Large UAV flies in Public Airspace

“This is a huge milestone for our Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration in the National Airspace System project team,” said Ed Waggoner, NASA’s Integrated Aviation Systems Program director. “We worked closely with our Federal Aviation Administration colleagues for several months to ensure we met all their requirements to make this initial flight happen.”

NASA Flies Large Unmanned Aircraft in Public Airspace Without Chase Plane for First Time

Aircraft maintenance crews at NASA‘s Armstrong Flight Research Center prepare the remotely-piloted Ikhana aircraft for a test flight June 12, 2018. The test flight was performed to validate key technologies and operations necessary for the Federal Aviation Administration's approval to fly the aircraft in the public airspace without a safety chase aircraft.

Credits: NASA/Ken Ulbrich

NASA’s remotely-piloted Ikhana aircraft, based at the agency’s Armstrong Flight Research Center, is flown in preparation for its first mission in public airspace without a safety chase aircraft.

Credits: NASA/Carla Thomas

Engineers at NASA‘s Armstrong Flight Research Center monitor the remotely-piloted Ikhana aircraft from a mission control room during a test flight June 12, 2018.

Credits: NASA/Ken Ulbrich

NASA’s remotely-piloted Ikhana aircraft, based at the agency’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California, successfully flew its first mission in the National Airspace System without a safety chase aircraft on Tuesday. This historic flight moves the United States one step closer to normalizing unmanned aircraft operations in the airspace used by commercial and private pilots.

Flying these large remotely-piloted aircraft over the United States opens the doors to all types of services, from monitoring and fighting forest fires, to providing new emergency search and rescue operations. The technology in this aircraft could, at some point, be scaled down for use in other general aviation aircraft.

“This is a huge milestone for our Unmanned Aircraft Systems Integration in the National Airspace System project team,” said Ed Waggoner, NASA’s Integrated Aviation Systems Program director. “We worked closely with our Federal Aviation Administration colleagues for several months to ensure we met all their requirements to make this initial flight happen.”

Flights of large craft like Ikhana, have traditionally required a safety chase aircraft to follow the unmanned aircraft as it travels through the same airspace used by commercial aircraft. The Ikhana flew in accordance with the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) Technical Standard Order 211 -- Detect and Avoid Systems -- and Technical Standard Order 212 -- Air-to-Air Radar for Traffic Surveillance.

The FAA granted NASA special permission to conduct this flight under the authority of a Certificate of Waiver or Authorization on March 30. The certificate permitted Ikhana’s pilot to rely on the latest Detect and Avoid technology, enabling the remote pilot on the ground to see and avoid other aircraft during the flight.

NASA successfully worked with its industry partners to develop a standard for Detect and Avoid technologies, complied with the requirements of the FAA Technical Standard Orders, and garnered flight approval from the FAA.

The Ikhana aircraft was equipped with detect and avoid technologies, including an airborne radar developed by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc., a Honeywell Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System, a Detect and Avoid Fusion Tracker, and an Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast capability – a surveillance technology where the aircraft determines its position via satellite navigation and periodically broadcasts this information so other aircraft can track it.

The flight took off from Edwards Air Force Base in California and entered controlled air space almost immediately. Ikhana flew into the Class-A airspace, where commercial airliners fly, just west of Edwards at an altitude of about 20,000 feet. The aircraft then turned north toward Fresno, requiring air traffic control to be transferred from the Los Angeles Air Route Traffic Control Center to the Oakland Air Route Traffic Control Center. On the return trip, the pilot headed south toward Victorville, California, requiring communication control to be transferred back to Los Angeles.

During the return flight, the pilot began a gentle descent over the city of Tehachapi, California, into Class E airspace -- about 10,000 feet -- where general aviation pilots fly. The pilot initiated an approach into Victorville airport at 5,000 feet, coordinating in real time with air traffic controllers at the airport. After successfully executing all of these milestones, the aircraft exited the public airspace and returned to its base at Armstrong.

“We are flying with a suite of sophisticated technology that greatly enhances the safety capabilities of pilots flying large unmanned aircraft in the National Airspace System,” said Scott Howe, Armstrong test pilot. “We took the time to mitigate the risks and to ensure that we, as a program, were prepared for this flight.”

Tuesday’s flight was the first remotely-piloted aircraft to use airborne detect and avoid technology to meet the intent of the FAA’s “see and avoid” rules, with all test objectives successfully accomplished

Modi Care

   “The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched - they must be felt with the heart.”― Helen Keller

MODI CARE PACKAGE

On August 15, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi will launch the Ayushman Bharat National Health Protection Mission (AB-NHPM), almost half of the states would not be part of it. So far 20 states have agreed to implement the scheme which is being termed 'Modicare' on the lines of 'Obamacare' of the US. But only 12-15 states will launch the scheme that day as the others are not prepared to roll it out on time, says Dr Vinod K Paul, the chief architect of the scheme who is also a member of Niti Aayog. States like UP and Bihar may take another 6 months or longer to launch Ayushman Bharat. It plans cover half a billion people

As for the states that are ready, patients will be able to walk into empanelled hospitals on the first day and receive cashless treatment upto Rs 5 lakh per annum for each family. Southern states such as Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka which already have health insurance schemes in place are far better prepared to introduce Ayushman Bharat. In fact, the Centre is initially using Telangana's technology backbone to launch NHPM.

Announced in the 2018 Budget, the AB-NHPM was touted as the 'world's largest government funded health care programme'. While it might take a while, with participation at both the Centre and state levels, and a cover for 10.74 crore families, the scheme is set to meet expectations eventually.

India’s push toward universal health care has Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s political opponents worried, a top government adviser said.

Modi’s government announced a plan last week to provide health insurance to 100 million poor families, which would cover about 40 percent of the population. India plans to cover the entire population “sooner than later,” according to Rajiv Kumar, vice chairman of the National Institution for Transforming India, a government policy research group known as NITI Aayog.

“If we roll this out enough within this calendar year it will be an absolute game changer,” Kumar said in an interview Monday at his office in New Delhi. “It’s a new India that we are giving birth to.”

The health-care plan and higher guaranteed prices for farmers were key elements of Modi’s budget, which allowed for a wider fiscal deficit to tamp down discontent among the poor ahead of a series of state polls this year and national elections in early 2018. In December, Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party held onto power in his home state of Gujarat with its lowest seat tally in about two decades.

India expects to spend up to 120 billion rupees ($1.9 billion) annually on premium payments to provide poor families with a cover of 500,000 rupees a year. The program was mocked by former Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram, a leader of the opposition Congress party, who said the budget didn’t provide funds to pay for the program.

Funding won’t be an issue and costs will come down as more people sign up, Kumar said. He also took aim at Chidambaram, saying the health-care plan would help secure electoral gains for Modi over the long term.

“That’s the opposition’s fear -- that’s Chidambaram’s fear -- that if we get away with it his goose is cooked," Kumar said.

India has flagged low levels of insurance penetration as a potential damper on its growth, with as many as 70 million people slipping into poverty each year due to sickness. About 60 percent of health-care expenses are paid out of pocket, according to the World Bank, putting medical care out of reach for many in Asia’s third largest economy.

Poor quality of health-care services, a lack of public hospitals and a shortage of doctors are common problems in India’s health-care system. India’s spending on health as a percentage of gross domestic product is the lowest among the BRICS grouping, which also includes Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa

MODI CARE PACKAGE

75 Million Toilets

October 2, 2019 is an important date for India's government

Coinciding with the 150th anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi's birth, it marks the proposed finish line for "Clean India," the country's ambitious plan to install 75 million toilets around the country

Right now, 600,000 of the world's 1.7 million who die annually from unsafe water and sanitation (due primarily to open, unclean toilets) live in India. As billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates recently wrote on his blog, those kinds of conditions make a plan like Clean India worthy of both praise and financial support

When The Wind Blows

when the wind blows

A wind farm is a group of wind turbines in the same location used to produce electricity. A large wind farm may consist of several hundred individual wind turbines and cover an extended area of hundreds of square miles, but the land between the turbines may be used for agricultural or other purposes. A wind farm can also be located offshore.

Many of the largest operational onshore wind farms are located in China, India, and the United States. For example, the largest wind farm in the world, Gansu Wind Farm in China has a capacity of over 6,000 MW as of 2012, with a goal of 20,000 MW by 2020. As of April 2013, the 630 MW London Array in the UK is the largest offshore wind farm in the world.

As a general rule, economic wind generators require wind speed of 4.5 m/s (16 km/h) or greater. An ideal location would have a near constant flow of non-turbulent wind throughout the year, with a minimum likelihood of sudden powerful bursts of wind. An important factor of turbine siting is also access to local demand or transmission capacity

World's largest onshore wind farms

Wind farm	Current capacity (MW)	Country	Notes
Gansu Wind Farm	6,800	China	[1][7][8][9][10]
Zhang Jiakou	3,000	China	[7]
Urat Zhongqi, Bayannur City	2,100	China	[7]
Hami Wind Farm	2,000	China	[7]
Damao Qi, Baotou City	1,600	China	[7]
Alta (Oak Creek-Mojave)	1,320	United States	[11]
Jaisalmer Wind Park	1,064	India	[12]
Hongshagang, Town, Minqin County	1,000	China	[7]
Kailu, Tongliao	1,000	China	[7]
Chengde	1,000	China	[7]
Buffalo Gap Wind Farm	523.3	United States	[13][14]
Capricorn Ridge Wind Farm	662.5	United States	[13][14]
Dabancheng Wind Farm	500	China	[15]
Fântânele-Cogealac Wind Farm	600	Romania	[16]
Fowler Ridge Wind Farm	599.8	United States	[17]
Horse Hollow Wind Energy Center	735.5	United States	[13][14]
Meadow Lake Wind Farm	500	United States	[17]
Panther Creek Wind Farm	458	United States	[14]
Roscoe Wind Farm	781.5	United States	[18]
Shepherds Flat Wind Farm	845	United States
Sweetwater Wind Farm	585.3	United States	[13]
Whitelee Wind Farm	539	Scotland, U.K

Fire on Earth

• A Beautiful Amazing Picture of Nature ; Breathless

2018 August 26
Fire on Earth 
Image Credit: John McColgan (AFS, BLM) 

Explanation: Sometimes, regions of planet Earth light up with fire. Since fire is the rapid acquisition of oxygen, and since oxygen is a key indicator of life, fire on any planet would be an indicator of life on that planet. Most of the Earth's land has been scorched by fire at some time in the past. Although causing many a tragedy, for many places on Earth fire is considered part of a natural ecosystem cycle. Large forest fires on Earth are usually caused either by humans or lightning and can be visible from orbit.Featured from the year 2000, stunned elk avoid a fire sweeping through Montana's Bitterroot Valley by standing in a river. 

E Bikes

Key Words: E Bikes Barrier; Bike Highways

E Bikes

Electric bicycles (e-bikes) may reduce energy use, air pollution and noise for private transportation through a modal shift from fossil-fuel powered vehicles to e-bikes on short distance trips. However, designing effective promotion campaigns for the adoption of e-bikes requires detailed knowledge on user characteristics and motivations. In order to explain e-bike use on work, shopping and leisure trips, the present study combines concepts from technology adoption with factors derived from research on mobility behaviour. The study employs structural equation modeling to survey data from 1398 Austrian early adopters who purchased an e-bike between 2009 and 2011.

Results show that early adopters are predominantly comprised of persons aged 60   years or older who mainly use the e-bike for leisure trips. Carbon-intensive travel modes on commuting trips are barely substituted. Early adopters typically hold pro-environmental and technophile attitudes. E-bike use is most driven by perceived usefulness, which in turn depends on an easy use, appropriate infrastructure, also user’s norms and attitudes towards environment and physical activity. Comparison by trip purpose shows that a supportive social environment and personal ecological norms influence e-bike use on work and shopping trips, whereas leisure use of e-bikes is driven by attitudes towards physical activity. Comparison by age groups underlines that older e-bike users are more dependent on practical usefulness of the technology and facilitating road infrastructure. Therefore, e-bike promotion strategies should differentiate between trip purpose and age segments when selecting target groups.

E Bikes in the Mainstream

Electric bicycles (e-bikes) represent one of the fastest growing segments of the transport market. Over 31 million e-bikes were sold in 2012. Research has followed this growth and this paper provides a synthesis of the most pertinent themes emerging over the past on the burgeoning topic of e-bikes. The focus is transport rather than recreational e-bike research, as well as the most critical research gaps requiring attention. China leads the world in e-bike sales, followed by the Netherlands and Germany. E-bikes can maintain speed with less effort. E-bikes are found to increase bicycle usage. E-bikes have the potential to displace conventional motorised (internal combustion) modes, but there are open questions about their role in displacing traditional bicycles. E-bikes have been shown to provide health benefits and an order of magnitude less carbon dioxide than a car travelling the same distance. Safety issues have emerged as a policy issue in several jurisdictions and e-bike numbers are now approaching levels in which adequate safety data are able to be collected. Research on e-bikes is still in its infancy. As e-bike usage continues to grow, so too will the need for further research, in order to provide the necessary data to inform policy-makers and industry.

E Bikes Barriers

One major barrier of e-bike use is that the purchase price of e-bike is 3 to 4 times higher than that of a conventional bicycle

E Bikes Cycling in The Netherlands and the UK – Bicycle Highways

The Netherlands and the UK are European regions with very different cycling cultures. Levels of cycling in the Netherlands are much greater than in the UK (1% of all trips in UK versus 27% in NL) largely a result of the Netherlands having a long history of implementing a ‘multifaceted and mutually reinforcing’ set of policies focused on supporting and promoting cycling. Dutch owners of e-bikes therefore benefit from favourable conditions for cycling and are able to use the existing network of approximately 35,000 km of cycle paths. Regional authorities are also investing in ‘bicycle highways’, which offer direct connections between urban centres (e.g. Arnhem and Nijmegen — and there is a strong push to encourage e-bike use for commuting

E Bikes Use in Sweden

There is a strong political desire to reduce the use of fossil fuels in road transport. In this paper, the use of e-bikes (of the pedelec type) in Sweden is analysed by focusing on changes in travel behaviour and their corresponding effects on CO2 emissions. The aim is to analyse the effect on CO2 emissions due to the use of e-bikes. The analysis is carried out on the possible differences in changed travel behaviour between areas dominated by either urban or rural environments. It is based on a combination of responses to a questionnaire distributed to e-bike users and a survey of local transport planners in Swedish municipalities. The results indicate that there are large gains to be made from e-bike usage in terms of decreased CO2 emissions through a reduction in car mileage. Furthermore, the results indicate that the potential for e-bikes to replace car trips is as great in rural areas as it is in urban areas. At the same time, the results indicate that the Swedish municipalities carrying out e-bike campaigns target trips in both urban and rural areas, therefore representing an effective promotion strategy to achieve the full CO2 emissions reducing potential of e-bike use. This study also shows that, depending on the type of errand being carried out, more respondents living in urban areas than in rural areas replace their conventional bicycle trips with e-bike trips. Thus, the use of e-bikes produces some less than desirable effects, such as reduced physical activity

E Bikes Use in Oxford, UK

Oxford, UK— Oxford is regarded as one of the UK's ‘cycling cities’. The university-city is located approximately 100 km from London in the south of UK, and is renowned for being an important educational centre and tourist destination. It has a resident population of around 150,000 and a temporary population of around 40,000 students. Around 17% of journeys to work are by cycle compared to the England and Wales average (excluding London) of around 3%(UK Office for National Statistics, 2014). The local authority describes provision for cyclists in Oxford as: “One of the most comprehensive in the country with cycle lanes on many main roads, traffic speeds generally less than 30 mph and 20 mph on all side roads and many quiet routes away from the main radial roads”

 US E Bikes Research

In some parts of the world, electric bicycles (e-bikes) represent a significant share of daily travel, though they are still rare in the United States. The small size and maneuverability of e-bikes that are assets in cities in China may not be as important in the U.S., where cities are built to accommodate cars, but their potential as a substitute for cars makes them an important part of the discussion around sustainable transportation. In this study we conducted 27 interviews with e-bike users in the greater Sacramento area in which we asked participants about the reasons why they chose to invest in an e-bike, the ways in which they use their e-bikes, positive and negative aspects of using e-bikes, and reactions from friends and family members. Several important themes emerged from the interviews. The functional characteristics of e-bikes, particularly greater speed and acceleration than conventional bicycles with less exertion, contribute to several positive aspects of their use, including enabling more people to bicycle, more trips to be made by bicycle, and more fun for their users. The result, for these users, was an overall decrease in driving, with some users getting rid of their car altogether. Negative aspects cited by users include security concerns, safety concerns, unwieldiness, and range anxiety. Participants also discussed several misperceptions on the part of non-users that could inhibit their adoption. These results provide insights for the development of e-bike policy and guidance for future research

E Bikes Use in China

The rapid adoption of electric bikes (e-bikes) (~150 million in 10 years) has come with debate over their role in China's urban transportation system. While there has been some research quantifying impacts of e-bikes on the transportation system, there has been little work tracking e-bike use patterns over time. This paper investigates e-bike use over a 6-year period. Four bi-annual travel diary surveys of e-bike users were conducted between 2006 and 2012 in Kunming, China. Choice models were developed to investigate factors influencing mode-transition and motorization pathways. As expected, income and vehicle ownership strongly influence car-based transitions. Younger and female respondents were more likely to choose car-based modes. Systematic and unobserved changes over time (time-dynamics) favor car-based modes, with the exception of previous car users who already shifted away from cars being less likely to revert to cars over time. E-bikes act as an intermediate mode, interrupting the transition from bicycle to bus and from bus to car. Over 6 years, e-bikes are displacing prospective bus (65→55%), car/taxi (15→24%) and bicycle (19→7%) trips. Over 40% of e-bike riders now have household car access so e-bikes are effectively replacing many urban car trips

Swiss E Bikes Research

Modal shifts hold considerable potential to mitigate carbon emissions. Electric bikes (e-bikes) represent a promising energy- and carbon-efficient alternative to cars. However, as mobility behaviour is highly habitual, convincing people to switch from cars to e-bikes is challenging. One strategy to accomplish this is the disruption of existing habits—a key idea behind an annual e-bike promotion programme in Switzerland, in which car owners can try out an e-bike for free over a two-week period in exchange for their car keys. By means of a longitudinal survey, we measured the long-term effects of this trial on mobility-related habitual associations. After one year, participants' habitual association with car use had weakened significantly. This finding was valid both for participants who bought an e-bike after the trial and those who did not. Our findings contrast the results of other studies who find that the effect of interventions to induce modal shifts wears off over time. We conclude that an e-bike trial has the potential to break mobility habits and motivate car owners to use more sustainable means of transport

Swiss Intervention design

The annual Bike4Car programme in Switzerland seeks to break car drivers' habitual behaviour. In this programme, organised by a Swiss environmental nongovernmental organisation (NGO), car owners are offered a free trial of an e-bike over a 2 week period in exchange for their car keys. In 2015 Bike4Car was implemented in collaboration with bike retailers making e-bikes available to the participants; the Swiss Federal Office of Energy, which supported the programme with an intense national ad campaign (TV, internet and posters); and 32 cities responsible for local promotion. Between May and September 2015, 1854 car owners participated in Bike4Car. After the end of the programme, participants were offered a coupon to purchase an e-bike for a reduced price. Reductions varied by retailer. The largest participating retailer offered a reduction of 500 CHF (approx. 425 Euro), covering around 20%–25% of the price of an e-bike. By November 2015 10% of participants used their coupon to buy an e-bike