Lifeboat Foundation

Most AC motors are induction motors. Induction motors are favored due to their ruggedness and simplicity. In fact, 90% of industrial motors are induction motors.

Nikola Tesla conceived the basic principles of the polyphase induction motor in 1883 and had a half horsepower (400 watts) model by 1888. Tesla sold the manufacturing rights to George Westinghouse for $65,000.

Most large ( 1 hp or 1 kW) industrial motors are polyphase induction motors. By polyphase, we mean that the stator contains multiple distinct windings per motor pole, driven by corresponding time-shifted sine waves. In practice, this is two or three phases. Large industrial motors are 3-phase. While we include numerous illustrations of two-phase motors for simplicity, we must emphasize that nearly all polyphase motors are three-phase. By induction motor, we mean that the stator windings induce a current flow in the rotor conductors, like a transformer, unlike a brushed DC commutator motor.

BU researchers have discovered specialized brain cells that provide rats—and most likely, humans— with personalized maps of their surroundings, helping them navigate through obstacles. The findings could lead to improved autonomous vehicles that can navigate unpredictable and dynamic terrain.

In the last week alone, SpaceX’s twin orbital Starship prototypes have made some truly jaw-dropping progress. Onlookers have witnessed Florida’s Starship push through a rapid growth spurt, while the company’s Texas team has begun to install propellant tank bulkheads and work on a triple-Raptor thrust structure.

Meanwhile, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has suggested that one or both of the orbital-class Starship prototypes could be “almost ready to fly” by August 24th, the date of the CEO’s next official update on Starship (formerly BFR and ITS). Although the actual challenge of building a massive, orbital-class launch vehicle is far subtler than the visible steelwork needed to build its primary structure and pressure vessels, the veritable leaps forward made in both Texas and Florida in the last 7–10 days are extremely encouraging signs.

Starting off in Boca Chica, Texas, SpaceX’s team of engineers and technicians have been simultaneously handling Starhopper’s first untethered flight test (completed on July 25th) and building the facility’s orbital-class Starship prototype. Most significantly, after a few days of preparation, what is likely the Texas Starship’s first bulkhead was lowered inside its ~25m-tall (80 ft) barrel section, composed of the spacecraft’s propulsion section and propellant tanks.

KALISPELL, Mont. — Two middle schoolers in the Flathead are making a name for themselves in the robotics world. Katie Eberhardy and Jessie Chadwick recently won the regional, NASA-sponsored Apollo Next Great Leap Student Challenge.

Eberhardy and Chadwick’s team—the Lunar Loonies—was the only all-girl team in the competition, and one of the smallest of the about 20 other teams.

“Some teams had six to eight people,” Chadwick said. “We’re just a team of two.”

While in its early stages, bioprinting of human tissue is an emerging technology that is opening up some exciting possibilities, including the potential to one day 3D print entire human organs. This scientific objective has now grown a little bit closer, with researchers at Carnegie Mellon University reporting a breakthrough that enabled the printing of full-scale heart components that in some cases functioned similarly to the real thing.

When actual immortality is available, will anybody continue to pay religion for unprovable, highly doubtful supernatural immortality?

HUMANS will have the option to stay young forever in just a few decades, according to a leading…

France will develop satellites armed with laser weapons, and will use the weapons against enemy satellites that threaten the country’s space forces. The announcement is just part of a gradual shift in acceptance of space-based weaponry as countries reliant on space for military operations in the air, on land, and at sea—as well as for economic purposes, bow to reality and accept space as a future battleground.

AARHUS, Denmark — The Philippine Robotics National Team bagged the gold medal award in the World Robot Olympiad Friendship Invitational (WROFIT) 2019 held here from August 1 to 4.

The delegation represented by Team NOUVUS from Dr. Yanga’s College Inc., (DYCI Bocaue, Bulacan) won gold in the competition’s Smart Cities project presentation in the Open Category–Smart Governance Theme.

The team’s work called Project ’ALAB’ (Anti-Adversity Link for Aid and Benefits) bested 149 teams from 32 countries (ages 16 to 19 years old).

Multiple German companies were off to a rough start last week when a phishing campaign pushing a data-wiping malware targeted them and asked for a ransom. This wiper is being named GermanWiper due to its targeting of German victims and it being a destructive wiper rather than a ransomware.

The malware was first reported on the BleepingComputer forum on Tuesday, July 30 and users soon learned after examining their files that it is a data wiper, despite it demanding a ransom payment.