Dragon capsule (via SpaceX)

SpaceX (Space Exploration Technologies Corp.) has recently announced that they will launch their Dragon free-flying reusable space craft on Tuesday May 22nd. This will mark the first time in history that a commercial company has launched a manned space vehicle into space to rendezvous with the International Space Station.

The Dragon re-usable space craft was designed using three main components which feature a nosecone that’s used as a shield during lift-off and houses the docking adapter needed to connect to external hatches found on the ISS. The second component featured is the spacecraft itself and was designed to be configured based on payload specifications and houses the avionics, RCS (Reaction Control System or thruster control systems) system, parachutes and other un-pressurized cargo/systems. The third component featured on the spacecraft is the Trunk which is used for un-pressurized cargo, solar arrays and thermal radiators needed to power the craft.

The re-usable vehicle will be launched atop of SpaceX’s Falcon 9 two-stage heavy-lift rocket which uses 10 Merlin 1C liquid oxygen and kerosene motors (9 on the first stage and 1 on the second). The mission will bring much needed supplies to the ISS as well as challenge the Dragon in a series of tests designed to test the feasibility of using commercial craft for future missions contracted through NASA and other organizations. If all goes well the launch will take place at Cape Canaveral at 4:15 AM Eastern Time and is expected to return a few hundred miles off the coast of California two weeks later. For those interested in watching the launch head over to SpaceX.com which will start broadcasting 40 minutes prior to launch.

Update: The rocket was scheduled to launch this past Saturday, the 19th. However, the team discovered a faulty check valve on the "Merlin Engine." The component was swapped, and not the historic flight will take place this Tuesday, the 22nd. The post was updated to reflect the change.

Update 2: The Falcon 9 is now in orbit. The launch was successful.

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Have you ever been skiing and had to put up with the hassle of trying to answer your cell phone or listen to music? I have not, but Anthony Griesel has. This skier and software developer is recruiting people to contribute to his Kickstarter for a project Called Neva that will facilitate staying connected while outside in the cold elements.

The idea is simple, to avoid having to fumble with small devices while you are bundled up on the slopes, he has developed a smart ski pole that allows you to manage calls, SMS, and displays other useful information like time, temperature and elevation on a 0.96’’ extra bright OLED touch display placed directly on top of one of the ski poles. Of course, all of the electronics are kept safe inside by a waterproof seal.

The poles wirelessly communicate with Android and iPhone via a low power Bluetooth using a free downloadable app. This app has more features like using the GPS locations for calculating slope angle and aspect and can also track your route in Google Earth KML format.

The poles themselves are made with 7075 grade aluminum, which has properties comparable to mild steel. The included rechargeable battery is said to last 3 days between charges and will last about 500 charging cycles. It is charged using a generic USB connection, but this will not be included.

Griesel hopes that his system will prevent users from losing or damaging their devices, and he hopes that added features will provide valuable information as to avoid dangerous parts of the mountains or avalanche prone areas. He does mention  that there is no substitute for experience and good judgment.

So far Griesel's kickstarter has raised over $11,000, which is still far from the goal of $100,000 , but there are 21 days to go. The rewards for a pledge are very enticing. A modest contribution of just $150 will earn you your own set of Neva ski poles.

Eavesdropper

(Left) Captain Paul Stewart with an Asending Technologies Pelican quadrotor and "lucas" a mobile social robot (Right) the LASR facility building (via U.S. Naval Research Laboratory)

After two years of construction, the US Navy has opened its doors to their new Laboratory for Autonomous Systems Research (LASR) center. The facility will serve as the Navy’s primary laboratory for intelligent autonomous systems (robots), sensor systems, UAV’s and a host of other studies in multiple fields for future defense technology. The $17 million dollar building located in Washington DC contains multiple spaces for some of the more interesting labs that include a prototyping high-bay designed for testing both air and ground unmanned vehicles and features the world’s largest motion-capture system that allows scientists to collect accurate detailed data concerning said vehicles. There’s a littoral high-bay lab which contains a 45ft X 25ft pool that’s 5.5ft deep that features a wave-generator for water-borne unmanned vehicle testing in both calm and choppy simulated sea conditions. Another area contains a desert high-bay that has 18ft-high rock walls with a 40ft X 14ft area of sand that’s 2.5ft deep to test robots and sensors in an arid environment. Other environmental labs include the tropical high-bay which allows for testing systems in a greenhouse setting akin to southeast Asia, as well as an outdoor test range simulating a highland forest complete with waterfalls, streams and increasingly difficult terrain. There really is no area found on earth (besides the arctic regions) that the LASR hasn’t simulated for testing of all these systems.

(Left) Desert High-Bay with an 18-foot rock wall (Right) Tropical High-Bay simulating southeast asian rain forests (via U.S. Naval Research Laboratory)

The facility also contains various machine and electrical shops for all the labs as well as conference spaces for get-togethers to discuss wind-falls or complete disasters. Testing autonomous systems is nothing new to the Navy as the NRL (Naval Research Laboratory) has been testing these platforms since 1923 with the development of an electric dog that was controlled by a system of relays and a flight-control stick found in airplanes at the time. Other notable research done by the NRL includes remote-controlled battle ships in the 1930’s which were operated through selector switches based on teletype systems that used Baudot code. There were even anti-aircraft target drones that could be remote-controlled by people on other aircraft at distances of up to 25 miles away designed for a more realistic target for AA training. These testing platforms and developments created over the first half of the twentieth century eventually led to the development of guidance systems for missiles, like the sub-launched Polaris ballistic nuclear missile. With the Navy’s new LASR facility finally open it will be interesting to see what new developments come out of the first half of the current century. Can anyone say ‘Skynet’?

See more about robotics in element14's Robotics group

Eavesdropper

App operation screen shots (via UBER)

Catch a cab directly from your smart phone. Uber, the company that brought the public a convenient method for luxury transportation, will be testing a new service in Chicago. Customers will be able to request a taxi ride through an app created for their smart phone. Cab drivers will be notified through an alert sent to their phone and will use a GPS system to  determine the customer's location. Conversely, customers using the app will be able to see the cab's location through the same system.

Uber began its business in 2009, offering customers an easily accessible high-end transportation option. Starting in San Francisco, Uber gradually began to expand its business into more areas including New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Washington D.C., Paris, and Chicago. In addition, when they first began they worked by receiving text messages, and in 2010 launched their mobile app. The customer's fare gets charged directly to their debit card or credit card they have setup and includes a 20% tip. For their luxury service, which includes Lincoln Town cars, BMWs, and Cadillac Escalades, customers can expect to pay 50% to 75% more than they would for a taxi fare. However, their taxi service looks to reduce this cost and make the service more appealing for everyday  commuters.

Chicago was designated to be their test location due to its high volume of cabs. Chicago features more cabs per capita than anywhere else in the United States. Moreover, they also have the second lowest rates in the nation second only to Washington D.C. The fare charged to customers will be calculated by a time and distance system. While traveling more than 11mph the fare will depend on the distance traveled, and when traveling less than that it will be determined on a timely basis. Uber looks to create a more convenient and accessible system to catch a cab. Although taxis are plentiful, having a reserved one come to you using the advantage of smart phone technology will offer a unique option to the city commuters.

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Energy harvesting shock absorber with mechanical motion rectifier concept (via Lei Zuo)

Potholes and bumps in the road usually decrease the life of our vehicles shock absorbers over time, so we tend not to think of horrible road conditions as beneficial. Now we can.

A team of engineers from the State University of New York have designed a new type of shock absorber that actually harnesses the energy created by those rotten roads and turns it into electricity. The team, led by Professor Lei Zuo, recently designed the regenerative shock absorber (Mechanical Motion Rectifier) using a hydraulic system that turns a set of rotational gears through the cars vibration. The gears in-turn takes the irregular vibrational energy and transfers it to an electrical generator that converts it to electricity, which leads back to the vehicles alternator. The electricity is then used to recharge the vehicles battery as well as its electronics, which provides between 2 to 8 percent fuel efficiency over vehicles with standard shocks.

This translates into a fuel savings of 4% for vehicles that use an internal combustion engine and 8% in savings for hybrid vehicles. As an added benefit, the MMR shocks provide a smoother ride as they absorb more vibration over normal shocks. Professor Zuo says that the MMR’s could also be applied to train tracks which would power electrical devices such as lights and crossing gates as the trains vibrational energy is transferred. It stands to reason that only ‘good vibes’ can come from the MMR system being implemented into vehicles. Zuo states that if 5% of the 256,000,000 vehicles on the road today used the shocks we could reclaim more power than Niagara Falls produces per year. Every little bit adds up.

Professor Zuo's research was reported on back in July of 2010. In less than a year, Zuo and his team doubled the efficiencies from 1% to 8%. The boost was made by adoption a gear train generation over a

magnetic induction.

With the change, the shock absorber has an investor. The company Harvest Energy has licensed the tech. We may see the absorbers on buses and trucks in the near future. Progress is slow.

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If you remember the movie ‘Alien’, the crew was tasked with mining various planets and asteroids before their eventual demise on planet LV-426 (Everyone but the hero, that is). While that was science fiction, a new start-up company wants to make mining asteroids and other planetary bodies a reality.

Called Planetary Resources, the company is looking to explore the vastness of space. as well as mine valuable metals and water from resource-rich asteroids. To do this, the company will first deploy a low-cost ‘Arkyd-Series 100 Leo Space Telescope’ to search for near-earth asteroids that are rich in resources. Once potential asteroids are found, the ‘Arkyd-Series 200 Interceptor’ (a powered version of the 100) that houses additional scientific equipment will then head to the target and assume a geostationary orbit where it will collect further information on the suspected resources.

Once the information collected by the 200 series is confirmed, a ‘Arkyd-Series 300 Prospector’ with laser-based communications is sent out to survey the asteroid and collects information on its shape, density and surface/sub-surface composition in preparation for mining to begin. Initially, only asteroids that contain water will be mined as it can be broken down to its base components (hydrogen and oxygen) and used for fuel making the asteroid a kind of space gas station. The company hopes to use their Arkyd system as a cost-effective means of space exploration while simultaneously grabbing precious metals while doing so.

Concept art for the stages of mining: (1) Scan for targets (2) Up close data collection (3) In depth scan of asteroid (4) Actual mining operation

So far the company has no actual details of exactly how these planetary bodies will be mined (I have to go with the concept of Alien's Nostromo, send people there) and transported back to earth but the idea is intriguing to say the least.

The company was founded by X Prize board members Eric Anderson and Peter H. Diamandis. Although this effort seems far-fetched, several billionaire investors are banking on the quest. Director James Cameron, Google CEO Larry Page, Google chairman Eric Schmidt, Google executive Ram Shriram, Ross Perot Jr., and Microsoft executive/verteran astronaut Charles Simonyi, to name a few. With the potential operating income, who knows what the future holds for Planetary Resources.

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Envisat concept art (via European Space Agency)

April 8^th began the troubles for the European Space Agency (ESA). At a scheduled time, Envisat, a large environment satellite, did not make its transmission of data back home. The satellite is the largest and most expensive non-military satellite orbiting Earth. It measures in at 30 feet long, 16 feet wide, and also carries a large solar array that is about 16 feet wide and 46 feet long and collectively weighs in around 17,600 pounds (about 8,000 kilograms).

Although Envisat is not communicating as of the moment, efforts are being made to restore contact with the satellite. It is still floating around in a stable orbit and will be for 150 more years unless some outside force interferes with its path. Envisat was only planned to have a five year mission collecting data on environmental factors such as air quality, land masses, sea ice, atmosphere, and ocean conditions. However, the satellite lasted twice as long as planned and scientist were hoping it would  last until its predecessors could be launched and calibrated around the year 2014. 

Envisat supplied data using 10 different sophisticated instruments. The instruments used include a spectrometer, a radio meter that can measure the oceans temperature, and a radar altimeter. In addition, it used an interferometer which is a Fourier transforming  infrared spectrometer which transmits data about pressure and temperature along with information about atmospheric gases.

Scientists are worried about the gap in data that the loss of this satellite will cause. Envisat was the most advanced information collecting system in space. An agreement with Canada to use two of their satellites to continue collecting data is being looked into, however those two satellites combined will still not fill in all the missing information that Envisat would have provided.

For now scientist will have to get by with what they got. ESA has already been planning to launch newer satellites into space called Sentinels. The program will launch 5 different satellites into space over a period of 6 to 7 years. Hopefully engineers can find a way to fix Envisat, or else it will would become a billion dollar, bus-sized piece of technology added to the space junk collection.

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According to a recent survey people were found to love the idea of electric cars most due to lower impact on the environment, as well as the money saved on gas. However, 65% polled showed that they had ‘range anxiety’ (stranded with no power) that prevented them from purchasing an electric vehicle. It’s with the peoples concern that IBM started their ‘Battery 500 Project’ back in 2009, which could make future generations of batteries capable of traveling 500 miles on a single charge over the current generations’ 100 mile capacity.

Fast-forward to 2012 and Central Glass (materials manufacturing) along with Asahi Kasei (chemical manufacturing) have jumped on-board in developing a new type of lithium-air battery. Lithium-air batteries are designed to take in air (or breathe) as the vehicle is being driven which mixes with lithium-ions on the batteries anode (oxidation). This reaction produces lithium-peroxide which in-turn reduces the oxygen on the nan-carbon matrix layer of the battery thereby creating electricity and putting lithium back onto the anode. This process helps to extend the charge of the battery by storing the electricity created during the chemical reaction. While the development of the battery is still in its infancy, IBM is looking to release their final design to the automotive industry sometime around 2030.

Waiting almost two decades to get a 500 mile range electric car is not acceptable. Oil reserves, depending on who you ask, are predicted to be depleted within the next 12 - 40 years. Oil is an essential part of manufacturing, product composition, and farming. Wasting oil in human transportation, when there is an alternative close at hand, seems like a crime. The Tesla Roadster and Model S both have a 300 mile option already. Double the size of the battery, add solar, and suddenly there is a possible 700 mile electric car. Cost is the true problem. I am sure the IBM Lithium-Air battery will be comparatively expensive when it is released.

Tesla Model S battery (in white/yellow area). Doubling that size does not seem out of the question. (via Tesla Motors)

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