April 2010 Archives

Get with the program, gramps, the Moon is yesterday's news, Mars is where it's at now!

NEXT STOP, MARS - that was the message President Obama gave during his April 15 speech at the Kennedy Space Center, in Titusville, Florida. The President also called for private enterprise to step up to the plate, saying, "We've got to do it in a smart way, and we can't just keep on doing the same old things that we've been doing and thinking that somehow is going to get us to where we want to go."

The President's Mars plan has its detractors, but it can be hard to tell whether the objections are due to genuine concerns over untested technologies, or are politically motivated.

"The President's new plan... [pins] our hopes for success on unproven, commercial companies," said one Senator after Obama's speech.

Mars Needs Americans!
Early in the film Fight Club, the narrator, in a combination of cynicism and prescience, says,
"When deep space exploration ramps up, it'll be the corporations that name everything, the IBM Stellar Sphere, the Microsoft Galaxy, Planet Starbucks."

And why not? If there are no rules keeping corporate entities from naming the baseball stadiums they buy or build, why can't they name the spoils of their intergalactic efforts?

The privatization of space travel is something that should have started ages ago.

One of my childhood heroes, the second man on the moon, Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin, backs the President's plans, and wrote in USA Today, "It is important that the system we develop is capable of enabling broader commercial markets. To do this, the future plan should include the development of a reusable, space plane-like runway lander as the next generation of crew carrying space transport."

Which is great - especially if you are familiar with Tom Wolfe's excellent history of the early days of the "space race," The Right Stuff.

Wolfe wrote that what the US Air Force was working on at the time of Sputnik was exactly that: a series of super-high altitude rocket jets leading up to one that could enter the vacuum of space and glide to a return.

That program was sidetracked and eternally paused, as the US chased the brute force tactics of big rockets to get a man on the moon first.

Photos: NASA, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Paramount Pictures

By Anna Jagger

With fierce competition between tea brands, tea bag design has become more innovative. In a drive to improve sustainability, the latest bags are made from the bioplastic polylactic acid (PLA).

The advantages of the new bags are that they are made from a renewable material and are compostable, says Eamonn Tighe, business development manager at US-based bioplastics producer NatureWorks.

Developed by Helsinki-headquartered nonwoven materials specialist Ahlstrom, the bags are made from a lightweight nonwoven filament web based on NatureWorks' Ingeo PLA.
A group of committed tea drinkers at ICIS took a close look at some pyramid-shaped tea bag samples.

We agreed that the material was more transparent. "When you put them in the water, the bag becomes almost invisible, so you can see the tea better," remarked one colleague.

Another observed that, while the tea bags were relatively thin, they did not tear. But she did question whether the material was as porous as other bags, and whether that could have a detrimental effect on the infusion.

The idea is that the new bags, as well as being more sustainable, will increase consumer awareness about high-quality tea, says Marco Martinez, Ahlstrom's global communications manager. The brand will be launched this year, targeting the premium tea market.

Because the material can be sealed using the latest ultrasonic bonding technology, it is suitable for pyramid-shaped bags, which are becoming increasingly popular at the high end of the market, explains Martinez.

Until now, ultrasonic sealing has only been suitable for bags made from a woven nylon net.
"The new material is the first available alternative to the nylon woven materials," says Martinez. "Compared with nylon, there are some clear advantages in terms of sustainability."
Most tea bags are made of a mix of natural and synthetic fibers, usually polyethylene (PE) or polypropylene (PP), and sealed with heat or by crimping.

Ultrasonic bonding generates fewer greenhouse gas emissions than traditional materials, adds Martinez. And, most importantly, the material has no odor or taste.

And how did the tea taste? Pretty good. Now, where are the biscuits...?

The international auto market is in major flux as Ford sells Volvo at a loss to a Chinese company

IT WAS a fascinating coincidence, with metaphorical potential: the same day that Ford Motor Company's sale of its Volvo car unit was finalized, was also the day that the death of the designer of Ford's most famous car designer was announced.

At the end of March, the Hangzhou, China-based Zhejiang Geely Holding Group (ZGH) agreed to buy Volvo from Ford for $1.8bn (€1.34bn), $1.6bn of that in cash. ZGH's subsidiary, Geely Automotive Holdings is the twelfth-largest car maker in China, but that nation's second largest privately-owned auto manufacturer.

With the Volvo acquisition, for the first time a Chinese company is now in charge of a worldwide automobile brand. ZGH expects to sell 200,000 cars/year in China, and intends to open a Volvo plant there in the future. ZGH also expects Volvo's European division to be selling 600,000/year to Europe and North America.

Ford paid $6.4bn to acquire Sweden-based Volvo in 1999. Ford's strategy now is to divest itself of non-core units: Starting in 2007, the company sold off its high-end - and expensively purchased - Jaguar and Aston Martin lines.

One brand Ford will probably never let go of, though, is Mustang - a line practically synonymous with the company.

Although he passed away at the beginning of March, the death of Donald Frey, the Mustang's chief designer, was not publicized more widely until the end of the month: The New York Times obituary appeared the same day as the Volvo deal was announced. Born in 1923, Frey was 86 when he died.

Lee Iacocca and Donald Frey with their creation, 1964 (at right)

Called "Detroit's sharpest idea man," by Time magazine in 1967, Frey was so praised by car enthusiasts that at auto shows, he was treated like a movie star, autograph hounds included.

But in the early 1960s, smarting from the financial failure of the Edsel, Ford wasn't interested in a new sports car, and under the auspices of Ford's then-general manager (and future CEO of Chrysler) Lee Iacocca, Frey and his team worked in secret.

(Left) Frey at a speedway in the mid-1960s, watching product being tested

Frey had been partially inspired by his children, who told the engineer, "Dad, your cars stink. They have no pizazz."

"The whole project was bootlegged," Frey said in a 2004 interview with USA Today. "There was no official approval of this thing. We had to do it on a shoestring."

The rest is history.

HOLLYWOOD LOVES CARS, AND DETROIT LOVES HOLLYWOOD

It is ironic that Ford once owned Aston Martin, as the first time most people saw the Mustang, it was being torn apart by an Aston Martin.

While the Mustang was initially introduced at the 1964 World's Fair in New York City, it was through the medium of film that even more potential customers got a look at the sportscar: Iacocca had finagled the vehicle's appearance in what was then "the next" James Bond film, Goldfinger, offering the producers several autos to use.

The Mustang is driven by one of those beautiful and unfortunate women who routinely fall for the superspy, and at one point, Bond uses his MI6-tricked out Aston Martin to shred the Mustang's side panels and tires.

Thankfully, Steve McQueen showed up a few years later with the police thriller Bullitt and set all that right, with an incredible chase through the streets of San Francisco: McQueen's Mustang Fastback chasing a 1968 Dodge Charger.

Not to be outdone, several years after that, the producers of the James Bond films put 007 behind the wheel of the 1971 Mustang for Diamonds Are Forever.

Vroooom! (Those were the days...)

[Photos courtesy of Ford Motors]