LEEVENSPARK

Project Icarus is an ambitious five-year study into launching an unmanned spacecraft to an interstellar destination. Headed by the Tau Zero Foundation, a non-profit group of scientists dedicated to interstellar spaceflight, Icarus is working to develop a spacecraft that can travel to a nearby star. Dr. Robert Adams, study lead in the Advanced Concepts Office at the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center and Lead Designer for the Mission Analysis and Performance Module for Project Icarus, explains the realities behind getting an interstellar spacecraft to its destination. WIDE ANGLE: Project Icarus : Reaching for Interstellar Space One critical feature of any interstellar voyage is the "mission analysis," which organizes science objectives, plots movement through space and determines abort and correction scenarios. Some refer to this effort as "trajectory analysis" or "astrodynamics" but it encompasses more than simply plotting a path through the heavens. Com

GIST OF THE STORY : Traditionally, robots had onboard computers that controlled movements and processed data. A new approach has robots accessing processing power and data from remote servers.     In one of the many famous scenes in The Matrix (1999), the character Trinity learns to fly a helicopter by having a "pilot program" downloaded to her brain. For us humans, with our offline, nonupgradable meat brains, the possibility of acquiring new skills by connecting our heads to a computer network is still science fiction. Not so for robots. Several research groups are exploring the idea of robots that rely on cloud-computing infrastructure to access vast amounts of processing power and data. This approach, which some are calling "cloud robotics," would allow robots to off-load compute-intensive tasks like image processing and voice recognition and even download new skills instantly, Matrix-style. Imagine a robot that finds an object that it's never seen

GIST OF THE STORY Researchers have long been trying to explain the origin of the ammonia that triggered the formation of the first biomolecules on Earth. Meteorites may have released compounds including hydrocarbon chains and a large amount of ammonia, which is rich in nitrogen.                                             A meteorite found in Antarctica adds extra impact to the theory that the essential building blocks of life on Earth came from outer space, say scientists. The team from the University of Arizona say they have discovered a "carbonaceous chondrite" meteorite -- found in 1995 and called "CR2 Grave Nunataks 59229" -- contains relatively high amounts of ammonia and amino acids. Carbonaceous chondrites meteorites contain abundant organic materials as they have not been melted, and much of their original chemical composition remains intact. The research, led by Professor Sandra Pizzarello, is published in Proceedings of the National Academy of S

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Engine Oil and its viscosity                                                        For satisfactory lubrication of the engine the oil should possess some functional properties of which viscosity of oil is one of the most important properties, as it brings out the oil’s capacity to lubricate. Viscosity is the measure of oil’s resistance to flow. An oil’s viscosity is identified by its SAE’s (Society for Automotive Engineer’s) number. The thinner and oil, lower its number, e.g. SAE 10 W. The numerical relates to viscosity at particular temperature and the alphabet ‘W’, indicates the oil’s suitability for colder temperature. With the viscosity index improver, the viscosity increses at higher temperature and at lower temperature it does not increase significantly, thus achieving optimum viscosity at lower and higher temperature. Such oils are called multigrade oils, for instance ‘20 W40’ shows thinness at low temperature and thickness at higher temperature. However, there are other servi

  Lubricants- engine and its oil The main purpose of lubricants is to lubricate moving parts of the vehicle to reduce friction and wear and tear by providing smoothing, trouble free performance for increased length of time. A lubricant is a blend of base oils and performance enhancing additives as required by engine, gear box and other application areas. At the refinery, the crude oil is refined into gasoline, diesel, kerosene, LPG, naphtha and base stocks (Lube). This base stock is further processed, blended and strengthened with required properties to make different kind of lubricants. Of the all the lubricants engine oil is the most import. Lubricants for gasoline and diesel engine are different as the load, cycles and fuels are different. The oil in an engine does more than just reduce friction between its moving parts. It also helps to seal the high-pressure combustion gases inside the cylinders, to impede the corrosion of metal parts, to absorb some of the harmful by-products of

TYRES                                             In radials tyres the ply or ply cords are alligned at 90 degrees to the circumference. While radials improve performance the fact is that they are not very good for bad roads and overloading. The suspension of a vehicle has, also, to be modified to accept radials. Radials offer much better grip of the road especially on surfaces which offer poor wheel traction like wet of slippery roads. What do treads on tyres do? Treads perform a variety of functions which includes increasing road grip, cooling the tyre while running at high speeds, forming an effect whereby tyres with deeper treads may not pick up loose pebbles and nails on the road, and providing a safe margin of rubber before the complete tyre wear out. In wet conditions they provide ducts through which the water is squeezed out. This in turn helps the tyre grip better. Maintenance of Tyres The single greatest cause of tyre damage is improper inflation, which result in unnecessary