ESA Rosetta mission: Crippled Philae lander endeavours to transmit relevant data

Animator's picture of Philae on the comet 67/P now appears more idealistic and hugely optimistic.

A report on the Philae spacecraft's verified Twitter feed suggests the probe has successfully "hopped" into a new position which may enable its solar panels to work

There was fresh hope for the Rosetta mission after scientists reconnected with the probe which could be holding key information about how life on Earth began.

The 25-year mission was thrown into jeopardy after the Philae craft bounced away from its landing site on the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and became stuck under a cliff.

Scientists had been working on attempts to find and move the probe before it ran out of battery power.

But on Friday those plans were abandoned and instead they began drilling beneath the surface of the comet in an attempt to get some samples on board for analysis.

ESA Philae landers' instruments listed. Consert, Romap, SD2 and Mupus have been initiated but results are unknown.

Contact with the lander was lost before the data could be sent back to Earth, but late last night Philae re-established radio contact with its orbiting Rosetta satellite and is sending data from the surface.

However, less than an hour later scientist confirmed the lander was "getting tired" and the battery voltage was approaching the limit.

Daniel Scuka, Senior Editor for Spacecraft Operations at ESOC, said on the mission blog: "While the search for the final landing site is still on-going, the lander is racing against the clock to meet as many of the core science goals as possible before the primary battery is exhausted.

"Under the low illumination conditions at Philae's location, it is unlikely that the secondary batteries will charge up enough to enable extended surface operations."

They confirmed that they had received data from Philae, and that the drill had moved up and down, but they were unsure what data they had.

A report on the spacecraft's verified Twitter feed, Philae Lander @Philae2014, suggests the craft has successfully "hopped" into a new position, possibly one that will enable more sunlight to shine on its solar panels.

The first of two messages at about 11pm read: "I just started lifting myself up a little and will now rotate and try and optimise the solar power."

This was quickly followed by another which said: "My rotation was successful (35 degrees). Looks like a whole new comet from this angle."

Philae has imaged three different spots on the comet, it was confirmed.

This may be the sum total of knowledge taken out of the Rosetta Philae lander chapter of the mission.

However, in a less optimistic update just before midnight Mr Scuka added: "On board Philae, system voltage has fallen very close to 21.5V; below that, the battery won't last much longer. At this time, there is insufficient sunlight to provide power."

Rosetta The comet is a remnant from the early solar system and may hold clues about how life on Earth began.

Many scientists believe that comets were the driving force, delivering water and amino acids to the planet during the "bombardment phase" about four billion years ago.

If the link with the probe is lost, there is a faint possibility that the solar panels will begin working again when the comet's orbit brings it closer to the Sun.

"We can only hope that as we approach the Sun, maybe in August, if we don't have dust or a huge coma [a dust cloud around the comet] blocking the Sun, then perhaps there would be a chance we could come back and at least see how the lander is doing," said Valentina Lommats, of the German Space Agency.

Crucially, the team had still not located the lander on Friday. On Thursday, team members said they believed Philae had bounced twice before settling in a crater east of the original landing site.

However, scans by the Osiris camera on board the Rosetta mother ship failed to locate the probe.

Rosetta has now started scanning other areas.

An animated gif of the Philae lander departing from Rosetta on its risky but calamitous journey onto the comet 67/P.

However, scientists were confident that they had collected a huge amount of a data, around 90 per cent of what they were hoping for before the solar panels were needed to extend the mission.

Even if Philae's job is finished, the Rosetta mission is to continue.

Rosetta will remain alongside the comet as it moves closer to the Sun.

Instruments on board will analyse the gases of the tail and the comet's interior, measure dust grains and study its atmosphere and gravity.

The comet will reach its closest distance to the Sun on Aug 13 next year, at about 115 million miles, roughly between the orbits of Earth and Mars.

Ion Tiger sets New Endurance Record for Small Electric Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Fueled by liquid hydrogen (LH2), the Ion Tiger unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) completes a record flight time of 48 hours and 1 minute. 

The electric fuel cell propulsion system onboard the Ion Tiger has the low noise and signature of a battery-powered UAV, while taking advantage of high-energy hydrogen fuel and the high electric efficiency of fuel cells. 

Credit: Image courtesy of Naval Research Laboratory (NRL)

Researchers at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory flew their fuel cell powered Ion Tiger UAV for 48 hours and 1 minute on April 16-18 by using liquid hydrogen fuel in a new, NRL-developed, cryogenic fuel storage tank and delivery system.

This flight shatters their previous record of 26 hours and 2 minutes set in 2009 using the same vehicle, but with gaseous hydrogen stored at 5000 psi.

Liquid hydrogen is three times denser than 5000-psi compressed hydrogen. The cryogenic liquid is stored in a lightweight tank, allowing more hydrogen to be carried onboard to increase flight endurance.

Success in flight requires developing a high quality, lightweight insulated flight dewar for the cryogenic fuel, plus matching the boil off of the cryogenic hydrogen to the vehicle fuel consumption.

"Liquid hydrogen coupled with fuel-cell technology has the potential to expand the utility of small unmanned systems by greatly increasing endurance while still affording all the benefits of electric propulsion," said Dr. Karen Swider-Lyons, NRL principal investigator.

Although long endurance is possible with conventional, hydrocarbon-fueled systems, these are usually loud, inefficient, and unreliable in this aircraft class.

Similarly, small, electric, battery-powered systems are limited to endurances of only several hours.

To address the logistics of in-theater supply of liquid or gaseous hydrogen, NRL proposes in-situ manufacture of LH2 for use as fuel.

An electrolyzer-based system would require only water for feedstock, and electricity, possibly from solar or wind, to electrolyze, compress, and refrigerate the fuel.

The NRL LH2 flight capability is being developed by NRL's Tactical Electronic Warfare and Chemistry Divisions, and is sponsored by the Office of Naval Research.

Honda Microcommuter Concept: Can it outsmart the Smart

Honda's Micro Commuter Concept EV has heads-up display, social networking, advanced aerodynamics, seating for three (1+2 like the T25 and T27 city cars), luggage capacity, a customizable exterior and a fold-up electric bike for last mile transport.

Honda's Micro Commuter Concept looks like it will take the basic design Micro Car design and update it to the world of today, with advanced aerodynamics, seating for three (1+2), luggage capacity, a customizable exterior and last mile transport in the form of an ingenious fold-up electric two-wheeler known as the Motor Compo.

Very little has been revealed by Honda in its pre Tokyo Motor Show press release, but the electric city commuter vehicle looks like a winner from the get-go.

Studying the photos released with the press blurb suggests that the Micro Commuter Concept has seen plenty of time inside a wind tunnel to optimise its aerodynamics for the low to medium speed range of urban roads.

The relationship between the compact, fold-up Motor Compo electric two-wheeler is not clear as yet, but one of the very few indications of the functionality of the two-wheeler in the press releases states it to be a "compact EV commuter which offers the casual and convenient mobility of a two-wheeler, but also strives to be useful even when it's not being ridden.

This model can be loaded into the Micro Commuter Concept, with the battery that drives this commuter detachable and designed to be used as a power source in everyday life."

The Micro Commuter Concept and Motor Compo are just two of seven concepts to be shown in Tokyo, but Honda clearly has the concept of last mile transport still firmly in its mind.

It may be difficult for Americans living in cities with a lot of space to comprehend the problems faced by other city dwellers around the world, but as urban roads become more crowded, the distance between where you park and your final destination is set to become a significant part of the daily commute.

Read the full article here

Back from the Future! DeLorean to be resurrected

If you fell in love with the DeLorean in the Back to the Future movie series, the good news is that in 2013, you'll be able to buy a real one again.

It won't have a flux capacitor, won't time-travel and it'll still be a thirty year-old design (albeit styled by Giugiaro and structurally redesigned by Colin Chapman of Lotus fame after Delorean himself screwed up the first design).

It will have a 200+ bhp electric motor, not the original asthmatic V6 producing 130 bhp, and those awesome gull-wing doors and it'll be really retro cool.

It won't be called the DMC-12 any more either, because the 12 stood for its new price at launch - US$12,000. The new one will cost you between US$90,000 and US$100,000.

Background
Texas entrepreneur Stephen Wynne started the current "De Lorean Motor Company" in 1995 after acquiring the name and remaining parts inventory and since 2007, around 40 whole De Lorean cars have been produced from the spare parts cars.

Now the company is to go another step, and at an International De Lorean Owners Event in Houston a few days back, the new electric De Lorean was announced.

"Now we are working with electric-car startup Epic EV to put an all-electric DMC-12 into production by 2013" was the announcement on the De Lorean web site. The three-wheeled Epic EV just happens to use a 200 bhp+ electric motor too.

The Orginal
One of the original De Lorean machines used in the shooting of the "Back to the future" film franchise is to go under the hammer at an auction in December. The car is expected to fetch in the ballpark of $400,000-$600,000.

Check out the video of the new Epic EV below.

BYU Electric Car Zips Along At 155.8 MPH

Electric vehicles look to be the talk of this year’s speed trials at the Bonneville Salt Flats. Earlier this year Paul Thede set a speed record for riding his Lightning superbike at a blazing 219 miles per hour.

Now, Brigham Young University officials have announced that their student-built electric car has set another Bonneville speed record.

The car, nicknamed “Electric Blue” was built by BYU engineering students and was competing in the Streamliner E1 class. Streamliner cars are typically long, low to the ground, slender and bullet-shaped.

The E1 class also has a weight limit of less than 1,100 pounds. Because electric cars rely on heavy batteries, engineering a speedy vehicle at such a light weight is very difficult.

That’s why there were no prior certified speed runs for this class, although unofficial standards reached the 130s.

The BYU team had no problem busting the 130 MPH barrier. Their two runs had an average speed of 155.8 MPH with one of the runs clocking in at blazing 175 MPH.

More than 130 BYU students have contributed to the creation of the racer over the seven years of the project.

Students custom-built the lightweight carbon fiber body after modeling it on a wind tunnel program on a computer. The aerodynamic performance and lithium iron phosphate batteries helped the car reach its high speeds.

Researchers create smallest nanowire battery ever

Rice University scientists announced they figured out how to squish all three parts of a lithium storage device onto one nanowire with all key parts: anode, cathode, and electrolyte.

Keep in mind, the battery is so small, you can barely see it with your eyes when you look at it from a certain angle because its diameter is that of a human hair.

But the device has thousands of nanowires that work together as a battery and could one day power nanoscale electronics, according to researchers.
Rice engineer Pulickel Ajayan told PhysOrg.com:

“We have demonstrated the working of a nanowire array device planted over a geometric area of about 0.5 cm². Devices at this scale could be used to power several MEMS devices. Ultimately, individual nanowire batteries could each power a few nanowire semiconductor devices, for example.”

The researchers showed that the battery has good charge and discharge abilities, all things that would make it perform well as a battery. The main components include a nickel-tin anode, polyethylene oxide (PEO) electrolyte and polyaniline cathode.

Also, the scientists showed that lithium ions could move through the battery and store the ions. Anjayan explained that by putting the cathode inside the nanowire, the device was designed not only to store energy but could also act as an insulator.

The team had been working towards building the single-nanowire device for a while. Last fall, they created three-dimensional nanobatteries.

For now, the researchers are working on improving the battery’s efficiency and will worry about the real applications in the future.

The main focus now is to improve the performance of the battery by fiddling with the types of materials in the system.

via Rice University

YouTube - ‪BMW shows pre-production electric scooter‬‏

Don't be put off buy the odd paint job on this concept bike - that's the standard camouflage BMW and many other manufacturers use to conceal the final body shape of concept and pre-production test vehicles.

Under the skin, the E-Scooter looks to be a reasonably well designed but unremarkable electric maxi-scooter reminiscent of the Vectrix that more or less pioneered decent-sized electric motorcycles in the western world.

It's worth noting that in certain parts of Asia, electrics are almost as common as petrol scooters, but they travel at lower speeds and have shorter ranges than would be appealing to the U.S. market.

So what's changed since the Vectrix? Not an awful lot, on the surface of it. Vectrix chose a hub-mounted drive motor, BMW uses a chain drive and a motor that's built into the battery pack. Presumably BMW will be using Lithium based batteries as opposed to the Vectrix's old-school NiMH powerpack.

Range and top speed more or less match the Vectrix - the BMW will do more than 100 km/h (62 mph) and will travel more than 100 km (62 miles) on a charge if you go gentle on the throttle. But our recent experience testing the Zero Electric Supermoto taught us exactly how much of a difference your riding style can make to a modern electric's range figures.

Pootle it around at 50 km/h (can you actually pootle an electric?) and it feels like the battery will last forever. Sit at 100 km/h on a freeway and it's quite terrifying to watch as the battery bars disappear before your very eyes.

Regenerative braking will help keep a little more juice in the battery as you ride, but in general, as with most electrics, you plug the E-Scooter into the wall to charge it. A full charge from empty is over in about three hours, but you'll rarely run it all the way to empty.

Tesla? No, homebuilt electric Z-Kart

As major automobile manufacturers around the world pour countless dollars and man hours into the research and development of electric vehicles, George Fortin has quietly gone about making one of his own.

While it is true that his Z-Kart is just a one-seater with a range of 20 miles and a top speed of 40 mph that lacks pretty much any safety features or cargo capacity, it is nonetheless a well-engineered little buggy that looks like it would be a blast to drive.

Not bad at all, for something that was made and designed and built by a real estate broker.

More information here Translogic

Sony Corp to enter the Lucrative Car Battery Market

Sony Corp. will tap the rechargeable car battery market amid a growing focus on electric cars and green auto technology, chief executive Howard Stringer said Thursday.

"The energy business is obviously -- given the nature of the world we live in -- going to be a growth area," Stringer told reporters.

"We are going to put some of our own money into it and move quickly ... to see if we can find a place that makes sense for us," he said.

Japanese carmakers have invested heavily in developing hybrid, electric and fuel efficient cars that produce lower or no greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.

Toyota Motor has set up a business with Panasonic to produce lithium-ion batteries, while Nissan Motor and electronics giant NEC have also jointly set up a battery company.

"Somebody said to me, well, battery makers have car deals," said Stringer.

"If you produce the right battery, if you produce it, they will come," he said.

Sony has booked a net loss of 26.3 billion yen (290 million dollars) for the fiscal second quarter through September, hit by weak demand for televisions, cameras and other electronic devices.

It forecasts a net loss of 95 billion yen for the year to March.

However, Stringer said sales in the US holiday season had been brisk so far, especially of the PlayStation 3 game console and Blu-ray disks.

Spacewalk halted after suit problem

Two US Shuttle astronauts from the Endeavour cut short their spacewalk and hurried back to the safety of the international space station (ISS) after a spacesuit problem caused rising carbon dioxide levels for one of them.

Nasa chiefs stressed that spacewalker Christopher Cassidy was never in any danger and experienced no symptoms of carbon dioxide build-up. The trouble happened in Wednesday's spacewalk, the third for shuttle Endeavour's crew.

Mission Control notified the crew five hours into the spacewalk that the canister for removing or 'scrubbing' carbon dioxide from Cassidy's suit did not seem to be working properly.

Abort EVA

Flight controllers wanted him back inside as quickly as possible, to mitigate against the possibility of a complete failure of the ;scrubber;. This meant that fellow spacewalker David Wolf had to go in too because safety rules covering EVAs require that these exercises be carried out by no less than 2 astronauts.

The battery replacement work outside the space station was left unfinished. Only two of the four new batteries ended up being installed.

Heading for the Hatch

Cassidy immediately headed for the hatch. He waited there for Wolf, who was further out on the space station. Their work site was on the far left side of the orbiting complex, along the framework that holds the huge solar wings and more than 150 feet from the hatch.

"I'm just going to sit here and I'm going to wait for Dave and enjoy the view," Cassidy said. What a great idea and its something that all astronauts love to do on EVA, look down on Mother Earth as she spins below them. The biggest distraction on an EVA is often the sheer beauty and wonder of being outside in the vacuum of space, with nothing between you and the beautiful blue Earth.

A view of Earth from Space

The view from inside the Shuttle or the ISS is much more restricted because of the size of the windows or 'viewing panes'. Its a really unique experience for an astronaut to absorb that sensational panoramic view.

In no time and without fuss, both men were safely back inside the ISS and the spacewalk was over 30 minutes after Mission Control's initial call to cut it short. It ended up lasting six hours, a half-hour shorter than planned. The unfinished battery work will be added to Friday's spacewalk, the fourth of five planned for this mission.

Fluxcapacitor is back in the future

A supercapacitor – a device that can unleash large amounts of charge very quickly – has been created using printing technology for the first time. The advance will pave the way for "printed" power supplies that could be useful as gadgets become thinner, lighter and even flexible.

Advances in electronics mean portable gadgets are shrinking in size but growing in their energy demands, and conventional batteries are struggling to cope.

Batteries are slow to recharge because they store energy chemically. By contrast, capacitors, which are common in electronics, are short-term stores of electrical energy that charge almost instantaneously but hold little energy.

In recent years capacitors able to store thousands of times as much energy as standard ones, called supercapacitors, have been developed. They are charged by applying a voltage to two electrodes suspended in a solution so that positive ions head to one electrode and negative ions to the other.

Now, a team led by George Grüner at the University of California, Los Angeles, has printed a supercapacitor for the first time, building on earlier theoretical work to provide quick bursts of power that today's electronics devices demand.

Team members sprayed carbon nanotubes onto a plastic film – two such films act as both the device's electrodes and charge collectors. Between the two films, the team sandwiched a gel electrolyte made by mixing a water-soluble synthetic polymer with phosphoric acid and water.

It's a Capacitor Jim, but not as we know it!