Science, Space, & Robotics - Page 24

NASA has finally released some high-resolution images of the space agency's first asteroid sample collection, which arrived back on Earth as part of NASA's OSIRIS-REx mission.

NASA collected the OSIRIS-REx capsule more than 3 months ago after it safely landed back on Earth on September 24, but due to the sampler's lid being tightly fastened onto the capsule, researchers were unable to open it. The mission was overall a massive success as NASA captured many more samples than it anticipated, even to the point where there were asteroid samples located on the top of the capsule lid.

The delay was specifically attributed to the two fasteners located on the top of the capsule, and since researchers are only able to interact with the capsule within its dedicated air-tight container through the use of gloves, engineers had to design special tools to unfasten the screws holding the lid in place. That was achieved, and now NASA has 2.48 ounces or 70 grams of asteroid dust.

A Taiwanese research institute has connected to the internet what is being reported as the nation's first home-grown quantum computer.

The announcement of the successful connection occurred on January 19 and details Taiwan's first domestically built quantum computer that will be used as a test bed for researchers both on-site and elsewhere around the world. Collaborators on the project include the University of California, Santa Barbara, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, the Industrial Technology Research Institute, the National Changhua Normal University, the National Central University, and the National Chung Hsin University.

Academia Sinica's website states the quantum computer was completed back in October last year, but it was only connected to the internet in January this year, marking a milestone in Taiwan's exponential development into quantum computing. The intent of this step forward in the quantum computing industry is to demonstrate the capabilities of the new technology by solving basic problems. After that has been successfully demonstrated, researchers can move on to the next breakthrough application.

Sony CEO Kenichiro Yoshida said in an interview with Norges Bank Investment Management that the PlayStation gaming experience will be expanded to PC, mobile, and cloud gaming.

If you ever believed that Sony, for whatever reason, would stop bringing titles over to other platforms such as PC, you can stop worrying; as Sony's CEO of Subscriptions has said during an interview, the company plans on expanding its efforts to bring PlayStation to as many gamers as possible.

PC ports of Sony titles began back in August 2020 with the release of Horizon Zero Dawn on PC and has continued with many titles such as God of War in 2022, Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered, Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales, The Last of Us and many more. With these comments from Yoshida, and Sony's continuous effort to port titles over to PC, I believe it's quite safe to say that PC gamers will soon get many more PlayStation titles.

The battery is nuclear-powered, smaller than coin, can run for 50 years without needing to be recharged, and can be used for devices such as a smartphone allowing it to operate indefinitely.

The new battery is designed by Beijin-based start-up Betavolt Technology, which currently has a prototype device that uses nuclear isotopes along with semiconductors to convert energy into electrical power. The researchers behind the project also boast about the safety of the battery, saying in an article from Science and Technology Daily that it works safely between temperatures 120 to -60°C.

The company also states the battery is resistant to punctures or gunfire that many would think result in it catching on fire or exploding. The new battery is officially called BV100 and is only 15mm x 15mm x 5mm. It has a maximum output of 100 microwatts and 3 volts, and the company behind it has announced it plans to make a 1-watt version next year after it mass produces the 100 microwatt model. The battery technology captures the energy from the nuclear decay of radioactive elements.

Researchers honed instruments on a star that was originally discovered in 1999 and found that its breaking our understanding of the universe.

The new study published on the pre-print server arXiv on January 4 focuses on a distant red giant star called J0931+0038, or the Barbenheimer Star, nicknamed after the "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer" movies released on the same day last year. Scientists used Sloan Digital Sky Survey telescopes in New Mexico to observe the star, capturing a detailed spectrum of the light it emits. This data was then verified by the Giant Magellan Telescope in Chile.

The results were extremely interesting as the Barbenheimer Star was found to have a very strange chemical composition, specifically a high concentration of heavy elements. Using the data, scientists rewound time through a process called stellar archaeology to find out how the Barbenheimer Star formed, and they discovered that it was birthed out of a star that was between 50 and 80 times the size of the Sun. This parent also featured an unusually high concentration of heavy elements and likely went supernova 13 billion years ago, or just 700 million years after the Big Bang.

NASA announced on Saturday that it lost communications with Ingenuity, its reconnaissance helicopter that's currently located on the surface of Mars.

The space agency announced Saturday that after Ingenuity executed Flight 72 on January 18, communications between the helicopter and Perseverance, NASA's Mars rover, terminated. The communication severing occurred while Ingenuity was performing its descent, according to the space agency.

Only a day later, NASA posted another update to its NASA JPL X account, writing communications between Perseverance and Ingenuity were re-established after Perseverance was tasked to perform "long-duration listening sessions for Ingenuity's signal". NASA added that teams are currently analyzing data from Flight 72 to determine the cause for the communications dropout and ways to mitigate it from happening again.

Samsung unveiled its foray into the smart ring market at its Unpacked event a few days ago, showcasing the Galaxy Ring to the world.

The showcase of the Galaxy Ring has raised important questions in the wearable market, such as "is this the start of a new wearable era?". While that is yet to be known, we did see three smart ring devices unveiled at the start of 2024, one of which was from one of the biggest players in the wearable market, Samsung. These are certainly indicators of a market shift, but what isn't known is whether or not they will be successful in attracting consumers.

As for the Galaxy Ring, details on the new device are sparse, with only short mentions of it from various Samsung spokespeople and officials. Known details are as follows: Samsung's Galaxy Ring will feature "leading sensor technologies" that will be designed to "empower more people to manage their health with a comprehensive yet simplified approach to everyday wellness at home," per Samsung spokesperson Amber Reaver, who spoke to The Verge.

San Francisco accessibility startup Augmental is working on head tracking and 'Silent speech' for their innovative 'Mouthpad' to give people with physical disabilities the ability to interact with computers and smartphones much more easily.

The idea behind the new technology is to give people with physical disabilities the ability to control their laptop with a slight flick of your tongue or even answering a phone call by tilting their head. Augmental is an inspiring startup and took to CES this year to give the first public demo of its 'MouthPad,' a unique mouse that gives those who have physical disabilities a new way to interact with technology.

Speaking exclusively with TechCrunch, the company shared what they have going on and what's to come, stating, "One of the new features we recently added to the MouthPad is head dragging and head controls. Users can now move their heads to control the cursor, in addition to the tongue gestures we previously announced," said Oscar Rosello, head of Design at Augmental.

NASA has taken to its website and social channels to share an image captured by the iconic Hubble Space Telescope.

The image features two spiral galaxies known as NGC 6040, the tilted, warped spiral galaxy, and LEDA 59642, which are both shown above. Both of the galaxies are called Arp 122, and what we are looking at here is a cosmic collision that has taken millions of years to achieve. The collision is taking place 570 million miles from Earth and is a result of all of the contents of the galaxy causing a strong gravitational pull.

Notably, our own Milky Way galaxy is scheduled to collide with our nearest galactic neighbor, the Andromeda Galaxy. However, that event won't take place for another 4 billion years, and when it does, it will take hundreds of millions of years for both galaxies to fully envelop each other. Why does it take so long? NASA writes that it's simply because of the great distances the galaxies need to travel in order for them to merge.

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope may have discovered alien life on a planet located 120 million light years away from Earth, according to rumors circulating in astronomy and astrobiology groups.

A new article by Ars Technica has explained what basis the rumors are founded on and how they started to get into the public eye. According to the publication, the rumors were at least exacerbated by British news magazine The Spectator, which featured the article "Have we just discovered aliens?" The short answer to this news piece is no, but it isn't a hard no, according to scientists quoted in the article.

The planet that many scientists have their eyes on is K2-18 b, an exoplanet 8.6 times as massive as Earth, and is believed to be a "hycean" exoplanet, which means its rich in water having oceans as its surface and a hydrogen-rich atmosphere. This exoplanet was first studied by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope, but further analysis by Webb revealed a biosignature that many scientists are placing their bets for alien life on.

Teams of researchers at NASA's Johnson Space Center located in Houston, Texas, have finally removed the lid containing the space agency's first collected asteroid samples.

Back in October last year, NASA announced it was experiencing a problem with removing the lid from its asteroid sample collection mission officially dubbed OSIRIS-REx. While the mission was a success by almost all accounts, it was perhaps too much of a success, as NASA explained the lid to the Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM), or the container with the asteroid samples inside, proved much harder to remove than initially anticipated.

Since then, NASA has been working on a way to open the container, which it has seemingly now done. The space agency explained in a new blog post that teams developed new tools to open the lid, which are made out of "custom-fabricated bits made from a specific grade of surgical, non-magnetic stainless steel; the hardest metal approved for use in the pristine curation gloveboxes."

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has shared another behind-the-scenes look at the development going into Optimus, the upcoming Tesla humanoid robot designed to replace monotonous jobs.

When the Tesla bot, later named to Optimus was first unveiled it wasn't capable of much. But since then many improvements have been underway on its design and back in early December Tesla announced the second generation of Optimus - Optimus Gen 2.

The issues seen in the first generation Optimus were seemingly ironed out as the humanoid robot is now able to walk 30% faster than its previous generation, its weight has been reduced by 10kg, big improvements on balance and body control, delicate object manipulation, tactile sensing on fingertips, along with much more.

Elon Musk has appeared in front of all SpaceX employees to congratulate them on their efforts throughout 2023, while also discussing what the company expects it will be able to achieve throughout 2024.

Musk's presentation saved Starship for last, the world's biggest and most powerful rocket, or the crown jewel of SpaceX's development. Starship is designed to be the mode of transportation to Mars, and has purposely been built with carry capacity in mind. Current estimates put Starships payload anywhere between 100 and 150 tons, which is enough to begin occupying the Red Planet with a small base. However, SpaceX needs Starship to get to orbit first.

During the presentation Musk said that Starship "down the road" will come with approximately 20 million pounds of thrust, which is three times the thrust of Saturn V, the rocket NASA used to take humans to the moon. Musk goes on to say that in the future when Starship can reach orbit it will "fly a lot", reaching "several times a day" from multiple locations around the world. Musk adds that he thinks there is a "pretty good chance" Starship will do "Earth to Earth transport as well".

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has held a meeting at SpaceX headquarters in Texas with all staff, and during this meeting, the company CEO celebrated all of the achievements the incredible team over at SpaceX made throughout 2023 while also touching on what the company wants to achieve throughout 2024.

Musk took to the stage in front of all SpaceX employees for a talk that went for just shy of an hour. During this presentation, Musk applauded all employees for their hard work in making SpaceX the world's most reliable rocket launching company. Saving the best for last, Musk began discussing SpaceX's crown jewel, Starship, and the expected improvements to be made to future iterations of the launch vehicle, as well as Starbase itself.

Musk illustrated the sheer size of Starship with the graphic below while also briefly mentioning that Starship will get bigger with future generations. Notably, Musk said that Starship's launch tower is "bigger than Mech Godzilla" and will eventually have "chopstick" arms that will catch a landing Starship rocket. Musk briefly mentioned that SpaceX would be constructing a second launch tower, which was revealed in the above graphic titled "Two Towers In Texas."

Elon Musk has addressed the SpaceX team at an All-Hands meeting that was recently posted to the company's X account. During this meeting, Musk touches on why Starship exploded during its most recent orbital launch attempt.

Starship is SpaceX's crown jewel, with it being the biggest and most powerful rocket in the world and set to be the transportation method to occupy Mars. With 150 tons of payload capacity, Starship is the biggest flying object to ever have taken to the skies, but unfortunately, both orbital launch attempts ended in critical failure or boom.

While this may be disheartening to those who want to see the human race touch down on Mars, don't lose hope, as this is simply the process with rocket development, and with each flight, SpaceX has made milestone leaps forward toward the end goal of landing on the Red Planet. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk explains that Starship was launched twice last year, and between Flights 1 and 2, there were massive improvements across the board, from Starship's internal design to the flight pad.

Samsung gave us our first look at their spherical robot companion in the early days of 2020, pre-COVID, and this year at CES, they unveiled a new look at their updated little yellow friend.

The Korean tech giant took to the stage at CES for their press conference and showed off a look at the new and improved Ballie. A prototype for Ballie was shown way back in 2020, but this new and improved model seems to be larger and has a smoother exterior as well as some quirky features.

Samsung did not bring Ballie on stage but offered a proof-of-concept trailer. In the trailer, you can see Ballie remotely warning its owner that their dog is up to no good before refilling the dog food bowl and using its projector to distract the dog, seemingly following orders and communicating through a text message-like app.

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) hosted annually attracts some of the most cutting-edge technology, and sometimes that can come in new TVs or robotics, and other times it can come in bathroom upgrades.

Have you ever wished you could speak to your toilet? Well, if you have, Kohler, a 151-year-old company known predominantly for its plumping solutions, has showcased a new accessory called the PureWash E930 Bidet Seat, a bidet seat that incorporates many features of a smart toilet, such as voice activation for washing, warm/dry air, UV cleaning and more.

Users are able to take advantage of both the front and rear wash modes, adjust water temperature and pressure settings, swap between oscillating or pulsating sprays, a more delicate mode for children, and a boost spray to get into all those nooks and crannies. Additionally, the PureWash E930 comes with a nightlight for those nighttime trips to relieve yourself.

Ambient Photonics, a solar technology firm concentrating on clean energy solutions is slated to unveil its new solar cell technology that eliminate, or at least reduce the reliance on rechargeable, or disposable batteries.

The company is backed by Amazon's Climate Pledge Fund, along with many other venture capital firms. According to a press release Ambient Photonics will unveil its first bifacial solar cell at CES 2024, which is a new groundbreaking technology that will enable light to be harvested from both sides of the solar cell.

According to Bates Marshall, Ambient Photonics' Co-Founder & CEO, the applications for this newly improved solar cell are widespread. Additionally, the company claims these cells offer three times more generated power than competing solutions, even in environments that are extremely dim.

NASA, in partnership with Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), revealed the first look at an X-ray cosmos.

The two space agencies partnered to create the XRISM (X-ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission) observatory, which is designed to measure the hottest parts of the cosmos. Scientific operations for the mission began last year, and now the results have been published on NASA's website, revealing one of the targets for the mission was a star, or more accurately, a supernova remnant called N132D.

This astronomical object is located 160,000 light years away from Earth within the Large Magellanic Cloud, a dwarf galaxy of our own Milky Way. Using XRISM instruments, researchers studied N132D and found that the once-star exhausted all its fuel around 3,000 years ago, which resulted in a supernova explosion that can still be seen today (above image).

NASA is celebrating its Mars rover named Perseverance, hitting 1,000 Martian days on the Red Planet with a 360-degree look at the Jezero Crater, the location the rover has been exploring since it touched down there in 2021.

The space agency has released a 360-degree mosaic piece of the location where Perseverance is currently stationed, and the image is composed of 993 individual pictures that were all snapped with the rover's Mastcam-Z instrument. The images were captured across a span of days, beginning on November 3 and ending on November 6. For those wondering about pixels, NASA writes the image is an insane 2.38 billion pixels.

The images and video linked here were captured by Perseverance while it was parked atop "Airey Hill." The images were captured during the solar conjunction, which is a period of temporarily severed communications with NASA due to Mars moving directly behind the Sun, obscuring any instructions sent from Earth. Notably, the Jezero Crater was once home to liquid water as Perseverance has captured signs of ancient river beds that once would have slow-flowing water that carved its way through the many rocks the rover is surrounded by.