Tesla and Panasonic sign agreement on battery-making Gigafactory

Batteries for EVs like this Tesla Model S could be getting cheaper and more plentiful, once the Gigafactory is in full swing

If electric vehicles are to ultimately become as popular as Tesla hopes they will, then a whole lot of cost-effective batteries are going to be needed. That's why earlier this year, the automaker proposed a "Gigafactory" where it could crank out huge quantities of batteries. By making so many, it could drive down the price per battery via economy of scale. Yesterday, the company announced that it and Panasonic had signed an agreement to build that factory.

As mentioned in our previous article, Tesla plans for the Gigafactory to produce 500,000 batteries per year by 2020, with expected battery cell output of 35 GWh/yr and battery pack output of 50 GWh/yr. Current global battery output, from a variety of manufacturers, sits at just under 35 GWh/yr.

According to yesterday's announcement, "Tesla will prepare, provide and manage the land, buildings and utilities [while] Panasonic will manufacture and supply cylindrical lithium-ion cells and invest in the associated equipment, machinery, and other manufacturing tools based on their mutual approval."

The factory will be be located somewhere in the US and managed by Tesla, with Panasonic occupying about half of the manufacturing space and taking the role of principal partner. Although the cells will be made by Panasonic, Tesla will be incorporating them into battery modules and packs that it will be assembling.

Along with lowering the price of batteries by making them in large numbers, Tesla and Panasonic also plan on reducing costs by manufacturing cells tailored specifically to EVs, locating materials suppliers on-site, and implementing measures to lower the utility and operating expenses of the factory.

There's currently no word on when the Gigafactory is expected to open, although it is hoped to be employing approximately 6,500 people by 2020.

Mars Opportunity Rover sets off-world driving record

An image displaying Opportunity's path from its deployment zone in Eagle Crater, to its current position (Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS/NMMNHS)

Having traveled a grand total of 25 miles (40 km) over the course of its historic mission of exploration, NASA's Opportunity Mars rover has taken the record for the greatest distance traveled on another planetary body. The rover, only originally designed to travel around 1 km, massively exceeded its creators' most optimistic expectations, and has now covered almost the distance of a full marathon on its mission to unlock the secrets of the Red Planet.

"Opportunity has driven farther than any other wheeled vehicle on another world," stated John Callas, Mars Exploration Rover Project Manager. "This is so remarkable considering Opportunity was intended to drive about one kilometer and was never designed for distance. But what is really important is not how many miles the rover has racked up, but how much exploration and discovery we have accomplished over that distance."

A shot of the Lunokhod 2 Crater taken from the Opportunity rover (Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/Arizona State Univ.)

NASA's veteran rover broke the record on July 27th with a drive of 48 m (157 ft), stealing the record out from under its long-term lunar rival, the Lunokhod 2. The Russian rover had driven 24 miles (39 km) across the surface of the moon following a successful landing in 1972.

Lunokhod 2 is however not entirely without accolades, as she still holds the record for most distance traveled on the lunar surface, having surpassed the manned Apollo era lunar rovers, the most successful of which traveled a still impressive 22.21 miles (35.74 km).

Prior to breaking the record, Opportunity mission controllers paused on their epic journey to name a crater after Lunokhod 2, as a mark of respect to the Russian-made explorer. Currently, Opportunity continues on its journey, with the next site of scientific interest a mere 1.2 miles (1.9 km) away, a trifling distance to the reigning extraterrestrial marathon champion.

RFID tags to enable real-time tracking of NFL players

NFL players will be tracked in real-time using RFID tags

Following in the footsteps of the NBA, which introduced player tracking technology in every one of its arenas for the 2013-14 season, the NFL has announced its own player tracking system. Unlike the NBA system provided by Stats LLC, which uses cameras to collect location data, the NFL will use the MotionWorks system from Zebra Technologies that relies on RFID tags that will be placed inside player shoulder pads.

The move is part of the NFL's "Next Gen Stats" initiative, which is designed to give fans, as well as coaches and broadcasters, a greater insight into the game. The use of RFID technology will allow real-time tracking of various on-field statistics, including such things as current location, acceleration, total distance run and even orientation, with an accuracy of down to 6 inches (15 cm).

The implementation of RFID technology will be limited to 17 stadiums during the 2014 NFL season, requiring receivers to be installed throughout said stadiums. Once the data is collected, it is sent to data hubs where it is compiled into a database. The data can then be outputted in various ways, such as graphics and tables, depending on the intended audience.

"Working with Zebra will give fans, teams, coaches and players a deeper look into the game they love," says Vishal Shah, NFL Vice President of Media Strategy. "Zebra’s tracking technology will help teams to evolve training, scouting and evaluation through increased knowledge of player performance, as well as provide ways for our teams and partners to enhance the fan experience."

The stadiums to be fitted out with the RFID receivers for the 2014 season are Atlanta, Baltimore, Carolina, Chicago, Cincinnati, Denver, Green Bay, Houston, Jacksonville, Miami, New England, Oakland, San Francisco, St. Louis, Washington, Detroit and New Orleans, with information to be gathered from all 32 teams.

LogiXML Developer Network Hosts Millionth Unique Visitor

McLean, Virginia – April 30, 2012 - LogiXML, the pioneer of web-based business intelligence (BI), today announced that its Developer Network – Logi DevNet – logged 1 million+ unique outside visitors. The rapid growth of the site parallels the company’s own market growth – with 12 consecutive quarters and 80 percent growth per year for the last two years.

Launched in 2007, Logi DevNet is a valuable source of information and assistance for LogiXML prospects and customers alike. The site was designed to allow Logi users, developers, and IT professionals to interact with the LogiXML support team, as well as with each other to share ideas, questions, and answers about how to get the most value from their BI deployments. Logi DevNet is open and free to anyone and features news, announcements, discussion forums, training content, and even sample apps and other developer resources. In addition, customers can submit product enhancement suggestions directly to LogiXML product managers. One unique distinction of Logi DevNet is that the entire site was developed using the company’s own product, Logi Info – a solution typically leveraged to create agile, web-based BI applications.

“The success of Logi DevNet reflects both the broad adoption of LogiXML technology by our customers, as well as the limitless potential of what can be created with it,” said Brett Jackson, CEO, LogiXML. “More and more, we are seeing our customers deploy Logi Info to solve one challenge, but then extending it in multiple ways to solve multiple challenges far beyond the customer’s original intent. DevNet empowers our customers to derive the highest possible value from our products.”

Unlike traditional BI platforms that are complex, costly, and time-consuming, LogiXML’s modular development approach allows organizations to rapidly develop, refine, and adapt applications that serve any number of users on any platform — all without extensive development or professional services. The growing number of unique visitors to and members of Logi DevNet is indicative of the product’s rapidly growing popularity, as well as the value of the content and interactions within the community.

“We viewed Logi DevNet as a critical differentiator between other BI software providers we looked at,” said Trent McGath, risk information administrator at Citycounty Insurance Services. “DevNet is so user friendly and so content rich that we’ve not once had to contact support since our [LogiXML] installation seven months ago. Every question or technical issue has been remedied on Logi DevNet through searching forum threads, responses received from my own posts, or taking advantage of the thorough training and support documentation.”

Earlier this year, LogiXML was positioned for the second time in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence Platforms, where its products ranked among the highest for ease of use, overall product functionality, support, product quality, performance, and customer experience.

About LogiXML

Founded in 2000, LogiXML provides businesses the fastest and easiest way to deliver business analytics, dashboards, and reports to a broad range of users, as well as to embed them into existing applications – all for a fraction of the cost of other solutions. Unlike traditional Business Intelligence platforms that are complex and costly, LogiXML’s agile technology allows organizations to rapidly develop, deploy, and adapt BI applications that serve any number of users on any platform ─ all without extensive development or professional services. LogiXML is headquartered in McLean, Virginia, with sales and support offices in the UK and Europe. The company is a private, venture-backed firm with investments from GroTech Ventures, Updata Partners, and Summit Partners.

NASA reveals instruments selected for Mars 2020 rover

The seven instruments selected for Mars 2020 (Image: NASA)

NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover has been trundling around the Red Planet for almost two years now, so the space agency is looking for a trade in. At a press conference in Washington DC, it announced the seven instruments selected to fly on the Mars 2020 rover mission that is scheduled to launch in July or August 2020 with a landing set for February 2021 at a yet to be determined site. The instruments were selected out of 58 proposals from US and international scientists and engineers, and represent a development cost of US$130 million.

The Mars 2020 rover uses the same basic design and engineering as Curiosity, which is currently exploring the Gale Crater region of Mars. While it will come with some improvements – such as newly designed wheels – the launch system, cruise stage, aeroshell, and Skycrane landing system will be almost identical to that used on its predecessor. Like Curiosity, the new rover’s power source will be a Multi-Mission Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (MMRTG) using the heat from the natural decay of plugs of plutonium-238 nuclear fuel.

The purpose of the mission is to study the geology of Mars, to seek out signs of ancient life, and conduct experiments related to the habitability of Mars for future manned expeditions. In addition, Mars 2020 will collect and store rock and soil samples in a container similar to one developed by the ESA, to be returned to Earth by a later mission.

A sample return container (Image: NASA)

The seven new instruments

Mastcam-Z: An advanced camera system, the Mastcam-Z is a new mast-mounted camera for the Mars 2020 rover that has zoom, panoramic and stereoscopic imaging capabilities. It’s used for mineralogical surveys and general imaging to aid rover operations. The zoom capability is a considerable advance because the current camera on Curiosity relies on two fixed-focus lenses and has great difficulty creating stereoscopic images.

SuperCam: The Super-Cam is an imaging device for studying chemical composition and mineralogy. It’s designed to detect organic materials in rocks and regolith at a distance.

Planetary Instrument for X-ray Lithochemistry (PIXL): This is an x-ray fluorescence spectrometer, which includes a high-resolution imager to study the fine-scale composition of surface materials for detailed detection and analysis. Mounted on the rover’s robotic arm, it can focus its x-rays on a surface sample and complete an analysis within minutes or even seconds while its imager records visual details to aid mineral identification.

Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman and Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals (SHERLOC): SHERLOC is a fine-scale spectrometer that uses an ultraviolet laser for mineralogical studies and detecting organic compounds. According to NASA, it’s the first UV Raman spectrometer (named after the Raman scattering effect used) sent to the Martian surface.

"This instrument uses two distinct detection strategies," says principal investigator, Luther Beegle of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "It can detect an important class of carbon molecules with high sensitivity, and it also identifies minerals that provide information about ancient aqueous environments."

Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment (MOXIE): This is an experiment from MIT that will attempt to produce oxygen from the carbon dioxide in the thin Martian atmosphere. NASA hopes that this could one day lead to a way to provide explorers with oxygen without the expense of carting it from Earth.

Mars Environmental Dynamics Analyzer (MEDA): A weather station to measure temperature, wind direction and velocity, barometric pressure and humidity, as well as the size and shape of dust particles in the air.

Radar Imager for Mars' Subsurface Exploration (RIMFAX): Mounted under the rover’s belly, this is a centimeter-scale ground-penetrating radar for studying subsurface features.

NASA says that Mars 2020 will spend at least one Martian year or two Earth years studying the Red Planet. The space agency hopes that data sent back by the robotic explorer will provide insights into the potential hazards from Martian dust as well as the prospect of manufacturing oxygen out of atmospheric carbon dioxide for breathing and rocket propulsion, which would greatly reduce the cost of sending people to Mars.

"The 2020 rover will help answer questions about the Martian environment that astronauts will face and test technologies they need before landing on, exploring and returning from the Red Planet," says William Gerstenmaier, associate administrator for the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate. "Mars has resources needed to help sustain life, which can reduce the amount of supplies that human missions will need to carry. Better understanding the Martian dust and weather will be valuable data for planning human Mars missions. Testing ways to extract these resources and understand the environment will help make the pioneering of Mars feasible."

The press conference introducing the new instrument suite for the Mars 2020 can be viewed below.