Lifeboat Foundation

Tesla has started updating its Autopark feature with its new Tesla Vision computer vision system, which now powers Autopilot and its Full Self-Driving Beta.

Like many other premium (and even non-premium) vehicles, Tesla vehicles have been equipped with an autonomous parking feature called ‘ Autopark.

Tesla’s Autopark has been relying on ultrasonic sensors around the vehicles.

German researchers developed a lattice arrangement of three different layers of ferroelectric crystals that created a powerful photovoltaic effect.

Combining ultra-thin layers of different materials can raise the photovoltaic effect of solar cells by a factor of 1,000 according to researchers at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) in Germany.

Their findings, published in the journal “Science Advances,” described a lattice arrangement of three different layers of ferroelectric crystals (in this case, of barium titanate, strontium titanate, and calcium titanate) that created a powerful solar energy producing effect.

Continue reading “Crystal arrangement results in 1,000x more power from ferroelectric solar cells” »

That’s a lot of launches.

This article contains a useful map. See the link in the article.

IPCC’s new interactive atlas reveals how climate change will shape weather around the world.

Circa 2016

Scientists and engineers since the 1940s have been toying with the idea of building self-replicating machines, or von Neumann machines, named for John von Neumann. With recent advances in 3D printing (including in zero gravity) and machine learning AI, it seems like self-replicating machines are much more feasible today. In the 21st century, a tantalizing possibility for this technology has emerged: sending a space probe out to a different star system, having it mine resources to make a copy of itself, and then launching that one to yet another star system, and on and on and on.

As a wild new episode of PBS’s YouTube series Space Time suggests, if we could send a von Neumann probe to another star system—likely Alpha Centauri, the closest to us at about 4.4 light years away—then that autonomous spaceship could land on a rocky planet, asteroid, or moon and start building a factory. (Of course, it’d probably need a nuclear fusion drive, something we still need to develop.)

Continue reading “Could We Explore the Entire Galaxy With Self-Replicating Robots?” »

A view of the 40-foot radio telescope in Green Bank, West Virginia, the world’s first automated radio telescope, with its underground control room.

Circa 2019

For better or worse, machine learning and big data are poised to transform the study of the heavens.

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station are set to welcome a most unusual guest, as “the Blob” blasts off into orbit on Tuesday.

An alien on its own planet, the Blob is an unclassifiable organism – neither fish nor fowl. Nor is it plant, animal, or fungus.

As such, Physarum polycephalum – a type of slime mold – has long fascinated scientists and will now be part of a unique experiment carried out simultaneously by astronauts hundreds of kilometers above the Earth and by hundreds of thousands of French school students.

Development of the aircraft isn’t focused solely around military use; Hermeus is intent on bringing innovation to commercial flight, too. “While this partnership with the US Air Force underscores US Department of Defense interest in hypersonic aircraft, when paired with Hermeus’ partnership with NASA announced in February 2,021 it is clear that there are both commercial and defense applications for what we’re building,” said Hermeus CEO and co-founder AJ Piplica.

Hermeus’ Quarterhorse is a hypersonic aircraft that can fly at Mach 5 speeds, or 3,000 mph—fast enough to go from the US to Europe in 90 minutes.

Continue reading “Flight Testing Will Soon Start on the World’s Fastest Reusable Aircraft” »