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by Lucie AUBOURG Agence France Presse WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — After a seven-month journey, NASA’s Perseverance rover prepares to touch down on Mars on Thursday after first negotiating a risky landing procedure that will mark the start of its multi-year search for signs of ancient microbial life. The Mars 2020 mission, which set off late from Florida in late July, includes the largest ever vehicle to be dispatched to the Red Planet. Built […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — More than a century after the first powered flight on Earth, NASA intends to prove it’s possible to replicate the feat on another world. Transported aboard the Mars 2020 spacecraft that arrives at the Red Planet on Thursday, the small Ingenuity helicopter will have several challenges to overcome — the biggest being the rarefied Martian atmosphere, which is just one percent the density of Earth’s. – Ultralight – It might […]
by Jalees ANDRABI Agence France-Presse INDIA (AFP) — Indian rescuers began drilling from above a debris-filled tunnel Thursday in a desperate bid to reach dozens of people missing since a flash flood likely caused by a breaking glacier four days earlier. Workers have toiled night and day clearing rocks and mud from the tunnel at a damaged hydroelectric plant at Tapovan in Uttarakhand in northern India since Sunday’s disaster. More than 170 people are missing […]
LONDON, United Kingdom (AFP) — British Airways on Tuesday unveiled a partnership with US startup LanzaJet to produce jet fuel aimed at cutting carbon emissions from 2022. The announcement comes as the global aviation industry is looking to bounce back from a collapse in demand caused by the coronavirus pandemic grounding planes. “Despite the crisis in global aviation, it is vital for our future that we continue to address climate change and we remain focused […]
NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — Coca-Cola will soon begin selling sodas in completely recycled plastic in the United States for the first time, the beverage giant said Tuesday. The initial items will be introduced this month in a group of states that includes California and Florida, for items such as Coke and Diet Coke in 13.2-ounce bottles made from 100 percent recycled plastic. The company — which has been named a top plastic polluter […]
BEIJING, China (AFP) — China’s Tianwen-1 probe has sent back its first image of Mars, the national space agency said, as the mission prepares to touch down on the Red Planet later this year. The spacecraft, launched in July around the same time as a rival US mission, is expected to enter Mars orbit around February 10. The black-and-white photo released late Friday by the China National Space Administration showed geological features including the Schiaparelli […]
by John BIERS Agence France-Presse NEW YORK, United States (AFP)— Ford announced Thursday a dramatic acceleration of its investment push into electric autos and signaled deepening collaborations with technology giants on the increased digitization of driving. The US auto giant, released fourth-quarter and annual results, and said it plans $22 billion in electric car investment through 2025, nearly twice the earlier plan. The announcement is the latest big bet on electric autos by a legacy […]
by Taimaz SZIRNIKS Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — Demand for electric vehicles soared in the EU last year as buyers took advantage of government subsidies for clean cars aimed at helping manufacturers weather the unprecedented hit from the Covid-19 pandemic, the European Automobile Manufacturers Association (ACEA) said Thursday. Some 538,772 fully electric autos were sold across the bloc, up 117 percent from 2019, while sales of plug-in hybrids more than tripled, to 507,059 from […]
WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — SpaceX on Tuesday was poised to attempt a test flight of Starship SN9 — an experimental giant rocket the company hopes will one day go to Mars — after the last prototype crashed in a fiery explosion in December. The stainless steel rocket has been cleared for lift-off from Boca Chica, Texas by the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which delayed granting authorization after determining that SpaceX’s last launch violated the […]
SINGAPORE (AFP) — Singapore has moved a step closer to a driverless public transport network with the launch of a new trial of self-driving buses. Orderly and high-tech, the Asian city-state has become a testbed for self-driving vehicles and has developed home-grown technology while inviting foreign companies to trial their own. In a three-month trial launched this week, passengers can book a bus ride through an app that takes them around Singapore’s Science Park, a […]
NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — Toyota will pay $180 million to settle charges it failed to comply with rules mandating that auto companies report problems with vehicle emissions to authorities, the US Department of Justice said on Thursday. “Toyota pays the price for its misconduct with a $180 million civil penalty and agreement to injunctive relief to ensure that its violations will not be repeated,” Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Bossert Clark said in a […]
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AFP) — Saudi Arabia, the world’s top crude exporter, announced Sunday the launch of an eco-city “with zero cars, zero streets and zero carbon emissions” at its futuristic NEOM mega development. The $500 billion NEOM project, set to be built from scratch along the kingdom’s picturesque Red Sea coast, is billed as a development evocative of a sci-fi blockbuster. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman unveiled plans for a city, dubbed “THE LINE”, in […]
