🚛 World’s first hydrogen fuel station, Moon tree seeds, orbital clean up

FirstElement Fuel, a California-based company established in 2013, has opened the world’s first hydrogen fuel station for commercial trucks just outside the Port of Oakland.

The station’s capacity is more than 10 times the capacity of any previous station. Hyundai, Bosch, Toyota, and Volvo are among those developing fuel-cell hydrogen trucks. For more on the fuel station, check out today’s Must-Read.

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> Software Development Engineer III, AI Research & Education
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🎙 New podcast  Redefining astronomy with smart telescopes

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MUST READ

🚛 World’s first hydrogen fuel station for trucks opens in Oakland

FirstElement Fuel (FEF) claims its world’s first commercial fuel station is capable of filling a truck’s hydrogen tanks in ten minutes, which means the station can fill around 200 trucks per day.

The company also claims to be the world leader in hydrogen refueling station solutions, with facilities in Irvine, Santa Ana, and Livermore, CA. As of December 2023, FEF had 41 retail light-duty stations throughout California. It will now develop more stations to serve heavy-duty trucks powered by hydrogen.

According to sources, the U.S. federal government is handing out $8 billion to jump-start what it calls the “hydrogen economy.” It expects sufficient funding to build up to 60 more hydrogen truck stations like this one in California. This would, theoretically, be enough to serve 5,000 trucks and 1,000 buses.

🌖 NASA’s Artemis Moon trees set to take root across USA

Following thorough numerous applications, NASA has chosen organizations nationwide to receive ‘Moon Tree’ seedlings. The seedlings flew around the Moon during NASA’s Artemis I mission in 2022.

Some of them include Loblolly pine — a fast-growing conifer native to the southeastern U.S. Another is the American sycamore, known to live up to 600 years. We also know that there will be seeds of the Giant sequoia. These known to reach ages of up to 3,400 years, are among the tallest-growing trees in the world.

“A new era of Moon trees will one day stand tall in communities across America,” said NASA Administrator Bill Nelson. NASA is bringing the spirit of exploration back down to Earth because space belongs to everyone.”

🛰️ Debris dilemma: Japan’s mission makes progress in orbital clean-up efforts

Astroscale’s ADRAS-J (Active Debris Removal by Astroscale-Japan) mission successfully rendezvoused with a second-stage H-2A rocket, bringing it within several hundred kilometers of the drifting object.

The spacecraft is now preparing to conduct a detailed examination of the aging rocket, orbiting around it and capturing images. Still, the rocket’s upper stage, launched in 2009, lacks its own GPS data, making precise location determination for a rendezvous and proximity operations (RPO) mission challenging.

Fitted with a range of onboard rendezvous payload sensors, ADRAS-J safely approaches its targets, gathering essential relative navigation data like distance and attitude. The coordination and switching between these sensors are crucial for the mission’s success.

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IE QUIZ: THE RESULTS

In yesterday’s quiz, we asked, What is the missing number?

The answer is: If you add the first three numbers in each column, you can see the sum in the last box. For example; first column (7+5+3=15), second column (2+11+8=21)…. So the missing number is 25 since (15+6+4=?)

Ready for more brainy challenges? Gear up for future IE quizzes by following us on Instagram and Facebook! 

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