MIURA is the new PLD Space rocket’s commercial brand

Press release

http://pldspace.com/new/2018/11/13/pld-space-miura/

Since today, MIURA is the new PLD Space rocket's commercial brand

After several years of growth and surpassing milestones, PLD Space has decided to rename its microlaunchers with the main objective of transmitting the corporate spirit of the company in the design of the rockets. MIURA reflects the company's philosophy:  strength, courage and energy through passion and hard work. The numerical nomenclature, 1 and 5, is based on the classic system in the space sector in which the number signifies the quantity of motors on the rocket's first stage.

When in 2011 PLD Space was founded, its co-founders, Raúl Torres and Raúl Verdú, decided to name the company's first technological development ARION. In classic Greek mythology, ARION is a divinely-bred, extremely swift immortal horse, endowed with speech. In that moment, the founders thought it was an adequate name to help PLD Space grow and secure a better position within the special sector. However, as the company has consolidated in the sector, PLD has decided to re-establish the brand with a name that better describes the company and its long-term goals. The objective is to provide PLD Space with a corporate image of the project that faithfully reflects its spirit, the origin of the company, and the institutional support that surrounds the project. All this in order to position the company in a booming sector that is changing rapidly. These values ​​and principles are summarized in MIURA, as seen in the logo (specially designed for PLD Space) and company colours.

MIURA 1 is a suborbital microlauncher able to reach an apogee of 150 km. The first launch is scheduled for Q3 2019 from the INTA's Experimentation Center "El Arenosillo", which will carry a payload from the German institute ZARM. Simultaneously, the company will continue developing the necessary technology to launch satellites around the Earth, aiming for the first launch of MIURA 5 in Q3 2021.

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Market for 3,300 satellites worth $284 Billion over next decade

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UK firm sees future for visually pleasing 3D printed aircraft interiors

https://runwaygirlnetwork.com/2018/11/12/uk-firm-sees-future-for-visually-pleasing-3d-printed-aircraft-interiors/

TsAGI tests MC-21-300 basic airplane for maximum load at landing

TsAGI press release



Landing an aircraft is not only a difficult maneuver, but also is a real strength test. At this moment, the frame and landing gear of the aircraft is forced by inertial load from the aircraft weight, fuel, passengers, baggage, the jet loads from the runway, as well as aerodynamic forces. That is why landing dynamics strength tests are very important.

In mid-October, scientists of the Zhukovsky Central AeroHydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI) conducted certification static tests of the new generation MC-21-300 basic airplane for the maximum load at landing.

The basic airplane was first tested at 67% of the design load; in later stages it was raised to 90%. To define calculated values in this case, scientists used a reserve factor of 1, 5. The landing gear, fuselage tail section and wing centre section were subjected to the maximum load.

The tests had positive results: basic elements of the construction withstood required design loads. The resulting data will be used to issue a conclusion on the aircraft strength and to lift the restrictions on the parameters of the flight.

The next important step is to conduct certification static testing on the fuselage for maximum torsion. The aircraft can perform such a maneuver in flight through the influence of continuous lateral turbulence.

The MC-21-300 is a new generation aircraft with a capacity of 163 to 211 passengers and targets the largest segment of the aviation market. The aircraft provides passengers with a significant new level of comfort, due to the largest fuselage diameter in narrow-body aircraft. The aircraft is superior to existing counterparts in terms of flight-technical characteristics and efficiency. The major contributor to the enhancement of flight-technical characteristics of the aircraft is the wing made of polymer composite materials, a first-in-the-world, developed for narrow-body aircraft with a capacity of over 130 passengers. The use of composites in the MC-21 design exceeds 30% and is unique for this category of aircraft.

Preferred landing site for ExoMars 2020 rover mission revealed

http://www.esa.int/Our_Activities/Space_Science/ExoMars/Oxia_Planum_favoured_for_ExoMars_surface_mission

Wind farms have cascading impacts on ecosystems across trophic levels

Abstract


Wind farms are a cleaner alternative to fossil fuels for mitigating the effects of climate change, but they also have complex ecological consequences. In the biodiversity hotspot of the Western Ghats in India, we find that wind farms reduce the abundance and activity of predatory birds (for example, Buteo, Butastur and Elanus species), which consequently increases the density of lizards, Sarada superba. The cascading effects of wind turbines on lizards include changes in behaviour, physiology and morphology that reflect a combination of predator release and density-dependent competition. By adding an effective trophic level to the top of food webs, we find that wind farms have emerging impacts that are greatly underestimated. There is thus a strong need for an ecosystem-wide view when aligning green-energy goals with environment protection.

Continue reading: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-018-0707-z#Abs1

also in Popular Mechanix
https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/environment/a24749526/turbines-apex-predator-study/

Indonesia says situation facing crew of doomed Lion Air jet not in flight manual | Article [AMP] | Reuters

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