CO2 to Hydrocarbon Fuels Part 1

Diesel Fuel Technology "E-Diesel" Extracted From Air - Capital Reman

Technology is constantly evolving. It truly is an exciting time to be alive more than any other time in history. Two companies in Germany and Canada are making waves with something from science fiction: making diesel fuel out of thin air! These two firms are capturing CO2 from the air and finding innovative ways to process and sell it.

 From 2016...

From article, (Canadian company, Carbon Engineering, is also banking on this technology for the future. The firm has just build a plant to pull one to two tons of carbon dioxide from the air on a daily basis. This quantity of CO2 can be turned into 500 liters of diesel fuel.
The process is rather simple in theory. The chemistry behind the feat goes like this: split water into hydrogen and oxygen atoms via electrolysis, add the separated hydrogen to CO2 to make carbon monoxide and water, then lastly build more hydrogen atoms to build up the hydrocarbon chains. The chemical process of extracting CO2 from the atmosphere isn’t exactly new, with the last part of the equation going back to the 1920s and coined as the “Fischer-Tropsch Process”. However, only now has this technology become efficient and affordable to do it on a wide scale basis. The system does require electricity but if the plants use renewable electricity they can produce diesel fuel that is carbon neutral. Once the fuel is burned in an engine the only CO2 that returns to the atmosphere is same that was taken in the first place. The entire system is a closed loop. Fossil fuels, on the other hand, add a surplus amount of CO2 back to the atmosphere.
Sunfire estimates that e-diesel will sell for €1.5 per liter. However, in the United States that equates to $6.38 per gallon making it not economically feasible with regular diesel. The current price of diesel in the UK is €1.19 per liter. A lot of what sets the price of fuel depends on government policy.)

Me, "It is cheaper to produce hydrocarbon fuels like ethanol, or diesel, from electricity (Solar or wind), H2O (Water) and CO2 (Carbon dioxide) and a catalyst as back up fuels for when the wind is not blowing and the sun is not shinning. Diesel in this instance could be used to power a Diesel power plant. Although, Ethanol is a cleaner and less complex hydrocarbon to use. Why just put diesel back into a vehicle to burn? Electric cars are much better at using power and cleaner than diesel vehicles. What is needed is a way of using this created fuel right where it is created, for electrical power use, for dispersal, all around that country."

For More Info

Soliciting Moon Landing Services.

NASA Preparing Call for Proposals for Commercial Lunar Landers

WASHINGTON - NASA is preparing to release a solicitation for the commercial transportation of payloads to the lunar surface, the latest step in the agency's efforts to help promote the development of commercial lunar landers. In testimony Sept.

From article, ("What we are now looking at doing is actually buying landed delivery services in the next fiscal year, of actually buying the first ability to land small payloads," he said. "We're preparing for the solicitation as we speak." [In Images: How Moon Express' Solar System Exploration Plan Works]

That solicitation, he said, is being informed by responses the agency received from an RFI it issued in early May. That RFI sought details from companies about their ability to deliver "instruments, experiments, or other payloads" through the next decade to support NASA's science, exploration and technology development needs.

That upcoming solicitation, Crusan said, would allow NASA to buy transportation for small instruments and technology demonstration payloads. "This is a sign of our growing confidence in the commercial industry," he said, "and managing risk without getting too large or too costly a payload for us on their maiden flights."

Two of those companies say they're ready to start launching lunar lander missions, for NASA and other customers, as soon as next year. Bob Richards, founder and chief executive of Moon Express, said his company was now planning a 2018 launch of its first lunar lander, an MX-1E spacecraft.

John Thornton, chief executive of Astrobotic Technology, said his company's Peregrine lander is set to make its first flight in 2019 as a secondary payload on a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 mission.

A third company at the hearing, Blue Origin, has its sights on larger lunar landers. The company's Blue Moon concept, announced earlier this year, involves a system capable of landing up to several tons of cargo on the lunar surface. That vehicle would launch on NASA's Space Launch System or other vehicles, including Blue Origin's own New Glenn vehicle under development.

"The moon is not an off-ramp to Mars, it's an on-ramp to Mars," said Richards, arguing that lunar resources, accessed in partnerships between governments and companies, can help make space exploration and development sustainable. "If we go to space to stay, it has to pay."

Those lunar resources include water ice in permanently-shadowed regions of craters at the lunar poles. "Water is the oil of space," said George Sowers, a professor in the new space resources program at the Colorado School of Mines. "Strategically, we should view the poles of the moon as the next Persian Gulf.")

For More Info

A Little Taste of Russia.

Putin displays massive firepower in Russian war games on border with Europe

LUGA, Russia -- Russia's big Zapad 2017 military exercises, believed to be the largest since the end of the Cold War, entered the news again on Tuesday after a video emerged appearing to show a Russian attack helicopter firing its rockets into a group of bystanders during drills. Russia's defense...

 From article, (The war games simulate a scenario where a hostile “Western Coalition” seeks to overthrow the Belarus government and split it away from Russia.

Me, "The irony being that it is Russia, over the last few years who is being the hostile coalition trying to destabilize countries that share a border with it or criticize it."

From article, (Russian and Belarusan forces repel the fictional nation, invented for the exercises, but which bears a strong resemblance to a Western tract of Belarus. The fake country, Veishnoriya, allied with two more made-up states, stirs up a separatist insurrection.

The exercises, which displayed a reinvigorated Russian military that has undergone extensive modernization in recent years, have raised uncomfortable scenarios in the minds of leaders in the Baltic States and Poland, who see themselves reflected in the Russian-invented countries targeted in the exercises. The U.S. has sent extra fighter aircraft to Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, and deployed 600 paratroopers to the region in response to the games. The troops represent a symbolic reinforcement of the small contingents the U.S. has already deployed in those countries, which are meant to reassure them following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.)

Me, "Can't we all just get along? Russia is a big country. It has so much land. Why does Russia need to start trouble with its neighbors? It should be investing in new cities and towns. It should be doing exploration and mining of resources of its vast land mass To bring new raw metals to market. There is no reason to threaten its neighbors. No one wants to attack Russia. We (the world) accepts that it is a major player on the world stage. What else could it possibly want?"

For More Info

Room for Improvement

Public Transit's Quickest Fix: Revolutionize the Bus

Yglesias recently linked to a great New York magazine article, " Subway on the Street," positing that focusing on across-the-board improvements to buses would be the simplest, least expensive way to improve public transportation. Here's a four-point plan: 1.

 From 2010...

From article, (Here's a four-point plan:

1. Pay on the street
More than a third of all bus delays can be attributed to the time it takes passengers to board. Here they will swipe their MetroCards at street kiosks before the bus arrives.

2. Enter at the back
A new fleet of buses improve boarding time by being lower to the ground—and allowing rear-door entrance.

3. Hold the light green
Soon after Select Bus Service launches, buses will be equipped with “signal prioritization” technology that tells upcoming traffic lights to delay turning red.

4. Own the lane
A painted lane will be reserved for buses, and cameras will photograph stray cars and trucks. But some activists—and politicians—criticize the program for not including physically separated lanes.)

Me, "I still think there is room for improvement by physically separating the lanes. At least in this way you never have to worry about cars and trucks entering this lane. I think another solution would be to move the lanes from the right side of the street to the left or middle. There would be a concrete barrier that kept cars and trucks out and when you came to an intersection special merging lanes with SBS so they could turn left. You have a lot of drivers who make right hand turns into businesses and come into conflict with this SBS lane. If you have a four or five lane road, you could turn two of them in to two SBS lanes one in each direction with a plaza set up near SBS stops to pool bus riders,"

For More Info

Steering the Deep Space Gateway with a Solar Sail.

NASA, international partners consider solar sail for Deep Space Gateway

Anatoly Zak * September 25, 2017 It sounds like it comes straight from an Arthur C. Clarke story, but an international team of engineers is considering equipping a future human outpost orbiting the Moon with a solar sail.

 From article, (It sounds like it comes straight from an Arthur C. Clarke story, but an international team of engineers is considering equipping a future human outpost orbiting the Moon with a solar sail. Harnessing the slight pressure of solar radiation, a super-thin reflective film might help steer the Deep Space Gateway, or DSG, which is being designed by five space agencies to succeed the International Space Station.

The baseline concept used for initial calculations calls for a rectangular sail spanning an area of about 50 square meters, deployed on the exterior of the station by a robotic arm. This could reportedly save at least 9 kilograms of hydrazine per year needed to keep the outpost correctly oriented in space. Although a relatively small number, 9 kilograms per year adds up over the station's projected 15-year mission, especially when considering the tremendous cost of delivering cargo to lunar orbit. The station's current design allocates 135 kilograms of hydrazine fuel for counteracting gravitational disturbances, as well as solar radiation pressure exerted on the station's exterior in lunar orbit. At least part of this attitude-control job could be shifted to a solar sail.

When the solar sail is not needed, it could be either folded or hidden behind the station's solar panels relative to the Sun, so that solar radiation no longer presses on its surface.
To keep the mass of the sail to a minimum, engineers considered Dupont's polyamide film, which measures just 7 to 25 micrometers thick.

Before its journey to the vicinity of the Moon, a prototype of the sail could be brought to the ISS to test its deployment mechanism and operations.According to a NASA source, the solar sailing concept will need further analysis, but is already being seen as promising and considered to be a good candidate at least as a demonstrator aboard the DSG, if not a fully operational system.

The construction of the Deep-Space Gateway is expected to begin in the first half of the 2020s with the help of NASA's SLS rocket and Orion spacecraft. The near-lunar outpost will be the main destination for the Orion during the next decade, promising to give NASA and its partner agencies enough experience for human missions beyond the Moon and, possibly, to Mars in the 2030s.)

For More Info

Gravitational Waves from 2 billion years ago detected

Gravity hunters bag fourth detection

Scientists have detected another burst of gravitational waves coming from the merger of two black holes. The collision occurred nearly 2 billion years ago, but it was so far away that its shockwave has only just reached us. This is the fourth confirmed detection made by an international team investigating Einstein's Theory of General Relativity.

 From article, (Scientists have detected another burst of gravitational waves coming from the merger of two black holes.

The collision occurred nearly 2 billion years ago, but it was so far away that its shockwave has only just reached us.

This is the fourth confirmed detection made by an international team investigating Einstein's Theory of General Relativity.

Sheila Rowan of Glasgow University, UK, said the team was now on the threshold of a new understanding of black holes.

"It is tantalising to see this new story of how black holes formed and evolved through history of the cosmos," she told BBC News.

"This information is almost within our grasp but we are not quite there yet."

All four collisions detected to date involve black holes of a similar size. This has come as a surprise to many astronomers, including Prof Martin Hendry of Glasgow University.

"They are more massive than we may have previously expected," he told BBC News.

"We were expecting to get some black holes that were 20 or 30 solar masses, but now it's beginning to look as if this is the norm rather than being unusual.

"We can't read too much into just four confirmed events but what we have is starting to hint at pathways to form such systems which might allow us to rule out some models. We can't do that just yet but it would appear that if they are always as massive as this, we may not need too many more [detections before we can draw some conclusions about how black holes form].

The LIGO system is to be upgraded to make it even more sensitive and will be back online in a year's time. And there are plans to add detectors in Japan and India which will enable researchers to detect less violent gravitational distortions and perhaps discover objects and phenomena in the Universe that we cannot yet even imagine.)

For More Info

SpaceX and Mars

Everything SpaceX revealed about its updated plan to reach Mars by 2022

At the 2017 International Astronautical Congress in Australia, SpaceX founder Elon Musk laid out some exciting changes to his vision for helping make humans an interplanetary species, with a presence on Mars and potentially beyond. "The future is vastly more exciting and interesting if we're a space-faring species than if we're not," Musk said as he took the stage.

 From article, (The plan is still to build ahead and have a stock of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy vehicles, despite the future focus on BFR, so that SpaceX’s customers can be reassured they can use this. Meanwhile, once that stockpile is achieved, SpaceX will turn all attention to building next rocket, which it will pay for by launching satellites and servicing the ISS.

The BFR, once in service, can also deploy large satellites, pick up space debris, and service the space station, but SpaceX wants to ensure that customers aren’t made nervous by the new platform before extensive testing.

BFR can also do lunar surface missions without having to produce fuel locally on the moon, which will allow the production of “moon base alpha or some sort of lunar base.”

The initial Mars goal is to have landed at least 2 cargo missions on Mars by 2022, per the SpaceX CEO. The company will start building the first BFR ship in the next 6 to 9 months, and Musk “feels confident” they can do the first mission in about five years. The purpose of the initial missions will be to confirm water resources and spot hazards, and to put in place power, mining and life support systems to support future missions.

Further missions following in 2024 would fly four ships, including two cargo vessels and two crewed ships. During this stage, the goal will be to build a propellant plant as well as take the first people to mars, and to build up a base in preparation for an expanded surface presence. And then to build that into a city, blossoming across the red dirt of Mars.)

For More Info

What's just as good as going to Mars and building a Mars base? Building it on Earth. At least that is what the U.A.E. thinks.

United Arab Emirates to build Martian mini-city

Indoor ski resorts. Underwater hotel suites. Cloud-brushing mega-skyscrapers. High-end shopping malls the size of 50 football fields. Leave it to the United Arab Emirates, land of superlative everything, to lead the charge when building the world's largest - and, predictably, flashiest - Mars colony simulation.

 From article (Indoor ski resorts. Underwater hotel suites. Cloud-brushing mega-skyscrapers. High-end shopping malls the size of 50 football fields. Leave it to the United Arab Emirates, land of superlative everything, to lead the charge when building the world’s largest — and, predictably, flashiest — mock Mars colony.

When complete, the 1.9-million-square-foot Martian mini-city will give scientists a “viable and realistic” taste of what human colonization of the Red Planet might be like.

News of the so-called Mars Science City, which comes equipped with a price tag of $140 million (U.S.) and will be located in the Emirati desert on the outskirts of Dubai, comes just months after the country announced ambitious and not entirely surprising plans to colonize Mars by the year 2117.)

Me, "It may seem like a crazy idea, but it may have many useful benefits: From, allowing people to experience what living on Mars might be like, (So they can make the ultimate decision whether to go) to training crews to deal with the life they will live on Mars. Sure, it seems like a tourist trap but it may have real world uses by space agencies from all countries.

In fact I am surprised we don't have something like this here in the U.S. The closest would be Biosphere 2, which isn't really a space colony, more of an enclosed arboretum.
If NASA is going to spend money on going to the Moon and Mars they should have something like this here in the U.S (We have all that desert land in Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, etc, setting something up wouldn't be too hard, it would just cost money) to trainee crews and allow the public (acting like space tourists) to participate."

For More Info

Our Universe is not a computer simulation. It's far too complex.

Do gravitational anomalies prove we're not living in a computer simulation?

Is our entire universe just a computer simulation? Theoretical physicists believe they've found proof that our universe is far too complex to be captured in any simulation. According to the researchers, the hypothesis is done in by gravitational anomalies, tiny "twists" in the fabric of spacetime.

 From article, (Is our entire universe just a computer simulation? 

now theoretical physicists believe they've found proof that our universe is far too complex to be captured in any simulation. According to the researchers, the hypothesis is done in by gravitational anomalies, tiny "twists" in the fabric of spacetime.
These anomalies have been known to exist for decades, but are notoriously difficult to directly detect. Effectively representing twists in spacetime, they arise in physical systems where magnetic fields generate energy currents that cut across temperature gradients, particularly in cases where high magnetic fields and very low temperatures are involved.
Monte-Carlo simulations are used in a wide variety of fields, from finance to manufacturing to research, to assess the risks and likely outcomes of a given situation. They can process a huge range of factors at once and simulate the most extreme best- and worst-case scenarios, as well as all possibilities in between.

Quantum Monte-Carlo simulations are used to model quantum systems, but the Oxford and Hebrew scientists found that quantum systems containing gravitational anomalies are far too complex to ever be simulated. The quantities involved in the simulation will acquire a negative sign – essentially, there's an infinite number of possibilities, so the simulation can't possibly consider them all.

Pushing it further, the team says that as a simulated system gets more complex, the computational resources – processors, memory, etc – required to run it need to advance at the same rate. That rate might be linear, meaning that every time the number of particles simulated is doubled, the required resources also double. Or it could be exponential, meaning that those resources have to double every time a single new particle is added to the system.

That means that simulating just a few hundred electrons would require a computer with a memory made up of more atoms than the universe contains. Considering our universe contains 1080 particles – that's a 10 followed by 80 zeroes – the number of atoms needed to simulate that is incomprehensible and utterly unsolvable.)

For More Info

Fast Charging? Yeah.

For Electric Car Owners, 'Range Anxiety' Gives Way to 'Charging Time Trauma'

Two levels of charging are typically available in residential settings. Level 1 is a standard AC outlet that provides between 1 and 1.5 kilowatts of electricity. It takes a Level 1 charger about 30 hours to fully charge the electric version of the Ford Focus, which has a range of 115 miles.

 From article, (A new generation of charging points, the first of which are being installed in Europe this year, offer 350 kilowatts of power. Such a jump would slash charging times to 10 to 15 minutes, depending on the vehicle’s range, according to Charlie Yankitis, director of business development for the German manufacturer Bosch’s electric vehicle unit. Elon Musk, Tesla’s founder, has hinted that charging at even faster rates was being studied.

Several companies are making big bets on the technology.

Electrify America, the Volkswagen subsidiary, is planning on installing such high-capacity chargers along highway corridors throughout the United States. It is investing $2 billion in electric vehicle charging infrastructure and education nationwide, $800 million of which is earmarked for California alone.

[But...]

No vehicle on the road today is able to use the 350-kilowatt fast-charging stations. It is not a simple upgrade: High-speed charging requires thicker cables that won’t get too hot.

No automakers have indicated when they will sell cars equipped to accept such fast charges. Porsche’s Mission E electric vehicle is expected to be available by 2020, and will be able to charge to a 250-mile range in 15 minutes, according to the carmaker. Electrify America and ChargePoint say they expect vehicles capable of accepting 350-killowatt chargers to be available by 2019.)

Me, "The technology is getting there folks. It is not unreasonable to think that a purchase of an electric car in 2019, that will be able to charge in 10-15 minutes and go at least 300 miles will be possible. What is 10-15 minutes? (You can plug your car in and talk to your friend and 10-15 minutes is like nothing.) Its a whole lot better than the 30 minutes to a few hours waiting for a car to charge up. And that is in 2019, Imagine what maybe be capable down the road, past 2019."

For More Info

Surgical Super Glue? Ah yeah!!!

Scientists develop surgical super glue that seals cuts in seconds

This new surgical technology will definitely stick to your ribs. Scientists have created an elastic super surgical glue that can seal cuts, wounds and incisions instantly. The technology, called MeTro, was created by Nasim Annabi, an assistant professor of chemical engineering at Northeastern University who collaborated with scientists at the University of Sydney and Harvard Medical School.

 From article, (This new surgical technology will definitely stick to your ribs.

Scientists have created an elastic super surgical glue that can seal cuts, wounds and incisions instantly. The technology, called MeTro, was created by Nasim Annabi, an assistant professor of chemical engineering at Northwestern University who collaborated with scientists at the University of Sydney and Harvard Medical School.

MeTro — profiled by Science Translational Medicine — is an elastic gel that doctors can apply to an open cut to seal it, like a clear band-aid. The gel is made from a human protein that reacts to ultraviolet light. It’s applied to a wound through a syringe and when the light activates it, the wound is sealed in 60 seconds. The liquid gel solidifies once it comes into contact with tissue surfaces.)

For More Info

Can A giant Solar Flare Shield protect the Earth? Moon? Mars? or future colonized Exoplanets?

New study proposes a giant, space-based solar flare shield for earth

In today's modern, fast-paced world, human activity is very much reliant on electrical infrastructure. If the power grids go down, our climate control systems will shut off, our computers will die, and all electronic forms ...

 From article, (We predict that within ~150 years, there will be an event [solar flare] that causes damage comparable to the current US GDP of ~20 trillion dollars, and the damage will increase exponentially at later times until technological development will saturate. Such a forecast was never attempted before. We also suggest a novel idea for how to reduce the damage from energetic particles by a magnetic shield. This was my idea and was not proposed before."

To address this growing risk, Lingham and Loeb also considered the possibility of placing a magnetic shield between Earth and the sun. This shield would be placed at the Earth-sun Lagrange Point 1, where it would be able to deflect charged particles and create an artificial bowshock around Earth. In this sense, this shield would protect Earth's in a way that is similar to what its magnetic field already does, but to greater effect.

Based on their assessment, Lingham and Loeb indicate that such a shield is technically feasible in terms of its basic physical parameters. They were also able to provide a rudimentary timeline for the construction of this shield, not to mention some rough cost assessments. As Loeb indicated, such a shield could be built before this century is over, and at a fraction of the cost of what would be incurred from solar flare damage.Interestingly enough, the idea of using a magnetic shield to protect planets has been proposed before. For example, this type of shield was also the subject of a presentation at this year's "Planetary Science Vision 2050 Workshop", which was hosted by NASA's Planetary Science Division (PSD). This shield was recommended as a means of enhancing Mars' atmosphere and facilitating crewed mission to its surface in the future.

During the course of the presentation, titled "A Future Mars Environment for Science and Exploration", NASA Director Jim Green discussed how a magnetic shield could protect Mars' tenuous atmosphere from solar wind. This would allow it to replenish over time, which would have the added benefit of warming Mars up and allowing liquid water to again flow on its surface. If this sounds similar to proposals for terraforming Mars, that's because it is.

Beyond Earth and the solar system, the implications for this study are quite overwhelming. In recent years, many terrestrial planets have been found orbiting within nearby M-type (aka. red dwarf) star systems. Because of the way these planets orbit closely to their respective suns, and the variable and unstable nature of M-type stars, scientists have expressed doubts about whether or not these planets could actually be habitable.

In short, scientists have ventured that over the course of billions of years, rocky planets that orbit close to their suns, are tidally-locked with them, and are subject to regular solar flares would lose their atmospheres. In this respect, magnetic shields could be a possible solution to creating extra-solar colonies. Place a large shield in orbit at the L1 Lagrange point, and you never have to worry again about powerful magnetic storms ravaging the planet!)

For More Info

Going back to the Moon? This isn't 2009. The Costs are Not the Same.

NASA could go back to the future and revive moon base plans from a decade ago

In the wake of the National Space Council's first meeting, NASA says it has been told to draw up plans to send humans to the moon "for long-term exploration and utilization," followed by trips to Mars and other interplanetary destinations. That means moon bases are back in style.

 Me, "The difference today as opposed to 2009 is that you have a lot of new space companies that are willing to compete for some public money and use some of their own; in a Private-public partnerships to get out into space.

What also is different is the U.S. is not the only one who wants to go back to the Moon. You have a lot of space agencies from other countries like ESA, Japan, and Russia that want to go to the Moon too. So if you split 100 billion between 4 Space agencies you get 25 billion each. (Even China and India.) If you include them, total: 6 space agencies, is even lower, 16 billion. A much more reasonable figure than 100 billion. And I am sure other countries might be able to contribute as well.
With private space companies adding their own moneys that figure could be even lower. Its all about cooperation, Space is expensive. Cooperation between countries and space companies reduces that a lot. The timing for a moon base could be just right."

From article, (The [moon bases] favored site was to be the moon’s south polar region — where the rims of craters could provide nearly constant views of Earth, and where the permanently shadowed bottoms of craters could harbor water ice. That ice could be used to produce drinkable water, breathable oxygen and rocket propellants.

At the time, NASA envisioned starting the construction job sometime after Constellation’s first moon landing in 2020, and having a habitat ready for six-month tours of duty by 2025.

So what happened? The bottom line, that’s what. The cost estimate for Project Constellation rose beyond $100 billion, and that didn’t even include the cost of building the moon base. In 2009, a White House panel of independent space experts determined that the plan couldn’t be done on NASA’s budget.

One big factor has changed in the past decade: Back then, SpaceX was struggling to get into the launch industry, and then-millionaire Elon Musk was flirting with bankruptcy.

Today, business is booming at SpaceX, due to its low-cost approach to rocket launches and retrievals. Musk’s net worth has topped $20 billion, and he’s talking up monster missions to the moon and Mars, leading to Red Planet settlement within the next decade.)

For More Info

New Materials for Lithium Solid State Batteries

Progressing to Solid-State Lithium Batteries | NextBigFuture.com

A research group led by professor Jan D. Miller of the University of Utah's Department of Metallurgical Engineering has received a $191,700 grant to aid the development and commercialization of a solid polymer electrolyte/electrode technology for lithium batteries.

 From article, (The Miller group has developed a new nanocomposite material for advanced solid polymer electrolyte and electrode design and fabrication of cathodes for lithium batteries that improves safety, increases energy density and reduces complexity and cost of manufacturing compared to conventional liquid or gel electrolytes currently in use.

A key component of the new electrolyte is halloysite, a super-fine aluminosilicate mineral and natural nanotube material that is a unique Utah resource available from Applied Minerals. The halloysite nanocomposite solid-state electrolyte is a thin, almost transparent membrane that will make possible the use of high energy all solid-state lithium batteries over a wide range of temperatures.

The Miller group has filed for patents on the halloysite nanotube technology based on preliminary results demonstrating its important advantages.

The university’s Technology & Venture Commercialization (TVC) is currently working with the Miller group on a possible transfer of the technology to a battery manufacturer or to a spin-out company. In the past, TVC has supported the Miller group by conducting marketing research and analysis to determine potential markets for commercialization and with grant writing.)

For More Info

Renewed Focus on the Moon.

Trump's NASA Pivot

His administration has made the moon a destination, not just a pit stop, on the way to Mars.

From article, (A renewed focus on the moon brings the United States into some alignment with space agencies in Europe, Russia, India, and China. The European Space Agency envisions building a “moon village.” Roscosmos, the Russian agency, is recruiting cosmonauts to be the first Russians to land on the moon in the 2030s.

 ISRO, the Indian agency, launched its first lunar orbiter in 2008 and plans to send a second mission, this time to land on the surface, next year. 

China has spent the last decade experimenting in cislunar space with both robotic and crewed missions, and officials have said they would put astronauts on the moon by the mid-2030s. A mission to send a rover to the far side of the moon, a first for humankind, is planned for next year. 

The United States is unparalleled when it comes to exploration of the solar system beyond Earth, but some in the country, particularly in the security community, worry that the country’s cislunar capabilities are rapidly atrophying.

Pence said this week he believed other spacefaring nations have outpaced the United States. “In the absence of American leadership, other nations have seized the opportunity to stake their claim in the infinite frontier,” he said. “Rather than lead in space, too often, we have chosen to drift.”

Space-policy experts say it’s too early to say who the winners and losers might be in this new chapter in the country’s space agenda. The administration has promised a robust human spaceflight program, an effort that both moon and Mars proponents can get behind. And the administration didn’t rule out a Mars mission entirely. It just chooses to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things—later.)

For More Info

Potassium to the Rescue

Avocados And Bananas In Diet May Help Prevent Heart Disease

Scientists find that high-potassium foods protect the arteries against hardening or calcification. Such beneficial food items include avocados and bananas. It's undeniable that avocados are in trend of late. In fact, earlier this year, health practitioners warned avocado lovers of a condition called avocado hand where individuals sustain hand injuries from improperly preparing the fruit.

 From article, (scientists used apoliprotein E-deficient mice or mice that are prone to cardiovascular disease when fed with a high-fat diet. What researchers did was feed the said mice with high, normal, and low-potassium diets.

Results show that the mice fed with low-potassium diets yielded significant vascular calcification and increased aortal stiffening compared with the mice fed with normal-potassium diets. On the other hand, the mice fed with high-potassium diets showed significantly inhibited vascular calcification and aortal stiffness.

Essentially, the mice fed with low-potassium diets had harder arteries, while mice fed with high-potassium diets had more flexible arteries.

A Cardiovascular Health Study of over 4,000 men and women showed that 79.9 percent of individuals aged 65 or older develop arterial calcification, a predictor of cardiovascular events. Heart disease is the leading cause of death for both men and women in the United States, and about 610,000 people die from it every year.

The results of the study show that increasing or even maintaining a healthy amount of potassium in regular diets could play important roles in preventing vascular complications. Further, it could prove useful in potential therapies and treatments for arterial treatments and atherosclerotic vascular calcification.

The study has been published in JCI Insight.)

For More info

In the Coming Years, The Moon, will be a Busy Place.

NASA has big plans for the moon - and big competition

Check back in a decade, though, and the scene may be radically different. In last week's inaugural meeting of the revived National Space Council, Vice President Mike Pence vowed that "we will return NASA astronauts to the moon," spurred by scientific, commercial, and national security interests.

 Me, "A lot is planned for the moon."

From article, (U.S. Representative Jim Bridenstine, the new nominee for NASA administrator[:]

“Our very way of life now depends on space,” he declared in a manifesto published last fall. “America must forever be the preeminent spacefaring nation, and the moon is a path to being so.”

In Bridenstine’s vision, the moon will soon host a bustling development of mining operations, robot geologists, video broadcasters, and a small but growing human outpost — all supported by a mix of commercial and government interests. That’s a bold claim, considering there has been only one soft landing on the moon in the last four decades.

Bridenstine is none too pleased that the solitary lunar touchdown since the 1970s was performed not by the U.S. — but by China.

Chinese rocket scientists put the Chang’e-3 lander and Yutu rover on the moon four years ago.

Russia is in the game too, teaming up with the European Space Agency (ESA) on a set of four planned probes that would pick up where Soviet explorations left off in the 1970s. This Luna series would include landers, a lunar-satellite data link, and a surface drilling operation.

Not to be left behind, NASA has been testing the moon-mining rover Resource Prospector, which could launch around 2020. A prototype is now undergoing tests at a proving ground at Johnson Space Center in Houston, where the Apollo missions were directed.)

For More Info

US Air Force Wants Commercial Companies Massive Rockets.

US Air Force issues RFP for massive rockets, SpaceX's BFR could be one of them

The US Air Force has released a Request For Proposal (RFP) that hopes to fund the development of multiple heavy-lift rocket prototypes to launch no later than 2021. The USAF specified on October 5 that it wants to partially fund prototype development for at least three promising US-sourced launch vehicles, while maintaining the options to select

 From article, (The US Air Force has released a Request For Proposal (RFP) that hopes to fund the development of multiple heavy-lift rocket prototypes to launch no later than 2021. The USAF specified on October 5 that it wants to partially fund prototype development for at least three promising US-sourced launch vehicles, while maintaining the options to select none of the proposals or even more than three. The purpose of these broad strokes is to provide the Air Force and US military in general redundant access to space by way of “at least two domestic…launch service providers” capable of meeting National Security Space (NSS) requirements.

By funding two or more independent launch vehicles, the Air Force would lessen the impact of such failures, and this assured access is rightly perceived as an invaluable commodity in the military.

Considering the inherently complex and difficult process of developing massive rockets, initial launch dates no later than 2021 (or 2024) likely mean that the vehicles being considered must already be under some level of serious development. This leaves us with four possible options in the US, undoubtedly not a coincidence given the RFP’s explicit goal of facilitating the creation of “at least three…prototypes as early as possible” and “at least two domestic…launch service providers”. These four vehicles are SpaceX’s BFR, Blue Origin’s New Glenn, ULA’s Vulcan, and Orbital-ATK’s NGL, all of which already have tentative inaugural launch dates clustered from 2019 to 2022. Perhaps even more revealing, all four vehicles can be expected to utilize several rocket propulsion systems (rocket engines) already funded by the Air Force, namely SpaceX’s Raptor, Blue Origin’s BE-4 and BE-3U, and Aerojet-Rocketdyne’s AR-1.

It’s quickly starting to look like the U.S. is about to enter a sort of modern commercial space race and regardless of the outcome, the next several months and years are bound to be tense and exciting for SpaceX, Blue Origin, and the established incumbents as they battle for both public and private contracts.)

For More Info

Shell moves into the recharging electric car market.

Oil giant Shell buys electric car charging company

Royal Dutch Shell revealed a deal on Thursday to acquire NewMotion, one of Europe's largest electric vehicle charging providers. NewMotion specializes in converting parking spots into electric charging stations. The Dutch firm has more than 30,000 electric charge points in Europe.

 Me, "Change is coming for the electric car. With cheaper batteries, allowing the price of an electric car to come down, and for the present energy companies to diversify more into renewable electric generation, and electric charging for electric cars. A new day is coming on how we treat and ride around our planet. There is nothing wrong with energy companies diversifying. As the mantra goes, 'change is good every once in awhile'."

From article, (One of the world's largest fossil fuel companies is betting on electric cars.
Royal Dutch Shell (RDSA) revealed a deal on Thursday to acquire NewMotion, one of Europe's largest electric vehicle charging providers. NewMotion specializes in converting parking spots into electric charging stations. The Dutch firm has more than 30,000 electric charge points in Europe.
The acquisition, Shell's first in this space, shows how Big Oil is being forced to confront the long-term threat posed by electric cars and efforts to phase out gasoline and diesel vehicles.

"This is a way of broadening our offer as we move through the energy transition," Matthew Tipper, Shell's vice president of new fuels, told CNNMoney in an interview. "It's certainly a form of diversification."

European oil companies, including Shell and rivals like BP (BP) and Total (TOT), have been far quicker than their U.S. rivals to invest in renewables like solar, wind and now even electric car charging.)

For More Info

Pigments of dinosaur eggs discovered. Will we get closer to bringing back lost species?

Duck egg blue and oviraptor green: study reconstructs colour of dinosaur eggs

A new study of oviraptor eggshell fragments shows remarkable similarities between the reproductive biology of dinosaurs and birds Bird eggs come in a variety of colours. From the creamy and chalky whites in doves and pigeons to spotted yellow lapwing eggs and brown chicken eggs, to the blues of blackbirds and American robins.

 From article, (This is the first time that scientist have reconstructed the colour of dinosaur eggs. While this is astonishing in itself, it has important biological implications as well. 

Based on the peaks observed on the chromatogram and known concentrations of pigments in samples of emu shell and commercially available pigments, the researchers calculated the concentration of pigments in the fossil eggshells. In all three fossil samples, the concentration of biliverdin is higher than that of protoporphyrin, suggesting that these oviraptor eggs originally were blue-green.)

Me, "We are getting closer and closer to either recreating dinosaurs (Jurassic Park) past species or creating new species all together, (Planet of the Apes). Think of it this way, we are learning more and more about past species. We know some Dinosaur's skin color, we know their egg color.

All we need is a little past DNA to figure out how to reprogram a present day Bird's egg DNA and wham-mo, created dinosaur. There have already been manipulated Bird DNA to see what would be created."

http://www.bbc.com/…/s…/20150512-bird-grows-face-of-dinosaur

Me, "What is to stop scientists from recreating a more recent extinct species."

https://www.mnn.com/…/14-extinct-animals-th…/woolly-mammoth…

Me, "The point being, do we have the right to recreate extinct species? Do we have the right to create totally new species? I am of the mind that if God did not want us to do this, he would not have allowed us to figure out the science to do it. That being said, I think we should still be careful what we do. What we bring back, or want we create, has to be able to co-exist with man and nature.

Creating all new species or tweaks to present species is no different then a farmer planting a more resilient crop of corn, breeding a better cow for milk and meat or DNA makes a slight mistake. Example of a DNA mistake is: where the brown bear became the arctic white bear.
The only difference is that man would now be helping out, DNA wise, by bringing back, creating an off-shoot, or creating a whole new species that can benefit man, and nature. Natural selection would be reassessed.
There are a lot of species that didn't have to go extinct, (Meteor impacts killed off promising species) from plants, to animals, and recently by man.
We lost a lot of species due to freaks of nature.
The Woolly Mammoth could be used to keep arctic permafrost from releasing CO2, by stepping on snow, to keep snow close to the ground, keeping CO2 from being released. Certain Plants were able to grow fast, and far, into the sky, able to soak up a lot of CO2. Imagine what a Dinosaur burger might taste like. (Only from short vegetarian Dinos. No meat eating dinos allowed.) There are a lot of ancient species out there that could be used in a beneficial way. Imagine a Tuna fish, the size of a whale, that replaces present day Tuna. There are a lot of interesting ideas.
The only limits is finding ancient DNA or playing around with present DNA. "

For More Info

New Satellite Companies like OneWeb will increase the amount of rocket launches, by building out a constellation of 648 satellites.

Private investors push down stratospheric cost of space start-ups

On a muggy summer's day in London two years ago, the rapper will.i.am, Virgin billionaire Sir Richard Branson and Airbus chief executive Tom Enders gathered in the 200-year-old lecture theatre of the Royal Institution. In this temple to scientific achievement, Michael Faraday first demonstrated electromagnetism, Sir Humphry Davy revealed sodium and Sir Joseph John (JJ) Thomson unveiled a fundamental particle now known as an electron.

 From article, (Early next year, OneWeb, founded by tech entrepreneur Greg Wyler, expects to launch the first 10 satellites in a constellation that will eventually number some 648 spacecraft — set to be the world’s largest satellite constellation if all goes to plan.

Despite having no operating satellites, OneWeb has been able to raise more than $1.5bn in the last two years from companies as diverse as SoftBank, the Japanese telecoms group, US chipmaker Qualcomm, the European aerospace group Airbus, Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin and even Coca-Cola.

Interest in the commercial opportunities of space is snowballing and, with it, the prospects for start-ups to find financial backers.

space — which institutions once considered far too risky and expensive except for the big satellite operators — is becoming “a more normal area [in which] to invest. Appetite across the board from investors continues to grow”.

Investor interest is being driven by a recognition that the costs of going into space are falling.

The arrival of entrants such as SpaceX into a market once dominated by entities with a strong hold on access to government-backed launches is forcing down launch costs by as much as 75 per cent.)

For More Info

People like to work for SpaceX and Google. but, the work stress is very high.

SpaceX, Google and Shopify top the list of places tech talent wants to work

Where are dreams fulfilled for tech talent? Companies including SpaceX, Google, Tesla, Netflix, Slack and Facebook rank highly, according to a survey conducted by job website, Hired. For the survey, released Thursday, 2,349 software engineers, product managers, designers, and data scientists were interviewed between Aug. 8 and Aug. 24.

 From article, (What employees say about working at SpaceX:

"Working here is more like being on a mission than having a job," says an anonymous current employee working in the Hawthorne, Calif., office according to a review posted on jobs website Glassdoor. "If you're just looking for a paycheck (no judgement, you do you), this is not the place you want to be. It's never boring. The work always feels important, even when it's basic stuff. Working in a rocket factory is slightly dream-like. The people around you inspire you to do the best work you've ever done in your life which is a pretty incredible high."
"With so many highly passionate, driven people, tensions often run high. People will defend their points of view, you'll defend yours, and it's tough keeping your cool. Picking which battles to fight and which to let go. The overall mission does help us keep perspective, but on a personal level it is non-stop ups and downs. You watch people hold on until they get fed up and flung off," says the senior software engineer in Hawthorne. "Space is cool, being a part of it is cool. But it's easy to overwork yourself without knowing it. This plus the above can lead to quick burnout."

What employees say about working at Google:

"You can't find a more well-regarded company that actually deserves the hype it gets. You'll work on cutting edge projects / solve important issues that impact your community and the world," writes an employee working at the Mountain View, Calif., headquarters. "You'll meet interesting people who are your colleagues, managers, and senior management. You'll open the paper and see your company in the news almost every day, and read about projects you're working on, which is a cool thing."
But, as with SpaceX, working at Google can be all consuming in a way that is unhealthy, says one former program manager working in the Mountain View, Calif., headquarters.)

For More Info

SpaceX to Launch Two Prototype Satellites.

SpaceX, OneWeb detail constellation plans to Congress - SpaceNews.com

WASHINGTON - SpaceX and OneWeb say they are within months of launching the first satellites in their competing megaconstellations of broadband smallsats designed to bring internet to every corner of the globe. Testifying before the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee Oct.

 From article, (SpaceX vice president of satellite government affairs Patricia Cooper said the company’s first two prototype satellites will launch “within the next few months” to validate in-house technology ahead of an operational launch campaign in 2019.

Launching the full constellation of 4,425 Ka- and Ku-band satellites would take about five years, she said.

“We would expect to provide commercial service as early as 800 satellites deployed, which is probably in the 2020, 2021 timeframe,” she said.

SpaceX plans to use its own rockets to launch its broadband constellation, and similar to its other projects, is building most of the satellites in-house, preferring vertical integration to reliance on a large base of suppliers. The company did not give a timeline for its larger proposed constellation of 7,500 V-band satellites, which would circle the Earth in an orbit below the first constellation.

OneWeb still expects to begin service with its first-generation constellation of roughly 900 satellites in 2019, though the launch date for the first 10 satellites has slipped by two months. Greg Wyler, OneWeb’s founder and executive chairman, said the first launch is now scheduled for May instead of March.
Greg Wyler OneWeb
Greg Wyler, founder and executive chairman of OneWeb. Credit: SpaceNews screen capture from Oct. 25 Senate hearing.

Arianespace is OneWeb’s primary launch partner and will use Europeanized Soyuz rockets to loft most of the initial constellation. OneWeb has also contracted with Virgin Orbit for 39 launches using its still-in-development LauncherOne dedicated smallsat vehicle. Blue Origin is under contract for five OneWeb launches with the future New Glenn rocket. In contrast to SpaceX and Canadian operator Telesat, OneWeb is not launching prototypes. It’s first satellites are the operator’s cornerstone of the larger constellation, which will be built out during 2018.)

Me, "Hm... 1,000+ satellite systems should keep rocket launchers busy for the next few years."

For More Info

Congo's Cobalt. Congo's Dirty Mining Secret.

We'll All Be Relying on Congo to Power Our Electric Cars

The cars of the future will depend increasingly upon supplies of an obscure metal from a country in the African tropics where there has never been a peaceful transition of power and child labor is still used in parts of the mining industry.

 From article, (The country formerly known as Zaire -- which hosted boxers Muhammad Ali and George Foreman for their 1974 heavyweight title bout dubbed the “Rumble in the Jungle” -- supplies 63 percent of the world’s cobalt. Congo’s market share may jump to 73 percent by 2025 as producers like Glencore Plc expand mines, according to Wood Mackenzie Ltd. By 2030, global demand could be 47 times more than it was last year, Bloomberg New Energy Finance estimates.

Cobalt is a byproduct of copper and nickel mining. Until recently, there were often surplus supplies as it was used mostly to harden steel. But the bluish-gray metal’s ability to efficiently conduct electricity has made it essential for high-end rechargeable batteries. A typical power unit in an electric car contains about 15 kilograms (33 pounds) of cobalt, though some varieties use less than 5 kilograms.

Read more about what’s driving battery demand and materials by clicking here.

Over the next two decades, the global fleet of electric vehicles may reach 282 million, or about 16 percent of all cars on the road, BNEF analysts estimate.

Tesla Inc. has more than doubled vehicle unit sales since 2014, and is targeting 500,000 for next year. Volkswagen AG plans to invest 20 billion euros ($24 billion) by 2030 to roll out electric vehicles, with another 50 billion euros earmarked for batteries.Volvo Car AB says it will have five electric models in its lineup by 2021, while Daimler AG, the owner of Mercedes-Benz, is investing $1 billion to ramp up electric-vehicle production in the U.S.

With demand growing, mining companies including Glencore, Eurasian Natural Resources Corp. and China Molybdenum Co. are pouring more money into the Democratic Republic of Congo, which has by far the most proven reserves.

Of further concern to automakers is that some Congolese cobalt comes from informal mines that Amnesty International alleges may rely on child labor. Artisanal mining is legal in Congo but poorly regulated. In 2014, the government estimated as much as 14,000 tons of its cobalt exports, or 20 percent, came from these informal diggers. By last year, that share fell to 8,600 tons, according to Darton, as the government cracked down on illegal mines and technology companies including Apple Inc. and Samsung Electronics Co. came under public pressure to more fully vet their supply chains.
Identifying Source

Still, it remains difficult for battery makers to know where their cobalt comes from.)

Me, "Child labor Is a problem in mining Colbalt, but with more investment in Congo's cobalt suppliers, to produce more product, it may become easier to at least have inspectors reporting where the Cobalt going into car makers batteries comes from. A premium could be offered for non-child labor Colbalt."

For More Info

Killing latent HIV infected cells could lead to elimination of HIV in the Human Body.

Scientists create molecule to activate, kill latent HIV-infected cells

UCLA researchers have found that the way to cure HIV-positive patients may be to activate the virus. Researchers from the UCLA AIDS Institute and Stanford University developed a synthetic molecule that reactivated dormant HIV in cells. The molecule killed one-quarter of infected cells within a day.

 From article, (UCLA researchers have found that the way to cure HIV-positive patients may be to activate the virus.

Researchers from the UCLA AIDS Institute and Stanford University developed a synthetic molecule that reactivated dormant HIV in cells. The molecule killed one-quarter of infected cells within a day. The researchers demonstrated the molecule’s effectiveness in mice and published their results in September in the scientific journal PLOS Pathogens.

The human immunodeficiency virus enters cells and changes its own RNA to DNA, which becomes part of the DNA of the host cells, said Matthew Marsden, an assistant professor of medicine in the division of hematology and oncology and leading author of the paper. The host cells then produce copies of the virus that can infect other cells.

Anti-retroviral medications reduce the amount of HIV in an infected person by preventing the virus from multiplying, said Christina Ramirez, a professor of biostatistics at UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, who also worked on the project. Without medications, HIV would destroy immune system cells and leave the patient vulnerable to infections by other pathogens.

“I think (anti-retroviral medication) is a triumph of modern medicine,” Ramirez said. “(HIV) is not the death sentence that it used to be.”

However, some infected cells do not actively produce new viruses and are not affected by anti-retroviral medications, Marsden said. He added HIV can hide and persist indefinitely in certain long-living immune system cells, and their research aims to eliminate this latent HIV reservoir of cells.)

For More Info