Views from the Solar System (41)

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SPACE WATCH

Sol 2951
NASA – After spending 19 weeks working in one place while solar power was too low for driving during the Martian winter, NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Opportunity is on the move again. The winter worksite was on the north slope of an outcrop called Greeley Haven. The rover used its rear hazard-avoidance camera after nearly completing the May 8 drive, capturing this view looking back at the Greeley Haven.

Since landing in the Meridiani region of Mars on Jan. 25, 2004, Universal Time and EST (Jan. 24, PST), Opportunity has driven 21.4 miles (34.4 kilometers).

This image is of Opportunity’s traverse map from Sol 2951 and shows the entirety of the rover’s travels to this point. A sol is a Martian day. Image Credit: NASA/JPL/Cornell/University of Arizona

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Romney: Debt is like ‘prairie fire’

By Rachel Streitfeld – In an appeal to middle America on Tuesday, Mitt Romney compared the national debt to a rapidly growing fire hurtling across a prairie.

“A prairie fire of debt is sweeping across Iowa and across the nation and every day we fail to act, that fire gets closer to the homes and the children we love,” Romney said.

Though Romney gave his speech in a state where, only months ago, the Republican presidential candidates battled for the support of conservative caucus-goers, on this trip Romney made an apparent bid for independent voters in the general election battleground. more> http://tinyurl.com/7stdxw9

The real lesson from JPMorgan’s $2 billion loss

By Robert J. Samuelson – It’s a teachable moment, but what’s the right lesson? Already, the $2 billion-plus trading debacle at JPMorgan Chase has inspired a powerful story line. Nothing has changed since the financial crisis, it’s said. Big banks remain out of control, gambling recklessly. If Jamie Dimon’s bank, reputed to be one of the best-managed, can get into trouble, what can we expect of the others? Government regulations and regulators need to be tougher to counteract bankers’ greed and incompetence.

We don’t yet know all the details of JPMorgan’s loss. How did trades initially intended to hedge risk — to reduce it — end up having the opposite effect? Until we can answer that, the wider implications for government regulation, including the Volcker Rule, remain unsettled. more> http://tinyurl.com/7qgqo7c

New nanostructure for batteries keeps going and going

R&D Mag – For more than a decade, scientists have tried to improve lithium-based batteries by replacing the graphite in one terminal with silicon, which can store 10 times more charge. But after just a few charge/discharge cycles, the silicon structure would crack and crumble, rendering the battery useless.

Now a team led by materials scientist Yi Cui of Stanford University and SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory has found a solution: a cleverly designed double-walled nanostructure that lasts more than 6,000 cycles, far more than needed by electric vehicles or mobile electronics.

“This is a very exciting development toward our goal of creating smaller, lighter and longer-lasting batteries than are available today,” Cui said. The results were published in Nature Nanotechnology. more> http://is.gd/VhpZno

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FCC wants to know if Verizon is warehousing spectrum

By Kevin Fitchard – The U.S. Federal Communications Commission is curious why Verizon Wireless bought a bunch of 4G spectrum back in 2008 but now plans to sell it.

Carriers like T-Mobile and Sprint, along with a slew of consumer advocacy and telecom industry groups, have criticized the deal, claiming Verizon is merely trying to lock up the most valuable 4G airwaves.

Verizon is in a tricky situation here. Those A and B block licenses don’t fit well into its LTE plans for multiple reasons: the goofy configuration of the 700 MHz band, the fact that they don’t form a nationwide footprint and interference concerns in A block. When Verizon bid on them and won them in 2008, it probably wanted them as insurance – or to keep them out of AT&T’s hands. It was hoping something better would come along, and it did — in the form of nice big gift-wrapped package of clean nationwide airwaves delivered by its new cable buddies. more> http://is.gd/fjiGqx

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