Future Magnified

Conflict Danger Will Grow As A Result Of Climate Change, Warn Leading US Intelligence Officials

A Wired.com blog, called Danger Room, has an article about a report done by the National Intelligence Council, called "The National Security Implications of Global Climate Change Through 2030". It warns about the dangers of climate change in the next few decades and how it will impact countries.

The U.S. intelligence community has finished up its classified assessment of how our changing weather patterns could contribute to "political instability around the world, the collapse of governments and the creation of terrorist safe havens".

Read the rest of the article here.

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Harvesting Energy By Beaming It Down From Space

Light is an essential element in our everyday life and Pranav Mehta agrees with this completely. He is the director of India operations for Space Island Group and lives in one village called Guajarat that is considered to be one of the most flourishing Indian states. But around it there are plenty rural villages with no electricity.

This is without any doubt a big problem in India and the government has to empower this region. According to India’s Planning Commission plans, by 2030 India will be able to cover the general demand by producing an extra 700,000 megawatts of power. For this to become true, they will use cool-fired power plants. A mega complex will be built in South of Tunda Wand and will cost no less than $4 billion (this being only the first one).

Even if this seems to be a viable option, Mehta thinks that the answer might consist in sun-gathering satellites in geosynchronous orbits.

Like this, gigawatts of solar energy will be turned into electricity and transferred to power grids. The satellites stay in direct sun-light 365 days/ year and they can provide non-stop electricity.

This idea of space solar power goes back to 1968 and it was introduced first by the American scientist Peter Glaser. After years of studies, NASA and the United States Department came to the conclusion that this process is too expensive. According to John Mankins, the president of the Space Power Association, costs will hit $1 trillion.

In the ’90s NASA’s “Fresh Look” study was stopped because they decided they don’t want to continue this research.

The opinions go both ways. Charles Miller, a director of the Space Frontier Foundation believes that the environment is waiting for this to happen and not it’s the perfect time to start this.

Nowadays, the people are interested once again in the solar energy and that is caused manly by the high oil price or changes of climate. Pentagon’s National Security Space Office released a report in 2007 supporting the development of space power systems. It said that only one kilometer-wide band of geosynchronous Earth orbit will provide an equal amount of energy with all oil reserves in the world. Another benefit is that solar energy from satellites can supply energy to developing nations and to disaster areas.

The country that will provide energy for the next 100 years will be will be the first one in line on space solar power.

Until now, Pentagon reported that Russia, India, China and European Union are interested in these ideas. Another important country in this matter is Japan because in the last decades they spent millions of dollars into space power studies.

Until then, there are a few engineering challenges that must be surmounted and the main one is the access in space that is still very expensive. After that, the robotic technology must be developed and supported and all this is translated in millions and millions of dollars.

Despite that, scientists are optimistic thinking that all this can become real in the next 10 years.

Source: CNN.com

No Comments | Posted in » Energy

NASA Reveals Lunar Base Plans And Requests Ideas From The Industry

Starting with 2024, NASA will send 4 of its astronauts on the moon for a period of 1 to 4 weeks. That’s why, back in Washington, they’ve made a request for new ideas about this, ideas that will be included in the lunar outpost.

According to NASA’s declarations, the moon base will use pressurized rovers to transport people for hundreds of miles. Once they get there, the crew will gather strong scientific evidences and bring them back to Earth.

Chris Culbert is the manager of Lunar Surface Systems project and he thinks that this is probably the best way to collect great ideas. For him and his team this is not the first trip to the moon. They’ve been there several times but they didn’t stay for long because there were only 2 astronauts. Now everything is different.

At the industry meeting in Washington, NASA made public their entire request about the lunar base. In time, this base can be expanded in order to be able to host more people. For now, the lunar base will need to be entirely self-sufficient, for long periods of up to half a year.

According to Larry Toups, the manager of habitation systems for the lunar outpost, the interconnected “modules” will provide the astronauts with everything they need: air, food, water and equipment. Also, the modules will include all the necessary systems to manage waste, humidity, heat, pressure and to keep them safe from moon dust and radiation. All this was especially designed so that they can live safely for 28 days.

Each of these modules weighting 7.7 tons and measuring 8.5 meters (27 feet) will leave Earth attached to an Aries V rocket. In its walls, the module will store pressurized spacesuits for the astronauts to wear if they want to get in and out in only 15 minutes.

The module will be powered by solar panels that will provide 35 kilowatts of electricity. Normally this capacity could handle perfectly around 25 American houses. Another viable option, according to Culbert, is considered to be the nuclear power.

Once they get there, the astronauts will exit their base, explore the landscape and gather important scientific data. To do that, they will need great mobility and that involves distances between hundreds and thousands kilometres.

Yoder declared that they will start exploring from the first day, and to support that he presented a sketch of a rover with six legs that can easily climb walls and step over boulders. This device will also integrate the technical capacity that will allow it to dig up and move the regolith (moon soil).

In time, NASA is planning on creating streets on the moon for these vehicles and that’s not everything. They’ll also construct launching pads and level landing. If the moon surface will turn into a city street, the rovers will work easily and will complete their job faster.

Because of the vibrations caused by the rocket launch, the astronauts will need a novel packaging system to protect their equipment and for this they’re considering using an edible foam material.

Stay tuned for a full step by step explanation on NASA’s plan of putting a lunar base on the moon, coming tomorrow.

Sources: mcclatchydc.com, Nasa.gov

Image source: Nasa.gov

No Comments | Posted in » Space

CNN Interview With Iain M. Banks

Just found an interesting interview at CNN, with Iain M. Bank, science fiction author. Read it here or look below for a small excerpt from the interview. You can also watch the videos if you prefer.

CNN: Do you think humanity really has a future among the stars?

Iain M. Banks: Well, it’s there or nowhere. I think it’s insane to have the capacity to get off the planet and not use it. It’s still the case that we’ve got no real defense against meteors or comets or anything else hitting the planet. You’ve got all your eggs in one basket, all six, seven billion of us in the one place, and all potentially vulnerable to strike by something really big that’d wipe us all out. It just seems really daft, so yeah, why not?

It might take us longer than we hope: I come from that generation that feels quite put out that we don’t have square meals the size of Oxo cubes and we don’t have jet packs and free electricity and all the things we were promised — where’s our hovering cities and starships and moon bases and Mars bases, and so on — but I’m still optimistic, I still think we’ll get there.

But we’re making life difficult for ourselves at the moment, what with global warming and all the shenanigans associated with that. We’ll see; I do think we should keep on doing it. It would be great if we could spend less money on the military and a lot more on space exploration: divert funds to something worthwhile instead of developing new ways of killing one’s fellow human beings.

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Virgin Galactic’s Spaceport In Europe Will Be In Kiruna, Sweden

With only 18,000 inhabitants, the city of Kiruna, located in Sweden, is set to become the first spaceport in Europe owned by Virgin Galactic. Kiruna spaceport should begin operations in 2010 or 2011.

One of the things that set Kiruna apart is the stunning view of the Aurora Borealis that they have. This way, the Virgin flights passengers will have the chance to see this phenomenon from up close and probably also enjoy the experience of a theme park.

There are 250 people from all over the world right now, waiting to go into space with Virgin Galactic. Out of these, 80 are already undergoing training, and 85,000 have expressed interest so far. It will set you back $20,000 to reserve a trip, and the price is $200,000.

Will be interesting to see this price go down in the future, as space tourism becomes mainstream and the costs take a dive.

Want to book a trip in space with Virgin Galactic and you got the money? Click here to do it.

No Comments | Posted in » Space

Scientists Build Nano Hot Rods

A team of scientists from Arizona State University managed to boost the performance of nanomachines, bring the technology closer to the point where it can be used for industrial or medical purposes.

A team of researchers from ASU found a way to soup up these nanomachines, and we’re now a step closer to the point where they will be able to deliver medications or test water quality in remote locations. They did this by modifying the engine design and using an additive that speeds up the oxidation of the hydrogen peroxide, making these nanomachines 350 times stronger than anything else built so far.

Until now, nanomachines were being built out of gold, nickel or platinum and were fueled by hydrogen peroxide, but their speed was only 10 microns per second, which was insufficient to be used for any scientific applications.

By inserting nanotubes into platinum and adding hydrazine, they managed to increase their speed to 200 microns per second (100 times the length of these nanomachines).

Since the human body doesn’t produce hydrogen peroxide, researchers are currently working on ways to synthesize it from glucose.

In the next two years, these nanomachines should be advanced enough to be used as part of sensors that would detect impurities in drinking water, and in a few years they could be used for medical purposes (delivering drugs into the body).

No Comments | Posted in » Nanotechnology

Self-Repairing Aircraft In The Future?

Aircraft that are damaged while flying could automatically repair themselves in the future, by using methods similar to the natural healing found in nature.

One possibility is the use of resins that would ooze into cracks on demand and that would make possible aircrafts that are lighter, cheaper and would save fuel. It could be done by filling hollow fibers with hardeners and epoxy resin. When the aircraft is damaged and has holes, these vessels would bleed out and seal them.

Up to 90% of the original strength of the material could be regained this way, enough to allow the plane to reach its destination.

Source

No Comments | Posted in » Military

3D Body Scans, A Possible Future For Airport Security

What you see in the video below is a method of identifying people by scanning their physical characteristics. This biometric scanning technology could be used in many areas, such as airport security, scanning artifacts in museums for their 3D version or in many other areas. In airport security I would imagine that 3D scans would greatly speed up security checks at airports.

Combine this for example with holographic technology and you can get someone’s hologram in a matter of minutes.

Click read more to check out the video.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act Becomes Law

On May 21, President Bush signed a very important law for the future, the one called the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GENA).

Why it’s important? Because it doesn’t allow for the results of genetic tests to influence decisions. We’re talking here about health insurance companies not being able to increase their rates when it comes to people predisposed to diseases or to deny them coverage. It also applies to decisions about employing, firing, hiring or giving compensation based on these genetic test results.

Here is the list of things it addresses:

• forbids insurance companies from denying coverage or raising premiums based on genetic information
• forbids insurers and employers from requiring a person to submit to genetic testing
• forbids discrimination against any person based on their personal or family genetic information
• prohibits labour organizations from denying membership based on genetic information
• prohibits the disclosure or purchase of genetic information by insurers or health planning companies

With genetic tests being such a commodity these days, this act will encourage even more people to take the step without fearing that they will lose their jobs or an increase in their health plan rates.

Though, as we already know, this doesn’t mean everyone will obey it. Taking someone’s DNA and testing it is not that hard and we will probably see some companies test their employees without them knowing and making decisions based on those results.

No Comments | Posted in » Health