TUT Undergrads: July 2008

Thursday, July 31, 2008

Phoenix mission to mars

If any of you would like to follow the Phoenix mission to mars, you can find the official Nasa website at http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/main/index.html.

Phoenix has already discovered ice crystals on the red planet and its spectrometers have just analyzed liquid water after some of the crystals melted.

This picture shows the work area for the lander. The original can be found at
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/phoenix/images/press/workspace_rgb.html

Toyota Prius

For those of you doing your homework on energy efficient cars, the Toyota Prius' website can be found at

http://www.toyota.co.za/models/viewrange.aspx?id=prius&src=google&cmp=prius&gclid=CJSKqJCC7JQCFQVvFQodhEvRqw.

The Prius is one of the flagship hybrid models and has a big future. Have a look at the animations about the hybrid synergy drive used by the Prius.

Also, remember to look up some hydrogen fuel cell cars and hydrogen internal combustion cars. Honda has just released a hydrogen car so you can have a look at their website.

Hydrogen generation

Researchers at MIT have developed a highly efficient mechanisms for splitting up water into hydrogen and oxygen using a newly designed catalyst. This technology can be used to store energy generated from renewable sources as hydrogen gas that can then be used in a fuel cell to produce electricity. This is a very important breakthrough for clear carbon free energy.

http://www.physorg.com/news136738014.html

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

IAIA Meeting

A IAIA meeting will be held tonight with the topic
"Painful Lessons from Peru: Counting the Cost of Poor Community Engagement"

For more information and how to get there go to the website at http://www.iaia.co.za/home/

St Lucia Adventure Camp

Details on the St Lucia Adventure camp will be added to this topic as soon as they emerge.

St Lucia is an pristine estuary system in Kwazulu-Natal. You will see thicket forest, lakes and lagoons, magical coastlines, crocodiles, hippos, thousands of waterbirds, fish and beautiful sunsets!

Monday, July 28, 2008

Contact details for third years

Please leave your contact details here if they do change, especially third years going into industry.

The free energy machine

You may have noticed a strange sight on the roof of building 4. I have wired up some PV panels to a battery to collect sunlight during the day. At night there will be a light bulb hanging from the roof. I would like to have a banner underneath of the light to make passers by aware of solar energy. If you have any ideas for what we need to write on the banner please let me know. I also need some people to actually paint the banner.... anyone up to it?

I have now finished wiring up the panels and the batteries are already charging. I feel that this project can go very far.

Contribute

If you would like to contribute to the site please send the information you want to add to my email (rudolph80@saol.com) and I will upload it for you.

B.Tech problems

If you are experiencing any problems with the B.Tech environmental sciences course please leave a comment under this heading.

Not the official departmental website

I feel I need to emphasize that this is not the official departmental website. You can find the official TUT website at www.tut.ac.za and link to the department from there. Studyguides, information, timetables etc are available on the official TUT website.