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11 Intriguing Engineering Milestones to Look for in 2023

Cars That Think

It’s about one-twentieth the size of the minibus-scale geostationary satellites already in orbit, allowing for cheap and quick deployment. The competition kicked off in 2019, and XPrize’s net investment is US $10 million. But this satellite is the first of a new breed, dubbed microGEO.

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Hi-fi, Radio, and Retro: The DIY Projects Spectrum Readers Love

Cars That Think

Far and away our most popular article in the last five years has been “ Build Your Own Professional-Grade Audio Amp on the Sort of Cheap ” (November 2018). A third of the top 15 articles relate to wireless and radio tech, with one concerning a home-brew radio telescope (October 2019).

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Thermal Energy Storage Is No Longer Just Hot Air

Cars That Think

The shipping containers, which house a Frankenstein-like assortment of machine parts—motors repurposed from Volvo truck engines, giant tanks of compressed air, huge silos of piping hot sand—are produced by a company called Cheesecake Energy. That’s why Liu’s Thermal Energy Storage Group at ORNL is focused primarily on buildings.

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Mazda Says Turbocharged Miata Best Left for Tuners

The Truth About Cars

& "The Miata is a system; the whole car is optimized for [the current] power," Dave Coleman, the engineer responsible for the Miata, told CarBuzz in an interview.& liter engine now makes 181 ponies, it’s the lighter vehicle by roughly 400 pounds. & "Suddenly, we [would] have to add a stronger drivetrain and bigger brakes.

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Blue Origin scraps New Glenn recovery ship, finishes first ‘test tank’

Teslarati

Further, SpaceX has only lost one booster to waves, and it solved that problem by developing a relatively cheap robot. Both were massive, meant to be powered by huge new methane/oxygen-fueled engines, and designed from the ground up with some degree of reusability in mind.

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U.N. Kills Any Plans to Use Mercury as a Rocket Propellant

Cars That Think

Had the company gone through with its intention to sell mercury propellant thrusters to some of the companies building massive satellite constellations over the coming decade, it would have resulted in Earth’s upper atmosphere being laced with mercury. And it’s cheap—there’s not a lot of competition with anyone looking to buy mercury.

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Europe Expands Virtual Borders To Thwart Migrants

Cars That Think

The ship’s captain stopped the engines, and the aircraft flashed its lights at the rubber boat. If it were legal to deliver rescued migrants to Libya, it would be as cheap as sending rescue boats a few extra kilometers south instead of east. But neither the ship nor the aircraft came to the rescue. But that was an unusual year.

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