Power and Electrical Engineering

Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd (SSTL) have demonstrated in-orbit the use of a steam propulsion system onboard the UK-DMC satellite, launched on 27th September 2003.

The novel micro-propulsion experiment used 2.06 grams of water as propellant. This ‘green’ propellant is non-toxic, non-hazardous to ground operators and results in improved specific impulse over conventional cold gas nitrogen, at a significantly lower cost.

During the first in-orbit firing, the thruster was pre-heated

Toronto’s CN Tower acts as a lightning laboratory, teaching scientists how to protect delicate electronic equipment against high-voltage surges, says a new study. Lightning data captured by measurement stations at the CN Tower point to the most effective procedures for protecting sensitive technology in tall buildings or on power lines routed through mountainous terrain. “More and more electronic equipment has very sensitive components,” says study co-author Wasyl Janischewskyj, a profe

The key aspect of the project is the obtaining of metal hydrides with the capacity to “store” the hydrogen used in automotive vehicle fuel batteries.

Under the auspices of the Strategic Plan for Materials and Energy being carried out by INASMET, the Armenian Institute of Chemistry & Physics of the National Academy of Sciences has signed a joint working agreement on order to make progress in one of the future energy sources such as fuel cells based on using hydrogen.

This al

Using STM, researchers demonstrate precise control needed to build molecular electronics

While the semiconductor industry today routinely dopes bulk silicon with billions of atoms of boron or phosphorous to obtain desired electrical properties, a team of physicists at the University of California, Berkeley, has succeeded in changing the properties of a single molecule by doping it just one atom at a time.

“We can precisely change the exact number of dopant atoms attached to a

Printing circuits on sheets of plastic may offer a low-cost technique for manufacturing thin-film transistors for flexible displays, but maximizing the performance of such devices will require a detailed, fundamental understanding of how charge flows through organic semiconductors.

Now, an unusual way of fabricating single-crystal organic transistors has allowed scientists to probe charge transport within the crystals and to observe a strong anisotropy of the charge transport mobility within

A five-kilowatt solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) undergoing testing in Fairbanks has reached the 5,000-hour milestone since its start-up eight months ago. During each hour of operation the fuel cell produces approximately four kilowatts of electricity totaling 20,000 kilowatt hours for the duration, enough to power two average houses for a full year.

“Since the biggest questions surrounding fuel cells have been longevity and reliability, this is an exciting achievement in fuel cell technology