Lifeboat Foundation

In Brief:

• A Type IV civilization is a society that has managed to harness the energy of the entire universe.
• To get here, we would need to tap into energy sources unknown to us using strange laws of physics (laws that may or may not exist).

To measure the level of a civilization’s advancement, the Kardashev scale focuses on the amount of energy that a civilization is able to harness. Obviously, the amount of power available to a civilization is linked to how widespread the civilization is (you can’t harness the power of a star if you are confined to your home planet, and you certainly can’t harness the power of a galaxy if you can’t even get out of your solar system).

“A new floating solar photovoltaic system in Singapore is just one hectare in size and is meant as a prototype. But it could help usher in a new wave of PV placements on water resources globally.”

Read more

Oct. 28 2016 Telsa Solar City Launch

Read more

Hold onto your butts solar aficionados, the next generation solar roof is coming, and it looks good. During a brief event Friday night, Elon Musk presented his plan to integrate solar roofs with Powerwall power packs. But that’s not all. On Saturday Musk expanded on his talk by explaining via Twitter that the new solar tiles would come with some pretty sweet features — more specifically, built-in defrosters.

Unlike the solar systems of the past, Tesla’s newly designed roofs will feature aesthetically pleasing, energy efficient glass solar tiles, that will replace a home’s roof rather than sit on top of it.

Harsh weather conditions — like snow and ice — are known for wreaking havoc on traditional asphalt shingles, but that’s not the case with Musk’s new design. The solar glass tiles are not only more durable, but are also packing specialized heating elements that work much like the rear defroster does on your car.

Continue reading “Elon Musk Says Tesla’s New Solar Tiles Can Defrost Themselves” »

The laws of thermodynamics are some of the most important principles in modern physics, because they define how three fundamental physical quantities — temperature, energy, and entropy — behave under various circumstances.

But now physicists say they’ve found a loophole in one of these laws, and it could create scenarios in which entropy — or disorder — actually decreases with time.

Thanks to modern physics, almost everything in the Universe can be explained according to two theories: general relativity for the big stuff like stars, galaxies, and the Universe itself; and quantum mechanics, for behaviours on the atomic scale.

Continue reading “Physicists might have found a way to break the Second Law of Thermodynamics” »

So, could this material be also in the metal exterior of their cars?

Last Friday, Tesla Motors??? (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk debuted new solar roof shingles for homes at an event at Universal Studios in Los Angeles, reminding all of us that the electric car maker is much more than just a car company.

Their defunded tokamak achieved a world record in plasma pressure, right before it got shut down for good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mUJnKI3ipI&feature=youtu.be

Energy independent housing. Here you go.

Filmed on Oct 28, 2016.

Rubik’s-cube-sized CubeSats are a nifty, cheap way for scientists to put a research vessel into space, but they’re limited to orbiting where they’re launched – until now. Los Alamos researchers have created and tested a safe and innovative rocket motor concept that could soon see CubeSats zooming around space and even steering themselves back to Earth when they’re finished their mission.

Consisting of modules measuring 10 × 10 × 11.35 cm (3.9 × 3.9 × 4.5 in), these mini-satellites first launched in 2003, but are currently lacking in propulsion because they’re designed to hitch a ride into space with larger, more expensive space missions. They’re usually deployed along with routine pressurized cargo launches, usually into low orbits that limit the kinds of studies that CubeSats can perform.

Continue reading “CubeSats could soon be zooming around space under their own power” »