Gizmorama - January 12, 2015

Good Morning,

It could be the future of fuel cell technology - the Toyota Mirai is to be the first hydrogen fuel cell vehicle to be released commercially. Soon you'll be able to drive the future.

Learn about this and more interesting stories from the scientific community in today's issue.

Until Next Time,
Erin

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*-- NASA exploring inflatable spacecraft designs for future Mars missions --*
HAMPTON, N.Y. (UPI) - Slinging a fast-moving probe into orbit around a faraway planet is hard enough; landing a hefty, astronaut-carrying spacecraft on an alien surface is beyond difficult.

But doing just that -- on Mars -- is exactly what NASA hopes to do in the coming decade. To do so successfully, NASA engineers are considering employing an inflatable spacecraft that resembles the rainbow-colored, donut-like stacking rings that small children play with.

Researchers believe a lightweight inflatable structure -- the current prototype is dubbed the Hypersonic Inflatable Aerodynamic Decelerator (HIAD) -- could be deployed in order to slow the spacecraft's as it descends through the thin Martian air.

"We have been eating, sleeping, dreaming this technology -- in my case for six years," NASA scientist Anthony Calomino said last year at a project meeting.

"In a real spacecraft, a connected stack of donut rings would be inflated before entering a planet's atmosphere to slow the vehicle for landing," NASA explained in a blog update last summer. "The stacked-cone concept would allow NASA to land heavier payloads to the surface of the planet than is currently possible, and could eventually be used to deliver crews."

Slowing an alien descent with inflatables would save missions from carrying extra fuel to put on the brakes by using reverse rocket propulsion.

But one the challenges is building the inflatable technology out of materials that can withstand high temperatures caused by the friction of atmospheric reentry.

"This idea has actually been around since the 1960s," said Neil Cheatwood, the senior engineer at Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. "But now we have materials that can withstand higher temperatures. We've made great strides with this technology."

Researchers plan to build and test a real life prototype consisting of a titanium frame and an underlining of carbon fire skin. It would be inflated with nitrogen.


*-- Toyota announces release of hundreds of fuel cell patents --*
LAS VEGAS (UPI) - Toyota wants to build a hydrogen society. But first, they want the Toyota Mirai -- the first hydrogen fuel cell vehicle to be released commercially -- to be a hit on the market. To spur excitement (and to encourage fuel cell innovation, Toyota officials say), the company is releasing some 5,680 patents related to the technology that powers the Mirai.

Of the released patents, 1,970 are related to Toyota's stacked fuel cell technology. Another 290 are related to the company's high-pressure hydrogen tanks, and 3,350 protect the technology involved in Mirai's fuel cell software system. Some 70 patents reveal technology related to hydrogen production and supply.

The mass release of the patents was announced by Toyota officials at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week.

"There will be an application process to ensure what the technology will be used for, and then a royalty-free license will be issued that will get us through this initial introductory phase," Bob Carter, senior vice president of automotive operations at Toyota, told Popular Science.

There are plenty of benefits to fuel cell technology -- chiefly, a hydrogen fuel cell produces only heat and water vapor, no carbon emissions. Additionally, hydrogen is plentiful.

"Seventy-five percent of the universe is made out of hydrogen," theoretical physicist Michio Kaku told audience members at a presentation on the Mirai. "You want to see hydrogen? Go outside, take a look at the stars, the galaxies, the sun.

"Hydrogen is the most plentiful substance in the universe," Kaku added. "And contrast that now to oil, black gold, one of the rarest of substances on the planet Earth. Nations will kill to secure supplies of oil."

But fuel cells need hydrogen. Currently, hydrogen refueling infrastructure is nearly nonexistent. The company is building refueling stations in California, where the car will first go on sale in the fall for around $60,000. Economists estimate a tank of hydrogen fuel will cost about $50. Toyota says that will get its Mirai drivers a range of 300 miles.

Experts say the patent release isn't really about sharing secrets, but encouraging collaboration; a variety of other automakers are working on similar fuel cell cars. But an immature market and the high cost of research is holding back the industry -- not technology.

In order for the hydrogen fuel cell industry to take off, refueling infrastructure needs to be built up and fuel cells need to become more efficient.

"I don't think the technology that Toyota has is that groundbreaking," David Cole, chairman emeritus of the Center for Automotive Research, told the Los Angeles Times. "It's not a patent issue."

"It's historic the amount of collaboration that's occurring," Cole added. "If automakers don't, we're not going to get down the fuel cell road as far and as fast as we like."

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