Fusion power! I need a fusion battery in my phone.
http://lockheedmartin.com/us/products/compact-fusion.html
Or more likely used in death robots that will soon turn on us and destroy civilisation.
What do batteries run on?
Rabbits. As far as I know.
Magnets.
Magic magnets.
What do batteries run on?
Chemical reactions.
Like if you put a bit of potassium into water, you can see energy being released in heat & the bit of stuff buzzing around before it all fizzles away. Not much use powering your phone unfortunately.
Charging batteries (or making them, if they're non rechargeable) takes energy to make particular chemical compounds, putting a load path across them (ie a light globe or car starter motor or phone) and the chemicals change into lower energy compounds, releasing that energy.
Those chemical reactions occur at two specific points in contact with specific bits of metal, and sort of balance each other out. Those two points are basically the positive & negative terminals of your battery.
Depending on the type of battery, the chemicals involved could be lead with sulphuric acid (car batteries), lithium with some salts that I can't remember (the batteries in phones & laptops, very light & efficient), Nickel & cadmium (like the rechargeable AA batteries)
Second answer: magic.
Magnets.
Magic magnets.
Where's your science now?
A bit fluffy, but here's an interview with Brian Cox, fwiw:
http://youtu.be/eXVQWjE4dLs
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9HfS1RSBoQ[/youtube]
Orbital Sciences rocket, station cargo ship, lost in spectacular launch mishap
<p class="" style="font-family:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-weight:inherit;color:rgb(151,151,151);">Posted on <span style="margin:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-weight:inherit;">October 29, 2014</span> by <span style="margin:0px;font-family:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-style:inherit;font-weight:inherit;"><a class="" href="http://spaceflightnow.com/author/bill-harwood/">William Harwood</a></span></p>
STORY WRITTEN FOR CBS NEWS “SPACE PLACE†& USED WITH PERMISSION
Antares explodes moments after lifting off. Image: NASA TV
An Orbital Sciences Corp. Antares rocket making only its fifth flight exploded seconds after launch from the Virginia coast Tuesday, erupting in a spectacular fireball and destroying the company‘s third operational Cygnus cargo ship in a disheartening failure for NASA‘s commercial space station resupply program.
The mishap occurred about 15 seconds after liftoff from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA‘s Wallops Island Flight Facility on the Virginia coast as the 139-foot-tall two-stage rocket climbed away on the power of its two Russian-built first-stage engines.
“We have ignition… and we have liftoff of the Antares Orb 3 mission to bring Cygnus on its third (resupply) mission to the ISS,†said NASA‘s launch commentator as the Antares lifted off. “Main engines at 108 perent, attitude nominal.â€
At roughly that moment, the exhaust plume suddenly expanded, followed an instant later by a detonation of some sort at the base of the rocket. The booster, engulfed in flames, then slowly fell back to Earth, exploding in a titanic conflagration as its remaining liquid oxygen and refined kerosene propellants ignited in a huge fireball.
Flaming debris shot away into the night sky like a fireworks display and fires erupted around the launch pad. While property damage appeared extensive, Orbital officials said there were no injuries.
It was not clear watching video replays of the launching what might have gone wrong, whether it involved one or both Aerojet Rocketdyne AJ26 first stage engines or some other system or even whether the rocket‘s self-destruct system was activated.
An AJ26 engine being test fired last May for an Antares flight next year suffered a catastrophic failure 30 seconds into a planned 54-second burn. After a detailed failure investigation, Orbital managers cleared the powerplants for use in downstream missions based on corrective actions implemented in the wake of the failure.
Whether a similar problem developed during Tuesday‘s launching is not yet known.
In any case, the loss was a major setback for Orbital‘s plans to establish routine space station resupply missions under a $1.9 billion contract with NASA calling for delivery of 20 tons of hardware over at least eight flights through 2016.
It also marked a major setback for the space station program, which is attempting to fill in the void left by the space shuttle‘s retirement, using commercially developed cargo ships to carry supplies and equipment once carried by the manned orbiter. More than 5,000 pounds of cargo and supplies, including experiment hardware, student experiments, spare parts, food and crew supplies, 32 small nanosatellites and other gear, were lost in the mishap.
“It is far too early to know the details of what happened,†Frank Culbertson, Orbital‘s executive vice president, said in a company statement. “As we begin to gather information, our primary concern lies with the ongoing safety and security of those involved in our response and recovery operations.
“We will conduct a thorough investigation immediately to determine the cause of this failure and what steps can be taken to avoid a repeat of this incident. As soon as we understand the cause we will begin the necessary work to return to flight to support our customers and the nation‘s space program.â€
Orbital‘s Antares/Cygnus cargo vehicle is one of two resupply systems funded by NASA in the wake of the shuttle‘s retirement.
Space Exploration Technologies, or SpaceX, holds a $1.6 billion contract for at least 12 missions to deliver 44,000 pounds of cargo to the station. SpaceX‘s Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon cargo ship remain operational, with the next two resupply flights planned for December and February.
And the Russians planned to launch a Progress supply craft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan early Wednesday.
How the Antares failure might impact NASA‘s resupply strategy in the near term is not yet known. While a high-pressure nitrogen tank needed to top off tanks in the station‘s Quest airlock was lost with the Cygnus, the station is not expected to suffer any immediate problems.
The next Antares/Cygnus mission is currently planned for April, but that flight could be delayed pending the results of an investigation into the failure Thursday.
Tuesday‘s launching went off on time at 6:22 p.m. EDT (GMT-4), roughly the moment Earth‘s rotation moved the pad into the plane of the space station‘s orbit.
After a final round of computer checks to verify the first stage engines were working properly, the Antares was released from its launching stand at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport and the rocket began climbing away.
The initial seconds of the ascent appeared normal as the booster climbed straight up, its first stage engines burning oxygen and RP-1 kerosene rocket fuel. But just 15 seconds or so after liftoff, a catastrophic failure occurred, destroying the rocket and cargo ship payload.
The AJ26 first stage engines originally were developed for the Soviet Union‘s ill-fated N-1 moon rocket. When that program was cancelled after multiple launch failures, the engines were put in storage. In the 1990s, Aerojet Rocketdyne bought about 40 of the powerplants and modified them for use aboard U.S. rockets.
The May 22 test failure “obviously sparked a very thorough investigation led by Aerojet Rocketdyne, our engine supplier, supported fully by Orbital with a lot of help by NASA,†Mike Pinkston, Orbital‘s Antares program manager, said before the company‘s third resupply flight in July. “That was a lengthy process.â€
While details were not provided to the media, the engines used in July and in Tuesday‘s launching were were subjected to exhaustive pre-flight checks and tests to make sure they were healthy and ready for flight.
“We saw what we needed to see with that and with the fact that these engines successfully passed the same acceptance process, not only here in the United States, but also twice after original manufacture in Russia,†Pinkston said in July. “They‘ve got a lot of test time on them.â€
at least they don't need another seven astronauts *
* I'll get my spacesuit..
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50_-zqsgDA4[/youtube]
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50_-zqsgDA4[/youtube]
Just bought a kilo pack for Xmas present for myself my kids.
Where did you get it from?
Spectacular New Image Shows Planet Formation In Incredible Detail
November 6, 2014 | by Justine Alford
While taking the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array‘s new high-resolution mode for a test run, astronomers managed to snap a phenomenal photograph that far exceeded their expectations. The image shows a young star, named HL Tauri, and its planet-forming disk in astonishing detail.
HL Tauri, which is less than a million years old, is located some 450 light-years from Earth in the constellation Taurus. Cloudy, concentric rings of dust and gas surround the Sun-like star, which are the remnants from its birth. Amidst these rings, dark gaps can clearly be seen, which suggest that planet formation is already taking place.
Compositite image of HL Tauri and its surroundings. ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO), ESA/Hubble and NASA, Judy Schmidt.
“These features are almost certainly the result of young planet-like bodies that are being formed in the disc,†said ALMA Deputy Director Stuartt Corder in a news release. “This is surprising since such young stars are not expected to have large planetary bodies capable of producing the structures we see in this image.â€
Astronomers believe that stars and planets are forged inside a collapsing cloud of dust and gas located within a much bigger cloud called a nebula. As gravity draws the material inside the cloud closer together, it becomes compressed and starts to rotate. Eventually, the spinning cloud flattens into thin a disk, called a protoplanetary disk, where asteroids, comets and planets eventually form.
As the disk continues to spin, material within it collides and sticks together in clumps, forming the beginnings of planets. When these bodies acquire enough mass, they start to remodel their surroundings, carving rings and gaps into the disk as they hungrily pull in more and more material. And that‘s what ALMA‘s latest image is showcasing in more detail than ever seen before. But the spectacular sharpness of the image isn‘t the only reason that it‘s titillating astronomers; HL Tauri was thought to be far too young to be churning out planets, so the fact that this process is already well underway suggests that planet formation could be much faster than originally believed.
“HL Tauri is no more than a million years old, yet already its disc appears to be full of forming planets,†ALMA Deputy Program Scientist Catherine Vlahakis said in anews release. “This one image alone will revolutionize theories of planet formation.â€
ALMA (ESO/NAOJ/NRAO)
HL Tauri can‘t be seen in visible light because it‘s masked by a shield of dust and gas. But ALMA is able to peer through this cloudy veil because it observes at much longer wavelengths. Its outstanding resolution capabilities were made possible by comparing the signal from numerous antennas that were spaced up to 15 km apart.
Hopefully, ALMA will keep up the good work because images like this are key to understanding how our own planet likely formed within the Milky Way billions of years ago. While physicists have a good idea of how planets form, this is largely based on theoriesrather than observational data, but it seems that ALMA is set to change that.
The attemp to land the Philae Probe from Rosetta on a comet is happening right now
http://sploid.gizmodo.com/comet-landing-live-coverage-all-systems-go-for-lander-1657715708?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+gizmodo%2Ffull+%28Gizmodo%29
Detached! Descending now. And then it wil harpoon itself to the comet.
touchdown!, occurred a few hours ago, how is anyone else not excited about this? this is a significant achievement in human history!
SCIENCE FOR THE WIN!
The next mission will be returning samples to Earth back from a comet. Now that's amazing!
Ben, you have to go back a few pages to realise this mission was being covered :P
Theres a show on NAT-GEO tonight about the commet landing at 7:30pm...