than drones jetting across the sky at high speeds delivering packages.)

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How to solve old electrical transmission lines limits? Either build more lines, or Invest in Battery and Pumped Storage Hydro.

New York pushes energy storage to solve renewable power's biggest problem

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo this month announced an ambitious plan for deploying energy storage, a technology that can mitigate renewable power's most persistent problem: how to use it when the sun isn't shining or the wind isn't blowing.

From article, (New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo this month announced an ambitious plan for deploying energy storage, a technology that can mitigate renewable power’s most persistent problem: how to use it when the sun isn't shining or the wind isn't blowing.

Cuomo, a Democrat, announced his energy storage goals Jan. 2 as part of a "comprehensive agenda to combat climate change" that also calls for increased development of offshore wind, new energy-efficiency targets, and a reiteration of his pledge for the state to obtain half of its power from renewable energy by 2030.

To reach the renewable power target, Cuomo wants to deploy 1,500 megawatts of energy storage by 2025.

That's a bigger target than California's first-in-the-nation 1,300-megawatt mandate, although New York’s deadline is five years later, when storage technology is expected to be cheaper.

About 800 megawatts of battery energy storage is deployed across the U.S. currently, according to Burwen.

 Cuomo is putting money behind his energy storage goal. He committed $200 million from the NY Green Bank, which supports clean energy projects through funding mostly provided by private capital from banks.

The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority will invest an additional $60 million in pilot storage projects.

Energy storage is becoming cheaper and more diverse, from various kinds of batteries and pumped hydro to thermal storage. It is not a power source. Rather, a battery or other storage resource carries excess energy that is produced when demand for electricity isn't peaking.

“Because renewables are intermittent, you could use storage to store that clean electricity when it’s produced, and use it when it's most needed,” said Anne Reynolds, executive director of the Alliance for Clean Energy New York. “That will allow the grid to deploy more renewable energy more quickly.”

The state generates about 25 percent of its power from renewables, halfway to its 50 percent goal by 2030. Most of the state’s renewable energy is hydropower, with 3 percent coming from wind and solar.

Reynolds said most of New York’s renewable power is generated upstate, and old transmission lines limit how efficiently that energy can be transported downstate.

“If we can invest in storage, that will mitigate the need for some of that quite old transmission,” Reynolds said.)

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