May 4, 2018 08:21 PM
(This post was last modified: May 5, 2018 08:08 PM by C C.)
NASA’s InSight Spacecraft Now on its Way to Mars
https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/news/nasas...y-to-mars/
EXCERPT: . . . InSight launched on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V 401 rocket at 4:05 a.m. PDT (7:05 a.m. EDT) this morning, May 5, from Space Launch Complex-3 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. [...] InSight is the first interplanetary mission to launch from the West Coast, and will be the first mission to look deep beneath the Martin surface. It will study the planet’s interior by measuring its heat output and listening for marsquakes. InSight will use the seismic waves generated by marsquakes to develop a map of the planet’s deep interior. The resulting insight into Mars’ formation will provide a better understanding of how other rocky planets, including Earth were created. The InSight lander is equipped with two science instruments that will conduct the first “check-up” of Mars, measuring its “pulse,” or internal activity; its temperature and its “reflexes,” or the way the planet wobbles when it is pulled by the Sun and its moons.
MORE: https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/news/nasas...y-to-mars/
If Canada Wants People to Drive Electric Cars It Needs to Build Charging Stations
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/artic...mma-norway
EXCERPT: It’ll take you 30 hours to drive across Norway, but your road trip won’t need a drop of gas if you’re riding in an electric vehicle. You can cruise all the way from Kristiansand to Kirkenes, stopping only for a few quick breaks to plug your car in to charge while you take in a view of the fjords and snack on some Smørbrød. [...] Over half of all their car sales are electric or hybrid, and they’ve installed intricate networks of charging stations across the Nordic landscape—as of 2017, there were more than 10,000 according to the Norwegian Charging Station Database for Electromobility (NOBIL).
Canada’s 7,431 EV stations seem pretty decent in comparison. That is, until you realize that Norway is 3 percent of Canada’s size, and has just 13 percent of our population. And while a third of Norwegians may have made the switch to electric, we’ve barely cracked a .05% market share according to iPolitics. Our dearth of charging stations is a major reason why we can’t keep up to Norway in the EV race. “Range anxiety”—or the worry that electric cars can't get far on a single charge—has been cited as a prime obstacle preventing Canadian consumers from going electric.
For anybody who lives in a city, range anxiety is mostly an irrational fear. Electric vehicles can travel between 200 to 400 km on a single charge, while the average city-dwelling Canadian drives just 50 km a day. But for those in rural communities, or who travel long distances on a regular basis, range anxiety is very real. When you’re the only person in Watrous, Saskatchewan with an EV, no one’s going out of their way to install a public station for you, and so your weekly trip to Saskatoon requires a lot more planning. It’s a chicken-and-egg dilemma: rural Canadians aren’t buying EVs because we don’t have charging stations, and we aren’t building charging stations because no one’s buying EVs....
MORE: https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/artic...mma-norway
https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/news/nasas...y-to-mars/
EXCERPT: . . . InSight launched on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V 401 rocket at 4:05 a.m. PDT (7:05 a.m. EDT) this morning, May 5, from Space Launch Complex-3 at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. [...] InSight is the first interplanetary mission to launch from the West Coast, and will be the first mission to look deep beneath the Martin surface. It will study the planet’s interior by measuring its heat output and listening for marsquakes. InSight will use the seismic waves generated by marsquakes to develop a map of the planet’s deep interior. The resulting insight into Mars’ formation will provide a better understanding of how other rocky planets, including Earth were created. The InSight lander is equipped with two science instruments that will conduct the first “check-up” of Mars, measuring its “pulse,” or internal activity; its temperature and its “reflexes,” or the way the planet wobbles when it is pulled by the Sun and its moons.
MORE: https://astrobiology.nasa.gov/news/nasas...y-to-mars/
If Canada Wants People to Drive Electric Cars It Needs to Build Charging Stations
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/artic...mma-norway
EXCERPT: It’ll take you 30 hours to drive across Norway, but your road trip won’t need a drop of gas if you’re riding in an electric vehicle. You can cruise all the way from Kristiansand to Kirkenes, stopping only for a few quick breaks to plug your car in to charge while you take in a view of the fjords and snack on some Smørbrød. [...] Over half of all their car sales are electric or hybrid, and they’ve installed intricate networks of charging stations across the Nordic landscape—as of 2017, there were more than 10,000 according to the Norwegian Charging Station Database for Electromobility (NOBIL).
Canada’s 7,431 EV stations seem pretty decent in comparison. That is, until you realize that Norway is 3 percent of Canada’s size, and has just 13 percent of our population. And while a third of Norwegians may have made the switch to electric, we’ve barely cracked a .05% market share according to iPolitics. Our dearth of charging stations is a major reason why we can’t keep up to Norway in the EV race. “Range anxiety”—or the worry that electric cars can't get far on a single charge—has been cited as a prime obstacle preventing Canadian consumers from going electric.
For anybody who lives in a city, range anxiety is mostly an irrational fear. Electric vehicles can travel between 200 to 400 km on a single charge, while the average city-dwelling Canadian drives just 50 km a day. But for those in rural communities, or who travel long distances on a regular basis, range anxiety is very real. When you’re the only person in Watrous, Saskatchewan with an EV, no one’s going out of their way to install a public station for you, and so your weekly trip to Saskatoon requires a lot more planning. It’s a chicken-and-egg dilemma: rural Canadians aren’t buying EVs because we don’t have charging stations, and we aren’t building charging stations because no one’s buying EVs....
MORE: https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/artic...mma-norway