Science, Space, & Robotics - Page 169

Richard Branson has recently completed the first fully crewed spaceflight of Virgin Galactic's spaceplane called the VSS Unity.

The VSS Unity has successfully completed four flights, with the fourth flight having Virgin Group founder Richard Branson on board. Now, Branson has told The Sunday Times that he won't be the only billionaire to make it to space on the VSS Unity, as he revealed that Elon Musk has dropped a $10,000 deposit for a seat on the spaceplane.

A Virgin Galactic spokesperson later confirmed the news about Elon Musk flying on the VSS Unity to The Wall Street Journal. The most recent price of a ticket on the VSS Unity is $250,000, so it can be assumed that Musk will be paying the full price at a later date. Before Branson's flight, Branson posted a photo of him and Elon Musk, saying, "Elon's a friend, and maybe I'll travel on one of his ships one day." For more information on this story, check out this link here.

There are many factors that are contributing to the rising sea levels, but one that may not have been widely considered is lunar cycles.

A new study that has been published in the journal Nature Climate Change has suggested that the United States could experience widespread coastal flooding caused by climate change and the Moon's coming lunar cycle. The Moon plays a vital role in how often/severe floods can be, and what dictates the Moon's power is its orbital cycle at the time. For example, in 2030, the Moon's orbital cycle will "wobble", which may lead to amplified high and low tides.

This "wobble" in the Moon's orbit around Earth happens every 18.6 years, and at the moment, the Moon is amplifying our tides, hence the increase in the frequency of floods. In a NASA post, Phil Thompson, an Assistant Professor at the University of Hawaii, said, "It's the accumulated effect over time that will have an impact. If it floods 10 or 15 times a month, a business can't keep operating with its parking lot underwater. People lose their jobs because they can't get to work. Seeping cesspools become a public health issue."

Using the toilet is a menial task that everyone has to do at some stage, but what if you were paid for your time spent on the toilet?

Introducing, a new smart toilet that pays users for discarding their feces in it. While this story would make for a good joke, but that is hardly the case as this toilet 100% exists and very well could be widely implemented around the world if manufacturing costs are reasonable. The toilet was invented by an urban and environmental engineering professor, Cho Jae-weon, who currently works at the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST).

The idea behind the toilet is to put people's feces to use, and to reward those who decide to deposit their feces in the toilet. The toilet uses a vacuum to suck the waste down into an underground bioreactor. Once the waste has entered the bioreactor, microorganisms located in the bioreactor begin to break the waste down into methane gas. The methane gas is then converted into a source of energy that can be used by the university building, powering things such as a gas stove, hot-water systems, and more.

A US Navy Gunner's Mate has come forward to talk about his experience with a "Tic Tac" object that was spotted moving under the water.

John Baughman, who served in the U.S. Navy from 2008 to 2013, was stationed on the Carl Vinson in 2010 when he spotted something peculiar in the water below him. At the time, Baughman was taking a short break and was dangling his legs off the SAM Launcher Deck, looking into the ocean, which wasn't an odd occurrence for him. "I'd often see all kinds of wild stuff swimming and floating under and on the surface. Everything from sharks, dolphins and whales to giant squids, sea turtles, and swordfish."

Baughman expressed that he has developed significant knowledge of identifying objects that are in the ocean, as well as the depths they are spotted at. "I had a pretty good reference point on how big or deep something was in the water, especially when you can see the water line on the side of the ship." However, Baughman says he saw something that he couldn't identify.

A new report from SpaceWeather has indicated that high-speed solar winds are on track to hit Earth very soon.

The solar winds are reportedly traveling at a speed of one million miles per hour, and when they hit Earth, it's expected that it could cause geomagnetic storms in Earth's magnetosphere. The solar wind can also cause problems for satellite signals, radio signals, mobile devices, TVs, GPS navigation, and currents in power lines. Researchers aren't sure if this particular burst from the Sun will cause short-lived problems, but it wouldn't necessarily be surprising.

NASA has classified this solar flare as an X1.5-class flare, which means it's in the category of the most intense solar flares. Additionally, the "1.5" added to the name of the flare represents its strength. For example, an X2 solar flare is twice as intense as an X1. Reports are indicating that the solar storm is expected to hit parts of Earth between July 11/12. For more information on this story, check out this link here.

Back in 2017, an Australian researcher managed to crack the code of an ancient Babylonian clay tablet that forever changed the way we view human history.

Dr. Daniel Mansfield, along with his team at the University of New South Wales in Australia, managed to crack the code of a 3,700-year-old Babylonian clay tablet. The translation of the tablet revealed that the Babylonians were studying trigonometry, shocking many historians around the world as it was widely believed that trigonometry was founded by a Greek named Hipparchus.

The clay tablet named Plimpton 322 "describes the shapes of right-angle triangles using a novel kind of trigonometry based on ratios, not angles and circles", said Mansfield. It is a fascinating mathematical work that demonstrates undoubted genius." The translation of the tablet and shows evidence of trigonometry being studied more than 3,000 years ago, predating Hipparchus by more than 1,000 years. If you are interested in reading more about this discovery, check out this link here.

Researchers have used DNA analysis on an old skeleton that was found in a grave in Connecticut back in 1990.

Since 1990, there was very little known about the skeleton, but researchers believed that the individual died sometime in the 1800s. When the skeleton was uncovered, the researchers found that the family that buried the individual rearranged the skeleton so the skull was above the rib cage and the rest of the bones were crossed over. GentSide reports that the reason the family orientated the bones like this was to prevent the deceased from leaving the grave.

The coffin had "JB 55" inscribed on it, which was later found out to be the name of the individual and his age when he died. DNA testing found for the first time in 200 years the identity of the individual - John Barber. Additionally, a diary from 1826 mentioned the death of a boy named Nathan Barber, whose grave was found to have the same type of initials inscribed on it "NB 13".

On July 5, NASA's Mars helicopter conducted its 9th flight, and throughout the flight, the helicopter snapped an image of a "heart" made by Perseverance.

The latest Ingenuity flight happened last Monday, and throughout the flight, Ingenuity came across some tracks that were made by the Mars rover Perseverance. The tracks showed where Perseverance made a slight detour before changing back to its original route. On the surface of the planet, we can see tracks that seemingly draw a rough sketch of a "heart" shape.

For those that aren't caught up with NASA's recent Mars missions, Perseverance and Ingenuity landed together in early February with the main objective of finding evidence of past Mars life in the Jezero Crater. Ingenuity chief pilot Havard Grip and Perseverance deputy project scientist Ken Williford wrote, "Captured in those images are rock outcrops that show contacts between the major geologic units on Jezero Crater's floor." For more information on this story, check out this link here.

It was a few years ago that Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) showcased live tests of a bullet that was able to hit its target no matter the environmental factors.

Now, the YouTube Channel Dark Footage has recently posted a video that explains how the bullet works and why it's both impressive and terrifying. DARPA, an arm of the Department of Defense, has a program running under it called Extreme Accuracy Tasked Ordnance (EXACTO). EXACTO converted .50 caliber bullets into guided rounds, which allows for snipers to direct fired bullets mid-flight towards their desired targets.

These maneuverable bullets are able to bypass environmental factors such as weather, wind, or target movement that would otherwise cause difficulty for a sniper to hit their target successfully. The bullets are equipped with an in-flight guidance system which Dark Footage says are also equipped with optical sensors located on the nose of the bullet. These optical sensors reportedly hone in on the spot placed on the target by the sniper. Dark Footage also states that even recruits were able to score direct hits when using it for the first time.

Chinese researchers want to make a Hail-Mary attempt at saving Earth from a massive asteroid that has a chance of hitting our planet.

Chinese scientists are planning on launching a myriad of Long March 5 rockets to collide with the asteroid. The asteroid is named Bennu, and estimations have measured it in at 85.5 million tons of mass. As for its trajectory, Bennu is expected to come within 4.6 million miles of Earth's orbit, which is quite close in terms of how far away objects are in space.

Current estimates say the chances of Bennu colliding with Earth are just 1 in 2,700. However, China doesn't seem to want to roll the dice on a close fly-by. A new study published in the journal Icarus states that researchers at China's National Space Science Center have calculated that 23 Long March 5 rockets all hitting the asteroid simultaneous, and each of the rockets weighing 992 tons would be enough for it to be knocked off course by 6,000 miles or 1.4 times the Earth's radius.

Cyber Polygon 2021 is wrapping up, with global cybersecurity being one of the main focuses of the annual event, with one of the more interesting things that happened during Cyber Polygon was that they connected with the International Space Station (ISS).

A direct line with the International Space Station was established during Cyber Polygon 2021, where deputy chairman of the board of Sberbank talked with astronauts Oleg Novitsky and Petr Dubrow. The astronauts on-board the ISS discussed how technology helps them with their work, and revealed the fact that even the most crucial data from the ISS was protected by encryption and cannot be decrypted during transfer, even if tapped.

There were over 200 organizations that were involved with Cyber Polygon 2021, with some of the largest financial and technology companies, representatives of public institutions, law enforcement agencies, telecommunications and energy organizations, and more.

Richard Branson is now up above us chilling in space, rocketing up into the black abyss in his own Unity 22 rocket ship, for a quick 15 minute trip.

While most people are told to stay home and inside from the pandemic, Branson got about as far as anyone can get from the planet with the 71-year-old billionaire has beat fellow billionaires in Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk into space. Speaking of Bezos, the Amazon founder and former CEO will be going up to space for his own trip in just 9 days time.

Branson was watched by his family and over 500 people watching in the crowd, there were 5 crew on-board the Virgin Galactic plane. The craft detached from the mothership at an altitude of around 13 kilometers, firing its engines to get Branson and the crew up to around 88 kilometers above our pale blue dot.

For the past two years, the world's tallest active geyser located in Yellowstone National Park has been spewing out hot steam, but now it's stopped.

For the past month, researchers have been noticing that the geyser named Steamboat has been erupting less and less, eventually becoming silent before the end of the month. A website that tracks the eruptions of the geyser states that the last eruption occurred on May 31st when the geyser spewed out hot steam and water for 10 minutes.

Yellowstone Volcano Observatory Scientist in Charge, Michael Poland told Jackson Hole Radio News, "This is the sort of thing that is expected, Steamboat goes through periods of elevated activity and then returns to periods of less activity, so we knew the current show would eventually end." At the moment, Poland says that researchers aren't sure what is the primary cause for the geyser to fall silent, but current theories are pointing towards the lack of available water.

The US Air Force is testing a new type of hypersonic missile, and according to reports, the missile can achieve speeds of Mach 7 and beyond.

The missile is named AGM-183A, and due to its speed capabilities, it can also be used as a kinetic weapon that collides with targets for devastating damage. The missile is developed with two key components, a rocket boost, and a boost-glide vehicle. As you have probably already guessed by now, the rocket booster carries the glide vehicle to the pre-planned altitude. Once the altitude has been reached, the booster will disconnect from the vehicle so its trajectory can be controlled as it speeds down towards its target.

To make sure the missile is capable of hitting multiple targets, engineers have equipped the AGM-183A missile with an explosive blast fragmentation warhead. According to David Spiker, a member of the 780th Test Squadron at the Elgin Air Force Base in Florida, "Some of the firsts were the new and unorthodox design and construction of the test arena, the test procedures and equipment, the warhead's fragmentation data collecting and the post-test data processing to ensure the warhead's effects have been accurately characterized".

A man has purchased a mummified human skull from a yard sale for just over $100, and now he's getting offers for $2,500.

High Point man Trevor Hines was at a yard sale around three months ago when he came across a very peculiar item. It appeared to be a mummified human skull, and according to Hines, the family was already spooked out by the skull and was looking to get rid of it. Hines purchased the skull and two other items for just over $100 and has already received offers for $2,500.

However, Hines says that the skull is "priceless", and that "I want to get him back home because I think that's the right thing to do - send him back to the motherland," which he believes is Egypt. Hines sent the skull to Duke University, where researchers performed CT scans on the head. The researchers told him that the skull was a real male at one time and that inside the teeth are tiny metal pins. "He deserves to go home. So he can have an eternal resting place and be at peace," said Hines.

Multiple companies are looking into the future to see how they are going to be able to harvest water on the Moon and if it's even possible.

Lunar Outpost, Honeybee Robotics, and Masten Space Systems are currently developing a new system for mining water on the surface of the Moon. The device is designed to heat up water ice through the use of rockets. Having a consistent supply of water will be paramount for the human species to ever create a sustainable settlement on the lunar surface.

Not only will having a steady supply of water on the Moon keep astronauts hydrated, it will also allow for rocket fuel to be created as the water ice can be broken down into hydrogen and oxygen. More simply put, humans being able to harvest the moons polar regions, which are believed to have an abundance of water ice, to turn it into rocket fuel, will be a massive milestone towards building a spaceport that can easily refuel incoming/outgoing spaceships.

Astronomers have found evidence that proves a 40-year-old supernova theory correct and a mysterious sky event that occurred in 1054 AD.

A new study has been published in Nature Astronomy and outlines researchers finding evidence of a new type of supernova. When stars die, they go supernova, and for some time, astronomers believed that there were only two types of supernova. Type Ia, is when a white dwarf star explodes in an uncontrolled fusion reaction. Type II supernova - when a star 10 times the mass of the Sun exhausts its fuel resulting in its core collapsing into either a black hole or a neutron star.

Now, astronomers have located a new type of supernova called electron capture (type III) supernova. This type of supernova happens when the a star eight to ten times the Sun's mass burns up all of its fuel, resulting in gravity causing immense pressure on the core's electrons that are then forced into their atomic nuclei. The end result is a core that collapsed in on itself.

Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO) have gained recently popularity lately after videos of UFOs, or as the military call them Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP), were released by the US Navy.

Since then many videos/photos have surfaced online of people claiming to have spotted a UFO, and with most of these videos there is an insinuation that the object that is being observed is otherworldly. Unfortunately, majority of the video proof is also captured with a camera that lacks quality, which can lead to viewers believing that the object is otherworldly, and that what they are witnessing cannot be explained by something much simpler.

One UFO sighting that recently went viral came from Matthew Evans, a student living in Devon. Evans lives in a block of units on the top level and looked out his kitchen window to see what was described as object that had four bright lights that were orientated in a triangular formation. Matthew Blythe, a local photographer took an image of the same view as Evans, but Blythe's image was taken with a much better and showed that the object was just the Moon.

After 20 years of delays, the International Space Station (ISS) will finally get its long-awaited "walking" robotic arm.

On July 15, the European Robotic Arm (ERA) will launch from Earth towards the ISS on board a Russian Proton rocket that will also be carrying the Russian Multipurpose Laboratory Module. The European Space Agency has explained that the robotic arm measures in at 36 feet and will be smart enough to anchor itself to locations outside of the Russian segment of the ISS as well as move between certain points.

The purpose of the arm is to assist astronauts that are out on spacewalks by carrying payloads, transporting crew members, using its cameras to inspect areas out of the station. Essentially, the arm will free up time for astronauts that can now concentrate on other matters. Astronauts have the ability to control the robot from inside the Space Station or from the outside. Additionally, the robot can be programmed to carry out a set of instructions or can be used free-hand.

Astronomers have located four planets near the center of the Milky Way galaxy that are close to the mass of Earth.

The new study has been published in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, and presents evidence of four planets that are "rogue" or "free-floating", meaning they aren't bound to the gravitation pull of a star. The team of researchers used data from a 2016 mission conducted by NASA's Kepler Space Telescope that observed a field of millions of stars near the center of the Milky Way.

Interestingly, Kepler isn't designed to find new planets, which means that the researchers needed to create new data extracting techniques to extrapolate the evidence from Kepler's dataset. Co-author Eamonn Kerins of the University of Manchester said, "Kepler has achieved what it was never designed to do, in providing further tentative evidence for the existence of a population of Earth-mass, free-floating planets. Now it passes the baton on to other missions that will be designed to find such signals, signals so elusive that Einstein himself thought that they were unlikely ever to be observed."