While Russia struggles to make up ground following a dozen-plus 2011 launch problems and the American Space Launch System sinks in Capitol Hill quicksand, the commercial space sector is racing to fill the gap — and to open new markets in space taxis, trucks and tourism. Since you can’t tell the players without a program, here are the . . .
10 Major Players in the Private Sector Space Race
Quiz: Branson or Bezos: How well do you know the players in the new space race?
Anyone can make a bucket list, but why stop with stuff you want to accomplish while you’re alive? Death offers all kinds of opportunities that life simply cannot match: You can be transformed into a diamond, launched in fireworks, propelled in ammunition, or installed as a permanent part of a coral reef community — none of which I would recommend doing while still drawing breath.
Finally, for those who prefer their final resting place out on the final frontier, there’s the ultimate infrequent flyer plan ….
How Space Burial Works
To Star-stuff We Return: The Space Burial Quiz
We tend to think of nanotechnology as the stuff of the future, but it’s already here, in hundreds of consumer products and industrial applications. As progress in this minuscule world has accelerated, concern for the environment and for public health has led to a call for green nanotechnology—approaches that accentuate the positive and eliminate the negative. In this article, we’ll take a tour of how these many approaches are playing out.
The world’s first mass-produced gasoline-electric hybrid car launched in December 1997 against a backdrop of growing concern over human-induced climate change and a clamor for greener technologies. Debate over the economic impact of the vehicles continues to this day, fueled by shifting sticker prices, ephemeral economic incentives and spiking fuel costs. Ultimately, detecting the economic impact of hybrids is about as easy as hearing an electric motor idling at a stop sign, but I took a crack at it anyway.
What was once a tenuous toe-dip into green waters for car companies looks more and more like a sea change. Manufacturers today are increasingly utilizing dual-mode drivetrains both to improve fuel economy and to make better performing cars, even as they avail themselves of the hybrid cachet to hawk them. Today, there’s a hybrid for nearly every palate and purpose.