Important Innovations

Exoplanet Discovered that Orbits a Star Identified with the Science Officer from Star Trek Image of Vulcan Provided by University of Florida Spock's Home Planet Vulcan Discovered No aliens spotted so far but University of Florida astronomers have discovered an exoplanet orbiting a star - 40 Eridani A, a star known to "Star Trek" movie fans as the host star of Science Officer Spock's home planet Vulcan. Vulcan the Exoplanet The exoplanet is 16 light years away from the Earth and located in constellation Eridanus.  What's most intriguing is that the planet orbits the sun-like star, just inside the zone where water and life could exist. Innovative Space Discovery The University of Florida team wasn't looking for the exoplanet. They found it through their planetary research explorations.  The exoplanet is two times the size of the Earth and it's the closest super Earth orbiting a sun-like star. The lead researcher, Dr. Jian Ge hopes the Intern

India's Fascinating Ramp Up of its Space Program Photo Courtesy of India's Space Research Organization Satellites Delivering Bandwidth Speed to Rural India India just announced its going to launch 3 more satellites.  Together the satellites will provide international level bandwidth speed to rural areas of India that currently don't have any or inadequate internet access.  This is yet another of India's innovative programs building for itself a growing leadership role in space.  India's space agency also announced its next mission is to launch 30 small satellites for third parties. Space Missions Every Two Weeks Just days after successfully launching two satellites for the UK, India announced it's going to launch space missions every two weeks.  The satellites will be launched from India's PSLV or Polar Satellite Launch Vehicles that rocketed the UK satellites to space on Sunday.  The UK pair are commercial satellites that will map melting ice

Russian Tech Giant Innovating & Growing Yandex Headquarters in Russia Global Search Engine Heavyweight Google is the world's biggest search engine, followed by Bing, China's Baidu and Yahoo.  You can add another heavyweight to the list - Yandex of Russia. Russia's Google That's Now Rolling Out Self-Driving Cars Like Google, Yandex is focused on developing innovation across industries.  It's one of the world's biggest IT companies.  It's also working in fields like self-driving cars.  It just rolled out an autonomous taxi service in Russia that some experts believe will eventually be deployed throughout Europe.  And, it's very active in AI, online marketplaces, personal assistants, online translating and smart speakers. Russia's Uber, Spotify and Google People like to call Yandex the Google of Russia.  But founder and CEO Arkadiy Volozh says it's much more than that.  He says it's also the Uber of Russia, the Spotify of

Japanese Billionaire & Artists To Explore Space Aboard Space X Photo Courtesy of Space X:  Elon Musk and Yusaku Maezawa Big Trip for Space X , Bringing Tourists to Space This is a big step toward the realization of one of innovator Elon Musk's dreams:  to commercialize space and make space travel accessible to everyone.  Musk has booked his first private passenger for a trip around the Moon on Space X's Big Falcon Rocket (BFR) spaceship.  The passenger is a Japanese billionaire and innovator like Musk.  The pioneer is Yusaku Maezawa, who founded the very popular online fashion retailer Zozo. Yusaka and Friends to Orbit the Moon Yusaka says he will invite a group of 6 artists, sculptors, painters and architects to join him on the historic tourist trip to orbit the moon.  The week long space voyage is scheduled at the earliest to take off in the BFR rocket in 2023.  The adventure is designed to inspire the dreamers in all of us. BFR Spaceship The BFR hasn&#

Battery Powered Jackets To Stay Warm on the Slopes Courtesy:  GOBI Heat Wearable Innovation Here's a case of practical, wearable innovation.  A Utah company GOBI Heat has innovated battery powered, heated clothing for outdoor winter activities.  The apparel includes jackets, hoodies, vests, pants, gloves, socks.  They come with a small battery that the company says will warm the clothing in 30 seconds against winter's chill. 7.4 Volt Small Battery The 7.4 volt battery gives you up to 12 hour use on low heat and 7 hours on high heat.  It has a one touch LED controller that can be set on low, medium or high depending on weather conditions.  The company says their clothing is waterproof, surge-proof and have an emergency shut-off functionality. The jackets have 3 zone heating with 2, carbon fiber heating elements on the chest and a large one on the back. It gives new meaning to bringing the indoors, outdoors in freezing weather conditions.

Novel, Tiny Robot Has Big Applications for Drones DelFly Robot - Image Courtesy of Delft University New Robot Mimics Insect Flight Researchers at Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands have developed a novel flying robot that mimics the flight control and dynamics of insects.  Its flying wings beat 17 times per second.  And it generates enough force to stay airborne and controls the flight by slight changes in wing motion. DelFly Nimble The engineers have named it DelFly Nimble. The tiny robot is autonomous.  It can hover on the spot,  do 360० flips and fly any direction with agility like an insect.  Right now it has top speeds of 15.5 mph and excellent power efficiency with a flight range of 1 km on a fully charged battery. Important Applications DelFly Nimble has exceptional flight qualities which open up new drone applications.  Scientists say it's also exceptionally well suited to advance biological and engineering research into insects and their fli

5G Smartphones Coming Real 5G Experts say 2019 will usher in real 5G smartphones on real 5G networks that you can sign up for.  They're not talking just tablets but real phones. Hyped for Years, Now Due to Arrive What 5G truly promises has been hyped for years.  But in 2019 the real deal arrives.  5G is designed to deliver faster speeds, higher capacity and more consistent performance. Carrier Locked Devices To start, there are some unintended consequences in the short term.  The arrival of 5G smartphones, because of their unique demands and network specifics, won't be transferable between networks.  So your device will be locked to your carrier's network.  But some experts forecast it will be resolved in the near term through standardization of what is now the fragmented state of 5G

Musk Gets OK to Test His Loop Lift from Hyperloop Tunnel to Home Garage Boring Co.'s Tunnel and Lift Boring Company's Loop Lift Hawthorne City, CA City Council just gave Elon Musk and his Boring Company the okay to build a proof of concept prototype of his Loop Lift.  The concept involves an elevator lift to connect, for the test, a ground level garage to an underground Hyperloop tunnel. Specifics The plan is to connect a one mile long Hyperloop tunnel that's on the campus of Musk's Space X to a private house that's owned by a Musk company.  The vision is to cut future traffic from the roads by parking vehicles in underground tunnels and then, for this test, connecting them to the Hyperloop transportation system by the elevator lift. Musk's Vision of the Loop Lift, Hyperloop and Flying Cars Musk envisions a network of underground tunnels and elevator lifts built in the basements of homes, office buildings, malls, you name it.  He believes that

India Launching 2, UK Satellites India's PSLV rocket is about to launch into space 2 British commercial satellites. Blastoff is scheduled for today at Satish Dhawan Space Center in Sriharikota, India.  It underscores the growing importance of India in space for both exploration and commercialization. Earth Observation Satellites The UK vehicles are earth observation satellites.  They'll map ice melt, forests and land use. They'll also monitor disasters.  The satellites belong to Surrey Satellite Technologies of the UK.  Surrey made a commercial satellite launch arrangement with Antrix, the commercial unit of ISRO, India Space Research Organization. Satellites Focused on Global Ice Melt On Saturday, September 15, NASA launched ICESat-2, equipped with its most powerful laser.  The satellite's 3 year mission is also to measure and monitor the Earth's polar ice melt, ice sheets, glaciers and sea ice.

Hawaiian Airlines Unstoppable Boston to Honolulu Photo: Courtesy of Hawaiian Airlines Boston Gets Its First Aloha This historic, upcoming flight service is a first in US aviation history.  Hawaiian Airlines just announced it's introducing the longest non-stop flight service  in the US.  Non-stop Boston to Honolulu.  The 5,095 mile trip starts daily service in April 2019, 5 days a week. Time and Distance Boston has been the only major US city without direct, nonstop service to Hawaii.  To initiate it, Hawaiian Airlines will use an Airbus A 330 aircraft.  Boston to Honolulu will take 12 hours nonstop.  Honolulu to Boston 10 hours non-stop.  For the airline, the market potential right now is 500 passengers who go between eastern New England and Hawaii everyday.  That's a market that could grow. Interesting and historic innovation in the airline industry.

New Tech Could Lower Scan Cost to $100 Photo:  University of BC Lead Researcher Carlos Gerardo with new the transducer Potential Use for 24/7 Self-Monitoring by Smart Phone Engineers at the University of British Columbia have developed a new ultrasound transducer or probe.  It could lower the cost of an ultrasound scan to $100.  This is patent-pending breakthrough tech.  It's portable, wearable and can be powered by your smart phone.  It's no bigger than a band-aid.  The researchers say the potential is endless and could provide 24/7 monitoring of your arteries and veins to warn of the danger of heart attack or stroke. How Did They Do It? To simplify, they replaced piezoelectric crystals used to create images and deliver sonograms in conventional scanners with tiny vibrating drums of polymer resin.  The cost saving is dramatic and the image quality is as good or better than conventional systems according to published reports. The UBC transducer needs only 10 volts

NASA Satellite Will Track Global Ice Melt Photo:  Courtesy of NASA ICESat-2 Global Ice Melt Tracker NASA launched its ICESat-2 satellite into space. The satellite contains NASA's most high powered laser.  It will provide unprecedented, highly valuable observations on how glaciers, ice sheets and sea ice are changing.  It will precisely measure the thickness of Earth's polar ice sheets, snow cover and permafrost. Bonus on Board A surprise bonus is also on board.  2 ELFIN CubeSats.  They're a pair of tiny satellites that will study how energetic electrons make their way from space to the earth's atmosphere. Measuring Ice and Melt ICESat-2's laser splits into 6 beams to precisely measure the Earth's polar ice formations.  The calculations are done by the amount of time it takes the laser beam to leave the satellite, hit and bounce off the ice and arrive back at the satellite. Massive Data & Important Climate Change Insights from this Mission T

International Commercial Launches India's PSLV India in Space India's PSLV - Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle - is going to put into orbit 2, foreign satellites on September 16.  The satellites are both from the United Kingdom.  They are the NovaSAR and the S14.  The launch underscores India's growing importance in the exploration and commercialization of space. Innovation Hub India is a global force in breakthrough innovation and it's becoming a growing leader in the race to space.  It just finalized an agreement with France to partner on technology and space medicine for the manned space flights that India is planning. UK Launch and Mission The launch of the 2 satellites is for commercial purposes.  The satellites belong to Surry Satellite Technologies of the UK.  They are earth observation satellites.  Their mission in space is to map forests, land use and ice cover.  They will also monitor flooding and any other disasters.