Open up your mind and say, ahh...

Photo: Boeing

Before you go to space, you have to drop from a helicopter. At least that’s the method Boeing is using to test its new Crew Space Transportation spacecraft over the Nevada desert this week. The aerospace giant is building the capsule as part of the competition to provide astronaut transportation to orbit for NASA. Boeing’s second drop took place yesterday and tested the landing system of the CST-100 including parachute deployment and airbags.

The capsule is rough prototype representing the shape and weight of what will eventually be a seven seat spacecraft designed to take people to the International Space Station. Like two of the other companies competing for the Commercial Crew Development (CCDev) funding from NASA, Boeing is opting for a traditional capsule design which will be perched on top of a rocket. The fourth company in the second phase of the CCDev program, Sierra Nevada Corporation, is designing a lifting body spacecraft that would glide to a landing similar to the space shuttle.

The CST-100 is the most traditional in concept of the current designs being developed for CCDev with its parachute landing system. Boeing touts its “heritage hardware” including the “Apollo heritage parachute system” as part of its plan to keep costs down and the project on schedule. During Wednesday’s test the spacecraft was carried to 14,000 feet by a massive Erickson Air Crane helicopter before it was dropped. A small drogue parachute was released as planned, followed by the three main parachutes. As the CST-100 nears the ground, six airbags are deployed around its base to further cushion the landing on the Nevada desert ground.

The Boeing/Bigelow CST-100 test article being prepared for its drop test from a helicopter. Photo: Boeing

The two other companies selected for the second phase of CCDev funding from NASA and using capsule designs are SpaceX and Blue Origin. SpaceX will initially use parachutes for the return flight of its Dragon spacecraft, which is currently waiting to launch to the ISS as part of a separate cargo program funded by NASA. But SpaceX eventually plans to use small rocket engines built into the capsule to provide a controlled and steerable, precision touchdown on the ground. Little is known about Blue Origin’s landing system, but the company did release images last month of a slightly flattened capsule design with small flaps that would allow greater maneuverability and range during reentry and the flight back to the ground.

Boeing is working with Bigelow Aerospace on the development of the CST-100. Bigelow is one of the new space companies with a focus on developing orbital space stations rather than the vehicles used to get to orbit.

Like the other vehicles being developed in the CCDev program, the CST-100 is designed to be a  reusable spacecraft with the hopes of greatly reducing the cost of delivering cargo and astronauts to orbit. With the remaining space shuttle orbiters being delivered to museums, the United States currently must rely on Russian Soyuz spacecraft as its taxi and pickup truck to the ISS.

Boeing plans on more tests this year including multiple air bag landing evaluations, an orbital maneuvering engine test and a test that will include a forward heat shield jettison on the capsule. The company is hoping the first flights of the spacecraft will happen in 2015-16.

The makers of a new all-electric trash truck soon to be plying the streets of a Paris suburb promise that the only fumes coming from the truck will involve rotten fruit and expired cheese, not clouds of diesel exhaust.

Despite what gets loaded into the hopper, the 26-ton truck’s emissions are clean, with each truck saving an estimated 130 tons of CO2 emissions each year over a diesel-powered model. The trash truck, built by PVI Electric Powertrain, features liquid cooled lithium-ion battery packs from Dow Kokam that tout a 10-year usable life and stability in extreme climates. Each truck will have five strings of seven battery packs, which provide the equivalent of 250 kilowatt hours of energy.

“This achievement demonstrates that real advanced battery solutions exist for the commercial and fleet industry today,” said Dow Kokam Vice President Jean-Francois Herchin. The company claims that it’s the first fully-electric trash truck with the performance of a diesel-powered truck, and perhaps one of the largest electric utility trucks on the road.

Utility vehicles like trash trucks — and the hybrid street sweeper we told you about last week — are ideal for electrification, as they travel fixed routes at predetermined times and often replace noisy, smelly vehicles in dense urban cores. The PVI electric trash truck is no exception. Drivers can pick up 16 tons of trash in two rounds of service with a recharge or battery swap during the driver’s lunch break or a shift change.

Anyone who has ever been stuck behind a slowly accelerating trash truck will be glad to hear that PVI designed a gearbox that allows the truck to climb hills without impeding traffic, and the electric drivetrain means that 100 percent of torque is available at acceleration.

The first truck will debut in the Paris suburb of Courbevoie as part of the fleet of SITA Ile de France, a division of Suez. By the end of 2011, another eleven electric trash trucks will hit the road.

Photo: Dow Kokam

I love this new Levi campaign. If you can’t see the video embedded below, click here to go to my site. Essentially, what I love about it, is that it’s the story of rebirth, or the seeds that might get us to think about rebirth, with regards to cities, to economies, to matters of finding a new identity.

Watch this video first, the commercial.

The girl voice narrating says this: People think there aren’t frontiers anymore. They can’t see how frontiers are all around us.

I love that. It’s a thought worth taking away, no matter what else you do or don’t take from the post. Put that one in your pocket for later.

Braddock, Pennsyvania

But this one’s the meat:

From this website, we learn that Levi Strauss & Co invested in Braddock, in the community center, in the public library, and in an urban farm. They are putting dollars into a community that’s down on its luck. To me, this cause-meets-advertising model is where it’s at. They’ve put some dollars into the community and have blended that with stories about people getting to work. As they sell work clothes, this is a good connection to make.

What do you think?

Might Not All Be Roses

The story of Braddock, Pennsylvania, is a bit in question, according to this site, so like with any advertisement, there’s a little work for us to do: are the folks at Levi helping, and if so, are they overplaying what they’re doing? That’s what the site mentioned in this link talks about.

In my estimation, there are probably a lot of emotions around this kind of project. There are probably many versions of what happened, and I’m sure there are many people from Braddock who won’t give Levi Strauss & Co much credit for it. We can never please the world, and we can always do more. That’s part of life all the way around.

But What About You?

How do you see this effort working? Did you notice all the social media integration? Does it conjure up the desire to share the story, because it’s the story of many places where we live? Or do you have other thoughts about it?

People think there aren’t frontiers anymore. They can’t see how frontiers are all around us.