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Engineering

2015’s home automation and eco tech

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home automation

2015 is bringing science-fiction in our homes. From your garage to your kitchen, there are some pretty clever home automation products on the market that make things more convenient and improve their functionality. There is a so called Nest Thermostat that is learning permanently your routine,  knows when you’re home so the house is always at the right temperature for you, and there is also an application for your phone from where you can set the temperature from anywhere, so is pretty clever and economic, too.

Home automation is not something to dream about because it is right here, right now and you can have everything set up on your phone so the door will automatically open when you get home, the light’s will turn on, your favorite tea will be prepared, and from here on you name it.

Something else really clever is the solar panel power that can be connected to the local electric company and when you don’t use all your electric energy, it goes to your neighbors and the electric company will reward you, so this is something that I found very clever and ecologic.

Eco tech may be expensive but you get your money back in a relatively short period of time because there are almost no bills to pay and it feels good to be independent from the big companies.

The Nest thermostat

This is what a smart thermostat looks like

Engineering

What is the Green Concorde? Observe the inaugural flight of XB-1 in the state of California

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The XB-1 experimental aircraft, having successfully completed its inaugural flight, aims to initiate a new era of civil supersonic air travel, more than two decades after Concorde was compelled to retire.

The inaugural flight of the XB-1, a spacecraft developed and manufactured by Boom Supersonic, took place at Mojave Air & Space Port in California on Friday, March 22nd.

The aircraft attained velocities of up to 439 kilometers (273 miles) per hour while operating at an altitude of 2,100 meters (7,120 feet). Although the speed of sound, which is just above 1,234 kilometers (767 miles) per hour, is still far lower, the test flight successfully achieved all of its objectives, which included ensuring safety and evaluating the aircraft’s handling.

Blake Scholl, the creator and CEO of Boom Supersonic, stated that the XB-1 was launched today in the same airspace where the Bell X-1 achieved its first successful flight in 1947.

“I have eagerly anticipated this flight since establishing Boom in 2014, and it signifies the utmost significance.”

The utilization of the XB-1 program is being employed to provide insights for the creation and advancement of Overture, Boom’s environmentally friendly supersonic aircraft. There are already optimistic expectations surrounding this aircraft. The United States government has expressed its intention to acquire a maximum of 50 boom-overture supersonic aircraft for commercial use by the year 2029.

The Overture aircraft is currently in its nascent stage of development, with the ultimate goal of becoming the Concorde of the 21st century. It is a commercial supersonic passenger airliner that surpasses its engineering ancestors in terms of energy efficiency and environmental sustainability.

In January 1976, Concorde launched its inaugural commercial passenger flight, encompassing two concurrent routes: one from London to Bahrain in the Persian Gulf, and another from Paris to Rio de Janeiro through West Africa. The breakthrough aircraft, boasting cruise speeds of up to 2,154 kilometers (1,338 miles) per hour, significantly reduced trip durations by 50% and appeared to hold great potential for the future of commercial carriers.

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Nevertheless, after almost thirty years, the aspiration failed. The cost of a supersonic flight was rising, leading to a decline in demand for seats on the planes. The disastrous Air France Flight 4590 crash in 2000, resulting in the deaths of 113 individuals, further solidified the situation. On October 24, 2003, Concorde operated its final commercial flight between New York and London.

Despite more than twenty years passing, civil supersonic air travel has not experienced a resurgence. However, Boom Supersonic is confident in their ability to alter this situation.

“I have been eagerly anticipating for more than two decades an ecologically conscious alternative to Concorde, and the inaugural flight of the XB-1 represents a significant milestone in the realization of my aspirations.” Upon my last flight aboard Concorde in 2003, I was fully aware that this day would inevitably arrive. According to Captain Mike Bannister, the former Chief Concorde Pilot for British Airways, the inaugural flight of the XB-1 supersonic prototype represents a noteworthy milestone in the pursuit of sustainable supersonic flying. This feat took place aboard Overture, which he considers his top preference as the successor to Concorde.

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Astronomy

Bezos’s proposal for the inaugural private space station has just achieved four significant milestones

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In the foreseeable future, it is possible for astronauts and ordinary individuals to embark on space flight and reside in the Orbital Reef, which serves as a private space station for extended periods of time and is utilized for commercial activities, scientific research, and tourism. The initiative, led by Sierra Space and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin, has set a target to achieve operational status in low-Earth orbit by the year 2027. Notably, it has just successfully completed significant NASA tests.

The NASA-funded commercial space station must provide evidence of the proper functioning of its vital life-support system. The most recent four significant achievements pertained to the domains of air and water purification, storage, and recycling.

In space, no resources are wasted, including garbage. Therefore, it is necessary to remove carbon dioxide from the air and restore oxygen. It is necessary to recover and purify water, including urine, while retaining it within the system. Obtaining fresh air or water in space is both costly and challenging.

According to Angela Hart, the manager of NASA’s Commercial Low Earth Orbit Development Program, the achievement of these milestones is of utmost importance in guaranteeing the ability of a commercial destination to sustain human life. This is crucial in order to maintain NASA astronauts’ access to low Earth orbit, enabling them to carry out significant scientific research within the distinctive microgravity environment. Furthermore, the completion of each milestone enables NASA to acquire valuable knowledge regarding our partner’s advancements in station design and development.

One of the examinations centered on the assessment of trace contaminant control, specifically examining the efficacy of filters in eliminating detrimental pollutants from the atmosphere. The water system underwent three distinct testing methods: a water containment oxidation test to evaluate the efficacy of water purification; urine water recovery tests aimed at assessing waste reclamation; and a water tank test to evaluate the storage capacity of the system.

In order to ensure environmental management and the well-being of astronauts, the International Space Station has implemented many systems.

There have been several successful tests conducted on the Orbital Reef in recent times. The inflatable station module LIFE (Large Integrated Flexible Environment) was subjected to extreme testing by Sierra Space in January, ultimately resulting in an explosion. By a margin of 27 percent, LIFE outperformed NASA’s standards.

NASA is providing support to many commercial space stations, like Orbital Reef, through both sponsored and unfunded agreements. As the International Space Station nears its retirement in the coming decade, the human presence in space will undergo significant transformations in the coming years.

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Bionics

Scaling up semiconductors: A new processor provides a significant increase in problem-solving speed

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Annealing processors were specifically made to deal with combinatorial optimization problems, such as finding the best solution from a small set of possible outcomes. These findings have practical consequences for handling logistics, allocating resources, and identifying medications and commodities.

Within the realm of CMOS, a specific category of semiconductor technology, it is imperative that the constituent elements of annealing processors exhibit complete interconnection. Nevertheless, the intricacy of this interconnection has a direct impact on the scalability of the processors.

Professor Takayuki Kawahara from Tokyo University of Science has conducted a recent study in IEEE Access. The researchers have successfully created and evaluated a scalable processor that distributes the calculation across numerous LSI chips. On January 25, 2024, the idea was also showcased at the IEEE 22nd World Symposium on Applied Machine Intelligence and Informatics (SAMI 2024).

The goal, according to Professor Kawahara, is to develop sophisticated information processing capabilities at the edge rather than relying on cloud-based systems or performing preprocessing at the edge for cloud-based operations. It was possible to create a fully connected Large Scale Integration (LSI) on a single chip using 28nm CMOS technology with the aid of the distinctive processing architecture that the Tokyo University of Science introduced in 2020. Additionally, a scalable strategy made use of parallel-operating chips, and the use of Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) in 2022 demonstrated its viability.

The team created a scalable annealing processor. A total of 36 22nm CMOS calculation LSI (Large Scale Integration) processors and one control FPGA were employed in the system. This technological advancement facilitates the fabrication of extensive, interconnected semiconductor systems according to the Ising model, a mathematical framework for magnetic systems, encompassing a total of 4096 spins.

 

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