#Superconductors despotism 3k full
#Superconductors despotism 3k free

For example, the gyros that keep satellites oriented could use frictionless bearings made from superconducting magnets, improving the satellites' precision. NASA is looking at how superconductors could be used for space. Most of today's MRI machines require expensive liquid helium to cool their low-temperature superconducting wire. Image to right: MRI scans, a powerful tool for medical diagnosis, use superconducting electromagnets to generate detailed images of body tissues. Economic realities stalled the initial adoption of maglev transit systems, but maglev development is still strong in Japan, China, Germany, and the United States. The fledgling 'maglev' train industry would also welcome the availability of higher-quality, cheaper HTS wire.

Replacing these lines with superconducting wire would boost utilities' efficiencies, and would go a long way toward curbing the nation's greenhouse gas emissions. Today, about 6 to 7% of the electricity generated in the United States gets lost along the way to consumers, partly due to the resistance of transmission lines, according to U.S.

#Superconductors despotism 3k free

In normal conductors, such as copper wire, the atoms of the wire impede the free flow of electrons, sapping the current's energy and squandering it as heat. In theory, a loop of HTS wire could carry a circling current forever without even needing a power source to keep it going. The special 'talent' of superconductors is that they have zero resistance to electric current. Once-famous superconductors may be about to step back into the limelight.

#Superconductors despotism 3k full

The NASA-funded Texas Center for Superconductivity and Advanced Materials (TcSAM) at the University of Houston is teaming with MetOx to produce the 'smash hit' that scientists have been seeking since the '80s: a 'second generation' HTS wire that realizes the full 100-fold improvement in current capacity over copper yet costs about the same as copper to produce. Image to left: 'Second generation' HTS wire can carry the same amount of current as copper wire hundreds of times as thick. Furthermore, the amount of current it could carry often fell far short of its potential: only 2 or 3 times that of copper, versus a potential of more than 100 times.īut now, thanks to years of research involving experiments flown on the space shuttle, this is about to change. So-called 'first generation' HTS wire was relatively expensive: 5 to 10 times the cost of copper wire. Indeed, the first attempts were disappointing. Finding an industrial way to make long, flexible wires out of them was going to be difficult. These superconductors are made of ceramics-the same kind of material in coffee mugs. The problem was learning to make wire out of it. 'It was the hottest potato of its time, but it all fizzled out,' says Louis Castellani, president of the Houston-based HTS company Metal Oxide Technologies, Inc. Today we might ask, like a Hollywood gossip columnist: what ever happened to the 'high-temp' hype? High-temperature superconductors can use liquid nitrogen instead, which is cheaper, more abundant, and easier to handle. Image to right: The MLX01 experimental 'maglev' train, currently being tested by Japan's Railway Technical Research Institute, uses 'old fashioned' low-temperature superconductors that require liquid helium for a coolant. Levitating 300-mph trains, ultra-fast computers, and cheaper, cleaner electricity were to be just the beginning of its long and illustrious career. Headlines the world over trumpeted the discovery of 'high temperature' superconductors (abbreviated HTS), and the media and scientists alike gushed over the marvels that we could soon expect from this promising young technology. NASA research is unlocking the amazing potential of high-temperature superconductors.įebruary 5, 2003: Few technologies ever enjoy the sort of rock-star celebrity that superconductors received in the late 1980s.