When First satellite … Sputnik I … was launched on October 4, 1957 into space no one in the world would had ever thought that after couple of decades we will have to take serious measures to remove this Junk that we send in space !!! But at present , it is perhaps one of the most notorious thing that scientist are worried about …

Space itself is a very dangerous place , why ??? may be because here if you got into any troubles then you won’t find any hospital in near by few thousands miles … or worse , you even won’t be able to see or predict the incoming danger !!!

The danger i am talking about here is a very small parts of waste materials from satellites , some are parts of dead satellite … or dead satellite itself ( as you may know that satellites are then tend to be dead or fail time to time !!! ) … these junk is known as SPACE DEBRIS  … it varies in size from a golf ball to say a football ?? … and it varies in form too … astronaut hand glove , camera , tools or toolbox or even garbage bags are some examples !!! The most talked space encounters that created space debris are , the most recent collision between IRIDIUM commercial satellite and Russian satellite which is the most discussed collision (BTW , speed of collision was 26,170 MPH !!! )… or anti-satellite weapon test by china … or same by USA …

Now imagine that such an un-controlled element get hit to another working satellite … or to a guy who just got out of space shuttle to stretch his leg !!! or even worse … a shuttle in process of entering earth’s atmosphere !!!  

At present at U.N. , they don’t have any rule “forced” for this kind of space junking … so unfortunately there are no standards for it and it solely depends upon individual space agency and its budget ( leaving waste behind is cheaper then brining it back to recycle )  … but there are some government organizations which look over and keep track of each of these debris such as Space Surveillance Network (SSN) part of US strategic air defense command center … 

Upto today , there were no major considerable “encounters” with these debris have be met … but space studies shows that in near future if they don’t take any preventive measures then soon the nightmare will become true … so talked International Space Station is equipped with defensive shield from this kind of “encounter” … known as WHIPPLE SHIELD …

Image below shows population of debris view from out of geosynchronous orbit of earth … gives the idea of population in space !!!

Njoy …

Eleven Ugandan college students believe they can bring affordable transportation to rural Africa with a home-grown, dirt-cheap car assembled from farm equipment.

The prototype of the "Poor Man's Car" isn't much to look at, fashioned as it is from sheet metal, wood seats and a diesel engine pulled from a corn mill, but the design and materials would be refined should the car ever see production. Moses Sebulime and his classmates at Makerere University believe the utilitarian runabout could bring mobility to the masses, much like the Tata Nano.

"The maintenance cost of the Poor Man's Car would be minimal as the parts are all locally produced," Sebulime told Wired.com. "It also will be a perfect alternative in rural settings as the engine can be reattached and used for other activities, such as accessories to agricultural machinery."

It's no coincidence that Sebulime wants to do for Africa what the Nano could do for India. He came up with the idea after finishing an internship at the Indian automaker.

The car made its debut at last month's Makerere University Stakeholder's Conference, and the students spent about $4,500 building it. Mechanical engineering professor Dr. Yasin Naku Ziraba said the car "is in its very infancy" and the cost would come down significantly should it see mass production. The university is looking to the government for help getting the car built sometime next year, arguing it could improve the lives of countless people.

"Our people in rural areas have been suffering with transport (problems)," Sebulime told the audience at the stakeholders' conference, according to the Daily Monitor newspaper. "We have now provided the solution. All we need is the government to support us and we start the second stage of sophisticating this technology before we can hit the market."

Hitting the market won't be easy, but Sebulime and his classmates are gaining support. The Monitor praised their innovation and entrepreneurial spirit in an editorial that said the students "have given us reason to retain some faith" in the university. "Either the university or government or both should come to the aid of these students," the paper wrote. "We should not let innovation suffer a stillbirth."

from wired …

Njoy …

The new economic stimulus package set aside $11 billion in federal funding  for creation of a so-called "smart grid." But it's not clear what this national electricity delivery system will look like, how it will function or who will manage the information required to make the grid intelligent. Local power utilities can install the smart meters in homes that provide data about energy usage and constitute an integral part of the overall smart grid, but it's the cable and telephone companies that have the broadband infrastructure to send this info back to the utilities.
Over the next three years, Progress Energy, a Raleigh, N.C., power company, and the University of South Florida in St. Petersburg plan to equip some 5,000 homes and businesses in west St. Petersburg and St. Pete Beach with special meters, sensors and switches to create one of the U.S.'s largest smart grids, according to Tampa Bay Online. If  the $15 million experiment is a success, Progress plans to incorporate smart-grid technology over the next 10 years in its most populated service areas, including Orlando and areas of Pinellas County in addition to St. Petersburg.
Intamac Systems Ltd., a U.K.-based maker of home alarm and monitoring systems, last week said it's negotiating with "major" U.S. telecom carriers to deliver energy metering services to broadband customers in the U.S.,Greentechmedia.com reports. Intamac is already working with Bell Canada (which in 2007 started a pilot project to test its ability to deliver energy metering services to some of its broadband customers) and British Telecom, which is planning to add a similar capability to the Home Hub wireless router it offers BT broadband customers.
Of course, utilities might not want to share the smart-meter market with other service providers. Recognizing this,AT&T last week announced a slightly different approach—the company plans to take its wireless network along with "smart grid" sensors and software from SmartSynch, Inc., directly to the utilities themselves, enabling the utilities to monitor their own energy consumption as well as their customers' energy use.
The model for utilities managing their own smart meter information is working for Austin Energy in Texas, which in 2003  became one of the first U.S. utilities to set up a smart grid.  Some 65,000 of the utility's one million customers  are now on its smart meter system, GDS Publishing Ltd. reported on its Power & Energy Web site. Unlike the current electrical grid, where large amounts of energy are produced whether people need it or not, the smart grid would rely on information from energy consumers to determine how much energy to generate; such a grid could even purchase energy from consumers who produce their own power (via solar panels, wind or other means).
Given the wide open market that smart metering represents, even technology service providers are trying to get in on the action. Online search engine Google last month announced that it's developing software calledPowerMeter, that will let consumers check out their home energy use in near real-time on their computers. No word on how long the testing will last before PowerMeter will be available for download.
Regardless of how individual homes and businesses are metered, the ideal national clean-energy smart grid would use long-distance, extra-high-voltage transmission lines to move remote clean-energy resources to power load centers and connect to a distribution system that delivers energy and detailed, real-time information about the use of such energy to consumers, the Center for American Progress (CAP)  said in a report released last month. The D.C. think tank (headed by John Podesta, former President Clinton's chief of staff and co chairman of President Obama's transition team) recommended that the grid be run like a national enterprise rather than by a patchwork of utilities, that is, that a central federal authority approve clean-energy projects across multiple states simultaneously (to keep construction of any one piece from being held back).

from Scientific American …

Njoy …