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Our first story is about my presentation to a nice
advanced propulsion gathering of around 100 enthusiasts,
scientists, and engineers that happens twice a month online.
The Alternative Propulsion Engineering Conference (APEC) is
a live online Zoom event hosted twice a month. If you’d like to
be invited to attend future live events, you can join the APEC
announcement email list using the form online at www.altpropulsion.com for
event invitations & speaker info, along with occasional
updates on our latest stories & experiments. My presentation
this coming Saturday, 4/28/21 at 3 PM EDT will
summarize the “History and Science of Electrogravitics and
Electrokinetics.” Hope you can join us. It is free.
Our
second story could easily have been the lead blockbusting story
of the century. Not only has the group of scientists measured the
infrared (IR) heat emissions from the human hand but find that
they can create an encryption method using various fingers of the
hand as separate IR emitters. The hope for this discovery
includes an IR decoding method for real-time sign language
recognition as well. The original open access journal
article is here: DOI:
10.1073/pnas.2021077118 and
published April 13, 2021 in the Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences. The title says it all: “Human
hand as a powerless and multiplexed infrared light source for
information decryption and complex signal generation.”
Our
third story is about a relatively new but exceedingly
revolutionary field of “structural batteries”. Such a concept
changes the whole playing field of planes, bikes, trains, cars,
drones, and spaceships. If the load-bearing structure of a
vehicle is also the battery, something always attributed to UFOs,
the relative weight of the battery “disappears” or is considered
to be massless with no additional weight and the whole electric
vehicle becomes much lighter. Now the Chalmers University of
Technology has a 10x better performer, with a composite glass
fiber fabric and electrodes with electrolytes, that also is
strong when bearing weight. The open access journal article just
published is here: doi.org/10.1002/aesr.202000093 published
in Advanced Energy & Sustainability Research,
2021.
Our
fourth story shows the Army’s development of a portable fuel cell
battery that is wearable. It produces 50 W from a methanol fuel
cell system. The choice was made by the US DoD’s National
Defense Center for Energy and Environment and
published in the Hydrogen Fuel News, April 6, 2021.
Our
fifth and last story is an exciting glimpse of the future of
space travel propulsion. Using Direct Fusion Drive developed by
the Princeton Plasma Physics Lab, they
state that a direct fusion drive (DFD) could carry 1.5 tons all
the way past Neptune. The drive works by superheating propellant
and streaming it out to create thrust. The main advantage is that
DFD is the most feasible option for far space travel. The open
access journal article is published in https://arxiv.org/pdf/2009.12633.pdf.
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1) IRI President, Tom Valone, presenting at APEC May
1st: Electrogravitic & Electrokinetic Propulsion
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Our President, Tom
Valone will present a review of electrogravitics and
electrokinetic propulsion, on the Apec Meeting, this coming
Saturday, May 1st at 12 pm PT/3 pm ET. Also Glen Robertson
discusses quantum gravity as a quantum warp field, and Mike
Gamble will present a review of the Dean Drive and rotating mass
systems and compare mechanical and electrical methods of
propulsion. We’ll also hear updates from the Falcon Space team,
and we’ll be finishing off the event with an open discussion and
ad hoc presentations by conference attendees! FREE!
DATE & TIME:
Saturday, May 1st @ 12:00pm PT / 3:00pm ET
MEETING ID: 951
1791 5012
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2) Human Hand as InfraRed Light Source
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Proceedings from the National Academy of Science
April 2021
The utilization of electricity-powered light
sources as external stimuli is limited by the cost and energy
loss. Here we demonstrate that the human hand can be used as a
natural IR light source without the need of external power. As
each finger can serve as an independent light source, the hand can
also be utilized as a multiplexed IR light source. This work
provides a different insight on using the hand in a functional
system, such as the information encryption and complex signal
generation systems demonstrated here, which will help move forward
the effort in the integration of human components into various
systems to increase the level of intelligence and achieve ultimate
control of these systems.
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3) Massless Energy Storage Breakthrough
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A new
structural battery created by scientists from the Chalmers
University of Technology can perform 10 times better than
all the earlier prototypes. This technology is known as
“massless” energy storage because the weight of the battery
essentially disappears when it turns out to be a part of the
load-bearing structure. According to estimates, the weight of an
electric vehicle could be significantly reduced by this kind of
multifunctional battery.
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4) Wearable Fuel Cell Demo for DOD
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Hydrogen
Fuel News April 2021
The National Defense Center for
Energy and Environment (NDCEE) selected the wearable fuel cell
technology, nicknamed “Honey Badger” for its validation program this
year. The NDCEE is a DoD program addressing high priority safety,
environmental, occupational health, and energy technological
challenges. It selects solutions for demonstration and validated at
active military application installations.
The Honey
Badger tech is the only fuel cell identified within this program for
supporting the US Army’s ambitious target for
establishing a tech-enabled force before the end of 2028.The Honey
Badger 50 Fuel Cell System from UltraCell is optimized for wear by a
soldier. It is worn on a plate carrier or carried in a rucksack for
battery recharging “on the move”.
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