Gizmorama
July 21, 2010
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Good Morning,
British designers are looking forward to a test run of the
1,000 mph car that they have recently unveiled at an air
show. Read more about this unique car and the details sur-
rounding its future test run in the second article.
Until Next Time,
Erin
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Ocean energy industry wants support
BRUSSELS - Ocean energy could provide 15 percent of Europe's
energy needs by 2050, the industry says, adding that this
target is only realistic if politicians increase support for
the new technologies. "Europe has the oldest maritime indus-
try, vast ocean energy resources and it is a pioneer in ocean
energy technologies. It is well-positioned to lead the world
in harvesting ocean energy," the European Ocean Energy
Association writes in its new road map until 2050, called
Oceans of Energy. The industry says it is capable of instal-
ling ocean energy capacity of 3.6 gigawatts by 2030 and
nearly 188 GW by mid-century. That means that by 2050, ocean
energy could produce as much electricity as 100 nuclear power
plants, prevent the emission of 136.3 million tons of carbon
dioxide per year and create 470,000 green jobs, the industry
says. "Now is the time for the EU to act in a coordinated
manner in order to develop these technologies to their full
potential and consequently export them around the globe," the
report reads. The potential of energy from the oceans is
indeed huge: If only 0.1 percent of the renewable energy
available within the seas could be converted into electricity
it would satisfy the present world demand for energy more
than five times over. Swedish utility Vattenfall says wave
power can ultimately produce around 250 terawatt hours of
green power, enough to supply up to 40 million people. But
the industry is still in its infant days: Current installed
capacity is around 6 megawatts -- roughly the same as two
medium-sized onshore wind turbines.
Model of proposed 1,000 mph car unveiled
FARNBOROUGH, England - A full-size model of a car designed
to go faster than 1,000 mph was unveiled in Britain by its
designers, who say testing could begin next year. A replica
of the proposed 42-foot Bloodhound Supersonic Car was intro-
duced Monday at the annual Farnborough International Air
Show in England, BBC News reported. SSC designers say two
British aerospace companies will cooperate to build the car.
"We now have a route to manufacture for the whole car," said
chief engineer Mark Chapman. "We would hope to be able to
shake down the vehicle on a runway in the (United Kingdom)
either at the end of 2011 or at the beginning of 2012," he
said. Following tests, the car will be shipped to a dry lake
bed in South Africa to begin its attempt at a new world land
speed record. The car will be driven by Royal Air Force Wing
Cmdr. Andy Green, who holds the current record of 763 mph set
by the Thrust SuperSonic car on the Bonneville, Utah, salt
flats in 1997, the BBC said.
U.S. robot sets 14-mile 'walking' record
ITHACA, N.Y. - A robot designed by U.S. engineering students
set an unofficial untethered walking record of 14.3 miles at
Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., the school says. Steered
by students using a standard remote control unit for toys,
the untethered Ranger robot covered the distance in 11 hours,
making 108 laps around an indoor track at the university's
Barton Hall on July 6, a university release said. The "walk"
beat a previous record by a walking robot of 12.8 miles. Un-
like other walking robots that use motors for every movement,
Ranger emulates human walking, using gravity and momentum to
help swing its legs forward, its designers say. Its gait
resembles a human on crutches, alternately swinging two out-
side legs forward and then two inside ones. Experience
learned from Ranger could be applied to rehabilitation,
prosthetics for humans and improving athletic performance,
Andy Ruina, Cornell professor of theoretical and applied
mechanics, said.
U.S. school to join telescope project
CHICAGO - A U.S. university says it will be a founding part-
ner in building the world's largest telescope in Chile with
image quality better than the Hubble telescope. The Univer-
sity of Chicago will provide $50 million to become part of
the Giant Magellan Telescope project intended to capture
images of objects 100 times fainter that those detectable
by the Hubble Space Telescope, a university release said
Tuesday. Partners in the project include universities and
scientific institutions from America, Australia and South
Korea, the release said. Construction of the GMT, expected
to take seven years, will begin at Las Campanas Observatory
in Chile in 2012. The $700 million GMT will combine seven
28-foot primary mirror segments into the equivalent of an
80-foot telescope mirror. It will join the existing twin 21.5
foot Magellan Telescopes at Las Campanas, the university said.
"We're looking to make great discoveries with the Magellan
Telescopes," said Edward Kolb, chairman of the UC Department
of Astronomy & Astrophysics. "They will be the workhorses of
the department in optical astronomy for the next 10 years."
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