Global Change
Added: 11/8/05. Source: .
CIA Invests In No-Fuel Power Generators
Added: 10/19/05. Sources: TerraDaily
The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency is reportedly investing in a power unit that can generate substantial electrical energy without using any fuel. The units manufactured by a small Virginia start-up company - SkyBuilt Power - are so rugged they can be dropped by parachute from an airplane and operate so simply, two people could have a unit running in just a few hours.
They are fueled by solar and wind energy, have a battery backup for use during the night or when winds are calm, and are designed to run for years with little maintenance. Depending upon its configuration, SkyBuilt's Mobile Power Station can generate up to 150 kilowatts of electricity.
Although no models for homes are yet available, SkyBuilt says its mobile power station can help meet critical power needs, such as during disasters, terrorist attacks, military operations or meteorological emergencies.
ESA selects targets for asteroid-deflecting mission Don Quijote
Added: 9/16/05. Sources: SpaceRef.com
Don Quijote is an asteroid-deflecting mission currently under study by the European Space Agency's Advanced Concepts Team (ACT). After experts suggested two possible targts, named 2002 AT4 and 1989 ML, the team has now completed an extensive assessment of suitable mission architectures, launch strategies, propulsion system options and experiments.
The plan uses two spacecraft in separate interplanetary trajectories. One spacecraft (Hidalgo) will impact an asteroid, the other (Sancho) will arrive earlier at the target asteroid, rendezvous and orbit the asteroid for several months, observing it before and after the impact to detect any changes in its orbit. Industrial studies are now about to start; it will be down to European experts to propose alternative solutions for the design of the low-cost NEO precursor mission. This will be the first step towards the development of a means to tackle asteroid impacts.
On 19 December 2004 MN4, an asteroid of about 400 m, lost since its discovery six months earlier, was observed again and its orbit was computed. It immediately became clear that the chances that it could hit the Earth during a close encounter in 2029 were unusually high. As the days passed the probability did not decrease and the asteroid became notorious for surpassing all previous records in the Torino and Palermo impact risk scales - scales that measure the risk of an asteroid impact just as the Richter scale quantifies the size of an earthquake.
Asteroid 2004 MN has now been given an official designation, (99942) Apophis. Recent observations using Doppler radar using Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico have reduced the impact probability during future encounters to very small levels, though they have not totally ruled out an Earth impact. In 2029, the asteroid will have the closest approach ever witnessed for an object of this size, swinging by the Earth at a distance of around 32,000 kilometres. Its trajectory will be well within the geosynchronous orbit used by most telecommunications and weather satellites, and the object will be visible to the naked eye. Further radar measurements are expected in 2013.
Don Quijote target asteroids 2002 AT4 and (10302) 1989 ML do not represent any danger to our planet.
Vancouver Island Moves West in Quake Lasting Two Weeks
Added: 9/16/05. Sources: American Geophysical Union Vancouver Star Yahoo! News MS-NBC
Using GPS technology, scientists have measured the slow slide of Vancouver Island towards Japan. The slip began Sept. 3 on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State and has migrated north to the Vancouver Island area. Every 14 months it moves 5 millimetres, in a magnitude 6.5 to 6.7 earthquake that lasts over two weeks rather than 10 seconds.
The movement being measured is in the reverse direction of normal quakes. Scientists are eagy to study this, because more rapid stress increase implies that a large subduction earthquake is more likely to happen during the time of an ETS event. The chance of a major earthquake is 30 times higher now for a roughly two-week period, but the odds are still remote, scientists say.
"We think that it's one of these events that will trigger the big mega-thrust earthquake," seismologist John Cassidy of the Pacific Geoscience Centre in Sidney, B.C., said Tuesday. "We just don't know which one of these events will trigger the giant earthquake."
The Cascadia subduction zone runs beneath the waters off Canada's West Coast, large earthquakes of a magnitude nine or more occur there about every 500 years. The last major quake in that zone was Jan. 26, 1700. A similar subduction zone, where an ocean plate pushes beneath a continent, runs along Indonesia.
Back to Raw Intel
Big Brother - Electronics
Global Change - Gov Watch - Human Engineering
New Science - Nuke-Bio-Chem - Weapons of War
