Alphin C. Tom

Auto Tech 2010 Mercedes S400 BlueHybrid The hybrid of the future The Mercedes S400 BlueHybrid is the world’s first production car to shift from the nickel-metal-hydride batteries in today’s hybrids to a lighter, more-powerful lithium-ion battery designed expressly for an automobile. The results are impressive. The large, luxurious flagship sedan returned 29 highway mpg during our testing—a 30 percent gain over the V8-powered S550 version—and 21 mpg in the city. It achieves these numbers by combining a downsized V6 with a 20-horsepower electric motor and a 0.9-kilowatt-hour li-ion battery for a total of 295 horsepower, giving it a 0–60 time of 5.4 seconds. Unlike with most hybrids, the compact battery doesn’t hog trunk space (it fits under the hood), saddle the car with excess weight, or add several thousand dollars to the price. Starting at $88,825, the Mercedes actually costs $3,650 less than the V8 version. But the S400 is only the beginning. Mercedes says the entire S-Class ...

Which technologies will finally free us from oil? The Future of Energy This December, when representatives from 170 countries meet at the United Nations climate talks in Copenhagen to replace the expiring Kyoto climate treaty, the smart money predicts unprecedented collaboration. American political change coupled with spiking carbon dioxide levels could inspire a communal project on a scale not seen since World War II. A consensus, backed by science, is emerging among the international community that by 2050 we need to reduce emissions of C02, methane and other greenhouse gases to approximately 80 percent lower than they were in 1990. It will mean a wholesale reinvention of the global energy economy; anything less could result in catastrophe. Here's how we'll get there. To reach this goal will require a two-pronged approach. First, we have to get serious about the small stuff: better insulation, tossing the incandescent light bulbs and, yes, inflating our tires all th...

1. The Apollo's Saturn rockets were packed with enough fuel to throw 100-pound shrapnel three miles, and NASA couldn't rule out the possibility that they might explode on takeoff. NASA seated its VIP spectators three and a half miles from the launchpad. 2. The Apollo computers had less processing power than a cellphone. 3. Drinking water was a fuel-cell by-product, but Apollo 11's hydrogen-gas filters didn't work, making every drink bubbly. Urinating and defecating in zero gravity, meanwhile, had not been figured out; the latter was so troublesome that at least one astronaut spent his entire mission on an anti-diarrhea drug to avoid it. 4. When Apollo 11's lunar lander, the Eagle, separated from the orbiter, the cabin wasn't fully depressurized, resulting in a burst of gas equivalent to popping a champagne cork. It threw the module's landing four miles off-target. 5. Pilot Neil Armstrong nearly ran out of fuel landing the Eagle, ...

Origins Like all historical events, the birth of NASA must be placed in the context of its times. Following World War II, the United States was in direct competition with the Soviet Union (the superpower that in 1991 disbanded into several sovereign nations including the Russian Federation, Kazakhstan, the Ukraine, etc.) for the hearts and minds of people around the world. It was not for the most part a shooting war, but a "Cold War," a test of two very different systems of government. Technology was one means of measuring success and projecting power, and nothing was more powerful than the intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) being developed in the wake of World War II to deliver warheads. It was these missiles that brought human technology to the brink of space, and it was the Soviet Union's launch of Sputnik on Oct. 4, 1957, that first put an object into orbit around Earth. Passing overhead with its faint radio signal as people watched and li...