Two years ago this month, when Elon Musk revealed the unfinished Tesla Model 3 to the world, I plunked down my thousand bucks for a spot on the list. Now, the (more) affordable Tesla has become a real car, one that just won Popular Mechanics Car of the Year. The factory is cranking out more than 2,000 per week. And my number has come up. Sort of. Here’s what happens when Tesla emails you that “Your Model 3 Is Ready to Order....
Until we’re all assigned to take autonomous Lyft minivans, we will remain advocates for two-wheel travel. Here, in an April 1970 feature, an editor discovered why, for reasons as relevant now as they were when this story was first published nearly 50 years ago. Riding the inside of the lane, I banked into an underpass where the combination of the bright sunlight, my sunglasses, and the deep shadow underneath created a near blackout....
Phones are faster and thinner and more powerful than ever, but they still suffer from one horribly annoying problem: They can only go for a day—if that—on a single charge. Maybe not for long, if Intelligent Energy has its way. The company claims that its tiny hydrogen fuel-cell can run an iPhone for a week, easy. News of the almost unbelievable device comes by way ofThe Telegraph, which reports that it saw the device at Intelligent Energy’s headquarters....
Welcome to Apollo Week, celebrating 50 years since the Apollo 11 mission, explaining what it means today, and exploring how its legacy will shape the future of space exploration.Our fascination with the Red Planet is understandable. Proving that humans can survive (and thrive) as an interplanetary species would completely change our society. But the challenges facing NASA—or any other outfit willing to make the long trek—are monumental.These are the biggest hurdles that stand between us and Mars, and how the moon might be the perfect place to help prepare us for the Red Planet....
Media Platforms Design TeamOver the past year PopMech has been covering how NASA might execute one of President Obama’s grandest plans: grabbing and asteroid and towing it closer to Earth, perhaps into an orbit around the moon, where astronauts could visit and investigate the big hunk of space rock. Yet, perhaps predictably, the proposal has gotten bogged down in Congress, where big ideas go to die.The New York Times reports this week that the science committee in the House of Representatives voted down Obama’s agenda for NASA in favor of one that calls on the agency to plan a return trip to the moon and start thinking about a future manned voyage to Mars....
An explosion at a Russian military base killed three personnel and caused a brief spike in radioactivity in a nearby Russian city. The Russian Defense Ministry has said that no “dangerous substances” were released into the atmosphere during the incident, but other government agencies reported that radiation readings briefly spiked before receding to normal levels.The incident reportedly took place today near the village of Nenoksa, where a Russian Navy missile test range is located....
NASA has announced plans to test a laser communication system in space that could make today’s radio systems look as outdated as dial-up Internet. Lasers can transmit data at rates 10 to 100 times faster than radio. By encoding information into laser-based communications, future satellites, rovers and astronauts could not only send back postcard snapshots from their destinations, but also stream high-quality video from across the solar system. “The Neil Armstrong of an asteroid or a Mars landing is going to be able to transmit back to Earth at 3D-HDTV—or whatever it is we have then—and the higher data rate will allow that sort of quality,” says David Israel, principal investigator for the Laser Communication Relay Demonstration (LCRD)....
Scientists at the Hawaii-based Keck Observatory believe they might have an exciting find on their hands, something like a galactic playoff game: nebula star vs. black hole. The black hole wins, but capturing the act of destruction, as they believe they have, would be a type of collision never seen before. “It’s like the night before Christmas,” astronomer Ryan Foley of the University of California, Santa Cruz tells ScienceAlert. “I’m just waiting to see what’s under the tree....
It’s an ugly truth of the modern world that your online activity is central to the advertising businesses of Facebook and Google, but it isn’t just your browsing data that’s fed to digital ad networks for profit—it’s also where you set foot. A sweeping New York Times investigation into the location-tracking services employed by 20 different widely used apps paints a picture of granular surveillance in the name of advertising revenue....
The U.S. Air Force is proposing to retire many older planes to make room for new ones.The service would get rid of most of its F-15 Eagle fighters, as well as older F-16s.Retiring planes would free up funds–as well as spare parts–for the air fleet that remains. The U.S. Air Force is planning major cuts to its fleet of fighters and bombers, many of which are three decades old or older....
Welcome to PM/AM, Popular Mechanics’ morning briefing on the top science and tech stories for today.Media Platforms Design TeamKevork Djansezian/Getty ImagesSince the unveiling of the Oculus Rift two years ago, virtual reality has consumed the video game industry, with even big names such as Sony trying their hand at it. However, Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto—creator of Mario, Star Fox, The Legend of Zelda, and Pikmin—can’t see the future of a VR headset with the company, or at the very least, integrated with the Wii U system....
The U.S. Air Force showed off a rendering of a hypersonic Santa sleigh.A hypersonic sleigh would be capable of moving at up to 13,000 miles an hour.Mathematics, however, calculates Santa’s real sleigh is much, much faster—but the Air Force’s design may be safer. The U.S. Air Force Research Lab (AFRL), getting in on the Christmas spirit, posted a rendering of a new sleigh for Santa Claus to make his annual gift-giving trip....
Yes, we’re finding new exoplanets all over the place, any of which could have conditions favorable to potential alien life. But it’s not all about planets. A new international study has identified more than 100 giant planets that potentially host moons capable of supporting life.The key to looking for exoplanets and exomoons is finding rocky terrain. And while large gas giants like Jupiter aren’t rocky themselves, they often have rocky moons in their orbit....
On the island of Runit, there is a large concrete dome that houses nuclear waste and debris from a series of atmospheric nuclear tests conducted on site during the Cold War. Now, environmentalists are concerned that the dome, which is already showing signs of cracking, could spill its dangerous contents during a storm or come under threat due to rising sea levels. According to CBS News, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres told students in Fiji last week that the president of the Marshall Islands “is very worried because there is a risk of leaking of radioactive materials that are contained in a kind of coffin in the area"View full post on YoutubeThe U....
In the moments before Paige Alms caught the wave that changed her life, she was bobbing on her aqua-green surfboard—a sleek nine-foot-four-inch gun shaped by her boyfriend—chatting with some other surfers she hadn’t seen in a while, scanning the horizon for signs of a rising ocean. She was a mile off Maui’s north shore at a surf break known ominously, and for very good reason, as Jaws.For about 360 days a year, Jaws lies sleeping, waiting for big storms to surge down from Alaska and trip on its fan-shaped reef, sixty feet below the surface....
Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano has been erupting for almost a month, and it’s been pumping out more than just lava into quiet residential neighborhoods. The volcano has also been pumping out ash, toxic gas, and volcanic smog, or ‘vog.’ The vog isn’t just plaguing the residents of Hawaii’s big island. It’s also causing problems for islanders across the Pacific Ocean.The U.S. National Weather Service has released an alert for the region of Micronesia, way out in the Pacific, warning residents of the island chains of the hazards of vog....
Media Platforms Design TeamWe dug Volvo’s 325 horsepower S60 R-Design when we tested it last summer, and those levels of performance are now more accessible thanks to a dealer-installed option through the manufacturer’s racing partner, Polestar.For $1,295 (or $1,495 for T6 models), lead-footed Volvo drivers (we know you’re out there!) can extract up to 25 more hp and 29 lb-ft of torque from their Swedish sleds– that means you can get R-Design levels of engine performance without springing for extras like stiffer suspension or sportier trim....
The tank has dominated battlefields for the last 100 years. Heavily armed and heavily armored, tanks have repeatedly proven themselves the arm of decision on the battlefield, even in the face of repeated challenges from other weapons such as bazookas, anti-tank guns, and even guided missiles. But as the threat evolves so must the tank, which raises the question: What will the tanks of the future look like?Writing for Army Technology, Dr....
My brother Carl grips the rim of the steering wheel, takes a high step and hikes up onto the bench seat of the lanky 1959 Ford firetruck. Grabbing a metal handle, he swings the driver-side door shut. It makes a firm, mechanical clank that sounds like the breechblock on a shotgun as it slides home. The truck has no door locks, seatbelts or much of anything that we associate with modern vehicles....
There are a lot of cool machines hitting the road this year. We’ve got a Shelby GT500 that promises to give the Ford GT a case of engine envy. There’s a new Toyota Supra. Cadillac’s building a twin-turbo V-8. Ram’s got 1,000 lb-ft of torque. Awesome, all of it. But when we look a little further ahead, the potential for wildly different forms of transportation feels like it’s tantalizingly close. Yeah, we know—you might have believed that in 1998, too, and been totally wrong....
