Today on Engineering Newswire, we’re drifting into the future with NASA’s next generation vehicle technology, floating solar panels on ponds, and tearing down the Apple Watch.
NASA’s Drifts with Next-Gen Vehicle Tech
NASA’s modular robotic vehicle, or MRV, was developed to advance technologies for applications in future space and earth vehicles.
Some of these technologies include redundant by-wire systems, liquid cooling, motor technology, and advanced vehicle control algorithms. According to one researcher at the Johnson space flight center, building the vehicle taught them a lot about these and other technologies.
There are no mechanical linkages to the propulsion, steering, or brake actuators. Instead, The MRV relies completely on control inputs that are converted to electrical signals and then transmitted by wire to the vehicle’s motors.
But this design has its risks, so the vehicle also features a redundant drive-by-wire architecture for advanced safety and dynamic controls schemes. In the future, NASA thinks this system could be expanded to achieve autonomous driving.
The vehicle features a top speed of around 70 km/hr and a range of 100 km of city driving on a single battery charge.
What makes this vehicle super cool though, even if it looks like a giant rolling toilet, is that its back wheels are also capable of steering, giving it omni-directional capabilities, or, as NASA says “crab like motions”
Driving the vehicle has been described as like driving on ice … except with complete control.
Now that makes for easy parallel parking.
Floating Solar Power Plants
Kyocera TCL Solar has completed construction on two gigantic floating solar power plants located in the Nishihira Pond and Higashihira Pond in Kato City, Japan. The two plants will generate an estimated 3,300 megawatt hours per year. That’s enough electricity to power about 920 houses that consume on average around 3,600 kWh per household.
According to the company, floating solar power generating systems typically generate more electricity than ground mount and rooftop systems due to the cooling effect of water. They also reduce reservoir water evaporation and algae growth by shading the water.
The two solar power plants are comprised of 11,256 255-watt Kyocera modules on a high-density polyethylene platform, which can withstand ultraviolet rays, resist corrosion, and are 100% recyclable. The platforms are also reportedly able to withstand typhoon conditions, which is vital considering Japan’s geographic location.
The 1.7 MW Nishihira Pond is possibly the largest floating solar power plant in the world. However, this won’t be for long.
Kyocera has already announced plans to construct a larger 13.4 MW floating solar power plant on the Yamakura Dam reservoir in Chiba Prefecture, Japan. The plant will have roughly 50,000 modules and produce an output of around 15,635 MWh per year.
Tearing down the Apple Watch
Curpertino's impeccable design is on full display with the company's first wearable, but don’t plan on taking it in for repairs. In its teardown of the device, iFixit concluded that Apple did not have reparability on its minds when it created the Apple Watch.
Lending to that theory was Apple’s S1 System-in-Package, which was so difficult to remove that iFixit said it “casts serious doubt on the idea of simply swapping out the internals.” There’s hope if the screen were to break. iFixit says that removing the screen is difficult but not impossible and the battery too might be swappable, as it was only held in with mild adhesive.
That’s the extent of the tinkering the Apple Watch will allow. iFixit concludes that “removing any other component is essentially impossible,” as all peripheral cables are soldered onto the back of the S1, and the fully encased nature of the S1 system makes board-level repairs impossible.
So what does it all add up to? iFixit seems generally impressed with what Apple was able to cram into its watch, but slapped the device with a reparability score of 5, 10 being the easiest to repair. So heed this warning, from the moment you take the Apple Watch out of its pretty little box, the time is ticking on its finite lifespan.