Archive for the 'Infrastructure' Category
Gravitricity: Gravity Energy Project to Generate Electricity by Plunging Heavy Weights Down Disused Mine Shafts
September 8th, 2020This seems like an interesting idea. It’s a bit like pumped hydro, but without the requirement of elevated water storage. Via: Newsweek: An energy project that will generate electrical power using gravity, by raising and lowering heavy weights down mine shafts, could spark into action next year. U.K.-based Gravitricity said in a press release that […]
The Air Force Just Tested “Robot Dogs” For Use In Base Security
September 8th, 2020Bonus: Another one for your Starlink Is Mainly for Rural Internet Access *wink* file folder. Via: The Warzone: They look like they were cast straight from an episode of Black Mirror, and eventually, their mission could be similar in some ways, but for now, robot dogs are stretching their legs in the big test exercise […]
Dozens More Mystery Drone Incursions Over U.S. Nuclear Power Plants Revealed
September 8th, 2020Via: Forbes: I recently described how a swarm of drones flew in a restricted area at Palo Verde Nuclear Power Plant on two successive nights last September. A new cache of documents obtained under the Freedom of Information Act (FoIA) reveals how 24 nuclear sites suffered at least 57 drone incursions from 2015 to 2019 […]
DHS Braces For ‘Potential EMP Attack’ As Presidential Election Nears
September 5th, 2020Via: ZeroHedge: The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a new report warning about a “potential” electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack against the U.S. DHS’s warning published Thur. (Sept. 2), or about 60 days until the U.S. presidential election on Nov. 3, indicates there are “evolving threats against the American homeland, most recently highlighting efforts […]
Starlink Engineer/Spokeswoman Confirms Optical Backhaul Operational on Two Satellites
September 3rd, 2020Wow. I thought that this capability was years away, even for testing. Nope. Via: CNBC: Tice also said that the company recently conducted a test to see if it can connect two satellites in orbit with what SpaceX calls “space lasers.” Also known as intersatellite links, the space lasers would imporve the Starlink network by […]
Amazon’s Project Kuiper Is More Than a Response to Starlink
August 18th, 2020Via: IEEE Spectrum: “With Amazon, it’s a whole different ballgame,” says Zac Manchester, an assistant professor of aeronautics and astronautics at Stanford University. “The thing that makes Amazon different from SpaceX and OneWeb is they have so much other stuff going for them.” If Kuiper succeeds, Amazon can not only offer global satellite broadband access—it […]
SpaceX Starlink Beta Users Getting Download Speeds of 11 to 60Mbps
August 16th, 2020While these speeds are nowhere near the 1 Gbit/sec that had been mentioned with Starlink, this was already enough to cause me (someone who has struggled with rural Internet access since 2006) to go bug-eyed: Wow. Forget existing satellite based ISPs. They’re dead. And good riddance. *spit* But I do hope that other rural Internet […]
Australia Fast-Tracks Plan to Send Solar Power to Singapore
August 10th, 2020Via: Bloomberg: Australia granted “major project status” to an ambitious A$22 billion ($16 billion) plan to export power from a giant solar farm in the country’s north to Southeast Asia via undersea cable. The status recognizes the “strategic significance” of the project, which is expected to inject billions of dollars into the economy and create […]
Unidentified Drones Flew in Restricted Airspace Above Palo Verde Nuclear Power Plant
August 3rd, 2020Via: The WarZone: Less than a year ago… a bizarre and largely undisclosed incident involving a swarm of drones occurred on successive September evenings in 2019. The location? America’s most powerful nuclear plant, the Palo Verde Nuclear Generation Station situated roughly two dozen miles west of Phoenix, near Tonopah, Arizona. … This particular story starts […]
Amazon to Invest $10 Billion in Space-Based Internet System
July 31st, 2020No timetable. Via: AFP: Amazon says it will invest $10 billion for its planned space-based internet delivery system after winning US regulatory approval to deploy more than 3,000 low-orbit satellites. The US tech giant said on Thursday it is moving forward with its Project Kuiper, one of several systems planned to bring internet to customers […]
