The Hubble Telescope has revolutionized our understanding of the cosmos but the venerable telescope has been orbiting for nearly a quarter century and is quickly nearing the end of its already-extended service life. That’s not a bad thing, mind you, telescope technology has advanced significantly since the Hubble went up in 1990. And by the end of the decade, we’ll have completed an all-seeing observatory with ten times the Hubble’s resolution and none of its space-based complications.
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We know that Mars once had an Earth-like atmosphere dense enough to support liquid water on the surface of the planet, we’ve found the dry riverbeds and the presence of minerals only formed in water to prove it. We’re also pretty sure that the planet slowly lost that atmosphere into the depths of space on account of climate change. What we don’t know is why. And that’s where NASA’s brand new MAVEN satellite comes in.
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America’s 60,000 dairy farms produce roughly 21 billion gallons of milk annually, more than 2,300 gallons per year per cow! Getting all that milk out of their udders and into your fridge has always been a bit of a chore for both the farmer and the heifer, but this new, laser-guided milker makes the practice is nearly automatic.
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America’s fleet of surveillance and attack drones are far older than most people realize. While the unmanned platforms have certainly come into the spotlight since the start of the War on Terror, they’ve actually been dutifully getting shot out of the sky on behalf of our national interests since World War I. And one of the most impressive—and impressively named—of their ranks was the Ryan Firebee.
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This last year has not been kind to Boeing’s fledgling 787 Dreamliner class airplanes, what with the repeated electrical fires, fleet groundings, and bad publicity. But Boeing is confident that it’s worked the kinks out in its newest Dreamliner iteration, the 787-9, which rolled out of the factory earlier today and is eagerly awaiting its first test flight.
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No matter how robust a city’s transportation infrastructure, no matter how timely or how many buses and trains run, there’s still the issue of actually getting to the bus station. And it’s not like you’re going to walk there like a putz. Heck no, there are driver-less trolleys for that.
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Vestas‘ latest and greatest offshore wind turbine, the 8 MW V164, is designed to operate for a quarter century with minimal upkeep. To ensure that these massive turbines (their blade sweep area is equal to three football fields) are robust enough for 25 years of service in the North Atlantic, Vestas tortures its housings atop an equally gargantuan test bed.
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Russia has been working tirelessly to modernize its military might and has already revealed some seriously intimidating firepower
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When the Loma Prieta earthquake struck San Francisco in 1989, it gutted the Marina neighborhood. While part of that was due to liquefaction effects caused by the area’s underlying landfill construction, the problem was exasperated by the area’s multiunit homes, which typically either had parking or shops built into the first floor. That’s great for home values, but not so much of the building’s structural integrity during a tremor, as you can see below.
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If the midwest is America’s breadbox, California is its orchard. The Golden State produces nearly half of America’s fruits, vegetables and nuts—more than 400 varieties—an output valued at more than $43.5 billion each year. But the energy needed to grow, harvest, process, and ship this bounty is no small sum. That’s why one ingenious farmer is powering his operation using already produced shell waste to zero out his electric bill.
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