News on China's scientific and technological development.
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solarz
Brigadier
I just saw this on yahoo news, and thought I'd share it in the forum. Lo and behold, AssassinMace posted it two days earlier!
Anyway, I thought that this was a really cool and innovative concept. The bus looks really futuristic too.
bladerunner
Banned Idiot
A good question asked in the comments section of the article, points out the difficulties that might be encountered when turning.
solarz
Brigadier
Not if it's on rails.
Now that I think of it, maybe you meant turning as in "turning left on to another street"? That's obviously going to be difficult, so the best solution would be to plan routes that do not have sharp turns. A simple cross-grid system could work.
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AssassinsMace
Lieutenant General
Plenty of cities stop all traffic through intersections just for pedestrians to cross. They can stop all traffic for this too.
bladerunner
Banned Idiot
Come to think of it, because of the unpredictability of traffic flow, what happens if the car thats under the bus wants to go straight ahead when the bus is turning into another street , or vice versa?
If you have a grid system with buses running in a straight line, north south and east west, means having to change buses. That would be a "put off " wouldnt it?
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solarz
Brigadier
Why would it be? Are you put off if you need to change a subway line? If you have a grid system, then anywhere you want to go, you only need to change bus at most once.
As for a car turning, it'll just have to wait until the bus is away. That's not exactly an insurmountable challenge.
lcloo
Captain
This is more like a cross between the old tram and sub-way, and runs only at 60KM/hr. They can fit signal lights at the lower hollow section to warn cars about to travel through it, when it is about to turn, slow down or stopping etc., or even have a red green and yellow traffic light fitted at the ceiling of the lower section of the bus.
Avoiding sharp turns as in the old trams, and proper route planning, it should work fine. I think the main point is that it will not be caught in the jam in Beijing's heavy traffic. 60KM/hr is no big deal but if you don't have to stop in jam, that actually save alot of travel time.
Also, it has a very small out-lay cost compare with building new subway lines and stations, and the project timeline is very short.
Avoiding sharp turns as in the old trams, and proper route planning, it should work fine. I think the main point is that it will not be caught in the jam in Beijing's heavy traffic. 60KM/hr is no big deal but if you don't have to stop in jam, that actually save alot of travel time.
Also, it has a very small out-lay cost compare with building new subway lines and stations, and the project timeline is very short.
AssassinsMace
Lieutenant General
A lot of questions can be deducted by looking at the video. It looks like traffic will be stopped for this bus to turn. I especially like some comments on sites saying why not just build an elevated train or monorail or BRT? They don't seem to pay attention that this was thought up to deal with the question of cost and space. I agree that this bus has to be tested in real conditions but the people poo-pooing this are really just afraid of the future. Just like I heard some people on the news want an investigation regarding the International Space Station on the recent systems failure automatically assuming those were Chinese parts when China is not involve with the ISS at all. Just in denial as usual.
Martian
Senior Member
China announces HXMT to be first astronomy satellite
China's prototype of the Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (i.e. HXMT) satellite.
The HXMT has been thoroughly tested. China's first space-based telescope is currently ready and scheduled for launch in 2012 (see ).
"China announces HXMT to be first astronomy satellite
By William Atkins
The Xinhua News Agency, the official Chinese news agency, has announced that the Chinese space agency is planning a [2012] launch of a space telescope to study x-ray sources such as black holes and neutron stars.
...
The dedicated astronomy mission, called Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (HXMT), is being built to perform a collimated hard x-ray (HX) survey of the entire sky with both high spatial resolution and high sensitivity.
The energy range of hard x-rays is about 20 to 200 kiloelectron-Volts (keV). Hard x rays have more energy than soft x rays (SX). For instance, when medical x rays are produced, a metallic sheet is placed in front of the x-ray machine so the soft x rays are filtered out and only the more energetic hard x rays reach the patient. Generally, x rays are a type of electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths of between 10 to 0.1 nanometers (where one nanometer equals one billionth of a meter).
The HXMT mission was selected in 2000 as a project under the Major State Basic Research Program of China. In October 2005, HXMT entered the full design phase and was listed as a possible candidate for the first dedicated astronomy satellite."
"Science Aims
The hard X-ray band is a key waveband for high energy astrophysics studies. Exploring various kinds of black holes is a major frontier of physics and astronomy in the new century. Hard X-rays originate mostly from regions close to black holes and are highly penetrating, and are therefore important tools for studying the physical processes in the extreme conditions such as high matter density, high energy density, high electric-magnetic field, and high gravitational field.
As a hard X-ray telescope with excellent sensitivity and spatial resolution, HXMT will have the following observational targets:
* An all-sky hard X-ray survey. To create a high precision hard X-ray sky map and to discover about 1000 new hard X-ray sources including possible new types of objects.
* Active galactic nuclei (AGN). The energy source of AGNs remains a mystery. It is probably from the interaction of massive black holes with the surrounding materials. HXMT will systematically study the hard X-ray emission properties and mechanism of various types of AGNs, especially the type II AGNs that are thought to be extremely absorbed.
* X-ray binaries. An X-ray binary involves a compact object (a black hole or a neutron star) and a normal star. HXMT will observe the hard X-ray spectra and temporal variability of X-ray binaries, study the formation and evolution of accretion disks, jets and black holes, and further test various general relativistic effects.
* Supernova remnants (SNRs). SNRs are longly thought to be the producer of cosmic-rays up to the 1015 eV. HXMT will study the nonthermal X-ray emission properties of SNRs and explore the particle acceleration at the shock front.
* Soft Gamma-ray burst Repeater (SGR). SGR are thought to be high energy transient sources associated with young highly magnetized neutron stars. The bursts are probably corresponding to the sudden magnetic energy release caused by the cracking of the neutron star crusts. HXMT can study the structure of magnetars, the matter state equation in strong magnetic field and with high density.
* Clusters of galaxies. Clusters of galaxies are the largest systems that are bounded gravitationally in the universe. HXMT will study the hard X-ray emission of clusters of galaxies and explore their origin.
* Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). GRBs are the most violent explosions is the universe, and explaining their origin is a serious challenge to astrophysics. GRBs can be also used to explore the early universe."
China's prototype of the Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (i.e. HXMT) satellite.
The HXMT has been thoroughly tested. China's first space-based telescope is currently ready and scheduled for launch in 2012 (see ).
"China announces HXMT to be first astronomy satellite
By William Atkins
The Xinhua News Agency, the official Chinese news agency, has announced that the Chinese space agency is planning a [2012] launch of a space telescope to study x-ray sources such as black holes and neutron stars.
...
The dedicated astronomy mission, called Hard X-ray Modulation Telescope (HXMT), is being built to perform a collimated hard x-ray (HX) survey of the entire sky with both high spatial resolution and high sensitivity.
The energy range of hard x-rays is about 20 to 200 kiloelectron-Volts (keV). Hard x rays have more energy than soft x rays (SX). For instance, when medical x rays are produced, a metallic sheet is placed in front of the x-ray machine so the soft x rays are filtered out and only the more energetic hard x rays reach the patient. Generally, x rays are a type of electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths of between 10 to 0.1 nanometers (where one nanometer equals one billionth of a meter).
The HXMT mission was selected in 2000 as a project under the Major State Basic Research Program of China. In October 2005, HXMT entered the full design phase and was listed as a possible candidate for the first dedicated astronomy satellite."
"Science Aims
The hard X-ray band is a key waveband for high energy astrophysics studies. Exploring various kinds of black holes is a major frontier of physics and astronomy in the new century. Hard X-rays originate mostly from regions close to black holes and are highly penetrating, and are therefore important tools for studying the physical processes in the extreme conditions such as high matter density, high energy density, high electric-magnetic field, and high gravitational field.
As a hard X-ray telescope with excellent sensitivity and spatial resolution, HXMT will have the following observational targets:
* An all-sky hard X-ray survey. To create a high precision hard X-ray sky map and to discover about 1000 new hard X-ray sources including possible new types of objects.
* Active galactic nuclei (AGN). The energy source of AGNs remains a mystery. It is probably from the interaction of massive black holes with the surrounding materials. HXMT will systematically study the hard X-ray emission properties and mechanism of various types of AGNs, especially the type II AGNs that are thought to be extremely absorbed.
* X-ray binaries. An X-ray binary involves a compact object (a black hole or a neutron star) and a normal star. HXMT will observe the hard X-ray spectra and temporal variability of X-ray binaries, study the formation and evolution of accretion disks, jets and black holes, and further test various general relativistic effects.
* Supernova remnants (SNRs). SNRs are longly thought to be the producer of cosmic-rays up to the 1015 eV. HXMT will study the nonthermal X-ray emission properties of SNRs and explore the particle acceleration at the shock front.
* Soft Gamma-ray burst Repeater (SGR). SGR are thought to be high energy transient sources associated with young highly magnetized neutron stars. The bursts are probably corresponding to the sudden magnetic energy release caused by the cracking of the neutron star crusts. HXMT can study the structure of magnetars, the matter state equation in strong magnetic field and with high density.
* Clusters of galaxies. Clusters of galaxies are the largest systems that are bounded gravitationally in the universe. HXMT will study the hard X-ray emission of clusters of galaxies and explore their origin.
* Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). GRBs are the most violent explosions is the universe, and explaining their origin is a serious challenge to astrophysics. GRBs can be also used to explore the early universe."