The Mars rovers, Spirit and Opportunity have been fantastically successful. It’s hardly surprising then that NASA is already working on their replacement: the Mars Science Laboratory Rover.
Category Archives: General
Most powerful laser
The HERCULES laser at the University of Michigan is the world’s most powerful laser. The beam is equivalent in intensity to focussing all the light from the Sun onto a grain of sand.
Tortoises in the fridge
If tortoises become too warm during hibernation they are in danger of waking up and then not being able to sustain themselves.
So Shirley Neely of the Jersey Tortoise Sanctuary keeps them at a constant temperature in her fridge.
New solar power efficiency record
Sandia National Laboratories and Stirling Energy Systems have set a new solar power efficiency record of 31.25%.
Whilst solar power is only suitable for use in a very small number of areas and doesn’t offer the continuity of service or reliability that is offered by other sources such as nuclear power, the improvement in efficiency is heartening and suggests that further work prove useful.
