Science, Space, & Robotics - Page 20

Chinese robotics firm LimX Dynamics has just shown off the latest developments of its new Biped Robot P1, testing the AI-powered robot and its ability to walk through mountainous forest terrain as well as being hit with a huge piece of wood. Check it out:

The new Biped Robot P1 uses reinforcement training to respond to the real-world, where there are moving objects and disruptions in its past -- a forest setting with leaves, wood, and dirt is great -- allowing LimX Dynamics to train its AI algorithms. You can see the AI robot kicking up dirt as it walks, walking into huge bunches of leaves and getting out of it without falling over.

A human operator is also there pulling at it, and it doesn't fall... as well as being hit by a rather large and heavy piece of wood, the Biped Robot P1 doesn't fault. LimX Dynamics took to the Tanglang Mountain range in Shanghai, China to test out its robot, moving around and navigating through rough terrain meant that the P1 had to be continuously aware of its surroundings, pumping that into its AI algorithm, and responding to it through reinforcement training.

WASP-12b was originally discovered in 2008 and since then has been a point of interest for many astronomers around the world due to its strange and relatively close proximity to Earth.

WASP-12b is an exoplanet orbiting its host star WASP-12, and the reason for its interest by astronomers is its strange egg shape and proximity of just 1,400 light years from Earth, which is close in astronomical terms. Additionally, astronomers have predicted that WASP-12b will eventually be consumed by its host star as its trajectory indicates a death spiral will occur, which will result in the exoplanet approximately twice the size of Jupiter being completely consumed by WASP-12.

Researchers previously estimated that WASP-12b would be consumed by its host star in approximately 10 million years, but new research suggests it will happen in just 3 million years. Notably, WASP-12b has such a narrow orbit that almost one year for the exoplanet, or one full orbit around its host star, is a single Earth day. Its extremely close proximity of just 2.1 million miles to its host star results in surface temperatures around 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,210 Celsius) and such a strong gravitational pull from the star that it warps the exoplanet into an egg shape.

After announcing earlier this year that the first human patient has received Neuralink's brain-computer interface (BCI) and is recovering healthily, Neuralink founder Elon Musk has said the company's Blindsight implant is "already working".

The recent announcement from Musk comes after his brain-computer interface company Neuralink livestreamed a long update on the first human patient to receive the company's implant, Nolan Arbaugh, a 29-year-old man who was paralyzed from the deck down following a tragic diving accident eight years ago. The livestream showcased Arbaugh controlling a PC cursor using his thoughts, Arbaugh saying he has been enjoying long Civilization IV gaming sessions, and a demonstration of Arbaugh using the BCI to play Mario Kart.

With progress being conducted on "Telepathy" the BCI implant within Arbaugh's head, Elon Musk has already begun talking about a new chip coming out of Neuralink. The founder of the company took to his personal X account to reply to a video of him on-stage at a Neuralink event explaining the company is working on curing blindness, even in people that were born blind. Musk said, "Blindsight is the next Neuralink product after Telepathy".

Last week, astronomers witnessed a massive swirl of white light seemingly appear out of thin air in the night sky above the Arctic.

Reports indicate that this swirl of bright white light can be traced back to Elon Musk's rocket company, SpaceX. The rare phenomenon is being described by astronomers as a "SpaceX spiral" and is caused by an illuminated cloud of frozen fuel that was dumped by a SpaceX rocket while transporting cargo to low-Earth orbit. Astronomers expect to see many more of these "SpaceX spirals" as the company continues to advance its rocket technology and conduct more frequent launches into orbit.

So, what rocket caused this ethereal white spiral? SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket on March 4 from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, transporting 53 satellites into Earth's orbit. The mission was a success, and shortly after the payload of the rocket (the satellites) was deployed, the rocket's second stage, already detached from the first stage booster, began to re-enter Earth's atmosphere. As the rocket plummets toward Earth's surface, it begins to spin, dump its fuel, and burn up. The Falcon 9 first stage burned up above the Barents Sea in the Arctic.

SpaceX recently hit a milestone with its third orbital launch of Starship, the world's largest and most powerful rocket.

On March 14, Starship took to the skies in its third orbital launch attempt, and while the mission ended in a fiery explosion, it was deemed a success by SpaceX as Starship officially reached orbit, checking off a major milestone for the company in its quest to create a viable transportation method to the Moon, Mars and beyond. As with every flight of Starship, and every rocket for that matter, engineers gather the data from the flight, analyze it, and make the appropriate changes to the design of the rocket to improve the chances of success for the next flight.

Upon re-entry, SpaceX was forced to execute a RUD protocol, or "rapid unscheduled disassembly," or boom. RUD was executed due both stages of the rocket, the Super Heavy booster, and Ship, breaking a part during their descent back through Earth's atmosphere. Now, SpaceX President and Chief Operating Officer Gwynne Shotwell has revealed at the Satellite 2024 conference in Washington on Tuesday March 19 that SpaceX is aiming to get Starship back into the skies for its fourth test flight in "about six weeks".

It was only earlier this year that Elon Musk announced his brain chip company Neuralink had implanted the first brain chip into a human patient.

Neuralink has since taken to social media platform X to share an update with the first patient, a 29-year-old man named Nolan Arbaugh, who said he was unfortunately paralyzed from the neck down following a tragic diving accident eight years ago. The livestream on the Neuralink X account featured Arbaugh explaining the surgery for the implant was "super easy" and that he had to go through a learning process to differentiate "imagined movement versus attempted movement" in order to control a cursor on a PC.

The video shows Arbaugh using the brain-computer interface (BCI) to move a cursor around on the screen of a laptop, with the patient even saying that he was able to play Civilization IV for up to 8 hours and the only thing stopping him from playing more was the BCI running out of battery requiring a recharge. The livestream shows Arbaugh playing chess and then pausing an on-screen music player. Notably, not everything with the BCI is perfect, as Arbaugh says he has encountered some issues. However, Arbaugh said it "has already changed my life".

A new report has revealed that SpaceX satellites may become a target of Russia over its purported use by the US military to gather intelligence.

The threats from Russia come after Reuters reported earlier this month that SpaceX signed a $1.8 billion deal with the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) to develop hundreds of spy satellites designed to gather intelligence. This array of spy satellites is reportedly called Starshield, and according to one source who spoke to Reuters, it will be so vast that "no one can hide".

Now, a new report from Reuters reveals that Russia has threatened the US over its encroaching use of commercial satellites to expand its presence in orbit, saying they will "become legitimate target for retaliatory measures, including military ones," said foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova to reporters. Notably, Germany recently warned in February that Russia is developing nuclear-powered anti-satellite space weapons that are capable of taking out all satellites within its range.

One day NASA may fly a plane above the surface of the Red Planet, as the space agency is currently in the early stages of exploring the idea under its Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program.

NASA's NIAC program encourages the proposal of unique ideas that could transform the way NASA carries out its missions and one idea the space agency selected is called MAGGIE, or the Mars Aerial and Ground Intelligent Explorer. This conceptual technology has received NASA funding, and the above NASA-approved video showcases how Coflow Jet, the company behind the project, would carry out landing MAGGIE on the Red Planet and then deploy the extraterrestrial aircraft.

Notably, MAGGIE takes off vertically, just like a helicopter, and if you are wondering why that its designed that way there is one answer, Martian atmosphere density. Mars' atmosphere is extremely thin with a density of about 1% of Earth's, which means to generate enough lift for flight it must have many rotor blades spinning a speed much faster than a typical airplane on Earth. Just like taking off, MAGGIE is designed to also land vertically.

In 2022, NASA launched a spacecraft at an asteroid to test if it was possible to deflect an asteroid should one ever be on a collision course with Earth. The test was deemed more than a success.

NASA launched its Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), which was a refrigerator-sized spacecraft at a 560-foot-wide asteroid named Dimorphos. This asteroid orbits a larger near-Earth asteroid called Didymos, with the smaller of the two (Dimorphos) orbiting its larger companion at a distance of approximately 3,900 feet, or one full orbit taking 11 hours and 55 minutes to complete.

DART successfully hit at an extremely high speed, and shortened Dimphos' orbital period by 32 minutes and 42 seconds, reducing Dimorphos' full orbit around Didymos to 11 hours, 22 minutes and 37 seconds. NASA writes in new press release that cites a study published in the Planetary Science Journal, Dimorphos' orbit slowly reduced over the following weeks, eventually reducing its orbital distance to 3,780 feet, or by about 120 feet.

SpaceX has recently completed its third orbital test flight of the largest and most powerful rocket ever created, Starship.

Elon Musk, the CEO of SpaceX is already talking about how Starship will eventually be sent to other star systems, or solar systems to investigate the planets surrounding the target star. Musk took to his personal X account to write the Starship we are seeing launched lately is designed to explore the solar system, while a future Starship that will feature a much larger and more advanced design will be able to travel to "other star systems".

The details on this "future Starship" weren't given, but if Musk is planning on making an even larger rocket than the current Starship, it would need to be at least 401-feet tall, as the model stands fully stacked with its Super Heavy booster at a whopping 400-feet-tall, or 122 meters. Additionally, the current model is capable of carrying up to 165 tons to orbit, and comparatively, SpaceX's workhorse rocket, which is regularly used as a transportation method to orbit, is only capable of 25 tons.

Humans have discovered quite a bit about Mars, with the Red Planet being the most explored planet in the solar system as multiple rovers have and are traversing the surface gathering data that is then sent back home.

With this data, researchers were able to theorize with substantial evidence that Mars was once home to water, which created now ancient river systems. These river systems, or their remains, were observed by NASA's Perseverance rover, leading scientists to believe that Mars once had liquid water that may have harbored life. The theory that Mars was once home to life hinges on the fact that the Red Planet once had water, but what if Mars never had as much water as what we think?

A new study suggests that the evidence of ancient water systems on Mars, which are the carvings thought to be created by flowing water, may not have been created by water at all, but instead, by explosively evaporating carbon dioxide ice. Notably, Mars' atmosphere consists of approximately 95% carbon dioxide, and when temperatures drop to -120 degrees Celsius (-184 Fahrenheit), the carbon dioxide freezes so fast it skips the liquid phase.

NVIDIA had plenty to announce during its GPU Technology Conference (GTC) event, with the launch of Project GROOT: a new foundational model that helps in the development of robots for industrial use (and more).

The new Project GROOT stands for "Generalist Robot 00 Technology," with NVIDIA CEO and founder Jensen Huang teasing robots powered by Project GROOT during GTC 2024, which have been designed to understand natural language and emulate movements made by humans by watching them.

Huang said: "Building foundation models for general humanoid robots is one of the most exciting problems to solve in AI today. The enabling technologies are coming together for leading roboticists around the world to take giant leaps towards artificial general robotics".

The Department of Defense's National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) has signed a $1.8 billion contract with SpaceX for the creation of hundreds of spy satellites that will be used for US intelligence, according to a report from Reuters.

The new report states the NRO has signed a $1.8 billion contract with Elon Musk's SpaceX for the development of hundreds of spy satellites that will be designed to continuously take photographs of the Earth. These satellites will be a mixture of large imaging satellites designed to collect data and relay satellites designed to transmit the collected data.

According to one source who spoke to Reuters, the new web of spy satellites, which is reportedly called Starshield, will be so vast in its capabilities that "no one can hide". Notably, neither SpaceX nor the NRO directly confirmed the $1.8 billion contract or the development of the purported satellites, but an NRO spokesperson responded to the publication, "The National Reconnaissance Office is developing the most capable, diverse, and resilient space-based intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance system the world has ever seen."

SpaceX has recently conducted the third orbital test flight for Starship, launching the world's largest and most powerful rocket from Starbase, Texas, on March 14.

The launch was deemed an overall success as Starship, with SpaceX CEO Elon Musk taking to his personal X account to announce "Starship reached orbital velocity". Notably, the launch of Starship occurred on 22nd anniversary for the founding of SpaceX. While the third orbital test flight was a success, both the Super Heavy booster and Ship didn't make it back down to Earth, where it was scheduled to splash down in the Indian Ocean.

SpaceX decided to execute its RUD protocol, or Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly, or boom, due to communications with the rocket being severed. The nearly 400-foot rocket fired all 33 first-stage Raptor engines in the early morning hours on March 14, creating a massive plume of smoke and then a speedy ascent into the clouds.

When you think you have either read or heard it all a story such this one surfaces, revealing one man's quest to create a giant hybrid sheep species.

Arthur "Jack" Schubarth, an 80-year-old man from Montana has pleaded guilty to two felony wildlife crimes that authorities are calling an "audacious scheme" to create a giant hybrid sheep species that was going to sold and hunted as trophies. Schubarth began conspiring with several other individuals in 2013 to create the new species, and according to reports the Montana man purchased parts of the Marco Polo argali sheep, that can weigh as much as 300 pounds, from Kyrgyzstan into the United States.

Schubarth didn't declare the importation and this particular species of sheep is protected both internationally and domestically by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, and the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Schubarth then took genetic material from the Marco Polo sheep parts and sent it to a lab to create embyros, paying a deposit of $4,200 to the lab back in 2015.

SpaceX has conducted its third orbital test flight of the world's largest and most powerful rocket, Starship, flying further and higher than it ever has before.

Starship blasted off from the launch pad at the Starbase facility in South Texas on March 14 and went on to accomplish many mission objectives before the vehicle experienced a RUD, which SpaceX calls "rapid unscheduled disassembly," or boom. Starship executed its second hot-stage separation, which is when Super Heavy disconnects from the ship. Additionally, SpaceX's crown jewel of launch vehicles became the first Starship rocket SpaceX has built to complete its full-duration ascent burn and reach orbit.

The nearly 400-foot-tall rocket hit orbit, and then upon its re-entry back to Earth, where it was going to splash down in the Indian Ocean, communications were lost, resulting in the boom. Despite the RUD, SpaceX has described the launch as a "phenomenal day," as all of the objectives that were completed during the third orbital test flight will assist SpaceX in its next test flight, which it plans to do very soon.

A 59-foot-rocket designed by Japan's first private space company to launch a satellite has exploded just seconds after getting off the launch pad.

Space One, the company behind the rocket conducted its inaugural launch on Wednesday in an attempt to become the Japan's first private company to put a satellite into orbit. However, the flight of the rocket was "interrupted" seemingly seconds after the go button was pressed as the 59-foot, four-stage solid-fuel rocket exploded just seconds after lift off. The rocket explosion resulted in a plume of smoke, multiple fires, and fragments landing on and around the launch pad.

At the moment, it remains unclear if anyone was injured as a result of the explosion, but typically, during a time of launch, the pad where the rocket is stationed is completely cleared of any people - for this exact reason. Additionally, it remains unclear why the rocket called Kairos exploded, but what is known is that it was carrying an experimental government satellite designed to temporarily replace Japan's intelligence satellites if they happened to be knocked offline.

A team of researchers from the University of California, Riverside, say they have stumbled onto a groundbreaking PC breakthrough technology that may be able to give up to twice as much performance to all existing PCs.

The team of researchers presented their findings, which have been published online, detailing a new system called simultaneous and heterogeneous multithreading, or SHMT. So, how does it work? Modern computers are currently made up of multiple processors, such as a CPU, GPU, and TPU. Due to different parts of the PC being dedicated to carrying out different workloads through instructions, there are bottlenecks and latency between the data moving between each of the different processors.

However, SHMT can solve this issue, as the technology enables a single task to be carried out across multiple processes simultaneously. Not only does this reduce the workload per processor, but it also speeds up the efficiency of the task and costs less energy to run. According to the recently published paper the team found that SHMT implementation in tests resulted in processing speeds increasing up to 1.95x, with energy usage dropping by close to 51%.

In just over 10 years the Moon will be home to a nuclear reactor that is completely build without humans, and it will be used to power a lunar base.

Russia's space agency Roscosmos has announced its considering sending an autonomous nuclear reactor to the surface of the Moon in a joint effort with China National Space Administration (CNSA). Both space agencies plan on constructing a lunar base together called the International Research Station (ILRS), which they claim will be open to "all interested countries and international partners".

However, it isn't likely that US astronauts will be able to visit the ILRS due to growing tensions between the US and China and the recent sanctions placed on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine. Roscosmos announced on March 5 that it may build a nuclear reactor with the CNSA and it will be delivered to the lunar surface "somewhere at the turn of 2033 - 2035," according to Roscosmos director general Yury Borisov.

NASA has shared an incredible image on its social channels as a reminder of the awesome power of the Hubble Space Telescope, a space telescope that is more than 30 years old.

The Hubble Space Telescope captured a star cluster officially called NGC 6611, and the above image is from the space agency's "Hubble Classic" catalog, with it originally uploaded to the database on June 26, 2018. However, NASA has taken to its social channels to repost the image and explain via a link to its blog that NGC 6611 is an open star cluster that formed approximately 5.5 million years ago within the Eagle Nebula, or Messier 16.

In astronomical age, NGC 6611 is considered to be a "very young cluster" as it contains many hot blue stars that cause the Eagle Nebula to glow brightly. NASA writes on its blog that the Eagle Nebula is predominately made of hydrogen gas that will eventually disperse and will be assisted by shockwaves caused by supernova explosions as the young stars end their lives.