Can Microwave-Powered Shuttles Make Space Travel Cheaper?

As reported by Engadget: How much does it take to launch a satellite? According to Rocket Lab's Peter Beck "You pretty much have to write a check for a billion dollars." Beck, along with Jeff Bezos andElon Musk are part of a new wave of inventors looking to make this cheaper by developing low cost or reusable rockets for launches. The folks at Escape Dynamics, however, have a very different idea about how to make trips to space economical for people who aren't multi-millionaires. The company claims that it's successfully tested the engine for a reusable spaceplane that, rather than being stuffed to the gills with expensive fuel, would glide into the stratosphere on a wave of microwave energy.

With traditional launch systems, the bulk of the weight and resources goes to filling a tube with explosives. Naturally, that's quite wasteful, so the proposed vehicle would ditch almost all of its on-board power systems. Instead, it would receive energy from a series of ground-based microwave emitters which pump power right into a collector based in the plane's heat shield. That energy would then be used to drive an electromagnetic motor that ignites a small quantity of on-board fuel (hydrogen or helium, for instance) that would be used to get into orbit.

The company claims that the engine running on helium was able to achieve a Specific Impulse (the equivalent of MP/H for a rocket) of 500 seconds. By comparison, Escape Dynamics says that your average chemical rocket tops out at 460, and if the test vehicle had been running hydrogen, that figure could rise to 600 Isp. That could prove to be a big breakthrough for the private spaceflight industry, assuming that these results can be replicated outside of the lab.

As Gizmodo notes, however, the idea is a little bit pie-in-the-sky, since the company would have to build a global network of microwave emitters to keep the craft aloft. Then there's the various environmental and energy considerations that such a system would have to deal with, not to mention the political aspect. Still, if ED can, somehow, create a dirt-cheap reusable spaceplane that'll do away with expensive rockets, we imagine plenty of people would get behind the idea.

A Quasiparticle that Acts Like a Massless Electron Could Change How We Build Electronics

As reported by Spectrum IEEE: After an 85-year hunt, scientists have detected an exotic particle, the “Weyl fermion,” which they suggest could lead to faster and more efficient electronics and to new types of quantum computing.

Electrons, protons, and neutrons belong to a class of particles known as fermions. Unlike the other major class of particles, the bosons, which include photons, fermions can collide with each other—no two fermions can share the same state at the same position at the same time.

Whereas electrons and all the other known fermions have mass, in 1929, mathematician and physicist Hermann Weyl theorized that massless fermions that carry electric charge could exist, so-called Weyl fermions. “Weyl fermions are basic building blocks; you can combine two Weyl fermions to make an electron,” says condensed matter physicist Zahid Hasan at Princeton University.

The fact that Weyl fermions have no mass suggests they could shuffle electric charge along inside electronics far more quickly than electrons can. Another potentially useful quality of Weyl fermions is that they cannot move backward—instead of bouncing away from obstacles, they zip through or around roadblocks. In contrast, electrons can scatter backward when they collide with obstructions, hindering the efficiency of their flow and generating heat.

“Weyl fermions could be used to solve the traffic jams that you get with electrons in electronics—they can move in a much more efficient, ordered way than electrons,” Hasan says. “They could lead to a new type of electronics we call ‘Weyltronics.’”

Electricity in these crystals can move at least twice as fast as it does in graphene and 1,000 times faster than in conventional semiconductors

For decades, physicists thought that subatomic particles called neutrinos were Weyl fermions. However, in 1998, scientists discovered neutrinos do have mass. (Their antimatter equivalent, the antineutrino could be a key technology in ensuring Iran’s compliance in this week’s nuclear deal.)

Now, after 85 years, scientists have finally detected Weyl fermions within large crystals of tantalum monoarsenide. They detailed their findings this week online in the journal Science.

Particles such as the famous Higgs boson are often detected in the aftermath of high-energy particle collisions, but in a study published in June the researchers theorized that Weyl fermions could exist in certain crystals known as “Weyl semimetals,” which can essentially split electrons inside into pairs of Weyl fermions that move in opposite directions, Hasan says.

The researchers noted these Weyl fermions are not freestanding particles. Instead, they are quasiparticles that can only exist within those crystals. In other words, they are electronic activity that behaves as if they were particles in free space. By shining beams of ultraviolet light and X-rays at these crystals, the researchers detected the telltale effects of Weyl fermions on those beams.

“These results are very exciting for me personally, since I've been involved significantly in the theoretical discovery of Weyl semimetals a few years ago,” says physicist Anton Burkov at the University of Waterloo, who did not take part in this research. “It’s very exciting to finally see them discovered experimentally in real materials.”

The way that Weyl fermions are constrained from moving backwards is similar to how electrons behave in exotic materials called topological insulators. Such constraints can help current flow highly efficiently; Hasan says that electricity in these crystals can (theoretically) move at least twice as fast as it does in graphene and 1,000 times faster than in conventional semiconductors, “and the crystals can be improved to do even better.” The upshot could be faster electronics that consume less energy. “Power consumption and associated heating is what currently limits a further increase in processor speed in our computers,” Burkov says.

In addition, Weyl fermions could also lead to new kinds of quantum computers that are more resistant to disruption. Quantum computers rely on states known as superpositions, in which a bit can essentially represent both one and zero at the same time. Superpositions offer the chance to solve previously intractable problems, but they are notoriously prone to collapsing  if they interact with the environment. The fact that Weyl fermions are less prone to interacting with their surroundings could lead to new ways of encoding quantum information, Hasan says.

The researchers are now investigating other materials in which Weyl fermions could exist. “We’ve found a niobium-based material, and a silicon-based crystal,” Hasan says.

Google Blames Careless Humans after First Driverless Car Injury

As reported by The Telegraph: Google has said the first injury involving a driverless car was down to a careless driver slamming into the back of one of its vehicles.

On Thursday, Google revealed that three of its employees, who had been riding in one of its driverless Lexus cars, were taken to hospital with minor whiplash after a car rear-ended it at traffic lights in Mountain View, California, earlier this month.

It was the 14th accident in six years and almost 2 million miles of testing. Chris Urmson, who leads the company's driverless car project, said not a single accident had been caused by Google's cars.

"Our self-driving cars are being hit surprisingly often by other drivers who are distracted and not paying attention to the road. That’s a big motivator for us," he wrote in a blog post. "The most recent collision... is a perfect example.

Urmson released a video showing how the crash appeared to the car, which uses a number of sensors to interpret the environment around it.

Self-driving cars have raised fears that the technology would make mistakes, resulting in injuries or road deaths. However, Urmson said the statistics were starting to show that Google's cars were significantly safer than human drivers.

In the most recent collision, the car had failed to break at traffic lights, and had hit the back of the Google vehicle at 17 miles per hour.

"Other drivers have hit us 14 times since the start of our project in 2009 (including 11 rear-enders), and not once has the self-driving car been the cause of the collision," Urmson wrote.

"so what did you do before self-driving cars?" "we just drove 'em ourselves!" "wow, no one died that way?" "oh no, millions of people died"

— gregory erskine (@cat_beltane) April 15, 2015

"Instead, the clear theme is human error and inattention. We’ll take all this as a signal that we’re starting to compare favorably with human drivers.

"Our self-driving cars can pay attention to hundreds of objects at once, 360 degrees in all directions, and they never get tired, irritable or distracted."

The car in question was a Lexus SUV. Last year, Google said a more compact, bubble-shaped vehicle would hit the roads for testing this year.

GPS Network Marks its 20th Anniversary

As reported by the Denver Post: It's hard to imagine life without GPS technology.

We rely on it daily to navigate cities, schedule flights, receive severe weather warnings and check in on Facebook.

A mere two decades ago, it was not even a thing.

This week marks the 20th anniversary of the Global Positioning System being declared fully operational by the U.S. Air Force.

Since that time — July 17, 1995, to be exact — GPS technology has become commonplace in both military and civilian life.

What few realize is that the worldwide GPS network is a military operation — provided for free — operated right here in Colorado by the 2nd Space Operations Squadron at Schriever Air Force Base in Colorado Springs.

"Since 1995, GPS has been the gold standard for global space-based navigation, providing highly reliable and accurate navigation and timing signals to users around the world," said Air Force Space Command chief Gen. John E. Hyten in a statement.

Space-related projects like GPS contribute about 163,000 jobs to Colorado, making the state first for the amount of private aerospace workers per capita, according to data from the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp.

There are 4 billion GPS-enabled devices worldwide — a number that's expected to double in the next five years — and the global GPS market is estimated to reach more than $26 billion in value by 2016, per the EDC.

This can only help Colorado because geospatial technologies, remote sensing and satellite-based services make up the bulk of the state's space economy to the tune of $6.3 billion in annual revenue, according to the EDC.

On Wednesday, Centennial-based United Launch Alliance added another satellite to the $3.6 billion GPS network with the launch of GPS IIF-10 from Cape Canaveral, Fla.

In fact, every operational GPS mission has been launched by ULA or vehicles from the two companies that make up ULA: Littleton-based Lockheed Martin Space Systems' Atlas rocket or Boeing's Delta rocket.

Gov. John Hickenlooper will declare Friday as "GPS Day" to recognize the myriad contributions of Colorado companies, among them ground control systems from Aurora-based Raytheon and Colorado Springs-based Braxton Technologies, and next-gen GPS technologies, such as the forthcoming GPS-III satellites from Lockheed Martin Space Systems.

If Tesla Designed a Motorcycle: The Tesla Model M Concept

As reported by HiConsumption: Tesla’s four-wheeled offerings have been a huge hit among automotive enthusiasts, so we can only imagine just how nuts fans will go if/when the brand ever reveals a 2-wheeled electric vehicle. Independent designer Jans Slapins shows us what he thinks Elon Musk and company could cook up with this Tesla Model M motorcycle concept.

The London-based designer has done a stellar job with the concept bike, keeping the design aesthetics in line with what we’ve become accustomed to from the California EV producer. The bike is powered by a 204 PS (150kW) electric motor that allows the rider to choose from four different computer controlled modes including Race, Cruise, Standard and Eco. The electric motor is powered by lithium-ion batteries that are installed low on the bike’s frame. The motorcycle features no transmission, offers up a trunk storage space where the fuel tank would normally be (perfect for holding a full face helmet), lightweight carbon fiber wheels, and a mono shock out back along with upside down forks up front for suspension. [Via]

Great Photos of Earth From the World's Smallest Satellites

 As reported by CNN: How big is a satellite? As big as a washing machine? A car? A bus?

The average size of communication satellites orbiting the Earth is about that of a car. But there are extremes, such as the NROL-32, a spy satellite launched by the United States in 2010, which has an antenna spanning 328 feet across, or nearly 100 meters.

But among the flying giants, a new breed is spreading its wings.

Planet Labs, a Californian startup which had its beginnings in a garage in 2012, is pushing satellite miniaturization to its limits. Last year, they launched Flock 1, an array of 28 satellites that now constitutes the world's largest constellation of Earth imaging satellites.

They are called Doves, their mission is to map every inch of the planet, and each of them is no larger than a shoe box.

Mapping every inch of the planet every day 03:52

A Sputnik with a camera

The 1957 Sputnik satellite.

Chris Boshuizen is the co-founder and CTO of Planet Labs. His previous job title was "Space Mission Architect" for NASA. Not a bad starting point.

"As far as I remember, even as a kid I was always fascinated by the Moon and it seemed irrational to me that I couldn't go there," he told CNN's Nick Glass.

But for NASA, Chris was not planning multi-billion dollar missions to the Moon. Instead, he worked on the PhoneSat project, aimed at creating super-cheap satellites: "We literally built an Android smartphone, placed it in a box and put it in space. It was essentially like the Russian satellite Sputnik, but cheaper and able to take photos. It was Sputnik with a camera."

Learning to fly

That's how Boshuizen learned to be frugal when designing spacecraft. Instead of creating a complex, expensive and large machine, his approach is to build several cheap ones, which can act together like a swarm of insects.

"If any of our small satellites has any deficiencies, we can make up for that with quantity. And so the first application we came up with was Earth imaging: if we could put hundreds of cameras in space we could actually do real-time monitoring of the Earth and its climate, to help people make better decisions about their impact on the environment."

In 2012 he founded Planet Labs with a few friends, operating out of a garage in Cupertino, California. The perfect start for a startup.

Today, his mission statement is clearly posted on Planet Labs' website: "Fresh data from any place on Earth is foundational to solving commercial, environmental, and humanitarian challenges."

A shoe box in space

Boshuizen's satellites are solar powered, producing around 20W each.

Their name, Doves, started out as a joke: "I was having a conversation with one of our engineers, Mike Safyan, who was complaining that most military satellites have kind of evil names like Kestrel-Eye and Talon and Raptor. He said, 'Why don't we call ours Dove?' And it was just a joke, but what that means, how that speaks to our missions is profound, so instead of launching a constellation of satellites, we're launching a flock of doves."

The current flock of 28 will be joined by about 30 more over the next few months, with the goal of eventually reaching a constellation density of about 100.

That is, if fate doesn't intervene again.

White Dove down

On October 28th, 2014, an Antares rocket carrying 26 Doves destined for orbit exploded fourteen seconds after launch. Other than that, there were no injuries.

Rockets are fantastically complicated machines, and they fail: "I was watching the live-stream of the video, and I have this great photograph of everyone's jaw hanging open where they were like, 'What just happened?!', and I walked up to my co-founder Robbie and just gave him a big hug and he just said that this was bound to happen one day."

The setback has slowed down Planet Labs' technological progress, but the company still plans to offer their services commercially soon, and at prices containing "at least one zero less than a conventional satellite."

The Doves stored on the ground before launch.

Aquaculture in the small town of Hanjia-Ri, South Korea.

The Kashima industrial zone in the Ibaraki prefecture, Japan.

Planet Labs have plans to bring their constellation up to around 120 Doves.

Watch an Atlas V Rocket Launch a GPS Satellite into Lower Earth Orbit

As reported by the Verge: It's a busy week for space travel. Today, two separate rockets are scheduled to launch payloads into lower Earth orbit — one from the United States, the other from French Guiana.

The first of these launches will be helmed by the United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed. The company's Atlas V rocket will take off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, carrying a GPS satellite to orbit for the Air Force. This is ULA's 10th launch of 12 GPS satellites for the Air Force — part of the GPS IIF satellite series meant to help sustain and upgrade the military's current constellation in space.

ULA has an 18-minute launch window beginning at 11:36AM ET. Watch the takeoff at ULA's website, with coverage starting at 11:16AM ET. Also check out the satellite getting mounted onto the rocket below.