World’s Biggest Nuclear Fusion Reactor Unveiled In Japan

The world’s largest operational experimental nuclear fusion reactor has been inaugurated in Naka, Japan.

Unlike traditional nuclear fission used in power plants, fusion mimics the sun’s energy production by merging two nuclei, potentially offering a safer and more abundant energy source.

This colossal machine, dubbed JT-60SA, is housed in a hangar north of Tokyo in Naka. This six-story-high machine comprises a doughnut-shaped ‘tokamak’ vessel to contain swirling plasma heated to 200 million degrees Celsius. The objective is to explore the viability of fusion as a secure, expansive, and carbon-neutral net energy source, where the energy produced surpasses the input required for its production.

This joint venture between the European Union and Japan serves as a forerunner for the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) currently under construction in France. Both projects share the ambitious goal of achieving net energy gain from fusion, a milestone that could revolutionize our energy systems.

Sam Davis, the deputy project leader for the JT-60SA, said the device will “bring us closer to fusion energy”.

“It’s the result of a collaboration between more than 500 scientists and engineers and more than 70 companies throughout Europe and Japan,” Davis said at the inauguration.

The EU energy commissioner, Kadri Simson, said the JT-60SA was “the most advanced tokamak in the world” and called the start of operations “a milestone for fusion history.”

Singapore & Indonesia To Co-develop ChatGPT-like AI Tool, Bahasa Indonesia

A ChatGPT-like tool in Bahasa Indonesia is in the works, following a new agreement between Singapore and Indonesia to collaborate in the field of artificial intelligence (AI).

Signed in Jakarta on Nov 30, four Indonesian entities signed a letter of intent with AI Singapore, the Republic’s national AI programme, to co-develop a new large language model (LLM) tool using similar technology that powers ChatGPT and Google’s Bard.

The four agencies involved include Indonesia’s National Research and Innovation Agency, the Collaboration for Research and Innovation in Artificial Intelligence (Korika), as well as AI tool development firms Glair.ai and Datasaur.ai, backed by venture capital firm GDP Venture.

LLMs process vast amounts of information, learning how language is used to analyze text, comprehend query contexts, generate human-like responses, and perform various language-related tasks. The goal of this initiative is to provide an accessible LLM tool for Bahasa Indonesia, catering to a wide range of stakeholders.

The joint release emphasized the under-representation of South-east Asia in commonly used LLMs, which are predominantly from the US and China. AI Singapore’s head of strategy, partnerships, and growth, Darius Liu, highlighted the importance of such collaborations to address this gap and acknowledged the potential impact of LLM tools on various sectors in the economy.

According to global research firm Statista, Bahasa Indonesia constitutes only 0.6% of online content, underscoring the need for research and development efforts tailored to the language’s unique nuances and demands.

The collaboration comes in the wake of Bahasa Indonesia being designated as the 10th official language of the Unesco General Conference during the 42nd session in Paris on Nov 20. The event, held at Plaza Senayan mall in central Jakarta, signifies a step towards leveraging AI to enhance efficiency in Indonesia and boost the nation’s growth in the future.

Indonesia’s Deputy Minister of Communication and Informatics, Nezar Patria, expressed how AI could contribute significantly to Indonesia’s GDP, potentially adding $366 billion by 2030 and nearly $1 trillion across South-east Asia.

Chandrayaan-3 Propulsion Module Brought Back To Earth’s Orbit: ISRO

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully brought back Chandrayaan-3 Propulsion Module to Earth orbit, after exceeding its lunar mission objectives. It also demonstrated India’s ability to not only launch objects to the Moon but also bring them back.

Following the lunar hop by Vikram (lander), this was another accomplishment that shows that ISRO can restart engines on the moon and operate equipment, both of which were not foreseen, the national space agency stated in a release.

Bringing the propulsion module back to Earth avoids it not only from crashing into the moon at the end of its life, but also from entering geostationary orbit and colliding with other satellites. “Considering the estimated fuel availability and the safety to GEO spacecrafts, the optimal Earth return trajectory was designed for October 2023,” the space agency said.

“The first manoeuvre was performed on October 9, 2023, to raise the apolune altitude to 5112 km from 150 km, thus increasing the period of orbit from 2.1 hrs to 7.2 hrs. Later, considering the estimate of available propellant, the second manoeuvre plan was revised to target an Earth orbit of 1.8 lakh x 3.8 lakh km,” the agency added.

Currently, the Chandrayaan-3 propulsion module orbits the Earth at an altitude of about 1.54 lakh km, reaching a minimum altitude of 1.15 lakh km. The orbital period spans around 13 days, and as per current predictions, there is no threat of close approach with operational Earth-orbiting satellites.

The payload onboard the propulsion module, named SHAPE, will continue its spectroscopic study of Earth’s atmosphere from its new orbit.

India, US To Launch Nisar In 2024

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) are gearing up to launch the NISAR satellite in the first quarter of 2024.

The announcement comes after a high-profile meeting between a NASA delegation, led by administrator Bill Nelson, and India’s Minister of State for Science and Technology, Jitendra Singh.

NISAR is a low earth orbit observatory being jointly developed by NASA and ISRO to map the entire globe in 12 days and provide data for understanding changes in Earth and its climate. The satellite is expected to be worth nearly $1 billion.

During the meeting, Administrator Bill Nelson expressed NASA’s openness to supporting India in building its own space station, thereby deepening the collaboration between the two space agencies. The United States and India are actively working on plans to send an Indian astronaut to the International Space Station by the close of 2024.

“We expect by that time to have a commercial space station. I think India wants to have a commercial space station by 2040. If India wants us to collaborate with them, of course, we will be available. But that’s up to India,” Nelson said.

ISRO Plans to Collect Soil Samples from Moon to Bring to Earth

The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is planning a mission to collect soil or rock samples from the Moon and bring these to Earth.

The proposed Lunar Sample Return Mission (LSRM) will hopefully be accomplished in the next five to seven years, said Nilesh Desai, Director, Space Application Centre (SAC), ISRO in a statement.

Under the project, which has an expected launch date in 2028, soil or rock samples will be collected from the Shiv Shakti point on the lunar surface. Two separate launch vehicles will be used to carry out the mission, as the exercise involves four modules: Transfer, Lander, Ascender, and Re-entry.

ISRO will use the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) Mark-II for the Transfer and Re-entry modules, while GSLV Mark-III be used for the Ascender and Lander modules.

The project, like Chandrayaan 3, is planned for one lunar day (14 days on Earth).

The LSRM follows the same lines as NASA’s collection of the first-ever samples from Bennu, the near-Earth asteroid. The US space agency achieved the feat in September with its OSIRIS-REx spacecraft, which returned to Earth’s atmosphere after completing a seven-year journey.

Amazon Introduces Electric Vehicle Fleet for Emission-Free Deliveries

Amazon has initiated a worldwide last-mile fleet program in India, exclusively employing electric vehicles (EVs) for deliveries in its pursuit of achieving net-zero emissions. The program provides assistance and customised vehicles to its Delivery Service Partners (DSPs), promoting carbon-neutral deliveries in the Indian subcontinent.

The company has revealed its latest fleet of Mahindra Zor Grand three-wheeler EVs. These vehicles come equipped with digital rear-view cameras for enhanced safety, have a maximum speed of 50 kmph, and can cover over 100 km on a single charge. Additionally, the vehicles are integrated with telematics and safety technology, allowing real-time monitoring of vehicle performance and driving behaviour.

This initiative not only facilitates the leasing of the EV fleet, but also offers support to DSPs for maintenance, charging, and parking of these vehicles.

Amazon has set an ambitious goal to expand its electric fleet to 10,000 vehicles by 2025 in India, with a commitment to achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2040. The company has already deployed more than 6,000 electric vehicles across more than 400 cities in India.

As part of its sustainability efforts, Amazon has pledged $10 million to the C40 Cities’ initiative, Laneshift, in collaboration with The Climate Pledge and Global Optimism.

Solar-Powered Device Converts Contaminated Water into Clean Water, Fuel

Researchers at the University of Cambridge have developed a floating, solar-powered device that can turn contaminated water or seawater into clean hydrogen fuel and purified water, anywhere in the world. The device could be useful in resource-limited or off-grid environments, as it works with any open water source and does not require any outside power.

The machine is inspired by photosynthesis, the natural process by which plants convert sunlight into food. However, unlike previous versions of the ‘artificial leaf’, which could produce green hydrogen fuel from clean water sources, the new device operates from polluted or seawater sources, while producing clean drinking water at the same time.

Tests of the device showed it was able to produce clean water from highly polluted water, seawater, and even from the River Cam in central Cambridge.

In addition, the new device uses more of the Sun’s energy. The researchers used a white, UV-absorbing layer on top of the floating device for hydrogen production via water splitting. The rest of the light in the solar spectrum is transmitted to the bottom of the device, which evaporates the water, making better use of the light.

The results of the study have been published in the journal Nature Water.

Google’s AI Beats Supercomputers for Fast, Accurate Weather Forecasts

Google has unveiled GraphCast, a powerful new artificial intelligence (AI) that can make weather forecasts more accurately than existing best tools. In only one minute, the technology on a single machine made accurate predictions up to 10 days in advance, a task that usually takes many supercomputers hours to achieve.

In tests, GraphCast running on a single Google TPU v4 machine was compared to the current gold-standard for weather prediction – High Resolution Forecast (HRES), a simulation system running on supercomputers. It was able to make 10-day forecasts in under a minute, and was more accurate than HRES on 90% of the test variables and forecast lead times. When the models were focused on the troposphere – the lowest layer of the atmosphere, where accurate predictions are most useful and applicable to life – GraphCast outperformed HRES 99.7% of the time.

The new AI was trained on 40 years’ worth of weather reanalysis data, gathered by satellite images, radar and weather stations. GraphCast takes the state of the weather six hours ago and the current state, and uses its data to predict the weather state six hours from now. From this, it can project forward in six-hour increments to build a forecast up to 10 days ahead.

The research was published in the journal Science.

NASA-ISRO Satellite Game Changer for Climate Predictions, Says NASA

Laurie Leshin, Director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), has lauded the collaboration with Indian space agency, ISRO, calling it the most significant technological partnership between the US and India in space exploration history.

Set for liftoff in the first quarter of 2024, the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) will utilise the world’s most expensive Earth imaging satellite to study climate change.

NISAR marks the first collaboration between NASA and ISRO on hardware development for an Earth-observing mission. It aims to shed light on how changes in the ecosystems of forests and wetlands influence the global carbon cycle and climate change.

The JPL, managed by Caltech in Pasadena, spearheads the US segment, which is contributing the L-band SAR, radar reflector antenna, deployable boom, communication subsystem, GPS receivers, solid-state recorder, and payload data subsystem to NISAR.

The U.R. Rao Satellite Centre in Bengaluru takes the lead for the ISRO component, which has provided the spacecraft bus, S-band SAR electronics, launch vehicle, launch services, and satellite mission operations.

NISAR’s comprehensive monitoring will occur approximately every 12 days and go beyond studying just climate change. It will encompass the dynamics of forests, wetlands, and agricultural lands, enhancing scientific understanding across various observables.

India May Get E-Air Taxis by 2026, 90-Minute Car Trip to Take 7 Minutes

InterGlobe Enterprises and US-based Archer Aviation will launch an all-electric air taxi service in India in 2026 that will be cost-competitive with on-road services, the companies said on November 9.

The partnership, once the companies get regulatory clearances, aims to capitalise on a growing need for transport solutions in India. The world’s most populous country is battling severe ground travel congestion and pollution in its main cities.

Backed by companies like Chrysler-parent Stellantis, Boeing and United Airlines, Archer Aviation makes electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft that have been touted as the future of urban air mobility. These ‘Midnight’ e-aircraft can carry four passengers and a pilot for up to 100 miles (about 161 kilometers).

The service aims to start with 200 aircraft from Delhi, Mumbai, and Bengaluru. A trip that typically takes 60 to 90 minutes by car in Delhi, for example, will take about 7 minutes in an air taxi.

InterGlobe Enterprises also plans to use the e-aircraft for cargo, logistics, medical, emergency and charter services.

Archer Aviation secured a $142 million-deal from the US Air Force in July to provide six Midnight aircraft. The company in October said that it would launch an air taxi service in the UAE.