Important Innovations

 An Inflatable E-bike Source:  Add caption POIMO May Be Your Next Bike This is fascinating new, lightweight travel technology, that's so flexible and inflatable it can be carried in a large backpack. It's an electric bike, called POIMO, invented by researchers at the University of Tokyo.  The inventors claim that because the e-bike is lightweight and inflatable, it protects riders and pedestrians in the event of an accident. At the moment, it's a prototype that the researchers intend to develop into a final product that's even lighter and more portable for commercialization. Future of Travel Innovation:  Soft Mobility This is a great example of the potential future of travel innovation. The researchers call POIMO soft mobility or personal mobility using soft, lightweight and inflatable materials to make the vehicle portable, foldable, flexible, inflatable, deflatable and storeable in a backpack.  So you can take it and deploy it wherever you want. ...

COVID-19 Accelerating Autonomous Deliveries Source:  Waymo Big Investor Money Pouring In COVID-19 is accelerating a big shift in the global autonomous driving industry.  Business is booming in the autonomous delivery of packages, not the autonomous driving of people.  Companies like self-driving technology company Waymo are enjoying a huge boom in its business of package deliveries and a big influx of capital from investors. Fresh Capital Big players like Waymo, which is owned by Google's parent company Alphabet, are getting a big jump in funding.  Waymo now has $3 billion in fresh capital after expanding its first funding round.  It just raised $750 million in mid May.  According to Reuters' analysis, investors have poured $6 billion into two dozen companies involved in autonomous deliveries in the past seven months.  The technology ranges from drones to big, autonomous trucks. Global Phenomenon:  Future of Travel.   T...

Comet SWAN Source:  NASA Cosmic Snowball Comet SWAN is a cosmic sensation.  Forbes magazine calls it The Comet of the Year.  And, it should be visible in the northern hemisphere this week.  Comets aren't rare in our skies, but this one is.  The reason:  it is so exceptionally bright and beautiful to view. It put on some significant light shows in the Southern Hemisphere. Comet Danger Zone Comets are cosmic snowballs of frozen gas, rock and dust that orbit the Sun. SWAN is expected to be visible in pre-dawn, twilight hours in the northern hemisphere this week.  However, it is starting to stray into what's called the "danger zone" for comets as they get closer to the Sun.  And that is the zone where comets are famous for precipitously dimming out. Nonetheless, you might want to keep "your eyes to the skies". "Search for Life in Space"  ASIN: B088PX6HFD Journalist Edward Kane  just published "Search for Life in Spa...

"Search for Life in Space" by Edward Kane  ASIN: B088PX6HFD  New Book on Search for New Forms of Life in the Universe Are there new forms of life, perhaps even highly advanced civilizations, in space?  The collective opinion of many top global scientists and experts at NASA, the European Space Agency and the Chinese Space Agency is YES. Visitors From Space As a journalist, Ed Kane has written "Search for Life in Space" to document the scientific undertakings now underway to make our civilization the first to find life in the universe - life that may be radically different from ours.  We start the space journey with images of UFOs over the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.  The images were shot by US Navy pilots and just released by the US Department of Defense to show that UFOs are real. NASA, UFOs and Aliens NASA has made a priority of finding new forms of life in the universe.  In fact, NASA Director Jim Bridenstine says "we are well...

US Space Force & USAF X-37B Space Plane Mission Source:  MIT Technology Review Launch Date Sunday May 17, 2020 The US Space Force & USAF's next top secret mission of its unmanned, robotic, long duration, X-37B space plane is set to launch from Cape Canaveral, Florida tomorrow.  It will hurtle into space onboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket for what is now being called the US Space Force's OTV-6/USSF-7 mission. This is another secret mission for one of the most fascinating space planes in the universe. Green, Solar Powered, Space Plane The X-37B is an unpiloted, long distance, long duration flight spacecraft.  It flies classified missions that can last months and even years for the US military.  It is a green machine that's powered by a solar array that's the size of a pickup truck and embedded inside the space plane. Tremendous Technology The technology is incredible. There are 2, X-37B space planes built by Boeing....

Global Debate Over Moon Laws for Living & Working There NASA's Artemis Accords NASA just released a set of basic principles designed to govern how humans will live and work on the Moon.  They are called the Artemis Accords and include the main tenets of what is designed to become an international agreement for the exploration of the Moon. It has already sparked international debate.  Russia is angry that it's not part of the early negotiations.  In fact, the Russian space agency Roscosmos has accused the Trump Administration of "planet snatching" in its efforts to drive formation of the Accords.  China too has complained that it isn't part of the early negotiations. Lunar Safety Zones and Mining Rights The Accords are designed to establish safety zones around lunar bases to prevent what NASA calls "harmful interference".  They would permit companies and nations to own the lunar resources that they mine.  The Accords are par...

Secret Battery Breakthrough Teased by Elon Musk Source:  Tesla manufacturing line Tesla's Expected, New Low Cost, Long Lasting EV Battery Tesla has a secret battery, that is low cost, long life and will power Tesla's Model 3 electric sedans in China later this year.  The battery is so revolutionary it's expected to bring down the cost of electric vehicles to that of gas powered cars.  It's a breakthrough piece of e-battery technology that essentially reconfigures the math of pricing EVs.  It's also said to allow EV batteries to have second and third lives. Elon Musk's Electric Agenda CEO Elon Musk has been teasing investors and his rivals about the battery, promising to hold a "Battery Day" to detail it in late May.  There are many parts to Musk's electric agenda. He wants low-cost batteries that go for a million miles.  He also is positioning Tesla as a global electric utility. It is already the global leader in electric v...