Israeli team signs first launch contract for a private lunar mission in 2017

An Israeli team, SpaceIL, has become the first group to sign a launch contract as part of the Google Lunar XPRIZE competition, which aims to achieve the world's first private lunar mission by 2017.

Credit: SpaceIL / Google Lunar XPRIZE

This week, Israeli team SpaceIL announced a major milestone in their race to the Moon, by signing a contract for a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launch, with a mission scheduled for the second half of 2017. SpaceIL becomes the first team in the Google Lunar XPRIZE competition (GLXP) to produce a verified launch contract. Founded in 2007 by entrepreneur Peter Diamandis, the GLXP aims to inspire a new generation of private investment, in the hope of creating more cost-effective technologies and materials to overcome many current limitations of space exploration.

In order to win the $30 million competition, a team must achieve the following objectives:

• Land a robot on the surface of the Moon

• Travel 500+ metres over the lunar surface

• Send HD video and images back to Earth

Earlier this year, Google announced that a previous deadline would be extended to December 2017, provided at least one team could secure a launch contract by 31st December 2015. If no group had a contract by the end of 2015, the prize would expire without a winner. As of today, 16 teams remain in the competition, and five of those are thought to be making good progress. Israeli team SpaceIL booked a launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 and this week announced the contract.

Credit: SpaceIL / Google Lunar XPRIZE

“We are proud to officially confirm receipt and verification of SpaceIL’s launch contract, positioning them as the first and only Google Lunar XPRIZE team to demonstrate this important achievement, thus far,” said Bob Weiss, vice chairman and president of XPRIZE. “The magnitude of this achievement cannot be overstated – representing an unprecedented and monumental commitment for a privately-funded organisation, and kicks off an exciting phase of the competition, in which the other 15 teams now have until the end of 2016 to produce their own verified launch contracts. It gives all of us at XPRIZE and Google the great pride to say: ‘the new space race is on!’”

“Only three countries have ‘soft-landed’ a rover on the surface of the Moon: the United States, the former Soviet Union, and China. Now, the notion of the small state of Israel being added to this exclusive list looks more promising than ever,” said SpaceIL CEO, Eran Privman. “Last year, we made significant strides toward landing on the Moon, both in terms of project financing and in terms of the engineering design and now, we are thrilled to finally secure our launch agreement. This takes us one huge step closer to realise our vision of recreating an ‘Apollo effect’ in Israel: to inspire a new generation to pursue Science, Engineering, Technology, and Math (STEM).”

In addition to announcing their contract, SpaceIL has unveiled a new and improved design for its craft, based on consultations from world-renowned industrial designer, Alex Padwa. While other teams are developing large rovers to move the required 500 metres on the lunar surface, SpaceIL is working on the idea of a “space hop”: a craft that will land and then take off again with the fuel left in its propulsion system, and then perform another landing 500 metres away. The first physical components of the new model have already started to arrive at the SpaceIL lab.

On its website, SpaceIL claims to be developing “new algorithms, approaches, and designs that will likely have far-reaching impacts in future economic and scientific development.” Until now, only global superpowers with billion-dollar space programs have landed on the Moon. SpaceIL intends to show that this same accomplishment can be achieved for a relatively tiny budget, and that any private group, small country, or university can get involved in space exploration.

Bio-electronics for treating arthritis are in common use

Arthritis is a form of joint disorder caused by trauma or infection of a joint, or old age. As of the 2010s, it was the single most common type of disability in the United States, predominantly affecting the elderly and resulting in over 20 million individuals having severe limitations in function on a daily basis. Total costs of arthritis cases were close to $100 billion annually, a figure expected to increase dramatically in the future with an aging population. Treatments for arthritis usually involved a combination of medication, exercise and lifestyle modification, but a cure remained elusive.

In 2014, a breakthrough involving the use of bio-electronics was unveiled by researchers. This took the form of a pacemaker-style device embedded in the necks of patients, firing bursts of electrical impulses to stimulate the vagus nerve – a crucial link between the brain and major organs. The impulses were shown to reduce activity in the spleen, in turn producing fewer chemicals and immune cells that would normally cause inflammation in the joints of patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Over half of people saw a dramatic improvement, even for severe symptoms, with up to 30% achieving remission.

After successful clinical trials, another decade of progress led to next-generation implants miniaturised to the size of rice grains, as well as improvements in cost and efficacy. By 2024, it is a routine form of treatment in many countries.* Bio-electronics are showing promise in other areas too. For example, they can prevent the airway spasms of asthma, control appetite in obesity, and help restore normal insulin production in diabetes.

Carsharing has exploded in popularity

Carsharing is a model of car rental where people rent cars for short periods of time, often by the hour. It is attractive to customers who make only occasional use of a vehicle, as well as others who need access to a vehicle of a different type than they use day-to-day. While some firms had experimented with the concept in the late 20th century, it only became well established in the early 21st. From the 2000s onwards, a growing trend of flexible, multi-modal, on-demand mobility led to rapid expansion of carsharing services. By 2015, carshare programs were available on five continents, over 30 countries and in hundreds of cities worldwide. Rising urbanisation, increasing problems of congestion and pollution, and the social and personal costs of private car ownership continued to drive demand for alternatives such as carsharing.

New innovations included one-way carsharing services for shorter, spur-of-the-moment trips; automakers partnering with garage chains to give users free parking in city centres;* ride-hailing mobile apps; the adoption of plug-in electric vehicles; and a small but growing number of self-driving vehicles. While the industry continued to expand in Europe and North America, most of the new growth was occurring in the Asia Pacific region, particularly China. In 2014, membership of carsharing programs stood at 2.4 million. By 2024, this has increased nearly ten-fold to reach 23.4 million while global revenue has risen six-fold, increasing from $1.1 billion to $6.5 billion.*

Wind turbine drone inspection is a multi-billion dollar industry

As the world shifts towards clean energy, the number of wind turbines is growing exponentially. With so many installations, there is now enormous demand for inspection and maintenance of these structures. This is occurring alongside rapid uptake of drones and other unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), which can provide a faster and cheaper alternative to traditional inspections. Until now, most of these jobs involved either simple ground-based visual assessments, or complicated and risky rope or platform access (sometimes at heights of 600 feet). By contrast, drones are essentially risk-free, extremely quick in their operations and offer much higher resolution than human eyes, while automating much of the image processing, data analysis and other tasks. By 2024, global revenue for wind turbine UAV sales and inspection services has reached almost $6 billion.**

Fusion reactors economically viable "within a few decades" say experts

Fusion reactors could be economically viable within a few decades, and policy makers should start planning to build them as a replacement for conventional nuclear power stations, according to research by Durham University.

Credit: ITER

Fusion reactors could become an economically viable means of generating electricity within a few decades, and policy makers should start planning to build them as a replacement for conventional nuclear power stations, according to new research.

Researchers at Durham University and Culham Centre for Fusion Energy in Oxfordshire, have re-examined the economics of fusion, taking account of recent advances in superconductor technology for the first time. Their analysis of building, running and decommissioning a fusion power station shows the financial feasibility of fusion energy in comparison to traditional fission nuclear power.

The research, published in the journal Fusion Engineering and Design, builds on earlier findings that a fusion power plant could generate electricity at a similar price to a fission plant and identifies new advantages in using superconductor technology.

Professor Damian Hampshire, of the Centre for Material Physics at Durham University, who led the study, said: "Obviously we have had to make assumptions, but what we can say is that our predictions suggest that fusion won't be vastly more expensive than fission."

Such findings support the possibility that – within a generation or two – fusion reactors could offer an almost unlimited supply of energy without contributing to global warming or producing hazardous products on a significant scale.

Fusion reactors generate electricity by heating plasma to around 100 million degrees centigrade so that hydrogen atoms fuse together, releasing energy. This differs from fission reactors, which work by splitting atoms at much lower temperatures.

Magnetically confined plasma in the Korean superconducting tokamak, KSTAR.

The advantage of fusion reactors over current fission reactors is that they create almost no radioactive waste. Fusion reactors are safer as there is no high level radioactive material to potentially leak into the environment, which means disasters like Chernobyl or Fukushima are impossible because plasma simply fizzles out if it escapes.

Fusion energy is also politically safer because a reactor would not produce weapons-grade products that proliferate nuclear arms. It is fuelled by deuterium, or heavy water, which is extracted from seawater, and tritium, which is created within the reactor, so there is no problem with security of supply either.

A test fusion reactor, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER), is expected to begin experiments during the early 2020s in France. Its aim is to prove the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion energy. A successor to ITER, known as DEMO (DEMOnstration Power Plant) is proposed for construction in the 2030s and could generate 2,000 MW by around 2040, an energy density that exceeds even large fission power plants.

Professor Hampshire said that he hoped his team's analysis would persuade policy-makers and the private sector to take fusion energy more seriously and to invest more heavily in research and development.

"Fission, fusion or fossil fuels are the only practical options for reliable large-scale base-load energy sources. Calculating the cost of a fusion reactor is complex, given the variations in the cost of raw materials and exchange rates. However, this work is a big step in the right direction" he said.

"We have known about the possibility of fusion reactors for many years, but many people did not believe that they would ever be built because of the technological challenges that have had to be overcome and the uncertain costs."

"While there are still some technological challenges to overcome we have produced a strong argument, supported by the best available data, that fusion power stations could soon be economically viable. We hope this kick-starts investment to overcome the remaining technological challenges and speeds up the planning process for the possibility of a fusion-powered world."

The report, which was commissioned by Research Council UK's Energy Programme focuses on recent advances in high temperature superconductors. These materials could be used to construct the powerful magnets that keep the hot plasma in position inside the containing vessel, known as a tokamak, at the heart of a fusion reactor.

This advancing technology means that the superconducting magnets could be built in sections rather than in one piece. This would mean that maintenance, which is expensive in a radioactive environment, would be much cheaper because individual sections of the magnet could be withdrawn for repair or replacement, rather than the whole device.

While the analysis considers the cost of building, running and decommissioning a fusion power plant, it does not take into account the costs of disposing of radioactive waste that is associated with a fission plant. For a fusion plant, the only radioactive waste would be the tokamak, when decommissioned, which would have become mildly radioactive during its lifetime.

Smartphone app fixes 10,000 problems in Detroit

A smartphone app launched in Detroit earlier this year has vastly improved the reporting and fixing of neighbourhood problems.

Six months ago this week, the city of Detroit launched a new smartphone app – Improve Detroit – which has been downloaded by over 6,500 residents. More than 10,000 complaints made via the app have been closed since April. The average time to close a case is nine days, a vast improvement from when problems often languished for years.

Residents have used the app to get:

• More than 3,000 illegal dumping sites cleaned up
• 2,092 potholes repaired
• 991 complaints resolved related to running water in an abandoned structure
• 565 abandoned vehicles removed
• 506 water main breaks taken care of
• 277 traffic signal issues fixed

“The Improve Detroit app has ushered in a new era of customer service and accountability in city government,” Mayor Mike Duggan said. “It’s never been easier for Detroiters to get their voices heard and their complaints taken care of.”

Not only are problems getting resolved, but residents are raving about the app, which has a four star rating on the Google Play store.

"It saves time, it gets results, and I love how I can follow the progress being made on the complaint," comments Dan Wroblewski, who lives on Detroit's far west side and uses it to report issues while patrolling his neighbourhood.

The Improve Detroit app is just one of several the City of Detroit has made available as it works to bring its customer service into the digital age. Residents can also download the Detroit Police Connect app to get up-to-date information on DPD, contact police anonymously with tips to help keep their neighbourhood safe, find numbers for precincts, bureaus and other departments and more. Meanwhile, the DDOT Bus app provides riders with the real-time location, movement and arrival time of the next bus at their stop, saving them time and from having to wait in inclement weather unnecessarily. They can also plan their trip by seeing which routes and transfers to take.

Nearly one-third of cactus species face extinction

31 percent of cactus species are facing extinction – largely due to illegal trade and other human activity – according to the first comprehensive global assessment.

Mammillaria herrerae. Photo: Jardín Botánico Regional de Cadereyta

Thirty-one percent of cactus species are threatened with extinction, according to the first comprehensive, global assessment by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and its partners, published this week in the journal Nature Plants. This places cacti among the most threatened taxonomic groups assessed on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species – more threatened than mammals and birds.
According to the report, cacti are under increasing pressure from human activity, with more than half of the world’s 1,480 cactus species used by people. The illegal trade of live plants and seeds for the horticultural industry and private collections, as well as their unsustainable harvesting are the main threats to cacti, affecting 47% of threatened species.
"These findings are disturbing," says Inger Andersen, the IUCN Director General. "They confirm that the scale of the illegal wildlife trade – including trade in plants – is much greater than we had previously thought, and that wildlife trafficking concerns many more species than the charismatic rhinos and elephants which tend to receive global attention. We must urgently step up international efforts to tackle the illegal wildlife trade and strengthen the implementation of the CITES Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, if we want to prevent the further decline of these species."
Other threats to cacti include smallholder livestock ranching, affecting 31% of threatened species, and smallholder annual agriculture affecting 24% of threatened species. Residential and commercial development, quarrying and aquaculture – especially shrimp farming, which expands into cacti’s habitats – are also among major threats faced by these species.

Prickly pear cactus with fruit. Credit: fischers

Cacti are key components of New World arid ecosystems and are critical to the survival of many animal species. They provide a source of food and water for many species including deer, woodrats, rabbits, coyotes, turkeys, quails, lizards and tortoises, all of which help with cactus seed dispersal in return. Cactus flowers provide nectar to hummingbirds and bats, as well as bees, moths and other insects, which, in turn, pollinate the plants.
Cactus species are widely used by people in the horticultural trade, as well as for food and for medicine. Their fruit and highly nutritious stems are an important food source for rural communities. The nutritional value of one cactus stem of Opuntia ficus-indica – a ‘prickly pear’ cactus popular in Mexico, where it is known as ‘nopal’ – is often compared to that of a beef steak, and the roots of species such as Ariocarpus kotschoubeyanus which is listed as Near Threatened, are used as anti-inflammatories.
Trade in cactus species occurs at national and international levels and is often illegal, with 86% of threatened cacti used in horticulture taken from wild populations. European and Asian collectors are the biggest contributors to the illegal cactus trade. Specimens taken from the wild are particularly sought after due to their rarity.

Ariocarpus kotschoubeyanus. Photo: Bárbara Goettsch

"The results of this assessment come as a shock to us," says Barbara Goettsch, lead author of the study and Co-Chair of IUCN's Cactus and Succulent Plant Specialist Group. "We did not expect cacti to be so highly threatened and for illegal trade to be such an important driver of their decline. Their loss could have far-reaching consequences for the diversity and ecology of arid lands and for local communities dependent on wild-harvested fruit and stems."
"This study highlights the need for better and more sustainable management of cactus populations within range countries. With the current human population growth, these plants cannot sustain such high levels of collection and habitat loss."
The illegal trade in cacti has been reduced to a certain extent by the inclusion, since 1975, of most cactus species on CITES appendices and through the increased availability of plants grown from seed on the international market. However, the threat of collection prevails, especially in countries where the implementation of CITES has only recently been enforced.
For example, Peru's once-abundant Echinopsis pampana (pictured below) has been collected illegally for the ornamental plant trade at such high rates that over 50% of the population has disappeared in the last 15 years. Its loss is irreversible, as the areas that were once populated by the species have since undergone land use change for housing purposes. The species is now listed as Endangered.

Echinopsis pampana, by Pete Cupial-Jones [CC BY-SA 2.5], via Wikimedia Commons

Cacti are renowned for their diverse forms and beautiful flowers. The tallest free-standing cactus is Pachycereus pringlei, with a maximum recorded height of 19.2m (63 ft), and the smallest is Blossfeldia liliputana, only 1 cm (0.4 in) in diameter at maturity. A fully grown saguaro (Carnegiea gigantea) is said to absorb as much as 200 U.S. gallons (760 l) of water during a rainstorm.
Cacti are endemic to New World arid lands except for one species – Mistletoe Cactus (Rhipsalis baccifera) – which is also found in southern Africa, Madagascar and Sri Lanka. Hotspots for threatened cactus species include arid areas of Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Uruguay. These areas are perceived as uncharismatic and unimportant, even though they are rich in biodiversity, hence arid-land species like cacti are often overlooked in conservation planning. The report’s authors highlight the need to broaden arid land protected area coverage and raise awareness about the importance of sustainable collection of cacti from the wild, in order to better conserve the species.
"The startling results reflect the vital importance of funding and conducting assessments of the threatened status of all of the species in major groups of plants, such as the cacti," says Kevin Gaston, from the University of Exeter, who co-led the Global Cactus Assessment. "Only by so doing will we gain the overall picture of what is happening to them, at a time when, as evidenced by the cacti, they may be under immense human pressures."
"Cacti are extraordinary plants that concentrate water and nutrients used by natural and human communities, in some of the world’s most challenging environments," says Mary Klein, President of NatureServe, an IUCN partner in facilitating assessments of North American and Caribbean cacti. "This study confirms that cacti are especially vulnerable – but that with focused attention on reducing the threats such as illegal harvest, we can conserve these miracles of nature for the future."

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