Technology Updates

tahanson43206 · 2021-03-22 07:18:47

For SpaceNut ... this report could fit in more than one topic ...

It is good to see innovation led and supported by Great Britain in this area ...

https://www.yahoo.com/news/astroscale-s … 22934.html

The Elsa-D demonstration will be overseen from a control centre at the UK's Satellite Applications Catapult in Harwell, Oxfordshire.
The centre will be tied into a network of 16 ground stations to maintain continuous communications with the experimental spacecraft.
The Harwell facility has been funded by the UK government, which wants to make Britain a hub for businesses that can service and/or remove ageing satellites, and generally play into what is termed space domain awareness. This includes object tracking and traffic management.

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tahanson43206 · 2021-04-06 12:57:55

Here is an announcement that seems reasonable (to me at least) on first reading ...

https://currently.att.yahoo.com/att/vol … 00931.html

"All commercially available batteries are non-switching," says Kannappan Chettiar, the Singapore-born founder of the battery tech startup Switching Battery Inc.
The Switching Battery is a new type of hardware with PCB that connects all the batteries to a renewable energy source as well as to the load, simultaneously, using software. The Switching Battery does two things differently compared to non-switchable batteries. Firstly, it charges and discharges the batteries instantly using two independent switching circuits at 50-60Hz with transistor switches. Secondly, the switching circuits enable a new "voltage shifting" technology.
The technology behind the patent-pending Switching Battery is relatively simple. While batteries cannot be arranged in both parallel and series in the same circuit, batteries can be arranged in parallel and series in two separate circuits with two separate independent cycles to form a new battery connection method called para-series.

With the increasing and already large interest in moving to an all-renewable energy economy, a system like this would seem to be a good fit.

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tahanson43206 · 2021-04-07 07:16:09

Here's an update on work at GM to package batteries as pack instead of cells, and to improve the management of on-vehicle collections of cells ...

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/gm-i … 38784.html

This management system isn’t just sleeker than its competition, it’s smarter as well. When the Ultium modules are assembled, specific details about each cell’s particular chemistry is programmed into the BMS. Not only does this enable the BMS to better balance load between the individual cells as a module ages, it should enable vehicle technicians to swap out full modules should a more effective chemistry come to market, without having to replace the entire pack. That also means GM won’t have to keep stocking cells that use the old formulation once a new one arrives — the entire production process can switch over to the new chemistry nearly immediately.

It seems to me that Mary Barra is giving Elon a run for his money!

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SpaceNut · 2021-04-07 18:01:31

For lithium ion you normally do not use just a single cell with the 3.7 volt rating at several desired ampere hour these days but rather you buy a cell pack that produces increments of power based on how you will use them.
Not all battery chemistry give the same voltage or current performances so this gets a bit tricky to make cell packs that work in multiple applications without a carrier packaging socket or slide to make it more universal.
Many battery operated devices were tailored for a specific battery type when they are designed as well as for the working power levels desired.

tahanson43206 · 2021-04-12 18:39:54

For SpaceNut ... this item could fit in other topics ...

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/anot … 00770.html

In the case of MEV-2, the IS-10-02 satellite was in active use in its accustomed orbit, meaning the servicing spacecraft had to coordinate an approach that ran no risk of disrupting the target craft's operations. Being able to service working satellites, of course, is a major step up from only working with dead ones.
And naturally the goal is to have spacecraft that could dock and refuel another satellite without hanging onto it for a few years, or service a malfunctioning part so that a craft that's 99% functional can stay in orbit rather than be allowed to burn up. Startups like Orbit Fab aim to build and standardize the parts and ports needed to make this a reality, and Northrop Grumman is planning a robotic servicing mission for its next trick, expected to launch in 2024.

The docking and servicing business seems to be solid and growing.

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tahanson43206 · 2021-04-13 18:28:41

This item came with a snapshot style tech newsletter ....

There's a video link from the snippet, but I decided to just post the snippet in case anyone is curious enough to do some sleuthing.

Watch how a solar sponge soaks up water impurities
A technology engineered at Princeton University uses an inexpensive flat sponge-like device that absorbs water from a lake or other source and releases purified water when subsequently exposed to sunlight.
More videos…

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tahanson43206 · 2021-04-15 13:00:28

Here's an announcement about a food preservation technique that caught me by surprise, but apparently it has been in development for years.

The item is from the local newspaper, so there is no source...

Food tech startup wants to keep
the world’s fruit fresher longer
By Robert Channick
Chicago Tribune
Hazel Technologies, a Chicago-
based startup that created a small
drop-in packet to keep bananas and
other produce from turning prema-
turely brown, is starting to produce
a lot of green.

Hopefully someone can find an online article about the system.

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SpaceNut · 2021-04-18 14:33:23

The need to refrigerate made foods and save food between meals so as to not waste is a 2 fold problem as a unit working in zero G will be different than the units made for Mars.
For astronauts to go on long missions to the moon or Mars, they need a refrigerator.

The canned and dried food that astronauts currently eat during missions have a shelf life of only about three years.

We have found some with longer time to freshness dating but then again we will need it....

The team's fridge prototype is about the size of a microwave, ideal for potentially fitting onto the International Space Station and plugging into an electrical outlet like on Earth. The prototype, built by Air Squared, will fly as one of the team's three experiments.

video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mVgfS_zcYPI

tahanson43206 · 2021-04-22 10:17:20

Here is an item that showed up in the news feed this morning ...

Freezing CO2 is easier just below the stratosphere.

The concept (as I understand it) is to fly balloons at an elevation where CO2 will freeze, and then deliver it to the ground.

Mars has the distinct advantage that it is ** already ** at the elevation needed.

The potential I see in this innovative project is the exercise of hardware needed to harvest dry ice efficiently and (hopefully) without contamination.

I'd be interested in any follow up reports that forum members may discover, assuming the project continues development.

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Calliban · 2021-04-22 11:07:42

Looking at the phase diagram for CO2, the liquidus range is temperature 217K - 304K and pressures greater than 5.1bar.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supercr … on_dioxide

I remember reading that the polar caps consist of layers of both CO2 and water ice. As the thickness of these layers grows to 100s of metres, the insulation provided by the overlaying ice, combined with the natural geothermal gradient of Mars, should allow temperatures and pressures within the liquid range for CO2. Liquid CO2 is denser that both ice and water, so any that is created in this way would sink through fissures into the Martian crust. In areas where substantial ground ice forms an impermeable layer, the liquid CO2 could remain, essentially trapped, for millions of years. One might speculate that a substantial portion of the original Martian atmosphere could be trapped within the crust by this mechanism. The atmosphere may have been gradually sequestered in the subsurface of Mars.

Closer to the equator, where subsurface ice is less likely to exist, liquid CO2 would also be less abundant. However, any LCO2 that is present under tens or hundreds of metres of rock, would face a long and tortuis journey back to the surface, as it passes through layers of compressed regolith and rock. In the absence of tectonic activity, maybe fossil LCO2 will be found here as well.

One test for this idea would be geological features that indicate a sudden release of energy from underground, as meteorites puncture ice layers or shatter overburden, allowing the CO2 to phase change. The result, would be cold, gaseous CO2, which would may then result in pyroclastic flow phenomena. Maybe this is a partial explanation for the flow phenomena observed on Mars.

Last edited by Calliban (2021-04-22 11:17:22)

tahanson43206 · 2021-04-23 05:05:32

Technology Updates include software updates ...

The local .Net user group met (virtually) last night ... the presentation was excellent, and a set of github links are available if anyone is interested.

Topic was updates to C#, which has been in use for 19 years. The history of updates ranges from 1 to 9.

It was observed that the language is edging closer and closer to the low level power of C, while retaining the accessibility for which it is famous.

Interesting (to me for sure) is that development has been spun off to an independent open-source organization which (I assume) may receive support from Microsoft.

In a related update, I learned at the local computer society (virtual) meeting on Tuesday that there are runtimes available for .Net software to run on Linux.

I'm planning to investigate that when time permits.

Virtual Machines already permit .Net to run on a base Linux platform, but that is an additional layer of software between the application and the hardware.

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tahanson43206 · 2021-04-24 09:10:23

Here is an (interesting to me for sure) update on Airbus attempts to improve efficiency of electric power trains for aircraft ...

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/cryo … 00931.html

Airbus’s new powertrain could help electric propulsion systems perform better in low-emission aircraft.
The secret is using liquid hydrogen to supercool engine parts to a superconducting state.
For now, the system is in ground-based demonstrations.
In the ongoing fight against carbon emissions, air travel has a particularly bad position because of the industry’s reliance on high speeds, light weights, and fossil fuels. But Airbus’s new superconducting powertrain, which is cooled by super cold liquid hydrogen, may solve some of those pressing problems.

The impact of this technology is weight reduction.

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tahanson43206 · 2021-04-24 13:31:05

This item is from the local paper. It describes architecture that has been given a year of testing.

There may be some features that will be of interest in the Settlement Design topic, and potentially in the Large Ship topic.

Georgia Tech structure certified as ‘living building’
Jeff Amy
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ATLANTA – It’s not too often that
tours of new buildings start with the toi-
lets. But they’re a big part of a different
kind of building in Atlanta.
And so, Shan Arora, who oversees
Georgia Tech’s Kendeda Building,
troops visitors pretty quickly to a
ground floor bathroom where the toilet
begins to hum, and then foam. There’s
no conventional flushing, with the toi-
lets consuming only a teaspoon of water
per use. And the waste is composted in
digesters in the basement instead of be-
ing piped to a treatment plant.

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Calliban · 2021-04-24 14:14:50

tahanson43206 wrote:

Here is an (interesting to me for sure) update on Airbus attempts to improve efficiency of electric power trains for aircraft ...
https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/cryo … 00931.html
Airbus’s new powertrain could help electric propulsion systems perform better in low-emission aircraft.
The secret is using liquid hydrogen to supercool engine parts to a superconducting state.
For now, the system is in ground-based demonstrations.
In the ongoing fight against carbon emissions, air travel has a particularly bad position because of the industry’s reliance on high speeds, light weights, and fossil fuels. But Airbus’s new superconducting powertrain, which is cooled by super cold liquid hydrogen, may solve some of those pressing problems.
The impact of this technology is weight reduction.
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They are planning to use liquid hydrogen to cool superconducting electric motors. This suggests to me that liquid hydrogen is the fuel that they are planning to use. It makes the idea of an electric aeroplane a lot more feasible, given that liquid hydrogen has mass energy density of 142MJ/kg - nearly 3x the mass ED of liquid propane and about 4x the ED jet fuel. When you couple LH2 with a high pressure solid oxide fuel cell, which may be up to 80% efficient, versus 40% for gas turbines; there is clearly a lot of potential to exploit.

Unfortunately, whilst hydrogen has unrivalled mass ED, everything else about this LH2 makes it a terrible choice of fuel. It is a deep cryogen; so cold that air will liquefy on contact with a LH2 tank. It seeps through most metals, making them brittle. It presents an extreme fire hazard in gaseous form, because its minimum ignition energy is so low. Because of its small molecular mass and high molecular speed, flame fronts advance rapidly, such that any hydrogen fire is a deflagration that builds substantial overpressure. Hydrogen was actually banned as a lifting gas by the FAA after the Hindenburg fire, due to the extreme difficulty of handling it safely. To top it all off, the density of LH2 is about 70kg/m3 - about one tenth the density of jet fuel. The stuff barely exists.

If Airbus intend to use hydrogen as an aeroplane fuel, they certainly have some costly development work ahead of them.

Last edited by Calliban (2021-04-24 14:16:31)

tahanson43206 · 2021-05-04 20:55:32

For anyone ... this is a little teaser that arrived in a tech newsletter primarily devoted to hard engineering ...

There was a link to a magazine, which I'm willing to provide if anyone is interested ... however, I'm hoping the teaser will generate some search activity ...

Bacteria help plants grow without fertilizer
An international group of researchers found that additional enzymes in soil can help even stunted maize varieties grow big and strong without fertilizers. This could help farmers and food producers encourage plant growth without harmful chemicals.

This sure does seem like something worth investigating for Mars agriculture.

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tahanson43206 · 2021-05-07 05:29:45

For SpaceNut ... this could go into multiple topics ... it's about agriculture and robotics, business innovation and economics ...

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/bada … 00890.html

Carbon Robotics says it wants the Autonomous Weeder to be a solution for all different kinds of farmers. They say it's designed for farms from 200 to "tens of thousands" of acres. The company even offers leasing options so speciality farms can test out the robot on tricky crops like broccoli and onions. While all of the 2021 models are already sold out, preorders are open for the firm's 2022 line.
It looks like the Autonomous Weeder could meaningfully improve outcomes for farmers who have less land and smaller profit margins, increasing not just their income, but their quality of life.
Plus, you know, lasers are cool.

I don't foresee a ** lot ** of weeds on Mars, but suspect we humans will bring them along in starter soil, so they'll be there soon enough.

Edit#1: Here's a report on related research, What's interesting (to me at least) is the background reported in the article ... The idea of burning weeds is set aside, and a "sweet spot" of energy applied in just the right place and just the right amount injures weeks but not nearby plants.

https://newatlas.com/laser-weed-killer/22653/

Lasers used to zap weeds into submission
By David Szondy
May 25, 2012

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tahanson43206 · 2021-05-09 15:08:56

For SpaceNut ... this item could go into multiple topics .... I remembered Louis (in particular) recently discussing electric power transfer to moving vehicles.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/electric-veh … 00146.html

Charging via electric fields has been mostly overlooked due to the high frequencies it would require and magnetic fields are also easier to generate, according to Afridi. But, the professor has long been interested in pushing technology to its highest potential frequencies, dating back to his work at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 1987.
"They thought it was not feasible because they did not think of going to the high level of frequencies that I was thinking of," Afridi said. "But, that has always been my area of research. It is really my passion to go to very high frequencies and push the technology to its highest potential frequency."

I'm wondering if this technology might be useful in the context of the lunar accelerator, which is currently a figment of imagination because no one has been able to build a track longer than an aircraft carrier.

The problem (on the moon) is how to deliver copious amounts of power into a moving vehicle.

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tahanson43206 · 2021-05-10 12:35:33

For SpaceNut ... here's another item that could go into multiple topics ...

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/electri … 00318.html

Instead of flying high, the seaglider operates like a hovercraft, using “ground effect,” or the cushion of air beneath the wings, to stay within a wingspan of the water’s surface. The company said in a statement that flight safety is accomplished through redundant navigation-and-control systems. Ground effect, according to the company, will give the seaglider twice as much range as a conventional electric aircraft.

The business concept looks feasible for many coastal water ways, and potentially even a few inland ones, such as along major rivers.

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tahanson43206 · 2021-05-19 17:28:54

National Geographic
THE BIG TOPIC:
BUCKLE UP, AND ENJOY
Wednesday, May 19, 2021

Beyond motion sickness: First, researchers found that virtual reality headsets can cause cybersickness—the same feeling as motion sickness. Now, as more people engage in protracted scrolling of items on their digital devices, the same thing seems to be happening to them. Their numbers included Seattle’s Jack Riewe, who turned—too much—to the internet at home while wildfires hit the region. Riewe was “weighed down, dizzy, [and] nauseous,” he told Nat Geo. He is far from alone.

It is possible (hopefully) no one in the NewMars community has experienced this.

However, as we humans increase our use of VR (in particular) and digital devices in general, it might be worth keeping this in mind.

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tahanson43206 · 2021-05-20 17:51:39

For SpaceNut ... there did not seem to be a pre-existing topic where this would fit ... you may have better luck ...

The Mars connection is that this is a way to make lubricating oil from soybeans. Lubricating oil will be sorely needed on Mars for all kinds of machinery, and this story copied from the local newspaper hints at research on how to make useful hydrocarbons from soybeans.

Goodyear to switch to soybean oil by 2040

For decades engineers have used pe-
troleum to make everyday products. It’s
still commonly used in everything from
rubbers and plastics to chemicals and
asphalt.
But this useful product comes from
crude oil, which is often criticized by
activists and experts as harmful to the
environment, citing oil spills and frack-
ing incidents.
Recent studies from the last decade
have shown that petroleum isn’t as eﬃ-
cient as some once thought. Now, com-
panies, engineers and scientists aim to
replace it with plant-based oils, speciﬁ-
cally soybeans.
The Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. re-
cently announced its goal to replace all
petroleum-based products with soy-
bean oil by 2040.
The Akron-based ﬁrm is one in a line
of companies that have begun to par-
tially or fully replace petroleum with
plant oil.
Goodyear’s search for a petroleum
replacement began a decade ago when
petroleum prices rose too high, so engi-
neers like Bob Woloszynek sought out (end of segment)

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SpaceNut · 2021-05-20 17:57:17

Its also used to make plastics as well since its an oil which can be created.

Which brings up why certain crops should be grown that do more than make foods....

tahanson43206 · 2021-05-27 18:57:31

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technolo … d=msedgdhp

'This doesn't just set a new record,' said paper author and engineer David Muller of New York's Cornell University.
'It's reached a regime which is effectively going to be an ultimate limit for resolution. We basically can now figure out where the atoms are in a very easy way.
'This opens up a whole lot of new measurement possibilities of things we've wanted to do for a very long time.
<snip>
The imaging method used by the team involves a technique called ptychography, in which a beam — made up, in this case, of electrons — is repeatedly fired through an object of interest, albeit from a slightly different position each time.
By comparing the different, overlapping patterns formed by the scattered beam, an algorithm is then able to reconstruct the target object with great precision.
'We're chasing speckle patterns that look a lot like those laser-pointer patterns that cats are equally fascinated by,' Professor Muller explained.
'By seeing how the pattern changes, we are able to compute the shape of the object that caused the pattern.
'With these new algorithms, we're now able to correct for all the blurring of our microscope to the point that the largest blurring factor we have left is the fact that the atoms themselves are wobbling.
He explained that this motion is 'what happens to atoms at finite temperature.'
'When we talk about temperature, what we're actually measuring is the average speed of how much the atoms are jiggling.'
chart: (© Provided by Daily Mail (
'We want to apply this to everything we do,' added Professor Muller.
'Until now, we've all been wearing really bad glasses. And now we actually have a really good pair.
'Why wouldn't you want to take off the old glasses, put on the new ones, and use them all the time?'
At present, the team conceded, the imaging method is both time-consuming and computationally-demanding — but advances in computer and detector hardware in the future have the potential to speed up the process.
The full findings of the study were published in the journal Science.
PUSHING THE RECORD FURTHER
According to the researchers, it may be possible for them to top their record once again in the near future.
This would involve using a target material made up of heavier atoms, which would jiggle less, thus allowing for a less blurry image.
Alternatively, the same outcome could also be achieved by cooling down the current sample, reducing its atomic motion.
However, they noted, such improvements would not be large.
And even at zero temperature, atoms still have quantum fluctuations, meaning that there is an inherent limit to how much better images could be made.
Read more

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tahanson43206 · 2021-06-03 10:21:01

For SpaceNut ...

The link below could be added to several topics ...

It is a short video about a shape-memory metal grid tire surface developed at NASA Glenn for Lunar and Mars vehicles ...

https://www.facebook.com/552522137/post … 399152138/

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tahanson43206 · 2021-06-03 10:39:49

For SpaceNut ...

Here's another advancement in technology that would probably fit in more than one topic ...

https://www.yahoo.com/finance/news/scie … 00502.html

Sequencing godfather George Church, a biologist at Harvard University, told Stat if this work goes through peer review successfully, it will be the first time any vertebrate genome has been fully mapped. And the reason seems to be simply that both new technologies allow very long strings of base pairs to be read at once.
Popular Mechanics
Caroline Delbert
Thu, June 3, 2021, 8:57 AM

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tahanson43206 · 2021-06-03 11:35:47

For SpaceNut ... the article at the link below reports on research into decontamination of water ...

https://www.yahoo.com/news/way-remove-s … 10161.html

We hope our work will lead to new methods that can efficiently and effectively purify water sources that are more abundant – yet more contaminated – than fresh water. The work really is worth it. After all, the effects of water scarcity are gigantic, on both a social and worldwide level.
[Understand new developments in science, health and technology, each week. Subscribe to The Conversation’s science newsletter.]
This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Adam Uliana, University of California, Berkeley.

The article at the link above reports on investigation of use of ion specific capture traps to remove contaminants from water.

The work seems (to me at least) applicable to the Large Ship scenario, and Mars habitat water treatment facilities.

A caution (at this point) is that the cost of making the ion traps is (apparently) too high for industrial scale deployment.

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