Electric motorcycles rev up design and performance (w/photos)

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
Summary: Manufacturers are raising the performance bar for electric motorcycles, rapidly catching up to their gas-guzzling counterparts. Here are five battery-powered machines guaranteed to turn heads.

As an enthusiast of motorcycles (I own two) and a resident of the Bay Area, I’ve noticed a surge in buzz surrounding electric two-wheelers and I’m not alone. Reporting today on the recent unveiling of Red Shift, an all-electric “supermoto” from San Francisco start-up BRD Motorcycles, Jeanne Carstensen at the New York Times, writes; “With Mission Motors, also in San Francisco, and Zero Motorcycles in Santa Cruz, as well as others, the region is becoming a hub for electric motorcycle companies.”

Speaking of Mission Motors, the company made history a few weeks ago at the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix at Laguna Seca. The company’s race bike, Mission R, posted a qualifying time of 1:31.3, the fifth fastest for the weekend’s AMA Supersport race, and a track record for an electric vehicle of any kind. Motorcycle traditionalists were left scratching their heads.

As the performance of electric motorcycles closes in on their gas-guzzling counterparts, they’re also becoming increasingly practical and cost-effective. The market for electric scooters and motorcycles is taking off worldwide with about a half a billion in use across the globe by 2016, estimates Pike Research.

For whatever shortfalls exist today with electric motorcycles, such as a max ranges that peak out between 60 - 100 miles and the lack of a gas engine growl, manufacturers are wasting no time compensating with designs and technology that could permanently impact both, motorcycling industry and culture.

Below is a sample of the latest electric motorcycles at various stages of development plus a $35K hybrid bicycle that must be seen to be believed: (Make | Model | Energy Storage | Horsepower | Top Speed | MSRP)

[ Site | Specs | Photos]

[ Site | Specs | Photos]

[ Site | Specs | Photos]

[ Site | Specs N/A | Photos]

[ Site | Specs | Photos]

[ Site | Specs | Photos]

Christopher Jablonski is a freelance technology writer.

View the original article here

NASA unveils new deep-space rocket design

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
Summary: The Space Launch System (SLS) is NASA’s next-generation rocket system that will serve as the centerpiece for deep space exploration for the coming decades.

NASA unveiled Wednesday the design for the Space Launch System (SLS), a next-generation rocket system that will serve as the centerpiece for deep space exploration for the coming decades.

Credit: NASA

The rocket would be the most powerful since the Saturn V that took Americans to the moon four decades ago. NASA expects it to propel astronauts on missions farther than anyone has ever traveled, including an asteroid by 2025 and Mars the following decade.

The agency said that SLS will provide the nation with a safe, affordable and sustainable means of reaching beyond our current limits and open up new discoveries from the unique vantage point of space.

“This launch system will create good-paying American jobs, ensure continued U.S. leadership in space, and inspire millions around the world,” NASA Administrator Charles Bolden said. “President Obama challenged us to be bold and dream big, and that’s exactly what we are doing at NASA. While I was proud to fly on the space shuttle, kids today can now dream of one day walking on Mars.”

The SLS rocket will be designed to carry the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle, as well as important cargo, equipment and science experiments to Earth’s orbit and beyond. It will also serve as a back up for commercial and international partner transportation services to the International Space Station.

To speed up development and control costs, NASA relied on pieces from the just-retired space shuttles for thew new rocket design (shuttle tiles are going to schools). The first stage would essentially be an elongated shuttle fuel tank, and it would use the same rocket engines. Initial test flights would use strapped on solid rocket boosters–stretched versions of the shuttle boosters–to provide additional thrust.

The first unmanned test flight of the first iteration of the rocket, able to lift 70 metric tons (154,000 pounds) to low-Earth orbit, is targeted for the end of 2017.  Future iterations are to be more powerful, capable of lifting up to 130 metric tons (286,000 pounds).

The cost of the program is estimated at $18 billion through an initial test flight in 2017, and about $30 billion through the first piloted mission in 2021.

According to an article in New York Times, it would take roughly $62 billion to fly up to two missions a year and start developing deep-space habitat and other components needed for a mission to an asteroid.

Related:

Nuclear power plants for settlements on the Moon and Mars
Acts of space warfare likely by 2025
100 Year Starship Study

Christopher Jablonski is a freelance technology writer.

View the original article here