Lifeboat Foundation

The Orion is a sub-orbital electric aircraft equipped with an air-breathing magneto-plasma jet propulsion engine that could go from the tarmac to an altitude of 24000 metres and cruise at about 800 km/h.

It would bring passengers to the edge of black space with stunning views from its ultra-wide panoramic windows. Its new plasma pulse detonation engine could become the standard of this nascent industry.

It’s obvious that sub-orbital jets will become in demand as Earth’s population and wealth continues to rise. There’s already a lot of demand for jets capable of reaching this kind of altitude, but one major barrier has been the engine’s performance and overall costs. The Orion concept is all about introducing a new type of propulsion (plasma jet) and seeing how it could benefit various industries.

Circa 2019

The University of Illinois has announced that NASA is underwriting a project to develop a cryogenic hydrogen fuel cell system for powering all-electric aircraft. Funded by a three-year, US$6 million contract, the Center for Cryogenic High-Efficiency Electrical Technologies for Aircraft (CHEETA) will investigate the technology needed to produce a practical all-electric design to replace conventional fossil fuel propulsion systems.

The jet engine in all its variations has revolutionized air travel, but with airline profit margins running wafer thin in these ecologically conscious times, there’s a lot of interest in moving away from aircraft powered by fossil fuels and toward emission-free electric propulsion systems that aren’t dependent on petroleum and its volatile prices.

Continue reading “NASA backs development of cryogenic hydrogen system to power all-electric aircraft” »

The tiny house we’re going to discuss today won’t buy you freedom like trailer-based models, but it compensates for that with its own AI assistant. It’s smart, it’s tiny, it can be solar powered if you want, and it’s still very chic. It’s dubbed the next-generation tiny house: the Cube Two from Nestron.

You don’t have to actually live large in order to live large. Tiny houses are a good option when it comes to minimizing your footprint, downsizing costs and not sacrificing anything but space you probably wouldn’t be using either way.

AUSTIN, Texas — Producing clean water at a lower cost could be on the horizon after researchers from The University of Texas at Austin and Penn State solved a complex problem that had baffled scientists for decades, until now.

Desalination membranes remove salt and other chemicals from water, a process critical to the health of society, cleaning billions of gallons of water for agriculture, energy production and drinking. The idea seems simple — push salty water through and clean water comes out the other side — but it contains complex intricacies that scientists are still trying to understand.

The research team, in partnership with DuPont Water Solutions, solved an important aspect of this mystery, opening the door to reduce costs of clean water production. The researchers determined desalination membranes are inconsistent in density and mass distribution, which can hold back their performance. Uniform density at the nanoscale is the key to increasing how much clean water these membranes can create.

A dozen ocean species new to science could already be threatened by climate change, scientists find.

Considering the innovations in vertical farming, it seems indoor farming is gaining even more steam.

Abhu Dhabi is now about to build the world’s largest indoor farm; overcoming their desert climate and making efficient use of their limited water supply. It will be able to produce 10000 tonnes of fresh vegies every 12 months.

Continue reading “Abu Dhabi is going to build the world’s largest indoor farm” »

Circa 2019 o.o

In California alone there are 11 desalination plants, with 10 more proposed. But there are big downsides to making seawater drinkable.

Sanivation collects human waste from special toilets and turns it into sustainable fuel, which improves sanitation and reduces the environmental impact of burning wood.

Kenyan company Sanivation is putting waste to work, thanks to their human-waste briquettes.

But, as Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder Emily Woods explains, you wouldn’t know it:

Continue reading “This fuel is cheap, sustainable and completely safe — and we make over a million tonnes of it every day” »

The world population is estimated to reach 9.5 billion by 2050. Given that most of our current energy is generated from fossil fuels, this creates significant challenges when it comes to providing enough sustainable electricity while mitigating climate change.

One idea that has gained traction over recent years is generating electricity using bacteria in devices called microbial fuel cells (MFCs). These fuel cells rely on the ability of certain naturally occurring microorganisms that have the ability to “breathe” metals, exchanging electrons to create electricity. This process can be fuelled using substances called substrates, which include organic materials found in wastewater.

Continue reading “Four ways microbial fuel cells might revolutionize electricity production in the future” »