Global Breaking News - Friday, May 17, 2024
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[Misc] 2018 Reuters News - July 09 ~ July 13
최고관리자 | 18-07-07 11:45
Harley-Davidson revs up Thai plant
할리데이비슨, 태국 공장 활성화 노력
This Harley-Davidson plant in Thailand that President Donald Trump cited in criticizing the company is revving up to open later this year. When it does, it'll help the iconic motorcycle maker avoid the high tariffs of up to 60 percent that Thailand slaps on imported motorbikes. And it'll help Harley get tax breaks as it exports to neighboring countries in Southeast Asia. Trump said Tuesday that Harley-Davidson was using the EU's retaliatory tariffs on American motorcycles as an excuse to move some production from Kansas City to Thailand. But the company said back in February that the Thai plant has no connection with the closure of the Kansas City plant. Harley announced it would set up a plant in Thailand in May, just months after Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Trans-Pacific Partnership. That trade deal would have lowered import tariffs on the company's bikes in some of the fastest growing markets in Asia.
Origami-inspired satellite antenna cuts weight and costs
종이접기에서 영감을 얻은 인공위성 안테나, 중량과 비용 줄여
Origami-inspired structures could cut the weight - and cost - of satellites orbiting the Earth. Oxford Space Systems has developed satellites using "origami engineering" to make the large structures lighter and foldable. "We happened to be very lucky in finding a world expert in origami literally just 10 miles away from us, so we've taken a lot of his research and applied that to things like antenna systems and boom systems to give us structures that are much more stowage-efficient than what's currently commercially available." The UK start-up also uses specially developed materials that could withstand the challenges of the space environment. "We have extremes of temperature, extremes of vibration when we launch and we have bizarre effects from the atmosphere, something called atomic oxygen, which serves to degrade materials very quickly." The design uses a pliable, strong and thermo-elastically stable membrane that reflects frequencies of a certain wavelength to act as an antenna, combined with a retractable boom. "This membrane interacts with what we call the outer ring or the reflector deployment structure...This is typically stowed during launch. Once the satellite and the antenna gets to orbit, the reflector deploys and then this membrane adopts the original shape of a paraboloid and then is ready to operate as an antenna." Oxford Space Systems is testing the design in orbit and hopes to launch the product commercially next year. The company hopes its weight-saving design will cut the cost of satellite launches from $60,000 per kilogram.
Japanese space probe arrives at distant asteroid
일본의 우주탐사선, 소행성에 도착
This Japanese space probe is on a mission seeking the origins of life. After a three and a half year journey through space, the Hayabusa 2 began its orbit of an asteroid on Wednesday over 180 million miles from Earth. Dubbed the Ryugu, the rock's thought to house organic substances that scientists think could help reveal the answer to one of the biggest mysteries out there - how did life begin? The Hayabusa 2 which is named after the Peregrine Falcon will orbit the asteroid for the next few months. First it will map the surface before making a landing, when it will collect material from the asteroid itself. Asteroids like Ryugu are thought to have formed at the dawn of the solar system, and scientists say the rock could contain organic matter that might have contributed to the first life on Earth. Scientists in Tokyo will spend the next 18 months overseeing Hayabusa 2's operations before it returns to Earth in time for the Tokyo Olympics in 2020. The first of the Hayabusa satellites also made its mark on history. It was the first probe to bring back samples from a different asteroid. The original Hayabusa mission lasted seven years, and ended in 2010 when the probe returned to earth, streaking across the sky before slamming into the Australian desert.
Facebook grounds internet drone project
페이스북의 인터넷 드론 프로젝트 좌초돼
It was a lofty ambition, but now Facebook has grounded its plans to build solar-powered drones that can deliver the internet to remote communities. "It is our mission to try to help connect everyone around the world." Facebook's aim was to develop a fleet of the drones. With a wingspan bigger than a Boeing 737, they would fly for months at a time at 60,000 feet on the same amount of power as three hairdryers. The project was led by a Facebook facility in western England. But on Tuesday, director of engineering Yael Maguire - he's the one standing on the right - said that facility would close. The reason? Now that aerospace companies are investing in high-altitude aircraft, Facebook has made the decision it doesn't need to design and build such platforms itself. But the social media giant will still work with companies like Airbus to deliver so-called High Altitude Platform System connectivity more generally. Around four billion people - or more than half the world's population - do not have access to the internet. Facebook said it is continuing to work on next generation technologies to deliver its goal of connectivity for everyone.
Record-breaking testbed prepares ground for 5G revolution
5G 혁명의 기반을 다진, 기록 경신 테스트 베드
5G - the fifth generation of mobile internet connectivity - could be rolled out in the next year. Lund University researchers devised the first real-time testbed for so-called Massive MIMO technology, essential to make 5G work. A MIMO wireless network allows the transmitting and receiving of multiple data signals simultaneously over the same radio channel. "From this antenna here we transmit a known signal to the base station. At the same time this antenna here is transmitting a known signal to the base station, and this, and this as well. And then they start directly afterwards to transmit their data streams to the base station. And in this case we have four users transmitting simultaneously and then based on the spatial signatures what we receive at all of the antennas that we have at the base station when they are transmitting their known signals we can then calculate and we can separate the different data streams that we have here." In tests up to 22 simultaneous users successfully occupied the same time frequency band. So what will 5G mean for us? "For an everyday user like you and me, it's more like how can the operators get that capacity that they need for you and me. But for industries it can make a huge difference because there we are actually enabling new applications that is coming with a low latency so that we can do real time control and with reliability and both those are needed to get to the next step of wireless communication, to really use it for industrial control." 5G promises to boost Internet of Things technology, providing infrastructure that carries huge amounts of data. At the testbed the world-record for spectrum efficiency wireless communication has been achieved - 20 times the data speed of 4G.
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