Science, Space, Health & Robotics News - Page 327

More than 2,000 years ago, a Greek mathematician proved that the surface of the Earth was curved and not flat.

That mathematician was Eratosthenes, who was a geographer, poet, astronomer, and music theorist. So, how did a mathematician debunk the modern-day theory that the Earth is flat 2,000 years ago? As explained by Carl Sagan in the above video, Eratosthenes planted a stick in the ground in Syene, a city south of Alexandria, and another in Alexandria. The distance between the two sticks was 800 kilometers.

Now, if both of the sticks that were planted casted an identical shadow at the same time of day, it would suggest that the surface of Earth is flat. However, Eratosthenes found that the shadow casted by one of the sticks wasn't identical to the other, in fact, the difference between the shadow casted in Alexandria, and the one in Syene was 7 degrees.

I don't know about you but I would do anything to fly around in one of these Gravity Jet Suits, just like the Royal Marines did during a successful training exercise using the Iron Man-like jet suits. Check them out, taking off, flying up and next to and then landing on the ship.

The Royal Marines are using Gravity Industries' own Gravity Jet Suit here for their operations, with 1000bhp of Jet Engine power to fly around with. The marines look so awesome easily flying off from their boat onto the ship, flying up to it and gracefully landing onto it -- reminding me of the graceful way Christopher Reeves' Superman used to land in the original Superman movies.

Former Oil Trader & Royal Marines Reservist, Richard Browning, founded Gravity Industries in March 2017 to introduce what will be a part of the future of combat -- taking "human flight into an entirely new era" explains the company on their YouTube video.

Damn... and just like that NASA and SpaceX have had their $2.9 billion Starship-based lunar landing system deal torn up and thrown into space -- I guess where no one can hear (everyone who wants to see this happen) scream.

The reason? Blue Origins Federation and Dynetics have submitted protests with the US Government Accountability Office, stopping the NASA and SpaceX deal far, far before liftoff. The space industry expected the historic $2.9 billion contract would go to two companies, but it went to one -- SpaceX -- and now its competitors are pissed.

Dynetics filed a protest with the US Government Accountability Office, arguing that NASA chose "the most anti-competitive and high risk option available" when it tasked SpaceX with using its Starship to build a Human Landing System for its mission to the moon.

It looks like Tesla has silently launched its upgraded Powerwall+ system, not long after Elon Musk updated the world through Twitter on the power upgrades to Powerwall.

The new Tesla Powerwall+ system has a much upgraded max power output, with 9.6kW max power output up from 7kW on the regular Powerwall. The new Powerwall+ system also has a new inverter with an integrated breaker that sits above the Powerwall+ which will provide Powerwall+ owners with a new unique look over the regular Powerwall installation.

Tesla explains its new Powerwall+ battery pack: "Powerwall+ is an integrated solar battery system to store energy from solar production. Its integrated design and streamlined installation allow for a simple connection to any home, and improved surge power capability brings whole home backup in a smaller package. System smart controls enable owners to customize system behavior to suit their renewable energy needs".

Intel Inside has been a marketing term for what feels like forever, but now Intel is Inside of NASA's Perseverance rover that is rolling around on Mars -- not only is Intel inside, but so is SSD controller giant Phison.

Inside of the Perseverance rover is a credit-card-sized computing module that stores, and sends the photos we've been seeing from the Red Planet back to our Pale Blue Dot. The module itself is running Linux, and is powered by an Intel Atom (BayTrail) processor -- the module was made by Israel-based CompuLab in the form of the COMEX-IE38.

There are 2 x COMEX-IE38 modules inside of the NASA Perseverance rover, an off-the-shelf product that you could buy from CompuLab for around $150. There are 23 cameras on the Perseverance rover, with the data from each individual camera being fed in raw format to the DSU (data storage units) through an Ethernet link, compressed by the COMEX-IE38 module, and then stored on a 480GB SSD (thanks to Phison and its PSS4A111-8G) and then blasted back to NASA engineers back on Earth.

At some point, everything will come to an end, and Earth won't exist anymore, but where is that ending, and how will it be caused?

A new article published in the journal Frontiers in Conservation Science by Corey Bradshaw, a scientist working in the ecology field at Flinders University and has published over 260 peer-reviewed scientific articles, has said that humanity is causing a rapid loss of biodiversity.

Through this human-induced rapid loss of biodiversity, Bradshaw says that Earth is losing its ability to support complex life. "But the mainstream is having difficulty grasping the magnitude of this loss, despite the steady erosion of the fabric of human civilization", said Bradshaw. Additionally, the article mentions that the world's economic and political systems are currently focusing on short-term solutions to problems that present themselves, which causes long-term problems such as climate change, biodiversity loss, and ecological destruction to go unnoticed.

A new recall has appeared on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) website, and this time it's for numerous products from Velvet Ice Cream.

The voluntary recall has been issued for dozens of Velvet Ice Cream's products, and it ranges across multiple different flavors. The reason for the recall is that the products are potentially contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes, which is an organism that can cause serious and sometimes fatal infections in young children, according to the FDA.

Listeria infections can also be fatal for the elderly and anyone else that has a weakened immune system. So far, no illness has been linked to the recalled products that were sold in the following states; Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, and West Virginia. The recalled products come in a variety of different sizes and containers, but all of the recalled products were "distributed and sold in supermarkets from on or after March 24, 2021." The following product codes have been recalled.

A new computer simulation using the Unity Engine has shown what it would be like if the supervolcano under Yellowstone erupted.

The simulation comes from Unity 5 ProGames, and according to the description of the video, the simulation is actually five years old, but this the updated version that can be seen above. The updated version took two weeks to develop and was created using Unity's Particle System. Now, is the simulation entirety accurate? No, it's not.

The simulation uses a lot of assumed numbers, and according to Mike Poland, the volcanologist in charge of Yellowstone, if Yellowstone erupted, we would see much more earth lifted up and larger earthquakes. Additionally, the hundreds of earthquakes that are recorded across the part would also turn into thousands. Either way, the simulation gives us an idea of what it would be like if Yellowstone erupted, not that it would happen in our lifetimes (hopefully). For more information on this story, check out this link here.

If you didn't know, China is excluded from the International Space Station. So, the country is planning on building its own.

The first key module of a new permanent space station called the Tianhe module, which is the living quarters for astronauts, has been launched from the Wenchang Space Launch Center. The Tianhe module was launched on the back of a Long March-5B rocket. Beijing has very ambitious space plans and expects that the Tiangong space station, which is Chinese for heavenly place, will be completed by 2022.

China expects to launch ten more modules within the next year. Each module would be another step towards completing the construction of the Tiangong space station. The Tiangong space station will sit in Earth's orbit at an altitude of 210-280 miles and is expected to last for at least ten years. For more information on this story, check out this link here.

In 1969, NASA astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins launched off Earth towards the Moon.

While Armstrong and Aldrin became the first humans to ever walk on the surface of the Moon, Collins stayed back and piloted the Command Module Columbia that would later take all the astronauts back down to Earth. Collins said to Armstrong and Aldrin as they descended down to the lunar surface, "you cats take it easy".

Collins traveled the farthest any human has traveled before as the command module he was piloting passed behind the Moon, cutting off any communication with Mission Control. Collins joked back in 2014, "I was the most lonesome person in the whole universe, at least according to the newspapers. Actually, I was so glad to get behind the Moon, so Mission Control would shut up."