Four of space technologies that will change our lives in the near future
Makradar Technologies / / December 19, 2019
Imagine a world in which the storms, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, and lightning is no longer dangerous to humans. A world in which a flight from London to Sydney takes one hour. Imagine a future in which our knowledge of the matter so deeply, that time travel is becoming a reality. Above these technologies are already working scientists in California in Palo Alto, in the laboratories of the company Lockheed Martin - a global giant in the field of aerospace engineering and aircraft construction.
Lockheed Martin is working closely with NASA, the world's leading universities and strong commercial partners. Scientists have focused on four projects that will fundamentally change our world:
- preservation of human life;
- the discovery of new knowledge about the origin of the universe;
- flying speed of sound;
- preventing the end of the world.
Following the lightning
In May, tornadoes, floods and other natural disasters have cost the US economy more than $ 4.5 billion. According to the insurance company AON, one month was 412 tornadoes. In China in the same month 81 people died and 100,000 houses were damaged and destroyed with the advent of the rainy Mei-yu.
No one is safe from extreme weather events. In 2011, as a result of flooding in Thailand affected plants for the production of computer components, resulting in worldwide prices up to hard drives.
Accurate prediction of the coming tornado will help save lives. Lightning Card (GLM) will give people a chance to escape from the disaster.
Foz Scott (Scott Fouse), vice president of Lockheed Martin's Advanced Technology Center, says that lightning in the clouds are formed and only after some time reach the ground, so we can anticipate disaster. Sensors for lightning data collection, scientists will be connected to the US satellite GOES-R, which will start next year.
Chief Engineer GOES-R satellite Stephen Jolly explains that the sensors are made using a telescope "Hubble" technology, but now we will not look at the stars and the Earth. Tornado beginning 10 minutes after the start of lightning activity, and these 10 minutes save many lives.
Weather tracker, taking the Earth at a speed of 500 frames per second, will help the aircraft to get through the storm and will send a warning signal power grids, endangered in the world. The scientists plan to deploy a system of GLM over the world.
Besides bad weather, a threat to the electrical systems and the air creates coronal mass ejections - the substance of the solar corona. Overcoming the billions of kilometers in space, matter particles reach the Earth in 1-3 days. Even small emissions can degrade the signal from the satellites, and we lose control of the aircraft and electrical systems.
The bigger the output, the more dangerous consequences. Depending on the time when the emission happens from the sun the place where it will occur, and by the direction of motion of particles, some parts of the world may lose power for up to 5 months. Payments to insurance companies related to the damage caused by coronal mass ejections, are about $ 10 billion a year. UV imager mounted on the GOES-R satellite will advance warning of upcoming emission.
Another instrument on GOES-R - geoCARB - developed jointly with the University of Oklahoma. It measures the level of carbon dioxide in Earth's atmosphere, so that we can predict the changes associated with the quantity.
time travel and shooting nascent galaxies
Lockheed Martin and the University of Arizona are developing extra sensitive camera near infrared range, which is hoping to shoot the light of the earliest stars and galaxies at the stage of their formation. Astronomers in the coronagraph camera that takes pictures slabovidimyh objects near bright sources. The mechanism of the coronagraph in NIRCam is similar to when we cover the palm eyes from sunlight to make out something.
NIRCam will be launched into space on board the Space Telescope, the James Webb in October 2018 from French Guiana by a rocket "Ariane 5". With the help of spectrometers scientists learn more about the nature of light and see how gas clouds are formed. This will help a lot to understand the origin of the universe.
With NIRCam researchers will study dark matter and dark energy. Now they are hidden from our telescopes, but we know that they exist. This knowledge will lay the foundation for the understanding of space and time interaction.
Stephen JollyWe believe that time is moving in one direction, but the matter is not what we imagine it. There are cavities in the space caused by large objects, such as the sun, for example. Could this lead to the discovery of time travel? I do not exclude it. In the old Star Trek TV series told of many of these technologies, and my father, a physicist, I was laughing at them. Now these technologies are becoming a reality. When we understand the basics of the origin of the universe, we will be able to explain all the phenomena that can not realize right now.
NIRCam studies are not only important for cosmology, but also for the whole world: they affect the system of beliefs and change the religious beliefs of mankind.
Twenty times faster than sound
The idea of hypersonic travel is not new. The term appeared in the 70s, and refers to the speed at Mach 5, ie 5 times the speed of sound. Many projects devoted to an attempt to overcome the speed of sound in the dozens of times. Developers from Germany in 2030 plans to launch Hypersonic SpaceLiner, which could fly from Europe to Australia in 90 minutes. The company Lockheed Martin is busy developing technologies to overcome the speed of Mach 20 - 24 498 km / h - and the speed of Mach 30.
Attempts to reach a speed of Mach 20, broke down due to lack of reliable materials that could withstand the heat generation at these speeds. Now scientists have a material, which is cooled by yourself, "spilling" electrons, as the human body secretes sweat.
The company Lockheed Martin is working with Imperial College London, who owns a hypersonic wind tunnel required for the testing of materials. Supersonic flights are necessary not only ordinary passengers to move quickly from one country to another. They are important to provide immediate humanitarian aid and assistance to victims of natural disasters, though in the early years of the use value of supersonic flight would be very high.
Along with other developing hypersonic materials will be used to create future cars. For example, carbon nanotubes, which are 50,000 times thinner than a human hair, are used in batteries.
Stephen JollyWe use space technology in the aircraft industry, in the automotive industry and in everyday life. We invented the sensors to a power source that can be independently turned on and off, without wires. This will create satellites, thousands of times smaller than current. And what are the cars? Who knows!
Preventing the end of the world
In 2013, the Chelyabinsk meteorite fell measuring about 15 meters in diameter, affected about 2000 people. This is the first time in recent history when a large meteorite fell and caused considerable damage. Small meteorites are constantly falling to Earth. Global threat may be a meteorite measuring about 400 meters in diameter. But these arrive on Earth once in a thousand years, according to scientists from NASA.
The NASA currently oversees more than 1400 asteroids, which can cause considerable damage. Earth protect the giant planets of the Solar System, which "pulled" the meteorites themselves. Therefore, the last big meteorite fell to Earth in 1908, again in Russia and caused an earthquake measuring 5 on the Richter scale. The place of his fall appeared deserted, only one person died. If the meteorite fell 4 hours and 47 minutes later, he would be wiped off the face of the earth St. Petersburg, whose population was at that time more than a million people.
66 million years ago during the Cretaceous period, when dinosaurs roamed the earth, on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico has fallen meteorite measuring about 10 km wide Chicxulub crater. The strength of the impact was equivalent to a billion bombs that were dropped on Hiroshima and caused a chemical reaction that "boiled" the Earth.
Scientists from NASA and Lockheed Martin are working to prevent similar disasters in the future. NASA maintains a catalog of near-Earth objects in 1998, and in 2016 plans to launch a mission that will change the relationship of humanity with asteroids.
Unmanned mission OSIRIS-REX will travel to the asteroid Bennu, one of the most potentially dangerous asteroids. A high probability that he would crash into the Earth at the end of the XXII century. OSIRIS-REX charge at Bennu, take a sample of his staff and bring back to Earth. Scientists hope to understand how to affect the asteroid and its orbit. Also, the mission can be found on the asteroid is not yet known to scientists the chemical elements.
Save our planet - it's more than just her from falling meteorite protection. For example, one of the biggest mysteries: what happened to the atmosphere on Mars, which caused dramatic climate change? In 2013 was launched MAVEN mission, which may provide answers to these questions will help you understand whether the Earth in store for the future of the red planet.
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