Science, Space, Health & Robotics News - Page 171

All the latest Science, Space, Health & Robotics news with plenty of coverage on space launches, discoveries, rockets & plenty more - Page 171.

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Elon Musk's SpaceX throws a nasty jab at Russia during Starlink launch

Jak Connor | Mar 11, 2022 1:22 AM CST

SpaceX has thrown a verbal jab out at Russia during its recent Starlink launch that was conducted on Wednesday.

Elon Musk's SpaceX throws a nasty jab at Russia during Starlink launch

During the SpaceX livestream of the Starlink launch, the launch director can be heard saying at 14 minutes into the video "Time to let the American broomstick fly and hear the sounds of freedom", and while that may not make any sense on its own, with context its a big middle finger to Russia. Last week the head of Russia's space agency, Dmitry Rogozin, announced that Russia would stop supplying the United States with rocket engines due to the sanctions imposed on Russia by President Joe Biden.

Rogozin took to state-run TV to announce, "In a situation like this, we can't supply the United States with our world's best rocket engines". Rogozin added, "Let them fly on something else, their broomsticks, I don't know what." The sly comment from the unnamed launch director for the Starlink launch was clearly referencing the comments from Rogozin.

Continue reading: Elon Musk's SpaceX throws a nasty jab at Russia during Starlink launch (full post)

Russian Space Agency drops weird video showing the ISS being split up

Jak Connor | Mar 11, 2022 1:06 AM CST

Research aboard the International Space Station (ISS) has potentially been thrown into jeopardy as the world watches Russia invade Ukraine.

Russian Space Agency drops weird video showing the ISS being split up

Following the invasion, Russia was slapped with numerous sanctions designed to cripple its economy, and while this was certainly achieved, those sanctions have also increased tensions between NASA and Roscosmos, Russia's space agency. The head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin, has been very aggressive towards the ISS space program by threatening to stop cooperation and even crash the floating laboratory into the United States.

In response to these stances, NASA astronauts have taken aim at the head of Russia's space agency, with decorated NASA astronaut Scott Kelly writing to Rogozin, "your space program won't be worth a damn. Maybe you can find a job at McDonald's if McDonald's still exists in Russia." Now, Russian state media company RIA Novosti posted a video online that shows the Russian segment of the ISS detaching from the station, with Russian officials clapping and applauding.

Continue reading: Russian Space Agency drops weird video showing the ISS being split up (full post)

NASA spots football stadium-sized asteroid fast-approaching Earth

Jak Connor | Mar 11, 2022 12:46 AM CST

NASA is currently tracking an asteroid that is approximately the size of a football stadium as it makes a close approach with Earth.

NASA spots football stadium-sized asteroid fast-approaching Earth

The asteroid is dubbed "Asteroid 2015 DR215," and according to NASA's Asteroid Watch database, the asteroid will make a safe fly-by Earth at a distance of 4,160,000 miles. It should be noted that while 2015 DR215 is classified as a "Potentially Hazardous Object," it doesn't mean that it could collide with Earth. NASA classifies any space rock that comes within 4.6 million miles of Earth, or 19.5 times the distance to the moon, as a potentially hazardous object.

Read more: NASA spots bus-sized asteroid fast-approaching Earth

Continue reading: NASA spots football stadium-sized asteroid fast-approaching Earth (full post)

UN officials drop warnings for Chernobyl and this nuclear power plant

Jak Connor | Mar 10, 2022 2:03 AM CST

Russia is in control of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine and Chernobyl, the defunct nuclear power plant that was the location of the world's worst nuclear disaster.

UN officials drop warnings for Chernobyl and this nuclear power plant

Recently, Russian forces captured the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe's largest nuclear power plant that provides Ukraine with around a third of its electricity. The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant was lost to Ukrainian forces by a battle last week that caused some damage to some buildings around the site. The plant is under control of Russia but is currently being operated by Ukrainian staff.

According to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), an autonomous international organization within the United Nations system, the conditions the Ukrainian staff are working in are endangering the safety of the facilities. Rafael Grossi, the Director-General of the IAEA, said that there was an interruption in data flows from instruments monitoring nuclear material at both Chernobyl and the Zaporizhzhia power plants.

Continue reading: UN officials drop warnings for Chernobyl and this nuclear power plant (full post)

Are there more doors or wheels in the world? Internet debate of 2022

Jak Connor | Mar 10, 2022 1:02 AM CST

The Internet has decided it will debate whether there are more doors or more wheels on Earth? Which do you think?

Are there more doors or wheels in the world? Internet debate of 2022

A simple, yet interesting question has taken over TikTok with multiple different creators posing the question to their audiences, resulting in virtual sides being taken of people who believe there are more doors and people who believe there are more wheels. Individuals who believe there are more doors in the world have used arguments such as skyscrapers, hospitals, houses, cars, and more.

While individuals that believe there are more wheels have used similar arguments, such as office chairs within those skyscrapers, and there having to be four wheels on a car regardless of how many doors it has. Additionally, wheel-backing individuals pointed to freight trucks having a low amount of doors and a high amount of wheels.

Continue reading: Are there more doors or wheels in the world? Internet debate of 2022 (full post)

NASA waited 50 years to open this vacuum sealed sample from the Moon

Jak Connor | Mar 10, 2022 12:33 AM CST

A 1972 Apollo mission saw two NASA astronauts, Eugene Cernan and Harrison "Jack" Schmitt taking two samples from the lunar surface back to Earth.

NASA waited 50 years to open this vacuum sealed sample from the Moon

One of the tube samples was placed in an unsealed container that was opened by NASA researchers and examined in 2019. The other tube was placed in a vacuum-sealed container that has remained sealed for 50 years, and now NASA researchers are preparing to open it carefully. The unsealed sample gave researchers insights into the layers of lunar soil and how landslides can occur in airless locations. Researchers hope that the sealed sample will provide new insights into soils and rocks, but also gas.

Since the tube has been sealed for all of these years, researchers hope that inside it are substances called volatiles. These substances, such as carbon dioxide and water ice, evaporate at normal temperatures, and since the sample tube has been kept at really cold temperatures, researchers are hoping it still contains traces of these substances. If it does, an analysis will assist researchers in telling the origin and evolution story of "volatiles on the Moon and within the early Solar System."

Continue reading: NASA waited 50 years to open this vacuum sealed sample from the Moon (full post)

This world-first project is producing gasoline from carbon dioxide

Adam Hunt | Mar 9, 2022 5:25 AM CST

The project was developed by the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and Zhuhai Futian Energy Technology Co., Ltd.

This world-first project is producing gasoline from carbon dioxide

The world's first pilot project for demonstrating gasoline production from carbon dioxide hydrogenation has completed its first trial operation and technology assessment on March 4th, located in Zoucheng Industrial Park, Shandong province, China. The demonstration device was completed in 2020 and completed a continuous 72-hour on-site assessment in October 2021 by China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation (CPCIF).

The site can produce a thousand tons of gasoline per year, realizing carbon dioxide and hydrogen conversion rates of 95% and producing gasoline with a selectivity of 85% in all carbon-based products. The octane number of the gasoline produced exceeded 90, conforming to the Chinese national VI standard while keeping energy consumption low for its production.

Continue reading: This world-first project is producing gasoline from carbon dioxide (full post)

The Mars Perseverance rover has a large rock stuck inside its wheels

Adam Hunt | Mar 9, 2022 5:04 AM CST

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 Mars Perseverance rover has a large rock stuck inside its wheels

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.

Continue reading: The Mars Perseverance rover has a large rock stuck inside its wheels (full post)

New species of ancient vampire-squid discovered, named after Joe Biden

Adam Hunt | Mar 9, 2022 4:43 AM CST

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.

New species of ancient vampire-squid discovered, named after Joe Biden

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 arm count is one of the defining characteristics separating the 10-armed squid and cuttlefish line (Decabrachia) from the eight armed octopus and vampire squid line (Vampyropoda). We have long understood that octopuses achieve the eight arm count through elimination of the two filaments of vampire squid, and that these filaments are vestigial arms," said lead author Christopher Whalen, a postdoctoral researcher in the Museum's Division of Paleontology and a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow in Yale's Department of Earth & Planetary Sciences.

Continue reading: New species of ancient vampire-squid discovered, named after Joe Biden (full post)

First ever NASA photographs taken on the Moon are up for auction

Adam Hunt | Mar 9, 2022 4:22 AM CST

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

First ever NASA photographs taken on the Moon are up for auction

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).

"One of my favourite photos from this fantastic collection depicts a photo of Buzz Aldrin taken by Neil Armstrong, and you can actually see Neil Armstrong being reflected in Buzz Aldrin's visor," Kasper Nielsen, the head of the Bruun Rasmussen auction house's valuation team, told AFP.

Continue reading: First ever NASA photographs taken on the Moon are up for auction (full post)