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Powerlight Technologies
PowerLight Technologies is an American engineering firm providing power transmission via lasers. Its primary products are power-over-fiber which transmits energy in the form of laser light through an optic fiber, and "laser power beaming" in which the laser energy is transmitted through free space. History The predecessor to PowerLight Technologies, LaserMotive, was founded in 2006 by physicists Tom Nugent and Jordin Kare. The company's initial goal was to win the NASA Centennial Challenges Power Beam challenge. After winning the challenge, LaserMotive focused on developing the power beaming technology for commercial application on UAVs and successfully demonstrated the transfer of 400 watts of power over 1 kilometer. In 2017, LaserMotive changed its name to PowerLight Technologies, hired three new advisors, and officially announced the launch of commercial applications for its power-over-fiber technology. The company's new CEO Richard Gustoffson described this new focus on pow ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jordin Kare
Jordin T. Kare (October 24, 1956 – July 19, 2017) was an American physicist and aerospace engineer who researched laser propulsion. He was responsible for Mockingbird, a conceptual design for an extremely small (75 kg dry mass) reusable launch vehicle, and was involved in the Clementine lunar mapping mission. Kare also conceived the ''SailBeam'' interstellar propulsion technique. In the science fiction fan community, he was a composer, performer and recording artist of filk music. Early life and education Kare grew up in the Philadelphia area and attended Harriton High School in Rosemont, Pennsylvania. He received his B.S. in electrical engineering and physics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1978 and Ph.D. in astrophysics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1984. Kare was the brother of Susan Kare, designer of the fonts and icons of the original Apple Macintosh user interface. Career Kare worked for many years at Lawrence Livermore ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beam Power Challenge
Elevator:2010 was an inducement prize contest with the purpose of developing space elevator and space elevator-related technologies. Elevator:2010 organized annual competitions for climbers, ribbons and power-beaming systems, and was operated by a partnership between Spaceward Foundation and the NASA Centennial Challenges. History On March 23, 2005 NASA's Centennial Challenges program announced a partnership with the Spaceward Foundation regarding Elevator:2010, to raise the amounts of monetary prizes and to get more teams involved in the competitions. The partnership was not renewed after its initial 5-year term. There were two (out of an intended seven) competitions of the NASA Centennial Challenges which fell under the Elevator:2010 banner: The Tether Challenge and the Beam Power Challenge. There were also the two original competitions. Tether Challenge This competition presented the challenge of constructing super-strong tethers, a crucial component of a space elevator. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Space Elevator
A space elevator, also referred to as a space bridge, star ladder, and orbital lift, is a proposed type of planet-to-space transportation system, often depicted in science fiction. The main component would be a cable (also called a tether) anchored to the surface and extending into space. An Earth-based space elevator would consist of a cable with one end attached to the surface near the equator and the other end attached to a counterweight in space beyond geostationary orbit (35,786 km altitude). The competing forces of gravity, which is stronger at the lower end, and the upward centrifugal pseudo-force (it is actually the inertia of the counterweight that creates the tension on the space side), which is stronger at the upper end, would result in the cable being held up, under tension, and stationary over a single position on Earth. With the tether deployed, climbers (crawlers) could repeatedly climb up and down the tether by mechanical means, releasing their cargo to and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Laser Companies
A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word ''laser'' originated as an acronym for light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation. The first laser was built in 1960 by Theodore Maiman at Hughes Research Laboratories, based on theoretical work by Charles H. Townes and Arthur Leonard Schawlow and the optical amplifier patented by Gordon Gould. A laser differs from other sources of light in that it emits light that is ''coherent''. Spatial coherence allows a laser to be focused to a tight spot, enabling uses such as optical communication, laser cutting, and lithography. It also allows a laser beam to stay narrow over great distances (collimation), used in laser pointers, lidar, and free-space optical communication. Lasers can also have high temporal coherence, which permits them to emit light with a very narrow frequency spectrum. Temporal coherence can also ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Engineering Companies Of The United States
Engineering is the practice of using natural science, mathematics, and the engineering design process to solve problems within technology, increase efficiency and productivity, and improve systems. Modern engineering comprises many subfields which include designing and improving infrastructure, machinery, vehicles, electronics, materials, and energy systems. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more specialized fields of engineering, each with a more specific emphasis for applications of mathematics and science. See glossary of engineering. The word ''engineering'' is derived from the Latin . Definition The American Engineers' Council for Professional Development (the predecessor of the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology aka ABET) has defined "engineering" as: History Engineering has existed since ancient times, when humans devised inventions such as the wedge, lever, wheel and pulley, etc. The term ''engineering'' is derived f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wireless Power
Wireless power transfer (WPT; also wireless energy transmission or WET) is the transmission of electrical energy without wires as a physical link. In a wireless power transmission system, an electrically powered transmitter device generates a time-varying electromagnetic field that transmits power across space to a receiver device; the receiver device extracts power from the field and supplies it to an electrical load. The technology of wireless power transmission can eliminate the use of the wires and batteries, thereby increasing the mobility, convenience, and safety of an electronic device for all users. Wireless power transfer is useful to power electrical devices where interconnecting wires are inconvenient, hazardous, or are not possible. Wireless power techniques mainly fall into two categories: Near and far field. In ''near field'' or ''non-radiative'' techniques, power is transferred over short distances by magnetic fields using inductive coupling between coils of w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2010
The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year dissipated in this year. In addition, the OECD, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) gained four new members; Chile, Slovenia, Israel, and Estonia. 2010 also saw advancements in technology such as the release of the iPad, the public launch of Instagram, and the first successful trapping of antimatter. 2010 was designated as: *International Year of Biodiversity *International Year of Youth *2010 European Year for Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion *International Year for the Rapprochement of Cultures Pronunciation There is a debate among experts and the general public on how to pronounce specific years of the 21st century in English. The year 2010 is pronounced either "twenty-ten" or "two thousand (and) ten" ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Beam-powered Propulsion
Beam-powered propulsion, also known as directed energy propulsion, is a class of aircraft or spacecraft propulsion that uses energy beamed to the spacecraft from a remote power plant to provide energy. The beam is typically either a microwave or a laser beam, and it is either pulsed or continuous. A continuous beam lends itself to thermal rockets, photonic thrusters, and light sails. In contrast, a pulsed beam lends itself to ablative thrusters and pulse detonation engines. The rule of thumb that is usually quoted is that it takes a MegaWatt, megawatt of power beamed to a vehicle per kg of payload while it is being accelerated to permit it to reach low Earth orbit. More speculative designs, using mass ("micro-pellet") beams, would allow for reaching the edge of the solar gravity lens, or even nearby stars, in decades. Other than launching to orbit, applications for moving around the world quickly have also been proposed. Background Rockets are momentum machines; they use mass ej ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle
An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or unmanned aircraft system (UAS), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft with no human pilot, crew, or passengers onboard, but rather is controlled remotely or is autonomous.De Gruyter Handbook of Drone Warfare; 2024. e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-074203-9.H. Pan; M. Zahmatkesh; F. Rekabi-Bana; F. Arvin; J. HuT-STAR: Time-Optimal Swarm Trajectory Planning for Quadrotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicles IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, 2025. UAVs were originally developed through the twentieth century for military missions too "dull, dirty or dangerous" for humans, and by the twenty-first, they had become essential assets to most militaries. As control technologies improved and costs fell, their use expanded to many non-military applications. These include aerial photography, area coverage,F. Rekabi-Bana; Hu, J.; T. Krajník; Arvin, F.,Unified Robust Path Planning and Optimal Trajectory Generation for Efficient 3D Area Coverage of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Quadcopter
A quadcopter, also called quadrocopter, or quadrotor is a type of helicopter or multicopter that has four rotors. Although quadrotor helicopters and convertiplanes have long been flown experimentally, the configuration remained a curiosity until the arrival of the modern unmanned aerial vehicle or drone. The small size and low inertia of drones allows use of a particularly simple flight control system, which has greatly increased the practicality of the small quadrotor in this application. Design principles Each rotor produces both lift and torque about its center of rotation, as well as drag opposite to the vehicle's direction of flight. Quadcopters generally have two rotors spinning clockwise (CW) and two counterclockwise (CCW). Flight control is provided by independent variation of the speed and hence lift and torque of each rotor. Pitch and roll are controlled by varying the net centre of thrust, with yaw controlled by varying the net torque. Unlike conventional hel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Future Of Flight Aviation Center & Boeing Tour
The Future of Flight Aviation Center, officially known as Boeing Future of Flight, is an aviation museum and education center located at the northwest corner of Paine Field in Mukilteo, Washington. It is the starting point for the Boeing Tour, a guided tour of a portion of the nearby Boeing Everett Factory in Everett, Washington. The facility, owned by Snohomish County via Paine Field and operated by Boeing, opened in 2005 at a cost of $24 million; it is funded by a sales and use tax from the county via its public facilities district. The museum includes a gallery containing static and interactive exhibits and displays as well as a 240-seat theater, café and shops. History The facility was originally conceived in 2001 by Snohomish County in conjunction with Boeing, the Museum of Flight, and Paine Field as the National Flight Interpretive Center. While the facility was projected to open by the end of 2002 with the Museum of Flight managing it, lack of approval by the latter's ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
