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mountains
October 25, 2009
Category: nature
Tags: flight, mountain, top, view from top
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World’s First Electric Airplane
World’s First Electric Airplane
Electric cars are fantastic, of course, but what about other forms of transportation. Electric trains are around, in places where they can be wired, and there are even some electric boats in the world. But electric planes…well…that’s just silly. Batteries are far too heavy…right?WRONG! The single-seater Electra is the first conventional airplane to run entirely on batteries. The plane has a very traditional design, the only difference being some light-weight materials and the method for turning the prop. In test flights, the Electra has travelled for 30 miles at a peak speed of about 60 mph. It’s not a 747…but it shows that as the energy density of batteries increases, so too does their potential application.
Via TreeHugger
(Via EcoGeek.org.)
January 07, 2008
Category: Feature, technology
Tags: airplane, autonomous, electricity, energy, flight, fly, plane, transportation, vehicle
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Sputnik legacy timeline
a timeline visualization that captures all 150 world wide space flights. the data is sortable by year, timespan, planet & country. an additional “Inside Sputnik” provides a detailed view of Sputnik 1 & all of its parts.[link: ewsweek.com|via maxkiesler.com]
see also onlife file usage timeline & AJAX timeline visualization & 400 years of royal society & world history timeline & timeline of trends & time-based flickr tags.
(Via information aesthetics.)
The Russian name “Спутник” means literally “co-traveler”, “traveling companion” or “satellite”, and its R-7 launch vehicle was designed initially to carry nuclear warheads.
Sputnik 1 was launched on October 4, 1957. The satellite was 58 cm (about 23 in) in diameter and weighed approximately 83.6 kg (about 183 lb). Each of its elliptical orbits around the Earth took about 96 minutes. Monitoring of the satellite was done by Amateur radio operators.
(Via Wikipedia: Sputnik program.)
November 22, 2007
Category: space exploration
Tags: amateur radio, earth, exploration, flight, hack, monitoring, robot, space, spacecraft
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Dopplr Offsetr: Calculating Your Network’s Travel Impact
Dopplr Offsetr: Calculating Your Network’s Travel Impact
By Brady Forrest
Recently usable-ish Offsetr does a depressingly effective job of calculating the carbon and mileage totals of your Dopplr travel network (Radar post). The larger your network and the more they travel the more impact they will have. Offsetr will tally and rank your network’s miles, carbon and offset price.There are 164 travelers in my network and it has the dubious distinction of having the second-largest impact on the public score boards (that is sure to change with this post). My own impact is less than one percent of that and ranks significantly lower.
Offsetr comes from Will Carter. He’s the creator of MobZombies, the game where you run with an accelerometer to get away from virtual zombies (Radar post). Offsetr’s mileage data comes from the Dopplr API (which uses OAuth for easy access to users’ data). The carbon offset calculations (both the dollars and the pounds) come from terrapass, a carbon offset company.
I travel a lot for work. I’ve been using the RealCosts Firefox plugin so I can be aware of the impact of my plane tickets, but that doesn’t compare to seeing the cumulative effect of my travel. This is more meaningful. I would love to have Offsetr as a Greasemonkey script for Dopplr (or better yet as its own feature) for a constant reminder. How carbon friendly is your network?
(Via O’Reilly Radar.)
November 14, 2007
Category: politics
Tags: carbon, dopplr, energy, flight, foot print, transport, travel
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