Elon Musk has announced a new timeframe for his massive Mars project, and it is a lot closer than you would believe.
In an article published Monday, Musk said, ‘I’ll be surprised if we’re not landing on Mars within five years.
Musk, the 50-year-old SpaceX founder and CEO who was selected Time’s Person of the Year, has grandiose ambitions for Mars: a self-sustaining metropolis with solar-powered hydroponic fields where people may live indefinitely, 34 million miles from Earth.
Combining two forms of sustainable energy into one range-extending propulsion system, Swiss Sustainable Yachts’ clean, quiet catamaran promises to jumpstart a future in which the word “range” becomes obsolete. The 64-footer harnesses solar energy to create its own hydrogen, powering a fuel cell-electric drive to potentially limitless autonomy, so long as the sun is shining and the captain isn’t pushing past cruising speed. The Aquon One might prove the ultimate luxury smart yacht of the sustainable generation.
The Aquon One has a 134-hp fuel cell-powered electric engine in each hull. Swiss Sustainable Yachts (SSY) explains that it opts for hydrogen power because of its light weight as compared to batteries or fossil fuels, long-lasting storage capability and lack of harmful emissions. Also critical to the Aquon One design is hydrogen’s ability to be created sustainably, in this case using a solar-powered electrolyzer that splits hydrogen from desalinated seawater. The 689 square feet (64 sq m) of solar panels covering the Aquon One’s hard-top generate all the electricity needed to develop the hydrogen, which is then stored away in carbon tanks.
The Aquon One does include a small battery bank for short-term energy needs, both for propulsion and onboard electrical usage. The hydrogen, on the other hand, is compressed and designated for longer-term use. SSY claims the hydrogen tanks hold more than 100 times the energy of a full-size modern battery system, offering more range and capability than it would get by expanding the size of its battery.
Designed for research into climate change this high-precision gas sensor is good to 133 parts per trillion CO and 65 parts per trillion N₂O.
Moderator: Michael Wall.
Panelists: Kennda Lynch, Abigail Fraeman, Morgan Cable.
Part of the Earth at the Crossroads conference held on Nov. 18, 2021.
Tantalizing new discoveries suggest that we are probably not alone in the universe. And yet, as Enrico Fermi first put in 1950: where is everybody? Are habitable worlds rare, unlikely, and therefore cosmically precious? Or is life easily overwhelmed by changing planetary conditions? Do technological societies in particular face an inevitable “Great Filter” that causes their extinction? These questions link the search for extraterrestrial life to the urgent environmental challenges facing our own civilization, from deadly pandemics to human-caused climate change. On November 18th, Georgetown University and the SETI Institute will unite scholars, journalists, artists and activists in conversations that explore what the search for alien life may reveal about the future of life on Earth. These conversations will be open to Georgetown students and will be broadcast to the public. They will culminate in a roundtable debate intended to draft a proclamation on the state of Earth’s environment and its future potential in a cosmic context.
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There is a new wonder material in town, and its name is graphene. Since it was first successfully isolated in 2004, graphene, with its honeycomb-like 2D structure and its wide gamut of interesting properties, has been keenly studied by material scientists.
This naturally transparent 1 millimeter thick lattice of carbon atoms has multiple applications and could even one day potentially solve the world’s water crisis.
The faith in the material is so strong that, according to numbers projected by Fortune Business Insights, its market value will be $2.8 billion in 2027.
And it could work in wearables and light aircraft.
Researchers at Stanford University are developing an efficient new solar panel material that is fifteen times thinner than paper, a press statement reveals.
Made using transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), the materials have the potential to absorb a higher level of sunlight than other solar materials at the same time as providing an incredibly lightweight alternative to silicon-based solar panels.
Searching for silicon alternatives The researchers are part of a concerted effort within the scientific community to find alternative solar panel materials to silicon. Silicon is by far the most common material used for solar panels, but it’s heavy and rigid, meaning it isn’t particularly well suited to lightweight applications required for aircraft, spacecraft, electric vehicles, or even wearables.
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They could be “critical in the fight against climate change.”
A California-based startup called H2 Clipper wants to resurrect the hydrogen-filled airship as a form of mass transport. The key difference is that it won’t be transporting people, it will be transporting cargo, a press statement reveals.
The company aims to kickstart a green global cargo network by leveraging the world’s renewed willingness to try alternative forms of transport following the IPCC’s dire climate change report for 2021.
H2 Clipper claims its cargo airships can carry 8–10 times the payload of the best cargo plane over 6,000 miles (9,656 km), and it can do so at a quarter of the price. They will have a payload capacity of approximately 340,000 lb (150,000 kg) sitting in up to 265,000 cubic feet (7,530 cubic meters) of cargo space.
As for speed, the H2 Clipper would travel at a cruising speed of 175 mph (282 km/h), meaning it would move close to ten times faster than a cargo ship — though it would obviously lag behind a cargo plane in that department. The main advantage over today’s cargo planes is that the H2 Clipper produces zero carbon emissions.
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Climate Emergency Basics.
Most people now accept that things are out of balance, and it is only those with warped agendas or a lack of understanding that are left behind.
Use these ten facts as starting points with which to move forward.
Use your vote, where you have one, in politics, the boardroom or a shareholders meeting to push for change in the right direction.
Use your money to buy goods and services from those making the right decisions to make the future cleaner, renewable and sustainable.
Finally, USE YOUR VOICE. Talk to everyone and share these thoughts, and challenge misinformation when you hear it being spread.
We can create a better future.
We waste billions subsidising fossil fuels when we could be scaling renewables and developing alternatives faster.
The more people vote for those with net zero policies and buy from those with net zero aims and ambitions, the sooner the balance will tip and momentum will do the rest.
If you want to see some ideas for how we move forward to solve these issues then watch this video next smile Can we save our planet?
https://youtu.be/qxY0p1MqjJs.
Idea based upon content from the book.
There is no planet B by Mike Berners-Lee.
SpaceX is embarking on a bold new adventure: making rocket fuel out of thin air.
“SpaceX is starting a program to take CO2 out of atmosphere & turn it into rocket fuel,” CEO Elon Musk tweeted on Monday. “Please join if interested.”
The news comes after Musk announced a $100 million prize to come up with carbon removal technologies earlier this year. The goal is to pull 1,000 tons of CO2 out of the atmosphere annually — and eventually scaling up the operation dramatically.
“I think this is one of those things that is going to take a while to figure out what the right solution is,” Musk explained back in April. “And especially to figure out what the best economics are for CO2 removal.”
“Right now we’ve only got one planet,” Musk said at the time. “Even a 0.1 percent chance of disaster — why run that risk? That’s crazy!”
Complex terrain and Yutu 2’s reliance on solar power limit driving speed.
China’s Yutu 2 lunar rover recently spotted something intriguing on the far side of the moon, but it’ll take the vehicle a few months to reach the object for a closer look.
Yutu 2 photographed a strangely cube-shaped rock last month, during the robot’s 36th lunar day of activities. The rover drive team estimates that the object, which has been dubbed the “mystery hut,” to be around 260 feet (80 meters) away. That doesn’t sound far, but it’ll take careful planning and effort by the Yutu 2 team to cover that distance safely.
