Welcome to TRANSLOGIC World Report: Your weekly roundup of transportation tech news from around the web.
Yesterday China launched its first space station module into orbit. The successful launch of Tiangong 1--translated as "heavenly palace 1"--makes China only the third country to accomplish such a feat independently. The others, of course, are Russia and the United States, who began operating space stations in the 1970s and now jointly manage the International Space Station with Canada, Japan, and the European Space Association. Oddly, though, state-run Chinese network CCTV selected the song America The Beautiful to accompany the telecast of the historic moment.
[POPSCI / WASHINGTON POST]
Consider this situation: You have had an early-gen iPod whose battery no longer holds a charge. It's happened to many of us. So what do you do? Typically, replace it with the latest, sleeker, feature-rich model. But what if we were talking about a $30K EV, like the Nissan Leaf, instead of a $300 portable music player? Replacing the car seems out of the question. Even replacing the battery alone could cost thousands.
This is a concern shared by Nissan Leaf owners, as well as prospective EV adopters everywhere. This week, however, Nissan's VP of global marketing communications Simon Sproule stepped in to quell anxieties by clarifying that "it's very unlikely that anyone's going to have to replace the entire battery pack. Typically people will need to replace modules and [Nissan] can open up the battery pack and do that....and these will be in the hundreds, not the thousands."
[AUTOBLOG GREEN]
For all you Lego fanatics out there, you'll appreciate this life-sized Ford Explorer made from 380,000 Lego bricks which debuted earlier in the week at the new LegoLand Florida theme park.
[AUTOPIA]
And, of course, be sure to catch this week's episode of TRANSLOGIC before it goes away and hides in our episode archive.
Click the image below to watch TRANSLOGIC 72: Best Of Summer 2011:
Yesterday China launched its first space station module into orbit. The successful launch of Tiangong 1--translated as "heavenly palace 1"--makes China only the third country to accomplish such a feat independently. The others, of course, are Russia and the United States, who began operating space stations in the 1970s and now jointly manage the International Space Station with Canada, Japan, and the European Space Association. Oddly, though, state-run Chinese network CCTV selected the song America The Beautiful to accompany the telecast of the historic moment.
[POPSCI / WASHINGTON POST]
Consider this situation: You have had an early-gen iPod whose battery no longer holds a charge. It's happened to many of us. So what do you do? Typically, replace it with the latest, sleeker, feature-rich model. But what if we were talking about a $30K EV, like the Nissan Leaf, instead of a $300 portable music player? Replacing the car seems out of the question. Even replacing the battery alone could cost thousands.
This is a concern shared by Nissan Leaf owners, as well as prospective EV adopters everywhere. This week, however, Nissan's VP of global marketing communications Simon Sproule stepped in to quell anxieties by clarifying that "it's very unlikely that anyone's going to have to replace the entire battery pack. Typically people will need to replace modules and [Nissan] can open up the battery pack and do that....and these will be in the hundreds, not the thousands."
[AUTOBLOG GREEN]
For all you Lego fanatics out there, you'll appreciate this life-sized Ford Explorer made from 380,000 Lego bricks which debuted earlier in the week at the new LegoLand Florida theme park.
[AUTOPIA]
And, of course, be sure to catch this week's episode of TRANSLOGIC before it goes away and hides in our episode archive.
Click the image below to watch TRANSLOGIC 72: Best Of Summer 2011:
The video meant to be presented here is no longer available. Sorry for the inconvenience.
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