Looks like red romaine lettuce plants grew just fine in the weightlessness conditions on the ISS. Unfortunately, for this first time, the crew won’t eat them until they are analyzed on earth to insure they are safe to consume.
Some resources about the project:
Over the past few years I’ve posted several times about the Polywell fusion power concept invented by the late Robert W. Bussard. See, for example, this introductory video on the Polywell fusion system.
The Navy funded project investigating the system has been very quiet for the past year or so and I’ve not seen any new info on how they were doing. Today, however, comes word of a technical paper posted at arXiv.org and it sounds quite encouraging:
High Energy Electron Confinement in a Magnetic Cusp Configuration
We report experimental results validating the concept that plasma confinement is enhanced in a magnetic cusp configuration when beta (plasma pressure/magnetic field pressure) is order of unity. This enhancement is required for a fusion power reactor based on cusp confinement to be feasible.
The magnetic cusp configuration possesses a critical advantage: the plasma is stable to large scale perturbations. However, early work indicated that plasma loss rates in a reactor based on a cusp configuration were too large for net power production. Grad and others theorized that at high beta a sharp boundary would form between the plasma and the magnetic field, leading to substantially smaller loss rates.
The current experiment validates this theoretical conjecture for the first time and represents critical progress toward the Polywell fusion concept which combines a high beta cusp configuration with an electrostatic fusion for a compact, economical, power-producing nuclear fusion reactor.
I’ve posted several times over the years about UrbanAero’s AirMule – a vertical takeoff and landing vehicle with two ducted fans that is now being developed within their Tactical Robotics division. This week the BBC has a video report on the vehicle : Could ambulance drones appear on the battlefield? – BBC?
I’ve occasionally blogged about the focus fusion project at Lawrenceville Plasma Physics. With very modest funding they have made solid progress with experiments that seek to demonstrate that their approach can produce aneutronic fusion power in a relatively small system.
To support the completion of the project, they have opened a crowd-funding campaign : FOCUS FUSION: emPOWERtheWORLD – Indiegogo
We need to raise $200,000 to fund the purchase of new electrodes for the final phase of research, to prove that Focus Fusion works. And with your help, we can make this incredible breakthrough a reality!
Here is the video for the campaign:
I’ve posted a couple of times (see here and here) about Aerofex and their Aero-X dual-ducted fan personal transport. They now say they will begin selling the vehicle to the public in 2017 for around $85,000.
[…] the Aero-X, a vehicle that makes low-altitude flight realistic and affordable. Flying up to 10 feet off the ground at 45 miles per hour, the Aero-X is unlike any vehicle you’ve seen. It’s a hovercraft that rides like a motorcycle – an off road vehicle that gets you off the ground.
The Aero-X can be adapted for unlimited outdoor uses: surveying, search and rescue, border patrol, disaster relief, aerial agricultural, ranching, and much more.
Or maybe you just want go out to the desert and fly.
Because the Aero-X is intuitive to fly, you can learn to operate it safely in just a weekend of training. It responds to your movements just as a motorcycle would. And it costs a fraction of even the most basic airplane or helicopter. Maintenance is simple and inexpensive, as the Aero-X is built with very few moving parts and is powered by a reliable rotary engine.
Flight . . . easy, affordable, safe
Why will you fly? Reserve your Aero-X now.