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Wednesday, 15 July 2015
Solar Impulse grounded until 2016
Solar Impulse 2 approaches its landing at Kalaeloa Airport in Hawaii
Credit: AP/Daily Mail
During the closing stages of its record-breaking trans-pacific flight into Hawaii, the battery pack of Solar Impulse 2 was damaged by overheating. After repairs & testing the round-the-world flight is expected to resume in April 2016.
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-33538442
http://time.com/3958478/solar-impulse-grounded/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3148669/Success-Solar-Impulse-2-safely-lands-Hawaii-completing-daring-five-day-flight-Pacific-Ocean.html / Solar Impulse round around the world flight solar powered Swiss pilot pilots first ever attempt fly around the world propelled the Sun AndrĂ© Borschberg compatriot Bertrand Piccard take turns piloting single seater seat Solar Impulse 2 21,747 miles 35,000 km kilometre 12 legs including gruelling five- to six-day stints across the Atlantic Pacific oceans entire journey will take five months Borschberg took the controls takeoff take off take-off Al-Bateen executive airport Abu Dhabi early on Monday first destination Muscat in Oman pilots roughly 250 hours each inside narrow cockpit no oxygen temperature control temperatures outside range between -40 degrees C to 40°C degrees Celsius falling asleep flight need constant attention Piccard Borschberg survive 20-minute naps every two to four hours pilots will practise yoga stave off the physical discomfort remaining confined seat for days at a time Borschberg biggest challenge maintaining concentration Piccard psychiatrist team 1999 first circumnavigated globe non-stop balloon taught techniques of self-hypnosis meditation maintain concentration time duration in the present moment the only way is to be present almost a spiritual experience entire journey circumnavigating Earth in a family car aircraft weighs the same as a Volvo sedan comparable speeds SI2 top speed 87m/h 140km/h pilots conserve battery power limiting plane half cockpit only slightly larger average car contain life support systems food oxygen supplies reclining pilot’s seat triples bed chair toilet fly both day and night no fuel powered by 17,000 solar panels set on its wings wider Boeing 747’s fuselage 633kg bank of lithium batteries quarter weight store energy run motors overnight journey early days intercontinental flight enormous speed range jet engines Qantas fly Kangaroo Route Sydney to London hopping Darwin Singapore Kolkata Karachi Cairo Tripoli en route Borschberg success Solar Impulse project first solar-powered plane fly through the night first to fly between two continents primitive step toward zero-carbon jumbo combustion fossil fuels dominated powered flight 19th century dirigible aviation burns the most carbon per passenger per kilometre of any mode of mass-transport and, despite efforts to limit emissions, remains the fastest growing anthropogenic source of greenhouse gases sector climate change toughest major emissions source to decarbonise solar flight seeks remains decades away Wright Brothers Charles Lindbergh deputy editor Aerospace magazine Bill Read solar flight commercial flights solar cells generate power fly Solar Impulse fly using solar power constructed very light weight light-weight lightweight huge wingspan solar cell technology power source aircraft advances project real-world uses today fly Sun day and night build an aircraft extremely energy efficient technologies energy efficiency used in your home your car appliances four motors power aircraft generate heat energy efficiency single cheapest way reduce carbon emissions across the world technologies challenge energy environment pollution natural resources /
New Horizon Pluto fly by
Credit: NASA/BBC
New Horizons completed its fly-by of Pluto at 7:49 AM US EDT on Tuesday, 14 July 2015. It passed Pluto at 30,800 miles per hour (49,600 kilometers per hour — 14 kilometres per second). After capturing all its data, New horizons began transmitting it back to Earth. Shown above is the best image to-date. More to come. Over the three billion mile distance to Pluto, the data rate is very low. 16 months will be required to transmit all of the data captured during the fly-by.
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-33531811
http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/jul/14/nasas-new-horizons-probe-makes-pluto-flyby-nine-years-after-leaving-earth / fly by completed whale’s tail polygonal feature band of complex patterns New Horizons interplanetary space probe launched NASA's New Frontiers program Applied Physics Laboratory Southwest Research Institute Alan Stern spacecraft launched study Pluto moons Kuiper Belt performing flybys Pluto system Kuiper Belt Objects KBOs New Horizons project Pluto 350 project Alan Stern Fran Bagenal Pluto Underground 1990 lightweight cost-effective spacecraft flyby Pluto construction several delays launch site New Horizons launched January 19, 2006, Cape Canaveral Earth-and-solar-escape trajectory Earth-relative speed 16.26 kilometers per second 58,536 km/h; 36,373 mph record highest launch speed of a human-made object from Earth brief encounter asteroid 132524 APL New Horizons Jupiter closest approach Jupiter flyby gravity assist New Horizons speed velocity general test returning data about its atmosphere moons magnetosphere post-Jupiter voyage hibernation mode preserve on-board systems brief annual checkouts first flyby of Pluto on July 14, 2015 /
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