Lifeboat Foundation

The new spacesuit urine filtration system by Cornell researchers recycles astronauts’ urine into drinkable water, aiming to improve comfort and efficiency on future Moon and Mars missions.

Currently, astronauts must relieve themselves inside their spacesuits during spacewalks. This is not only uncomfortable and unhygienic, but also wasteful. Unlike the wastewater management system on the International Space Station (ISS), the water from urine during spacewalks is not recycled.

Researchers at Cornell are addressing this issue with a novel urine collection and filtration system inspired by the ‘stillsuits’ from the sci-fi franchise Dune. Like these ‘stillsuits’, their prototype absorbs and purifies urine, and recycles it into drinking water.

In the ongoing fight against climate change, is it better to plant trees or allow nature to do it for us? This is what a recent study published in Nature Climate Change as a team of international researchers investigated the cost-effectiveness of reforestation for mitigating the effects of climate change, specifically regarding whether planting trees or natural reforestation are appropriate measures for this effort. This study holds the potential to help scientists, conservationists, and the public better understand the steps that can be taken to mitigate the effects of climate change, for both the short and long term.

“Trees can play a role in climate change mitigation, for multiple reasons,” said Dr. Jacob Bukoski, who is an Assistant Professor in the Oregon State University College of Forestry and a co-author on the study. “It’s pretty easy to understand that forests pull carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and store it, and trees are something pretty much everyone can get behind – we have seen multiple bipartisan acts for tree planting introduced in Congress. This study brings a nuanced perspective to the whole ‘should we plant trees to solve climate change’ debate.”

Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed a number of key details about the Robotaxi during the company’s Q2 2024 Update Letter and earnings call. These include the site of the Robotaxi’s production, as well as the manufacturing process that would be used on the vehicle.

It would not be an exaggeration to state that the Robotaxi unveiling on October 10, 2024 is poised to be Tesla’s most important event this year. And considering Elon Musk’s noticeable focus on Full Self Driving (FSD), it was no surprise when several questions during the Q2 2024 earnings call were focused on the Robotaxi.

As per Tesla’s Q2 2024 Update Letter, its plans for new vehicles, including more affordable models, are still on track for the start of production in the first half of 2025. These vehicles will utilize aspects of its next-generation and current platforms, and they could be produced on the same manufacturing lines as the company’s current vehicle line-up. As for the Robotaxi, however, Tesla was clear.

“The technological focus is on significant increases in range through advances in energy density and the reduction of charging times,” Mercedes explained, noting that the partnership cements a reliable EV battery cell supply chain while providing financial support for Farasis to build a factory in Germany.

How Sustainable Is A Million-Mile EV Battery?

Continue reading “Sustainable Million-Mile Battery Bet Pays Off For Mercedes-Benz” »

Scientists from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution are seeking a federal permit to experiment in the waters off Cape Cod and see if tweaking the ocean’s chemistry could help slow climate change.

If the project moves forward, it will likely be the first ocean field test of this technology in the U.S. But the plan faces resistance from both environmentalists and the commercial fishing industry.

The scientists want to disperse 6,600 gallons of sodium hydroxide — a strong base — into the ocean about 10 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard. The process, called ocean alkalinity enhancement or OAE, should temporarily increase that patch of water’s ability to absorb carbon dioxide from the air. This first phase of the project, targeted for early fall, will test chemical changes to the seawater, diffusion of the chemical and effects on the ecosystem.

Fans of perovskite solar cell technology have been promising the moon, and stakeholders are increasingly confident that it will deliver. Among them is Toyota, which has just tapped its Woven Capital branch to put down a 5.5 billion yen stake in the perovskite solar startup EneCoat Technologies. If you’re thinking the solar-powered electric car of the future is coming, that’s a good guess, because EneCoat lists mobility applications among its areas of focus.

New Solar Cells For The Solar Car Of The Future

Continue reading “Toyota Eyes Perovskite Solar Cells For Solar Car Of The Future” »

A team of scientists from Montana State University has provided the first experimental evidence that two new groups of microbes thriving in thermal features in Yellowstone National Park produce methane—a discovery that could one day contribute to the development of methods to mitigate climate change and provide insight into potential life elsewhere in our solar system.

Earth’s atmosphere holds an ocean of water, enough liquid to fill Utah’s Great Salt Lake 800 times. Extracting some of that moisture is seen as a potential way to provide clean drinking water to billions of people globally who face chronic shortages.

Existing technologies for atmospheric water harvesting (AWH) are saddled with numerous downsides associated with size, cost and efficiency. But new research from University of Utah engineering researchers has yielded insights that could improve efficiencies and bring the world one step closer to tapping the air as a culinary water source in arid places.

Continue reading “Compact atmospheric water harvesting device can produce water out of thin air” »

As the name suggests, most electronic devices today work through the movement of electrons. But materials that can efficiently conduct protons—the nucleus of the hydrogen atom—could be key to a number of important technologies for combating global climate change.

Most proton-conducting inorganic materials available now require undesirably high temperatures to achieve sufficiently high conductivity. However, lower-temperature alternatives could enable a variety of technologies, such as more efficient and durable fuel cells to produce clean electricity from hydrogen, electrolyzers to make clean fuels such as hydrogen for transportation, solid-state proton batteries, and even new kinds of computing devices based on iono-electronic effects.

In order to advance the development of proton conductors, MIT engineers have identified certain traits of materials that give rise to fast proton conduction. Using those traits quantitatively, the team identified a half-dozen new candidates that show promise as fast proton conductors. Simulations suggest these candidates will perform far better than existing materials, although they still need to be conformed experimentally. In addition to uncovering potential new materials, the research also provides a deeper understanding at the atomic level of how such materials work.