This week marks 65 years since the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japanese cities Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

These two and 200000+ others didn’t survive.

The incident brought an early end to the second world war and marked the beginning of more safer and a more peace-loving period, a true nuclear renaissance of humanity with yet more bombs, explosions and harmful psychopaths on the highest political positions.

A Japanese artist named Isao Hashimoto in 2003 released a video that shows all nuclear detonations between 1945 and 1998 on the map of the world.

The ten-minute show kicks off with the Manhattan Project’s Trinity test bombing in the desert near Los Alamos in the US and concludes with a majestic series of Pakistani nuclear tests in 1998. In the beginning, the explosions are relatively rare, so if you want real action, fast-forward to 1962. Total number of detonations is 2053; the players are the United States, Russia/USSR, France, United Kingdom, China, India and Pakistan.

The digits in the upper right corner are month and year. The bottom right shows the total count of explosions.

Like a computer game.

At the Automotive NEXT Industry Fair 2010 in Tokyo last week Waseda Environmental Institute introduced a next-generation, ultra-light electric vehicle called ULV-III.

The vehicle, designed for one person, weights only 72.6 kg (160 lbs). According to the developer, it could be used as a mobile advertising medium for environmental campaigns or as a practical personal vehicle instead of a rental bicycle in areas where train stations are a long way apart, to get from one station to another.

The ULV can reach maximum speed of 40 km/h (25 mph), has a 400 W motor and can be charged in 4 hours. It can travel continuously for 80 km (50 miles). Charging the vehicle will cost you only 35 Yen or about $0.40. In comparison with Toyota Prius, the cost is ten times lower per kilometer.

The Waseda Environmental Institute recently supplied one of these ULVs to a restaurant where it was put to use as a delivery vehicle.

Toshiba's new 128 GB NAND flash memory module. Source: Toshiba Corporation

Toshiba Corporation a few days ago unveiled its latest 128 GB embedded NAND flash memory module — currently the highest capacity achieved in the industry.

The flash module is fully compatible with the latest e-MMC standard and is designed for application in various digital consumer products, including smartphones, tablet PCs and digital video cameras.

The module measures 17 mm in length, 22 mm in width and 1.4 mm in height.

According to the official press release by Toshiba, a sample module with 128 GB will be available from September and mass production will start between October and December of 2010.

If 128 GB of space is too much for you, Toshiba will also offer a 64 GB version with samples available in August.

Cyberdyne Inc. employees cross a street during a demonstration of the HAL robot suit in Tokyo, Japan.

Bio-mechanical cyborgs might soon become a reality thanks to Japanese robotics venture Cyberdyne Inc. with its flagship invention — a cybernetic HAL robot suit.

Cyberdyne (don’t confuse it with the evil Cyberdyne from Terminator responsible for destroying humans) has been offering the suit in Japan since last year. HAL (short for Hybrid Assistive Limb), which has been in development for about 14 years and is the first such suit in mass production, has been created with intent to greatly improve physical abilities of disabled people when walking or lifting heavy objects.

According to the inventor, HAL can multiply the original strength of the wearer by a factor of 2 to 10. When wearing, it doesn’t feel heavy because the exoskeleton supports its own weight.

The full-body suit weighs 23 kg (50 lbs). The lower part weighs approximately 15 kg (33 lbs). HAL runs on a rechargeable battery which can operate continuously for about 2 hours and 40 minutes or up to 5 hours under normal activities.

How does HAL work?

When a person attempts to walk, for instance, the brain sends electrical impulses to muscles. When they reach muscles, faint bio-electrical signals appear on skin surfaces. This is where HAL “reads” the signals. The built-in computer immediately analyzes how much power the wearer intends to generate and sends commands to power units. The power units generate torque and put limbs into action. This process is completed in a fraction of a second earlier than the muscles actually move. HAL is the first technological solution of this kind.

HAL robot suit in full-body version.

The many uses of HAL

HAL is expected to be applied in various fields such as rehabilitation support and physical training support in the medical field, support for disabled people, heavy labor support in factories, rescue support at disaster sites as well as in the entertainment field.

HAL has attracted interest from companies in the US and some EU countries where Cyberdyne has established a branch office to introduce the technology to clients there.

Currently, the robot suit is available only to residents of Japan. Monthly rental costs ¥150,000 (approx. $1640) for one leg and ¥220,000 (approx. $2400) for both legs.

HAL helped a quadriplegic man scale mountain

An article at MSNBC has an interesting example where HAL made it possible for a 43-year old Japanese quadriplegic to ascend Breithorn, one of the highest mountains in Switzerland. Wheelchair-bound Seiji Uchida, whose dream was to climb this mountain, has been paralyzed from the neck down for over two decades. Thanks to his friend who wore the HAL suit and carried Uchida on his back, he was able to come very close to the top of the mountain at 4164 meters (13,658 ft).

Demonstration of the HAL robot suit on the streets of Tokyo:

Already way back in 1865, Jules Verne explored the idea of space travel by using sunlight as the form of space propulsion in his novel From the Earth to the Moon. Now, about 150 years later, his vision is about to become true when Japanese space agency JAXA launches its first solar-powered spacecraft which will be heading towards Earth’s neighbor –Venus.

Source: http://www.jspec.jaxa.jp/e/activity/ikaros.html

Other nations have previously tested similar solar sails in the orbit. However, Project Ikaros introduces the first spacecraft — also known as solar sail — which runs entirely on solar energy and is the first such spacecraft to fly beyond Earth’s orbit.

Ikaros will be launched together with the Venus climate orbiter Akatsuki (you can read about it here) using a H-IIA launch vehicle. The launch from Tanegashima Space Center was scheduled for today, May 18, but was postponed to Friday or later due to bad weather.

A sail thinner than human hair

Ikaros’ sail is a square-shaped membrane with a quite large diagonal distance of 20 meters (65 ft). But what’s more impressive is the thickness of the membrane — it measures a mere 0.0075 millimeters! That’s thinner than human hair. It’s made of polyimide and has a very thin layer of solar cells.

The sail works by capturing the force from the photons in the sunlight that bounces off on the surface. Although the acceleration will be slow in the beginning, the spacecraft isn’t restricted by the amount of fuel it carries and can eventually reach much higher speeds than would be possible with a chemical rocket.

Timeline of mission Ikaros from Earth to destination (Venus).

Interestingly, Ikaros was also equipped with a DVD disc (see photo below). What exactly is on it? David Hasselhoff’s top ten? Not even close! What they burned on the disc are names of all members of The Planetary Society, the largest public space organization in the world. So if you’re a member, you will sail off to space!

Source: http://www.planetary.org/blog/article/00002488/

Next mission: Jupiter

The space agency is already planning the next big mission which should take place later this decade. The destination will be Jupiter and the Trojan asteroids. A spacecraft with a massive sail of 50-meter (164 ft) diameter will use hybrid propulsion system with integrated ion engines that will use electricity generated by the sail.

According to JAXA, their coming solar sail missions will lead to lower costs in the solar cells market. Low-cost solar cells are also the foundation of future solar-powered satellites.

The official web site of Project Ikaros can be found here.

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Source: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7383e724-61c9-11df-aa80-00144feab49a.html