Month: November 2016

Enlarge / A United Launch Alliance Atlas V 541 lifts off with NASA's GOES-R satellite in November. (credit: United Launch Alliance)

During the last half century the United States may have achieved flashier goals, with the Apollo Moon landings, and produced the most capable spacecraft in the form of the space shuttle. But even as the glory of Sputnik and Gagarin faded, the Russians have plugged along with their decades-old, capable rocket technology. And because of this reliability and relatively low costs, the Russians have continually launched more rockets into space than any other country.

Until now. According to data collected by The Moscow Times, Russia is expected to finish 2017 with just 18 rocket launches into space, compared to China's 19 and 20 from the United States. The US tally will be led by the United Launch Alliance, which is expected to have a dozen launches by the end of the year. The American total would be higher still if SpaceX returns to flight from a September accident by the end of the year.

The Russian newspaper cites several reasons for the country's decline from a peak of 100 launches during the USSR's prime, including declining space budgets, cost competition from providers like SpaceX for the commercial launch market, and recent problems with its heretofore reliable Proton launch vehicle.

(credit: richardghawley)

A paper published in Nature Energy analyzed the opinions of 163 wind power experts from around the globe, and found that they expect the cost of wind energy to fall even further. Those experts said that by 2030, both onshore and offshore wind turbines will get bigger, leading to additional cost reductions and smoother energy generation.

The median response from experts was that wind power cost could be reduced by 24 to 30 percent by 2030 based on the advances in turbine technology that are either projected or already being seen today.

The authors of the study also acknowledge that estimates about wind power cost reductions have generally been conservative in the past—today in some areas wind energy is already competitive with fossil fuels.

Enlarge (credit: Gregory F. Maxwell/Wikimedia Commons)

It’s bizarre but true: wire recording is the longest-lasting capture format in audio history, one that paved the way for reel-to-reel tapes and a host of others—even though most people today, and some techies included, have barely heard of it.

Invented way back in 1898 and patented two years later, wire recording was somehow still getting some limited use as late as the early 1970s, while rockets took man to the moon on an annual basis. In its wake, vinyl, with its 67 years, and CD with a mere 33, look like footling youngsters. In its none-too-brief life, "the wire" also found use in Hollywood, provided a broadcast aid to spying, helped launch digital data capture, and pioneered the new art of bootlegging—sorry, "home recording."

Wire was longer-lasting in other ways too—whereas shellac and vinyl records would only last a few minutes per side, and the first commercial tape decks weren’t that much better, the wire recorder could get down over 60 minutes of audio.

Ars Technica's full Final Fantasy XV review is coming, but because the game is so large—and only showed up at our doorsteps on Sunday—we've splintered into two factions. Everyone in the first faction wants to take their time sitting with the Japanese series' large, open-world return. They want to sink in however many hours it takes to beat the primary campaign mode and linger in places like side quests and fishing holes.

The second faction (meaning yours truly) was told to bang out about 10 hours of play, with a mix of campaign and side content, and write up impressions before the game hits stores on Tuesday. I jumped on the opportunity because I thought 10 hours would be more than enough to answer a question I've had since my first press-only demo of the game in May: did Square-Enix finally make a Final Fantasy game that I, a lapsed fan of the series, would want to complete?

At this point, I kind of regret taking on the task.