Designer Says The Only Way To Fix The Cybertruck Is To Scrap It And Start Over

José Rodríguez Jr.
Wed, August 30, 2023 

Photo: Nic Coury (Getty Images)

The road to a production Cybertruck has been bumpy. Almost as bumpy and uneven as the first Cybertrucks coming out of the Austin Gigafactory, which have reportedly been so bad that they prompted Elon Musk to send an urgent email to Tesla employees. In the message, Musk demanded greater precision in the production process of the EV pickup, with Musk going on to reference the famously tight tolerances of Lego blocks and soda cans to inspire his workers to build better Cybertrucks. It goes without saying that the time to ask for “sub 10 micron accuracy” from your own company, let alone the suppliers building parts for the thing would be several years ago, before the car was “headed for production.” But we’re all learning as we go in this life.

But a better Cybertruck would only be possible through a complete redesign, according to Fast Company, which cites car designer and the Autopian contributor Adrian Clarke. The issues come down to the impossibly flat body panels of the Cybertruck. Given the design of the EV, small imperfections inherent in the production process are all the more clear, as Clarke tells Fast Company:

Still, Musk is soldiering on with the Cybertruck despite its unprecedented design, which remains unprecedented for good reason: it makes production difficult and repairs nearly impossible.

Photo: Nic Coury (Getty Images)

I get the impulse to design something simple and clean. Really, I do. But there’s a difference between something minimalist and something reductive. The Cybertruck strikes me as an attempt at the former that went off the rails and arrived at the latter. A bad joke that started with Elon Musk or someone else at Tesla saying “what if we did this instead...” followed by uproarious laughter at crudely drawn lines and four circles. Behold, the Cybertruck, said some genius and no one dared to question the so-called Technoking.

The problem is that the bit went too far. That is, if the damned thing ever makes it to production.

Photo: Frederic J. Brown (Getty Images)

 Jalopnik

MOTORCYCLES &  RICKSHAWS

India is one of the world's fastest-growing EV markets. This is why

SIBI ARASU
Wed, August 30, 2023 

BENGALURU, India (AP) — Groceries stashed in the back of an electric delivery scooter are an increasingly familiar sight in the Indian city of Bengaluru. In crowded markets, electric rickshaws drop off and pick up passengers. And the number of tech startups focused on electric transport has shot up as the city — and country — embrace electric vehicles.

India is one of the fastest-growing electric vehicle markets in the world and now has millions of EV owners. More than 90% of its 2.3 million electric vehicles are the cheaper and more popular two- or three-wheelers — that’s motorbikes, scooters and rickshaws — and over half of India’s three-wheeler registrations in 2022 were electric, according to an IEA report released in April.

A $1.3 billion federal plan to encourage EV manufacturing and provide discounts for customers, along with the past decade's rising fuel costs and consumer awareness of the long-term cost benefits are combining to drive up sales, analysts say.

Electric vehicles are one solution to bring down planet-warming emissions and improve air quality — with road transport contributing significantly to global emissions. For the electric vehicles market to successfully slash carbon, experts say moving electricity generation away from fossil fuels, managing critical mineral supply chains and boosting EV sales across different socioeconomic backgrounds in the country will be key.

Balaji Premkumar, a 25-year-old rickshaw delivery driver, switched to an EV earlier this year. At most traffic stops he's surrounded by gas-powered three-wheelers that rumble and rattle, spewing thick smoke into the air — something that his used to do, too, before he went electric.

Premkumar said the new vehicle is easier and more comfortable to drive and he can already see a cost difference. “If I spend 60 rupees (0.72 cents) to charge the vehicle for three hours, I get 80 kilometers (50 miles). In a diesel vehicle I’ll be spending at least 300 rupees ($3.60) to get the same mileage,” he said.

Santhosh Kumar, 23, a rickshaw delivery driver for Bengaluru-based logistics company City Link, can also feel the benefits since he switched to electric.

"The vehicle never breaks down and there are a lot of charging points all around so I never run out of charge,” said Kumar. Charging points in India have increased tenfold, according to Elizabeth Connolly, an energy technology and transport analyst at the IEA.

While Kumar doesn’t have his own electric vehicle yet — the one he drives belongs to the company — he dreams of buying his own, or even several that he can rent out.

“It’s only a matter of time before everyone shifts to electric,” he said.

Two- and three-wheelers are mostly used to make deliveries or give rides. They clock up miles fast, making an electric model a noticeably cheaper option than paying for gas, said N.C. Thirumalai at the Bengaluru-based think tank, Center for Study of Science, Technology and Policy.

But he said long-term viability for electric vehicles depends on securing supplies of the critical minerals needed for batteries, as well as other parts. The source of electricity to charge the vehicles also must be clean, which isn't currently the case.

More than three quarters of India’s electricity is generated from fossil fuels — mostly coal — according to government reports. And mining companies, including in India, have been criticized for unsafe mining practices of minerals needed to make components for electric vehicles and other clean energy infrastructure.

“As EVs increase and minerals such as lithium begin to be sourced within country, the mining industry should definitely make sure sustainable mining practices are taken forward,” said Thirumalai.

Thirumalai is optimistic about cleaner electricity in the future. The "huge thrust for renewables in the country" means electric vehicle emissions should reduce in time.

While progress on renewables has been mixed, India plans to install 500 gigawatts of clean energy by the end of the decade — enough to power 300 million Indian homes — and aims to reach net zero emissions by 2070.

But the country also needs “to address how to unlock financing for EVs as well as associated industries” to bump up the number of people who can afford them, said Akshima Ghate of the New Delhi-based clean energy nonprofit RMI India. Incentives like low-interest loans for potential customers and providing tax breaks for electric vehicles can ramp up sales, particularly for lower-income buyers, she said.

Still, Ghate thinks that India's swift move to smaller electric vehicles can serve as a template for other emerging economies that are two- and three-wheeler nations, like Indonesia, the Philippines and some African countries.

When it comes to “setting benchmarks for developing economies, India plays a leading role," she said.

___

Follow Sibi Arasu on Twitter at @sibi123

Balaji Premkumar, a 25-year-old rickshaw delivery driver, rides an electric vehicle which he switched to this year, in Bengaluru, India, Monday, May 29, 2023. At most traffic stops he's surrounded by gas-powered three-wheelers that rumble and rattle, spewing thick smoke into the air — something that his used to do, too, before he went electric.

A man walks past electric rickshaws parked inside the premises of a logistics company City Link in Bengaluru, India, Wednesday, May 31, 2023. India is one of the fastest growing electric vehicle markets in the world. 

Balaji Premkumar, a 25-year-old rickshaw delivery driver, who switched to an electric vehicle this year, displays a map on his mobile phone showing several charging hubs for electric vehicles in Bengaluru, India, Monday, May 29, 2023. At most traffic stops he's surrounded by gas-powered three-wheelers that rumble and rattle, spewing thick smoke into the air — something that his used to do, too, before he went electric.

Santhosh Kumar, 23, an electric rickshaw delivery driver for logistics company City Link stands next to a row of electric vehicles parked inside company's premises in Bengaluru, India, Wednesday, May 31, 2023. While Kumar doesn't have his own electric vehicle yet — the one he drives belongs to the company — he dreams of buying his own, or even several that he can rent out. 

A man rides an electric scooter through a street in Bengaluru, India, Monday, Aug. 28, 2023. India is one of the fastest growing electric vehicle markets in the world. 

Electric delivery rickshaws are being charged at a charging hub in Bengaluru, India, Wednesday, May 31, 2023. India is one of the fastest growing electric vehicle markets in the world. 

An electric rickshaw delivery driver exits after parking the vehicle at logistics company City Link in Bengaluru, India, Wednesday, May 31, 2023. India is one of the fastest growing electric vehicle markets in the world. 

Sales staff attend to the customers at an electric two-wheeler store in Bengaluru, India, Monday, Aug. 28, 2023. India is one of the fastest growing electric vehicle markets in the world.

A woman walks past an electric rickshaw in Bengaluru, India, Monday, May 29, 2023. India is one of the fastest growing electric vehicle markets in the world. 

Balaji Premkumar, center, a 25-year-old rickshaw delivery driver who switched to an electric vehicle this year, watches as staff of a furnishing outlet unload goods delivered by him in Bengaluru, India, Monday, May 29, 2023. At most traffic stops he's surrounded by gas-powered three-wheelers that rumble and rattle, spewing thick smoke into the air — something that his used to do, too, before he went electric. 

Electric two-wheelers are displayed for sale outside a store in Bengaluru, India, Monday, Aug. 28, 2023. India is one of the fastest growing electric vehicle markets in the world.

Santhosh Kumar, 23, an electric rickshaw delivery driver for logistics company City Link leaves the company premises to pick a load from a customer in Bengaluru, India, Wednesday, May 31, 2023. While Kumar doesn't have his own electric vehicle yet — the one he drives belongs to the company — he dreams of buying his own, or even several that he can rent out. 

A man exits an electric two-wheeler store in Bengaluru, India, Monday, Aug. 28, 2023. India is one of the fastest growing electric vehicle markets in the world.

 AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi

Analysis-Engineer shortage may harm US plan to turn Vietnam into chips powerhouse

Wed, August 30, 2023 

By Francesco Guarascio

HANOI (Reuters) - A chronic shortage of engineers in Vietnam is emerging as a major challenge to the growth of its semiconductor industry and to U.S. plans of fast-tracking the Southeast Asian nation as a chips hub to hedge against China-related supply risks.

Semiconductors are expected to be a focal point when U.S. President Joe Biden visits Hanoi from Sept. 10 with the goal of formally elevating ties between the two countries. He will offer Vietnam support to boost its chips production, U.S. administration officials said.

"Friendshoring" segments of the strategic semiconductors industry has been one of Washington's key inducements to persuade Vietnam's communist leaders to agree to formally upgrade relations. Hanoi was initially reluctant about the move over fears of an adverse reaction from China.

The boost to formal ties could bring billions of dollars of new private investment and some public funds to Vietnam's semiconductor industry. But industry officials, analysts and investors said that the small pool of trained experts will be a crucial hurdle for the rapid development of the chip industry.

"The number of available hardware engineers is way below what is needed to support multi-billion-dollar investments," about one-tenth of expected demand over the next 10 years, said Vu Tu Thanh, head of the Vietnam office of the US-ASEAN Business Council.

The 100-million-people country has only 5,000 to 6,000 trained hardware engineers for the chip sector, against expected demand of 20,000 in five years and 50,000 in a decade, Thanh said, citing estimates from companies and engineers.

There's also a risk of inadequate supply of trained chips software engineers, said Hung Nguyen, senior program manager on supply chains at RMIT University Vietnam.

Vietnam's ministries in charge of labour, education, information, technology and foreign affairs did not reply to requests for comment.

CHINA'S COMMANDING POSITION

The Southeast Asian nation's semiconductor industry, whose exports to the U.S. are worth more than half a billion dollars annually, according to Vietnam government figures, is currently focused on the back-end manufacturing stage of the supply chain - that is assembling, packaging and testing of chips - though it is slowing broadening out into areas such as designing.

The White House has not specified which segments of the chips industry in Vietnam will be prioritised, but U.S. industry executives have indicated that the back-end is a key growth sector.

China has played an important role in these considerations. Nearly 40% of the global back-end manufacturing was in China in 2019, according to Boston Consulting Group, against just 2% in the United States. Another 27% was in Taiwan, around which China has stepped up military activity, fanning fears of conflict.

That makes the assembling segment one of the most concentrated in the industry, after chipmaking. In no other segment has Beijing had such a commanding position.

That is despite Intel having operated in southern Vietnam for about 15 years its world's biggest factory for assembling, packaging and testing chips.

But, in a sign of growing interest, rival Amkor is building near Hanoi "a state-of-the-art mega factory for semiconductor assembly and testing," U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on a visit to Hanoi last month.

More private investment could come, especially if a significant share of the $500 million available under the U.S. CHIPS Act for global semiconductor supply chains ends up in Vietnam.

The U.S. may also be interested in boosting Vietnam's supply of raw materials for chips, especially rare earths, of which the country is estimated to have the world's second largest deposits after China, said Hung at RMIT University Vietnam.

The country is making inroads in the smaller segment of chip designing. U.S. chip design software company Synopsys has operations there, rival Marvell plans to build a "world-class" centre, and local firms are expanding.

Vietnam is also attracting interest from manufacturers of chip-making machines and has flagged ambitions to build its first semiconductor manufacturing plant, or fab, by the end of the decade.

JOB OPENINGS

The semiconductor ambitions could, however, remain pipe dreams if the skilled labour shortage is not addressed properly, making Vietnam more vulnerable to regional competitors such as Malaysia and India.

Intel has repeatedly urged authorities to broaden the pool of skilled workers, officials said.

It has considered nearly doubling its $1.5 billion operation in Vietnam, sources said earlier this year, but it is unclear whether that is still the plan after it announced massive investments in Europe in June. Intel did not reply to a request for comment.

Amkor has about 60 job openings on its Vietnam website, mostly for engineers and managers. It did not reply to a request for comment.

A workaround could be to ease Vietnam's rules to issue work permits for overseas engineers, which currently "are very hard to get quickly," Thanh of the US-ASEAN Business Council said - until the domestic skilled workforce is sufficiently boosted.

But that would require legislative changes and faster administrative procedures - no easy feat, according to several Vietnam-based diplomats and entrepreneurs.

Biden intends to discuss with Vietnam's leaders workforce development programs, the White House said in a statement, that could expand existing training initiatives.

(Reporting by Francesco Guarascio; Additional reporting by Steve Holland and Trevor Hunnicutt in Washington, Khanh Vu and Phuong Nguyen in Hanoi; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

Electric cars soaked by saltwater from hurricane go up in flames, Florida officials say

Irene Wright
Thu, August 31, 2023 

Palm Harbor Fire Rescue via Facebook


Hurricane Idalia ripped through Florida’s Nature Coast, leaving a path of destruction behind.

But, as the floodwaters recede, there is a new risk threatening owners of electric vehicles.

Two Tesla cars, one in Palm Harbor and another in Pinellas Park, seemed to spontaneously combust after becoming flooded with saltwater during the hurricane, Florida officials said.

On Aug. 30, Palm Harbor Fire Rescue responded to a Tesla on fire in Dunedin, according to the department’s Facebook post.

The car had become flooded with saltwater during the storm surge following Hurricane Idalia.

In Pinellas Park, on Aug. 31, a Tesla owner called a tow truck to move his flooded car, the Pinellas Park Police Department told WTSP.

When the car was on the back of the truck, it suddenly burst into flames, leaving behind a charred frame when the fire was finally subdued, the outlet reported.

“If you own a hybrid or electric vehicle that has come into contact with saltwater due to recent flooding within the last 24 hours, it is crucial to relocate the vehicle from your garage without delay,” Palm Harbor Fire Rescue said in the post.

Firefighters said exposure from saltwater can trigger spontaneous combustion of lithium-ion batteries, used in electric cars, but also found in some golf carts and electric scooters.

“Don’t drive these through water. PHFR crews have seen numerous residents out in carts and children on scooters riding through the water,” Palm Harbor Fire Rescue said.
Reminders of Hurricane Ian

In September 2022, Hurricane Ian brought massive flooding to Florida’s west coast.

In the weeks following the saltwater surge, there were 12 reports of electric vehicle fires in Collier and Lee counties, according to the U.S. Fire Administration.

One of those fires grew so severe it burned down two houses on Sanibel Island, the administration said.

“According to the NHTSA, residual salt within the battery or battery components can form conductive ‘bridges’ that can lead to short circuit and self-heating of the battery, resulting in fires,” the USFA said. “The time frame in which a damaged battery can ignite has been observed to vary widely, from days to weeks.”

Aware of the risks

Tesla is aware of the potential fire risks following saltwater flooding in its vehicles and provides information about flooding on its website.

“Tesla wants to ensure you have the information you need to should there be a risk of vehicle submersion or if your vehicle experiences submersion in water,” the company says. “If you notice fire, smoke, audible popping/hissing or heating coming from your vehicle, step away and immediately contact your local first responders.”

Tesla also recommends moving any submerged car at least 50 feet away from all structures or combustible materials for fear a fire would spread.

McClatchy News reached out to Tesla about the specific fires following Hurricane Idalia and did not receive an immediate response.

Palm Harbor is about 25 miles northwest of Tampa.

Pinellas Park is about 20 miles south of Palm Harbor.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Nikola founder loses bid for a new trial

Alan Adler

FREIGHT WAVES
Thu, August 31, 2023 

Nikola founder Trevor Milton was denied a new trial on his federal fraud convictions. (Photo: Nikola Corp.)

Nikola Corp. founder Trevor Milton lost his bid for a new trial when the judge in his case rejected a defense claim that a juror hid a bias against rich people.

Milton’s personal fortune approached $10 billion during the high-flying days of the electric truck maker’s stock following its public debut in 2020. He has cashed out hundreds of millions of his holdings. But he still owns more than 5% of the company he founded in 2015.

Milton’s defense team argued in December that the juror’s comments showed bias that entitled him to a new trial.

According to a Reuters report on Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos said the juror’s online posts did not show she lied about her views during jury selection.

“One can simultaneously lament wealth inequality and believe that corporate executives are not more inclined than others to break the law, are ‘worth’ the amount that they earn, and are otherwise entitled to a fair trial,” the judge said.

Ramos also rejected defense arguments that prosecutors failed to prove their case against Milton.

Prosecutors: Milton sought to enrich himself through rising stock price

Milton was convicted in October 2022 on one count of securities fraud and two counts of wire fraud. Prosecutors claimed he sought to enrich himself through a rising stock price by lying about Nikola’s prowess and technology progress in developing hydrogen-powered electric trucks. Milton once owned 26% of Nikola stock.

The company is now building hydrogen-powered fuel cell electric trucks at a plant in Coolidge, Arizona. Deliveries are expected to begin in the fourth quarter.

Milton is now scheduled for sentencing on Nov. 28 in the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, New York. His sentencing has been postponed several times. It was most recently scheduled for Sept. 22. Milton remains free on a $100 million bond.

Nikola recently concluded arbitration with Milton in its attempt to get him to reimburse the company for a $125 million Securities and Exchange Commission fine related to Milton’s claims about the company. Nikola also is seeking to recover some of the tens of millions it spent defending him following his departure from the company in September 2020.

There is no indication when the arbitrator will rule.

Separately, Nikola on Thursday said it appointed former Hub Group and Schneider executive John Vesco to its board. He fills a seat vacated by former CEO Michael Lohscheller who resigned from the company earlier this month because of a family issue.

Related articles:

Convicted Nikola founder Trevor Milton seeks new trial

Nikola founder guilty on 3 fraud counts

Nikola will push indicted founder to reimburse expected $125M SEC fine

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Europe’s Top Copper Producer Aurubis Hit by Huge Metals Scam

Mark Burton
Fri, September 1, 2023 

(Bloomberg) -- Europe’s top copper producer Aurubis AG warned it may face losses in the hundreds of millions of euros after being hit by a massive scam involving shipments of scrap metal that it uses in its recycling business.

Shares in the company plunged as much as 18% after it announced it found a significant metal shortfall and said it no longer expects to meet its profit forecast for the year. Aurubis believes some of its suppliers have manipulated details about the scrap metal they provided and had been working with employees in the company’s sampling department to cover it up.

The global metals industry has been rocked in recent years by a series of scandals, including the shock revelation by commodities trader Trafigura Group that it was the victim of a massive alleged nickel fraud. The incident will raise concerns about Aurubis’s security controls, particularly after the company said in June that it had uncovered a theft ring targeting products containing precious metals. The two incidents appear to be separate, a spokesperson said.

The scam announced late Thursday relates to material purchased for Aurubis’s metal-recycling business. In addition to raw material from mines, the company also buys huge volumes of copper-bearing scrap, from near-new manufacturing offcuts to old cables, pipes and electronic circuit boards. It processes thousands of tons of these materials every day to produce refined metal.

Manipulated Details

“What we currently know is that some of our recycling suppliers appear to have manipulated details about the raw materials they deliver to us, and they have been working with employees in our sampling department to hide the shortfall from us,” Angela Seidler, vice president for investor relations and corporate communications, said by phone. Suppliers provide an estimation of what the materials contain, and after a visual inspection Aurubis’s labs analyze the metal content and pay the firms on that basis, Seidler said.

“Then, in the production process, we have found that the metal is missing, but it is something we have discovered over time because in the case of copper, for example, it takes four weeks for the material to be processed.”

The company is conducting a thorough check of metal reserves that should be completed by the end of September, and it has involved Germany’s state office of criminal investigation.

Aurubis had previously forecast operating earnings before taxes of €450 million to €550 million for the 2022-23 financial year, which it no longer expects to achieve. It said losses could be in the “low, three-digit-million-euro range.” Steelmaker Salzgitter AG, which owns 30% of Aurubis, has also suspended its results guidance for the financial year.

What’s Behind a String of Scandals in Metals Trading?: QuickTake

Serious Incident

“It’s a very serious incident, but the impact of it will be digested within our current fiscal year, and it will not have an impact on our expansion plans and our strategic priorities,” Seidler said.

Aurubis said in June that the public prosecutor’s office and police were investigating a suspected theft ring. Several Aurubis employee workspaces and the on-site offices of contractors at the Hamburg site were searched as part of the investigation, it said at the time.

“It appears to be separate from the incident in June, but it is too early to say whether or not the cases are interlinked,” Seidler said. “In that incident, they stole high-value precious-metal bearing intermediates that are generated during the refining process, and it takes a certain knowledge and access to processing equipment to treat these materials. The people involved in that are currently in custody awaiting trial.”

Aurubis’s announcement is the latest in a series of scandals to hit the global metal industry in recent years.

Trader Trafigura said in February that it expected to lose nearly $600 million in what it called a “systematic fraud,” after finding that cargoes of nickel it had bought didn’t contain any nickel.

The London Metal Exchange also this year shocked the market after discovering that a small number of bags of nickel registered in its warehousing network were filled with stones instead.

--With assistance from Jan-Patrick Barnert.

Bloomberg Businessweek

Old Soviet satellite breaks apart in orbit after space debris collision

Tereza Pultarova
Wed, August 30, 2023

An illustration of Earth orbit overcrowded with space junk and orbital debris.

A three-decade-old Soviet satellite has disintegrated in orbit some 870 miles (1,400 kilometers) above Earth, likely following a space debris strike.

The disintegration of the satellite, either the Kosmos-2143 or Kosmos-2145 spacecraft, was reported on X, previously Twitter, by astrophysicist and space debris expert Jonathan McDowell. The event highlights the precarious situation in Earth's orbit where old objects accumulated throughout the more than 60 years of space exploration and utilization are now posing threats to new, still functioning satellites.

"Another possible orbital impact event: Seven debris objects cataloged from a defunct Soviet communications satellite launched in 1991," McDowell said in a post on X, previously known as Twitter. "Debris appears to be from either Kosmos-2143 or Kosmos-2145, two of 8 Strela-1M sats launched on the same rocket."

Old soviet satellites and used rocket stages left at altitudes above 500 miles (800 km) are of great concern to space sustainability researchers. Floating too high to be taken down by the natural decay of their orbits caused by the drag of Earth's residual atmosphere, these objects have already been involved in several incidents.

Related: How many satellites can we safely fit in Earth orbit?

In February 2009, a cousin of the Kosmos-2143 and Kosmos-2145 spacecraft, a satellite designated as Kosmos 2251, smashed into an operational satellite of the U.S. telecommunications company Iridium 490 miles (789 kilometers) above Earth, creating a giant cloud of space debris. That incident, together with a 2007 Chinese anti-satellite missile test, is responsible for the majority of space junk fragments currently hurtling around Earth.

In January this year, a dead Soviet spy satellite and a used Soviet rocket stage came within 20 feet (6 meters) of each other in a cluttered region about 600 miles (1,000 km) above Earth. A full-on collision between those two objects would have spawned thousands of new dangerous pieces of debris.

Researchers don't know and will likely never learn what caused the Kosmos fragmentation reported on Wednesday, Aug. 30, by McDowell. Earth-based radars only track objects larger than 4 inches (10 centimeters). About 34,550 such objects are currently known to exist in Earth's orbits, according to the European Space Agency (ESA).

But in addition to those "visible" space debris fragments, some 1 million debris objects 0.4 to 4 inches (1 cm to 10 cm) in size and 130 million fragments smaller than 0.4 inches hurtle through space, according to ESA's estimates. When radars register one of the larger objects approaching an operational satellite, operators receive a warning and can move their spacecraft out of harm's way. But there is no warning ahead of the small junk's arrival.

Related stories:

— Private company wants to clean up space junk with 'capture bags' in Earth orbit
— Clearspace-1 space debris cleanup target in orbit just got struck by space debris
— Space debris problem spurs a bold change in US government regulations

The problem is that even a space junk fragment as small as 0.4 inches can cause serious damage. In 2016, a space debris fragment only a few millimeters wide punched a 16-inch (40 cm) wide hole into one of the solar panels of Europe's Earth-observing satellite Sentinel 2. The collision spawned several fragments large enough to be tracked from Earth. Sentinel 2 survived the incident, but ESA engineers said that had the space junk hit the craft's main body, the mission could have been over.

Researchers have been sounding alarm bells for years because of the growing amounts of space junk in Earth's orbit. Some fear the situation is slowly approaching a scenario known as the Kessler Syndrome. Named after retired NASA physicist Donald Kessler, the scenario predicts that the growing number of fragments generated by orbital collisions will eventually make the area around Earth unusable as every space debris crash will trigger a chain of subsequent collisions.

NASA moon orbiter spots crash site of Russia's failed Luna-25 lander (photos)

Mike Wall
Thu, August 31, 2023 

a small crater appears on the moon's surface in a before-and-after animation

The final resting place of Russia's failed Luna-25 lunar lander has apparently been found.

Luna-25, Russia's first moon probe in 47 years, smashed into the lunar surface on Aug. 19, during a maneuver designed to set up its touchdown try a few days later.

The crash blasted out a crater, which NASA's sharp-eyed Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) likely found last week, agency officials said.

Related: Russia's Luna-25 lunar lander crashes into the moon


before-and-after shots of the moon's surface, showing a small fresh crater

LRO's handlers went looking for Luna-25's grave, using an estimated impact site provided by Roscosmos, the Russian space agency.

The LRO team imaged the area with the probe's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC) on Aug. 24, then compared the new photos with pictures of the same region captured previously by LROC, most recently in June 2022. This work revealed a bright, fresh crater on the moon that was gouged out in the past 14 months.

"Since this new crater is close to the Luna-25 estimated impact point, the LRO team concludes it is likely to be from that mission, rather than a natural impactor," NASA officials said in a statement today (Aug. 31) announcing the find.

a small crater on the moon's grey surface

The new crater is about 33 feet (10 meters) wide and lies at about 58 degrees south latitude, on the steep inner rim of the moon's Pontécoulant G crater, the statement added. The impact site is roughly 250 miles (400 kilometers) from Luna-25's planned landing site, which lies at 69.5 degrees south latitude.

Luna-25 launched on Aug. 10, kicking off the first Russian moon mission since 1976, when the nation was still part of the Soviet Union. The new mission's name was an attempt to recall those proud bygone days; the 1976 effort, a successful sample-return mission, was called Luna-24.

Luna-25 aimed to become the first probe ever to land softly near the moon's south pole, a region thought to be rich in water ice that could potentially sustain human outposts.

But its failure ceded that mantle to Chandrayaan-3, an Indian mission that launched on July 14 and aced its touchdown on Aug. 23. Chandrayaan-3 is still exploring its polar site with a lander and a small rover, which are designed to operate for a total of one lunar day, or about 14 Earth days. At the end of that period, lunar nightfall is expected to knock both robots out of commission.

Chandrayaan-3: What has India's Moon rover Pragyaan been up to since landing?

Geeta Pandey - BBC News, Delhi
Wed, August 30, 2023 

A photo of the Vikram lander taken by Pragyaan rover on Wednesday morning

---

Exactly a week ago, India set down a robotic probe on the Moon, becoming the first country to land near the lunar south pole.

Chandrayaan-3's Vikram lander - carrying a rover in its belly - touched down on the lunar soil after a 20-minute, nail-biting finale watched by millions of people across the world.

Hours later, the Pragyaan rover - Pragyaan is the Sanskrit word for wisdom - exited the lander and took its first steps on the Moon.

The Indian space agency has been providing regular updates on the rover's findings, the photos it's taking, distance it is covering and how it is negotiating the obstacles in its path.

Here's a look at the highlights from the first week of the rover's Moonwalk:

Say cheese

Until now, we had only seen videos and images of the rover, taken by the lander.

But on Wednesday morning, Pragyaan turned its camera on its parent - the Vikram lander - and said, "Smile, please!"

The black-and-white image shows Vikram with all its four legs firmly planted on the lunar ground.

The Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) said this "image of the mission" was taken by the navigation camera onboard the rover.

Sulphur finds

Over the past few days, the rover has been hard at work.

On Tuesday evening, Isro said that a laser detector onboard had made "the first-ever in-situ - in the original space - measurements on the elemental composition of the surface near the south pole" and found a host of chemicals, including sulphur and oxygen, on lunar soil.

The instrument "unambiguously confirms" the presence of sulphur, it said, adding that preliminary analysis also "unveiled the presence of aluminium, calcium, iron, chromium, titanium, manganese, silicon and oxygen".

"A thorough investigation regarding the presence of hydrogen is underway," it added.

• India makes historic landing near Moon's south pole

Noah Petro, a project scientist at Nasa, told the BBC's Soutik Biswas that it's been known from the 1970s - from the Apollo and Luna samples - that sulphur is present in the lunar soil.

But he described Pragyaan's findings as "a tremendous accomplishment".

"I think Isro is highlighting that it's in-situ - so it's important to have measured sulphur on the lunar surface. Sulphur is a volatile element if it's not inside a mineral. So, if it's not part of a crystal, it's very cool to see it measured on the surface," he added.

Negotiating craters

As the rover roams around the mission's landing point - now named the Shiv Shakti Point - in what Isro has described as "the pursuit of lunar secrets", it has covered quite a distance. It has also had to change course to stay safe because of deep craters.

Two days after the landing, Isro said Pragyaan - which travels at a speed of 1cm per second - had "successfully traversed a distance of 8 metres (26ft)".


The crater India's rover encountered during its Moonwalk

The rover reversed its path after encountering a crater

It added that on Sunday, the rover had encountered a crater with a diameter of four metres. But it was spotted well in time - when Pragyaan was about three metres away.

"It was commanded to retrace the path. It's now safely heading on a new path," Isro added.

Photos released by the space agency show the crater and the footprints of the rover on the lunar soil - going forward and returning.

Taking the Moon's temperature

On Sunday, Isro said that they had received the first set of data about the temperatures on the lunar topsoil and up to the depth of 10cm below the surface from a probe onboard Vikram lander.

The probe - called the ChaSTE experiment, or Chandra's Surface Thermophysical Experiment - is fitted with 10 individual temperature sensors and has thrown up some interesting results.

A graphic posted on X (formerly Twitter) by Isro showed a sharp difference in temperatures just above and below the surface.

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While the temperature on the surface was nearly 60C, it plummeted sharply below the surface, dropping to -10C at 80mm (just about 3 inches) below the ground.

An Isro scientist told the news agency PTI that he was "surprised" by the temperature fluctuation. "We all believed that the temperature could be somewhere around 20C to 30C on the surface but it is surprisingly higher than what we had expected," BH Darukesha said.

The Moon, however, is known for harbouring extreme temperatures - according to Nasa, daytime temperatures near the lunar equator reach a boiling 250F (120C), while night temperatures can plunge to -208F (-130C).

The Moon's poles, it says, are even colder - one crater near the north pole recorded -410F (-250C) which makes it the coldest temperature measured anywhere in the entire solar system. Equally cold temperatures have been recorded at some of the craters which remain permanently in the shadows in the south pole

BBC News India

Opinion

India isn’t ‘wasting’ aid on its space programme

Vikram Doraiswami
Thu, August 31, 2023

Chandrayaan-3 lifting off from the Launch Vehicle Mark-III Mission 4

India’s third moon-shot mission – Chandrayaan-3 – touched down on the moon’s south pole last week, landing not just a rover, but also human dreams collected over the ages. Space exploration inspires us because it is genuinely exciting to see mankind’s boundaries being extended. And so the excitement in India, as well as the outpouring of goodwill from thousands in the UK – including dignitaries speaking for His Majesty’s Government – has been hugely heartwarming.

And yet, there has been carping in influential media outlets about why the UK’s aid recipients still include India, or worse, that a developing country such as India “wastes” money on space. This is surprising, not least because this “aid” is not at India’s request. Nor is any going to the Indian state, either.

First, India has stated that, while we welcome bilateral and plurilateral partnership with the UK to meet our collective global goals, “aid” is not needed. Such funding that continues to flow to India is thus only to non-governmental entities selected directly and solely by the UK Government. And in any case, the direction and context of such spending, as described in the Government’s response to the Independent Commission for Aid Impact, is that this is essentially an effort to support Sustainable Development Goals, or promote UK business in India, through actors of the UK’s own choice. So the benefit and beneficiaries of this spending are in line with your own political priorities, and not at our request.

Looking at the sums required to ensure, for instance, sustainable energy transitions in a country of India’s size, the actual amount of funds being so disbursed is also genuinely small. At best, it could help catalyse large doses of funding through public-private partnerships.

As to “wasting” money on space research: our space programme is a value-for-money proposition. Put it this way: the current moon mission had a programme budget of $75 million. Even if there are overruns, it is well below what was spent on the Hollywood film Avengers: Endgame, which reportedly had a budget of $356 million.

Our space programme also delivers hugely valuable developmental services. As prime minister Modi said at our space headquarters in Bengaluru on August 26, more than space exploration, data from the space programme has been directly used by farmers, fishing communities, water departments, meteorologists, and now for the design and monitoring of infrastructure projects. Our indigenously built satellites have provided India with state-of-the-art remote sensing services for all these needs, as well as communications support for education and healthcare, well before the internet became ubiquitous.

And so to answer why we spend on space “instead” of poverty alleviation, it might surprise some to know that we can actually walk while chewing gum. Here’s how: our space programme has launched 389 satellites, earning some £320 million over the past nine years. While space earns revenue and saves us money, we have also managed to lift more than 450 million people out of multidimensional poverty since 2006. In certifying this, the UN Development Programme noted that, in this same period, incidence of poverty fell from 55 per cent of the population to 16 per cent; the proportion of people with lack of access to electricity fell from 24 to 2 per cent; sanitation deprivation fell from 50 to 11 per cent; and lack of potable water access fell from 16 to 3 per cent. In short, deprivation rates fell in every sector, and in every region.

The right question is to ask precisely why there was so much deprivation in India to begin with. It is instructive to see where we were on freedom from British rule in 1947: 90 per cent of India’s 370 million population at the time subsisted below the poverty line, living short, precarious lives for an average of 30 years. With our freedom we inherited abysmal levels of poverty, enormous human developmental challenges, a violently divided nation, little modern infrastructure, especially in rural areas, and of course, no space programme! All these modern requirements have been built over the decades, while lifting millions out of poverty. This effort in particular has been turbo-charged in the past decade.

So to the critics: to rephrase Shakespeare’s immortal quote about stars and the faults within ourselves, perhaps today, if humankind is indeed destined to reach for the stars, we need only reach within our better selves.

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Vikram Doraiswami is India’s High Commissioner to the UK

India's opposition parties team up to challenge Modi's Hindu nationalist party in 2024 elections

ASHOK SHARMA
Updated Fri, September 1, 2023



India Opposition
Leaders from the opposition INDIA alliance sit for a press briefing in Mumbai, India, Friday, Sept. 1, 2023. India’s fractured opposition parties on Friday decided to jointly contest the 2024 national elections in their bid to unseat Prime Minister Narendra Modi and prevent his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party from achieving a third straight win. The 26 parties decided to work out seat-sharing arrangements in different states in ``a collaborative spirit of give-and-take″ to avoid splitting of votes in favor of Modi’s party. (AP Photo/Rajanish Kakade)

NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s fractured opposition parties decided Friday to jointly contest the 2024 national elections in their bid to unseat Prime Minister Narendra Modi and prevent his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party from achieving a third straight win.

The 26 opposition parties decided to work out seat-sharing arrangements in different states in "a collaborative spirit of give-and-take″ to avoid splitting votes in favor of Modi’s party.

India’s national elections are scheduled to be held around May next year.

Congress party leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi joined other key opposition leaders, including Sharad Pawar, Arvind Kejriwal, Sitaram Yechury and Laloo Yadav, at a two-day meeting in Mumbai, India’s financial and entertainment capital.

Their goal would be to set up a direct fight by putting one contestant against a BJP candidate in each voting district.

The opposition parties formed the alliance in June, named the Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance. Called INDIA for short, it is challenging Modi’s party on its economic record, rising unemployment and a host of other domestic problems.

Mallikarjun Kharge, the Congress party president, said that at stake is the future of India’s multiparty democracy and secular foundations that have seen assaults from Modi’s Hindu nationalist government.

"Modi’s government is slowly taking the country toward a dictatorship,” Kharge told reporters after the meeting.

Sambit Patra a BJP spokesman, slammed the opposition parties’ meeting and said their alliance was only for pretending unity and they will end up fighting badly with each other during the 2024 elections.

Laloo Yadav, a former Bihar state chief minister, complained that the opposition leaders have been the targets of raids and investigations by federal agencies controlled by the Modi government.

Over a dozen of these instances have led to defections of opposition leaders to the BJP, which is sometimes followed by dropped charges or pressure otherwise being eased. The BJP denies its involvement in the cases.

Modi’s rule has coincided with the economy recovering after the COVID-19 epidemic, rising unemployment, attacks by Hindu nationalists against the country’s minorities, particularly Muslims, and a shrinking space for dissent and free media.

However, analysts say the opposition’s effort to oust Modi is a difficult task. He is by far India’s most popular leader, and his party directly controls 10 of the 28 states, is in coalition in four other states, and has more than 55% of Parliament’s lower house 543 seats.

Modi became India’s prime minister in 2014 and won a second term for his party in 2019 with an easy victory against a splintered opposition.