The government banned an Indian couple from mountaineering in Nepal for 10 years last year after they faked a photograph to show them atop the world’s tallest peak.

Tourism Department official Durga Dutta Dhakal said some climbers would be equipped with GPS tracking device on a trial basis in the current climbing season to see if this is an effective way to prevent hoax claims.

“If this works, we’ll make it mandatory for all climbers to carry the device from next year,” Dhakal told reporters.

He said GPS data would be checked once climbers returned to Kathmandu to determine whether they had actually topped the mountain. It will also track their movements and will be useful to send rescue teams if they are in trouble.

Tourism and mountain climbing are key sources of income and account for four percent of the gross domestic product of Nepal. The Everest season reaches its climax during a “weather window” that typically opens until May.

Climbing is recovering from massive earthquakes in 2015 that triggered avalanches which killed 19 climbers. A year earlier, avalanches killed 16 Sherpa guides virtually closing the mountain for climbers.

Reuters

Picture source: Alamy Image

Image used for illustrative purposes

The post GPS device to prevent false Everest claims by climbers appeared first on KT10.

Mars now appears to be a cold desert world and it has no global magnetic field. The cold temperatures and thin atmosphere on the red Planet do not allow liquid water to exist at the surface for long. But it might not have been always so.

Scientists believe that the Red Planet once had a thick atmosphere necessary to maintain liquid water, and a warmer, potentially habitable climate. It is the collapse of the protective magnetic field billions of years ago that eventually made Mars what it is today—cold and arid.

In a presentation at the Planetary Science Vision 2050 Workshop in Washington, DC last week, NASA scientists proposed that launching a giant magnetic shield into space between Mars and the Sun could help the Red Planet restore its atmosphere and make it suitable for humans to colonise in the future.

The US space agency thinks a powerful-enough magnetic shield launched into space could serve as a replacement for Mars’s own lost magnetosphere, ScienceAlert reported on Monday.

Launching an “artificial magnetosphere” into space between Mars and the Sun could hypothetically shield the Red Planet in the extended magnetotail that trails behind the protective field, NASA’s Planetary Science Division director Jim Green was quoted as saying.

“This situation then eliminates many of the solar wind erosion processes that occur with the planet’s ionosphere and upper atmosphere allowing the Martian atmosphere to grow in pressure and temperature over time,” the researchers explained in an accompanying paper.

The researchers believe that the magnetic shield could help Mars regain some of its lost Earth-like habitability within the space of a couple of generations.

IANS

Picture source: Alamy

Picture used for illustrative purposes alone

The post Giant magnetic shield could make Mars habitable: NASA scientists appeared first on KT10.

The EHANG184 was unveiled at the World Government Summit last week. The Autonomous Aerial Vehicle (AAV) is set to take to the skies by July this year.

But how exactly are these flying cars going to help the average Dubai resident out? Here are some reasons.

Remember the horror of being stuck in rush hour traffic going from Dubai to Sharjah and vice versa? With Dubai’s flying car, your dread of Sharjah traffic is virtually nil. Wear a smile on your face as you reach home in 30 minutes (even fewer!)

Park ‘ANYWHERE’

Everybody knows that finding parking in Dubai Mall (even getting there) on the weekends is near impossible. Thanks to the flying car’s dedicated landing areas, you can shop for the latest deals in town and have a coffee worry free. Never break into a sweat in the hot parking lot trying to remember where your car is ever again!

Never miss a turn ever again

We all have that one friend that either lives in JLT or Marina. Missing your exit when you try to visit them happens. A LOT. When you’re high up in the sky, circling back a long distance is a thing of the past.

Forget about petrol too

Apart from the already amazing fact that it’s a car that flies, it also doesn’t consume petrol. The vehicle is 100% powered by electricity. No more petrol bills and long queues at the stations!

Have a smooth ride. Literally

One of the EHANG184’s notable safety features is that in case of a malfunction, the vehicle immediately lands at a safe location. You no longer have to worry about your car breaking down along Sheikh Zayed Road and you having to struggle to find jumper cables.

Keith Pereña/Khaleej Times

Picture source: RTA/YouTube

The post 5 ways how flying cars will end road rage in Dubai appeared first on KT10.

Yes indeed, and there’s an app for it.

Online platform JetSmarter offers instant pricing and availability for private jets worldwide. Being a global hub, Dubai is a major international travel destination for celebrities and personalities – from actors to sports stars, business tycoons and the ultra-rich.

Sergey Petrossov, founder, chairman and chief executive officer of JetSmarter, says his firm will be largest private aviation company in the world by 2020.

Petrossov hated the brick-and-mortar approach to booking charter. Frustrated with this experience, he began to notice mobile marketplaces were becoming popular, and decided this is the way private aircraft should be booked.

“We launched the company globally in March 2013. The GCC region and the Middle East market is of key importance for JetSmarter. Saudi Arabia is the largest GCC market for the company and a large proportion of app downloads across the Middle East can be attributed to this region.”

With over 600,000 app downloads worldwide, the company has hundreds of registered members residing in the GCC region.

Both Riyadh and Dubai are popular Middle East hubs when it comes to private travel through the app, and the firm says it is eyeing expansion across the Middle East.

Petrossov and his development team built the first beta-version of the app in August 2012, which was used by a closed group of people. Once he realised they were on to something, he decided to turn this into a full-fledged business. After raising more money and collaborating with hundreds of vendors and partners, the inaugural JetShuttle flight from Dubai to London took off on December 1, 2016.

For the first time in the private aviation industry, travellers were able to reserve seats on direct, scheduled flights between three continents – North America, Europe and the Middle East.

The company closed a $20 million Series B round in July 2015, and has also raised $56 million since inception as funding from private sources including the royal family in Saudi Arabia, A-league executives, music moguls, and more.

More recently, the firm has raised $105 million in Series C equity financing round at a $1.5 billion pre-money valuation in December 2016. This round will assist JetSmater in creating new JetShuttle routes across new regions, including Asia, China, India, South America and Africa throughout 2017.

“We have developed a focused marketing strategy specifically for the UAE market as it is the most prominent business and tourism hub in the region. Targeted communication to members, dedicated relationship managers that focus on existing relationship management, and new business development are some of our marketing criteria. We have received a lot of interest in JetSmarter across the UAE and we can say that we have around 7,000 users globally,” said Petrossov.

Recognised by Forbes as one of ‘30 Under 30’ in Consumer Technology and South Florida’s Top Working Professional by the Sun Sentinel, Petrossov co-founded two IT projects prior to JetSmarter: an online chat system for website customer service and a distance-learning platform for Russian speaking educational institutions. He also served as a board advisor to a private jet operator based in South Florida who at the time had the world’s largest on-demand Gulfstream charter fleet.

Saj Ahmad, an analyst at London’s StrategicAero Research, maintains that the target audience remains limited for such a service.

“In theory, the proposition is to allow high income earners to shun mainline airlines and instead used a specific, tailored and customised service to use a private jet. However, not everyone will be requiring immediate or urgent air travel – so this kind of service will not always have consistent demand,” Ahmad said.

“While it’s definitely innovative move, just 600,000 users worldwide shows how much of a drop in the ocean it really is,” he added.

Petrossov, however, remains bullish on the firm’s growth prospects. “We have a large membership base in Dubai, and due to the high demand, we are expanding our intercontinental JetShuttle service which will now connect three major continents – North America, Europe and Asia,” he said.

This intercontinental JetShuttle flight will make Dubai the new Middle East/Asian hub for shared private jet travel, as JetSmarter members in Dubai will now have the opportunity to jet-set to other popular European and North American destinations on JetSmarter’s scheduled flights to cities including Nice, Ibiza, Milan, Moscow, Paris, Geneva, New York, Chicago, South Florida, Los Angeles and many more.

“For 2017, flyers expect personalised experiences, while quality of service is the deciding factor as to whether a brand is considered luxury or not. Travellers are also planning ahead of time, and they’re focusing on operators that connect between two very varying travel destinations,” Petrossov said.

Evolution of JetSmarter

• The first beta-version of the JetSmarter app was tested in August 2012
• The JetSmarter app was officially born in March 2013
• Closed a $20 million Series B round in July of 2015.
• JetSmarter has also raised $56 million since inception as funding from private sources including the royal family in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, A-league executives, music moguls, and more.
• The company recently announced that it raised $105 million in the Series C equity financing round at a $1.5 billion pre-money valuation.

Sandhya D’Mello

sandhya@khaleejtimes.com

Picture source: Supplied photo

The post The Uber for private jets is no flight of fancy appeared first on KT10.