Laboratory Equipment

Amazon CEO Recovers Apollo Engines from Atlantic

Rusted pieces of two Apollo-era rocket engines that helped boost astronauts to the moon have been fished out of the murky depths of the Atlantic, Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos and NASA say.

A privately funded expedition led by Bezos raised the main engine parts during three weeks at sea and was headed back to Cape Canaveral, Florida, the launch pad for the manned lunar missions. “We’ve seen an underwater wonderland — an incredible sculpture garden of twisted F-1 engines that tells the story of a fiery and violent end,” Bezos writes in an online posting.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/03/amazon-ceo-recovers-apollo-engines-atlantic

NASA Tests Old Apollo 11 Engine for Future Ideas

Like vinyl records and skinny ties, things eventually come back around. At NASA, that means looking to the Apollo program for ideas on how to develop the next generation of rockets for future missions to the moon and beyond. Young engineers who weren’t even born when the last Saturn V rocket took off for the moon are testing a vintage engine from the program.

The engine, known to NASA engineers as No. F-6049, was supposed to help propel Apollo 11 into orbit in 1969, when NASA sent Neil Armstrong and two other astronauts to the moon for the first time. The flight went off without a hitch, but no thanks to the engine — it was grounded because of a glitch during a test in Mississippi and later sent to the Smithsonian Institution, where it sat for years.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2013/01/nasa-tests-old-apollo-11-engine-future-ideas

Ultrasound Key to More Efficient Engines

A system that uses ultrasound technology to look inside car engines could lead to more efficient engines – and huge fuel savings for motorists.

Ultrasound scans have long been a fundamental tool in healthcare for looking inside the human body, but they have never before been put to use in testing the health of a modern combustion engine. In the Univ. of Sheffield’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, Rob Dwyer-Joyce, professor of lubrication engineering, has devised a method of using ultrasound to measure how efficiently an engine’s pistons are moving up and down inside their cylinders.

Read more: http://www.laboratoryequipment.com/news/2012/12/ultrasound-key-more-efficient-engines