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The ESA teamed with Nissan to build an off-road astronomy lab
Nissan unveiled its Navara Dark Sky concept vehicle at the Hannover Motor Show this week, and it's a vehicle designed for astronomers. The truck is an enhanced version of the automaker's Navara vehicle and along with including some handy new features, it also has a trailer in tow that carries a powerful PlaneWave telescope. Designed with the European Space Agency, the trailer not only houses the telescope but has a number of features that protect the telescope and help researchers collect and transmit data.
The trailer boasts a refrigerated interior that helps stabilize the telescope and battery packs can power a WiFi hotspot, a laptop station and a UHF transmitter for data relay. Further, the truck itself makes use of red lighting in order to cut down on light pollution while the ProPilot driver assistance technology takes the trailer into account and helps locate parking that best accommodates the trailer and telescope.
Seems like a good platform for measuring occultations.
Also at Autoblog.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Saturday September 22 2018, @09:29AM (1 child)
... Wikipedia.
Some guy invented a Continuously Variable Transmission in I think the late seventies, that involved a fluid that would harden or something like that, when pressure was applied to it.
His CVT was featured in Popular Science. He showed it off to all the car companies but then I never heard anything more about it. I figure someone bought his patent then sat on it so it would never get to market.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday September 22 2018, @12:32PM
Did it use an electro-rheological fluid, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrorheological_fluid [wikipedia.org] or similar magneto-rheological fluid, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetorheological_fluid [wikipedia.org] ?
Istr that early magnetic versions had a short service life as the particles either clumped or fell out of suspension. Now that the fluids are better, they are used in variable dampers (shock absorbers), often under General Motors/Delphi trade name "Magnaride", this patent has been widely licensed, including to supercar manufacturer Ferrari. According to wikipedia, GM sold it as part of a divestment in 2009...