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Category: energy

The power needed is so small, you could do this almost for free.’

Flying saucers are on their way to the Moon.

MIT scientists are developing a new concept for a circular hovering rover that levitates thanks to the moon’s natural electric field, a press statement reveals.

The new machines take advantage of the fact that airless bodies such as the moon and asteroids build up an electric field through direct exposure to the sun and their surrounding plasma. Such machines could be deployed on lucrative scouting missions on the surface of the moon as well as to nearby asteroids.

A new type of hovering spacecraft On a body as large as the moon, the surface charge is strong enough to power levitating machines — in fact, it has already been shown to levitate lunar dust up to a meter above the ground.

The MIT team’s levitating rover, which, in renders, looks remarkably like a flying saucer sending a beam down to the lunar surface, uses tiny ion beams to charge the vehicle and boost the surface’s natural surface charge. Small ion thrusters, called liquid ion sources, connect to a tank containing ionic liquid in the form of room-temperature molten salt. When the electric charge reaches the ionic liquid, its ions are charged and emitted downwards and out of the rover as a beam through the thrusters. The system’s disc shape maximizes the repulsive force between the rover and the ground, meaning that it needs very little power.

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“This kind of ionic design uses very little power to generate a lot of voltage,” said Paulo Lozano, a co-author on a new paper detailing the design. “The power needed is so small, you could do this almost for free.”

Smalls rovers could explore the Solar System

In their initial tests, the team showed that an ion boost from their machine would be strong enough to levitate a small, 2-lb (907-gram) rover on the moon and even on large asteroids like 16 Psyche.

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The many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics predicts the formation of distinct parallel worlds as a result of a quantum mechanical measurement. Communication among these parallel worlds would experimentally rule out alternatives to this interpretation. A procedure for “interworld’’ exchange of information and energy, using only state of the art quantum optical equipment, is described. A single ion is isolated from its environment in an ion trap. Then a quantum mechanical measurement with two discrete outcomes is performed on another system, resulting in the formation of two parallel worlds. Depending on the outcome of this measurement the ion is excited from only one of the parallel worlds before the ion decoheres through its interaction with the environment. A detection of this excitation in the other parallel world is direct evidence for the many-worlds interpretation.

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By Alex Hill, Senior Quantum Systems Engineer

Qubits are the basic building block of a quantum processor, and are so named because they represent a continuum of complex superpositions of two basic quantum states. The power of qubits comes in part from their ability to encode significantly more information than a classical bit — an infinite set of states between 0 and 1. In mathematical terms, quantum gates that manipulate the state of individual qubits are unitary operators drawn from SU.

Rigetti’s superconducting quantum processors are based on the transmon design [1]. Each physical qubit is an anharmonic oscillator, meaning that the energy gaps between subsequent qubit energy states decrease as the qubit climbs higher up the state ladder. We typically only address the first two states, 0 and 1 (in the literature, sometimes referred to as g(round) and e(xcited)); however, the design of our qubits supports even higher states. The simple structure of the transmon energy levels gives superconducting qubits the unique ability to address many of these states in a single circuit.

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JinkoSolar has announced that it has launched the 2021 series of Tiger Neo modules. The new technology promises to be much more efficient.

The new Tiger Neo adopts N-type TOPCon technology with further enhancements in performance, power, energy density and reliability. In mass production, the new module delivers a maximum power output of up to 620 watts and an ultra-high conversion efficiency of up to 22.30 per cent.

JinkoSolar’s N-type TOPCon technology provides about 5 per cent to 6 per cent more efficiency than mono PERC and about 3 per cent to 4 per cent more energy generation. Mass produced from 182mm wafers, the new Tiger Neo modules feature Multi-Busbar (MBB) and half-cut cell technology to reduce internal resistance loss, and the circular solder strip design increases optical gain so that the module has an ultra-high efficiency of up to 22.30 per cent.

Tiger Neo’s bifacial factor of up to 85 per cent is a great advantage because it allows about 5 per cent to 15 per cent higher energy yield compared to conventional P-type bifacial modules in its life-time period. A higher bifacial factor also improves its power generation capacity and power generation efficiency.

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Created from five shipping containers, Debbie Glassberg’s home, constructed with the help of BNIM, is a dreamy, two-story residence that looks nothing like the containers it began life as. With two bedrooms, three bathrooms, a garden, and a patio, the home is obviously on the bigger side, but it’s such a luxurious and beautiful space that it truly deserves a tour.

Glassberg, an industrial designer who works for Mattel, wanted to create a sustainable, energy-efficient, affordable, and gorgeous home, so using shipping containers was the right idea. The planet-friendly home uses features like geothermal heating and plant foam insulation to lessen its carbon footprint. The home is drenched in color, and each room has its own feel, creating a stylish, chic setting for everyday life. From the moment you enter the home, it’s evident that someone who knows about style lives here.

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The new zinc batteries are made up of electrodes that are screen-printed onto both sides of a sheet of hydrogel-reinforced cellulose paper. A layer of gold thin foil is coated on the electrodes to increase the conductivity of the battery. The battery is about 0.4mm thick, which is roughly the thickness of two strands of human hair.

Impressively, once the battery has reached the end of its lifespan, it can be buried in soil, where it will break down completely within a month.

The NTU researchers, who outlined their findings in the journal Advanced Science 0, demonstrated how a 1.5 in x 1.5 in (4 cm x 4 cm) square printed paper battery could power a small electric fan for up to 45 minutes. The researchers emphasized the fact that bending the battery did not interrupt the supply of power to the fan.

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Having completed sea trials, it will now have its combat system activated.

Back in December of 2017, we brought you news of the U.S. Navy’s stealth destroyer the U.S.S. Monsoor breaking down during sea trails. At the time, we asked the question if this event would spell the end for Zumwalt-class destroyers?

It seems the Zumwalts are alive and well with the U.S. Navy’s third and final Zumwalt-class ship, the U.S.S. Lyndon B. Johnson, recently completing basic sea trials, according to 1945. This means that the massive ship will now have its combat system activated.

Zumwalt-class destroyers are top-of-the-range warships with advanced electrical generation systems. These systems power the ship’s engines, electronics, weapons, and propulsion systems.

Each Zumwalt-class destroyer comes with an Integrated Power System. These generate up to 80 megawatts of power and have been included with the expectation that the ships will be equipped with a new generation of power-hungry weapons such as electromagnetic railguns and perhaps even lasers.

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Semiconductor specialist Renesas has announced two new technologies designed to dramatically improve the efficiency of embedded devices built for the Internet of Things — by reducing the power required to write into RAM.

“With the accelerated spread of IoT technology in recent years, there has been strong demand for reduced power consumption in microcontroller units (MCUs) used in endpoint devices,” the company claims in its technology announcement. “MRAM requires less energy for write operations than flash memory, and is thus particularly well suited for applications with frequent data updates.”

“However, as demand for data processing capability surges for MCUs, the need to ameliorate the trade off between performance and power consumption increases. Therefore, further power consumption reduction remains a pressing issue.”

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Greenspot lodges development application for Wallerawang battery, and it hopes to have the first stage in operation in just two years.

Privately owned NSW development company Greenspot says it has lodged a development application for a huge 500MW, 1000MWh big battery at the site of the closed Wallerawang coal fired power station near Lithgow, and hopes to bring it into service within two years.

The development application to the state government comes just weeks after the last chimney stacks of the closed coal generator were brought down. The battery will be called the “Wallerawang 9 Battery,” to acknowledge the legacy of units 7 and 8, which were the last coal fired units at the power station.

“The lodgement of the development application for the Wallerawang 9 Battery is an important early marker in repurposing the site for the next chapter of success”, Greenspot CEO Brett Hawkins said in a statement.

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