Altitude

NEWSSPACE ALTRANOBSERVINGEARTHIn 2000 France and Italy began an ambitious cooperative programme to define anddevelop an Earth observation system using optical and radar sensors for both civil andmilitary applications. As part of France’s contribution, the French Space Agency (CNES)has developed a high-resolution optical system called Pleiades-HR. Two mini highresolutionsatellites whose line of sight shows a very high pointing capacity, haverecently been ordered. Altran Technologies supported the CNES during the definitionphase, to master the complexity of the ground segment by contributing systemsengineering expertise.CNRS2,400metresIS THE DEPTH THEEUROPEAN ANTARESNEUTRINO TELESCOPEWILL OPERATE ATWHEN IT IS FULLYDEPLOYED AT THE END OF2006. AT THIS WATERDEPTH, COSMIC RAYS AREFILTERED OUT, MAKING ITMUCH EASIER TO DETECTTRANSIENT NEUTRINOS. ITHAS JUST BEEN LAUNCHEDIN THE MEDITERRANEAN.PhotodiscCLIMATEWARMER WEEKENDSDo we finally have definitiveresearch to demonstrateman’s influence on globalwarming? The rationale putby Piers Forster and SusanSolomon, both researchersat the National Oceanic andAtmospheric Administration(Colorado, USA), is a cleverone: “We measure weeklytemperature variations.Since the week is anentirely human conceptunknown in nature,then if these temperaturevariations are significant,they are, by definition,attributable to humanactivity”.Several hundred weatherstations in the USA, Japan,Mexico and China haveThe EuropeanResearch CouncilForty-five Nobel laureates wanted one, so the EuropeanCommission is going to set it up. The European Research Councilwill address the need for fundamental research programmes inEurope. Its aim will be to promote cooperation between Europe’sleading pure research teams. The new council should be operationalby 2005, and have a multi-million euro budget.supplied researchers withdata going back fortyyears. The conclusion isthat a weekly cycledefinitely does exist.Weekends are generallywarmer than the rest of theweek which is a trend seenmainly in urban areas,where human activity ismost concentrated.20 YEARS AGO144,000votesENVIRONMENT350 CRADLE-TO-GRAVE PRODUCTSEvery car consumes energy andcreates pollution, but not only when it’sbeing driven down the road. Extractingraw materials used to manufacture it,assembly of its component parts andrecycling the vehicle at the end of itslife… in fact, every stage of itsmanufacture and use has one longstring of environmental impacts. TheJapan Environmental ManagementAssociation for Industry (JEMAI) isconducting a public scientific evaluationof all the factors involved in vehiclelifecycles (the consumption of energy,water and chemicals, CO2 emissions,etc.) but also goes much further andassesses 350 other products fromevery part of the industry, from cementto tyres, diesel fuel to television.However these EnvironmentalAssessments, or Life CycleAssessments (LCA), are not particularto Japan but form part of the ISO14040 series of international standards.The aim is clear: by choosing the bestmaterials for the right purpose at theTELECOMSOPTICAL FIBRESFROM THE DEPTHS OF THE OCEANTHE MONOSPACEEurope’s first "one-box" vehicle wasunveiled by Renault in 1984.Designed in collaboration with Matra,it was the first of a completely newgeneration of vehicle: themonospace. Its originality lay in itsconcept of internal spaceorganisation in which pivoting seatscould transform the inside of thevehicle into a living space. After aslow start, the Espace quicklybecame a huge commercial success,unrivalled to this day.CAST IN BOONECOUNTY, INDIANA, USA.HARDLY BIG NEWS,THE MANUFAC-YOU MIGHT THINK,TURE OF A CHIPEXCEPT THAT THEWEIGHINGELECTORAL ROLL FORdesign stage and modifying production 2 gAltran and the automotive industryTHE COUNTY CONTAINSprocesses where necessary,CONSUMESFor 20 years Altran has workedONLY 19,000 NAMEScompanies will obtain the government’s 1.7 Kgalongside major car manufacturers,AND HAD 5,500“environmentally responsible” label. To OF FOSSILcontributing to the development ofVOTERS. THIS MINORtake car manufacturers as an example FUELS,major innovations for today andELECTORAL BUGagain, Toyota will comply with LCA 1 M 3Euplectella is a marine sponge found deep beneath the sea in tropical latitudestomorrow: air conditioning, electronicOCCURRED IN THEstandards from 2005. The company will OF NITROGEN,and is able to produce stronger optical fibres than its industrial counter-clutch, hybrid engines, driver vigilanceCOUNTY’S ELECTRONICtherefore be making public all its72 gpart. Teams working at Bell Labs have discovered that the fibres making up itsmonitoring systems and automaticVOTING SYSTEMprocesses. This advance is unlikely to OF CHEMICALSmesh-like skeleton are of different materials. Concentric silica cylinders surroundguidance systems based on opticalBECAUSE THEbe repeated in Europe, where theANDan inner core of high-purity silica glass. Of similar structure and size,recognition of ground markings…COMPUTER WAS NOTpressure of competition still encourages 32 LITRESthese fibres conduct light in the same way as their industrially produced counterparts,REBOOTED ON THEsecrecy.OF WATER.but have a greater tensile strength. They are also produced atMORNING OF THE POLL.For more information: www.jemai.or.jpambient temperature, rather than the 1,550°C required by today’s fibre opticmanufacturing technology.06 Altitude n°2 /February 2004 Altitude n°2 /February 2004 07PhotodiscLucentDR