Sunday, November 15, 2009 TOKYO: The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has big plans, as it wants to conquer outer space to generate solar energy by 2030. The idea is to collect solar power in space and beam it down to earth, in the form of lasers or microwaves. The so-called Space Solar Power System project is led by big corporations such as Mitsubishi, NEC, Fujitsu und Sharp.As a first step, JAXA wants to deploy photovoltaic elements in outer space where they will be assembled in the form of dishes several square kilometers in size. Solar energy in space is about five times stronger than on earth, and the solar energy will be transformed into power in space.The dishes are supposed to zap the lasers and microwaves to gigantic parabolic antennae located on earth, probably in remote areas such as dam reservoirs, for example. JAXA wants to begin conducting feasibility tests with a 100-kW demo system before eventually boosting that number to 1 Gigawatt.
Friday, August 14, 2009 MUMBAI: A 26-year-old woman died Thursday of H1N1 swine flu in the southern city of Bangalore, raising India's death toll from the virus to 20, authorities said.The death was the first reported in India's information technology capital, the Press Trust of India reported.Meanwhile in Pune, the worst-affected in India, two more victims of the virus died Thursday, raising the death toll in that western city near Mumbai to 12, the report said. The victims were an 11-month-old boy and a 75-year-old old woman.US media reported movie halls, schools and colleges were ordered closed Thursday for three days to a week in Mumbai, the commercial and financial capital of the country, as fear of the pandemic spread.Prajakata Lavangare, a spokeswoman for the government of Maharashtra state of which Mumbai is the capital, said similar orders were issued in Pune, which is also located in the state.The woman who died in Bangalore was identified only as Roopa, a teacher in
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