Science, Space, & Robotics - Page 176

NASA has delayed the launch of its highly anticipated replacement for the Hubble Space Telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

The James Webb Space Telescope is no stranger to delays, as the initial launch was planned for around 2007. Now that the construction for the new space telescope is almost complete, NASA and the main contractor on the project, Northrop Gunman, are performing extensive testing on it before it's packed up and shipped to the spaceport in French Guyana.

There are many factors that could cause the launch of the JWST to be delayed further. One factor being the Ariane 5 rocket that will take the space telescope off-planet has been grounded since last August due to a problem with the rocket's payload firing. Arianespace has since said that this problem has been resolved with a redesign and that tests for the new rocket are penciled in for July and August.

SpaceX is constructing a brand new spaceport, and this time the spaceport will be out in the middle of the ocean.

The news comes from SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who took to his Twitter to announce that construction has begun on the new ocean spaceport, and that rocket launches could begin in 2022. In 2020 SpaceX purchased two oil rigs that would be converted into off-shore launch platforms for future missions to the Moon and Mars. The private space company named the oil rigs Phobos and Deimos, which are Mars' two moons.

Deimos is currently under construction at the Port of Brownsville in Texas. Phobos was recently moved to Pascagoula, Mississippi, from the Port of Galveston as it needs to be altered to accommodate Starship, which is currently in development. If both off-shore launch sites are completed by the end of next year, we could see many more of these types of launch sites constructed all around the globe for SpaceX's rockets. For more information on this story, check out this link here.

In celebration of the 31st year since the launch of the Hubble Space Telescope, NASA has released an image of a spiral galaxy that's 300 million light-years away.

NASA explains that the spiral galaxy we are looking at is called AM 0644-741, and from the image, you can see a bright blue ring of star clusters circling around a yellowish nucleus which was once another spiral galaxy. NASA explains in its blog post that the blue ring of star clusters is 150,000 light-years in diameter, "making it larger than our entire home galaxy, the Milky Way".

So, what's with all the blue? According to NASA, the ring is blue because of rampant star formation, as stars that are forming are blue in color. Since the majority of the ring is blue, NASA says that this is a good indicator that many stars are forming in this galaxy. If you are interested in reading any more about spiral galaxies or would like to see another awesome image from Hubble, check out this link here.

NASA has announced that a large asteroid is approaching Earth, and it could be as big, if not bigger, than the Eiffel Tower.

The asteroid has been dubbed 2021 KT1, and according to NASA, it will make a "close approach" with Earth on June 1 at about 10:24 am EDT. 2021 KT1 will whiz past Earth at 40,000 miles per hour, or around 20 times the speed of a bullet shot out of a rifle. Additionally, NASA says that the asteroid could be anywhere between 491 feet and 1079 feet in diameter. For reference, the Eiffel Tower is 1062 feet in height.

If you are wondering if the asteroid warrants any concern, NASA's Center for Near-Earth object Studies has said that "No one should be overly concerned about an Earth impact of an asteroid or comet. The threat to any one person from auto accidents, disease, other natural disasters and a variety of other problems is much higher than the threat from NEOs (near-Earth-objects)." For more information on this story, check out the NASA report here.

Space junk is becoming a large problem as many companies continue to launch rockets and satellites into the atmosphere.

The problem of space junk, or space debris, was brought up by Donald Kessler, a retired NASA senior scientist for orbital debris research, who said that the current state of space junk has reached a "tipping point". Now, a new report has come out about the International Space Station (ISS) experiencing a collision with space junk that has now caused a hole.

Operators noticed a hole in the ISS's Canadarm2 on May 12. The robotic arm has been in service since 2001, and according to Canadian Space Agency (CSA), who provided the ISS with the robotic arm, the hole isn't going to impact the Canadarm2's responsibilities in maintaining the ISS. The CSA has said that the hole is a "lucky strike" considering that the robotic arm has a diameter of just 14 inches.

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has poked some fun at Jeff Bezos' space exploration company Blue Origin.

For those that aren't caught up with the story, NASA awarded Musk's SpaceX with a $3 billion contract to construct a lunar lander for NASA's Artemis program. Bezos' Blue Origin has contested the decision by NASA by submitting a protest to the U.S Government Accountability Office (GAO) that requests NASA to select a second company to build a lunar lander.

NASA has revealed its reasoning for selecting SpaceX for the award, stating, "SpaceX's Total Evaluated Price of $2,941,394,557 was the lowest among the offerors by a wide margin. Blue Origin's Total Evaluated Price was significantly higher than this, followed by Dynetics' Total Evaluated Price, which was significantly higher than Blue Origin's."

A book written in 1977 has recently been declassified by the United States National Security Agency (NSA), and it reveals a three-step process for breaking "impossible" encryptions.

The book was written by cryptologist Lambros Callimahos, and it explains how to break all types of codes that are commonly used by the military. For the aforementioned reason, the NSA decided to claim that the book's release could endanger national security, as it could reveal the NSA's "code-breaking prowess". The NSA later declassified the book in December 2020.

One of the chapters of the book is titled "Principles of Cryptodiagnosis", and within that chapter, Callimahos reveals a systematic three-step approach to deciphering an encrypted message that used an unknown method. For example, the NSA may encounter thousands of encrypted messages, but if the cryptographers don't know the method for how the messages were encrypted, then they won't be able to break the encryption.

An astrophysics professor has come out and said that the recent UFO videos surfacing online "don't impress him".

The astrophysicist is Adam Frank, who is a professor at the University of Rochester. Frank wrote an opinion piece in The New York Times that featured the title, "I'm a Physicist Who Searches for Aliens. UFOs Don't Impress Me." In the article, Frank states that in the past, he has been asked about these encounters with UFO due to his professional credentials and goes on to say that he is skeptical about how much information we can gather from the recent UFO videos that appeared on CBS "60 Minutes".

Here's what Frank said, "While some researchers have used the footage to make simple estimates of the accelerations and other flight characteristics of the UFOs, the results have been mixed at best. Skeptics have already shown that some of the motions seen in the videos (like the ocean skimming) may be artifacts of the cameras' optics and tracking systems."

We aren't too far away now... with Jeremy Corbell posting a 46-video on his personal Twitter that he says was taken aboard the USS Obama on July 15, 2019 of multiple UFOs swarming the US Navy warship. Check it out:

The radar screen has multiple objects hovering around the ship, with one man saying in the video "Holy shit! They're moving fast... they're turning around". The video wouldn't come at more perfect timing, as Trump pushed the US government to ink June 2021 as the month for when the government-sanctioned report on UAPs (unidentified aerial phenomena) is released.

Corbell was asked on Twitter if there was any attempts made to communicate with the UAPs, to which he replied: "I'm aware that the USS Omaha DID attempt to hail the craft or craft controller via IAD (International Air Distress) channel. ALL aircraft flying in the public domains are required to monitor. Military has a separate channel MAD (Military Air Distress) that is ALSO monitored".

A cure to cancer was found over 10 years ago now and I even reported on it back in May 2011, but we're back again with scientists at the University of Edinburgh with a new cancer-killing drug.

The new "Trojan Horse" drug has the ability of killing cancer and bacterial cells without damaging nearby tissue, just like the researchers from the University of Alberta did in 2011 -- yeah, 10 years ago they had a drug called "dichloroacetate" that destroys cancer cells without harming nearby tissue.

In the new peer-reviewed experimental "Trojan Horse" test, the researchers tested zebrafish and human cells with the cancer-killing molecule SeNBD with a chemical food compound in order to trick the malignant cells into ingesting it. Since the drug was invented, it can have a patent put on it -- unlike the cancer-killing drug from 10 years ago... this one can be very profitable and that's what Big Pharma is all about, those profits.

SpaceX is celebrating its monumental achievement of being the first company to launch NASA astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) with a commercial rocket.

One year ago today, NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley were transported to the International Space Station (ISS) by SpaceX's Crew Dragon spaceship. The trip took 19 hours and marked the first time a US spacecraft has docked with the ISS since NASA retired its shuttle fleet back in 2011. Additionally, SpaceX's successful mission marked the first time a manned commercial spacecraft has

docked with the ISS.

NASA's Hubble Space Telescope is at work 24 hours a day 7 days a week, and as you can imagine, researchers have collected a lot of images of the universe in that time.

To really put Hubble's image library to the test, NASA has a tool on its website that allows you to plug in your birthday to see the image that Hubble snapped on that special day. Users can enter the month and date that they were born, and the tool will cycle through its library and present an awesome image that the telescope snapped.

The results of using the tool can be directly shared to Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest via buttons at the top of the image. In other Hubble news, the space telescope captured a wild image of a galactic game of "tug-of-war", you can check out that image here. If you are interested in reading more about Hubble, check out this link here.

The Hubble Space Telescope is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990, and still, to this day, Hubble is shocking people around the world at its quality of images.

Hubble has snapped another awesome image of the spiral galaxy NGC 5037, which William Herschel first discovered in 1785. NASA states that the galaxy is 150 million light-years away from Earth and resides in the constellation of Virgo. The camera that took these images was installed by astronauts in 2009.

Hubble took this image using its Wide Field Camera 3, which is able to capture ultraviolet light, visible light, and infrared light. Due to its versatility, the Wide Field Camera 3 gives researchers a tonne of useful information about the cosmos and its many mysteries. If you are interested in reading more about this topic, check out this link here.

NASA has released an incredible image that shows the chaotic heart of our Milky Way galaxy with the supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* in the center.

The above image was captured by NASA's Chanda X-ray Observatory, and from looking at the image, we can see Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole that is located at the center of the Milky Way. Sagittarius A* appears as a purple, and white blob in the center of the image, and around it are a variety of gasses.

Chandra used its captured the image with different bands of X-rays which appear as orange, green, purple, and then combined that with radio data. The image is actually comprised of 370 separate pointings of the telescope. If you are interested in reading more about this image or would like to look at similar images, check out this link here.

Japan is taking robot design and space exploration to a new level with a very peculiar robot design that resembles a culturally impactful movie character.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) has partnered with Sony, Doshisha University, and Japanese toymaker Tomy to create the ball-shaped robot. The robot can transform from a ball into its "full" configuration that pops open a camera that is designed to take photos of the surface of the Moon.

The robot only weighs 8.8oz, and the control technology was developed by Sony while the design was done by Tomy and Doshisha. The robot has been under construction since 2016, with a study being released. However, the main construction and the involvement of Sony began in 2019 and 2020. Ispace will launch its lander and the exploration robot that looks similar to BB-8 from the new Star Wars movies in 2022. For more information on this story, check out this link here.

Bitcoin and Ethereum, as well as most of the other cryptocurrencies, took a large hit in price after the news of China's ban was announced and Elon Musks Tesla announcement.

Now, Elon Musk has taken to Twitter to seemingly comically agree with a Tweet from Blockfolio, a cryptocurrency portfolio tracker, who said that Musk should create a hot tub that generates its heat from mining Dogecoin. Elon Musk replied to Blockfolio's tweet by saying it's a "great idea", and as a result, the price of Dogecoin began to increase in value.

Here's what was said, "A hot tub that's heated by mining dogecoin. Elon Musk, I don't care how, just make it happen." Musk stated, "Great idea". Now, it's definitely not confirmed by any stretch of the imagination that Musk will build a hot tub that is powered by Dogecoin, but if he was going to it would probably be through The Boring Company - the company that released and sold 20,000 units of Not A Flamethrower. For more information on this story, check out this link here.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has revealed some details about how he and his team at SpaceX will be constructing the world's largest commercial rocket.

The information comes from a series of tweets from Musk, one of which was a reply he did on a picture of Starship's "thrust puck". For those that don't know what Starship is - Starship will replace SpaceX's current workhorse rocket, the Falcon 9, and become the world's largest operational rocket once development is completed. The rocket is being constructed at SpaceX's facilities in Boca Chica, Texas.

Musk has said that Starship will use a first stage booster called 'Super Heavy', which will be what the rocket uses to exit Earth's gravity. Super Heavy is currently in development and uses 29 of SpaceX's Raptor engines with plans to increase the number of Raptor engines to 32 later this year. If all goes to plan, and improvements are made to the Raptor engines, Super Heavy will be able to generate a ridiculous 7,500 tons or 16.6 million pounds, or 234 metric tons of thrust.

The atmosphere of Mars is quite dry and thin, which is why its surprising when clouds form on the Red Planet.

Usually scientists find clouds forming around the equator of Mars, when Mars' orbit takes it furthest away from the Sun. To researchers surprise the Curiosity rover saw some clouds forming above it much sooner than first anticipated. The researchers saw cloud filled with ice crystals that caused the Sun's light to be scatter, which gave off some colors.

As you can probably imagine, discoveries such as this one have led scientists to a deeper understanding of how clouds form on Mars. So far, researchers understand that clouds that form on Mars typically sit an altitude of about 37 miles. However, the clouds that Curiosity managed to spot were much higher, which led scientists to believe that they are made of frozen carbon dioxide, or dry ice. For more information on this story, check out this link here.

The US Director of National Intelligence is expected to deliver a new report to Congress in June on whether the US military considers UFO's a threat.

Many people are excited to see if the Pentagon will reveal if aliens are, in fact, true and if we have previously spotted them. However, the Pentagon has made it clear that its true interest isn't aliens but if these UFOs or unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP) have been created by rival countries here on Earth. Due to the Pentagon stating that aliens aren't what the report is about, many people have been led to believe that the US spy chiefs report will land short of revealing the big news.

However, reports have been surfacing onlineof US Navy officers saying that they have seen an aircraft conduct maneuvers that are currently impossible with current human technology. Some of these maneuvers were just simply remaining stationary in the same spot for extended periods of time before dropping to just above the ocean to a dead stop at a ridiculous speed.

NASA has really seen what its Martian helicopter as it encountered a strange anomaly on its sixth flight test.

On May 22, the Ingenuity helicopter took off for its sixth planned flight test on Mars, and while the mission was going according to plan at first, Ingenuity began to experience a glitch that caused the flow of images from its navigation camera to its onboard computer to be interrupted. Ingenuity chief pilot Havard Grip of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California wrote, "This glitch caused a single image to be lost, but more importantly, it resulted in all later navigation images being delivered with inaccurate timestamps."

Due to the navigation image timestamps being incorrect, whenever the navigation algorithm attempted to perform a correction, it was operating off the incorrect information of when the image was taken. As a result, "The resulting inconsistencies significantly degraded the information used to fly the helicopter, leading to estimates being constantly 'corrected' to account for phantom errors. Large oscillations ensued." said Grip.