Science, Space, & Robotics - Page 105

The photo captured by the Mars Perseverance rover is the "Image of the Week" for Week 54 (February 20th - 26th, 2022) of the Perseverance mission.

The image was taken using the Front Left Hazard Avoidance Camera A aboard Perseverance, at 14:24:43 on February 25th, 2022, or Sol 362 of the Perseverance rover's mission on Mars. Perseverance periodically stops and surveys its surroundings with its Hazard Cameras, generating a 3D view to help the rover navigate without needing to consult the rover team on Earth constantly.

The rock inside the wheel is still present as of March 7th, when the Front Left Hazard Avoidance Camera A captured a similar perspective. The rover has continued regular operation despite the rock, and it is likely to fall out of its own accord as the rover continues on its mission. Other rovers such as the MSL Curiosity have had rocks get stuck in their wheels, but they haven't had any significant detrimental effects.

A paper on the new species titled "Fossil coleoid cephalopod from the Mississippian Bear Gulch Lagerstätte sheds light on early vampyropod evolution" has been published in the journal Nature.

A research team from the American Museum of Natural History and Yale has discovered a new species of vampyropod using a 328-million-year-old fossil. The discovery uncovers one of the oldest ancestors of the group of animals that includes octopuses and vampire squids and shows their ancestors had ten arms instead of eight. The newly discovered species extends the fossil record of this group extends by about 82 million years.

The fossil specimen has been used to classify a completely new genus and species, with the specimen being named the Syllipsimopodi bideni. The genus name is derived from the Greek word "syllipsimos" for "prehensile" and "podi" for "foot". The species name is in honor of Joseph R. Biden, the 46th President of the United States, who was inaugurated around the time of the paper's submission.

The photos will be auctioned at Copenhagen's Bruun Rasmussen auction house on March 9th, 2022.

An anonymous foreign collector contacted the auction house to sell their collection of 74 photos, including photographs from the missions Apollo 8 through Apollo 17 and more, with 26 of the photos being taken on the moon. Each photograph is being auctioned off individually, and the entire collection is estimated to be around 1.4 million kroner in value, or almost 190,000 euros ($205,000).

The most valuable photograph is the first "Earthrise" photo taken by U.S. astronaut William Anders in December 1968 while orbiting the moon as part of the Apollo 8 mission. The photo is valued between 8,000 and 12,000 euros ($8,733 to $13,100). Several photos are being publicly displayed for the first time, previously having been relegated to the NASA archives.

The new report by the International Energy Agency (IEA) is part of its Global Energy Review, titled "Global Energy Review: CO2 Emissions in 2021".

Energy-related carbon dioxide emissions worldwide rose by 6% in 2021 to their highest ever level, 36.3 billion tonnes (36.3 Gt, or gigatonnes). The increase in emissions was by more than 2 billion tonnes, marking the largest absolute increase year-to-year, and more than offset the decline in emissions from the previous year attributed to the global COVID-19 pandemic.

The recovery of the global economy led to recovering energy demand in 2021. However, factors such as increased natural gas prices led to more coal being burned for energy, despite the largest recorded growth in renewable power generation.

Spaceweather reported that a coronal mass ejection (CME) was observed after an eruption of a magnetic filament.

According to the report, the CME departed the Sun on March 7, 2022 and is expected to hit Earth on sometime on March 10. The coronal mass ejection is expected to cause relatively weak geomagnetic storms at a rating of G-1, which means there little chance that satellites and electric grids will be taken offline by the storm.

While the storm is expected to be weak, there is still the increased chance for auroras to be spotted in the night sky. Previous Sun blasts have caused auroras to be spotted across Europe, Scandinavia and as far south in the US as Washington State. NOAA's Space Weather Prediction Center has provided an area where auroras as expected to be seen. If you are interested in reading more about this story, check out this link here.

A NASA astronaut has taken to Twitter to voice his opinion on the recent comments from the head of Russia's space agency.

The leader of Roscosmos, Russia's equivalent to NASA, has been the target of former NASA astronaut Garrett Reisman who critized Russia's space agency chief Dmitry Rogozin over his comments amid Russia's invasion into Ukraine. Rogozin is no stranger to making outlandish comments on social media, as the Roscosmos head recently threatened to crash the ISS into the US over the sanctions imposed on Russia following its invasion.

The comments from Rogozin have caused international partners to pull out of relationships with the Russian space agency, which is essentially jeopardizing any future space exploration-ties between Russia and prominent space-advancing countries. Additionally, Rogozin has warned that if any Russian satellites are hacked or infiltrated that it is "a reason to go to war" with those who organized the attack.

The director for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has been asked if he thinks Russia's President, Vladimir Putin, is "crazy".

The question came from US Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi and was aimed at CIA Director William Burn's who spoke at a House Intelligence Committee hearing. According to the head of the CIA, he doesn't believe Putin is crazy, but instead is becoming increasingly insulated and hardened in his views, which makes him "extremely difficult to deal with".

According to Lieutenant General Scott Berrier, who is the director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, estimates measure Russian casualties to be somewhere between 2,000 and 4,000. However, Berrier noted that this estimation was made with "low confidence". Additionally, director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said that the US hasn't seen any notable movement from Russia's nuclear force despite concerning warnings from Putin.

Russian forces have already attacked and captured the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.

The target of the latest attack was the Kharkiv Institute of Physics and Technology (KIPT), resulting in the destruction of the lab and its neutron generator. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Rafael Mariano Grossi, says the inventory of radioactive material was small, and no radiation release has been detected following the site's destruction.

The lab was used for research and provided medical isotopes for health care workers. Grossi has said he is ready to meet with Ukrainian and Russian officials to ensure the safety of atomic sites as the war escalates. Other facilities are at risk of damage in addition to any one of Ukraine's fifteen nuclear power plants, such as nuclear-waste storage sites in Kyiv that have already been damaged.

Musk believes that increasing nuclear energy output is "critical to national and international security."

Musk also went on to taunt "those who (mistakenly) think this is a radiation risk" by asking them to say what they thought was the worst location, and that he would then go there and eat locally grown food on television. Musk mentioned going to Japan shortly after the Fukushima nuclear disaster and doing the same thing, and claimed the radiation risk is significantly lower than most people believe.

The tweet has come in the days following a Russian attack on Europe's largest nuclear power plant, the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which meets 20 percent of Ukraine's energy needs alone. According to the World Nuclear Association, 440 nuclear power plants across 33 countries generated 2553 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity in 2020, accounting for roughly 10 percent of the global energy consumption.

A study on the brain changes titled "SARS-CoV-2 is associated with changes in brain structure in UK Biobank" has been published in the journal Nature.

Researchers found that, on average, middle-aged and older adults who had been afflicted with COVID-19 had tissue shrinkage in areas of the brain related to the sense of smell. Another effect most prevalent among older adults was increased difficulty in completing complex mental tasks after having COVID-19, compared to individuals who had not contracted the disease.

The researchers had access to brain scans before and after people became infected with COVID-19, allowing them to distinguish between expected brain changes and those resulting from COVID-19.

Elon Musk expects "slight delays" on the road to Starship's first orbital test flight.

It is not the first time Starship has been delayed, with previous delays coming from an ever-shifting deadline for a programmatic environmental assessment (PEA) conducted by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The expected delay comes after Musk has redirected SpaceX resources to assist Ukraine in its ongoing defense against the Russian invasion.

Musk has been in contact with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy since sending Starlink equipment to Ukraine to help the country maintain an internet connection amidst the conflict.

Reports of destruction of the world's largest plane, the Antonov An-225, came earlier this week.

A tweet by ELINT News confirms the destruction of the An-225 cargo plane, showing video of the aircraft under a damaged hangar amongst destroyed military equipment at Gostomel airport north of Kyiv in Ukraine. The plane, named Mriya ("dream" in Ukrainian), was built during the Soviet era and was 275 feet long with a wingspan of 290 feet.

It was purchased by Antonov after the collapse of the Soviet Union and used to transport enormous air cargo, such as the two 138-feet wind turbines it transported in 2010 from China to Denmark, the longest pieces of air cargo ever. It was at Antonov's facility at Gostomel for maintenance when the Russian attack on the site began. The Ukrainian government has since vowed to rebuild the aircraft once the war is over.

The project will be coordinated by the United States Air Force Research Lab (AFRL).

Uploaded to the AFRL YouTube channel is the above video on the Cislunar Highway Patrol System (CHPS). The plans in the video entail a probe that will patrol cislunar space, the expansive area around Earth that extends beyond the Moon's orbit.

After the development of the satellite at the AFRL, the probe will be acquired by the United States Space Force for use by the U.S. Space Command. The AFRL will seek proposals for prototypes for the CHPS satellite on March 21st, 2022, before announcing whose proposal will be awarded the contract in July 2022.

An assortment of private satellite companies are sharing images of the Russian invasion into Ukraine taken from space.

Maxar Technologies' WorldView-3 satellite captured high-resolution images of a 40-mile-long (64 kilometers) Russian convoy moving into Ukraine on February 28th, four days after the invasion began. The company has since georegistered the data from its satellite imagery to generate a 3D model of the area around the convoy.

The video stitches together its satellite imagery into one continuous view, conveying the scope of the massive convoy. According to Maxar, the data "has an absolute accuracy in all directions of 3 meters [10 feet], which means that objects seen in the video are physically within that 3 meters zone in the real-world. This unique view, created with space-based data, allows viewers to have a better understanding of the on-the-ground situation when the area is not readily accessible."

Nuclear experts have given their assessment of the possible dangers to Nature.

Russian military forces have captured Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant near Enerhodar in the southeast of Ukraine. A building at the plant had been struck by shelling and caught fire, but the fire was extinguished without any direct harm to the reactors. Rafael Mariano Grossi, the Director-General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), reported that the detectors at the site continue to report normal radiation levels.

Zaporizhzhia's reactors have a modern VVER (the Russian acronym for water-water energetic reactor) design. Each reactor is enclosed in a pressurized steel vessel, in turn, housed within a massive reinforced-concrete containment structure. Michael Bluck, director of the Centre for Nuclear Engineering at Imperial College London, says the plant has multiple safety backup systems.

The identity and owner of the rocket has been a subject of the debate since its crash course towards the moon was confirmed.

Calculations of the rocket's trajectory by astronomer Bill Gray indicated that the rocket would strike the Moon's surface on March 4th at 12:25 UTC on the far side of the Moon, where it couldn't be directly observed to occur. Gray estimated that the impact would result in a crater about "10 or 20 meters across."

The rocket was initially thought to be the remains of a SpaceX rocket, but upon further consideration, Gray believes it to be the third-stage booster of Chang'e 5-T1, a Chinese rocket launched in 2014. China has denied responsibility, claiming that booster "safely entered the Earth's atmosphere and was completely incinerated."

The move comes after Russian President Vladimir Putin put Russia's nuclear forces on heightened alert.

The Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) have three-stage rocket motors fueled by solid propellants. They have a range of over 6,000 miles (9,660 kilometers) and cruising speeds of 15,000 miles per hour (24,000 kilometers per hour, or Mach 23), making them capable of delivering a nuclear payload to almost any major city in the world within thirty minutes. They were developed in the 1960s as a strategic deterrent weapon.

Putting the upcoming scheduled test launch of the Minuteman III ICBM on hold is an attempt by the U.S. to "demonstrate that we have no intention in engaging in any actions that can be misunderstood or misconstrued." Putin's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, remarked that a third World War would be a nuclear conflict, contributing to heightened tensions between Russia, the U.S., and European nations.

Aether Diamonds is a startup founded in 2018 by Ryan Shearman, Daniel Wojno, and Robert Hagemann to produce the diamonds.

Aether Diamonds has become the first manufacturer to create diamonds using atmospheric carbon sustainably. Aether claims each carat sold equates to 20 metric tons of carbon dioxide extracted from the atmosphere. Aether's carbon capture methods involve direct air capture and long-term carbon sequestration. This kind of manufacturing would help fight climate change while allowing the diamond industry to distance itself from conflict diamonds.

In 2021, Aether Diamonds produced hundreds of carats of diamonds and began shipping them to customers mid-way through the way. In 2022, Aether plans to make thousands of carats worth. The company has received B Corp Certification, having demonstrated high social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency. Of over 100,000 applicant companies in the last decade, about 4,000 have received the certification.

The Infinity Train is being designed by the Australian mining company Fortescue.

The zero-emissions electric train will serve to reduce the company's carbon footprint, powering its massive batteries by rolling down hills instead of relying on external charging systems that would likely derive power from less-sustainable sources. The announcement of its development comes following Fortescue's acquisition of UK-based Williams Advanced Engineering (WAE).

The train will generate enough energy while rolling downhill, fully-loaded with iron ore, to power it on its return journey to the mine after it has been unloaded. Fortescue currently operates 54 locomotives that haul 16 train sets, each of which is about 2.8 kilometers (1.7 miles) long and can carry up 34,404 tonnes of iron ore. In the 2021 financial year, Fortescue's rail operations consumed 82 million liters of diesel, accounting for 11 percent of Fortescue's Scope 1 emissions.

The development comes following space partnerships with multiple other nations being severed.

Dmitry Rogozin, the Director-General of Russia's space agency Roscosmos, announced that Roscosmos would no longer be selling rocket engines to companies in the United States. According to Rogozin, 122 RD-180 engines have been delivered to the U.S. from Russia since the 1990s, of which 98 have been used for Atlas launch vehicles.

Northrop Grumman currently uses Russian-made RD-181 engines in its Antares rockets, but other U.S-based companies don't heavily rely on Russian rocket engines. Rogozin stated that Roscosmos will no longer provide technical assistance or servicing for 24 engines the U.S. still has left to fly. Some of these include the RD-180s, which the United Launch Alliance's (ULA) Atlas V uses, though the ULA says they have enough engines to complete the remaining Atlas V missions.