Ford Shape Shifts on Production Line Models

Ford getting rid of most car models to focus on trucks, SUV and newUS is not buying regular cars so Ford will stop making them and shift to more SUV, trucks, SUV and new electric vehicles electric vehicles | NextBigFuture.com

By 2020, almost 90 percent of the Ford Motor company portfolio in North America will be trucks, utilities and commercial vehicles. Given declining consumer demand and product profitability, the company will not invest in next generations of traditional Ford sedans for North America.

From article, (By 2020, almost 90 percent of the Ford Motor company portfolio in North America will be trucks, utilities and commercial vehicles. Given declining consumer demand and product profitability, the company will not invest in next generations of traditional Ford sedans for North America. Over the next few years, the Ford car portfolio in North America will transition to two vehicles – the best-selling Mustang and the all-new Focus Active crossover coming out next year. The company is also exploring new “white space” vehicle silhouettes that

combine the best attributes of cars and utilities, such as higher ride height, space and versatility.

Ford will stop making the Fiesta, Focus, Fusion, Taurus, and C-MAX.

The Ford Taurus had a peak sales of 400,000 in 1996 but has since fallen to about 42,000.

Ford brand targeting North America’s freshest lineup among full-line makers by 2020, replacing more than 75 percent of its current portfolio and adding four new trucks and SUVs.

By 2020, Ford estimates SUV sales could account for 50 percent of U.S. industry retail sales – one reason Ford is reallocating $7 billion in capital from cars to SUVs. By 2020, Ford plans an industry-leading lineup of eight SUVs – five of which will offer hybrid powertrains and one battery electric. Ford SUV sales are estimated to grow 20 percent – more than double the industry rate – to more than 950,000 by 2020, according to LMC Automotive, and surpass 1 million by 2021.

Ford will make new hybrid-electric powertrains for high-volume, profitable vehicles like the F-150, Mustang, Explorer, Escape and Bronco. The company’s battery electric vehicle rollout starts in 2020 with a performance utility, and it will bring 16 battery-electric vehicles to market by 2022.)

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Gwynne Shotwell on BFR Rocket, StarLink, Space Telescopes, And Global Trips.

$10 billion for SpaceX global internet satellite network and SpaceX BFR will have ten flights per day | NextBigFuture.com

SpaceX will make a massive network of literally thousands of low earth orbit satellites to provide high-bandwidth, low-cost internet connection to every square foot of planet earth. (This is at 9:38 to 10:37 in the TED talk video) Gwynne Shotwell: We actually don't chat very much about this particular project, not because we're hiding anything, but this is probably one of the most challenging if not the most challenging project we've undertaken.

From article, (SpaceX will make a massive network of literally thousands of low earth orbit satellites to provide high-bandwidth, low-cost internet connection to every square foot of planet earth. (This is at 9:38 to 10:37 in the TED talk video)

Gwynne Shotwell: We actually don’t chat very much about this particular project, not because we’re hiding anything, but this is probably one of the most challenging if not the most challenging project we’ve undertaken. No one has been successful deploying a huge constellation for internet broadband, or basically for satellite internet, and I don’t think physics is the difficulty here. I think we can come up with the right technology solution, but we need to make a business out of it, and it’ll cost the company about 10 billion dollars or more to deploy this system. And so we’re marching steadily along but we’re certainly not claiming victory yet.

There’s no question it’ll change the world.

BFR can take the satellites that we’re currently taking to orbit to many orbits. It allows for even a new class of satellites to be delivered to orbit. Basically, the width, the diameter of the fairing is eight meters, so you can think about what giant telescopes you can put in that fairing, in that cargo bay, and see really incredible things and discover incredible things in space.But then there are some residual capabilities that we have out of BFR as well.

…

space travel for earthlings. I can’t wait for this residual capability. Basically, what we’re going to do is we’re going to fly BFR like an aircraft and do point-to-point travel on earth, so you can take off from New York City or Vancouver and fly halfway across the globe. You’ll be on the BFR for roughly half an hour or 40 minutes, and the longest part — yeah, it’s so awesome.

The longest part of that flight is actually the boat out and back.

The first BFR is going to have roughly a hundred passengers. And let’s talk a little bit about the business. Everyone thinks rockets are really expensive, and to a large degree they are, and how could we possibly compete with airline tickets here? But if you think about it, if I can do this trip in half an hour to an hour, I can do dozens of these a day, right? And yet, a long-haul aircraft can only make one of those flights a day. So even if my rocket was slightly more expensive and the fuel is a little bit more expensive, I can run 10x at least what they’re running in a day, and really make the revenue that I need to out of that system.

So within 10 years, an economy price ticket, or, like, a couple thousand dollars per person to fly New York to Shanghai.)

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The U.K. Wants to Revive Old Mines for Material Used in EV batteries. Why this is a good idea.

British Mines Could Be New Source of Electric-Car Battery Materials

The next big source of metals for electric-car batteries may be centuries-old British mines, many of which haven't been active since the 1990s, according to a new report. A new source of metals is exactly what's needed as automakers seek to boost production of electric cars. Mines in the U.K.

 From article, (The next big source of metals for electric-car batteries may be centuries-old British mines, many of which haven't been active since the 1990s, according to a new Reuters report. A new source of metals is exactly what's needed as automakers seek to boost production of electric cars.

Mines in the U.K. county of Cornwall access one of the world's largest tin deposits, but were shut down in the 1990s when a drop in prices made them unviable. Now, researchers are looking at the possibility of reopening the mines, which may contain lithium deposits as well, to supply metals for batteries.

This would solve many problems for the battery industry. Increased demand from automakers is expected to create a shortage of the metals used in lithium-ion battery cells. Chinese companies also control most of the existing mines and refineries, leaving Western companies concerned that they will be shut out. Poor working conditions in existing mines in countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo also present ethical issues.

A U.K. mining revival creating a source of battery metals in a stable Western country is an attractive prospect for the auto industry, but it's not a done deal. So far, mining efforts have been relatively small scale, with large firms holding back in order to let smaller upstarts take the initial risk, according to Reuters. It's unclear if these initial efforts will point to enough metals to make a difference.)

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What Could TESS Find?

NASA'S TESS satellite could find planet hosting life by 2020

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center/REUTERS The excitement among those gathered for the launch of TESS, NASA's latest sky watcher, on April 18 was understandable. Equipped with four telescopes, the satellite will orbit for two years, taking pictures of more than 200,000 stars, dozens within 10 light-years of Earth.

From article, (The excitement among those gathered for the launch of TESS, NASA’s latest sky watcher, on April 18 was understandable. Equipped with four telescopes, the satellite will orbit for two years, taking pictures of more than 200,000 stars, dozens within 10 light-years of Earth. Sara Seager, deputy director of science for the mission, watched with her family from Cape Canaveral that day, knowing exactly what was at stake. “It is fair to say that TESS will be finding a whole bunch of planets in the habitable zone,” she says. In plain English: We might just find a planet hosting life by 2020.

TESS stands for Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, and its mission is to identify planets orbiting the brightest stars in our neighborhood of the universe. When the orbit of a planet takes it between its sun and TESS’s cameras, the light from the star is temporarily dimmed, like an airplane blocking a bit of sunlight as it flies past. Back on Earth, astronomers reading TESS’s data know that those minor fluctuations signal the presence of a planet. They can then direct more powerful instruments—the Hubble Space Telescope and the James Webb Space Telescope, which will launch in 2020—for a closer look. “TESS,” says Paul Hertz, director of astrophysics at NASA, “takes us from knowing there are exoplanets to studying them.”)

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Building Subways? Why Did NYC Stop?

Why New York City Stopped Building Subways

Nearly 80 years ago, a construction standstill derailed the subway's progress, leading to its present crisis. This is the story, decade by decade. In the first decades of the 20th century, New York City experienced an unprecedented infrastructure boom.

 From article, (In the first decades of the 20th century, New York City experienced an unprecedented infrastructure boom. Iconic bridges, opulent railway terminals, and much of what was then the world’s largest underground and rapid transit network were constructed in just 20 years. Indeed, that subway system grew from a single line in 1904 to a network hundreds of miles long by the 1920s. It spread rapidly into undeveloped land across upper Manhattan and the outer boroughs, bringing a wave of apartment houses alongside.

Then it stopped. Since December 16, 1940, New York has not opened another new subway line, aside from a handful of small extensions and connections. Unlike most other great cities, New York’s rapid transit system remains frozen in time: Commuters on their iPhones are standing in stations scarcely changed from nearly 80 years ago.

Indeed, in some ways, things have moved backward. The network is actually considerably smaller than it was during the Second World War, and today’s six million daily riders are facing constant delays, infrastructure failures, and alarmingly crowded cars and platforms.

Why did New York abruptly stop building subways after the 1940s? And how did a construction standstill that started nearly 80 years ago lead to the present moment of transit crisis?

Three broad lines of history provide an explanation. The first is the postwar lure of the suburbs and the automobile—the embodiment of modernity in its day. The second is the interminable battles of control between the city and the private transit companies, and between the city and the state government. The third is the treadmill created by rising costs and the buildup of deferred maintenance—an ever-expanding maintenance backlog that eventually consumed any funds made available for expansion.)

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A Solution to Diesel NOx Problem Comes too Late as EV's Take Off

Breakthrough: new Bosch diesel technology provides solution to NOx problem

Bosch CEO Denner also calls for transparency on fuel consumption and CO2 emissions

Me, "I still think all car and truck producing companies should transition to Battery Electric Vehicles (because it is a Superior Technology to Internal and Diesel combustion engines. It has less maintenance issues, longer driver ownership, better resale value, 'if it still drives your okay on purchasing it, even if you have to buy a new battery pack, a high mileage used electric car costs a lot less, with all the above benefits than a high mileage used Combustion Engine car, which tend to breakdown more often with age.' and, of course, a Battery Electric car creates a lot less pollution). But I decided to add this article to my Facebook friends page to be fair to Diesel Engine fans. This article shows there are still technological leaps for Diesel Engines, if your into that thing."


 From article, (“There’s a future for diesel. Today, we want to put a stop, once and for all, to the debate about the demise of diesel technology.” It was with these words that the Bosch CEO Dr. Volkmar Denner, speaking at the company’s annual press conference, announced a decisive breakthrough in diesel technology. New developments from Bosch could enable vehicle manufacturers to reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) so drastically that they already comply with future limits. Even in RDE (real driving emissions) testing, emissions from vehicles equipped with the newly premiered Bosch diesel technology are not only significantly below current limits but also those scheduled to come into force from 2020. Bosch engineers achieved these results by refining existing technologies. There is no need for additional components, which would drive up costs. “Bosch is pushing the boundaries of what is technically feasible,” Denner said. “Equipped with the latest Bosch technology, diesel vehicles will be classed as low-emission vehicles and yet remain affordable.” The Bosch CEO also called for greater transparency with regard to the CO2 emissions caused by road traffic, and called for fuel consumption and thus CO2 emissions to be also measured under real conditions on the road in the future.

Since 2017, European legislation has required that new passenger car models tested according to an RDE-compliant mix of urban, extra-urban, and freeway cycles emit no more than 168 milligrams of NOx per kilometer. As of 2020, this limit will be cut to 120 milligrams. But even today, vehicles equipped with Bosch diesel technology can achieve as little as 13 milligrams of NOx in standard legally-compliant RDE cycles. That is approximately one-tenth of the prescribed limit that will apply after 2020. And even when driving in particularly challenging urban conditions, where test parameters are well in excess of legal requirements, the average emissions of the Bosch test vehicles are as low as 40 milligrams per kilometer. Bosch engineers have achieved this decisive breakthrough over the past few months.)

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Plastic Can Be Recycled?

This plastic can be recycled over and over and over again

There's a great future in plastics. A new kind of plastic can, when exposed to the right chemicals, break down into the same basic building blocks that it came from and be rebuilt again and again. The recyclable material is more durable than previous attempts to create reusable plastics, researchers report inthe April 27 Science.

From article, (A new kind of plastic can, when exposed to the right chemicals, break down into the same basic building blocks that it came from and be rebuilt again and again. The recyclable material is more durable than previous attempts to create reusable plastics, researchers report inthe April 27 Science.

Designing plastics that can be easily reused is one line of attack against the global plastic waste problem. Only about 10 percent of plastic ever made gets recycled, according to a 2017 study in Science Advances. But the material is so cheap and useful that hundreds of millions of tons of it keeps getting churned out each year.

A major impediment to plastic recycling is that most plastics degrade into molecules that aren’t immediately useful. Transforming those molecules back into plastic or into some other product requires many chemical reactions, which makes the recycling process less efficient. 
And while biodegradable plastics have become popular in recent years, they break down only if the right microbes are present. More often than not, these plastics end up lingering in landfills or floating in the ocean. Creating plastics that could be broken down into their building blocks and reused without additional processing and purifying could help reduce the pollution buildup.

 Zhu and his colleagues modified one of their previous creations, a small ringed molecule, by adding another ring in a way that braced the molecule into a particular conformation. 

That rigidity helped the monomers quickly link together at room temperature into polymer chains that are heat-stable.

Then, when exposed to certain mild chemicals or high enough heat, the polymers degraded back into monomers. The researchers were able to repeat this cycle several times, showing that, in theory, the polymer could be infinitely recyclable.

While each monomer is locked into a particular conformation, not all of them have the same shape even though they’re made from the same chemical recipe. Mixing two different conformations of monomers created an even stronger plastic, says Zhu.

“This is probably the best system out there,” Shaver says.
Still, it’s not perfect yet: Zhu and his colleagues plan to tinker with the monomer design more in the future to make the resulting plastic a bit less brittle. Eventually, they hope to commercialize the product.)

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China Wants to Take Over the Moon.

China lays out its ambitions to colonize the moon and build a "lunar palace"

In one of China's most famous folktales, a woman named Chang'e flew to the moon after consuming an elixir of immortality, choosing to live in a lunar palace so she could remain close to her husband on earth. Inspired by the thousand-year-old fairy tale, China has ambitions to build a real-life lunar palace on the...

 From article, (In one of China’s most famous folktales, a woman named Chang’e flew to the moon after consuming an elixir of immortality, choosing to live in a lunar palace so she could remain close to her husband on earth.

Inspired by the thousand-year-old fairy tale, China has ambitions to build a real-life lunar palace on the moon, according to its space agency. The China National Space Administration released a video (link in Chinese) on April 24, the country’s third space day, laying out its plans to build a scientific outpost on the moon.

“China’s dream of residing in a lunar palace will soon become a reality,” said the video, which recapped the country’s achievements and plans in space.

The proposed lunar outpost would be made of multiple tube-shaped cabins where scientists would live and conduct their research. The agency didn’t provide a specific timeframe, but Wu Weiren, the chief designer of China’s moon-exploration project, told state broadcaster CCTV in March that it could happen by 2030 (link in Chinese). The ideal location would be the moon’s south pole, which might have water and enough sunlight, he added.)

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Volvo to make 50% of Car Sales the Electric Kind

Volvo Says Electric Cars Will Account For 50 Percent Of Its Sales By 2025

Following the declaration that every car it makes will get a mild hybrid, plug-in hybrid, or all-electric variant beginning in 2019, Volvo now says that all-electric cars will make up 50 percent of its sales by 2025. That's an ambitious target for an automaker that doesn't have any all-electric cars in its lineup right now.

From article, (Following the declaration that every car it makes will get a mild hybrid, plug-in hybrid, or all-electric variant beginning in 2019, Volvo now says that all-electric cars will make up 50 percent of its sales by 2025. That's an ambitious target for an automaker that doesn't have any all-electric cars in its lineup right now.

Volvo made the announcement at the 2018 Beijing Auto Show, and the plan seems to be geared toward the Chinese market. China will introduce an emissions-credit system in 2019 that will require automakers to sell specific amounts of electric cars. In a press release, Volvo noted that the Chinese government wants so-called "new energy vehicles" (including battery-electric cars, plug-in hybrids, and hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles) to account for 20 percent of the country's annual car sales by 2025.

Emissions standards in the United States will also get stricter over the next few years but, given the uncertain fate of standards for 2022-2025, the lack of a comprehensive U.S. government plan to promote electric cars, and the larger size of the Chinese new-car market, China is likely Volvo's priority.)

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More Info on SpaceX's Starlink

SpaceX's Shotwell: Starlink internet will cost about $10 billion and 'change the world'

CLOSE SpaceX is expected to spend billions on its ambitious goal to construct a massive constellation of internet-beaming satellites that will "change the world," the company's president and chief operating officer said during a conference earlier this month.

 From article, (SpaceX is expected to spend billions on its ambitious goal to construct a massive constellation of internet-beaming satellites that will "change the world," the company's president and chief operating officer said during a conference earlier this month.

The project, known as Starlink in federal filings, aims to launch thousands of satellites on SpaceX rockets to low Earth orbit that can eventually beam internet connectivity back down, bypassing the need for complicated ground-based infrastructure. Users, according to the federal documents, need only have a laptop-sized terminal to gain connectivity to the constellation of nearly 12,000 minifridge-sized satellites.

"We actually don't chat very much about this particular project," SpaceX's Gwynne Shotwell said during a newly released Technology, Entertainment, Design discussion, also known as a TED Talk. "This is probably one of the most challenging – if not the most challenging – projects we've undertaken."

"It'll cost the company about $10 billion or more to deploy this system," she said.

The statements by Shotwell came nearly a month after SpaceX secured critical authorization from the Federal Communications Commission to begin constructing the constellation. SpaceX, the FCC said, must launch 50 percent of its proposed 4,425 satellites by 2024 and fully complete that first phase by 2027.)

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Tunnel in Seattle Instead of a Ferry? Cool!

A tunnel under Puget Sound? Not as crazy as you'd think

SEATTLE -- An idea being floated this week to Kitsap County commissioners would connect Seattle and Bainbridge Island with a 15-minute drive rather than waiting for a ferry. Instead, you'd go under the water in a tunnel. The retired civil engineer that's pioneering this idea says there's already deeper tunnels, longer tunnels and tunnels in more seismically active areas.

 From article ,(An idea being floated this week to Kitsap County commissioners would connect Seattle and Bainbridge Island with a 15-minute drive rather than waiting for a ferry. Instead, you'd go under the water in a tunnel.

The retired civil engineer that's pioneering this idea says there's already deeper tunnels, longer tunnels and tunnels in more seismically active areas. He says it makes sense in so many ways, including helping the native orcas, saving taxpayer dollars and even helping the economy on both sides of the water.

"A light bulb went off,"  says Bob Ortblad, who is retired from civil engineering but still teaches a class at UW on the history of infrastructure. So when a recent ferry trip to Martha's Vineyard cost him $137 but an Icelandic tunnel going the same distance only cost him less than $10, it got him thinking. 

"Starting looking at the Washington State Ferry system, which is highly subsidized," says Ortblad. "A round-trip ticket for car and driver to Bainbridge really should be closer to $75-$100."
So, he's pitching an idea to build a tunnel. So far the Seattle resident of 40 years has pitched it to the Washington State Transportation Commission and later this week to officials in Kitsap County.  
The tunnel would go from Seattle's Smith Cove, under Magnolia Hill, four miles under Puget Sound and resurface on Bainbridge Island.

It would be much like the Eiksund Tunnel in Norway, completed in 2008, which goes a longer distance but a similar depth of about 800-900 feet. Based on the costs, he says, each two-lane tube would cost about $400 million.) 

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SpaceX Expands Rocket Testing Facility

SpaceX execs bullish on BFR as Mars rocket test facilities expand in Texas [photos]

Aerial observations of SpaceX's McGregor, Texas testing facilities on April 17 revealed an unusually frenetic level of construction and expansion centered around Raptor - the rocket engine intended to power BFR and SpaceX to Mars - and a new test-stand, the purpose of which is currently unknown.

From article, (Aerial observations of SpaceX’s McGregor, Texas testing facilities on April 17 revealed an unusually frenetic level of construction and expansion centered around Raptor – the rocket engine intended to power BFR and SpaceX to Mars – and a new test-stand, the purpose of which is currently unknown.

With a minimum of 1200 seconds of hot-fires under its belt, SpaceX’s Raptor propulsion program is likely rapidly approaching the end of what is best described as the experimental phase of testing. While this has not been communicated by SpaceX, it is a logical conclusion following several recent developments. Namely the true beginning of BFR test article fabrication and an impressively bullish level of commitment and confidence in the fully reusable launch system demonstrated in the last few months alone by CEO Elon Musk and President/COO Gwynne Shotwell. While Musk is infamous both within and beyond his companies for painfully impractical development timelines, he demonstrated some level of growing consciousness of that fallibility at 2018’s SXSW, stating that he was working on recalibrating his expectations. Without taking a breath, he reiterated his anticipation for short hop tests of the first full-scale spaceship prototype in the first half of 2019.

While anyone familiar with Musk’s timeline antics may roll their eyes and laugh, far more shocking was Shotwell’s sudden pivot towards a new sense of optimism for the BFR program. At Satellite Conference 2018, the typically reserved and pragmatic executive confirmed beyond any doubt that she had become aggressively bullish on the Mars rocket, stating that she believed the spaceship would be ready for suborbital testing in 2019, while the booster-spaceship system could potentially reach orbit by 2020. )

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Relax your Pacemaker Wont Go Off When you Drive These EV's.

Magnetic fields in electric cars don't seem to cause pacemaker...

By Lisa Rapaport(Reuters Health) - Electromagnetic fields produced by motors in electric cars don't appear strong enough to interfere with implanted heart devices like pacemakers and defibrillators, a small German study suggests. All electric motors can produce electromagnetic fields.

From article, (Electromagnetic fields produced by motors in electric cars don’t appear strong enough to interfere with implanted heart devices like pacemakers and defibrillators, a small German study suggests.

 All electric motors can produce electromagnetic fields. If these fields are strong enough, they have the potential to disrupt the normal function of implanted heart devices, researchers note in the Annals of Internal Medicine. Pacemaker malfunctions might cause the heart to stop beating with potentially fatal results, while defibrillators might respond to electromagnetic fields by delivering unnecessary shocks to patients’ hearts, causing pain and anxiety.

For the study, researchers measured the magnetic field strength in four electric cars with the largest market share in Europe: the BMW i3, Nissan Leaf, Tesla Model 85S, and the Volkswagen e-up!

They also assessed how well pacemakers and defibrillators worked for 108 patients with these implanted cardiac devices who sat in the cars during simulated driving and charging tests.

None of the cars appeared to interfere with patients’ heart devices, the study found.)

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Tesla Supercharging Network is Discussing Joining Charging Network Ionity

Tesla is reportedly in talks to join Ionity charging network along with other automakers

According to reports coming out of Germany, Tesla has been added to a long list of automakers in talks to join Ionity, the new 'ultra-fast' joint electric car charging network by BMW, Mercedes, Ford and Volkswagen. In Europe, the Ionity network is considered the most ambitious electric vehicle charging infrastructure project since Tesla's Supercharger network.

 From article, (According to reports coming out of Germany, Tesla has been added to a long list of automakers in talks to join Ionity, the new ‘ultra-fast’ joint electric car charging network by BMW, Mercedes, Ford and Volkswagen.

In Europe, the Ionity network is considered the most ambitious electric vehicle charging infrastructure project since Tesla’s Supercharger network.

It features thousands of planned ‘ultra-fast’ chargers with a capacity of 350 kW at 400 stations across Europe.

Volkswagen’s brands, along with other German automakers BMW, Mercedes-Benz, and Ford, are behind the project, but Germany’s Süddeutsche Zeitung reports this week that several other automakers have shown interest in participating in the ongoing project, including “Volvo, Fiat Chrysler, PSA / Opel, Jaguar Land Rover, and Tesla.”

Tesla is the only one of those automakers that already has a network of thousands of Superchargers in Europe at close to 400 different stations.

But the Superchargers are only accessible to Tesla vehicles and they are limited to an output of 120 kW.)

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U.S. Military: Launch Rocket Today or Tomorrow; Not In Years.

US military hopes to launch rockets in 'days, not years'

There isn't a huge amount of turnaround time: the actual competition will take place in late 2019, with a "competitors' day" helping to get the ball rolling on May 23rd of this year.

 From article, (Even in the era of private spaceflight companies, the process of getting a rocket into space is glacially slow: it can take months or years to schedule and prepare for a mission. That was fine when launching any rocket was a special occasion, but DARPA thinks the industry can do better. The military research agency recently kicked off a Launch Challenge that encourages companies to cut these launch timetables to "days, not years." Teams will have to develop systems that can launch two low Earth orbit rockets at different sites within days of each other, and with little advance notice. They'll only know where the first launch site will be within a "few weeks," and they'll learn about the payload mere days before blastoff.

There isn't a huge amount of turnaround time: the actual competition will take place in late 2019, with a "competitors' day" helping to get the ball rolling on May 23rd of this year. There will be a strong incentive to pick up the pace, though, as DARPA is offering $10 million for the top prize ($9 million and $8 million for second and third places respectively), and every team that completes the first launch scores $2 million. And it's not just about achieving speed at all costs. Officials will judge launches not only on timeliness, but on the accuracy of the launch, the nature of the payload and the rocket mass.)

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President Trump Likes Wind.

Donald Trump likes coal, but that doesn't mean he's hostile to wind

BOSTON - President Donald Trump has courted coal miners and cast doubt on whether fossils fuel contribute to climate change, but that hasn't translated into hostility for renewable energy - particularly offshore wind.

From article, (President Donald Trump has courted coal miners and cast doubt on whether fossils fuel contribute to climate change, but that hasn’t translated into hostility for renewable energy — particularly offshore wind.

Using federal offshore leases, wind power projects along the East Coast, including off the shores of Massachusetts, New Jersey, Connecticut, Virginia and New York, are pressing ahead with the goal of transforming the electric grid and providing energy to power millions of homes.

The administration is looking to renewable energy sources to help create “energy dominance” that will guarantee America is a leading global energy exporter and can’t be held hostage by foreign energy-producing powers, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke says — even as Trump’s plan to expand offshore drilling has drawn harsh criticism from environmentalists and coastal state governors of both parties.

“On designated federal lands and off-shore, this means an equal opportunity for all sources of responsible energy development, from fossil fuels to the full range of renewables,” Zinke said in a recent op-ed in The Boston Globe. “As we look to the future, wind energy — particularly offshore wind — will play a greater role in sustaining American energy dominance.”)

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MTA Experiments. Results Could Lead to Quicker Signal Repairs

MTA experiments with new tech to speed up signal repairs

Since the end of last year, the MTA has been exploring a new technology to overcome its signal problems on the subway, but the tests have some transit advocates worried about the effectiveness of this tech, the New York Times reports. The specific tech now being studied was one of the winning proposals selected in the MTA's Genius Challenge.

From article, (Since the end of last year, the MTA has been exploring a new technology to overcome its signal problems on the subway, but the tests have some transit advocates worried about the effectiveness of this tech, the New York Times reports.

The specific tech now being studied was one of the winning proposals selected in the MTA’s Genius Challenge. It’s called ultra-wideband radio, and uses a wireless radio system to transmit data. The winning proposal, by Metrom Rail, proposes placing devices called nodes that would sit 1,000 feet apartment in subway tunnels and then would relay information from one node to the next, according to the Times.

Governor Andrew Cuomo and some MTA officials argue that the technology could modernize the subway’s aging signal system in just under a decade, instead of a more traditional approach that would take far longer.

Still, the MTA is moving forward with its plan to test out the technology. At present its been setup on the route for the shuttle between Grand Central and Times square, and on a test track in Brooklyn. The technology is also being tested out in Boston, and the MTA’s chairman, Joe Lhota told the Times that the military has been using this technology for years, and that the tests in NYC so far have shown the system can detect the exact location of trains with great precision.)

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ET's May Have a Problem.

No Way Out? Aliens on 'Super-Earth' Planets May Be Trapped by Gravity

"Super-Earth" planets are giant-size versions of Earth, and some research has suggested that they're more likely to be habitable than Earth-size worlds. But a new study reveals how difficult it would be for any aliens on these exoplanets to explore space.

 Me, "ET's may have a problem."

From article, ( "Super-Earth" planets are giant-size versions of Earth, and some research has suggested that they're more likely to be habitable than Earth-size worlds. But a new study reveals how difficult it would be for any aliens on these exoplanets to explore space.

To launch the equivalent of an Apollo moon mission, a rocket on a super-Earth would need to have a mass of about 440,000 tons (400,000 metric tons), due to fuel requirements, the study said. That's on the order of the mass of the Great Pyramid of Giza in Egypt.

"On more-massive planets, spaceflight would be exponentially more expensive," said study author Michael Hippke, an independent researcher affiliated with the Sonneberg Observatory in Germany. "Such civilizations would not have satellite TV, a moon mission or a Hubble Space Telescope." [10 Exoplanets That Could Host Alien Life]

As researchers have discovered alien worlds around other stars, one class of exoplanets that popped up was the super-Earths, planets that can reach up to 10 times the mass of our own. A number of super-Earths apparently lie in the habitable zones of their stars, where temperatures can theoretically support liquid water on the planetary surface and thus, potentially, life as it is known on Earth.

Prior work suggested not only that worlds other than Earth-like ones could offer circumstances suitable for life, but also that some could be even more suitable than Earth-like planets. Super-Earths, researchers have suggested, might be "super-habitable" — their greater mass giving them stronger gravitational pulls, so they could hold thicker atmospheres to better shield life from harmful cosmic rays.

If life did evolve on a distant super-Earth, such aliens could have developed an advanced civilization capable of spaceflight. However, the strong gravitational pull of such planets could also make it more difficult for extraterrestrials to blast off their planets, Hippke said in the new study.)

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Prospecting Space Mining Robots Rejoice.

World's First Trillionaire Will Make Fortune In Outer Space, Claims Goldman Sachs

The next big industry to develop and ultimately give rise to the world' first trillionaire is asteroid mining, states Goldman Sachs, according to RT. This is not the first time the company 

From article, (According to the 2017 report, mining asteroids in outer space could be achieved far easier than we would normally expect.

“While the psychological barrier to mining asteroids is high, the actual financial and technological barriers are far lower,” Noah Poponak, an aerospace and materials analyst at Goldman, wrote in the 2017 report.

“Prospecting probes can likely be built for tens of millions of dollars each and Caltech has suggested an asteroid-grabbing spacecraft could cost $2.6 billion,” showed the report.

Other voices have also spoken out in favor of asteroid mining and hailed the financial benefits that could stem from such an investment.

Physicist Michio Kaku has indicated that humanity would greatly benefitfrom turning to asteroid mining as a way of solving the resource shortage crisis our planet is currently facing.

In his opinion, asteroids are “a flying gold mine in outer space” brimming with a wide assortment of minerals, including iron, nickel, carbon, cobalt, platinum, rhodium, and iridium. These valuable resources could be harvested and transported back to Earth to replenish our rapidly depleting stores.has discussed the future mining of asteroids.)

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A Problem Solved, Reminiscent of Kids Toy Slot Car Racers, May Be its Own Problem.

Sweden's solution for charging electric cars is bold, but flawed

This new Swedish smart road will feel familiar to anybody who has played with slot car racing toys.

Me, "I agree with the Writer. Digging up roadways to install, electric rail or induction charging points so as automobiles can continually charge down the road seems a little extreme. It seems that the best and least expensive way, providing charging at truck stops, or at recharge stations, seems cheaper than digging up miles and miles of roadway. Especially, when the time it takes to charge up, at a recharge station becomes as fast as a few minutes."

 From article, (This new Swedish smart road will feel familiar to anybody who has played with slot car racing toys, such as Scalextric. Although, unlike slot cars, drivers will still have to steer vehicles.

IElectric vehicles will collect power from charging rails set into the surface of the road. When on the road, a pickup arm attached to the bottom of the vehicle will extend downwards until it senses the rails, before slotting in and making electrical contact. This device is flexible, allowing the vehicle to move from side to side and the pickup can be retracted and reinserted in case a truck wants to overtake or turn off the road.

But questions remain over the road’s durability. To prevent electrocution or damage by the elements, the live rails are hidden from view. This means that vehicles can only begin charging when the pickup is inserted into the rail slot. One can imagine the damage that might be caused to the road and the vehicle if the pickup fails to disengage cleanly before the vehicle attempts an overtaking manoeuvre.

An alternative technology that bypasses this problem is inductive transmission. Unlike eRoadArlanda, inductive transmission enables wireless charging. Conductors that are set into the road create an electromagnetic field, which then transmits energy to coils mounted to the bottom of vehicles.

Battery charging on the move seems an attractive solution, particularly at a time when we have too few electric vehicle charge points. But the cost of eRoadArlanda ($2 million per kilometre) and the disruption it would cause if it were extended nationwide, makes other options more appealing. For example, long-range batteries and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles have the potential to overcome issues of price, disruption and durability. In fact, these options are already becoming cheaper. The price of lithium-ion batteries has fallen by 24 per cent since 2016 and will fall further as more people adopt electric vehicles. As batteries improve and get cheaper, digging up our motorways seems an extreme solution.)

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