Other opportunity areas for cutting costs included vehicle lightweighting to extend range, electric-drive systems fully integrating motors and electronics, employing wide bandgap semiconductors, nanotechnology materials and non-rare earth motors. Further into the future, wireless electricity* becomes a fairly common feature of urban centres and this further enhances the appeal of electric cars.
[FULL] Future - Pluto 3D (2012) 12
Abstract: The terrestrial planets in our Solar System are believed to have formed via a multi-stage process that included the conglomeration of sub-micron sized interstellar dust particles into kilometer-sized parent bodies, the growth of pluto-size planetary embryos from collisions of kilometer-sized parent bodies, and the accretion of the patina from giant collisions between planetary embryos. The Spitzer Space Telescope has enabled photometric surveys of mid- and far-infrared excess around stars in nearby young associations that constrain models for the formation of pluto-sized objects, and spectroscopic characterization of the circumstellar material that suggests that giant collisions may be occuring in some systems. In this talk, I will outline the properties of young debris disks in which terrestrial planets may be forming, compare MIPS photometric observations of stars in the 5-20 Myr old Scorpius-Centaurus OB Association to the evolution predicted by self-stirred disk models, and discuss possible diagnostics for giant collisions in young Solar Systems. I will also describe outstanding questions about solar system evolution that can not be addressed with Spitzer and will require future ground- and space-based instruments. 2ff7e9595c
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