Science, Space, Health & Robotics News - Page 86

After declaring that it was perfectly on track to collide with a distant asteroid, NASA announced a successful collision by its DART spacecraft.

In celebration of the mission, NASA has teamed up with Google to bring an interactive Google search query to the public. By simply Googling "nasa dart" in any browser, the user will get a simple demonstration of what NASA has just pulled off. As shown in the above GIF posted to Twitter on the official NASA Twitter account, users can Google "nasa dart" and see the DART spacecraft fly across the browser window and collide into the background, causing the browser to tip slightly.

The simple demonstration is a small representation of NASA's success with its Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), the very first planetary defense mission that one day may be extremely valuable if a dangerous asteroid is discovered that has a trajectory that lines up with Earth. For those that don't know, NASA launched its small DART spacecraft in November 2021, and since then, it has been traveling at 14,000 mph towards a binary asteroid system that isn't a threat to Earth.

What do you think about robots taking your order, cooking your food, and delivering food to you while you dine at a restaurant? There are some roles that are easily replaced with robots, while other positions should remain safe for human workers... for now.

Currently, chef robots are extremely limited in their capable tasks, such as mixing beverages or operating deep fryers, so certain roles are likely safe. For example, chefs, managers, and waitstaff might be irreplaceable, but there definitely is room for automation and robotics to augment human staff in restaurants.

However, front-of-house jobs might be most likely to be disrupted by automation, with cashiers, drive-through operators, baristas, and hosts might be under pressure. Humans currently employed in these roles may one day have to expand their work skillset in the restaurant to avoid being replaced by their robot counterparts.

NASA postponed the launch of Artemis 1, scheduled for September 27, because of Tropical Storm Ian's path off Florida's Atlantic coast.

The National Hurricane Center expects Ian to be upgraded to a hurricane on Monday, with it reaching normal hurricane strength the day after - when Artemis 1 was expected to launch from the Kennedy Space Center.

As of Sunday evening, NASA still hasn't ordered a rollback of the Orion spacecraft or Artemis uncrewed space launch system rocket back to the Vehicle Assembly Building. Engineers will monitor the weather situation overnight, then make a final decision tomorrow - but are hesitant to put the Artemis or Orion in danger.

MIT researchers have developed a new soft robotics platform able to grip items such as tools using the appropriate amount of force. The Series Elastic End Effectors (SEED) has been designed to allow robots to carry out tasks that require the application of force of a grasped tool with proper pressure.

Robotic advancements are still ongoing, but traditional rigid robots still have difficulty completing tasks that are easy for humans. To complement robots, SEED uses embedded cameras and soft bubble grippers that use deformation that is carefully mapped. Everything the robot senses can be tracked in real-time in a 3D image that changes shape around a particular object that is being used - and each experience can be later utilized as a learned model.

SEED makes it possible for robots to successfully move objects with six degrees of freedom so it can move an object back and forth, up or down, left or right, roll, yaw, and pitch. Tasks demonstrated included how to set a screw to the proper torque, use a squeegee to clean up a spill, and write with a marker.

NASA has been concerned about astronauts conducting sexual relations during missions for quite some time, even to the point where the space agency officially prohibits sex and conception in space.

In a recent interview with The Daily Beast, Dr. Haig Aintablian, an emergency physician and fellow in space medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, explained that there are good reasons why NASA bans sex in space, and its reasons aren't so astronauts are distracted from their duties. NASA bans conception in space simply because of the limited knowledge it, and other space agencies have about pregnant women working in space and the possible health impacts that would follow.

Humans have known for quite some time that space impacts the health of humans in various forms, hence NASA and other space agencies' enforcement of astronauts sticking to a rigorous workout schedule while aboard a long stay on the International Space Station (ISS). As for pregnancies, NASA and Russia's space agency Roscosmos have "limited success" in invertebrates and insects successfully conceiving offspring while in space. Scientists suspect that there would be limited impediments to human conception in space, but they don't know for sure.

Mars has been a prospect for scientific exploration for more than 50 years, and every year the scientific operations grow on the Red Planet.

In a new article published in The Conversation, author Cagri Kilic, a Robotics Researcher, and Postdoctoral Fellow that focuses on the Inertial Localization for Planetary Rovers and Cooperative Localization for multi-robot systems with the Navigation Laboratory at West Virginia University, outlines that throughout humans' exploration of Mars we have left behind 15,694 pounds of debris.

The report outlines that so far, humans have sent eighteen man-made objects to Mars over fourteen missions, and that the debris left behind from these missions comes in three main categories; discarded hardware, inactive spacecraft, and crashed spacecraft. As explained by Kilic, whenever a space agency is landing a spacecraft on the Martian surface, it requires a module that is discarded after or throughout the landing process. This module contains vital protection for the rover/cargo as it contains a heat shield and a parachute.

SpaceX is gearing up for its first orbital test flight of the highly anticipated Starship launch vehicle that is poised to be Earth's mode of transportation to the Moon and eventually Mars.

Elon Musk, the SpaceX CEO and founder, recently took to Twitter to give some updated details on Starship's development and when the public can expect the massive rocket to conduct its first orbital test flight. Musk shared details on SpaceX's plans for Starship and how the company is currently going through rigorous testing of Booster 7, which will be used in Starship's first stage. It was only earlier in the week that SpaceX tested seven of its Raptor 2 engines in a static fire test at its Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas.

Booster 7, when equipped to Starship, will feature thirty-three of these Raptor 2 engines, and judging by SpaceX's progress and the comments from Musk, it seems that Booster 7 will be what Starship uses in its first orbital test flight. Leading up to the launch, SpaceX will be making several improvements to Booster 7 that will increase its reliability while simultaneously adding protections to the engines in case of a malfunction. It should be noted that the Raptor engines are the most expensive part of the rocket.

NASA has provided the public with an update on its repaired Artemis 1 moon rocket named the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket.

Last month NASA wanted to kick start its Artemis missions by initiating Artemis 1, a reconnaissance journey around the Moon that would provide the space agency with the foundational knowledge that'll be used in future Artemis missions. NASA attempted to launch the SLS rocket on September 3 but encountered an unexpected liquid hydrogen leak, specifically at the "quick disconnect" interface located on the SLS's core stage. The fuel leak was unable to be remedied in time for launch resulting in the space agency postponing the launch to a later date and repairs to be conducted on the malfunctioning area.

Artemis 1 teams were able to identify the issue and replaced two seals around the quick disconnect on September 9, and following the repairs, the space agency scheduled a fueling test to see if the improvements were adequate. The fueling test was conducted on Wednesday this week, and overall, NASA has deemed the repairs a success as "all of the objects that we set out to do we were able to accomplish today".

A worldwide team of citizen scientists collaborated with professional astronomers along with NASA's Juno team to create animations of Jupiter's cloud tops.

The team gathered data from NASA's JunoCam, which is the visible light camera that is located on NASA's Juno spacecraft that arrived in Jupiter's orbit in 2016. The Juno spacecraft was specifically equipped with JunoCam to spark more public interest in the exploration of Jupiter and its surrounding moons, and now the aforementioned citizen scientists, professional astronomers, and Juno team have demonstrated that the camera can be used for credible scientific operations.

Citizen scientist and professional mathematician and software engineer Gerald Eichstadt presented the results at the Europlanet Science Congress (EPSC) 2022 in Granada. According to the software developer, the Juno mission provides researchers with an opportunity to observe Jupiter in a way that is "essentially inaccessible" by Earth-based telescopes and that researchers are able to capture the same cloud features from different angles within only a few minutes.

NASA is about to collide a spacecraft into a distant asteroid and on its way to its target NASA's spacecraft has snapped images of Jupiter.

NASA has taken to its blog on its website to reveal images snapped by its Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) spacecraft that expected to collide with the binary asteroid Didymos and its moonlet Dimorphos. The binary asteroid system doesn't pose any threat to Earth, but NASA want to test the first planetary defense technique that involves colliding a spacecraft into an asteroid in an attempt to change its orbit. The technique, called a kinetic impactor, if proven to be effective, may be used in the future to save Earth from an asteroid that is dangerous.

The DART spacecraft is equipped with an imager called the Didymos Reconnaissance and Asteroid Camera for Optical navigation, or DRACO, and during its journey it has been used by researchers to snap thousands of images of stars. The images are used by Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) team leading the mission to provide continuous support for the spacecraft in terms of making sure its trajectory lines up directly with the target asteroid. Furthermore, the images are used by DART's autonomous guidance system, which will also be used to make sure DART hits its mark.