AIRPORT’S MISSION BECOMES A NATIONAL MOVEMENT By Katie Davis
IBUBBLE, TAKES USERS UNDER THE SEA By Katie Davis
First came the camera. Then came the underwater camera. And now, thanks to Benjamin Valtin and Kevin Delfour, co-founders of Notilo+, there’s is now the diving drone camera. As tech continues to reach new heights or in this case depths, we’re now exploring new areas of the seas thanks to the iBubble, the gadget that wants to be your autonomous underwater camera. Meant for the diving enthusiast who’d rather see the underwater world through his or her goggles without being burdened by an extra lens, the iBubble team notes that filming beneath the surface of the world’s oceans can be a cumbersome process that “limits your freedom underwater.” But with iBubble, you won’t have to sacrifice your autonomy for a great shot — instead, this “intelligent, user-friendly, and completely autonomous diving drone” allows you to take your GoPro where it’s never gone before, and control it all from your wrist with a compatible bracelet. Boasting a host of practical, helpful features, the iBubble’s hydrodynam- ic design means that it’ll travel well underwater, withstanding currents of up to 3 knots. With a maximum depth of 60 meters, you’ll actually be able to take your GoPro pretty far. Whenever you want to set it free and take shots of its own, the iBubble can stray up to 25 meters away from you. And with enhanced image filtering, an integrated obstacle-avoidance system based on sonar technology, and a moving-subject tracking switch, the iBubble seems ideal to capture a wide variety of underwa- ter shots and subjects. When it’s out of juice, just recharge and replace its battery pack. But what happens if the iBubble loses power or signal during a dive? Never fear — it’s not lost to the watery depths. Rather, it’ll just resurface, allowing you to retrieve your diving camera at will The iBubblewill even do some exploring on your behalf, thanks to its remote control option that lets you scout certain areas before taking a dive yourself. Just send it on its merry way and watch all the action from above.
What started as an idea for a project, became a mission to become independent from any external electric energy, saving money and polluting less. That is the story for the Cochin International Airport in Southern India becoming the world’s first totally solar-powered airport. The transformation first started about three years ago with solar panels appearing initially just on the roof of Cochin International Airport terminal, then solar panels were affixed on and around the aircraft hangars. The mission was then set in motion to become independent from any external electric energy, rather than never having to pay another electricity bill again. It was not until the help of Bosch Thermotechnik of Germany that Cochin International Airport was able to build a 45-acre solar plant, which is the equivalent to 25 football fields just next to terminal. The project was very expensive, but the airport team was very confident that cost would soon be recovered because the airport would no longer have to pay expensive electricity bills. The mission became more than about reducing power bills and going off the grid, it became about the environment as Cochin International Airport’s solar plant will also avoid more than 300,000 metric tons of carbon emissions from coal power plants over the next 25 years. CO2 emission and air pollution are very serious issues in India, endangering the health of millions of people, animals, and plants. What began as an idea at Cochin International Airport, moved to a mission and now has evolved into a movement with government authorities directing other facilities in India, particularly airports, to implement at least some solar panels in their facilities.
SPACEX TAKES A MAJOR LEAP AND MAKES A PERFECT LANDING By Katie Davis
SpaceX takes a major leap forward in space exploration and transportation makes a perfect landing on a droneship. This was the first successfully landing of the first stage of the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket on a sea-going platform as four failed previous attempts.
The successful landing is critical to SpaceX’s success and it’s founder Elon Musk’s mission to disrupt the space access business. Cutting launch cost is key to the company’s success, so successfully landing the first stage is a major success for SpaceX’s reusable rocket program, cutting the costs of a launch from $60 million per launch to $40 million by reusing the first stage of the company’s rockets.
Musk’s rocket company has been testing the reusable rocket during missions since 2014, but this is the first time it has actually landed the rocket on the droneship, past four fails resulted in impressive explosions, but I am sure that Musk prefers to leave the fireworks for the fourth of July.
SpaceX previously landed a rocket on the ground at Cape Canaveral following a mission to the The International Space Station in December 2015, which was a major accomplishment in it own right, however, using the sea-going platform is key to the project’s future success as it will be necessary to make the reusable rockets viable for high-altitude cargo, which will require a mobile landing platform rather than the rocket returning to the launch site.
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SPOTLIGHT ON BUSINESS • MAY 2016
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