Terrafugia unveils new design for TF-X autonomous flying car

 

In cruise mode, the main 300 hp engine of the TF-X provides thrust and charges the batteries (Credit: Terrafugia) Image Gallery (5 images) Flying-car developer Terrafugia has released new designs for its planned TF-X model. The TF-X is a planned autonomous flying car that was announced back in 2013. The updated design shows a sleeker body shape, a one-tenth scale model of which will be tested in a wind tunnel at MIT. If flying cars sound a bit far-fetched – never mind ones that fly themselves – then you should bear in mind that, not long after the TF-X was announced, Terrafugia gave the first public flight demonstration of its original flying car model, the Transition. Whereas the Transition requires a runway to take off, however, the TF-X is able to take off and land vertically. Terrafugia says the aim of its vehicles is to provide "true door-to-door transportation." The TF-X is designed to seat up to four people and will have computer-controlled flight that that will allow the operator to simply input the desired destination before letting the vehicle take off (from a level clearing of at least 100 ft in diameter) and fly itself. To enable flight, the TF-X design has fold-out wings with twin electric motor pods attached to the ends. The motors are powered by a 300 hp engine and can move from vertical to horizontal positions as required for taking off, cruising and landing. A ducted fan will provide thrust, and the vehicle will have a cruising speed of 200 mph (322 km/h), as well as a 500 mile (805 km) flight range. As with taking off, the plan is for the TF-X to land autonomously, though says Terrafugia points out that the user will have the final say regarding whether it's safe to land. Once back on the ground, the car's wings will fold down in a matter of seconds to make it suitable for use as a road-going plug-in hybrid once again. The one-tenth scale model will be tested at the Wright Brothers wind tunnel at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where the Transition was also tested. The testing will help to measure the drag, lift and thrust forces of the new design. Simulations of hovering flight, transitioning to forward flight and full forward flight will also be carried out. Terrafugia says the TF-X will be another 8-12 years in development. Source: Terrafugia

NASA Views Complex World: New Horizons Pluto Science Update Set for July 24

 

A newly discovered mountain range lies near the southwestern margin of Pluto’s Tombaugh Regio (Tombaugh Region), situated between bright, icy plains and dark, heavily-cratered terrain. This image was acquired by New Horizons’ Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI) on July 14, 2015 from a distance of 48,000 miles (77,000 kilometers) and received on Earth on July 20. Features as small as a half-mile (1 kilometer) across are visible.

Credits: NASA/JHUAPL/SWRI

Members of NASA’s New Horizons team will hold a science update at 2 p.m. EDT Friday, July 24, to reveal new images and discuss latest science results from the spacecraft’s historic July 14 flight through the Pluto system.

The briefing will be held in the James E. Webb Auditorium at NASA Headquarters, located at 300 E St. SW in Washington. NASA Television and the agency's website will carry the briefing live.

The briefing participants are:

• Jim Green, director of Planetary Science at NASA Headquarters
• Alan Stern, New Horizons principal investigator at Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) in Boulder, Colorado
• Michael Summers, New Horizons co-investigator at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia
• William McKinnon, New Horizons co-investigator at Washington University in St. Louis
• Cathy Olkin, New Horizons deputy project scientist at SwRI

Media may ask questions by telephone. To participate by phone, reporters must send an email providing their name, affiliation and telephone number to Felicia Chou at felicia.chou@nasa.gov by noon Friday. Media and the public also may ask questions during the briefing on Twitter using the hashtag #askNASA.

For NASA TV streaming video, scheduling and downlink information, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/nasatv

For more information on the New Horizons mission, including fact sheets, schedules, video and images, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/newhorizons

New battery technologies take on lithium-ion

 

Wed, 07/22/2015 - 12:15pm American Chemical Society Researchers at Oxis Energy in England could be poised to commercialize lithium-sulfur batteries within the next few years. Image: Oxis EnergyLithium-ion batteries remain the technology-of-choice for today’s crop of electric cars, but challengers are revving up to try to upset the current order. An article in Chemical & Engineering News (C&EN) takes a look at two of the top contenders vying to erode lithium-ion’s dominance. Alex Scott, a senior editor at C&EN, reports on two developments from companies in England that seem poised to compete in the electric car battery market within the next two to four years. One is a sodium-ion version, produced by a start-up called Faradion. The other is a battery powered by lithium-sulfur technology and is being developed by Oxis Energy. Both companies assert their advances will be able to compete with lithium-ion in performance, safety and costs. Some industry watchers, however, remain unconvinced by the claims, given that a slew of other battery-makers made similar promises and then failed to deliver. Soon enough, the fates of Faradion and Oxis could also be determined. Faradion has set a goal to match the energy density of lithium-ion batteries by 2017. And although they’re still dealing with battery cycle issues, Oxis’ lithium-sulfur technology has already attracted the attention of the military. Source: American Chemical Society

Why we live on Earth and not Venus

 

Earth and Venus.

Credit: NASA

Compared to its celestial neighbours Venus and Mars, Earth is a pretty habitable place. So how did we get so lucky? A new study sheds light on the improbable evolutionary path that enabled Earth to sustain life.

The research, published this week in Nature Geoscience, suggests that Earth's first crust, which was rich in radioactive heat-producing elements such as uranium and potassium, was torn from the planet and lost to space when asteroids bombarded the planet early in its history. This phenomenon, known as impact erosion, helps explain a landmark discovery made over a decade ago about the Earth's composition.

Researchers with the University of British Columbia and University of California, Santa Barbara say that the early loss of these two elements ultimately determined the evolution of Earth's plate tectonics, magnetic field and climate.

"The events that define the early formation and bulk composition of Earth govern, in part, the subsequent tectonic, magnetic and climatic histories of our planet, all of which have to work together to create the Earth in which we live," said Mark Jellinek, a professor in the Department of Earth, Ocean & Atmospheric Sciences at UBC. "It's these events that potentially differentiate Earth from other planets."

On Earth, shifting tectonic plates cause regular overturning of Earth's surface, which steadily cools the underlying mantle, maintains the planet's strong magnetic field and stimulates volcanic activity. Erupting volcanoes release greenhouse gases from deep inside the planet and regular eruptions help to maintain the habitable climate that distinguishes Earth from all other rocky planets.

Venus is the most similar planet to Earth in terms of size, mass, density, gravity and composition. While Earth has had a stable and habitable climate over geological time, Venus is in a climate catastrophe with a thick carbon dioxide atmosphere and surface temperatures reaching about 470 C. In this study, Jellinek and Matt Jackson, an associate professor at the University of California, explain why the two planets could have evolved so differently.

"Earth could have easily ended up like present day Venus," said Jellinek. "A key difference that can tip the balance, however, may be differing extents of impact erosion."

With less impact erosion, Venus would cool episodically with catastrophic swings in the intensity of volcanic activity driving dramatic and billion-year-long swings in climate.

"We played out this impact erosion story forward in time and we were able to show that the effect of the conditions governing the initial composition of a planet can have profound consequences for its evolution. It's a very special set of circumstances that make Earth."

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Story Source:

The above post is reprinted from materials provided by University of British Columbia. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

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Journal Reference:

1. A. M. Jellinek, M. G. Jackson. Connections between the bulk composition, geodynamics and habitability of Earth. Nature Geoscience, 2015; DOI: 10.1038/ngeo2488

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Mysteries of the Brain–Frontiers in Neuroscience

 

NSF-funded scientists and engineers have studied the brain for decades, yet a host of mysteries remain unsolved. In this July 9, 2015 briefing on Capitol Hill, leading experts in brain science discuss some of the latest cross-disciplinary research and cutting-edge technologies to better understand the brain and advance the frontiers of neuroscience. The briefing was hosted by Congressman Chaka Fattah and sponsored by NSF, Society for Neuroscience, and The Optical Society.

Credit: National Science Foundation

Pill on a string pulls early signs of cancer

 

The Cytosponge is around the same size as a multi vitamin pill (Credit: University of Cambridge) As with every form of the deadly disease, early detection of oesophageal cancer is critical to recovery. The current approach of detecting the cancer through biopsy can be a little hit and miss, so the University of Cambridge's Professor Rebecca Fitzgerald and her team have developed what they claim to be a more accurate tool for early-diagnosis. Billed as "a pill on a string," the Cytosponge is designed to scrape off cells from the length of the oesophagus as it is yanked out after swallowing, offering up a much larger sample for inspection of cancer cells. According to Fitzgerald, the five-year survival rate for oesophageal cancer is only 13 percent, a fact which has led researchers to hunt for signs of a condition that precedes the disease, known as Barrett's oesophagus. This sees the cells located in the lining of the oesophagus take on a different shape and grow abnormally, a process that is brought about by acid and bile reflux when fluids from the stomach come up to say hello. Between one and five of every 100 people with Barrett's oesophagus go on to develop oesophageal cancer. Using biopsies to detect the pre-cancer condition is problematic for a couple of reasons. It requires trained scientists to pore over the samples looking for abnormalities, which introduces a degree of subjectivity and possible human error. And although a stretch of oesophagus affected by Barrett's could measure as much as 10 cm (4 in), there is much variation in the cells with some presenting mutations and others appearing normal and healthy. This means if the wrong area is targeted, the biopsy may not really reveal much at all. So Fitzgerald and her team developed a solution they say can provide more accurate results. The Cytosponge is around the same size as a multi vitamin pill, but instead of nutrition it packs a tightly compressed sponge. The patient swallows the capsule just like any other and it makes its way to the stomach, where it rests for around five minutes. In this time the exterior dissolves and the sponge expands. With a string attached and in the nurse's hand, the sponge is then pulled up through the oesophagus. Rather than taking samples from only a section, it scrapes along the entire length of the tube collecting as many as half a million cells in the process. "If you’re taking a biopsy, this relies on your hitting the right spot," says Fitzgerald. "Using the Cytosponge appears to remove some of this game of chance." The researchers are hopeful the Cytosponge could replace expensive and invasive endoscopies. Already more than 2,000 patients have swallowed the device in testing, though more trials are required to establish its efficacy. The have licensed the device to a company called Covidien with a view to developing a commercial test. The team's latest research into Barrett's oesophagus and oesophageal cancer was published in the journal Nature Genetics. Source: University of Cambridge

Researchers demonstrate first realization of invisible absorbers and sensors

 

Tue, 07/21/2015 - 10:56am Aalto University An array of helical elements absorbs radiation of a certain frequency while casting no shadow in light over a range of other frequencies.The manipulation of light has led to many applications that have revolutionized society through communications, medicine and entertainment. Devices consuming the energy of electromagnetic radiation, such as absorbers and sensors, play an essential role in the using and controlling of light. The researchers at the Aalto University Department of Radio Science and Engineering have demonstrated the first realization of absorbers that do not reflect light over a wide range of frequencies. All previous absorbers at other frequencies were either fully reflective, as mirrors, or the range of low reflection was very narrow. “These absorbers are completely transparent at non-operational frequencies,” concludes researcher Viktar Asadchy. While maintaining efficient absorption of light of the desired frequency, all conventional absorbers strongly interact with the radiation of other frequencies, reflecting it back and not letting it pass through. As a result, they create a reflected beam as well as a perceptible shadow behind and become detectable. The designed and tested structures are able to absorb and sense the light of one or several desired frequency spectra, while being invisible and undetectable at other frequencies. The research has proven that such an unparalleled operation can only be achieved with the use of structural inclusions whose electric and magnetic properties are strongly coupled. These functionalities can lead to a variety of unique applications for radio astronomy and stealth technology. They can also be very useful in everyday life. For example, they could be used in screens that can filter any cell phone signals and pass through Wi-Fi and other microwaves. “This research will also open new venues for general light control and enable novel devices such as flat lenses and light beam transformers,” explains Asadchy. SOURCE: Aalto University