The recent successful Spacex test flight means they can start working off a $1.6 billion contract with NASA to fly cargo to the space station. It also clears a key hurdle for SpaceX to compete for Department of Defense business as well, which would mean launching military satellites.
Flying three times successfully was among the criteria the company needed to meet to become eligible to compete for military business under a new program designed to draw competition into a field now monopolized by United Launch Alliance, a partnership of Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
"The new entrant criteria did say three launches are required (for Falcon 9) before certification can happen for national security payloads," said SpaceX Communications Director Kirstin Brost Grantham.
There are several paths toward certification, and the requirements can vary, Air Force spokeswoman Tracy Bunko said.
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Daily Mail UK - The Dutch company Mars One is backed by Big Brother co-creator Paul Romer, as well as Nobel Prize-winning physicist Gerard 't Hooft. With Romer involved, it's no surprise that the company wants to publicize its astronaut-selection and training process as a "media event."
Mars One claims that a new crew of four will join every two years as the explorers build their settlement, and that by 2033 there will be 20 people living on Mars.
The company has been in talks with independent space suppliers such as Space X, which recently launched the first privately owned rocket to the Space Station.
The company aims to start training astronauts next year - and will turn the selection and training programme into a 'media event' similar to a reality show.
Mars One claims that a new crew of four will join every two years as the explorers build their settlement, and that by 2033 there will be 20 people living on Mars
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Our universe may exist inside a black hole. This may sound strange, but it could actually be the best explanation of how the universe began, and what we observe today. It's a theory that has been explored over the past few decades by a small group of physicists.
The Big Bang and inflation theories leave major questions unresolved. For example: What started the big bang? What caused inflation to end? What is the source of the mysterious dark energy that is apparently causing the universe to speed up its expansion?
The idea that our universe is entirely contained within a black hole provides answers to these problems and many more. It eliminates the notion of physically impossible singularities in our universe. And it draws upon two central theories (general relativity and quantum mechanics) in physics.
At the center of spiral galaxy M81 is a supermassive black hole about 70 million times more massive than our sun. Image credit: NASA/CXC/Wisconsin/D.Pooley & CfA/A.Zezas;NASA/ESA/CfA/A.Zezas; NASA/JPL-Caltech/CfA/J.Huchra et al.; NASA/JPL-Caltech/CfA
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Forbes - another oil shale play that dwarfs the Bakken. It’s called The Bazhenov. It’s in Western Siberia, in Russia. And while the Bakken is big, the Bazhenov — according to a report last week by Sanford Bernstein’s lead international oil analyst Oswald Clint — “covers 2.3 million square kilometers or 570 million acres, which is the size of Texas and the Gulf of Mexico combined.” This is 80 times bigger than the Bakken.
Bazhenov-Neocomian oil formation
This unconventional assessment unit includes fractured Bazhenov siliceous shales, which are also source rocks for these reservoirs. The shales cover most of the basin, but their productivity has been demonstrated mainly in the Greater Salym area. In-place resources of oil are apparently very large, but the ability of the reservoir rocks to produce varies greatly and is poorly understood. There is much similarity between this unit and the Bakken play of the Williston basin.
Source rocks are deep-marine siliceous and calcareous shales and siliciliths of the Volgian-lower Berriasian Bazhenov Formation. The formation is 20 to 50 m thick and contains 5 to 20 percent TOC. The kerogen is of Type II.
MATURATION: The Bazhenov Formation is presently in the oil window zone over most of the petroleum system area. Maximum maturation was achieved in the Oligocene.
The West Siberian basin is the largest petroleum basin in the world covering an area of about 2.2 million km 2.
Previous estimates for Western Siberian oil were 144 to 350 billion barrel. This is from the oil that leaked out of the Bazhenov oil formation.
There is also over a thousand trillion cubic feet of natural gas in the formation.
Russia already produces about 10 million barrels of oil per day, putting it about a million barrels a day ahead of Saudi Arabia, the largest producer in the Middle East.
Russia’s emerging shale oil play hasn’t escaped the attention of Robert Johnston, director, energy and natural resources at New York-based Eurasia Group, a geopolitical consulting firm. Johnston was in Edmonton recently to talk about global oil markets and the issues facing oilsands producers.
“The story for Alberta is what’s happening in the Russian market right now. All the focus is on China’s shale gas but it’s the tight oil play in Russia that I’m starting to get really interested in,” he told the Journal.
There will be no political or environmental factors to block development of the Russian oil and gas resources.
Those concerned about the climate and air and water pollution effects oil and natural gas will have to hope for development of some other energy breakthrough as the economics and political interests are in line for this to be developed. Only radically cheaper nuclear fission, new nuclear fusion or some other lower cost energy will shift development from this energy.
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Last week a Stanford team announced in Physical Review Letters that it has created the world's first dipolar quantum fermionic gas from the metal dysprosium – "an entirely new form of quantum matter," as Stanford applied physics Professor and lead author Benjamin Lev put it – represents a major step toward understanding the behavior of these systems of particles. And this understanding makes for a leap toward the supernatural-seeming applications that condensed-matter physics conjures.
* The quantum matter are simultaneously superfluids and crystals.
* The work presents an exciting opportunity to study a large spectrum of phases that have been predicted to occur in strongly dipolar quantum gases.
* The researchers have already begun developing a microscope to make use of the dipolar quantum fluid's unique characteristics. Their "cryogenic atom chip microscope" is a magnetic probe that should measure magnetic fields with unprecedented sensitivity and resolution. This kind of probe may even allow for a more stable form of quantum computation that uses exotic quantum matter to process information, known as a topologically protected quantum computer.
* Beyond these applications, the study offers physicists another line of attack toward understanding unconventional quantum effects.
Physics Viewpoint - Quantum Dipolar Gases in Boson or Fermion Flavor
Arxiv - Quantum degenerate dipolar Fermi gas (6 pages)
At extremely low temperatures, the properties of an atomic gas of bosons (atoms with integer spin) are dramatically different from those of a gas of fermions (atoms with half-integer spin). A confined gas of bosons can be cooled into a Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC), where all of the atoms fall into the same quantum mechanical state to form a macroscopic matter-wave. Fermionic atoms, however, avoid each other. At very low temperatures, a trapped gas of these atoms forms a Fermi sea, where the atoms fill the allowed energy levels of the gas up to the so-called Fermi level. Although the low-temperature states of boson and fermion gases result from purely quantum statistical effects, interactions between the atoms can lead to collective behavior, like superfluidity.
In Physical Review Letters, two experimental groups report they have prepared cold quantum gases in which the atoms have unusually strong magnetic dipolar interactions: In an experimental first, scientists at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and Stanford University, California (M. Lu et al.), have shown they can cool fermionic dysprosium-161 to form a Fermi sea of particles, while a group at the University of Innsbruck, Austria (K. Aikawa et al.), have prepared a cold quantum gas of erbium-168, which is a boson. In both systems, the quantum statistics of the particles (bosons or fermions), and the dipolar interactions between them, are probed by analysing how these gases expand after being released from a trap.
Dipolar interactions in a quantum gas of bosons or fermions. (a) The interaction between two particles with large dipole moments has a characteristic d-wave symmetry. (b) In a Bose-Einstein condensate, this interaction causes the gas to implode with a similar d-wave symmetry, as shown here for a gas of erbium-168. (c) In comparison, a quantum gas of fermions is stable, as shown for dysprosium-161.
Physical Review Letters - Quantum Degenerate Dipolar Fermi Gas
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Ecat World - Andrea Rossi stated in the email that the new high temperature E-Cat — that can produce 600 degree steam with a COP of 6 — has been operating continuously for 40 days.
The Rossi work is super-controversial and most people believe he is a fraud.
With 600C steam high efficiency turbines, Stirling engines, and even thermal photovoltaic systems can be used to produce electricity from E-Cats.
This test has lasted so far for 960 (nine hundred and sixty) hours, and is planned to last at least 90 days.
Continuous operation for 90 days under constant video surveillance and some public viewing generating 10 kilowatts of thermal power and providing over 3 kilowatts of electricity would be pretty conclusive and very, very simple to prove.
There are still some undisclosed issues that are still being worked upon. It would seem that this should either be a product / service by the end of 2013 at the latest or the fraud claims would be proven.
New E-Cat Details
This test is being conducted with a new model of E-Cat. The test is using a single module that contains a single reactor core. The reactor core is rated to have an output of 10 kilowatts, and a maximum safe output of 20 kilowatts. We have previously been told this reactor core is smaller than the previous version, but uses more shielding. Instead of many grams of nickel, it only uses 1.5 grams. Instead of a hydrogen canister, a small tablet is placed into the reactor that absorbs and releases hydrogen depending on the temperature.
Interestingly, atomic hydrogen is being produced both by “catalysts” (one or more chemical elements placed into the reactor core in addition to nickel and hydrogen) and by another method. Perhaps by being able to carefully control how much atomic hydrogen is generated the system can remain more stable. Perhaps this is what allows for 600C steam in a stable manner?
Like previous E-Cats, a drive has to be applied approximately half the time to keep the reactions stable. If the drive is not applied the reactor can run away, the reactor core can get too hot, the nickel can melt, and the nuclear reactions will cease. Also, a radio frequency generator is used as in previous E-Cats. Finally, it has been confirmed that copper is still the main transmutation product.
In a matter of weeks test data from this extended E-Cat test should be posted. In a matter of weeks the test will not be complete, but hopefully we will get test data from at least part of the test. Perhaps several days or weeks.
Picture from January 2011 demonstration
This is following up on the Rossi and Focardi energy production device, which was demonstrated in January 2011.
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Jim O’Neill (Goldman Sachs coiner of the BRIC term) argues that fears of a China hard landing are misplaced and that the Chinese economy is more likely to see a “softer” landing.
While it now looks as though Q2 real GDP growth will be weaker than Q1’s “disappointing” 8.1 pct, our proprietary leading indicators have turned upwards in the past couple of months. It is quite clear that Chinese financial conditions are starting to ease.
Brazil is certainly facing more genuine challenges in its effort to achieve the growth rate that satisfies our criteria for BRIC status. We are assuming Brazil will grow by a bit more than 5 pct this decade. It got offto a very good start by virtue of its exceptionally strong performance in 2010. However, the second half2011 and the first quarter of 2012 have clearly disappointed.
India was described as “the most disappointing of them all".
Russia still has a lot of strength.
He also includes Mexico, Korea, Turkey and Indonesia in a Growth 8 group as the most important sources of global growth for the next decade.
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Nigeria signed a cooperation accord with Russia towards the construction of its first nuclear power plant today at the AtomExpo event in Moscow. Bangladesh also furthered its work with Russia and South African officials were in attendance.
In 2010 Nigeria said it aimed to have 1000 MWe of nuclear generation in place by 2019 with another 4000 MWe online by 2030. Increasing power production is a major priority in order to end the unreliability of power supply that millions of people suffer, while adding non-fossil generation also would allow Nigeria to capitalise on exports of liquified natural gas.
Another country that has been cooperating with Russia on its road to employing nuclear power is Bangladesh and Kiriyenko also used AtomExpo as the public event to announce two new memorandums with that country.
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