NASA Has Developed Super-elastic Tires to Withstand the Rocky Terrain of Mars

Super-elastic Tire

A viable alternative to the pneumatic tire

Innovators at NASA's Glenn Research center have developed a game changing, non-pneumatic, compliant tire. This innovation, called the Superelastic Tire, was developed for future Mars missions, but is a viable alternative to pneumatic tires here on Earth.These tires offer footing superior to a customary pneumatic tire and diminishes the likelihood for cut, as indicated by its engineers at NASA.

Source: NASA

NASA has appeared a "superelastic tire" which can adjust to outsider situations, huh like the one found on Mars. The new wheel is a contrasting option to the pneumatic tires as of now fitted on the Mars Curiosity Rover. 

A standard check of the wanderer's six aluminum wheels uncovered that one had harm to its grousers. The grousers are the crisscross molded treads that reach out from each wheel, as indicated by Engadget. Interest has been on the red planet throughout the previous five years and is at present inspecting hills on the Murray arrangement and climbing Mount Sharp to survey the locales billion-year old atmosphere. In spite of hardware mishaps, it is as yet sending pictures en route. NASA predicts it can at present oversee 40 percent more life from its wheels.

Source: NASA

In the interim, the space organization is anticipating a tire change for future missions — created by both NASA Glenn and Goodyear; the flexible tires are propelled by "Apollo lunar tires" which utilize shape memory amalgams (essentially NiTi and its subordinates) that can withstand high strain on stack bearing parts. This implies the airless tires can deal with reversible strain and disfigurement, disposing of the likelihood of punter disappointments. Even better, it additionally helps the tire/wheel get together since it needn't bother with an internal casing.

"What's more, the utilization of shape memory combinations as outspread stiffeners, rather than springs, gives, much more, stack conveying potential and enhanced outline adaptability. This sort of consistent tire would take into account expanded travel speeds in rough terrain applications," composes NASA in a press articulation. 

Applications for the innovation incorporate All-territory vehicle tires, military vehicle tires, development vehicle tires, car tires, overwhelming gear tires, farming vehicle tires and airplane tires, as indicated by NASA. The tires won't be on the forthcoming Mars wanderer however could discover their way on maintained investigation vehicles later on.

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250 Trains Will Be Fitted with Rooftop Solar Panels in India

India is well on its way to achieve its promised additional 160 GW of wind and solar energy by investing in floating PV panels and solar trains.

India is installing photovoltaic panels all over the country at breakneck speed. The country is investing in solar in a variety of ways, some common and others that are slightly out of the box. India surprised the world at the Climate Change Conference in 2015, by promising it would add 160 gigawatts (GW) of wind and solar by 2022 to the existing 26 GW.

Available space may be a problem

One problem the country faces is a lack of available land for its planned massive solar farms. Floating farms might be the answer. According to Indian news sources, two floating solar panel projects are soon to be developed in India. The first will be in the state of Andhra Pradesh, the second in the state of Kerala. Floating solar farms are a solar array system on a structure that floats on water. Generally, they are floating on a natural lake or human constructed reservoir.

Floating solar panel systems have the ability to be more efficient than land-based systems due to the cooling effect of the water. The new plants that are being carried out by the Arka Renewable Energy College will be the largest floating photovoltaic (PV) facilities in India.

India invests in solar panel trains

India is willing to invest in an unusual solar power project as it races towards its solar power goals. As well as floating solar panel farms, the country has also invested huge amounts of money and resources into adding solar panels onto the roof of trains.

Indian Railways will install flexible solar panels onto the roof of 250 local trains. The power generated from the panels will be used to power lights and fans on board. The new train is hoped to save approximately 21,000 liters of diesel a year, that would normally be used to power the interior.

The move is in a larger government push to modernize the Indian train system and make it much more environmentally friendly. Each new train is fitted with 16 solar panels on each carriage as well as battery back-ups. The trains are expected to offset carbon emissions by nine tonnes a year.

Suresh Prabhu, India's Union railway minister, told local media that this is a “path-breaking leap” towards the grander goal of making India’s trains more environmentally sound. The trains are only the first of many steps to green up the whole rail network system. Other green investments include using solar power for train stations. “7,000 railway stations across the country will be fed with solar power as per the Indian Railways mission to implement 1,000 megawatts of solar power capacity," Indian Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told guests, at a union budgetary speech in February this year.

The whole world will be watching India as it continues to rely increasingly on solar for its energy needs. It will also serve as a learning example for other countries eager to make the move to renewable energy.

New Surgical Needle Can Send Real-Time Ultrasound Images to Surgeons

A diagram of a new needle                                                               NATURE

A collaboration between researchers at UCL and Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) has led to the development of a new optical ultrasound needle that allows heart tissue to be imaged in real-time during keyhole procedures. The new technology gives doctors a high resolution image of soft heart tissue up to 2.5 cm in front of the needle when inside the body. The needle has been successfully tested on surgery on pigs and has the potential to make surgery safer and more accurate. Currently doctors have to rely on preoperative imaging scans and external ultrasound probes to give help them visualize the soft tissues being operated in during keyhole surgery as the surgery incision hole is too small to allow for imaging equipment as well. The breakthrough of combining the imaging technology with the surgical tools is a game changer.

Source:  NATURE

High-frequency ultrasound imaging can provide exquisite visualizations of tissue to guide minimally invasive procedures. Here, we demonstrate that an all-optical ultrasound transducer, through which light guided by optical fibers is used to generate and receive ultrasound, is suitable for real-time invasive medical imaging in vivo. Broad-bandwidth ultrasound generation was achieved through the photoacoustic excitation of a multiwalled carbon nanotube-polydimethylsiloxane composite coating on the distal end of a 300-μm multi-mode optical fiber by a pulsed laser. The interrogation of a high-finesse Fabry–Pérot cavity on a single-mode optical fiber by a wavelength-tunable continuous-wave laser was applied for ultrasound reception. This transducer was integrated within a custom inner transseptal needle (diameter 1.08 mm; length 78 cm) that included a metallic septum to acoustically isolate the two optical fibers. The use of this needle within the beating heart of a pig provided unprecedented real-time views (50 Hz scan rate) of cardiac tissue (depth: 2.5 cm; axial resolution: 64 μm) and revealed the critical anatomical structures required to safely perform a transseptal crossing: the right and left atrial walls, the right atrial appendage, and the limbus fossae ovalis. This new paradigm will allow ultrasound imaging to be integrated into a broad range of minimally invasive devices in different clinical contexts.

The study has been published in Light: Science & Applications. Dr Malcolm Finlay