SpaceX: What's in Store for the Future?

SpaceX aims to make history 3 more times in 2018

Tuesday's Falcon Heavy launch made history, not only becoming the highest-capacity rocket platform since the Saturn V but accomplishing the first double autonomous booster landing. And that's just the start of what could prove to be an epic year for SpaceX - if Elon Musk's ambitious timeline isn't delayed, say by high winds.

From article, (There are three major events in the works for 2018 — two likely in the summer and one at the end of the year.

First there’s the next Falcon Heavy launch, which after multiple delays will hopefully be taking off in June with a handful of satellites both military and private. This could set a couple of records — heaviest commercial payload, for instance, and if things go well it might even get that triple autonomous booster landing that was hoped for yesterday.

The June launch, by the way, will carry a couple interesting payloads. You may remember the test flight of Lightsail, a prototype solar sailing spacecraft that launched in 2015. The new version should launch this year, built by the Planetary Society; Bill Nye is one of the project’s most outspoken advocates. And there’s also the Deep Space Atomic Clock, which is pretty much exactly what it sounds like, keeping hyper-accurate time that spacecraft can check with for navigational purposes.

SpaceX may also attempt the first water landing of its fairing, Musk hinted in the press conference following the Falcon Heavy launch. We can expect it in the next six months, he said, but the problem is that it’s not a guided landing and the fairing tends to drift on its way down.

 The last major item planned for this year is a crewed flight of the new Dragon capsule. Musk said at the press conference that “After Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy Block 5 [the next revision of the platform], it’s all hands on deck for Crew Dragon. We’re aspiring to fly a crew orbit by the end of this year. I think the hardware will be ready.”

Commercial crewed missions are the next major area of interest of commercial space industry, and SpaceX is competing with Boeing for the glory of it and, as a secondary consideration, the lucrative government contracts. But sending actual humans up in rockets that still occasionally explode isn’t an option — the reliability of the launch platform has to be rock-solid and any issues causing failures need to be addressed.

Less clear timing-wise are early tests for the spaceship section of SpaceX’s BFR project. Musk gave a few hints about this at the press conference following the Falcon Heavy launch.

“I think we might also be able to do short hopper flights with the spaceship part of the BFR, maybe next year,” he said. “By hopper tests I mean go up several miles and come down. We’ll do flights of increasing complexity. We want to fly out, turn around, accelerate back real hard, and come in hot to test the heat shield.”

“The ship is capable of single-stage orbit if you want to fully load the tanks,” he added, but real test flights probably won’t happen for three or four years. How that all will play out is very much in flux right now. And who knows when Starlink, or whatever it’s called, will happen.)

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While the First Cell Phone Call by an Astronaut is a few years away, 4G on the Moon will be used by robotic vehicles, exploring the surface of the Moon, to Send Back Pictures and Video.

The moon is getting its own mobile phone network

by Helen Chandler-Wilde The moon will have a 4G mobile network installed next year, according to plans set out by Vodafone and Nokia. The mission, organised by space exploration company PTScientists, will be the first privately funded moon landing. Nokia masts will be launched on a SpaceX rocket in 2019 from Cape Canaveral air force station in Florida.

 From article, (The moon will have a 4G mobile network installed next year, according to plans set out by Vodafone and Nokia.

The mission, organised by space exploration company PTScientists, will be the first privately funded moon landing.

Nokia masts will be launched on a SpaceX rocket in 2019 from Cape Canaveral air force station in Florida.

The network will enable Audi lunar exploration vehicles to communicate with each other and with a base station. The 4G signal, provided by Vodafone, will also be able to transmit high-definition video streaming of the moon's surface.

"This project involves a radically innovative approach to the development of mobile network infrastructure," said Hannes Ametsreiter, CEO of Vodafone Germany.

The vehicles will explore the moon as a potential human habitat. The introduction of a 4G network is hoped to be the first step to creating a communications infrastructure for future lunar missions. The network will help to save energy, as mobile signal is more energy efficient than analogue radio.)

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You have Landlines, you have Cable. Soon You Will Have Satellite Internet. It's Just Another way of Getting the Internet to you, generating income, and to foster Competition, to Bring Down Connection Prices.

SpaceX wants to beam internet down to Earth. Here's how it'll start.

SpaceX is preparing to hit another orbital milestone with the launch of a pair of experimental satellites designed to beam an ultra-fast, lag-free internet connection down to Earth. The test satellites, dubbed Microsat-2a and Microsat-2b, are a part of a years-long plan by chief executive Elon Musk to create a fleet of orbiting devices that blankets the globe in wireless broadband connectivity.

From article, (Microsat-2a and Microsat-2b, are a part of a years-long plan by chief executive Elon Musk to create a fleet of orbiting devices that blankets the globe in wireless broadband connectivity. SpaceX ultimately intends to put about 12,000 broadband satellites in low Earth orbit — and Sunday's payload will mark the company's first stab at realizing the dream. The initial satellites in the network are expected to come online next year.

Satellite broadband is already available today. But it's slow, expensive and not really accessible to the masses. The goal of SpaceX and almost a dozen other companies is to deliver fast, reliable internet access to virtually everyone.

Contemporary satellite broadband is mostly used by companies and organizations that require internet access in remote environments or extremely specific scenarios, not residential connectivity. First-responders to a natural disaster, for example, can spend hundreds of dollars a day for a 5 Mbps connection, which they use to coordinate relief efforts. The shipping and aviation industries have also been known to use conventional satellite data services.

But for consumers, companies such as SpaceX believe a different approach could help lower costs and increase reliability, making satellite broadband practical for everyday use. The idea involves placing satellites much lower in orbit, reducing the amount of time it takes for signals to travel from ground-based antennas up to space and back again — and broadening the potential user base to include the entire world.

To ensure consistent coverage, providers of next-gen satellite broadband will need to put up many more satellites, as well as develop accurate tracking technology that lets devices on the ground communicate with them without missing a beat. And they'll need to use radio frequencies that are known for their low-lag physical properties. SpaceX's network plans to use airwaves in the so-called Ka-, Ku- and V-bands — with roughly 4,400 K-band satellites and over 7,000 V-band satellites.

The FCC gave testing approval last year to OneWeb, a SpaceX competitor run by a former Google engineer that's also planning its own constellation of broadband satellites. And this week, FCC Chairman Ajit Pai said he was urging his four colleagues at the agency to support giving SpaceX a similar endorsement.

"Satellite technology can help reach Americans who live in rural or hard-to-serve places where fiber optic cables and cell towers do not reach," said Pai in a statement Wednesday. "And it can offer more competition where terrestrial internet access is already available.")

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There Goes Wire Taps. And Voice Recognition for Security? Ha.

China's google equivalent can clone voices after seconds of listening

In Brief Baidu's AI research team has developed a nueral network that can mimic a voice with less than a minute long sample. The software can also change the voice into other genders and accents.

From article, (The Google of China, Baidu, has just released a white paper showing its latest development in artificial intelligence (AI): a program that can clone voices after analyzing even a seconds-long clip, using a neural network. Not only can the software mimic an input voice, but it can also change it to reflect another gender or even a different accent.

You can listen to some of the generated examples here, hosted on GitHub.

Previous iterations of this technology have allowed voice cloning after systems analyzed longer voice samples. In 2017, the Baidu Deep Voice research team introduced technology that could clone voices with 30 minutes of training material. Adobe has a program called VoCo which could mimic a voice with only 20 minutes of audio. One Canadian startup, called Lyrebird, can clone a voice with only one minute of audio. Baidu’s innovation has further cut that time into mere seconds.

While at first this may seem like an upgrade to tech that became popular in the 90s, with the help of “Home Alone 2” and the “Scream” franchise, there are actually some noble applications for this technology. For example: imagine your child being read to in your voice when you’re far away, or having a duplicate voice created for a person who has lost the ability to talk. This tech could also be used to create personalized digital assistants and more natural-sounding speech translation services.)

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Be an Astronomer From Your Own Chair!!

How to explore space with a NASA telescope from the comfort of your own home

Amateur astronomers who do not have a telescope capable of peering deep into space can now use NASA telescopes remotely via its MicroObservatory network. Using the space agency's Observing with NASA site, users can choose from a list of targets and receive a photograph of it almost immediately via email.

From article, (Amateur astronomers who do not have a telescope capable of peering deep into space can now use NASA telescopes remotely via its MicroObservatory network.

Using the space agency's Observing with NASA site, users can choose from a list of targets and receive a photograph of it almost immediately via email.

According to NASA, The Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, the Harvard College Observatory and the Whipple Observatory all work to maintain the network, which consists of telescopes measuring three feet tall and equipped with 6-inch mirrors to catch the light reflecting from space.

Each of the telescopes can be operated remotely and do not require a human operator. They are capable of viewing the moon, the Orion Nebula or nearby planets and are even powerful enough to snap a picture of other galaxies.)

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How Many Drones are There Now? And, Can They Really be Used for Anything?

Colorado construction sites abuzz with drones, as industry embraces unmanned aircraft

What's that buzzing? Why, unmanned aerial vehicles, of course. From Summit County to Denver's Central Business District, drones - frequently called unmanned aerial vehicles or UAVs by industry professionals - are being put to work on construction sites across Colorado these days, part of a national trend as business owners get better acquainted with the devices' capabilities, the savings they can generate and the federal guidelines regulating them.

 From article, (As of Dec. 15, 107,594 drones had been registered in the U.S. with the FAA for commercial use under Part 107, agency officials say. Prior to establishment of Part 107, commercial drone operations were authorized on a case-by-case basis. Now licensed operators can skip calling the feds so long as they adhere to the rules.

In 2016, Lopez used a drone to do secondary inspections of wall and structural steel connections on the lower floors of 1144 Fifteenth, a 40-story office tower in downtown Denver. Lopez is hoping to run a thermal analysis of the building, but with its height and the amount of signal interference possible in a dense, busy urban setting, he is not convinced of the operation would be safe just yet.

“We are working with drone manufacturers to get a suitable drone,” Lopez said of the task. “We have to feel comfortable that we have an air frame that can fly that project.”

Emison, who recently left a post as communications director of nonprofit drone advocacy group UAS Colorado, said he knows of more than 40 companies doing business in the drone industry that have opened in Colorado over the last two years. That includes Multicopter Warehouse, an authorized dealer for DJI, one of the leading drones sellers in the world.

Construction has been fast to embrace drone use because of its cost effectiveness, Emison said, but many other industries are following suit. Amazon’s plans to eventually air-drop packages on customers’ front lawns via drone are well-documented. Drone-shot video footage is already a common fixture in marketing materials and media coverage. Xcel Energy has an internal drone program with a focus on use inspecting transmission lines and other infrastructure. The Colorado General Assembly passed a bill last year ordering a study of how unmanned aerial systems could be put to work in firefighting, search and rescue, accident reconstruction and other public safety capacities.

“I think the exciting part about the industry is we’re poised to touch everything,” Emison said.

“So far, I think the industry is so new, there is nothing typical yet,” Hatt said. “It seems like every client we’ve talked to wants something with a different twist or turn to it.”

Potential barriers remain to the proliferation of commercial drone use. University of Colorado Professor Eric Frew, who has been studying unnamed vehicles for 20 years, said that if regulators fail to keep up with the capabilities of unmanned aerial vehicles it could impede expansion and usefulness. Frew, who is now leading the autonomous systems interdisciplinary research theme at CU, said that as more advanced systems emerge — such as on-board obstacle avoidance — it will be key for researchers to provide hard data to assess the capabilities of those systems and for regulators to use that a data to create clear frameworks and benchmarks for safe operations.)

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New Technology of UAV's Can be Used for Peaceful Purposes Too.

Colorado construction sites abuzz with drones, as industry embraces unmanned aircraft

What's that buzzing? Why, unmanned aerial vehicles, of course. From Summit County to Denver's Central Business District, drones - frequently called unmanned aerial vehicles or UAVs by industry professionals - are being put to work on construction sites across Colorado these days, part of a national trend as business owners get better acquainted with the devices' capabilities, the savings they can generate and the federal guidelines regulating them.

 From article, (What’s that buzzing? Why, unmanned aerial vehicles, of course.

From Summit County to Denver’s Central Business District, drones — frequently called unmanned aerial vehicles or UAVs by industry professionals — are being put to work on construction sites across Colorado these days, part of a national trend as business owners get better acquainted with the devices’ capabilities, the savings they can generate and the federal guidelines regulating them.

The propeller-powered machines are taking progress photos, creating topographical maps, performing inspections and knocking out other tasks that would otherwise require significant man hours or a helicopter to achieve. And the trajectory of their commercial use is trending upward.

“There has been an explosion in the use of drones” for commercial purposes, said Bill Emison, an unmanned aircraft systems industry consultant based in Denver. “For construction, especially big projects, it’s a no-brainer.”

Weekly drone flights have been a standard part of PCL Construction’s ongoing overhaul of a Colorado Department of Transportation snow plow facility in Silverthorne. Flying autonomously with human supervision, the resident drone regularly flies a grid pattern over the property to create a high-resolution map and 3-D model accurate to within a half inch, company officials say.

“We can use that (map) in a number of different ways,” said Chris Lierheimer, a PCL field coordinator and a licensed commercial drone pilot. “We have been overlaying our contract documents onto this map. We can compare the drawings to what has been done in the field and spot discrepancies. It allows us to be more efficient and prevent rework by spotting them early on.”

PCL, which has its U.S. headquarters in Denver, has 14 pilots and 13 drones licensed with the Federal Aviation Administration, Lierheimer said.  It launched its unmanned aircraft program around four years ago, and uses a software platform from tech firm 3D Robotics to program flights and collect, process and view data.

The hardware isn’t cheap. The DJI brand Phantom 4 Pro with a 4K camera Lierheimer is using in Silverthorne cost PCL around $1,300. (Higher-end drones and camera/advanced sensor packages can cost tens of thousands of dollars.) But the aircraft, training and certification that go into the program pay their way, Leirheimer said. Drones improve safety by performing potentially dangerous inspections in hard-to-reach areas. They collect and process information faster than traditional surveying and with greater detail. A drone can fly over a 10-acre site in 15 minutes, and two or three hours later, produce measurements of all the materials piled there, Lierheimer said. Surveyors could take a day to collect data, and two or three more to process and return findings to the job site.)

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Russia Building Formidable UAV's?

Russia Is Developing a New Long-Range Supersonic Strike Aircraft. No Pilot Needed.

Russia is developing a new long-range unmanned supersonic strike aircraft that would be capable of hitting both mobile and stationary targets. Unlike comparable Western developments that rely on stealth, the Russians are-at least for this particular project-planning on using a combination of low altitude and supersonic speeds to defeat enemy air defenses.

 From article, (Russia is developing a new long-range unmanned supersonic strike aircraft that would be capable of hitting both mobile and stationary targets. Unlike comparable Western developments that rely on stealth, the Russians are—at least for this particular project—planning on using a combination of low altitude and supersonic speeds to defeat enemy air defenses.

“The new UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle] will be able to perform automatic low-altitude flight at supersonic speeds and hit both stationary and mobile targets at a considerable distance from the takeoff site,” reads a Russian language report from state-owned RIA Novosti, which cites Alexander Nemov, deputy head of research for the Central Research Institute of the Air Force.

This is supposed to be a low-flying supersonic craft—it is notoriously difficult to shoot down a projectile flying at low altitudes and at high speeds,” Sam Bendett, a researcher at the Center for Naval Analyses, told The National Interest. “So this UCAV is aiming to penetrate anti-aircraft defenses and to generally punch through existing radar and missile coverage.”

However, while this particular Russian aircraft is being designed to be stealthy, Moscow is not abandoning low observable technology.

“There are plans to develop stealth UAVs and UCAVs,” Bendett said. “This development is not tied into any other but reflects a Russian line of thinking about future warfare where taking out an adversary’s defenses and C2 [command and control] targets deep in its territory is essential in conjunction with a sustained defense/offense with or against precision-guided munitions.”

It is not clear how the Russians intend to control the new UCAV inside heavily defended airspace—especially where there is a lot of enemy jamming or cyber activity.)


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Switchgrass Could Fuel Your Clunker. (At Least Until Electric Cars Take Off.)

How biofuels from plant fibers could combat global warming

Scientists, companies and government agencies are hard at work on decreasing greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change. In recent years, biofuels produced from corn have emerged as a fuel source to power motor vehicles and, perhaps, airplanes. But corn is problematic as a biofuel source material.

 From article, (A study from Colorado State University finds new promise for biofuels produced from switchgrass, a non-edible native grass that grows in many parts of North America. Scientists used modeling to simulate various growing scenarios, and found a climate footprint ranging from -11 to 10 grams of carbon dioxide per mega-joule -- the standard way of measuring greenhouse gas emissions.

To compare with other fuels, the impact of using gasoline results in 94 grams of carbon dioxide per mega-joule.

The study, "High resolution techno-ecological modeling of a bioenergy landscape to identify climate mitigation opportunities in cellulosic ethanol production," was published online Feb. 19 in Nature Energy.

John Field, research scientist at the Natural Resource Ecology Lab at CSU, said what the team found is significant. "What we saw with switchgrass is that you're actually storing carbon in the soil," he said. "You're building up organic matter and sequestering carbon."

His CSU research team works on second-generation cellulosic biofuels made from non-edible plant material such as grasses. Cellulose is the stringy fiber of a plant. These grasses, including switchgrass, are potentially more productive as crops and can be grown with less of an environmental footprint than corn.

"They don't require a lot of fertilizer or irrigation," Field said. "Farmers don't have to plow up the field every year to plant new crops, and they're good for a decade or longer.")

Jeff Bezos Made Another $3.2 Billion. No End In Sight?

Jeff Bezos Adds $3.2 Billion To Fortune As Amazon Investors Cheer Record Profits

It's good to be Jeff Bezos: The Amazon founder saw his fortune rise by another $3.2 billion on Friday. He is now worth $118.8 billion, solidifying his title as the richest person on the planet, according to Forbes real-time billionaire rankings. He briefly topped $120 billion, crossing a new threshold, during the day.

 From article, (It's good to be Jeff Bezos: The Amazon founder saw his fortune rise by another $3.2 billion on Friday.

He is now worth $118.8 billion, solidifying his title as the richest person on the planet, according to Forbes real-time billionaire rankings. He briefly topped $120 billion, crossing a new threshold, during the day. In recent months, he has surpassed both Bill Gates (today worth $92.1 billion) and Warren Buffett ($89.9 billion).

Bezos' fortune rose on the back of blockbuster quarterly results from Amazon. The e-commerce giant said on Thursday it hauled in a record $1.9 billion in profits in its fourth quarter. Revenue climbed 38% to $60.5 billion, topping expectations on Wall Street. Investors cheered the results and sent the stock up 3% on Friday. Shares are up 75% over the last twelve months.

Bezos overtook Gates as the richest person on the planet in October 2017, replacing the Microsoft cofounder and longtime title holder. In the months since, Bezos has seen his fortune swell by another $28.2 billion.

Amazon has come a long way from its origins as an online bookseller. Bezos, 54, started the company out of a Seattle garage in 1994. He first joined the Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans in 1998, a year after taking his company public, with a net worth of $1.6 billion.

In the last two decades, Bezos has dramatically reshaped the retail industry while also delving into cloud computing, movies and television and products like the Echo. In June 2017, Amazon made waves when it announced it was snatching up Whole Foods for $13.7 billion. It also ignited a nationwide contest when it revealed intentions to build a second U.S. headquarters and hire 50,000 people -- and invited cities to put their names in the hat.)

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International Law Says Where We Can Go and Not. Some Countries Like This, Some Don't.

'Floating city' USS Carl Vinson not concerned with Beijing's maps as it sails through South China Sea

Updated February 26, 2018 12:29:14 Deep in the South China Sea the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, USS Carl Vinson, has a point to make. "It shows resolve, and gives decision space to our leaders," the ship's commanding officer, Captain Doug Verissimo, said. "When they put a carrier strike group somewhere it helps to show that the United States is interested.

From article, (Deep in the South China Sea the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, USS Carl Vinson, has a point to make.

"It shows resolve, and gives decision space to our leaders," the ship's commanding officer, Captain Doug Verissimo, said.

"When they put a carrier strike group somewhere it helps to show that the United States is interested.

"We don't have a lot of these, so when you put one in a certain area it has some influence.

"Of course it also gives our diplomats time and space to negotiate and make decisions, ultimately to try and prevent any type of armed conflict."

The Carl Vinson is the flagship of a strike group from the US Third Fleet.

The other vessels are here — but you can't see them.

Somewhere over the horizon, guided missile cruisers and destroyers form a protective shield around the aircraft carrier.

No-one on board will say it so bluntly, but the ship is sailing through the South China Sea to send a deliberate message: these waters aren't China's alone.

China has built airstrips and ports on reefs and shoals throughout the sea in defiance of a ruling from an international tribunal in the Hague.

"We want to keep laws and norms in place that we don't change the map along the way, to avoid frictions," Captain Verissimo said.

"As you change maps it creates new frictions and new issues."

He doesn't mention it by name, but the only nation trying to change the map out here is China, which has drawn a so-called "Nine Dash Line" around waters it claims as its own.

It doesn't want anyone going near any of its artificial islands.

 "I will say our navigation is very good and we know where international law says we can operate and I know where international law says we can't. And we're going to do what international law says we can do.")


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From the 1970's to 2040: How fast is renewable energy progressing? (From an Oil Company's Point of View)

BP Outlook: How Fast Will Renewable Energy Grow?

Technological progress and strong policy support are fueling the fast growth of renewable energy, which BP (NYSE: BP) said could increase five-fold to account for about 14% of the world's primary energy consumption mix by 2040.

 From article, (Technological progress and strong policy support are fueling the fast growth of renewable energy, which BP (NYSE: BP) said could increase five-fold to account for about 14% of the world’s primary energy consumption mix by 2040.

Renewable energy, which was pegged as the fastest-growing fuel source, could also expand its share of the global power generation mix from 7% today to about a quarter during the same time frame, according to Evolving Transition (ET) scenario of BP’s Energy Outlook 2018. The ET scenario assumes the pace and nature of governmental policies, technologies and societal preferences will be similar in the future to those of the recent past.

“In the ET scenario renewables gain share in the power sector faster than any energy source in history, the closest parallel being the rapid buildup of nuclear power in the ‘70s and ‘80s,” BP group chief economist Spencer Dale said during a recent webcast on the company’s latest outlook. “But despite that, there must be a chance that renewables will continue to surprise on the upside.”

Renewables’ share of global primary energy consumption could skyrocket from 234 million tonnes of oil equivalent (MMtoe) in 2010 to 2,527 MMtoe in 2040. The anticipated growth is substantial, considering the figure was 2 MMtoe in 1970.)

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Space Tourists Rejoice Your Tourism Space Station is Coming. (But only for Millionaires, for Now.)

Inflatable hotel will be launched by 2021 for tourists

A private US company that has long collaborated with NASA and the International Space Station has voiced its intention to build the world's first human space hotel to function as a permanent base there. Bigelow wants to make a series of private space hotels that humans can visit now that ...

From article, (A private US company that has long collaborated with NASA and the International Space Station has voiced its intention to build the world’s first human space hotel to function as a permanent base there.

Bigelow wants to make a series of private space hotels that humans can visit now that commercial space flights will open. Recently, it has announced the establishment of a Bigelow Space Operations (BSO) branch that will deal exclusively with the plan: “Bigelow Aerospace will build a station that will be launched with a rocket containing 2.4 times the compressed volume of the entire International Space Station, “they say in their communiqué.

And by 2021, they even plan to send two original space habitats, the B330-1 and B330-2, which “will house people on a permanent basis and will be the largest and most complex structures known as human space stations “. The B330 is a home projected into the Universe and extends to its full size when it comes in orbit. It is the cornerstone of Bigelow’s technology and has made it known to the technology world.

After expanding into Space, the B330 covers 16.8×6.7 meters, housing six people comfortably. As for the cost of renting a room up there, company CEO Robert Bigelow said it would range to “low seven-digit numbers”. And probably builds its hotels on time, as both SpaceX (Dragon) and Boeing (Starliner) have promised to carry passengers in orbit until 2019 …)

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Mayor De Blasio wants a lock box. Is Gov. Cuomo Caving on Congestion Pricing?

De Blasio demands no congestion-pricing revenue go to suburbs

Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday he will only support Gov. Andrew Cuomo's plan to charge cars for entering Manhattan's business district if the proceeds go strictly to transit improvements in the five boroughs. At an unrelated press conference at City Hall, the mayor framed his long-standing call for a "lockbox" on congestion pricing revenue as an ultimatum.

 From article, (Mayor Bill de Blasio said Thursday he will only support Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s plan to charge cars for entering Manhattan’s business district if the proceeds go strictly to transit improvements in the five boroughs.

At an unrelated press conference at City Hall, the mayor framed his long-standing call for a “lockbox” on congestion pricing revenue as an ultimatum. Such a demand could prove a sticking point with the suburban lawmakers who will need to sign off on the program in Albany—and whose constituents, according to transportation guru Charles Komanoff’s model, would contribute between 17% and 22% of congestion fees.

“If it doesn’t have a lockbox, we’re not going to be a part of it,” de Blasio said.

It’s unclear how much say de Blasio will actually have on the issue. When former Mayor Michael Bloomberg attempted to institute congestion pricing a decade ago, he first had the City Council pass a “home rule” message asking Albany to vote the program through—a call the Assembly subsequently rejected.

But at a recent Crain’s breakfast forum, counsel to the governor Alphonso David asserted the state did not need any kind of local approval to put the program in place. Council Speaker Corey Johnson, a congestion-pricing supporter, pushed back on this claim and said he intended to shepherd through a home-rule resolution once the state Legislature commits to a plan.

Also unclear is whether Cuomo will make an effort to pass the entire proposal this year. He left most of it out of both his budget address in January and his 30-day budget amendments this month.)

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Uber will Host an Event that Shows their Progress on Flying Cars.

Uber is pushing forward with its flying car plans and will host a Los Angeles event with demonstrations in May

Uber is hosting an aviation conference, Elevate Summit, in May 2018. The ride-hailing company wants to run a "flying car" trial in three cities by 2020. Its long-term vision is urban aircraft you book with the tap of an app. Uber is still committed to its dream of flying cars.

From article, (Uber is still committed to its dream of flying cars.

In May, the ride-hailing company will host a special conference dedicated to the futuristic vehicles, a sign that Uber's intentions to play a leading role in the nascent industry have not been dampened by the new management and investors who now control the company.

Uber's second annual "Elevate Summit" will take place in Los Angeles — one of the cities where it hopes to launch a pilot project in the next few years.

 Uber is best-known for its on-demand ride-hailing app, but in recent years has talked up the promise of Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) aircraft — flying vehicles capable of launching without a runway, and sometimes referred to as "flying cars" — for transportation in urban areas.

In November 2017, the company's head of product Jeff Holden shared a number of details about the "Uber Elevate" project, The Verge reported at the time. It hopes to launch tests in Los Angeles, Dallas-Fort Worth and Dubai by 2020, and envisions customers booking seats on an aircraft via the app, much like a regular taxi, then catching it from a rooftop "skyport."

Uber, one of the world's dominant ride-hailing services, has for years invested in futuristic technology including self-driving cars and flying cars under the leadership of Travis Kalanick, the former CEO and cofounder. Kalanick was replaced as CEO by Dara Khosrowshahi in August, following a rocky year at Uber.

Despite the change in management, Uber appears to be moving forward with its plans for flying cars.)

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Build up, Tear Down, Build Up Again, at JPMorgan

JPMorgan is scrapping its 52-story Manhattan skyscraper in the largest voluntary demolition ever

It's a tough week for fans of mid-century design. Much to the ire of preservationists, JPMorgan Chase announced yesterday plans to demolish its 52-story headquarters in midtown Manhattan, considered by many architecture historians to be a jewel of the Mad Men era. Slated for early next year, it will be largest voluntary building demolition in history, eclipsing...

 From article, (JPMorgan Chase announced yesterday plans to demolish its 52-story headquarters in midtown Manhattan, considered by many architecture historians to be a jewel of the Mad Men era.

Slated for early next year, it will be largest voluntary building demolition in history, eclipsing the 47-story Singer Building skyscraper that was knocked down in 1968 to make way for more office space in downtown Manhattan. But JPMorgan’s announcement is noteworthy for another important reason: It’s indicative of the fundamental tension between companies’ desire to change with the times, and preservationists’ desire to safeguard urban history.

JPMorgan plans to replace the Park Avenue building, built in 1961, with a taller tower that will accommodate its swelling ranks. The banking and financial services giant boasts that its future 70-story, 2.5 million sq. ft (232,000 sq. m.) tower will allow the company to consolidate its New York-based workforce, which is now scattered in various offices in midtown Manhattan. JPMorgan currently has 6,000 employees squeezed into a headquarters designed for 3,500 workers. The new building will accommodate 15,000 workers.

“With a new headquarters at 270 Park Avenue, we are recommitting ourselves to New York City while also ensuring that we operate in a highly efficient and world-class environment for the 21st century,” said JPMorgan chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon in a press release. The new tower is scheduled to completed in 2024, around the time of Dimon’s planned retirement.)

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How Bonding Material Welds Can Help Drive Down the Cost of Automobiles.

The Move to Lighter, Stronger, Cheaper Materials for Transportation

Another area of Li's research is the characterization of composites used in the automotive industry, supported by the Ford Motor Company. Using X-ray computed tomography (CT), which combines multiple X-ray images into a three-dimensional image, she studies and characterizes the microstructure of advanced composite materials.

  From article, (Advanced manufacturing can require the bonding of incompatible materials. Li is an expert in new techniques that can bond materials when traditional bonding doesn’t work.

“My research is in lightweighting – how to make a car lighter by using advanced materials such as aluminum, magnesium or carbon fiber composites” she explains. “The benefits of such advanced materials lie in their high strength-to-weight ratio, which makes it possible to reduce the vehicle’s weight and thus reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”

But traditional bonding won’t work with dissimilar materials that have different melting temperatures. If the materials can’t fuse, or if they form an intermetallic compound that is brittle or prone to fracture, other bonding methods are required. One such method is called friction stir welding.

“There are two types of welding,” says Li, “fusion, which is what most people are familiar with in welding shops and garages across America, and solid state welding, which doesn’t melt the metal. The latter doesn’t apply any external heat source; friction alone heats the metal to a plastic state. For instance, aluminum is a softer metal than steel and the friction stir technique works well to bind aluminum and steel together.”

Invented in Great Britain in the early years of this century, friction stir uses robots to apply a spinning metal pin at the juncture of two materials, which then soften and bond along a weld.

Li uses a somewhat similar technique, patented by General Motors, that is a combination of friction stir and mechanical riveting. Called friction stir riveting, the technique drives a rivet into friction-softened materials. Once the rivet is locked, the rivet binds the materials.

“In the future, researchers are also looking to friction stir to bond higher strength steels,” she says. “We’ve been talking with Zi-Kui Liu (Penn State professor of materials science and engineering) about simulating friction stir to get a better idea of what is happening in the bond formation.”

Lightweighting is important in the automobile and aerospace industry, both of which are driven to reduce fuel consumption without losing the strength of traditional heavier materials. Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner, for example, uses advanced composites, which account for 50 percent of the airplane’s total weight. Along with allowing for a lighter structure, the composite materials are better at resisting impacts, easier to repair, and do not fatigue or corrode.

In the automotive realm, a 10 percent reduction in vehicle weight can reduce fuel usage by 6-8 percent. The DOE’s Vehicle Technologies Office says that replacing cast iron and traditional steel components with high-strength steel, magnesium alloys, aluminum alloys, carbon fiber, and polymer composites can reduce the weight of a vehicle’s body and chassis by up to 50 percent. Lightweight materials are particularly important for hybrid and electric vehicles, as they could lead to smaller and less expensive batteries and greater driving range.)

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2023: An Orbiting Moon Space Station.

NASA could have an orbiting moon base by 2023

The project, dubbed the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway, would by-and-large operate similarly to the ISS - only it will orbit the moon, not Earth. If everything goes according to plan, it should be ready for its first inhabitants in time for the 54th anniversary of the original moon landing.

From article, (The project, dubbed the Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway, would by-and-large operate similarly to the ISS — only it will orbit the moon, not Earth. If everything goes according to plan, it should be ready for its first inhabitants in time for the 54th anniversary of the original moon landing.

Robert Lightfoot, NASA’s acting administrator, said that the installation will “help us further explore the moon and its resources and translate that experience toward human missions to Mars,” in his State of NASA address earlier this month. It was one of several projects funded under the Trump administration’s $19.9 billion NASA budget proposal for the fiscal year 2019. The proposed budget places a heavy emphasis on human exploration, doling out an enviable $10.5 billion for the task. However, it also cuts a number of missions related to climate change, as well as the agency’s $99.3 million education office.

With great budgets come great price tags, it seems, as the moon station would cost an estimated $2.7 billion through to the fiscal year 2023. However, things are not yet set in stone as Congress is still to approve the budget. For context, the White House is considering cutting funding for the ISS as of 2024.

The moon station will be assembled over time, just like the ISS was in its time. Power and propulsion units are targeted for launch in 2022, and it will be keeping the station in a stable orbit through the use solar electric propulsion. This module will also handle communications to Earth, to the surface of the moon, other spaceships, and during spacewalks — NASA says large datasets will be transferred using lasers, to speed the process up. The habitation module is scheduled for launch in 2023 and should support crews for 30 and 60-day missions, according to NASA. Onboard personnel will conduct research and also explore the lunar surface and the immediate space around the moon.

Alternatively, the station could serve as temporary lodging for crews traveling to Mars or deeper space in the future.

A number of US companies (most notably Boeing) are already participating in studies on how to best develop the habitat, power, and propulsion elements. Back in 2016 six companies were already tasked with developing full-size ground prototypes for space habitats. The stated goal is “to have as much realism in the habitation module as possible, by integrating all the racks and human factors, from galleys to sleep stations, glove boxes and command and control systems and displays,” said Mark Ortiz, Boeing’s NextSTEP (Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships) program manager. These prototypes will be handed over to NASA for evaluation by 2019.)

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